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MEDIA DAY PRESEASON POLL:
- Vermont
- Bryant
- UMass Lowell
- Binghamton
- UMBC
- Albany
- New Hampshire
- NJIT
- Maine
MEDIA DAY PRESEASON ALL-AMERICA EAST TEAM:
-Max Brooks – JR, F – UMass Lowell
-Jacob Falko – SR, G – Binghamton
-Dylan Penn – SR, G – Vermont
-Charles Pride – SR, G – Bryant
-Finn Sullivan – SR, G – Vermont
-Earl Timberlake – JR, G – Bryant
COMMENTS FROM DAVID:
-Vermont has been the flagship program in this conference in recent years and they pretty much blew through it last year with a 17-1 record. Most of the starters from last year are gone, and they will be relying on some new freshmen/transfer players this year to step into key roles. It would be crazy to ever say that Vermont will not be in the mix, but part of me wonders if them being picked first is due to their recent past success rather than their actual expected success for this year. Having said that, though, a lot of the teams in this conference are rebuilding this year, so…
-Bryant is new to the league and they have shown drastic improvement in recent years. The competition in the America East will likely be a little tougher than the NEC, and just one starter returns from a year ago, but they have added some high-caliber transfers and should be competitive right away. Being picked 2nd at Media Day is an indication of how high the expectations are.
-UMass Lowell has four starters back and we should see some improvement with that experience, but they did not look all that strong in the second half of conference play and ended up finishing just 8th in the conference last year.
-Like UMass Lowell, Binghamton has four starters back. Also like UMass Lowell, they were really unimpressive in the second half of conference play last year. They do appear to have a pretty talented backcourt, though, and could make some noise this season.
-UMBC has two starters back as well as some transfers coming in, but they are expected to take a step back after last year’s second place finish. Still, it would not shock me at all to see the Retrievers in the top half of the league.
-Albany has struggled for a while, but we did see some improvement last season. Unfortunately, most of the key players from that team are gone, and they are in a bit of a rebuilding mode now. They do have a few decent looking transfers coming in and will need them to step up if they want to be successful.
-New Hampshire seems to always be closer to the bottom of the standings the top, and this year is not looking any different. I would love to see this program get it going, and while they do have a good player in Miles Coleman, I do not think they have enough to compete with the top of the league.
-After showing a lot of signs of life after initially transitioning up, NJIT has been sleepwalking for the last three seasons and it looks like it will be more of the same this year. We at Hoops HD still love the original Team of the People, though!!
-And as for Maine!! Well…I don’t want to totally count them out of having a chance to win the Centenary Award, but I just do not think they are quite THAT bad!