Upstate Picked 10th In Preseason A-Sun Polls
10/8/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Oct. 8, 2008
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Spartanburg, S.C. - Armed with a year of experience playing on the NCAA Division I level, the USC Upstate men's basketball team will take to the court knowing it has a bit of work to do to garner the respect it desires as the Spartans were picked to finish 10th in the Atlantic Sun Conference in both the preseason coaches' and media polls, released the A-Sun Wednesday.
Upstate received 24 points in the coaches poll and 77 points in the media poll to finish ahead of North Florida. Belmont, not surprisingly, was picked to win the A-Sun in both polls and was also tabbed as the preseason favorite to win the A-Sun Tournament and earn the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
"I would say that with our inexperience and youth, and with the number of new players we are counting on this year, it is not a surprising pick," said Upstate head coach Eddie Payne. "We have youth in the backcourt and certainly there will be questions when that is the case."
The A-Sun also released its preseason All-Conference Team. East Tennessee State's Courtney Pigram was named the preseason player of the year and was joined on the preseason all-conference team by Stetson's Garfield Blair, Belmont's Shane Dansby, Campbell's Jonathan Rodriguez and Jacksonville's Ben Smith.
Belmont secured the top spot in the coaches' poll with 113 points and seven first-place votes. ETSU and Jacksonville were tied for second with 104 points, though ETSU secured two first-place votes to Jacksonville's one. Lipscomb was the fourth pick with 87 points and was followed by Stetson (76), Mercer (74), Campbell (55), Kennesaw State (38), Florida Gulf Coast (32), Upstate (24) and North Florida (19).
Belmont took the top spot in the media poll with 348 points and 25 first-place votes. Jacksonville was the media's second choice with 316 points and five first-place votes and was followed by ETSU (305), Lipscomb (245), Stetson (240), Mercer (183), Campbell (163), Kennesaw State (145), Florida Gulf Coast (106), Upstate (77) and North Florida (50).
Upstate opens the season with four challenging non-conference games at Georgia, Notre Dame, South Carolina and Duquesne, the latter at home, before hitting the road for a pair of A-Sun games at Kennesaw State and Mercer prior to final exams. Upstate will play five additional non-conference games before North Florida comes to the Hodge Center on Jan. 3 to take on the Spartans in Upstate's A-Sun home opener.
Upstate will play a grueling 20-game A-Sun slate and 10 non-conference contests for its 30-game schedule in 2008-09. In addition to Georgia, Notre Dame, South Carolina and Duquesne to start the season, the Spartans will play non-conference games at Boston College, Saint Louis, Fresno State and Gonzaga, as well as playing Southern and either Liberty or Northern Colorado in Las Vegas. Upstate will play four teams which played in the 2008 NCAA Tournament: Belmont, Georgia, Gonzaga and Notre Dame. The tough non-conference schedule is nothing new to the Spartans. Last year, Upstate's schedule was ranked as the 14th toughest schedule in DI following its final non-conference game at Iowa State on Jan. 2.
Upstate returns seven players from last year's 7-23, 5-11 team that finished in a tie for 10th in the A-Sun. The Spartans won the program's first-ever game over a DI opponent at SMU in December and claimed key A-Sun wins over Campbell, Gardner-Webb, Kennesaw State, Mercer and North Florida. Bobby Davis leads the returning players. The senior forward averaged 9.8 points and a team-high 7.5 rebounds per game.
