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MEDIA DAY PRESEASON POLL:
- UC Irvine
- UC Santa Barbara
- UC Davis
- Hawai’i
- UC Riverside
- Long Beach State
- Cal State Bakersfield
- Cal State Northridge
- Cal State Fullerton
- Cal Poly
MEDIA DAY PRESEASON ALL CONFERENCE TEAM:
-Arinze Chidom – SR, F – UC Riverside
-Chance Hunter – JR, G – Long Beach State
-Ezra Manjon – SO, G – UC Davis
-JaQuori McLaughlin – SR, G – UC Santa Barbara
-Amadou Sow – JR, F – UC Santa Barbara
-Collin Welp – JR, F – UC Irvine
COMMENTS FROM DAVID:
-UC Santa Barbara is probably the team I am most excited about. They have four starters back, including two preseason all-conference players, which gives them the experience they need to win the league. This team has won 20+ games in each of the last three seasons and appears to be set up to do so again.
-UC Irvine has to completely reload with just one returning starter, but they are still among the preseason picks to win the conference. Two years ago the Eaters made the Round of 32 in the NCAA Tournament and last year they were the first place team, so they have definitely been the class of the league. It will not be easy this year, though. Collin Welp is back, as well as some guys that contributed off the bench last year, but it appears that they are at the bottom of their talent cycle and are in rebuilding mode.
-UC Davis is another team with four starters back. Although they only won 14 games a year ago, they seemed to pull it together in the second half of conference play so it would not shock me if we see a ton of improvement out of them this year.
-UC Riverside contemplated cutting athletics altogether. So far they have not, and I am really hoping it does not come to that. UCR has been very blah in basketball for…oh…the past couple of decades, but they did make some big steps forward last year. Their 17-15 record was their first winning season in quite some time, and with four starters back they should be able to keep that improvement going. Hmmm, a team that is looking at cutting athletics but is also set up to have their best season in recent memory: a possible “Team of the People”??!!
-Hawai’i has undergone quite a few changes, and appear to have lost what were their three best players. Some younger players from a year ago are mixed in with some transfer players who will be expected to contribute.
-Long Beach State has four starters back, but in recent years the program has declined and you gotta start to wonder how much more time Coach Dan Monson has. He’s had some very good teams, and his formula of playing a killer OOC schedule to give them chances at the national stage as well as getting them ready for league play has worked at times, but not all the time and not recently. While four starters are back, this team failed to win even ten D-1 games last year, so there is not much to be excited about.
-Cal State Bakersfield joins the Big West and they are in a similar boat as The Beach. Four starters are back…but from a team that failed to win ten games.
-Cal State Northridge, Cal State Fullerton, and Cal Poly bring up the year of the league. It could be a long and frustrating season for all of them.