UNC Asheville Voted 2023-24 Men's Basketball Preseason Favorite
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (www.BigSouthSports.com) –
UNC Asheville’s men’s basketball program has been chosen as the favorite in the Big South Conference’s annual preseason poll for the 2023-24 season, it was announced this morning at the conference’s Basketball Media Day event at the Embassy Suites Hotel & Convention Center in Concord, N.C.
The Bulldogs are the preseason favorite for the first time since 2017-18, as the voting panel of head coaches and media bestowed 16 first-place votes and 166 total points upon the defending Big South champions. Asheville returns four starters and eight letterwinners from a squad that won a school-record 27 overall games last season as well as a 16-2 mark in Big South contests. This is the sixth time that the Bulldogs are the Big South’s men’s basketball preseason favorite, as the five previous times were 1989-90, 1997-98, 2002-03, 2011-12 and 2017-18.
Radford followed in second-place with 132 points and one first-place vote, followed by
Winthrop in the third spot with 130 points and one first-place nod.
Gardner-Webb landed in the fourth position with 111 points, with
Longwood in fifth-place with 109 points.
USC Upstate was sixth with 73 points, ahead of
High Point (67 points), which received the remaining first-place vote.
Charleston Southern (eighth, 35 points) and
Presbyterian College (ninth, 32 points) round out the men’s preseason rankings.
The college basketball season tips off Monday, Nov. 6. The first conference date is Wednesday, Jan. 3, as the teams will play a 16-game schedule in 2023-24. The season culminates with the 2024 Hercules Tires Big South Basketball Championships March 6-10 at the Qubein Center on the campus of High Point University in High Point, N.C.
2023-24 MEN'S BASKETBALL PRESEASON POLL
| Rk - School (first-place votes) |
Points |
| 1 - UNC Asheville (16) |
166 |
| 2 - Radford (1) |
132 |
| 3 - Winthrop (1) |
130 |
| 4 - Gardner-Webb |
111 |
| 5 - Longwood |
109 |
| 6 - USC Upstate |
73 |
| 7 - High Point (1) |
67 |
| 8 - Charleston Southern |
35 |
| 9 - Presbyterian College |
32 |
Note: points are based on a weighted system. First-place votes received 9 points, followed by 8 points for second-place, and so on.