Wahoo's Comprehensive Preseason CBB Preview: Part 5

[Wahoo]

We will cover the following conferences in this part:

• SEC
• SWAC
• Southern
• Southland
• Summit League
• Sun Belt
• WAC
• West Coast

Read Part 4 here: 

 

SEC

There is no national title contender in the SEC, but there should be a bevy of tournament caliber teams. Missouri is the only team to break into our Top 25, and they have enough depth to set them apart from the rest of the conference. We project the SEC to get the third-most tournament bids at 5. Keep your eye on Sr. PF Aziz Chea whose defensive abilities earned him a spot on the preseason All-American third-team.

 

Conference Rank	National Rank	Team
1	21	Missouri
2	37	Ole Miss
3	39	Mississippi State
4	40	Kentucky
5	41	South Carolina
6	80	Texas A&M
7	87	Georgia
8	106	Arkansas
9	114	Alabama
10	120	LSU
11	122	Florida
12	160	Vanderbilt
13	169	Auburn
14	171	Tennessee

 

First Team All-Conference

PF Aziz Chea	Sr	South Carolina
C Barry Avdic	Sr	Mississippi State
PG Jonathan Mikols	Sr	Ole Miss
PG Jeffrey Williams	Sr	Ole Miss
SF Phong Moy	Sr	Arkansas

 

Second Team All-Conference

PF Gerard Chaisson	Sr	Kentucky
C Brent Wilson	Jr	South Carolina
C Ralph Cox	Sr	Georgia
SG Matthew Gullett	Jr	LSU
SF Brian Benton	Sr	Missouri

 

Top Freshman

PG Clemente Culp

Fr

Kentucky

 

SWAC

Four teams will make this a very tight race at the top. We’ll take Prairie View A&M in a toss-up of D-rated competition.

 

Conference Rank	National Rank	Team
1	183	Prairie View A&M
2	186	Jackson State
3	188	Alabama State
4	202	Alabama A&M
5	241	Texas Southern
6	256	Bethune-Cookman
7	324	Southern
8	327	Arkansas-Pine Bluff
9	328	Florida A&M
10	332	Grambling
11	339	Mississippi Valley State
12	360	Alcorn State

 

First Team All-Conference

SF Percy Priebe	Jr	Alabama State
PG James Obrien	Jr	Jackson State
PF Kenneth Williams	Sr	Alabama A&M
C Guy Thomas	Jr	Prairie View A&M
SG Michael Bourdon	Sr	Alabama State

 

Second Team All-Conference

PF John Harris	Sr	Jackson State
SF Victor Trujillo	Sr	Jackson State
C Jeff Hashemi	So	Texas Southern
PG Roy Fisher	Sr	Prairie View A&M
PF Larry Harold	Fr	Florida A&M

 

Top Freshman

PF Larry Harold

Fr

Florida A&M

 

Southern

Western Carolina’s depth keeps them above the rest. The winner of this conference could stay above the very bottom seed lines.

 

Conference Rank	National Rank	Team
1	177	Western Carolina
2	205	The Citadel
3	226	Samford
4	244	Wofford
5	254	Mercer
6	281	UNC Greensboro
7	318	VMI
8	323	East Tennessee State
9	336	Furman
10	354	Chattanooga

 

First Team All-Conference

PF Devon Anderson	Sr	Mercer
C Clayton Sobolak	Sr	Wofford
SG Robert Workman	Fr	Western Carolina
SG Cedric Smith	Sr	Samford
SG Anthony Yearwood	Sr	East Tennessee State

 

Second Team All-Conference

SF Lonny Bartley	Jr	The Citadel
SG Larry Mcdermott	Fr	UNC Greensboro
PF Ronald Huguet	Jr	Western Carolina
SF Nathan Young	Sr	Wofford
PG Michael Hurst	Jr	Western Carolina

 

Top Freshman

SG Robert Workman

Fr

Western Carolina

 

Southland

Texas A&M-Corpus Christi projects to be one of the best teams of the bottom conferences. Their roster’s overall doesn’t shout this out, but hey have some pieces that can shoot.

 

Conference Rank	National Rank	Team
1	175	Texas A&M-Corpus Christi
2	230	Incarnate Word
3	232	Texas A&M-Commerce
4	238	SE Louisiana
5	260	Northwestern State
6	307	Lamar
7	325	McNeese
8	334	Houston Christian
9	350	Nicholls
10	363	New Orleans

 

First Team All-Conference

SG Juan Deanda	Sr	Texas A&M-Corpus Christi
C Michael Duray	Sr	McNeese
PG Eric Coleman	Jr	SE Louisiana
C Tony Garcia	Jr	Texas A&M-Corpus Christi
SF Reynaldo Castillo	Sr	Texas A&M-Commerce

 

Second Team All-Conference

PG David Iskandar	Jr	Incarnate Word
PG Luis Waterman	Sr	Northwestern State
PG Christopher Jennings	Jr	Houston Christian
C Herminio Zhou	Fr	Incarnate Word
PG David West	Jr	Texas A&M-Corpus Christi

 

Top Freshman

C Herminio Zhou

Fr

Incarnate Word

 

Summit League

South Dakota State will win this conference, but will they do it in a convincing enough performance to boost their seed? The Summit League actually has decent competition compared to many of the other weaker conferences, and SDSU can’t afford many slip-ups after facing multiple Top 25 teams in OOC play.

