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MEDIA DAY PRESEASON POLL
- South Alabama
- UT Arlington
- Georgia Southern
- Texas State
- Louisiana
- Georgia State
- Coastal Carolina
- UL Monroe
- Appalachian State
- Arkansas State
- Little Rock
- Troy
MEDIA DAY PRESEASON PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Trhae Mitchell – South Alabama, SR F
MEDIA DAY PRESEASON ALL-SBC 1ST TEAM
Quan Jackson – Georgia Southern, JR G
Josh Ajayi – South Alabama, SR F
Trhae Mitchell – South Alabama, SR F
Brian Warren – UT Arlington, SR G
Nijal Pearson – Texas State, SR G
MEDIA DAY PRESEASON ALL-SBC 2ND TEAM
Justin Forrest – Appalachian State, JR G
DeVante Jones – Coastal Carolina, SO G
Ike Smith – Georgia Southern, SR G
Kane Williams – Georgia State, JR G
Michael Ertel – UL Monroe, JR G
MEDIA DAY PRESEASON ALL-SBC 3RD TEAM
Isaac Johnson – Appalachian State, SR F
Isaiah Crawley – Georgia Southern, SR F
Cedric Russell – Louisiana, JR G
JD Williams – UL Monroe, SR G
Don Coleman – South Alabama, SR G
COMMENTS FROM DAVID. South Alabama, who didn’t even manage a winning conference record last year, is this year’s preseason favorite. They did show signs of improvement a year ago, but they still only made it as far as the quarterfinals of the conference tournament and had a losing record against D-1 teams. I do think they’ll be better. I also think that most of the rest of the conference won’t be quite as good. But I’m not entirely on board with them being the conference favorites. They do have an impressive combination of both talent and experience, including the preseason conference player of the year, and they also have guys that can score.
UT Arlington is another team to keep an eye on. After a miserable start to the season last year, they were much improved in the second half of the season and have all five starters back for this year. It’s Chris Ogden’s second year as head coach, and it wouldn’t shock me if they ended up finishing at the top of the league.
Georgia Southern had a fairly impressive year last year despite the fact that they had to battle injuries for much of it. They did lose one of their top players, but with three starters back and a quality JUCO player joining the roster, they should be able to contend again this year.
Texas State lost a lot of key pieces from last year’s team and are turning to some JUCO transfers in the hopes of getting some production right away. They should get some pretty solid play out of their guards, but I don’t think they’ll end up being as good as the three previously mentioned teams.
Cliff Ellis is starting his 13th year at Coastal Carolina, which is kind of hard to believe. They’ve got some key players back, including a solid PG in DeVante Jones, and have some pretty solid JUCO players joining the roster as well. Coastal could end up having a better year than expected.
Louisiana has been one of the better teams in the league in recent years, but they appear to be in rebuilding mode now with just two starters back. Bob Marlin has done a great job as head coach, but he’s got his work cut out for him this year.
Georgia State has been the flagship team of the conference in recent years. They’ve won 20+ in four of the last five seasons, and captured last year’s title before winning the conference tournament. The problem is Run Hunter, who was a big part of that success, left to be the head coach at Tulane. They have just two starters back and look to be in complete rebuilding mode.
UL Monroe had a lot of guys that could score last year and were oftentimes fun to watch. They are going through a fair amount of roster turnover, so it’s hard to say how good they’ll be this year.
At the time I’m writing this, Appalachian State’s football team is undefeated!! They are having a HOT HOT HOT season!! For basketball, it may be an entirely different story. While four starters are back, the team won just 11 total games a year ago and finished near the bottom of the league. I think they’ll be a little better this year just due to their experience, but I still think they end up finishing closer to the bottom than the top. They do have a really good guard in Justin Forrest, but they’ll need some other players to step up as well.
Arkansas State lost four starters from a team that wasn’t all that good in the first place. They are kind of in reset/rebuild mode right now.
Little Rock and Troy are also likely in for long seasons. Troy made a fantastic coaching hire over the summer when they got Scott Cross, but he’ll need a few years to get them going.