Assuming players maintain their starting spots, Ali, Freeman and Trimble would appear to have starting spots locked up. That leaves point guard (Castaneda, Clarke, Tribble) and wing (Dawson, Wynn, Walton) to vie for spots. Hilltopper's take with Castaneda and Walton makes sense. We have however seen that Groce will go with the 5 he thinks play the best together as a unit as opposed to the most talented 5, so we'll see. It's going to be a lot of fun seeing who has the hot hand(s) on any given night.
I think the role of the freshmen this year will be to take over the seats at the end of the bench previously occupied by guys like Scotty Walter and Marquelle McIntyre.