SLU Picked to Win A-10

Editor: The following is a press release from atlantic10.com.

(Brooklyn, NY) — Saint Louis has been selected as Atlantic 10 Conference men’s basketball champions in the league’s 2018-19 men’s basketball preseason poll. The conference announced the poll and preseason all-conference awards Thursday in conjunction with its annual Media Day, held at Barclays Center, home of the 2019 A-10 Men’s Basketball Championship. The awards and poll were chosen by a panel of the league’s head coaches and select media members.

The Billikens last won the Atlantic 10 Championship in 2013, and captured regular season titles in 2013 and 2014. SLU had 15 first-place votes in the poll, and 348 points. Led by Preseason All-Conference selections Javon Bess, Jordan Goodwin (second team)and Hasahn French (third team), Saint Louis finished 17-16 overall last year and 9-9 in the A-10.

Saint Joseph’s was picked second in the 2018-19 preseason poll. The Hawks totalled 324 points, including four first-place votes. SJU returns Lamarr Kimble and Charlie Brown, Jr., both of whom are Preseason All-Conference Third Team selections. Both Kimble and Brown are comeback stories, after missing the 2017-18 season due to injuries. The Hawks finished at 16-16 last year, 10-8 in the A-10.

Defending champion Davidson was picked third in the poll with 314 points and six first-place votes. The Wildcats’ dynamic sophomore guard Kellan Grady was last year’s A-10 Rookie of the Year and is a Preseason All-Conference First Team selection this season. His senior teammate Jon Axel Gudmundsson was named to the Preseason All-Conference Third Team and the Preseason All-Defensive Team.

Led by Preseason All-Conference First Team guard Otis Livingston II, George Mason garnered 287 poll points and a first-place vote to rank fourth, followed by 2017-18 regular season champion Rhode Island, which had 221 points for fifth place. Dayton was sixth with 206 points and VCU seventh with 195 points in the voting. Massachusetts (175 points), St. Bonaventure (167 points) and Richmond (156 points) finished eighth, ninth and 10th in the poll, while Duquesne, La Salle, George Washington and Fordham rounded out the preseason rankings, respectively.

Josh Cunningham of Dayton, Luwane Pipkins of UMass and Richmond’s Grant Golden, join Grady and Livingston on the Preseason All-Conference First Team. Eric Williams, Jr. of Duquesne, La Salle’s Pookie Powell and St. Bonaventure’s Courtney Stockard were selected to the Preseason Second Team All-Conference along with Bess and Goodwin.

Gudmundson and Bess were all chosen for the Preseason All-Defensive Team, along with GW’s Terry Nolan, Jr., Rhody’s Cyril Langevine and Richmond’s Jacob Gilyard.