As expected, UConn received plenty of praise on Tuesday at the annual AAC men’s basketball media day.
The Huskies were picked to finish second in the conference behind SMU and received a pair of first-place votes. Though the Mustangs were picked to win the league, they will not participate in the AAC tournament this March after being hit with a postseason ban during the offseason.
UConn coach Kevin Ollie has long viewed SMU coach Larry Brown as a mentor, and according to the Hartford Courant, spoke highly of how he has handled the situation — perhaps compared to others in the country dealing with similar circumstances.
“He’s not running and hiding,” Ollie said. “I knew he was going to be here on media day. He could have easily said he was going to stay home and run away from it, but he’s going to be all right. He cares about his players and what they’re going to have to go through.”
Cincinnati, which earned one first-place vote and just three fewer overall points than UConn, was picked third.
Ollie was quick to brush off the early expectations, giving the Courant a quote nearly identical to the one he gave last year at media day when the Huskies were picked to win the AAC:
“I really don’t take anything out of [preseason polls],” Ollie said. “I really want to be the best team in terms of chemistry. I really wish they had a poll for team chemistry, and I want to be No. 1 in that. And then I want to be No. 1 in March and April.”
Sophomore Daniel (JCDH) Hamilton was named to the preseason all-conference first team, while Amida Brimah and newcomer Sterling Gibbs were named to the second team. Guard and preseason A Dime Back favorite Jalen Adams was tabbed as the AAC freshman of the year.
Nic Moore from SMU was named preseason player of the year.
Complete AAC Pre-Season Poll:
- SMU (8), 98 points
- UConn (2) 87 points
- Cincinnati (1) 84 points
- Tulsa, 76 points
- Memphis, 59 points
- Temple, 54 points
- Houston, 48 points
- East Carolina, 31 points
- UCF, 30 points
- USF, 20 points
- Tulane, 11 points
AAC First Team:
Octavius Ellis, Cincinnati
Daniel Hamilton, UConn
Markus Kennedy*, SMU
NIc Moore*, SMU
James Woodard, Tulsa
AAC Second Team:
Troy Caupain, Cincinnati
Amida Brimah, UConn
Sterling Gibbs, UConn
Shaq Goodwin, Memphis
Shaquille Harris, Tulsa
* = unanimous selection
While the Huskies garnered plenty of praise, guard Rodney Purvis’s name was noticeably absent from the preseason honors. Purvis’s improvement at the end of last season has been documented here and elsewhere, and he figures to be one of the leaders on the team. It’s only a matter of time until the world wakes up to Ambassador Purv’s awesomeness:
Let’s get this thing started. Tired of all the chit chat. #TheBullies #SlickRickFaceOnDemFolks pic.twitter.com/iZmZD3HVzT
— Rodney Purvis (@rpurvis44) October 26, 2015
Now someone teach me how to use #SlickRickFaceOnDemFolks in a sentence.
pervus kant play, hello; he helps other club beet his mates hello knuckles; pervus toss ball dans woods et bounce off stanchion fools
[…] survey, UConn was picked to finish third in the conference. CBS had the Huskies second (as did the official AAC coaches vote), but writers Matt Norlander and Jerry Palm predicted UConn to finish fourth (!) behind SMU, […]