From Staff Reports
After posting a fifth-place finish a season ago, the Great American Conference coaches have selected Southeastern’s men’s basketball team to improve on that mark with a third place finish, according to the GAC Preseason Poll released on Tuesday, Oct. 22.
The Savage Storm finished with a 15-12 mark a season ago and an 11-9 mark in league play but earned the No. 4 seed in the conference tournament.
While SE loses its top five scorers and four of the five players that started at least half the games a year ago, SE does return a talented backcourt led by Travis Timmons who led the GAC and was top 10 in the nation in assists a season ago before missing seven games due to an injury.
Timmons averaged 7.6 ppg on the year but did most of his damage in distributing the ball with 5.85 assists per game, including a school-record 16 in one contest and a total of four games with 10-or-more assists.
Not counting the final three games of the season in which he was still limited, Timmons dished out 6.7 assists per contest over the first 17 games of the year.
Possibly SE’s most anticipated return, however, has been two years in the making as Urald King makes a return to the court after missing all but one game of the 2012-13 season.
He did pour in 25 points in 27 minutes in his one outing, shooting 69.2 percent from the floor. In his last full season, 2011-12, he averaged 11.3 ppg and shot 53.7 percent from the floor while also leading the team with 7.4 rebounds per game.
The Storm will also welcome 12 players who have yet to play a game in the Blue and Gold either returning after a redshirt season or coming in as new freshmen or transfers.
Taggart Lockhart and John Balwigaire come to Southeastern after stops at Division I. Lockhart made 11 starts last season for Arkansas-Little Rock and averaged 5.1 ppg and 2.7 ppg, while Balwigaire had three starts and averaged 4.3 ppg in his last season with Wright State.
SE returns three players who served redshirt season a year ago in Randy Peters, Spencer Carroll and Daichi Taniguchi, while four come in as juniors and five others join the squad true freshmen.
Arkansas Tech topped the poll with 97 points and seven of the 11 first place votes, with Harding second with 91 points and three first place votes.
SE was 23 points behind with its 68 points in the balloting, eight ahead of Arkansas-Monticello in fourth.
Ouachita Baptist was picked fifth with 54 points, while Henderson State tallied 52 points and the lone remaining first place vote to finish sixth.
Northwestern Oklahoma State and Southwestern Oklahoma State finished seventh and eighth, separated by one point, while Southern Nazarene, East Central and Southern Arkansas rounded out the poll.
Southeastern will begin play with three exhibition games, facing off against the University of Texas San Antonio on Oct. 31 followed by matchups against the University of Texas-El Paso on Nov. 2 and the University of North Texas on Nov. 4.
Southeastern will open regular season play on Nov. 9 when the Storm hosts the University of Science and Arts at 7:30 p.m. in Bloomer Sullivan Arena.