Big South Announces 2026-27 Men's Basketball Preseason Honors
JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (www.BigSouthSports.com) – High Point forward
Cam’Ron Fletcher (St. Louis, Mo.) has been voted the 2026-27 Big South Conference Men’s Basketball Preseason Player of the Year by the league’s head coaches, it was announced this morning. Fletcher is the second HPU player in three years to be voted Preseason Player of the Year, and the program’s sixth different honoree.
Fletcher was named to the
Collegeinsider.com Lou Henson Early Season Watch List in 2025-26, was the Tournament MVP of the Boardwalk Battle after averaging 22.5 points and 8.0 rebounds, and was a two-time Big South Player of the Week honoree. He played in 27 games for the Panthers last year with 11 starts, and averaged 13.2 points (356 points total) on 54.4 percent shooting from the field, in addition to 34 steals, 25 assists and 16 blocked shots. Fletcher scored a season-high 27 points against Illinois-Chicago on Nov. 20, and scored in double-figures in 17 contests. He led the Panthers with 7.1 rebounds per game and 192 total boards, and recorded seven double-doubles in 2025-26. In the Big South Championship game victory against Winthrop, Fletcher dropped in 17 points and tied the Conference Tournament record with a career-high 19 rebounds. He followed with 14 points and 11 boards in HPU’s NCAA Tournament win over No. 5-seed Wisconsin, and 25 points and eight caroms in the Panthers’ narrow defeat against Arkansas in the Round of 32. Fletcher received four first-place votes and 80 total points in the voting to earn the top spot on the preseason All-Conference team.
2026-27 Big South Conference Men’s Basketball Preseason All-Conference Team
First-Team
Cam’Ron Fletcher, High Point, Gr., F
Jason Rivera Torres, High Point, Sr., G
Jaylen Peterson, Presbyterian, 5th Year, F
Carl Parrish, Presbyterian, Sr., G
CJ Brown, High Point, Jr., G
Second-Team
Alphonzo Billups III, Longwood, 5th Year, G/F
Isaac Garrett, High Point, Sr., F
Triston Wilson, Presbyterian, Jr., G
MJ Williams, Longwood, So., G
Spence Sims, Winthrop, R-So., G
Rivera Torres was a Second-Team All-CAA selection last season at Monmouth, as well as a member of the CAA All-Defensive Team. He averaged 15.8 points and 8.1 rebounds per game, had nine 20+ point efforts as well as eight double-doubles. Rivera Torres ranked in the CAA Top 10 in scoring, rebounding, field goal percentage and free throw shooting. He led the Hawks with 70 steals, was second with 39 blocks,
and was one of two on the squad with 100 assists.
Peterson was the 2025-26 Big South Defensive Player of the Year and an Honorable Mention All-Big South selection. He finished third in the Big South with 7.5 rebounds and tied for fifth in blocked shots (1.5 blocks per game). Peterson recorded 16 double-figure scoring games in his 33 appearances, had 10 double-figure rebounding efforts plus four double-doubles. He led the Blue Hose in scoring five times and rebounding nine times.
Parrish was named Honorable Mention All-Big South in 2025-26 as he averaged 14.4 points in his 33 starts. He connected on 76 three-point field goals -- the sixth-highest single-season total in the program's Division I era, and shot 84.5 percent from the free throw line. Parrish led the Blue Hose in scoring 12 times, and scored 23 points in PC’s Big South Tournament quarterfinal win over Radford -- and sent the contest into overtime with a game-tying three-pointer from near mid-court.
Brown, an American Conference All-Freshman Team honoree in 2024-25 at South Florida, tallied 370 points, a team-leading 160 assists (4.7 apg), 132 rebounds and 35 steals a season ago for the Bulls. He posted 19 double-digit scoring games, and three 20-point performances. Brown had 11 games with six or more assists and ranked third in The American with 4.7 assists per game while starting all 34 games.
The Preseason All-Conference Second-Team features the Big South’s returning steals leader from 2025-26 (Billups), a 13.7 points and 7.1 rebounds player at Oakland (Garrett), the Big South’s returning assist leader (Wilson), a player who averaged 10 points, 3.5 rebounds, 4.2 assists and 1.5 steals per game at Eastern Kentucky (Williams), and the 2025-26 Big South Freshman of the Year (Sims).