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GREENSBORO -- Guilford College lost two-time first-team All-American Ben Strong, as well as Caleb Kimbrough and Eric Belkoski, from last season's 24-5 squad. And while the specter of replacing Strong looms over everything they do, the Quakers are upbeat despite being picked to finish third in the 11-team ODAC.

"We look at it as an opportunity for all of the guys who played last year to do more and expand their role," said Quakers coach Tom Palombo, when asked how his team would replace Strong. "As a coach, you like to see guys work hard and improve their game and come back and do things better."

Even without Strong, the Quakers expect to play a similar style, looking to pound the ball inside first in half-court sets. The new focal point of the inside attack is junior Tyler Sanborn, who at 6-feet-9, 235 pounds will give Guilford a height advantage over nearly every opponent.

"He's improved a lot," Palombo said. "He can make post moves now. He's got a nice touch with his hook.

"He's a guy when he came in as a freshman he was 280 pounds. He was overweight and out of shape and his skills weren't great. He played a little bit as a freshman. Last year he started and got to be the complement to Ben. Now he's going to have the opportunity to do some things. He's going to surprise some people with how talented he is around the basket."

The Quakers figure to be a more well-rounded team this season, and they look to get better production from the backcourt. Clay Henson, the No. 2 scorer behind Strong last season (12.9 ppg), will be counted on to pick up additional scoring slack.

"It's kind of hard right now, because Ben was such a big key and he was really the reason I got open shots last year with everyone double-teaming him," Henson said. "I really think that even if I am the first option, it's really a team thing. Everyone has to pick up slack. I really don't think it will be a one-man thing replacing Ben."

Rhett Bonner, who was a midseason transfer last season from Division I Presbyterian, will be the starting point guard with T.C. Anderson sidelined for the first couple of weeks with a foot injury. It will be Bonner's job to get Henson the open looks he enjoyed last season.

"Clay's a great shooter," Bonner said. "He's going to get his shots. We want him to take a lot of shots and become the shooter he is. He definitely is a playmaker himself. He gets other people open and other people involved."

Bonner understands the task in front of him in replacing four-year starter Kimbrough at the point.

"Caleb has his own little legacy over the last four years here," Bonner said. "He's a great leader and I learned a lot of things from him. Hopefully, I can fill half of his shoes. That entire senior class was really great, but hopefully we can write our own little story like they did."

Palombo is confident with Bonner at the point, but did not want to place the entire burden of running the show on his shoulders.

"He's a lot more familiar with what we do now," the Quakers coach said "He's a good ball handler, a good passer, a good shooter and he can do a lot of different things. He's learning about how we defend, how we rebound and things like that. But he's fitting in nicely and we're looking forward to seeing what he can do.

"We've got three guys who are capable of handling the ball on the floor at the same time. We're not going to have to depend on one guy to do it like we did with Caleb for four straight years."

One of many positives to come out of the season-opening win at Methodist was Guilford's continued domination of the boards. The Quakers posted a 52-29 rebounding advantage over the Monarchs.

"We've hung our hat on that," Palombo said. "We haven't shot the ball all that well the past three or four years anyway. We've really just done a great job defensively of holding people to one shot and scoring in transition a little bit. I think we'll continue to hang our hat on those two things."