Men's Basketball News
Centre men chosen as one of the teams to beat in SCAC
In an exclusive voting by the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) sports information directors, the Centre College men's basketball team tied DePauw University as the team to beat for the upcoming 2007-08 season.
The Colonels, which return this season as the defending regular season and tournament champions from a year ago, earned 110 points, including three first place votes to tie DePauw for the top spot in the preseason poll.
The Tigers also received 110 points, but earned four first place votes after finishing 22-6 overall and 12-2 in the SCAC last year. Millsaps College picked up the remaining four first place votes and 105 points to finish third after going 18-9 overall and 11-3 in league play.
Trinity University was chosen fourth (88 points), followed by Hendrix College in fifth (68 points), Southwestern University in sixth (61 points), Oglethorpe University in seventh (55 points), Rhodes College in eighth (51 points), Sewanee-University of the South in ninth (34 points), Colorado College in 10th (23 points) and Austin College in 11th (21 points).
Birmingham-Southern, in the first year of its four-year provisional transition from Division I to Division III will not count in the league standings.
Centre returns three starters from last year's NCAA Tournament team, including SCAC Player of the Year and Tournament MVP Matt Nestheide (Edgewood, Ky.). Fellow senior guard Thomas Britt (Louisville, Ky.) and junior forward T.C. Thomason (Russellville, Ky.) also return to the starting lineup in 2007. The Colonels also return the 2006-07 Newcomer of the Year in sophomore Danny Noll (Ft. Mitchell, Ky.).
The SCAC does not have any schools represented in the D3hoops.com preseason Top 25, but Centre is just outside the poll receiving the third-most votes for any school outside the Top 25.
The Colonels will open the 2007-08 season in the LaGrange College Tournament, Friday and Saturday, Nov. 16-17 in LaGrange, Ga. Centre will play Rust College at 4 p.m. Friday with the Consolation/Championship games being played Saturday at 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. |
