Lincoln Memorial and Carson-Newman Co-Favorites in Preseason SAC Poll; Preseason All-Conference Announced
ROCK HILL, S.C. (TheSAC.com) – Lincoln Memorial and Carson-Newman were voted as preseason favorites in the SAC Preseason Men's Basketball Coaches Poll as announced by the league today. LMU and C-N each received six first-place votes and had 137 points in the poll.
The Railsplitters are coming off a 24-9 season where they went 16-4 in SAC play and tied for the regular season title. LMU has now won or shared a regular season SAC championship in five consecutive years.
The Eagles went 14-6 in SAC play a season ago and finished fourth but return three All-Conference performers in Nick Brenegan, John Zhao and Jack Browder. Brenegan led all of Division II in 3-pointers made last year and Zhao led the nation in 3-point percentage at 52.5 percent.
Coming in third in the preseason poll is Catawba who earned a share of the regular season championship and went on to win the SAC Tournament. Catawba finished the year with 22 wins and went 10-1 at home and earned one first-place vote.
Wingate was picked to finish fourth and earned 105 points in the preseason poll. The Bulldogs return Kendall Taylor, a Third Team All-Conference selection from a season ago.
Tusculum was voted to finish fifth with 84 points, just four points ahead of Anderson. Coker earned 78 points to slot in at seventh in the poll.
Coming in eighth is Lenoir-Rhyne with 73 points under new head coach Brent Owen. Owen has reshaped the LR roster with 11 newcomers. UVA Wise's 60 points earned them the No. 9 spot in the conference while Newberry came in at 10 with 48 points.
The rest of the poll saw Limestone, Mars Hill and Emory & Henry round out the 13-team selections.
2024-25 SAC Men's Basketball Poll
|
Rank |
School (First Place Votes) |
Score |
|
T1. |
Lincoln Memorial (6) |
137 |
|
T1. |
Carson-Newman (6) |
137 |
|
3. |
Catawba (1) |
125 |
|
4. |
Wingate |
104 |
|
5. |
Tusculum |
84 |
|
6. |
Anderson |
80 |
|
7. |
Coker |
78 |
|
8. |
Lenoir-Rhyne |
73 |
|
9. |
UVA Wise |
60 |
|
10. |
Newberry |
48 |
|
11. |
Limestone |
47 |
|
12. |
Mars Hill |
21 |
|
13. |
Emory & Henry |
19 |
2024-25 SAC Preseason All-Conference
First Team
Nick Brenegan, Carson-Newman
Connor Jordan, Lincoln Memorial
John Zhao, Carson-Newman
Wes Enis, Lincoln Memorial
Jack Browder, Carson-Newman
Bradley Dean, UVA Wise
Second Team
Mahmoud Bangura, Lincoln Memorial
Kendall Taylor, Wingate
Kadyn Dawkins, Mars Hill
Austin Webb, Anderson
Trey Hubbard, Carson-Newman
Bryce Jackson, Tusculum
Players to Watch
Anderson – AJ Wright Jr., Dallas Jones, Cole Middleton
Catawba – Kris Robinson (G, Sr.), Montraivis White (G, So.), O'Mazeon Tinsley (G, Sr.), Justin Banks
Coker – Glen Bynum Jr., Ian Blue, AJ Burch
Emory & Henry – Gabe Brown, Jackson Crawford, Jalen Leftwich
Lenoir-Rhyne – Tay Smith, Hantz Louis-Jeune, Ziare Wells, Conrad Luczynski
Limestone – Isayah Owens, Greg McKay, Ayden Hickman
Mars Hill – Kory Davis, Kendall Davis
Newberry – Drake Downs, Malakhi Stremlow
Tusculum – Akeem Odusipe
UVA Wise – Zy'Ever Wingfield, Patrick Shelley
Wingate – Jordan Miller, Jaden Lingo