Rick Stansbury didn’t have much of a voice Friday night when he addressed a huddle of reporters after Hilltopper Hysteria.

Western Kentucky has been practicing since Oct. 1, oftentimes working in two sessions a day. The Hilltoppers’ new men’s basketball coach has spent that time teaching and trying to blend a combination of new pieces and a few returners into a squad that can, per his repeated goals, compete for a championship right away.

Stansbury sounded Friday like a man short on rest but optimistic about how his team is coming together.

“Well, you can tell by my voice how (practice has) been going,” Stansbury quipped after the annual season tipoff event at E.A. Diddle Arena. “You know, I told some people I’ve never had a team where I’ve had to coach all 13 guys. And I didn’t think about that at first.

“But from where we were at last the Saturday before last and where we’re at now, we’ve come a long way. Our kids are working hard and that’s all you can ask right now.

“We’re just trying to get the energy and the toughness at the level it needs to be. We’ll worry about getting better at the details. But they’re working hard for us.”

Chemistry was a buzzword when players talked Friday about the team’s progress this month.

That’s probably not surprising for a Topper team with more newcomers (nine, including walk-on guard Tyler Miller) than returning players (five).

And of those five returners, only forwards Justin Johnson, Ben Lawson and Anton Waters actually played in games for WKU last season. Forwards Willie Carmichael and Jabari McGhee were on the 2015-16 roster but sat out an NCAA-mandated season after transferring from Tennessee.

The new-look Hilltoppers now feature graduate senior guards Que Johnson, Junior Lomomba and Pancake Thomas in addition to those returning frontcourt players.

“Chemistry-wise, it’s been tough, everyone coming in real late,” the senior Lawson said. “That’s why it’s been so hard.

“The last two weeks we had two-a-days and we’ve really been going at it. But in terms of just everyone coming together, there’s no cliques on the team. Everyone’s just one big unit. There haven’t been any issues up to now and that’s a great feeling going into the season.”

The importance of the October practices has been magnified because of the manner in which the roster was put together.

None of the new players arrived until summer, meaning WKU’s returning forwards didn’t have any backcourt teammates to scrimmage with for much of the spring semester.

Johnson and Lomomba didn’t arrive until July after transferring from Washington State and Providence, respectively. Then Thomas came on the market in August after leaving Hartford and WKU was able to add him on Labor Day weekend, right in time for him to enroll in classes and be eligible to play the full season.

Ideally, the Hilltoppers’ upperclassmen would’ve spent the last few years playing together. But that’s not the case with this team, so Stansbury and his squad have to get to know each other on the fly this fall.

The redshirt sophomore Carmichael was asked Friday how much chemistry WKU is having to build in its early-season practices.

“A lot. A lot. A lot,” Carmichael said. “It’s going to be a long journey ahead, but we’re getting there. We’re getting there. We’re getting there.”

The Hilltoppers will be on public display again at 3:30 p.m. Saturday for a two-hour open scrimmage at Diddle Arena. The scrimmage will serve as a lead-in for the WKU football team’s 6 p.m. contest at Houchens-Smith Stadium against Old Dominion.

Then come home exhibition games Nov. 1 and Nov. 5 against lower-division, in-state schools Campbellsville and Kentucky Wesleyan. The regular-season opener is Nov. 12 against Alabama State at Diddle Arena.

The Toppers will keep working on the practice courts before now and that opener, trying to get more used to playing with one another.

“Most people want to know, ‘Coach, how are you going to get so many new guys to play together?’” Stansbury said. “… First off, it starts off with if you have good people, you have a chance to win. We have good young men, all of them.

“The only way anybody wins is what? The teams wins. That’s where it all starts at. And again, I feel good about those guys buying into that.”

-Follow sports reporter Brad Stephens on Twitter @BradBGDN or visit bgdailynews.com.