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MEDIA DAY PRESEASON POLL:
- Texas Southern
- Alcorn State
- Southern U
- Prairie View A&M
- Florida A&M
- Grambling State
- Jackson State
- Bethune Cookman
- Alabama A&M
- Alabama State
- Arkansas Pine Bluff
- Mississippi Valley State
MEDIA DAY PRESEASON ALL-SWAC TEAM:
-Joe French – Bethune Cookman
-Tyrone Lyons – Southern U
-Cameron Christon – Grambling
-Garrett Hicks – Alabama A&M
-Karl Nicholas – Texas Southern
COMMENTS FROM DAVID:
The SWAC is seemingly always one of the two worst conferences in all of D1. More often than not its champion goes to the First Four, and it is extremely rare to see a team that is ever seeded better than 16th. Nearly every team plays a non-conference schedule loaded with road buy games, and some teams do not play any non-conference D1 opponents at home. The series with the Pac 12 could help with that a little bit, but this once again looks to be one of the weaker conferences.
-Texas Southern has been one of the conference’s flagship programs and is this year’s preseason favorite. They won 19 games a year ago, including the SWAC Tournament, and have 3 starters back from that team. Head Coach Johnny Jones has been really consistent since arriving and this could be one of his better teams.
-Alcorn State will also be in the mix. They were the first place team a year ago and have some pretty good pieces returning this season, including their top scorer and rebounder.
-Southern U also has three starters back, including Tyrone Lyons who is a very good outside shooter, and add what appear to be some quality transfer players as well.
-Prairie View A&M won just eight total games a year ago, but has also hit the transfer portal as they look to rebuild. They seem to be getting some love from the coaches and media as they are picked to finish 4th.
-FAMU is in complete reset mode. All five starters are gone and they have revamped their roster with a lot of transfers.
-Grambling kind of fell apart in the second half of conference play. They do have three starters back, and with that experience we could see some improvement, but it may be an uphill climb when they face the teams in the top half of the league.
-Jackson State has a new head coach, and has just one starter back, so they will also need to rebuild with a new roster.
-Bethune Cookman could be a bit of a dark horse. All five starters are back, and with that experience we should see some improvement, but they did struggle a year ago winning just 9 total games and finishing 10th in the conference.
-I am a little surprised Alabama A&M is picked to finish this low. Granted, this is where they normally end up, but they were a very respectable 10-8 in conference play last year, and have four starters back. They do have a new head coach, so there could be some adjustment there, but I look for them to finish closer to the top half of the league than this.
-Alabama State, Arkansas Pine Bluff, and Mississippi Valley State probably have a much better shot at winning the Centenary Award than they do of making the NCAA Tournament.