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By Dylan Edwards, SMUMustangs.com

DALLAS -- On Saturday night, SMU easily disposed of Arkansas-Pine Bluff, 72-37, to begin the season an unblemished 4-0.

While the competition will quickly rise to a new level, these first four games were all very important for the Mustangs to grow as a team and become more comfortable on the floor with one another. It's been mentioned repeatedly, but only three players on this team had experience playing games with SMU on the chest.

"For this team, this was a great way to start out," head coach Tim Jankovich said. "We have four freshmen and three returning players. You don't want to start out and play the Boston Celtics. We needed this. Now it's time to go. The competition will get much, much stiffer. It will be good. One way or the other, we're right there, or we're seeing a different evaluation. We'll learn a lot."

The unknowns about this team are beginning to fade away, however. Shake Milton is a national player of the year candidate and has played like it to this point. He's averaging 21 points per game and is instant-offense when the Mustangs need it. Senior Ben Emelogu II has been tossing fire from behind the arc, shooting 60 percent from 3. Jarrey Foster has already set a career-high in points this season.

New guys are starting to make their impact known on the team. Transfer Jimmy Whitt is a triple-double waiting to happen at point guard, filling up the stat line each night. Freshmen big men Ethan Chargois and Everett Ray have each had breakout games in such a short season.

"What I've seen is that we're getting better," Jankovich said. "We're not where we need to be for sure. Game three and game four, we're far better technically, from our standpoint than game one or game two. That's exciting to me."

On Wednesday, Northern Iowa will present the toughest test of the season to this point, especially on the defensive end of the court. The Panthers play extremely efficient defense that will test the Mustangs' ball movement on offense. NC State or Arizona await in game two and will be another great challenge for SMU.

Against Arkansas-Pine Bluff, some of the progress the team has made was on display with how the ball was moving from teammate to teammate. The Mustangs finished with 24 assists on 25 field goals.

"Our sharing the ball, in game one and game two we were okay," Jankovich said. "In game three and game four, we look like SMU basketball to me. That's with four freshmen, three returning, and a guy that sat and watched all year. It makes me very happy. It shows you the culture and character of the young men that you're coaching."

SMU travels to the Bahamas for the Battle 4 Atlantis, beginning on Wednesday. The Mustangs start off with UNI at 8:30 p.m.