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MEDIA DAY PRESEASON POLL:
- Stephen F. Austin
- Abilene Christian
- Sam Houston State
- Nicholls
- Lamar
- McNeese
- Central Arkansas
- New Orleans
- TAMUCC
- Northwestern State
- Southeast Louisiana
- Incarnate Word
- Houston Baptist
COMMENTS FROM DAVID:
-Stephen F. Austin has been the class of the league for the past several years. In fact the distance between them and the second-place team may be greater than any other league I can think of. That may be the case again this year, but off-court issues over the offseason may hold them back some. Only two starters are back, but they do appear to have some other players that can effectively step into bigger roles this year.
-I really like this Abilene Christian team, and think what they have done since moving up to D-1 is amazing. It would not shock me at all to see them compete with SFA for a first-place finish this year. They return four starters and some quality bench players from a team that won 20 games a year ago. They have both balance and depth and are capable running away from the rest of the league (minus maybe SFA)
-Sam Houston State has just one starter back, but they are adding what appear to be some quality JUCO players that could contribute right away.
-Nicholls has been fun to watch the last few years and while they have not won any conference championships, they have shown quite a bit of progress. They may take a step back this year though, with just two starters back and their top-three scorers gone from a year ago.
-Lamar had a rather unspectacular season last year, and appear to be destined to finish around the middle of the pack again this year.
-McNeese is another team that seems to be heading for the mix of the middle of the pack. They do have a talented and experience backcourt that they will be depending on this year.
-Not a whole lot of love for Northwestern State at media day, which is kind of surprise. They have improved quite a bit over the last three years, and with four starters back I expect that to continue into this season. They arguably did lose their best player, but there seems to be enough coming back that I think they can improve on their win total from a year ago.
-Central Arkansas has four starters back, but this was a team that totally collapsed down the stretch last year, so it is hard to say whether or not they will improve with that experience.
-New Orleans struggled with injuries last year. They do return a pretty solid backcourt and we should see some improvement from them if they are able to stay healthy.
-TAMUCC may be a bit of a dark horse. They won just 14 games a year ago, but a lot of their losses came in close games and with their top-two scorers back along with some other experienced players we may see quite a bit of improvement out of them this year.
-SE LA, Incarnate Word, and Houston Baptist will likely all be in for a long season.