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AMERICA EAST MEDIA DAY PRESEASON POLL:
- Vermont
- UMass Lowell
- Bryant
- Maine
- UMBC
- Binghamton
- UAlbany
- NJIT
- New Hampshire
MEDIA DAY PRESEASON ALL-AEAST TEAM:
-Marcus Banks Jr. – SR, G – UMBC
-Shamir Bogues – SR, G – Vermont
-Max Brooks – SR, F – UMass Lowell
-TJ Long – SR, G – Vermont
-Earl Timberlake – SR, G – Bryant
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COMMENTS FROM DAVID:
-Vermont blew through this league a year ago, losing just one conference game during the regular season and then winning the conference tournament to advance to the NCAAs. With four starters back from that team, which won 28 total games, they are the hands-down favorites to win it again, and one cannot help but ask if they’re good enough to do a little more than just win the conference. Shamir Bogues gives them a strong presence in the frontcourt, TJ Long is a solid guard who can hit from the outside, and overall this team is both experienced and balanced.
-UMass Lowell has won 20+ games the last two seasons and once again looks to have a solid lineup. It has been fun to watch this team build themselves up over the years, and they are now among the conference frontrunners. Pat Duquette has done a great job as head coach, and he has three starters back, including Max Brooks/Cam Morris who make up a solid frontcourt, and Quinton Mincey who actually averaged over 14ppg last year coming off the bench. I do not know if they are quite as good as Vermont, but I do think they can be a solid 2nd-place team in the conference and should be better enough than most of the rest of the league to keep pace with them in the standings.
-Phil Martelli Jr. had a good year in his first year as head coach of Bryant with 20 total wins at a 2nd-place finish. This year they are expected to be one of the better teams in the league again. Earl Timberlake returns, who is one of the better guards in the conference. The problem is they do not seem to have much else in the way of experience. I think they will do okay…but I do not see them being as good as the top-two teams.
-I never remember Maine being picked this high! They are actually expected to finish in the top-half of the league! And, if you look at them in recent years, their win total has improved in each of the last three seasons, so they have shown steady improvement. Just two starters return for the Black Bears, but they appear to have a solid backcourt in Kellen Tynes/Jaden Clayton, so they do have some pieces. Can Chris Markwood take this program another rung up the ladder in his third year as head coach?
-UMBC was pretty unremarkable last year, but they did show signs of improvement in the last few weeks of the regular season winning 4 of their final 6 regular season games before losing in overtime in the conference tournament. With three starters back including Marcus Banks (who is one of the better players in the conference), we could see some improvement out of the Retrievers this year.
-Binghamton showed some signs of improvement last year, and they do return a really strong player in Tymu Chenery, but I do not know if they have quite enough to finish in the top-half of the conference standings. If some of the incoming transfers can step up then we could see some more wins from them this year.
-UAlbany has just been down for the last four or five years, and while they did show signs of improvement last year, all signs this year point to them being down again. Amar’e Marshall is a standout player, but for a team that lost 9 of its final 11 games there just does not seem to be a whole lot of forward momentum going into this season.
-NJIT has won just 7 total games in three of the last four years, and finished pretty far outside the top-300 in most of the metrics the last three seasons. This was a program that showed a fair amount of promise not that long ago. but they have seemingly done nothing but lose since. Tariq Francis is a solid guard, but he will need some help from his teammates if they are going to have any success at all this year.
-New Hampshire only returns three scholarship players from a year ago and will have to rely on a lot of players who don’t have a whole lot of D-1 experience this year.