Corey Symons is no stranger to the sidelines at North Idaho College.

Being head coach - that's a little different.

Symons, in his 11th season with the school, and first as head coach of the NIC men's basketball team, opens his tenure today at 11 a.m. PDT against Western Wyoming on the campus of Sheridan (Wyo.) College.

"It's exciting," Symons said. "I've been here forever. It's nice to have a fresh start and some new guys. We're ready to get started."

Symons takes over for Jared Phay, who took over the program at the College of Southern Idaho at the end of April.

"We've talked pretty frequently," said Symons of Phay. "We went down and watched some of the teams in our league in Salt Lake and went to dinner. I told him I'm rooting for him for 27 games, but not the three that we play them, and he said likewise. Hopefully we'll get the upper hand in those three."

NIC is ranked 21st in the first NJCAA poll of the season, with Southern Idaho fifth and Salt Lake eighth.

The smallest player on NIC's active roster this year is 6-foot-3 freshman guard Lucas Antuez from Spain, who will start at point guard. He'll be joined in the lineup by Braian Angola-Rodas (6-6 freshman guard from Columbia), Dijuan Piper (6-7 freshman from Rainier Beach High in Seattle), and 6-4 sophomore guard/forward Jordan King and 6-10 sophomore center Fuquan Niles, both from Rainier Beach.

"We're pretty big this year," Symons said. "We're going to try to get up and down the court, push the ball up and down the court. With Jordan, we can probably play him at the four, but he can run like a guard."

Will Dorsey, a 5-8 sophomore point guard from Rainier Beach and last year's starter, tore his labrum about three weeks ago, and will likely get a medical redshirt this season. Forward Shikei Blake, a key reserve last year, transferred to Northeastern College in Sterling, Colo. Guard Brad Wallace, who played in 28 games last year as a freshman - starting four - opted to move on and play football at Eastern Washington.

"It was a tough blow for us losing Will," Symons said.

Ty Higbie, a 6-6 sophomore forward from Coeur d'Alene High, as well as Jamaal Robateau, a 6-5 redshirt freshman guard from Australia, will see minutes off the bench.

"Ty has been playing really well for us," Symons said. "Jamaal has verbally committed to Division I Gardner-Webb (in Boiling Springs, N.C.), and hasn't even played a game for us. It's a good group of guys. We've got 12 guys capable of playing at a high level."

"Our lineup is going to be depending on the matchup, Symons said. "What we've done over the last 10 years has been really successful. But we're going to change some things up and I'll put my little tweak on it."

Kyle Guice, a 6-6 forward from Lake City, will also be counted on in the Cardinal rotation.

"Kyle's playing really well," Symons said. "We love having him, and it gives us three really good pick-and-pop kind of guys. He's going to play big minutes for us."

NIC opens conference play at Southern Idaho on Dec. 13 and will play its first five conference games on the road, before hosting Phay and the Golden Eagles in its conference home opener on Jan. 17 - the first of five straight at home.

They'll return to CSI on Feb. 7, then travel to Snow on Feb. 19 and Salt Lake to conclude the regular season on Feb. 21.

"We've got a good home stretch in there," Symons said. "The league schedule is a lot different with more road games (eight) than home (seven) for us. We watched some of our teams earlier this fall, and it's a good league once again."

The winner of the Region 18 tournament in Price, Utah, qualifies to nationals, then travels to face the winner of the Region 1 (Arizona) tournament to determine seeding to nationals.