Gents Picked Fourth In SCAC Preseason Men's Basketball Poll

SUWANEE, Ga. -- In exclusive voting by the league's head coaches, Trinity University was selected the preseason favorite to earn the 2024-25 Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference men's basketball title.

The conference's defending regular season champions, Trinity earned nine first-place votes from the league's head coaches to finish atop the poll with 118 points. The Tigers, who are ranked 11th in the preseason D3hoops.com Top 25 poll, return the nation's reigning Freshman of the Year, sophomore guard/forward Christian Green. Green, a First Team all-SCAC selection and the league's First-Year Player of the Year, finished his debut season averaging 16.1 points and 7.6 rebounds per game. Two-time all conference senior guard Jacob Harvey is also back after averaging 14.2 points and 2.1 rebounds per contest en route to Second Team all-SCAC honors and is just 55 points away from becoming the 121st player in conference history to reach 1,000 career points.

Trinity head coach Jimmy Smith is back for his fifth season on the sidelines guiding the Tiger program and has charted a 76-19 record since taking the reigns prior to the 2020-21 season - a winning percentage of .800, the highest winning in school history. He has led Trinity to two NCAA tournament appearances, including last year's squad which finished with a 23-4 overall mark; 14-2 in the SCAC.

Coming in second in the preseason coaches' balloting was University of St. Thomas (20-7 overall; 12-4 SCAC), who received two first place votes and finished with 109 points. The Celts, along with Trinity, have posted three consecutive 20+ win seasons, making them the first conference programs to do so since Birmingham-Southern College accomplished the feat in 2009-10, 2010-11 and 2011-12. St. Thomas, which was one of three SCAC men's teams to qualify for NCAA postseason play last season, returns a pair of Honorable Mention all-SCAC selections from a season ago in senior guard Marion Williams (9.1 ppg) and junior guard Angel Johnson (5.4 ppg). 

Colorado College (16-12; 8-8 SCAC), which posted its highest win total since the 2015-16 season, earned 97 points and was selected third on the preseason poll. The Tigers, who advanced to the SCAC title game for the first time since 2016, return two-time all-SCAC senior guard Scott Ruegg, who averaged 10.1 points and 3.4 rebounds per game a season ago.

Defending SCAC tournament champion, Centenary College (17-12 overall; 9-7 SCAC) received the final first-place vote and checked in at fourth with 91 points. The Gents earned the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament last season after knocking off Colorado College, 83-76, on its home floor at the 2024 SCAC Tournament. Junior guard Quintin Beverly, who averaged 9.2 points per game last season (second on the team) in earning all-SCAC Honorable Mention honors, returns to lead the Gents.

Schriener University (13-13 overall; 8-8 SCAC) was the coaches' fifth pick with 79 points in the preseason balloting. The Mountaineers return the defending SCAC Player-of-the-Year, senior center Kamden Ross, who led the SCAC last season in scoring (18.3 ppg), rebounding (13.2 rpg) and field goal percentage (62.8 percent) to become just the second player in league history to pull off the triple sweep of those categories, following James Sapp of Centenary (2016-17). 

Concordia University (Texas), one of three new members to the SCAC this season, was the coaches' sixth choice in the preseason rankings with 73 points. Senior guard Donovan Stafford earned Second Team all-ASC honors a year ago after averaging 21.5 points per game, which ranked fourth in that conference. He poured in 560 points last season and became a member of the 1,000-point club on February 10 at UT-Dallas.

Rounding out the preseason standings is Texas Lutheran University in seventh with 52 points, University of Dallas eighth with 47 points, McMurry University in ninth with 41 points, University of the Ozarks coming in 10th with 36 points, Southwestern University in 11th with 32 points and Austin College rounding out the balloting with 17 points.

The top six teams in the conference will qualify for the SCAC Men's Basketball Tournament, which will be held February 28 through March 2 and hosted by University of Dallas in Irving, Texas. The winner of that event will earn the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

The 2024-25 season begins on Friday, November 8. SCAC Men's and Women's Basketball Media Days kicks off on Monday, November 4th, be sure to check out scacsports.com for interviews with all of your favorite SCAC squads.