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ATLANTIC SUN
The North Florida Ospreys won the regular season title in the Atlantic Sun last year for the first time ever, and then rode the home court advantage in the conference tournament that came with the title to their first NCAA tournament bid. Their bid came with an invite to the First Four in Dayton as a 16 seed, where they fell to Robert Morris by 4 points. Two other A-Sun teams received postseason invites, as Florida Gulf Coast and South Carolina Upstate both played in the CIT. After the season, Northern Kentucky announced that it would be moving to the Horizon League, temporarily reducing the A-Sun’s membership down to only 7. To get that number back up to 8, the conference went a bit out of its historic geographic footprint and invited the nation’s only independent last season, NJIT, to join. NJIT brings in a solid resume from last season, having played in the CIT and advanced all the way to the semifinals, not to mention picking up a huge regular season victory at Michigan.
Although the NJIT Highlanders are the newcomers to the conference, they return a deep team that has proven it can win games against this level of competition and are therefore the preseason pick to take the conference and its automatic bid. It will not be easy though as North Florida returns the majority of its defending champion team. Keep an eye on Lipscomb to move up this season, and Florida Gulf Coast may still be in the hunt despite losing its two best players to graduation. South Carolina Upstate, on the other hand, looks like it will be taking a step backwards this year as Ty Greene, who seems to have led the team for the past ten years, has finally graduated.
Predicted Order of Finish
1. NJIT – The Highlanders return their top four players and will have a chance to play for an automatic bid for the first time in school history. They are led by Damon Lynn, though all four returning starters averaged double digits in scoring.
2. North Florida – The Ospreys should be right near the top of the conference standings as they return four starters from last year’s tournament team including their top three scorers. Dallas Moore, Beau Beech and Chris Davenport have a great chance to put this team back in the dance again.
3. Lipscomb – Josh Williams leads a deep backcourt and the addition of 7-2, 276 pound transfer David Wishon from College of Charleston gives them a huge size advantage against the rest of the league. If Wishon can contribute significantly, the rest of the conference better watch out.
4. Florida Gulf Coast – Bernard Thompson and Brett Comer are gone, meaning the Eagles will need to rely a lot more heavily on Julian DeBose. VCU transfer Antravious Simmons and freshman Rayjon Tucker should both be factors this year.
5. Jacksonville – The Dolphins return all five starters led by Kori Babineaux, one of the top guards in the conference. Coach Tony Jasick has added a couple of solid JC transfers this season, and there is no reason the team will not show significant improvement from last year’s 10-22 record.
6. Stetson – The Hatters are ineligible for postseason play due to their APR; however, the future is looking brighter with no seniors on the roster and a pair of point guards, Divine Myles and Brian Pegg, who each had more than 100 assists last year.
7. South Carolina Upstate – Ty Greene was everything for the Spartans, and now he is gone. Head coach Eddie Payne will be in rebuild mode this year.
8. Kennesaw State – The Owls brought in a big name head coach in Al Skinner who should get this program moving towards the upper division very soon. A pair of seniors, Yonel Brown and Nigel Pruitt, will lead the team this year, but the rebuild by Coach Skinner will take a few seasons.