SUWANEE, Ga. - In perhaps one of the closest
preseason polls in recent Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference
history, DePauw University and Trinity University were tabbed as
preseason favorites to capture the SCAC Eastern Division and
Western Division championships respectively.
The DePauw Tigers barely squeeked by Centre College and Trinity for
the top spot. In the annual preseason vote by the league's head
coaches, DePauw garnered 4 of 10 first-place votes and received 88
points to headline the poll.
In this year's preseason poll the top three teams were seperated by
a mere three total points. Compare that to last year where the top
three were seperated by a five point total and it is clear to see
that the 2008-09 SCAC championship is up for grabs.
Leading DePauw is D3hoops.com
all-region point guard Mike Moore who ranks third in DePauw career
assists and is just 21 points shy of 1,000 in his career. Moore, a
first team all-Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference selection,
led the Tigers in scoring last year with 17.3 per contest and
dished out 5.3 assists per outing.
D3hoops.com preseason #13 Centre finished in
second place with 87 points and three-first place votes. The
Colonels, of head coach Greg Mason, look to build upon a school
record season which saw them finish 26-3 and champions of the
Eastern Division. Returning for the Colonels are senior wing T.C.
Thomason and junior forward Danny Noll. Thomason, a two-year
starter and Third-Team All-SCAC selection last season, is the
leading returning scorer and rebounder at 12.7 points and 5.4
rebounds per game.
Trinity follows closely behind in the third spot after tallying 86 points and two first-place votes. The Tigers easily distanced themselves as the favorite to win the Western Division as they finished 24 points ahead of Hendrix. Head coach Pat Cunningham welcomes back six seniors, including forward Charles Houston, las season's SCAC Defensive Player of the Year.
Hendrix finds itself in the fourth slot in this year's preseason poll. Hendrix accumulated 62 points just ahead of Oglethorpe University which tallied 59 points. The Warriors will be led once again by back-to-back All-SCAC First Team and 2008 All-SCAC Tournament Team member senior forward Andrew King. King led the SCAC in scoring (18.6/game) and rebounding (10.8/game) in 2007-08 and was just the third player in SCAC history to lead the league in scoring and rebounding.
Oglethorpe lost three senior starters in Second Team All-Conference post Ahmad Kareem Shaheed, Craig Jackson, and Nick Watterson but do return five players that saw significant playing time, including last season's SCAC Newcomer of the Year, forward Todd Ward returns for his first full-year in a Stormy Petrel uniform.
Millsaps, which was one win from
the Final Four last year, checks in at sixth in the poll with 55
points followed by: Rhodes College (53 points and one first-place
vote), Austin College (52 points), Southwestern University (30
points), Sewanee-The University of the South (20 points) and
Colorado with 13 points.
The Majors are without two, four-year starters in Lorenzo
Bailey and Rodney Rogan, a three-year starter in All-American
Edrick Montgomery and frequent starters Allen Odum (80 games - 43
starts) and Deonte Oscar (87 games - 35 starts), Millsaps is
without 65 percent of its scoring from a year ago and close to 61
percent of its rebounding from a school record 28-4 squad. Head
coach Tim Wise will look to will look to two returning senior
starters in Chris Sanders and Chad Songy and will rely on several
key role players to help guide the Majors this season.
Rhodes returns 13 letterman including starters including two time All-SCAC performer, Cory Smith, and junior Reid Hamilton. Senior veterans Jeff Blumenthal and Dean Shroyer will both be key contributors as well. Other Lynx players that will look for positive playing time are juniors Andyshea Saberioon, Andrew Sillyman and Chris Eberle. Saberioon will provide a solid point guard, Sillyman is a long, athletic shooter and Eberle a athletic combo guard for the Lynx.
Leading the way for head coach Rodney Wecker' Austin College squad will be the talented inside-outside duo of Kola Alade and Chris Sturtevant, who last season proved to be one of the best one-two punches in the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference. Alade earned Third Team All-SCAC honors after finishing third in the league in scoring with an 18.2 points-per-game average, and Sturtevant chipped in 14.2 points and a team-best 6.5 rebounds-per-game.
Southwestern has seven juniors and seniors who have logged a lot of quality minutes over the last couple of seasons.Led by junior backcourt mates, AC Cox and Zach Bergstrom, the Pirates will look to be more of an aggressive and attacking offense in 2008-09. The front court anchored by Andrew McDonald and Ross Hayes will look to help the Pirates become much more balanced and consistent this season. Travis Barber, Micah Salinas and Ben Sanders have been solid performers throughout their careers and all are looking to take it to the next level.
Sewanee will have a new look in 2008-09 as new head coach Bubba Smith begins his first season on the Mountain. The Tigers look to improve on its fourth-place division finish and will rely on five seniors: Ben Pursell, Bradley Pierson, Casey Berry, Kenton Coleman, and Eric Schneider. These veterans are hungry for success. Pursell enters the season just 127 points shy of 1,000 career points.
Colorado College is moving forward after a disappointing 2007-08 season. The cornerstones of this year's Tigers squad will be the four returning starters - senior guards Lance Jacobs and Nate Brodman, sophomore guard Nick Rose and sophomore forward Brady Ohlsen. Not only did they account for 65 percent of CC's scoring last season, they each have at least one year in head coach Andy Partee's motion offense.
For the entire 2008-09 SCAC men's basketball prospectus click here.
| 2008-09 SCAC Men's Basketball Predicted Order of Finish | |||
| Eastern Division | No. of Votes | 2007-08 Division | 2007-08 Overall |
| 1. DePauw University | 88 (4) | 10-4 | 19-7 |
| 2. Centre College | 87 (3) | 14-0 | 26-3 |
| 3. Oglethorpe University | 59 | 10-4 | 16-10 |
| 4. Rhodes College | 53 | 5-9 | 11-15 |
| 5. Sewanee-Univ. of the South | 20 | 1-13 | 7-18 |
| Western Division | No. of Votes | 2007-08 Division | 2007-08 Overall |
| 1. Trinity University | 86 (2) | 9-6 | 18-9 |
| 2. Hendrix College | 62 | 6-9 | 14-12 |
| 3. Millsaps College | 55 | 13-2 | 28-4 |
| 4. Austin College | 52 | 6-9 | 9-17 |
| 5. Southwestern University | 30 | 6-9 | 11-14 |
| 6. Colorado College | 13 | 0-15 | 0-24 |
Note: First-place votes (in parentheses) are worth 10 points, second place worth nine points, on down to 10th-place votes being worth one point. Coaches voted for order of finish 1-10, but did not rank their own team. Results are displayed by division breakdown.
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