Men’s Basketball Selected Fourth in Preseason SSC Coaches’ Poll

MELBOURNE, Fla. – The Nova Southeastern University men’s basketball team slots fourth in the Sunshine State Conference preseason coaches’ poll, released on Friday by the league office.

The men garnered 38 total votes, behind Barry (61), Lynn (56) and Florida Southern (50). Barry received the majority of first-place tallies, six of the coaches’ nine, with Lynn earning two and Florida Southern, the defending NCAA Champions, netting the remaining top vote.

“To be honest, I always take preseason rankings with a grain of salt,” said head coach Gary Tuell. “But I would agree that going into the season Barry, Lynn and Florida Southern deserve to be 1-2-3 in some order.”

NSU ranks ahead of Eckerd in fifth, with 33 points and Tampa, sixth with 30. The Sharks return two starters from last year’s squad – Chris Page (Sr., Plainfield, Ind.) and Harrison Goodrick (Jr., Sydney, Australia) – along with Casey Carroll (Jr., Youngstown, Ohio), a double-figure scorer two years ago who returns after missing last season.

“I’m a little surprised that we’re fourth since we lost four guys who started for us for three years,” said Tuell. “Other than Southern, I don’t know if anyone else lost as much as we did. Of course, on the flip side, I hope the poll is wrong because we would like to be better than fourth by the end of the season. We do return five or six talented guys in Chris Page, Harrison Goodrick, Casey Carroll, Troy Spears (So., Martinsville, Ind.) and Mike Chalas (Sr., Pembroke Pines, Fla.). And we had a pretty good recruiting class who we think can help us as we go down the road, so we’ll see.”

The SSC is so deep and competitive that two teams that entered postseason play with a .500 record or better a year ago make up the majority of the bottom third of the rankings.

“I do find it shocking that Florida Tech, Saint Leo and Rollins are the bottom three teams in the poll,” said Tuell. “I would guess at least two of those teams will finish much, much higher. It just goes to show you the quality and the depth of our league and why outsiders consider this the best overall league in DII men’s basketball.

“We probably have three outstanding teams in Barry, Lynn and Southern. But we also have six very, very good teams right on their heels and there is no possible way to predict who will rise to the top and who won’t. In this league anything can happen — and it usually does.”

The Sharks tip off the season with three games in six days, including their first two conference matchups of the year. After the opener with St. Thomas at home on Monday, Nov. 16, they will play Lynn and Saint Leo on Wednesday and Saturday, respectively. Like St. Thomas, the matchup with Lynn will be at the NSU Arena, while the contest against Saint Leo will be the Sharks’ first road game of the season.