Butler 1st, YSU 7th in preseason poll
by Joe Scalzo - "A blog about YSU Penguin athletics, not the insides of penguins." | 155 entries
The Youngstown State men's basketball team didn't get a lot of love from its conference brethren in this year's preseason rankings.
Coming off back-to-back 2-16 seasons in the league, the Penguins were picked to finish seventh out of 10 teams in the Horizon League preseason poll.
The ranking is actually the team's best since joining the Horizon a decade ago. I gave them a sixth-place vote in my poll, so you can't really complain about seventh.
What you can complain about is the preseason all-league team. Neither Junior forward Damian Eargle nor sophomore guard Kendrick Perry made the list.
I gave Eargle a first team vote and Perry a second team vote. Perry probably needs another year of production before he can generate preseason accolades, but I think Eargle has a right to be disappointed.
Detroit guard Ray MaCallum was chosen as the preseason player of the year. He got my vote too.
Here's the complete poll, with first-place votes in parantheses:
1. Butler (28) 468
2. Detroit (19) 453
3. Cleveland State (2) 388
4. Milwaukee (1) 356
5. Valparaiso 255
6. Green Bay 247
7. Youngstown State 195
8. Wright State 157
9. Loyola 145
10. UIC 86
Here's how I voted:
1. Butler
2. Cleveland State
3. Detroit
4. Milwaukee
5. Valparaiso
6. YSU
7. Green Bay
8. Loyola
9. Wright State
10. UIC
Here's the all-league picks
First Team
Ray McCallum, G – Detroit
Trevon Harmon, G – Cleveland State
Eli Holman, F/C – Detroit
Chase Simon, G – Detroit
Kaylon Williams, G – Milwaukee
Second Team
Tony Meier, F – Milwaukee
Alec Brown, C – Green Bay
Andrew Smith, C – Butler
Ben Averkamp, F – Loyola
Ryan Broekhoff, G - Valparaiso
Here's how I voted:
First team: McCallum, Holman, Butler guard Ronald Nored, Cleveland State forward D'Aundray Brown, YSU forward Damian Eargle.
Second team: Butler forward Khyle Marshall, Williams, Harmon, Brown, YSU guard Kendrick Perry.
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