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Coaches learning about players, players learning about strategies and schemes and, increasingly, learning about their teammates. SLU finishes nine weeks of summer workouts Thursday with an open session at 7 p.m. at Chaifetz Arena. In the world of college basketball nowadays, where transfers are the rule rather than the exception and teams have more new faces than returners most seasons, the summer is a transformative time of year.

“I think we’ve got a chance to be really good,� SLU coach Josh Schertz said. “You can see the athleticism, the depth, the ability, I think, to play the way we wanted, to be much more aggressive defensively, play faster offensively. There’s a lot of weapons, a lot of places to go with the basketball. We have a lot of versatility with how we can play. We can play with multiple bigs in the same lineup. We can play with one big with four perimeter players, and we’ve played a lot with five guards, where we play Amari (McCottry) at the five, and you can play lineups where every guard is 6-(foot)-5 or bigger, play with five guards and switch everything. And those lineups have been really good. They’ve been forcing a ton of turnovers.

“There’s a lot of things we got to clear to become a really good team, a great team, eventually. But the initial impressions over the summer are: We have all the tools to become a great team now. Lot of work to do between now and then. We’re not even a good team at the moment, but we have the tools and the character and the depth to become a really good basketball team.�

SLU has five returning players and 10 newcomers — four freshmen and six transfers. If nothing else, manpower should be less of an issue this season.

“It’s kind of a little bit of a night-and-day summer compared to last year,� said center Robbie Avila, the linchpin of the team, “where I think we only had like 10 guys going into the summer, and so we got, knock on wood, a full, healthy squad. Hopefully we can keep that for the rest of the year, but it has been awesome again to know the guys. We’ve got a lot of firepower. I think we set a lot of the foundation this summer. And I’m just looking forward to continuing to build and try to get to where we want to be.�

“It’s an amazing experience right now,� said 6-8 forward Paul Otieno, a transfer from Quinnipiac who was one of the top offensive rebounders in the NCAA last season. “The summer has been amazing, even the freshmen too — they’re big, they’re skilled, like, way better than my previous league.�

Summer is, of course, summer, and optimism can run rampant. But one thing Schertz likes is his team is in a better place this summer than it was last summer.

“We talk about possibilities much more than expectations,� he said. “And possibilities are what’s possible, right? And so to us, we have the possibility to be a great team. We’ve got a lot of work to do and a lot of things to overcome. We’re going to need to do things ourselves, and then we’re going to need the outside competition, the adversity, to try to take us there. But we have the possibilities of that. Last year, we didn’t have enough to do that. I feel, certainly this year, the ceiling is super-high for this team.�

For the coaching staff, summer is also about data. With every play of every session recorded and scrutinized, the team has had over 1,800 possessions of live play this summer, the equivalent of almost a full season of games. The team has looked at just about every combination. The pairing of Avila and Otieno is one of the intriguing combinations for Schertz and SLU this season. Last season, when Otieno faced SLU, he had 19 points and 10 rebounds.

“It’s a lot better playing with him than against them, I can tell you that,� Avila said. “Last year, it was a hell of a matchup, trying to box him out every possession. Now I get it every day in practice. He’s going to help me. He’s going to push me to be better. And I think that’s what you want in the guys around you, you want the best of the best that you can always push yourself.�

“He’s a big dude,� Otieno said. “He’s really skilled, he can pass the ball, he can shoot it, so it’s kind of hard for me too. I’m not used to guarding bigs like that. He’s an amazing big.�

“We’re playing them together a ton, and they’ve been good,� Schertz said. “They’re different. Paul’s so physical. He’s a rim runner. You can see the pressure he puts on the rim. He’s an offensive rebounder. There’s some overlap. We did it some last year with Kalu (Anya), where you play with two guys that are — we call them hubs. People call them triggers, terminals, whatever, two guys that are triggermen in your offense. And so Paul’s that, but Paul’s such a great rim runner. He’s so fast, I think he opens up space for Robbie, and then it takes some of the playmaking responsibilities off of Robbie, which is going to help him. I think it’s been good.�

Dion Brown, a guard who transferred to SLU from Boston College, had surgery on his meniscus Tuesday to clean up a loose piece in there. Schertz said Brown’s expected to be out six to eight weeks and is expected to be fully in practice by mid-September.

Guard Kellen Thames, who missed much of last season with cramping issues but has had no problems this summer, has missed the past week of practice after taking a hard fall to the court on a drive and hurting his back.

SLU will resume practice Aug. 20.