Chaos is a ladder, and this year, the St. Edward's Hilltoppers men's basketball team is determined to inject enough of it into its system to climb up the Lone Star Conference standings and back into the NCAA Tournament. 
 
Seniors BLAKE NIELSEN and GAVINO RAMOS provide a stable foundation for building. The Hilltoppers' two all-conference playmakers have spent three seasons mastering head coach Andre Cook's motion-heavy offense and perfecting their two-man game in ways only an entire collegiate career of repetitions can. 
 
The duo has seen every defensive reaction to their actions and developed impromptu counters. They directed an offense that finished in the top three in assists per game and assist-to-turnover ratio in the Lone Star Conference and were first and third in total assists individually last year. 
 
Nielsen is an Australian Swiss Army Knife of a point forward, driving on frontcourt players and forcing switches to post smaller players. Constantly improving outside shooting and physicality on drives have added more punch to Ramos's command of the offense. The longtime teammates are on track to surpass 1,000 career points this season. 
 
JAMISON KAY and CONOR MCMANUS step into the starting lineup, replacing SEAN ELKINTON and BENNETT MOHN. Kay provided some defensive versatility, spacing, and high IQ play as the primary reserve frontcourt player and could showcase more playmaking in an expanded role. McManus has spent years in Cook's system and is the sort of movement shooter who can thrive off flare screens and as a decoy to set up backdoor cuts for others. 
 
Those four and their familiarity with Cook's system set a solid floor for a Hilltopper team ranked fifth in the LSC Preseason polls. The newcomers will determine the program's ceiling. 
 
St. Edward's welcomes nine new players to its roster, but adding Assistant Coach and Defensive Specialist Jeff Evans might bring the most significant change to the Hilltoppers this season. 
 
Evans boasts an impressive 33-year coaching resume, prominently at Palo Duro, where he posted a 546-156 record with 49 playoff wins, 12 district championships, seven regional finals, and a State Tournament Final Four appearance. He moved to college athletics a year ago as a defensive assistant for Fort Lewis College, helping the team improve to Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference's top defense and the RMAC Championship. 
 
St. Edward's will incorporate his defensive teachings to be more proactive than reactive defensively, increasing pressure to create more turnovers and adding more variance to favor the Hilltoppers. 
 
To implement those principles, St. Edward's has added more size on the wings with transfer forward Luca Barie and first-year SAM MCKINNEY. Both stand 6-foot-6 and have the mobility and physicality to pressure passing lanes at the point of attack and provide more resistance in help. Both can space the floor and invert the offense with quick duck-ins against smaller guards in the post. 
 
In the backcourt, LATIEK BRISCOE, LUKE KISER, and MASON COURTNEY step into rotation minutes for a Hilltopper team that should be deeper this season. 
 
Briscoe, a sophomore transfer from the College of Saint Rose, is an athletic scoring guard who can cover a lot of ground, slash to the rim, and space the floor next to Ramos in the starting lineup. Kiser is a senior transfer point guard from UT-Dallas who can steady the second unit, and MASON COURTNEY is a 6-foot-4 junior transfer from Siena College who brings size, energy, and some spacing in the backcourt. 
 
In the middle, LEWIS ROWE is a 6-foot-10 graduate transfer who played at Sam Houston State last year and brings size, physicality, and some facilitating from the elbows. 
 
Freshman forwards TRAVON WILLIAMS and WONDER KAHOZI flash promise with size and athleticism. Freshman guard BRAEDEN SPINDEN is a local high school product familiar with St. Edward's system, having played for former Hilltopper player-turned-coach Trey Lindsey. Senior guard JAKE DEFRANZA has shown perimeter shooting and playmaking. 
 
St. Edward's formula has served Cook and the Hilltoppers well, keeping the men's basketball team a mainstay in the Lone Star Conference Tournament. This year, the Hilltoppers hope a few tweaks and the ensuing chaos can help them be more.