LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. - In exclusive balloting by SCAC men's head basketball coaches, Centenary College was selected as the preseason favorite to capture the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference title in 2015-16.
The Gents received six of eight first-place votes to tally 48 points and head the league's annual preseason poll.
Head coach Adam Walsh led Centenary to its first conference title in 25 years last season, earning a share of the SCAC regular season championship. The Gents, who have finished as runners-up in the last two conference postseason tournaments, return six players who played signficant minutes in last year's title game including the reigning SCAC Player-of-the-Year, James Sapp, and SCAC Co-Newcomer-of-the-Year, Travion Kirkendoll.
Defending SCAC tournament champion Texas Lutheran University picked up the remaining two first place votes and is the coaches' second choice with 43 points. After being selected to finish fifth in the preseason poll, the Bulldogs were the top seed at last year's tournament and shared the regular season crown with Centenary.
Colorado College with 31 points and Trinity University with 30 points, are predicted to finish third and fourth, respectively.
Rounding out the rest of the poll is Southwestern University in fifth place (27 points), Schreiner University in sixth (22 points), the University of Dallas in seventh (14 points) and Austin College was selected eighth (9 points).
Poll results were tabulated by awarding seven points for a first-place vote, six points for a second-place vote, on down to one point for a seventh-place vote. Coaches voted for order of finish 1-7, but did not rank their own team.
To view the 2015-16 SCAC Men's Basketball Media Guide (84 pages), which contains extensive team-by-team previews for the upcoming season, click here.