With a roster full of newcomers, the Lumberjacks hope to see better team basketball after weeks of strained practices.

There are two sides to tonight's game.

For one, the NAU basketball team will learn a lot about itself after a few weeks of tough practices. On the other hand, they will find out there is plenty left to work on.

Such is the case for the Lumberjacks entering the 2011-12 season. With a roster swelled with eight newcomers -- thanks to the graduation of five seniors and the exodus of two junior big men -- growing pains will be happening on a regular basis throughout the year. Tonight's exhibition against Western New Mexico will not be any different. These young Lumberjacks are bound to make mistakes, no matter the setting.

It's just a matter of how quickly the can learn from the miscues.

"We're going to show up (today) and there's probably going to be a couple of things that we didn't cover and we're going to get exposed in but that's OK, that's what that game is all about," NAU coach Mike Adras said. "Hopefully we can learn from that experience because we're going to play three straight games, which is a whole new ballgame."

The Jacks begin the regular season at the Hilltop Challenge, a three-game tournament in San Francisco, on Nov. 11 and hope tonight's game will serve as an eye-opening experience for the players who are new to Division-I basketball. In addition to the four freshmen, the Jacks welcome four junior college transfers.

With that much greenness, the development process has been slow.

"There's so much going on that there's different challenges we're facing every single day," Adras said. "The newness of one thing, trying to remember the things that we did the day before (and) having it come together so that we can play a game. We're just taking easy steps right now."

But sometimes that's not enough. Adras often repeats himself and constantly has to stress the importance of team defense. During a recent practice, he chided several Jacks for playing selfish defense by solely sticking to one man.

"We've tried to break things down with them and now we're trying to bring it into a big picture so that they understand things a bit better ... it just keeps going back and forth," Adras said. "We'll do a drill and we get better as the drill goes on but then when we go play 5-on-5, it's 'What happened? We just worked on that.' Those kinds of things."

At least the veterans aren't giving Adras too many headaches. Junior point guard Stallon Saldivar and senior forward Durrell Norman are playing well and helping offset some of the mistakes by the newbies. Junior guard Michael Dunn, who played sparingly last year, is practicing with the first-team as are sophomore transfer Max Jacobsen -- a 6-foot-8 forward who is playing the 5-spot -- and true freshman Colin Gruber, who's hustle and shooting ability -- along with the shoulder injury to Gabe Rogers -- have earned him a starting spot early on.

"We want to see how guys react to actual college basketball, a lot of freshmen and JUCO players, so we just want to see how they respond in the actual game setting," Saldivar said. "There's always room for improvement and with coach's system, you have to be focused. You have to learn this stuff really quick."

Gruber is one that has shown that ability, but he is still making plenty of mistakes along the way.

"It's tough, it's different than high school, definitely," Gruber said. "High school was physical but it wasn't as fast and wasn't as physical. It was easier to take over a game; at college, it's a whole other level.

"Basically, everything's a lot harder," he added. "Practice is more intense, weights, whatever it is to prepare for the games and I'm sure the games will be more intense as well."

Tonight's game begins at 6:35 p.m. at the Rolle Activity Center. Admission is free.

Jacob May can be reached at jmay@azdailysun.com or 556-2257.