JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – After last year’s record-setting season, the University of North Alabama men’s basketball team has been picked as the preseason Atlantic Sun Conference favorite by the media. ASUN coaches, meanwhile, put UNA second behind Queens.
Additionally, the Lions were the only team with more than one player on the Preseason All-ASUN Team, as redshirt junior forward Corneilous Williams and senior forward Donte Bacchus made the list.
Williams was one of two players to be selected unanimously by every ASUN head coach. The other was Chris Ashby from Queens, who was voted preseason player of the year. Eastern Kentucky’s Montavious Myrick was voted the preseason defensive player of the year.
EKU was ranked second in the media poll, followed by Queens, Florida Gulf Coast, and defending champion Lipscomb.
The media poll includes the league’s sports information directors, as well as outside media members who regularly cover the Atlantic Sun Conference.
In a vote by the league’s head coaches, UNA was picked second behind Queens. Despite earning a second-place ranking, UNA did not receive any first-place votes from the coaches.
The Lions finished with a 24-11 record last season and won a share of the ASUN Regular Season Championship along with Lipscomb with a 14-4 conference record. UNA made a run to the ASUN championship final with wins over Austin Peay and Jacksonville.
This marked the first regular season championship for UNA at the Division I level in any sport and the most single-season wins for the men’s basketball program since 2008.
Last season ended with an appearance in the National Invitational Tournament as the Lions fell to Bradley in the first round.
UNA returns 10 players from last season, including Williams, who started all 35 games in the five spot, and Bacchus, UNA’s primary sixth man last season, played all 35 games with three starts.
Other key returners include point guards Canin Jefferson and Kevin de Kovachich and forward DarKaun King. Redshirt senior Dallas Howell returns after a season-ending injury in last year’s third game.
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