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MEDIA DAY NORTH DIVISION PRESEASON POLL:
- Campbell
- Longwood
- NC A&T
- Radford
- Hampton
- High Point
MEDIA DAY SOUTH DIVISION PRESEASON POLL:
- Winthrop
- UNC Asheville
- Gardner Webb
- Presbyterian
- Charleston Southern
- USC Upstate
COMMENTS FROM DAVID:
-I used to think one of the great things about this league was that the regular season determined the site of the conference tournament. That gave it a whole lot of meaning and created some great storylines for late season conference games. That’s gone now.
-Winthrop has been the best team in this league for a while, and I think they will be again this year. They do have a new coach in Mark Prosser but I think it will be a smooth transition. DJ Burns, who was the player of the year in the conference last year, returns along with two other starters. They should get some key contributions from some transfer players as well. I don’t know if Winthrop is good enough to land inside the bubble, but they do look to be good enough to run away from the rest of this league.
-Campbell has all five starters back and is the pick to win the other division. The Camels were 11-6 in league play last year, but played really well down the stretch and made it all the way to the championship game against Winthrop. They got their doors blown off in that game, but it was an impressive way to end the season and with all five starters back they should be even better this year.
-Longwood has the potential to be a good story. They have a history of being really bad, but they have have been improving in recent years and could take another big step forward this year. Three starters are back and they appear to have a solid backcourt. The fact that they’re picked to finish second in their division goes to show you that the expectations for this program have risen.
-UNC Asheville has all five starters back from a year ago, and that experience should be a strength for them. They had kind of a so-so season last year, but the expectations appear to be higher.
-NC A&T comes over from the MEAC where they had a successful run, but the quality of competition is going to be higher in the Big South. Having said that, I expect them to win more games than they lose and maybe pull off some surprises at home. Three starters are back from a team that finished in a 1st place tie in the MEAC and they add some key transfers as well.
-Gardner Webb has three starters back from a team that was in the middle of the pack last year, and while they lost their top player to the transfer portal, they added some nice pieces of their own and I they can once again finish in the top half of the league.
-I’m a little surprised Radford isn’t getting more preseason love. They return four starters from a team that tied for 2nd place last year. I’d say they are one of my dark horses in this conference, but when a team returns four starters after finishing 2nd can you even call them a dark horse??
-Hampton returns three starters and appears to have a pretty solid backcourt. They also have some good incoming players to go along with that.
-Presby has all five starters back and that gives them some reason to be optimistic and have some higher expectations. I still think they have a lot of work to do to compete with the top half of the conference, though.
-When Tubby Smith got to High Point, I really expected him to get them going and that we’d be seeing them at the top of the conference on a regular basis. That just hasn’t happened and it’s not looking like it’s going to happen this year either. They do have a fantastic player in John-Michael Wright, who averaged over 20ppg last year, but they need to get him a little bit more help if they’re going to be successful.
-Charleston Southern and USC Upstate are showing all the signs of being in for long and frustrating seasons.