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SWAC MEDIA DAY PRESEASON POLL:
- Texas Southern
- Grambling
- Alcorn State
- Jackson State
- Southern
- Prairie View A&M
- Alabama A&M
- Alabama State
- Bethune-Cookman
- Arkansas Pine Bluff
- Florida A&M
- Mississippi Valley State
MEDIA DAY PRESEASON ALL SWAC 1ST TEAM:
-Zion Harmon – Bethune-Cookman
-Jeremiah Kendall – Alcorn State
-PJ Henry – Texas Southern (Preseason Player of the Year)
-Chase Adams – Jackson State
-Kylen Milton – Arkansas Pine Bluff
MEDIA DAY PRESEASON ALL SWAC 2ND TEAM:
-Romelle Mansel – Jackson State
-Ken Evans – Jackson State
-Joe French – Arkansas Pine Bluff
-TJ Madlock – Alabama State
-Jourdan Smith – Grambling
COMMENTS FROM DAVID:
The SWAC is perennially one of the worst conferences in all of D1, and you have to go back to 2015 to find the last time the SWAC champion received a seed that was better than 16th. It is also very difficult to tell how good these teams are before conference play (at least when trying to compare them to each other) since the vast majority of their schedules are made up of road buy-games. But, as poor as this league is, they did manage three wins against Pac-12 teams in last year’s Legacy Series with Grambling knocking off Colorado, Texas Southern beating Arizona State, and Prairie View knocking off Wazzu. All three wins came at home, and the series was actually a 3-3 tie with the Pac 12! So, even when playing against SWAC teams, it is hard to win on the road!
-Texas Southern had an unspectacular season last year where they finished the regular season 7-11 in SWAC play, and were as low as 8th in the standings…but they won when it counted. After barely making the SWAC Tournament, they won three straight games and earned an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament for the 7th time in the last 9 years. They are this year’s preseason favorite, which makes sense because they have been the flagship program for the past decade, but they are not the team I would personally pick. Still, they do have two starters back, and should get big time minutes from Jaylen Wysinger, who is a transfer from Incarnate Word. Like a lot of teams these days, they look to their transfers to play key roles.
-Grambling finished in a tie for first last year, and I am once again excited about this team. It has been fun watching them go from being one of the worst teams in the SWAC, and for that matter in all of D1, to a conference contender. This is an experienced team that has two key starters back, and is adding some key JUCO transfers as well and I think they will once again be dangerous. They are balanced, have depth, and will likely again finish at or near the top.
-Alcorn State also finished in a tie for first last year, and has some key players returning, including three starters. They appear to be particularly strong and experienced in the backcourt, and also have Jeremiah Kendall returning, who should be one of the better frontcourt players in the entire conference.
-I am a little surprised Jackson State is only picked 4th. They were a modest 12-6 in SWAC play last year, but they were absolutely on fire in the second half of conference play winning 8 out of 9 before losing to Grambling in the semifinals. All five starters are back. They have talent. They have experience. They are dangerous and I think they are good enough to win the league. My pick is still Grambling…but I really like this Jackson State team as well.
-Southern, like a lot of teams, is in a bit of a reboot mode with just one starter returning from last year. They do have some guys back that came off the bench last year and who could end up playing a bigger role this year, and they also add Tai’Reon Joseph, who averaged over 26ppg as a JUCO player a year ago. So, the Jaguars do have some pieces.
-Prairie View is rebuilding from a 13-win season that saw them go 9-9 in SWAC play. All five starters are gone, and they have gone into the transfer portal where they picked up players who appeared to play limited roles at UTR schools last year. I do not think they will be at the bottom of the league, but I do not see them at the top of it either.
-Alabama A&M finished the season fairly respectably last year by winning 5 of their last 7 before losing in the semis of the SWAC Tournament. With three starters back and some decent looking JUCO transfers I think they can finish in the top half of the conference this year.
After that, it appears to be a rather big dip…
-Alabama State won just 7 D1 games last year, and while they have three starters back it could once again be a long season.
-Bethune-Cookman looks a little better to me then where they were picked in the preseason. They did kind of collapse in the month of February, but finished the season by winning three of their last five. Three key players are back, including two double-digit scorers, and I think they can contend to at least finish in the middle of the conference.
-Arkansas Pine Bluff finished 9th last year and looks to be about in that range again this year. They were noticeably better last year than they had been the previous three years, so perhaps that trend will continue and they will finish higher than expected.
-Florida A&M appears to be among the worst ten teams in all of D1.
-Mississippi Valley State has won a total of 13 games in the last four seasons, and once again looks to be among the worst in all of D1.