BIG SOUTH MEDIA DAY PRESEASON POLL:
- High Point
- Presbyterian
- Winthrop
- Longwood
- UNC Asheville
- Radford
- Charleston Southern
- USC Upstate
- Gardner Webb
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COMMENTS FROM DAVID:
-High Point is an Under the Radar program that has decided they will spend what they have to on NIL in order to be successful…and it has worked. They won 31 games last year and advanced to the Round of 32 in the NCAA Tournament and will once again have a stacked roster. Second-year coach Flynn Claymon has the tools that he needs to win the league, get back to The Dance, and be positioned to advance beyond the Round of 64. Two key starters are back including Cam’Ron Fletcher, who is a solid frontcourt player and can also hit from beyond the arc. He is clearly a power-conference-level talent. Conrad Martinez returns to run the point and will be part of what looks to be a very solid backcourt. CJ Brown transfers in from South Florida where he averaged double-figures on their NCAA Tournament team last year. And in terms of the depth of talent on their roster, it just goes on. Isaac Garrett was a standout player at Oakland, Filip Brankovic put up big numbers at UTRGV, and Jason Rivera-Torres was a huge player in the post for Monmouth last year. With all due respect to the rest of the league, I do not think that anyone in the Big South will be able to compete with High Point. They may be good enough to land inside the bubble if their schedule can give them the opportunities they need to get the wins they need to impress the committee. They are that good.
-It has been a while since Presbyterian has been picked this high. The program has gotten consistently better under Coach Quinton Ferrell and they may be poised to have as good of a year as they have ever had. Three key starters are back and they have a rather solid rotation consisting of multiple players who were double-digit scorers a year ago.
-Winthrop won a solid 23 games in each of the last two seasons and actually kept pace with High Point in the Big South standings last year. The problem is all five starters from that team are gone and Mark Prosser (who has done a great job with the Eagles) is having to start over. They do bring in some guys who were solid contributors at Under the Radar schools, but they do not appear to have the pieces they had a year ago.
-It is hard to know what to say about Longwood. They have a couple starters back and they appear to have a nice set of guys who have been role players in the past, but no real stars. They were .500 in league play last year and are expected to be in about that range again this year.
-UNC Asheville had a frustrating season last year, but they did actually start to play well down the stretch. They won five of their final eight games before falling in the confernece semis to High Point in a surprisingly close game. Two key starters are back and they have gone into the portal to try and fill out the rest of the roster. Jaylon Johnson comes in from Radford after averaging double-figures and he should be a nice addition. Speaking of Radford…
-Radford had a respectable 9-7 season in Big South play last year, but all five starters are gone and Coach Zach Chu may be in for a long season. They do not have much in the way of proven experience at the D-1 level when it comes to their roster, so it could be a bit of building year.
-Charleston Southern won 15 games last year, which was the best season they have managed in quite some time. Unfortunately, much of that team is gone and they do not seem to have much in the way of proven D-1 talent. They do add a couple of guys that were standout players at the D-2 level, so if they can step up the Buccaneers may be able to do a little better than expected.
-USC Upstate finished 8th last year and is expected to do the same this year. It has just been a tough ride for Marty Richter since taking over as coach two years ago. They do have some guys transferring in who put up impressive numbers at lower-division schools and they will need them to step up in order to be competitive.
-Gardner Webb was awful last year, winning just four games total and one Big South game. Three starters are back, but they do not really seem to be adding anything that makes you believe they will be a whole lot better this year.
