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MEDIA DAY PRESEASON POLL:
- Bowling Green
- Ohio U
- Akron
- Buffalo
- Ball State
- Toledo
- Kent State
- Eastern Michigan
- Miami, OH
- Northern Illinois
- Central Michigan
- Western Michigan
MEDIA DAY PRESEASON ALL CONFERENCE 1ST TEAM:
-Loren Cristian Jackson – SR, G – Akron
-Justin Turner – SR, G – Bowling Green
-Jayvon Graves – SR, G – Buffalo
-Jason Preston – JR, G – Ohio U
-Marreon Jackson – SR, G – Toledo
MEDIA DAY PRESEASON ALL CONFERENCE 2ND TEAM:
-Ishmael El-Amin – SR, G – Ball State
-Daeqwon Plowden – SR, F – Bowling Green
-Josh Mballa – JR, F – Buffalo
-Danny Pippen – SR, F – Kent State
-Ben Vander Plas – JR, F – Ohio U
COMMENTS FROM DAVID:
-It’s hard to not be excited about Bowling Green this year. Justin Turner is one of the best players in the conference, and with a mixture of some other key returning players and good looking newcomers this could finally be the year where Bowling Green goes dancing. Expect to see them in the UTR Top Ten for most of the year.
-Akron is another team that I like this year. Although Loren Cristian Jackson is the only returning starter, they have a lot of guys who do have experience that are back and that should be able to step into key roles. Also, if you could only get one starter back, you’d want it to be him. Also joining the team is Taylor Currie, who averaged over 24ppg and over 10rpg as a JUCO player last year.
-Ohio was playing pretty well down the stretch last year and had quite a bit of momentum going into the (cancelled) MAC Tournament. While they’re getting a lot of preseason love, they did lose some pretty key pieces to last year’s team and I question if they can replace that and be good enough to compete for a league title. I’m a huge fan of their coach Jeff Boals, so I don’t want to underestimate him.
-Buffalo had a fairly impressive season last year considering all that they lost from the year before, and I think that momentum could be carried into this year. They did lose some key players, but are solid in both the froncourt and the backcourt and could once again be looking at 20+ wins (well, if it were a normal season anyway)
-Ball State has three starters back, and an experienced and talented backcourt that they will be relying on. They also played well in the last month of the season last year and are another team that I think has the chance to exceed expectations this year.
-Toledo looks to have some solid transfer players and if they can get some production out of them they could be a dangerous team this year.
-Kent State is one of the better programs in the MAC, but they will likely struggle this year with just one starter back. They are kind of in a rebuild mode right now. They do have some solid looking transfers and newcomers, though, so I don’t expect the league to just walk all over them.
-Eastern Michigan has four starters back, and that experience should help them out, but I don’t think they quite have what it takes to finish in the top half of the league.
-Miami OH, like Eastern Michigan, has four starters back, and while experience does help it looks as though they’ll need more than what they have to compete with the teams at the top of the league.
-Northern Illinois tied for first place in their division a year ago, but they’ve lost so much that it looks like they’ll have an uphill battle this year.
-Western Michigan and Central Michigan look to be in for a long season as well.