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GAMEDAY: It is the 2016-17 season opener as the Engineers welcome SUNY Cobleskill to East Campus Arena.

VETERANS: Rensselaer returns nine student-athletes from last year's team, including seniors Nate Kane and Jonathan Luster ... Senior Brian Hatcher, who missed all of 2015-16 due to injury, also returns to squad ... The others who are back include a junior and six sophomores.

CAPTAINS: RPI will be led by three senior captains in Brian Hatcher, Nate Kane and Jonathan Luster ... In his first three years, Hatcher played all 77 game and averaged 6.1 points and 4.1 rebound ... He had 74 assists, 76 steals and 57 blocks ... Kane is coming off a year in which he led the team in assists with 74 and was third in steals with 27 ... He averaged 5.8 points and 2.6 rebounds ... Luster started all 25 games last season and averaged a team-best 32.8 minutes per contest ... He scored 7.7 points per game with 3.6 rebounds and 62 assists, 18 steals and six blocked shots.

NEWCOMERS: The Engineers have three freshmen on this year's team in Kevin Davis (G/F), Mitchell Wayand (G) and Carter Schneider (F).

GLOBAL REACH: Rensselaer has five different states represented on its roster.

2015-16: RPI finished last season with a 12-13 overall record and a 6-10 mark in the Liberty League ... The Engineers were 5-6 at East Campus Arena and 2-0 on neutral courts.

WINNING STREAK: Rensselaer comes into the season on a two-game winning streak. 

ALL-ROOKIE TEAM: Rensselaer's Tom Horvat was unanimously named to the Liberty League All-Rookie Team ... He started all 25 games and led the Engineers in scoring, averaging 15.3 points per game, field goals (145), three-pointers (58) and steals (74) ... He was second in assists (73) and minutes per game (32.6) ... Horvat shot 40.4 percent from the field, averaged 3.3 rebounds and registered six blocks.

ALL-ACADEMIC: The 2015-16 Liberty League Winter All-Academic Team included three from RPI men's basketball: Nate Kane (nuclear engineering), Will Lewis (Psychology) and Jonathan Luster (civil engineering) ... Honored student-athletes must have had at least sophomore athletic and academic standing with a minimum cumulative grade point average of 3.20.

WEEKLY AWARDS: RPI had two student-athletes earn four weekly Liberty League honors a season ago ... Tom Horvat was the Rookie of the Week three times, while Andreas Kontopidis earned the same award once.

COBLESKILL IN 2015-16: SUNY Cobleskill went 3-22 a season ago, including 3-14 in the NEAC ... The Fighting Tigers were 1-9 on the road ... Cobleskill is led by first-year head coach Jake Scott, who most recently served as head coach at SUNY Maritime.