The Summit League says hello and goodbye as it heads into the 2014-15 season. The hello is for Oral Roberts, which returns after spending two seasons in the Southland to a conference that it had pretty much dominated through the late 2000’s. The goodbye is to Saul Phillips, head coach at North Dakota State, who led the Bison to an NCAA tournament berth and first round win over Oklahoma last season, then headed off to take over the head coaching position at Ohio University.
ORU is in fact our preseason pick to take the conference title this season. The Golden Eagles welcome back Obi Emegano who tore his ACL last November, plus have four returning starters led by Korey Billbury. However, it will not be easy for ORU this season, with as many as six other teams having legitimate title asperations. Denver is led by Brett Olson, one of the best guards in the conference, Fort Wayne looks to build off of last season’s success that included an appearance in the CIT, North Dakota State looks to reload under new head coach David Richman, South Dakota State will look to build off of a CBI appearance, Omaha returns three starters from a team that appeared in the CIT, and even South Dakota could be a dark horse candidate to challenge for the top of the standings. All told, the Summit League race figures to be wide open and very entertaining all season long.
Predicted Order of Finish:
1. Oral Roberts: Scott Sutton’s team has the depth and experience to win the Summit, especially with a healthy Emegano.
2. Denver: It seems that Joe Scott’s Denver teams have underperformed each of the last few years, so it is difficult to pick them to win the conference despite the return of four starters including Olson.
3. Fort Wayne: Steve Forbes will be the leader of this team, but they need to make up for the loss of three starters, including star point guard Pierre Bland.
4. North Dakota State: With the loss of their head coach and top three scorers, this looks like a rebuilding year, but Lawrence Alexander should step up to lead this season.
5. South Dakota State: Cody Larson averaged 13.1 points per game last season, and the Jackrabbits welcome transfer George Marshall from Wisconsin (he is eligible after the first semester), but they will need to find a way to make up for the loss of their top two scorers.
6. Omaha*: The Mavericks are in their final year of transition to Division I, but appear ready to contend now. CJ Carter and Devin Patterson are returning double digit scorers from last season’s CIT team, while the addition of Wichita State transfer Jake White could help push this team towards the top of the conference standings.
7. South Dakota: A potential dark horse candidate in the Summit League this year, the Coyotes, under new head coach Craig Smith, welcome in a slew of transfers and junior college players. If the newcomers can mesh with the returning players, this team could end up surprising a lot of people.
8. Western Illinois: Garret Convington should score a ton of points in only his sophomore year, but there do not appear to be enough other pieces here for much improvement on last season’s 20 losses.
9. IUPUI: Jason Gardner takes over as head coach after back-to-back 26 loss seasons. While it appears that he is taking the right steps towards rebuilding the Jaguars, this first season will still likely be a long one.
* Omaha is ineligible for the Summit League and NCAA tournaments as a fourth year transitional team.