 

Conference Rank	National Rank	Team
1	84	South Dakota State
2	167	Omaha
3	174	South Dakota
4	179	North Dakota
5	197	Western Illinois
6	198	North Dakota State
7	235	St. Thomas (MN)
8	247	Denver
9	331	Oral Roberts
10	345	Kansas City

 

First Team All-Conference

C Allen Keller	(So)	South Dakota State
PG Tyler Clarke	So	South Dakota State
PF Jeffrey Smith	Sr	South Dakota State
PF Darren Douglas	Sr	Omaha
PG Delbert Caldwell	So	South Dakota State

 

Second Team All-Conference

SF Ruben Goodman	Jr	Omaha
PF Gregory Evans	(Sr)	South Dakota State
SF Robin Wood	Fr	Omaha
PF Benjamin Mar	Fr	South Dakota
SG Glenn Dinh	Jr	South Dakota State

 

Top Freshman

SF Robin Wood

Fr

Omaha

 

Sun Belt

Two Top 25 teams raise the Sun Belt’s profile this year. South Alabama and Southern Miss should be competitive nationally. Marshall’s Sr. PG Yin Nguyen is our pick for conference POY and will try to lead the Thundering Herd to the tournament. Marshall projects as our final at-large bid.

 

Conference Rank	National Rank	Team
1	8	South Alabama
2	16	Southern Miss
3	50	Marshall
4	62	Louisiana-Monroe
5	64	Troy
6	68	Georgia Southern
7	73	Appalachian State
8	74	Old Dominion
9	79	Arkansas State
10	94	Texas State
11	100	Coastal Carolina
12	115	Georgia State
13	128	James Madison
14	157	Louisiana

 

First Team All-Conference

SG Yin Nguyen	Sr	Marshall
PF John Ott	Sr	Coastal Carolina
PF Randall Bingenheimer	Sr	Georgia Southern
C Ernesto Peralta	Jr	Louisiana-Monroe
C Daniel Sanchez	Sr	Coastal Carolina

 

Second Team All-Conference

C Scott Haygood	Jr	Arkansas State
C Timothy Franke	Sr	Old Dominion
PG Daniel Capman	Sr	Louisiana
PG Richard Nave	Jr	Texas State
SG Doan Lam	Jr	Marshall

 

Top Freshman

PF Giovanni Giorgio

Fr

South Alabama

 

WAC

Seattle is good enough to garner an at-large bid if anything goes awry in the WAC conference tournament. That being said, they will need to avoid mistakes in conference play to assure their postseason position. We project them as a double-digit seed.

 

Conference Rank	National Rank	Team
1	42	Seattle
2	178	Stephen F. Austin
3	191	UT Rio Grande Valley
4	213	Tarleton State
5	233	Grand Canyon
6	234	Southern Utah
7	252	Utah Tech
8	257	California Baptist
9	262	Abilene Christian
10	266	Utah Valley
11	311	UT Arlington

 

First Team All-Conference

PG Avery Quinones	Sr	Seattle
SF Andy Le	Fr	Seattle
C Po Diana	So	Seattle
PG Fausto Krause	Jr	Seattle
PG Mckinley Napier	Sr	Seattle

 

Second Team All-Conference

PG Paul Nieman	Fr	Seattle
C Arden Lyman	Jr	Seattle
C Greg Chin	So	Seattle
SG Scott Shelton	Sr	Stephen F. Austin
PG Marcelino Medeiros	Jr	Seattle

 

Top Freshman

SF Andy Le

Fr

Seattle

 

West Coast

The Dons look scary. A nation-leading FOUR A-rated players could start on this roster. The rest of the conference only has bubble teams to put against this San Fran lineup. We likely won’t see San Francisco tested until they travel to San Diego in Week 8. This is a strong conference top to bottom, and it is surprising to see a typically-strong Saint Mary’s roster at the bottom. But the fact of the matter is that every team except for Saint Mary’s has 4 or more B+ rated players. Saint Mary’s will need to make the most of their few playmakers to stay competitive.

 

Conference Rank	National Rank	Team
1	3	San Francisco
2	49	Gonzaga
3	52	San Diego
4	60	Santa Clara
5	81	Portland
6	105	Pepperdine
7	125	Loyola Marymount
8	142	Pacific
9	164	Saint Mary’s

 

First Team All-Conference

PF Jeffrey Nocito	Jr	San Francisco
C Gregory Gatza	Sr	Gonzaga
C Christopher Engerman	Sr	San Francisco
C Anthony Hubbard	Jr	Pepperdine
SF Fred Vazquez	Sr	Pepperdine

 

Second Team All-Conference

SF Harley Harden	Jr	Portland
PG Mack Flowers	Sr	San Diego
PG Michael Speed	So	Saint Mary’s
C Erik Jacobs	So	Portland
PF Sriram Bhuiyan	Sr	San Francisco

 

Top Freshman

PF Otis Hale

Fr

Gonzaga