Wahoo's Comprehensive Preseason CBB Preview: Part 3

[Wahoo]

We will cover the following conferences in this part:

• Big Sky
• Big South
• Big West
• Conference USA
• Colonial
• Horizon
• Ivy League
• Independents
• MAAC

 

Read Part 2 here: 

 

Big Sky

Eastern Washington and Portland State will compete for the top spot in the Big Sky. Portland State has the only C rated player in the conference, but Eastern Washington has more depth. 

 

Conference Rank	National Rank	Team
1	189	Eastern Washington
2	190	Portland State
3	227	Idaho State
4	236	Idaho
5	259	Montana State
6	271	Montana
7	296	Northern Arizona
8	319	Sacramento State
9	333	Northern Colorado
10	343	Weber State

 

First Team All-Conference

SF Conrad Corder	Sr	Portland State
SF Anthony Joseph	Sr	Montana State
PG James Coleman	Sr	Northern Arizona
SG Michael Watkins	Jr	Montana
C Jason Abramova	Sr	Idaho

 

Second Team All-Conference

PG Leroy Williams	Jr	Eastern Washington
C Christopher Brown	So	Portland State
C Thomas Blood	Jr	Northern Colorado
SF Patrick Brady	So	Eastern Washington
PF Marcos Braham	Sr	Idaho State

 

Top Freshman

SF Scott Lin

Fr

Idaho

 

Big South

UNC Asheville looks to be a slight step above the rest of the Big South. Presbyterian has the only C rated player in the conference, but terrible depth. These teams will just be trying to avoid a 16-seed.

 

Conference Rank	National Rank	Team
1	187	UNC Asheville
2	203	South Carolina Upstate
3	212	Charleston Southern
4	224	High Point
5	249	Winthrop
6	275	Gardner-Webb
7	278	Presbyterian
8	326	Radford
9	335	Longwood

 

First Team All-Conference

SF Brian Long	Sr	UNC Asheville
PG Michael Saunders	Jr	South Carolina Upstate
PG Michael Crouch	Sr	Presbyterian
C Peter Simpson	Sr	High Point
PF Mark Sullivan	Jr	South Carolina Upstate

 

Second Team All-Conference

SG Duane Felder	Jr	Winthrop
PF James Geistfeld	Sr	High Point
PG Lawrence Niemczyk	Sr	Gardner-Webb
C Jose Jeon	Sr	Gardner-Webb
PG Andrew Brouillard	Jr	Radford

 

Top Freshman

PG William Vanderveer

Fr

UNC Asheville

 

Big West

UC Irvine has garnered a Top 10 preseason ranking and will only be competing against Hawaii for the conference title. UC Irvine has scheduled aggressively, with games against Wisconsin, Western Michigan, and UMBC. Sr. C Henry Gonzales is also a Wooden Award candidate for the Anteaters.

 

Conference Rank	National Rank	Team
1	9	UC Irvine
2	140	Hawaii
3	243	Cal Poly
4	263	Long Beach State
5	269	UC Riverside
6	280	UC Santa Barbara
7	287	Cal State Bakersfield
8	293	Cal State Fullerton
9	299	UC San Diego
10	305	UC Davis
11	330	Cal State Northridge

 

First Team All-Conference

C Henry Gonzales	Sr	UC Irvine
PG Michael Phillips	Sr	Hawaii
PF Jerry Bell	Sr	UC Irvine
C Richard Milbourne	(So)	UC Irvine
PG James Taylor	Jr	UC Irvine

 

Second Team All-Conference

PF Jesus Rodriguez	Jr	Hawaii
PF Eugene Courtney	Sr	Hawaii
PF Russell Lee	(Sr)	UC Irvine
PF Joseph Oconnell	Fr	Hawaii
SG Albert Pickens	Fr	Hawaii

 

Top Freshman

PF Joseph Oconnell

Fr

Hawaii

 

Conference USA

Liberty is our pick in Conference USA, and should be an at-large tournament selection even if they don’t win the conference tournament. Louisiana Tech also has some talented pieces returning from last year’s cinderella story, while UTEP has preseason Conference USA player of the year Sr. PF Felipe Raymond. However, unless someone upends Liberty in the conference tournament, C-USA is projecting as a one-bid league. 

 

Conference Rank	National Rank	Team
1	36	Liberty
2	72	UTEP
3	78	Louisiana Tech
4	111	FIU
5	129	New Mexico State
6	139	Western Kentucky
7	156	Middle Tennessee
8	196	Jacksonville State
9	217	Kennesaw State
10	321	Sam Houston State

 

First Team All-Conference

PF Felipe Raymond	Sr	UTEP
PF Kevin Berglund	Sr	Louisiana Tech
PF Douglas Strom	Sr	Liberty
SG Warren Jones	Jr	Louisiana Tech
PF Wayne Johnson	Jr	FIU

 

Second Team All-Conference

C Keith Mcrae	Jr	Liberty
C Jeremy Ryan	Sr	New Mexico State
PF Curtis Kovacic	Jr	FIU
PF Christopher Davis	Jr	UTEP
SG William Smith	So	Liberty

 

Top Freshman

SG Brandon Desai

Fr

Middle Tennessee

 

Colonial

It will be tight at the top of this conference, with Monmouth our pick to edge out the competition. Don’t expect a very high seed from the Colonial champion, though.

