National preseason hoops predictions tabbing Bearkats
10/26/2009 4:30:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Athlon Sports, The Sporting News, Blue Ribbon Magazine, Rush the Court.Net and Rivals.Com College Basketball all pick Sam Houston State to win the West Division and Nicholls to take the East Division title in the 2010 Southland race.
"Sam Houston State will once again battle for league supremacy due to the coaching ability of Bob Marlin and the returning backcourt of Corey Allmond and Ashton Mitchell," according to the Sporting News.
Rush the Court.Net goes farther, forecasting that Sam Houston State will be the top team, earning the Bearkats their second NCAA tournament berth.
"Ashton Mitchell and Corey Allmond is a formidable guard combo who blends together seamlessly," Rush the Court.Net writes. "Sam Houston has the best overall guard combo in a guard-dominated league."
The Sporting News recognizes Sam Houston's Bob Marlin as the Southland Conference's top coach. Marlin became only the second men's head coach in Southland basketball history to win 200 games last year. He returns three starters and five other top reserves from an 18-12 team last year.
Allmond (15.3) and Mitchell (12.5) combined for 27.8 points per game last year, making them the highest scoring back court at Sam Houston in the program's 22 years at the NCAA Division I level.
Blue Ribbon Magazine named Mitchell as its Southland preseason "Player of the Year." Allmond is a unanimous first team preseason all-conference picks and Mitchell has been tabbed All-Southland by the two internet sites.
"Sam Houston will once again battle for league supremacy due to the coaching ability of Bob Marlin and the returning backcourt," the Sporting News wrote. "Allmond set a school record with 99 three-pointers made. He and Mitchell, who ranked among the nation's leaders in assists, form arguable the top Southland guard tandem."
"Mitchell ranked 8th in the nation in assists (6.5) last years while Allmond is happy to accept those dimes from Mitchell as the leading returning scorer," Rush the Court.Net said.
The third returning starter for Sam Houston is 6-6 senior forward Preston Brown. Other lettermen back that were key reserves in 2009 include 6-2 Lance Pevehouse, 5-10 Drae Murray, 6-4 Josten Crow and 6-7 Antuan Bootle.
"The Bearkats will get scoring help from Pevehouse, who had 11 double-digit scoring games last season," Athlon Sports said. " If the Bearkats find some inside points and continue to play the kind of defense Marlin stresses, they'll be ultra-tough."
Rush the Court.com states Sam Houston's new junior college transfers will provide that inside help.
"The Bearkats will look to rejoin the ranks of the 20 win ball clubs with the help of newcomers such as Gilberto Clavell and Trevon Charles," Rush the Court wrote.
Clavell, a Puerto Rican national team member, comes to Sam Houston State from Collin Community College where he averaged 16.1 points and 6.5 rebounds and led Collin County to a 27-5 record in 2009. Charles earned All-Western Junior College honors at Western Texas College. He led the team to its first appearance in the NJCAA Region V tournament in 29 years.
All of the forecasts emphasize the 2010 Southland Conference title race will be a tight one.
"The Southland race should be a hotly contested one," Rivals.com College Basketball said. Rivals gives Nicholls the nod for the league's NCAA tournament berth and selected Kevin Palmer of A&M-Corpus Christi as its preseason "Player of the Year."
Along with Allmond, all the national preseason forecasts include Palmer, Anatoly Bose of Nicholls and Marquez Haynes of UT-Arlington among their selections of the Southland's top players.
Sam Houston has finished among the top three in the Southland Conference race each of the last five years and reached the Southland tournament semifinals in four of their seven consecutive league post-season appearances since 2003.
The official Southland Conference preseason poll voted upon by the league's 12 head coaches will be announced Nov. 4.
"Obviously, preseason polls are just predictions. Once the season starts, they don't mean much," Marlin said. "You've got to get it done on the court. In 2000 when we won our first Southland championship, we were picked to finish sixth. In 2003, when we won our second, we were the preseason favorite. Top to bottom, the Southland is an extremely competitive league with good players and coaches throughout the conference. We're expecting another extremely competitive race this year."
To prepare for the Southland race, Marlin has scheduled a challenging pre-Southland schedule that includes six home games at Johnson Coliseum in November and December.
$1 general admission and $5 reserved tickets for all men's and women's basketball games in November and December will be made available in a special promotional offer for just 72 hours beginning at 10 a.m. on Wednesday November 11. Area fans may purchase tickets online only via www.gobearkats.com for this one-time only opportunity to see any or all of those six contests for just $1 a game.
Use this link to learn more about the $1 Basketball Ticket Sale for 72-Hours for November and December basketball home games.
For more information on tickets to all Bearkat home athletic events, go to www.gobearkats.com or contact the Sam Houston athletic ticket office located in the Ron Mafrige Field House at Bowers Stadium. Ticket office hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The ticket office telephone number is (936) 294-1729.
