The Arkansas-Pine Bluff Golden Lions come to Welsh-Ryan Arena on Wednesday night to open up the 2020-21 season for the Northwestern men's basketball team.

Northwestern returns all but three players -- Patrick Spencer AJ Turner and Jared Jones -- from last season. The problem is, Northwestern went 8-23 last season.

Head coach Chris Collins hopes that all the experience his young players got last season leads to more success this season.

Here are five things to watch for in the Wildcats' season opener:

Due to injuries and inconsistent play, Northwestern used multiple starting lineups last season. Patrick Spencer, Miller Kopp and Ryan Young were mainstays in almost all of the combinations Collins put together. Kopp and Young started all 31 games and Spencer started 29, but he graduated.

We knew that Kopp and Buie would start, but the rest of the starting five was more unsure.

However, WildcatReport has learned from sources that the starters will be Buie, Kopp, Chase Audige, Robbie Beran and Pete Nance. That lineup may raise a couple eyebrows -- Young, captain Anthony Gaines and highly touted freshman Ty Berry will be coming off the bench.

But, as Collins told the media recently, "it's not about who starts, but who finishes."

Audige, an athletic player who can create off the dribble, may start at the 2, but Berry and Gaines will get ample playing time. Gaines started all 10 games he played last year before sustaining his season-ending injury and was elected captain because of his leadership. However, he is limited offensively and scoring will be a concern again for this squad. Plus, he has excelled in a bench role before in his career.

In the frontcourt, Collins said that he is looking for big things from Nance this year and hinted at using the junior as a center in a smaller lineup. Beran will be the stretch-4, while Young, a stalwart in the starting lineup last season, will come off the bench.

Remember, this lineup may be temporary. Collins will continue to tinker with the lineups and combinations early in the season.

Berry has brought a lot of hype with him to Evanston. The true freshman figures to slot right in and provide some much needed offensive punch to the Wildcat lineup.

The best aspects of Berry's game is his ability to shoot from the outside. Besides Kopp, Northwestern was dismal last season from three-point range. Kopp shot an impressive 39.6% from beyond the arc last season, but the next-best shooter who got consistent minutes was Buie at 28.2%. That was a big reason the Wildcats finished last in scoring in the Big Ten at 64.9 points per game.

How much Northwestern will use Berry's shooting ability in their offense is a question that is still unanswered but may begin to come into focus in the opening stretch of games.

Another question surrounding Berry is whether his game can be more than just catch-and-shoot. He was regarded as combo guard by most recruiting services, so can he handle the ball well enough to play some point guard and allow Buie to work off ball?

According to Collins, Nance and Beran each put on "15 pounds of muscle" this offseason. That should help both of them defend and finish under the basket. Young also got stronger, according to Collins.

Northwestern struggled to defend some of the big, strong centers they had to face night-in and night-out in the Big Ten. Luka Garza and Kofi Cockburn are still around to terrorize Big Ten defenses.

Those three Wildcats have put themselves in a better position to be able to compete against players who pushed them around at times last season. By the time conference play starts on Dec. 20, we should know a lot more about how well they will be able to hold their own this season.

The other weapon the Wildcats have in the frontcourt is 7-foot, 255-pound true freshman center Matt Nicholson. We will see how much he is able to contribute this season. If he is ready physically, he should be able to rebound and protect the rim, at a minimum. Any offense he is able to provide will be a bonus.

Collins only has 10 scholarship players to work with this season, but they provide intriguing upside and versatility.

Off the bench, he will have Berry and Gaines to play significant minutes, assuming that Audige starts. He will also have bigs Beran, Nance and Young to eat up minutes in the frontcourt. Those six players, plus mainstays Buie and Kopp, figure to get the lion's share of minutes.

Nicholson is the wild card in terms of playing time, while Ryan Greer will probably be a role player.

Collins can go with his small starting lineup with Nance at the 5 and Beran at the 4. He can try to spread the floor and use outside shooters like Kopp, Beran and Berry. He can use length and go with a defensive lineup to pressure the ball that includes Gaines and Audige in the backcourt.

He has a lot of combinations he can mix-and-match this season. Plus, with the addition of Audige, Berry and Gaines (a senior who missed almost all of last season), he has a few more options for ballhandlers.

Collins certainly has more pieces this season than he did during the last two.

When Buie gets hot, he can score from anywhere, at anytime. Just ask Michigan State and DePaul. In those two consecutive games, Buie scored a total of 51 points and 9 of 16 3-pointers. That's a scorching 56%.

Then a foot injury seemed to derail his freshman campaign. He never quite recaptured that magic for the rest of the season.

For a lot of college players, the biggest growth happens between their freshman and sophomore seasons. If Buie can make a big leap, he could be a star that carries Northwestern on offense.

If Buie were to grow, it would probably come in two areas.

The first is becoming more of a point guard and making better decisions with the ball. Last season, Buie's mission was often to score, as that was what his team needed. But he turned the ball over too much. Is he ready to assume the lead guard role in Collins' offense? If Buie can pair his electric scoring with the ability to distribute the ball and make his teammates better, he has a chance to be this team's Bryant McIntosh.

The second area Buie has a lot of room to grow is his strength. There are quite a few grown men who play basketball in the Big Ten. Buie held his own last year as a true freshman. In order to take the next step, though, he has to be able to absorb contact and finish. He relied a lot on floaters when he got inside last year because he wasn't big or strong enough to finish consistently through contact. Getting bigger would also likely help prevent nagging injuries that hampered him last year.