Limestone College Tops Men’s Basketball Preseason Coaches’ Poll

10/19/2011 12:00:00 AM

High Point, NC> The Limestone College men’s basketball team was voted the top squad in this year’s preseason poll as voted on by the league’s head coaches. Limestone and Queens tied with five first-place votes each, but the Saints finished four overall points higher than the Royals in the poll. Barton received one first-place vote and claimed the third position.

For the second consecutive year, Limestone College men’s basketball has earned the respect of its peers being the top pick in the preseason poll. In 2010-11, Limestone posted one of the best seasons in the program’s NCAA DII history as they went 23-7 overall and 14-4 in league play. That included winning 16 of their first 19 games and earning the Conference Carolinas Tournament Championship with a thrilling 68-59 victory over Coker College in the championship game. The tournament championship, as well as the NCAA Tournament berth that came with it, were both firsts in the program’s illustrious history.

Limestone returns All-American candidate Jarrell Douglass, who delivered one of the more accomplished seasons in program history a year ago. The redshirt-senior forward garnered honors as a D2 Bulletin All-American Honorable Mention, NABC First-Team All-Southeast District, Daktronics All-Southeast Region Second-Team, Conference Carolinas Tournament Most Valuable Player and an All-Conference Carolinas First-Team selection. This season he has been named as a Sporting News and DII Bulletin Preseason All-American Honorable Mention.

Also back for 2011-12 are junior forward Joe Raga and sharp-shooting junior forward Ryan Bogdan. They’ll be joined by standout newcomers Josh Corry and Phillip Moultrie

Queens University of Charlotte finishes second overall and Eastern Division poll favorite as they will look to build off the momentum from their first regular season conference championship and first NCAA Tournament win since 2002-03. Last season, the Royals reeled off 13 consecutive victories from Thanksgiving until the first week of February en route to securing the regular season championship with a 16-2 conference and 21-8 overall record.

In Coach Wes Long’s fourth year at the helm, Queens returns four starters and seven additional lettermen. The Royals also get Nate Blackburn back from injury in addition to signing point guard Trey Ervin. Daniel Bailey, a two-time preseason All-American according to the Sporting News and a three-time all-conference team member, and Brent Evans, the 2011 Conference Carolinas Freshman of the Year, are two play makers from the starting line-up who will prove to be exciting to watch.

The only loss from last season’s team is a big one. Reggie Hopkins was the team’s leading scorer and leading assist man. He graduated as the school’s all-time leading scorer. While the Royals will fill this void by committee, they do return players who accounted for 51.9 of the team’s 71.6 points per game (72.5% of the team’s scoring). The Royals also return players who accounted for 33.8 of the 37.1 rebounds per game (91.1%).

Barton College is the third overall pick by league coaches in the poll. Sixteenth year head coach Ron Lievense will be guiding an experienced squad that features a veteran cast of 13 letter winners this season. The core group helped the Bulldogs win eight of its last 10 games in 2010-11 to finish the season 18-10 overall and 12-6 in the league. BC was the third seed in the Conference Carolinas Tournament and advanced to the tournament semifinals.

Barton retains three of its top four scorers from a season ago in Gerald Boston, Jaren Haley, and Jarrett Jernigan. Boston – a two-time All-Conference honoree – led Conference Carolinas with 6.0 assists and 2.7 steals per game. Haley was a Third Team All-Conference selection and is one of nine Bulldogs that played at least 20 games last season.

Coach Lievense has to fill a big void left after the graduation of three-time All-Conference and two-time All-District honoree L.J. Dunn, who led the league in rebounding and averaged a double-double. Barton has added eight talented new players who will be competing for playing time including three Division I transfers.

Rounding out the men's poll 4-11 was: Mount Olive, King, Belmont Abbey, Coker, Pfeiffer, North Greenville, Lees-McRae and Erskine respectively.

Men's Basketball Overall Preseason Poll (# of First place votes in parenthesis)

1. Limestone College (5) 94

2. Queens University of Charlotte (5) 91

3. Barton College (1) 81

4. Mount Olive College 77

5. King College 61

6. Belmont Abbey College 49

7. Coker College 47

8. Pfeiffer University 44

9. North Greenville University 27

10. Lees-McRae College 18

11. Erskine College 16

Men's Basketball Preseason Poll – Breakdown by Division

EASTERN Division WESTERN Division

1. Queens 1. Limestone

2. Barton 2. King

3. Mount Olive 3. Belmont Abbey

4. Coker 4. North Greenville

5. Pfeiffer 5. Lees-McRae

6. Erskine

This year is the first year where divisional play will be used in Conference Carolinas. Divisions are divided into Eastern and Western sides with a regular season champion being awarded to each division winner. In men’s basketball four teams will represent each division in conference championship play.

For tournament championship play, each division winner will receive a No. 1 tournament seed. The No.1 Eastern seed will play the Western No.4 with the No.1 Western seed playing the Eastern No. 4. Eastern No. 2 will always play Western No. 3 with Western No.2 always playing Eastern No.3 in the opening round. Link to full details at: 2011-12 MBB Championship Bracket.

Conference Carolinas is a NCAA Division II athletic conference currently made up of 12 teams from North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. These institutions consist of: Barton College, Belmont Abbey College, Coker College, Converse College, Erskine College, King College, Lees-McRae College, Limestone College, Mount Olive College, North Greenville University, Pfeiffer University, and Queens University of Charlotte.