With the season still a couple months away, the Dayton Flyers men's basketball team is working hard, and its newest members including highly touted freshman Juwan Staten are ready to go.

At the moment, however, things are moving a bit slowly. Due to NCAA rules, until Wednesday, Sept. 15, teams can only work out or practice for eight hours a week, and if they play basketball, it is with a maximum of four players on the court. Until the deadline passes, the players are spending most of their time on strength, conditioning and some individual workouts on the court.

Head coach Brian Gregory said this time, and even after the Sept. 15 deadline, will be spent mostly working on individual skills.

"During this early part, we focus on getting some of that core skill stuff that is going to be important to the development of the team," he said.

One area of the team that will need work is the backcourt. Having graduated four guards that played significant minutes for the Flyers last season, a slew of new faces will be running the show from day one. It will be important for them to learn to play the UD way quickly. Gregory is not too worried about them, though.

"With the incoming freshmen, I was pleased with how each and every one of them finished their high school careers," he said. "Those guys are ready to learn from the upperclassmen but at the same time, know that they're going to have a role on this team."

Of the new faces on the team, the most highly anticipated is Staten, a 5-foot-10 guard from Dayton who frequented top 100 rankings on the various high school scouting reports. Staten's hype comes not only from his ability, but also from the fact that he is homegrown, similar to senior Chris Wright three years ago. Gregory said Staten has done well so far and is not letting the hype affect him.

"Even with all that attention, the thing that's been most impressive to me is that he doesn't carry himself like that," Gregory said. "He's a very humble kid that understands that to be successful at this level, there's going to be a big transition. His coachability has been great, and he's got a high basketball IQ, so I think he understands the challenges."

Staten said he hasn't been focused on the attention either.

"My dad always told me that the only pressure you have is the pressure you put on yourself," he said. "So I haven't felt any outstanding pressure to perform to a certain level. I know what I'm supposed to do, and I know what I can do. I'm not trying to hold myself up to any standard, and I'm trying to play the way I know I can play."

Staten's teammates are making things easier as well. He said he has enjoyed getting to hang out with everybody, and that it is a fun team.

"We've got a great group of guys," he said. "Everybody comes in with a positive attitude. There's no arguing; there's no big heads. Everybody's ready to learn. We're just putting a real big thing out of team first."

In addition, Staten said he has gotten plenty of help from the upperclassmen, from basketball related advice, to pointers on how to approach a coach, to even something off the court like how to deal with girls.

The guard said he has enjoyed college thus far, but that more than anything, he is ready for the season to start.

"I'm real excited," he said. "It seems like it's taking forever to come. I keep looking at the date of our first exhibition game and where we are now. It's taking forever -seems like the days aren't moving."