As much uncertainty as there is with the Eastern men’s basketball team, perhaps there is even more with Northwestern’s men’s basketball team.

The Wildcats hired Chris Collins as their new head coach in March, after he was an assistant coach at Duke for more than a decade — leading to a large part of the Blue Devils’ game plan to make its way into the Welsh-Ryan Arena with Collins in the Wildcats season opener against Eastern Saturday.

But Collins replaced former coach Bill Carmody and his Princeton offense, one that emphasizes consistent motion with pick and rolls and back-door cuts.

Which to Eastern head coach Jay Spoonhour, in is second season, uncertain on how to approach this new founded Collins regime.

Spoonhour said he does not know exactly what kind of offense the Wildcats will run, but he imagines it being a mixture between Duke’s and the Princeton offense that most players are familiar with.

“That does not make for a fun afternoon,” Spoonhour said.

However, even more uncertainty approaches with the Wildcats, who were 13-19 last year, as arguably two of Carmody’s best recruits both return for the season opener.

Neither of the Wildcats’ highly touted guards Jershon Cobb and Drew Crawford were present in the nine-game losing streak to close out the season last year.

Cobb, a red-shirt junior, missed the entire season as he was suspended for academic issues, while Crawford played just 10 games before opting for a fifth-year red-shirt to have surgery on a torn labrum in his right shoulder.

Crawford led Northwestern with 13.5 points per game in his 10 games last year, but averaged 16.1 points per game in the 2011-12 season with a 48.4 shooting percentage and a 41.2 3-point shooting percentage.

Cobb, meanwhile, who was a four-star recruit out of high school, is averaging 7.3 points per game and shooting 40 percent overall after his first two seasons.

Having to game plan around two 6-foot-5 guards that have minimal to no scouting tape on them has proved to be a difficult chore, Spoonhour said.

“I’m sure they have improved in the new system,” he said. “They will be able do different things now that we are unaware of.”

But that does not mean that Northwestern is not feeling the same uncertainty as Eastern.

The Panthers have 12 newcomers to their 18-man roster, having added size, depth and speed.

Spoonhour said Collins and the Wildcats will have the same problems with Eastern as it is having with Northwestern.

For example, Eastern has two guards of its own in Reggie Smith and Dennis Green who also sat out last year.

Smith and Green bring explosiveness to a roster loaded with athleticism compared to last year’s 11-21 Eastern team that lost in the first round of the Ohio Valley Conference tournament as the No. 7 seed.

Spoonhour said Smith and Green are the type of players a coach wants to limit the amount of restrictions on.

“It’s helping Reggie right now because he isn’t worried about anything,” he said. “I want him to play hard, but he needs to try to score and makes plays. Dennis makes some really positive plays, but he is trying to make a play every time he gets the ball.”

Also, Eastern has two viable big men in Mat and Luke Piotrowski, two brothers that are 7-foot-2 and 6-foot-11, respectively.

All five players will join the trio of forwards Sherman Blanford, Josh Piper and guard Alex Austin, who are three of the Panthers’ top four leading scorers from last season.

But Spoonhour has found that the biggest issue Eastern will face in its season opener is the ability to think as cohesive unit.

“There are still some bumps, but the ability is there,” he said.

Eastern will play Northwestern at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in Evanston.

Anthony Catezone can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].