MT’s men’s basketball team was picked to finish third in the Sun Belt Conference East division in the preseason poll released Tuesday during Sun Belt Media Days.
Western Kentucky’s 12 first place votes placed them as the favorite to win the East division, followed by Troy, who received one first place vote. South Alabama, Florida Atlantic, and Florida International rounded out the East division, respectively.
North Texas was picked to win the West division, followed by Denver, Louisiana, Arkansas-Little Rock, Louisiana-Monroe, Arkansas State and New Orleans, respectively.
“I think the four teams who were picked highest in the league are those with the most players back,” MT head coach Kermit Davis said. “Western Kentucky has five of their top six, Troy has six of their top seven, North Texas has everyone back and Denver has 80 to 90 percent of their scoring back.”
Also announced was the preseason all-Sun Belt teams. MT’s Desmond Yates has been named a first team member for the second year in a row.
Yates finished the year First Team all-conference with a year that saw him enter the 1,000 point club, grab 145 rebounds, 13 blocks and 20 steals.
“I don’t think it surprised anyone that Boogie was selected preseason first team,” Davis said. “It is a really good first, second and third team and I’m sure we have some guys that have chances to make all-conference teams just like a ton of other players in our league do.”
Majority of the year, Yates was playing out of position because of a season-ending injury to Theron Hudson.
The head coaches from each conference team vote for both the preseason poll and all-SBC teams.
The other major announcement that took place during media days is the inclusion of two MT road games in the Sun Belt Television package, including a rivalry game that will take the national stage. MT’s game against Western Kentucky in Bowling Green on Jan. 23 will be broadcast live on ESPN2 at noon while the Blue Raiders’ game against South Alabama on Feb. 6 will be aired on CSS at 1 p.m.
MT’s game against Tennessee will be aired on CSS at 6 p.m. on Dec. 11. That game will take place at the Sommet Centre in Nashville as a part of the second Sun Belt Classic, co-hosted with Western Kentucky. The Hilltoppers will face off against Vanderbilt that same night.
It has not been announced if MTTV will be carrying any games this season.
MT will face off against North Alabama on Nov. 9 at 8 p.m. at the Murphy Center. It will be the only exhibition game for the Blue Raiders before they open the season against King College on Nov. 13. The Blue Raiders’ season opener will start at 7 p.m.
Men favored third for SBC
Published: Thursday, October 29, 2009
Updated: Thursday, October 29, 2009
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