University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Men's Basketball Tabbed 11th in C-USA Preseason Poll
10/18/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Oct. 18, 2006
HATTIESBURG, Miss. - The Southern Miss men's basketball team was tabbed to finish 11th this season in Conference USA in a preseason vote of the league's coaches. The poll, along with the preseason team, was released Wednesday morning by the league office in Irving, Texas.
Coming off a No. 1 seed in the 2006 NCAA Tournament, Memphis repeated as the unanimous preseason favorite to win the 2006-07 C-USA men's basketball regular-season crown. Rice's Morris Almond, a preseason All-America candidate, was the unanimous selection by coaches as the Preseason Player of the Year.
Following Memphis in the voting were Houston at No. 2, UAB at No. 3, Rice and UTEP in a tie for fourth, Tulsa at No. 6, UCF at No. 7, SMU at No. 8, Tulane at No. 9, Marshall at No. 10, Southern Miss and East Carolina rounding out the selections at No. 12.
Almond was joined on the preseason all-conference by Oliver Lafayette and Lanny Smith of Houston, and Chris Douglas-Roberts and Joey Dorsey of Memphis.
The league will hold its annual Media Day in Memphis, Thursday, which is the site of the 2007 Aéropostale Conference USA Championship at the FedEx Forum, Mar. 7-10. For full coverage of media day via the web, go to conferenceusa.com.
Preseason PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Morris Almond, Rice, G, 6-6, Sr., Powder Springs, Ga.
2006 preseason all-conference TEAM
Oliver Lafayette, Houston, G, 6-3, Sr., Baton Rouge, La.
Lanny Smith, Houston, G, 6-2, Sr., Missouri City, Texas
Chris Douglas-Roberts, Memphis, G, 6-5, So. Detroit, Mich.
Joey Dorsey, Memphis, F, 6-9, Jr., Baltimore, Md.
Morris Almond, Rice, G, 6-6, Sr., Powder Springs, Ga.
PREDICTED ORDER OF FINISH
| 1. | Memphis |
| 2. | Houston |
| 3. | UAB |
| 4.(tie) | Rice |
| UTEP | |
| 6. | Tulsa |
| 7. | UCF |
| 8. | SMU |
| 9. | Tulane |
| 10. | Marshall |
| 11. | Southern Miss |
| 12. | East Carolina |
