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MEDIA DAY PRESEASON RANKINGS
- North Dakota State
- South Dakota
- Oral Roberts
- Omaha
- South Dakota State
- Fort Wayne
- Western Illinois
- North Dakota
- Denver
MEDIA DAY PRESEASON ALL SUMMIT LEAGUE FIRST TEAM
Stanley Umude – South Dakota, JR F (Preseason Player of the Year)
Emmanuel Nzekwesi – Oral Roberts, SR F
Kevin Obanor – Oral Roberts, SO F
Vinnie Shahid – North Dakota State, SR G
Triston Simpson – South Dakota, SR G
Kobe Webster – Western Illinois, GR G
MEDIA DAY PRESEASON ALL SUMMIT LEAGUE SECOND TEAM
Tyler Hagedorn – South Dakota, SR F
JT Gibson – Omaha, SR G
Matt Holba – Fort Wayne, SR F
Matt Pile – Omaha, JR F
Tyson Ward – North Dakota State, SR F
NOTES FROM DAVID: South Dakota State tried to be nationally relevant for most of the season, but like a lot of UTR teams as good as they were they didn’t quite do enough in the regular season to land inside the bubble, and when they failed to win the conference tournament they were left out of the Big Dance despite being the best team in the league. You never want to write off the Jackrabbits, but with just one starter back it looks as though they will be in rebuild mode this year.
South Dakota had what was an unimpressive overall year last year, but they won four of their last five going into the conference tournament (where admittedly they were slaughtered in their first game), and the only loss was a close one to South Dakota State. With four starters back, including the conference player of the year in Stanley Umude, I’m kind of big on the Yotes this year.
North Dakota State is pretty much the consensus preseason favorite. The Bison were last year’s tournament champions and went on to win a game in the First Four round of the NCAA Tournament. All five starters are back from last year’s team, and they appear to have a very strong back court.
Oral Roberts is another team the coaches and ADs seem to like. I realize they’re getting a quality guard in Deondre Burns who is eligible to play this year after transferring, and they should have a little more depth, but there is something about them that’s jumping out at everyone else that I must be missing.
I do kind of like this Omaha team. I realize that their two best players are gone, but three starters are back and they look to have a pretty decent back court. This was a team that finished second last year and advanced to the championship game. They’re not my pick to win the league, but I think they’re definitely good enough to make some noise. Again.
When it comes to the other four teams, I think Fort Wayne, or IPFW, or Purdue Fort Wayne, or whatever the hell they’re calling themselves this week, is the best out of the rest of the group, but I still don’t see them finishing in the top half of the league. The Leathernecks of Western Illinois, who really don’t get enough credit for having one of the best nicknames in all of college sports, have four starters back! That’s good! But, they won just four conference games a year ago. That’s not good. Yeah, they’re experienced, but are they returning players who will have developed enough to make them competitive within the league? North Dakota and Denver will likely struggle this year.