Before the 2015-16 regular season tips off for the Wisconsin men’s basketball team, the Badgers will take a moment to look back on last season’s accomplishments.

After the banner commemorating the national finalists ascends to the rafters of the Kohl Center, the No. 17 Badgers will play their first game that counts without Sam Dekker, Frank Kaminksy, Duje Dukan and Josh Gasser.

In the moment of the ceremony, though, head coach Bo Ryan said he will allow himself a moment to look back.

“It’s nice to have, there’s a lot of people who couldn’t make it down to Indianapolis,” Ryan said. “It recognizes the run that these guys made.”

Then, it’s game time.

The Western Illinois team will be on the other side of the court. They won only eight games last season and lost their final nine games.

Here’s what you need to know about the Badgers and the Leathernecks before Friday night’s game.

Wisconsin

Projected Starters (points per game from last season): G Bronson Koenig (6-foot-4, 8.7 ppg), G Zak Showalter (6-2, 2.1 ppg), F Nigel Hayes (6-8, 12.4 ppg), F Vitto Brown (6-8, 1.8 ppg) F Ethan Happ (6-9, redshirt season)

Key Reserves: F Charlie Thomas (6-8, freshman), G/F Khalil Iverson (6-5, freshman), G Jordan Hill (6-3, redshirt)

Three new starters and an entirely new bench rotation will provide for an interesting dynamic for the whole season, especially for the first several games.

Preseason All-American Nigel Hayes and fellow junior Bronson Koenig will look to translate their sophomore success into this season. As the only two returning players with considerable playing time, they’ll have to serve as leaders on and off the court.

Zak Showalter, a redshirt junior guard, came off the bench as a spark plug. But according to Ryan, this season, he’ll have to find a way to keep his intensity up for longer stretches of the game. Ryan also compared him to former Badger Gasser in that regard.

Big men Vitto Brown and Ethan Happ have huge holes to fill with the departure of Kaminsky, but it will be interesting to see what kind of experience Happ has gained last season, as he went against Kaminsky nearly every day in practice.

Freshmen Khalil Iverson and Charlie Thomas will make an early impact, Ryan said. Both are built, strong guys, which is a big reason for why they’re able to jump right into the action at the college level.

Western Illinois

Western Illinois University posted an unimpressive 8-20 record in 2014-15.

The Leathernecks’ fell to No. 9 in the Summit League’s preseason poll for 2015-16, mid-tier of a conference whose teams have recorded only two wins the NCAA Tournament for the past 10 years. The ranking lacks signs of improvement after the team finished their previous season with a nine-game losing streak.

Points-leader Garret Covington, a senior-guard, is poised to lead the struggling team after his sophomore season which included all-Summit League second-team honors for his second consecutive season. Covington played and started in every game game last season (averaging 33 minutes per game), 15.5 points per game (fourth-best in the Summit League) and 4.3 rebounds per game. He’s taller than a traditional NCAA-level guard at 6-foot-5, presenting a unique challenge for whomever matches up against him.

The supporting cast that includes Jabari Sandifer and J.C. Fuller backs up the Western Illinois team and boasts a formidable perimeter that will have to counteract an unproven interior, which includes a freshman in Brandon Gilbeck.

Eric Goldsobel contributed reporting to this article.