SOUTHLAND MEDIA DAY PRESEASON POLL:
- McNeese
- Stephen F Austin
- TAMUCC
- Lamar
- UTRGV
- LSU New Orleans
- Houston Christian
- Northwestern State
- SELA
- Nicholls
- Incarnate Word
- East Texas A&M
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COMMENTS FROM DAVID:
-McNeese has been the flagship program in this conference for the last three years and are the preseason favorites to win it again this year. They recruit the portal well and they have adapted to the modern NIL/Portal era as well as any Under the Radar program has. They won 28 games a year ago and it still felt like they should have won more. Larry Johnson is back and he’s good enough to start for most of the current P4 level teams. They did lose some key players and most of the returners saw limited minutes last year, so we may see them take a step back, but this is still an outstanding program.
-Stephen F Austin was actually last year’s 1st place team. Unfortunately they still had to play the championship game on McNeese’s home floor and did not win it. What’s also unfortunate is that none of their starters are back. Narit Chotikavanic was a key player off the bench and MJ Russell put up big numbers for UL Monroe, so they do have a couple of really solid pieces. Head Coach Matt Braeuer had a great debut season last year and this team should be good again this year.
-TAMUCC ended last season with a near upset of SFA in the Southland Semifinals, but with just one starter back there isn’t a whole lot of carry over into this season. Sebastian Robinson was a solid portal pickup from NJIT and Dan Mukuna put up big numbers in D2 last year, so they may have the horses to keep themselves near the top of the standings this year.
-Lamar is in a reset mode after a frustrating 12-19 season a year ago. Jordan Fee takes over as head coach and he has been tasked with rebuilding the roster. Quante Berry was a solid role player at Memphis last year and he’ll be joined by some other guys who were standout players at nonD1 programs, but they don’t appear to have much in the way of solid D1 experience.
-Head Coach Jim Shaw has had a pretty solid run in his three years at UTRGV and is coming off a respectable 18-15 season. Look for them to once again be a good defensive team. They looked to NAIA and JUCO to build their roster and picked up some guys that put up some really impressive numbers. Sebastion Robinson was a big player for NJIT last year and averaged just under 15ppg. I actually like UTRGV to be a bit of a dark horse this year.
-LSU New Orleans has been rebranded. They’ve also been re-rostered as all five starters from last year’s Privateers team are gone. They did invest in NIL last year and seemed to have a talented roster, but they went just 15-18 on the season. This year they have some good pieces as Nick Jones comes over from Wagner where he averaged nearly 15ppg and Kahlil Sington transfers in after being a key player for Canisius. They have some good pieces. The question is can those pieces fit together to actually build something?
-Houston Christian has had more struggles than successes over the years and it looks like that will continue into this year. They’ve added some solid JUCO players, but don’t have anyone that is a proven standout player at the D1 level.
-Northwestern State was just 10-22 last year, and two of those wins were nonD1, but I think we may see some improvement this year. They won’t run with the teams at the top of the league, but they should be able to hold their own with everyone else. Izzy Miles is a player to watch. They’ve also added some solid JUCO talent and Coach Rick Cabrera may be in a position to make some improvements this year.
-SELA is coming off their worst season in a while where they won just 9 total games and finished near the bottom of the league. Things may not be that much better this year. They do have some guys with D1 experience, but we probably won’t see them put up the win totals that they had been prior to last season.
-Darion Brown takes over as Head Coach at Nicholls. The Colonels really took a step back last year winning just 14 games after winning 20 in the previous two years. From a roster standpoint, no one really jumps out as being a prolific scorer, and with so many new players and a new coaching staff it’s just hard to gage just what kind of team they are going to have.
-After a very solid 19 win season two years ago, Incarnate Word struggled last year winning just 12 total games and going 7-15 in SLC play. Head Coach Shane Heirman is having to replace his roster and they just don’t have much in the way of proven D1 experience and production.
-East Texas A&M had a rough year last year where they failed to make the SLC Tournament and are starting over this year after all five starters moved on. The expectations are not high. What’s interesting about them is that they do bring in several international players. Most people, and this absolutely includes myself, aren’t familiar with international players because…yunno…they play in another country and I just don’t get to ever watch them. But they appear to have at least put up good numbers and they may turn out to be better than what most people are anticipating. This team was picked to finish last, but they are at least worth keeping an eye on! I’m more optimistic about them about ETAMU than I am the majority of teams that were voted into the bottom half.