 

Conference Rank	National Rank	Team
1	192	Monmouth
2	201	Northeastern
3	208	Campbell
4	209	William & Mary
5	221	Drexel
6	268	Towson
7	277	Hofstra
8	295	Charleston
9	301	Delaware
10	308	UNC Wilmington
11	314	North Carolina A&T
12	322	Hampton
13	356	Stony Brook
14	362	Elon

 

First Team All-Conference

PF Ronald Mcdaniel	Jr	Hampton
SG Liem Chang	Jr	Monmouth
C George Lira	Jr	Charleston
SG Thomas Ferucci	So	William & Mary
C Dennis Rutan	Jr	Campbell

 

Second Team All-Conference

C Gary Butt	Fr	Hofstra
C Harold Mahaney	Jr	Hofstra
SF Perry Allen	Sr	Drexel
PF Arlyn Chua	Jr	Northeastern
SF Joseph Christmas	Sr	Campbell

 

Top Freshman

C Gary Butt

Fr

Hofstra

 

Horizon

Wright State and Oakland are a step above the rest in the Horizon. The Horizon League actually has more talent than most of the other bottom leagues with two C-rated players. One of them is on Wright State’s roster, making them our pick to advance to the tournament.

 

Conference Rank	National Rank	Team
1	180	Wright State
2	195	Oakland
3	220	UW Milwaukee
4	286	Cleveland State
5	289	Northern Kentucky
6	297	Purdue-Fort Wayne
7	302	UW Green Bay
8	306	Robert Morris
9	310	Detroit Mercy
10	346	IUPUI
11	349	Youngstown State

 

First Team All-Conference

C Xuan Pangelinan	Sr	Wright State
C Kenneth Jones	Jr	Oakland
PG Daniel Cox	Sr	Robert Morris
SG Ralph Sharpe	So	Oakland
SG Jessie Taliaferro	Jr	UW Green Bay

 

Second Team All-Conference

PG Robert Whelton	So	Wright State
SF Douglas Lussier	So	UW Milwaukee
SG Michael Griffith	Sr	Wright State
PF Milton Paul	Sr	Detroit Mercy
SF Gilbert Pagan	Sr	Northern Kentucky

 

Top Freshman

SF Albert Davis

Fr

Purdue-Fort Wayne

 

Ivy League

The Ivy League is the only conference to not have a team ranked in the top 200. They also have 0 players in the whole conference rated C or above. Dartmouth and Yale are the only teams that could start a whole lineup of Ds, making them the favorites to win this prestigious conference.

 

Conference Rank	National Rank	Team
1	206	Dartmouth
2	255	Yale
3	267	Cornell
4	274	Brown
5	282	Harvard
6	312	Columbia
7	316	Princeton
8	338	Penn

 

First Team All-Conference

PF Erik Bishoff	Sr	Yale
C Jack Cavinee	Jr	Brown
SF Charles Racer	Jr	Dartmouth
C Quentin Kumar	So	Dartmouth
PF Michael Barber	Jr	Dartmouth

 

Second Team All-Conference

C Anil Spruce	Jr	Penn
PF Rodney Biggs	Sr	Harvard
C Kevin Lamour	Jr	Cornell
SF Robert Tobias	Jr	Cornell
SG Edward Savage	Sr	Dartmouth

 

Top Freshman

PG Ryan Little

Fr

Princeton

 

Independents

Well, Hartford isn’t playing this season, but this is where they would have been ranked. Let’s not discuss the disaster that is Chicago State (1 D overall, everyone else F).

 

Conference Rank	National Rank	Team
	185	Hartford
	309	Chicago State

 

MAAC

Fairfield boasts one of the 3 C-rated players in the MAAC. With better backup support, they take the top ranking here.

 

Conference Rank	National Rank	Team
1	193	Fairfield
2	210	Mount St. Mary’s
3	242	Marist
4	246	Saint Peter’s
5	279	Rider
6	288	Siena
7	304	Niagara
8	341	Manhattan
9	344	Quinnipiac
10	351	Iona
11	361	Canisius

 

First Team All-Conference

PF Jeffery Helms	Sr	Fairfield
SF Austin Siegel	Jr	Mount St. Mary’s
C John Birdsall	Sr	Marist
C Julio Prieto	Jr	Rider
SG Herb Bennett	Sr	Saint Peter’s

 

Second Team All-Conference

C Ernesto Dando	Jr	Siena
PG Quentin Garcia	Sr	Marist
C James Gaines	Jr	Saint Peter’s
PF Ivan Deollos	Jr	Saint Peter’s
SG James Davison	Sr	Mount St. Mary’s

 

Top Freshman

PG Gary Gould

Fr

Fairfield