NASHVILLE – Senior Brian Williams was named to the Preseason All-Ohio Valley Conference Team and the Jacksonville State men's basketball team has been picked to finish fourth in the OVC's East Division, the league announced at its annual Basketball Media Day on Tuesday.
Williams is one of 10 players on the league's preseason all-conference squad, while the Gamecocks were just two votes behind Morehead State in third place in the East's preseason poll. JSU is coming off a 17-11 season that tied for the second-best record in its Division I history and featured its second-straight 8-8 league record, a Division I first.
A 6-foot-1 guard from Lawrenceville, Ga., Williams has become a mainstay in the Gamecock lineup. He's played in 91 games in his three seasons and been in the starting lineup in the last 71 games. He enters the season with 942 career points and 267 assists. His scoring total puts him in sixth in the school's Division I history, while he sits in fourth on the program's Division I assists list.
In 2012-13, Williams was 18th in the OVC in scoring with 13.1 points per game, while ranking fifth in assists with 4.3 per game. His assists-to-turnover ratio of 1.8 was fourth, thanks to a career-high 119 assists during the year.
The predictions for the Gamecocks' division have Eastern Kentucky winning, while defending champion Belmont is picked second. The Colonels return all but one player from last year and feature two preseason all-conference picks in Glenn Cosey and Corey Walden. They received 18 of 24 possible first-place votes and have 128 total votes, while the Bruins have 116 votes and six first-place votes. Tennessee State is picked behind the Gamecocks and Tennessee Tech is predicted to finish sixth in the division.
In the West, Southeast Missouri and Murray State are tied in the top spot with 117 votes, whit SEMO holding a slight edge with 13 first-place votes to the Racers' 11. SEMO's Tyler Stone in the league's Preseason Player of the Year.
Head Coach James Green, in his sixth year at the helm of the Gamecocks, also has junior guard Darion Rackley back to support Williams in what should be an experienced backcourt. A 6-foot-3 native of St. Louis, Rackley is the team's leading returning scorer after pouring in 13.7 points per game last year and was one of the most accurate 3-point shooters in the OVC with a 39 percent success rate in his sophomore year.
Senior guards Rico Sanders, Giovanni Smith and Rod McReynolds help in one of the more experienced backcourts in the OVC this year that will also feature some added depth from Green's group of incoming players.
Junior Avery Moore transferred from Florida A&M midway through last season and will be eligible after the fall semester. He has experience as a starter with the Rattlers and has shown the ability to put up big numbers from the perimeter.
Another transfer is junior Grant White, who returns to JSU after a year at Palm Beach State. White was in the starting lineup for the Gamecocks down the stretch of his freshman season and helped JSU to the OVC Tournament quarterfinals in Nashville.
Freshmen Randall Smith, Undra Mitchem and Nathan Laing also enter the fall as additions to the JSU backcourt. Smith was an all-state point guard at Archer High School in Lawrenceville, Ga., while Mitchem comes from a very successful program in Leesburg, Fla., that saw him help the Yellow Jackets to three 20-win seasons and a state title. Laing was an all-conference guard at Harnett Central High School in Lillington, N.C.
Senior forward Nick Cook is the only returning upperclassman in the frontcourt, where he will lead a talented group that features youth and some transfers. Cook currently has 108 career blocks, which is third in the school's Division I history. The 6-foot-6 forward from Hattiesburg, Miss., has also grabbed 353 career boards, knocking on the door of the Top 10 in JSU's Division I record books.
Back are sophomore big men Michael Louder and Darrius Moore, who each saw limited action as true freshmen a year ago. Junior Teraes Clemmons and freshman Joe Kuligoski are combo players that took redshirts a year ago and will be in the mix this season.
Three junior college transfers step in to shore up the Gamecocks' inside game and all three have size. Jamal Hunter from East Mississippi Community College is a 6-foot-8 frame that shot almost 60 percent from the floor, while 6-foot-7 newcomers D.J. Felder of East Georgia College and Jeremy Watson from Shelton State round out that group.
Felder averaged 14 points and nine rebounds per game in leading EGSC to a state title last year, while Watson is a Birmingham native that also won a state title in junior college last season.
The Gamecocks open the 2013-14 season at Bradley on Nov. 8 but will play a pair of exhibition games at Pete Mathews Coliseum before then. The first will be on Oct. 31 against West Georgia in a 7 p.m. Halloween matchup, with the final exhibition coming against Martin Methodist on Nov. 4 at 7 p.m. Both exhibition games are free.
Predicted Order of Finish
East
1. Eastern Kentucky (18 fi rst-place votes) 128
2. Belmont (6) 116
3. Morehead State 74
4. Jacksonville State 72
5. Tennessee State 60
6. Tennessee Tech 42
West
T1. Southeast Missouri (13 fi rst-place votes) 117
T1. Murray State (11) 117
3. Austin Peay 90
4. UT Martin 66
5. Eastern Illinois 58
6. SIUE 44
Six points awarded for a fi rst-place vote, 5 for second, etc. - Coaches and SID's could not vote for their own teams
2013-14 Preseason All-OVC Team
Travis Betran, Austin Peay
Glenn Cosey, Eastern Kentucky
Nino Johnson, Southeast Missouri
J.J. Mann, Belmont
Patrick Miller, Tennessee State
Tyler Stone, Southeast Missouri
Myles Taylor, UT Martin
Will Triggs, Austin Peay
Corey Walden, Eastern Kentucky
Brian Williams, Jacksonville State
