It's For The Bulletin Board
- Steven
- Oct 16
- 3 min read
One of the major happenings around a league's media day, are the pre-season polls and accolades. Of course you get everyone in a single location, you have some interviews, and you may share a meal. Unless someone says something outrageous, the headlines generally are made from: Which team was in what spot for the pre-season rankings, and what players are now on everyone's radar.
Right on-course, the Big South Conference released (See Above) these same items when it held media day for the upcoming basketball season. From this year's iteration, I've got a few takeaways...
1st Team Looks Solid
It's proof that the all-conference teams, like any pre-season accolade, are shots in the dark. But I'll give the voting members a tip-of-the-cap for the Big South first team they selected.
Toyaz Soloman and Elijah Tucker are both conference vets and impact-players for their respective teams.
Jaylon Johnson started all 32 games, averaging in double figures for 25 of those, and made an all-conference team in the OVC at his prior stop before Radford.
I personally know the games of Scotty Washington and Rob Martin, both new faces for HPU, that will impact the game in various ways and will impact the league.
In other words -- When you're limited to picking 5, it's hard to argue against any of these choices.
A Snub of HPU Players
Sadly, that's where the voting success stopped.
To know the loaded roster that High Point has and not see any of those names listed on a 2nd team... laughable. In no particular order: Chase Johnston, Vincent Brady, Terry Anderson, Owen Aquino, Cam Fletcher -- None of these guys?!?!
IF Cam remains healthy and devoted, he's player of the league talent immediately. Everyone on that list would start, impact the team, and impact the league on ANY other Big South roster.
And not to pick on them, but are we serious with Kameron Taylor and Karmani Gregory over the list of names above?
What I hope this will do, for all the HPU guys, is become bulletin-board material. Drive them to prove me right, and every voter considerably wrong. When you see that look in Terry's eyes, simply at a practice, I know he'll use this as fuel.
He even said so..
Who Was ALLOWED to be Voted For
In a quick chat with some valuable sources, a comment was made that the pool of players whom voters were allowed to select from, may have been limited. IF this is true, it's another fallacy and absurdity of the Big South.
The source indicated that if "you weren't all-conference last year, then you weren't eligible for this all-conference selection".
I'm honestly speechless at how dumb that is.
IF there were a point to pre-season predictions and rankings, it would be to prognosticate whom you think would end the season in a similar award-winning fashion. Otherwise, what's even the point of voting? And how narrow-minded does someone have to be to not even understand where the landscape of college basketball is, today? With free-agent markets, players that become injured a season ago, or even the international crop of talent -- It's impossible for me to comprehend any type of explanation for that train of thought.
The beauty of anything pre-season, is that we'll all get to revisit this. If there's disagreement with anything I'm saying, then tell me that. We'll keep the tabs together and circle back to this as a receipt.
While we're doing that, I'll print copies for the boys in Purple. I have a strong inkling that Terry's got space on his board.
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