The Pitt-Johnstown Men's basketball team enters the 2023-24 campaign aiming to find the same type of consistency that just a season ago helped the program notch 20 wins for the third straight season, reach the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference quarterfinals for the fourth consecutive year. and earn a NCAA Tournament bid for the fifth time.

The Mountain Cats will look to mirror that success with a much younger roster after losing six seniors to graduation, including All-American and four-time PSAC West Defensive Athlete of the Year John Paul Kromka.

The good news for Head Coach Bob Rukavina heading into his 35^th season is that there are several returning pieces from a team that led the conference in field goal percentage—and maybe even more importantly—3-point percentage.

PSAC West Freshman of the Year and Second-Team All-PSAC West selection Andrew Shull returns as the starting point guard along with veteran guards Ryan Smith and Andy Zuchelli.

Shull averaged more than 11 points, three rebounds and three assists per game after transferring in from Rio Grande (OH) College. Smith produced close to double figures in scoring in each of the previous two seasons, while Zuchelli has proved to be a valuable spark off the bench.

Will Kromka (1.9 ppg., 1.0 rpg.), Elijah Sechler (1.7 ppg., 1.1 rpg.), Tyler Bilinsky (1.0 ppg.), Grant Timmerson and Colin Cote round out the lineup of returning players. All five should have a chance to vie for minutes. After playing in just 11 games in 2021-22 and taking a redshirt season last year, Cote, a 6-foot-6 forward, will come in fully healthy with a chance to earn meaningful minutes.

If the Mountain Cats want to remain efficient offensively, another crucial component will be taking care of the basketball. They finished last season second in the PSAC in assist-to-turnover ratio and assists. The offense as a whole finished seventh out of 18 teams after averaging 75.5 points per game.

Repeating those kinds of numbers would almost assuredly mean an eighth straight trip to the conference tournament next March.

While the Mountain Cats lost a significant amount of length on the defensive end, they'll look to replenish it with forwards Nick Watts, who red-shirted in 2022-23, and Gavin Headings, a true freshman. Both players will have opportunities to make their mark in what will be a completely new-look front court.

There's also plenty of reason to be optimistic about a pair of freshmen guards. During his senior season at Aquinas Academy, Vinnie Cugini led the nation in scoring and became the WPIAL's all-time leading scorer. Ryan Koch surpassed 1,000 points during his career at Berks Catholic High School largely due to his ability to knock down triples, something that plays right into Pitt-Johnstown's preferred offensive game plan.

After finishing behind only Indiana (PA) and Mercyhurst last season, Pitt-Johnstown was selected to finish 5th out of nine teams in the PSAC West when the 2023-24 Coaches Poll was released.

The Mountain Cats will be tasked with growing up rather quickly, but the expectation of being a threat  on a nightly basis in a highly-competitive division remains the same.

Pitt-Johnstown opens the season at the 2023 Indiana University (PA) Tip-Off Classic against Notre Dame College (OH) on Friday and Concord (WV) on Saturday.  The Mountain Cats will make their home debut with a non-conference game against Penn State-New Kensington on Nov. 14 at 7 p.m. in the Sports Center.