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MEDIA DAY PRESEASON POLL:
- Boston U
- Colgate
- Navy
- Army
- American
- Bucknell
- Lafayette (tied 6th)
- Loyola MD
- Holy Cross
- Lehigh
PRESEASON MEDIA DAY ALL CONFERENCE TEAM:
-Nelly Cummings – SR, G – Colgate
-Gerrale Gates – SR, F – Holy Cross
-Javante McCoy – SR, G – Boston U (Preseason Player of the Year)
-Walter Whyte – SR, F – Boston U
-Marques Wilson – SR, G – Lehigh
COMMENTS FROM DAVID:
-Boston U finished a rather unspectacular 7th place last year and was just 6-10 in conference play, but with all five starters back the expectations with the preseason experts appear to be high. Javante McCoy is the preseason player of the year, and with the experience around him it could be a big turnaround for the Terriers.
-Colgate is who clearly looks like the best team to me. They won the league a year ago, lost just one conference game all year long, and in the NCAA Tournament made a fairly decent account of themselves against Arkansas. Four starters are back, and with the pieces they have I think they can once again finish on top.
-Navy returns four starters from a team that went 12-1 in league play a year ago, and while the schedules weren’t balanced at all there is reason for the Midshipmen to be optimistic heading in to this season. Unfortunately their top scorer is gone (Cam Davis) but the other four starters are back, so if they can step up it could be another good year for Navy.
-Army was a respectable 7-7 in conference play last year and with three starters back, including Josh Caldwell, who is an outstanding defender and can also score. Army looks to be good enough to finish in the top half of the standings this year.
-American is in rebuild mode after a season where they won just four total games and experienced more than their share of challenges. But, they appear to have some decent pieces back so we should see substantial improvement this year.
-After being the dominant program in the league for a stretch, Bucknell has gone through back to back losing seasons, and has their work cut out for them this year. They do have three starters back, but more importantly they are adding some impressive lookin freshmen. If they can develop over time, we may be seeing the Bison back at the top of the conference before too long.
-Lafayette lost some key players to graduation, and while they have a solid frontcourt we are expecting them to go through the pains of rebuilding this year.
-Loyola MD finished near the bottom last year and won just six games total. They could also be in for another long season.
-Lehigh has four starters back, but they were also the last place team a year ago. Their experience should translate into some improvement but I still think they’ll be closer to the bottom of the league than to the top of it.