Jeff Lebo can’t tell you all of his players’ names yet, but he can tell you all of their 1,600-meter times.

“I have to carry around a little notepad so I can remember all their names,” joked Lebo, who heads into his fifth season as head coach of the Tigers.

“We’re excited about getting started.”

The Tigers will officially get started when they hold their first practice Friday. By then, it is suspected, Lebo will have a better grasp on matching names to faces.

But the amount of new faces may cause Lebo to struggle a bit from the get-go.

The Tigers return just seven players from last year’s roster. Lebo has filled those vacancies with four junior-college transfers, one freshman on scholarship and two more freshmen walk-ons.

But the familiar faces — at least for now — Lebo said, will likely be the ones in his starting five come Nov. 14, when the Tigers open their 2008-09 campaign against Missouri State at Beard-Eaves Coliseum. Lebo listed seniors Quantez Robertson, Rasheem Barrett, Korvotney Barber and juniors DeWayne Reed and Lucas Hargrove as the most likely candidates to start 30 days before opening tip.

That’s not to say Auburn, fresh off a 14-16 (4-12 SEC) season that began with Lebo’s highest expectations in his tenure at Auburn, doesn’t have its fair share of question marks.

Without Quan Prowell and Frank Tolbert, who combined to average 28.4 points per game last season as seniors, and without Josh Dollard, who was dismissed from the team this summer, the Tigers return just two players who averaged double digits in scoring.

One of those players, Barber, played just 10 games before going down for the season with a broken right hand. His request for a medical redshirt was rejected by the NCAA because he went one game over the maximum time played allowed, so this season will be his last.

“It brings a lot to (the team),” Lebo said. “It brings your best defensive post player. It brings you an experienced post player.”

Barber was around last year to watch from the sidelines. He saw plenty to know that the Tigers can’t do much worse than getting decimated by injuries and finishing last place in the SEC West for the third time in the last four seasons.

“Last year, we could have gotten a lot accomplished if we would have had all our players,” Barber said. “(It) was just a bad season for Auburn, a bad season.”

That bad season, along with the bevy of new names, has somewhat tempered Lebo’s expectations for 2008-09.

“We thought we were ready to compete and night-in and night-out I thought we had a chance, (but) it didn’t really work out that way,” Lebo said. “This year, with all the new faces, I kind of want to wait and see.”

That’s what Lebo will do with his new players, whom have impressed him in early workouts thus far.

Juco transfers Francis Aihe (6-foot-9), Brendon Knox (6-10) and Johnnie Lett (6-8) should provide Lebo much needed size and depth in the post, while Tay Waller will give him an — also desperately needed — outside-shooting threat.

True freshman Frankie Sullivan, the only freshman on scholarship, will also be looked to for a boost from beyond the arc. The 6-1 guard from R.C. Hatch averaged 26.7 points and 7.3 rebounds in leading his school to its third straight Class 2A championship.

Lebo said the 2008 ASWA 2A Player of the Year will take on a different role and could be called upon at point guard with the Tigers.

“I think Frankie will learn what a good shot is,” Lebo said. “His role for his high school team was much different than his role is going to be here. And I think that we want him to score. That’s his nature to do it.”

It was out of Lebo’s nature to provide a test of sorts for his players to pass before they were “officially” on the team, but that’s exactly what he did for the first time Monday.

To “make the team,” players had to be able to run a mile in less than six minutes. All 15 players, big and small, passed on the first try.

“I like where we are,” Lebo said. “We’ll see what happens with our cohesiveness once games start. That’s the true test for your team.”

| 737-2561