AMERICAN MEDIA DAY PRESEASON COACHES’ POLL:
- Wichita State
- Memphis
- South Florida
- Tulsa
- Charlotte
- UAB
- North Texas
- Florida Atlantic
- Temple
- Tulane
- East Carolina
- Rice
- UTSA
MEDIA DAY PRESEASON ALL-AMERICAN 1ST TEAM:
-Kanaan Carlyle – SR, G – Florida Atlantic
-Jayden Reid – SR, G – Memphis
-Je’Shawn Stevenson – JR, G – North Texas (Preseason Player of the Year)
-Sonny Wilson – SR, G – South Florida
-Will Berg – SR, C – Wichita State
MEDIA DAY PRESEASON ALL-AMERICN 2ND TEAM:
-Justyn Fernandez – SR, G – UAB
-Deuce Jones – JR, G – UAB
-Tylik Weeks – SR, F – Memphis
-Derrian Ford – SR, G – Temple
-Gavin Griffiths – SR, G – Temple
-Dillon Battie – JR, F – Wichita State
-Jordan Frison – SR, G – Wichita State
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COMMENTS FROM DAVID:
-Wichita State’s days of being a team that was regularly in the rankings seems like a while ago, but they may be getting closer and closer to becoming an NCAA Tournament-caliber team. They won 24 games a year ago, which was their best season in a while. Paul Mills enters his fourth year as coach and they are the preseason favorite to win the league this year. Two key starters are back including 7’2″ Will Berg, who is a really strong center. They also have some key bench players returning who can step into bigger roles, and two really solid transfers in Jahari Long and Jordan Frison (who is a really good shooting guard). I like the Shockers this year and think they can both win the league and finish inside the bubble.
-Memphis appeared to have a ton of talent last year, but ended up going just 13-19 in one of their most disappointing seasons in recent memory. Coach Penny Hardaway has some really impressive-looking players transferring in. Jayden Reid, Luke Almodovar, and Brandon Cummings were all double-digit scorers at D-1 programs a season ago. The question is can they play together? We have seen talented Memphis teams before fall short of the sum of their parts.
-South Florida was a great story last year. They were the 1st-place team, won the conference tournament, and nearly upset Louisville in the Round of 64. The problem is all those players are gone. Chris Mack takes over as coach and he has to completely start over. They do have some solid players coming in from the portal, so they are not starting off with a completely empty tool box, but I do think they will struggle this year compared to what they were a year ago.
-Tulsa made it to the NIT finals and actually won 30 total games last year, but like a lot of teams they sort of became a victim of their own success and are now having to rebuild their roster. Eric Konkol is a good coach and has some really solid players coming in, including Kobi Williams from Missouri State and Jeremiah Johnson from Campbell. Mike Williams was also a key player for Seton Hall, so they do have some pieces.
-Wes Miller takes over at Charlotte after leaving Cincinnati. I know he never did as well as people were expecting in his previous job, but I still think he is a good coach. He does have his work cut out for him. Just one starter is back from a team that was .500 a season ago. Jizzle James did follow him from Cincinnati (although it has not gone well so far: www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/49871367/ex-nfl-star-edgerrin-james-son-jizzle-substance-abuse-issue), but they seem to be lacking in proven D-1 experience.
-UAB has won 20+ games every year since 2020-2021, so this is perhaps a bit of an underappreciated program. Having said that, they have only made two NCAA Tournaments in that stretch, and after last year’s 20+ win season all five starters moved on. Deuce Jones is a solid backcourt player who comes in from Saint Joseph’s, and Justyn Fernandez from Delaware is a solid shooter who can hit from the outside. Elijah Duval averaged over 15ppg for Southern Utah last year, and TJ Caldwell was a solid player for Arkansas State, so UAB once again has good pieces. Coach Andy Kennedy has shown he can get his guys to play together. I think UAB, despite all the turnover, will once again be good and exceed their preseason expectations.
-North Texas is another team that is not getting a lot of preseason love that I think could really be good this year. They were a meh 19-14 a season ago, but they did play well in the final few weeks of the season. With three starters back including Je’Shawn Stevenson, who may be one of the better players in the conference, I think North Texas could end up having a really big year.
-John Jakus enters his 3rd season as the coach of Florida Atlantic and they have not exactly matched the success the program had under a coach you may have heard of named Dusty May. They did have to contend with injuries last year and with the return of a couple of key players, including Kanaan Carlyle and Devin Vanterpool, FAU could take a big step forward this year. They also had some really solid portal pickups, including Jelani Hamilton from Georgia State and Braeden Speed from Loyola MD. It is hard to not like their roster, and it is also hard to understand why they are picked to finish as low as they are.
-Can Temple get things turned around? They have won 16 games in three of the last four seasons, with the one exception being two years ago when they won 17, so I guess they have been consistent. Just one starter is back and while they did get some guys with decent D-1 experience in the portal, I do not see them doing much better than what we have seen during the last several years.
-I say it every year because it is true: I love Tulane’s coach. Having said that, Ron Hunter has struggled to get it going there, largely because of the constant roster turnover. Teams lose players once they are able to develop them and cannot afford to pay players that are already developed. So, here we go again. Tulane has just one starter back and while they did get some decent pickups in the portal, particularly Krystian Lewis from UL Monroe and TJ Nadeau from Detroit Mercy (who is a very good outside shooter), they may do a little better than expected, but I cannot see them competing for the top of the league.
-East Carolina won just 11 games last year and lost all five of their starters. Coach Michael Schwartz’s club is expected to have another rough year this year. Brycen Blaine put up fantastic numbers at Charleston Southern last year and was a solid pickup for ECU, and they did get a couple of others who put up solid numbers at D-1 programs last year, so maybe we will see some improvement.
-Rice is just seemingly never good. And that will likely not change this year. Two starters are back and their roster appears to have some solid role players on it, but the Owls will likely struggle again.
-UTSA was an absolute trainwreck last year while winning just one conference game. Austin Claunch enters his third year as coach, and while they may not be quite as bad as they were a year ago, I do not see them finishing much higher than…well…last.
