Southeast men's basketball team picked second in West, women's team 10th in OVC preseason poll

Posted Tuesday, October 21, 2014, at 9:23 AM

The Southeast Missouri State men's basketball team was picked to finish second in the Ohio Valley Conference West Division and the women's team was picked to finish 10th out of 12 teams in the league's preseason poll, which was released Tuesday morning during OVC Media Day in Nashville.

The poll is voted on by the conference's coaches and sports information directors.

Southeast senior guard/forward Jarekious Bradley was voted to the preseason All-OVC team. Bradley averaged 19.0 points, 6.3 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game as a junior and knocked down 75 3-pointers. He was a second-team all-conference and all-Newcomer selection last year.

Murray State's men's team was selected to win the West Division and was also picked as the favorite to be the conference champion.

The Racers (132 points) had 22 first-place votes in the West Division. Southeast picked up the remaining two votes and had 109 points. Murray State received 15 of 24 first-place votes for the overall OVC champion voting.

SIU Edwardsville (77) was picked third in the West Division followed by Austin Peay (70), Eastern Illinois (64) and UT-Martin (40).

Defending regular-season champion Belmont was picked to win the East Division, receiving 16 first-place votes and 125 points. Morehead State (103) and defending OVC tournament champion Eastern Kentucky (102) were picked to finish second and third in the East, with both receiving four first-place votes.

Tennessee Tech (71), Jacksonville State (52) and Tennesee State (40) rounded out the poll.

Murray State sophomore guard Cameron Payne was named the Preseason Player of the Year. He was first-team all-conference and the Freshman of the Year after averaging 16.8 points, 5.4 assists, 3.6 rebounds and 1.7 steals during his freshman season.

The Southeast women's team received 73 points in the poll for 10th. Belmont was picked as the favorite to win the conference, receiving 224 points and 14 first-place votes.

Defending OVC champion UT-Martin was picked second (203) and received three first-place votes. Jacksonville State (189) was third with two first-place votes.

Tennessee Tech (169) and SIUE (152) were picked to finish fourth and fifth. Tennessee State (144) received two first-place votes and was sixth while Eastern Kentucky (138) received three first-place votes and was seventh in the poll.

Eastern Illinois (92) and Murray State (83) were eighth and ninth, and Austin Peay (71) and Morehead State (40) were 11th and 12th.

Belmont's Jordyn Luffman was named the Preseason Player of the Year.

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The question is, will Semo men finish more than 3 games over .500?

-- Posted by joefrank78 on Tue, Oct 21, 2014, at 7:39 PM
Yes, they'll finish more than 3 games over but I'm not going to be too concerned if the non-conf record isn't fantastic, especially at the start with that beefed up schedule. Although it should pay dividends during conference play. It may take some time for the new guys to settle in with rotations and all. If this team will play defense it could be a fun run.

-- Posted by Grussman on Wed, Oct 22, 2014, at 8:41 AM
Lets face it, Dickey Nutt is the head coach....it will be another .500 season for SEMO.

-- Posted by Jolly Dump on Wed, Oct 22, 2014, at 12:13 PM
This team has tons of talent and it seems like they are really trying to focus on defense this year. With about 12 guys who can play for this team I expect a lot of press and pressure to force turnovers.

I expect us to be at the very least in the semifinals of the OVC tournament. Hopefully playing for a championship

-- Posted by arich35 on Wed, Oct 22, 2014, at 4:28 PM
I really want to be positive and excited, but untill he proves he can be more than a few games over .500, I can't get excited. I sometimes feel if we completely swapped our roster with Murray State, they would still win the conference and we would be a couple of games over .500. I will go to a few games though, win or lose.

-- Posted by joefrank78 on Wed, Oct 22, 2014, at 6:37 PM

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