HOUSTON – The ACU men's basketball team – which beat eventual regular season and tournament champion New Orleans, traditional powerhouse Stephen F. Austin and last year's pre-season favorite Sam Houston State last year – was picked a surprising seventh in the 2017-18 men's basketball pre-season poll, which was released Monday at the league's Media Day event at the Toyota Center in downtown Houston.
The Wildcats return five starters from a team that finished 13-16 overall and 7-11 in the league last year, but has the last two Freshman of the Year in the league returning in
Jaylen Franklin (2015-16) and
Jalone Friday (2016-17), as well as junior forward
Jaren Lewis, seniors
Drake Green and
Isaiah Tripp, juniors
Hayden Howell and
Hayden Farquhar, sophomores Peyton Ricks,
B.J. Maxwell and
Trey Lenox, and redshirt freshman post
Kolton Kohl. ACU also added graduate transfer
Tevin Foster to the lineup at point guard.
Both Franklin and Friday are second team pre-season all-conference selections as announced last week.
ACU has completed its four-year transition from NCAA Division II status to full NCAA Division I affiliation and is now eligible for both the conference and NCAA post-season tournaments. A seventh-place finish would ensure the Wildcats a spot in the conference tournament in Katy in early March, but sights are set much higher than that going into the season.
"Our talent level has improved each of the last three years and we believe we're at a place where we can compete with the upper-echelon teams in the league," said seventh-year head coach
Joe Golding. "| don't worry about pre-season polls or where we're picked; I only worry about what we can control. I saw the poll earlier (Monday) morning and thought about it for about five seconds and moved on to thinking about practice later (Monday)."
Stephen F. Austin was tabbed to win the men's regular season championship, according to the preseason poll voted on by the league's head coaches and sports information directors. The Lumberjacks garnered 14 first-place votes and 268 points, beating out Lamar by 34 points, to take the top slot in the 13-team league.
The Cardinals received the second-most first-place votes with five. Four other teams also received first-place votes: Southeastern Louisiana (3), Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (2), Sam Houston State (1) and New Orleans (1).
Last season, SFA finished tied for second in the regular-season standings and entered the Southland tournament as the No. 4 seed, losing in the semifinal round 77-69 to eventual champion New Orleans. It was the first time in four years the 'Jacks had not qualified for the NCAA Tournament.
They return eight letterwinners, including Preseason All-Conference First Team selection T.J. Holyfield. The junior forward from Albuquerque, N.M., led his team in scoring (11.7 points per game), rebounding (7.2 rebounds per game) and blocked shots (39).
LU will look to senior forward Colton Weisbrod to lead the team following a season that saw the Cardinals finish tied for fifth in conference standings. The Preseason First-Team All-Conference member ranked in the top six for scoring (16.7) and rebounding (7.7) in league games last season.
The Lions edged the Islanders by five points for the third-place slot. The Bearkats earned 192 points to place fifth and the defending-Southland champion Privateers are picked to finish sixth. ACU is seventh in the poll, followed by Northwestern State in eighth, Houston Baptist in ninth, Nicholls in 10th, Central Arkansas in 11th, Incarnate Word in 12th and McNeese in 13th.
2017-18 Men's Basketball Pre-Season Poll
voted on by league head coaches and sports information directors
| Team (1st-Place Votes) |
Total Points |
| 1. Stephen F. Austin (14) |
268 |
| 2. Lamar (5) |
234 |
| 3. Southeastern Louisiana (3) |
209 |
| 4. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (2) |
204 |
| 5. Sam Houston State (1) |
192 |
| 6. New Orleans (1) |
178 |
| 7. Abilene Christian |
172 |
| 8. Northwestern State |
130 |
| 9. Houston Baptsit |
119 |
| 10. Nicholls |
116 |
| 11. Central Arkansas |
108 |
| 12. Incarnate Word |
56 |
| 13. McNeese |
42 |
