SWAC coaches pick SU teams 2nd

 
Both Southern men’s and women’s basketball programs are predicted to finish second at the end of the regular season by Southwestern Athletic Conference coaches.
Prairie View predicted to finish first in both divisions, Southern coaches Roman Banks and Sandy Pugh aren’t giving the ranks much consideration as they keep their eyes on the SWAC prize.
In his second season at Southern, head coach Roman Banks enters with his team in the Top five.
“I really don’t pay that any attention,” Banks told reporters during the SWAC preseason basketball teleconference. “I wont speak much about this because it’s a pick. It is what it is.”  
SU returns a core of top players, including senior guard Derick Beltran.
Beltran joins three of his teammates: Jameel Grace, Cameron Monroe, Thomas Marshall, and Madut Bol are among the players returning from last year’s roster.
SU finished second in the regular season last season, finishing 9-2 after becoming the first school to face postseason bans because of academics.
“We lost a lot of young men off of last year’s team,” Banks said. “Some we didn’t bring back trying to straighten out APR situations.”
In 2011, the NCAA slapped a one-year post-season ban on Southern because its multiyear APR score (852) was incredibly low.
Still, the Jaguars received one first place vote and 69 overall points from a panel of league coaches.
Prairie View is first in the order to finish, which marked the highest preseason prediction for the Panthers since 2003-04 and received four first place votes.
PV also returned all five starters from last season, which lost in the opening round of the 2011-12 SWAC tournament.
The Panthers earned 17 more overall points than defending SWAC tournament champion Texas Southern, which is fourth in the order to finish and received one first place vote despite returning the dynamic duo Preseason All-SWAC First Team selections Omar Strong and Fred Sturdivant. Strong was also selected the SWAC’s Preseason Player of the Year.
In-state rival Grambling is ninth, respectively.
Jackson State is third, Alabama A&M and Alabama State are fifth and sixth. Arkansas Pine-Bluff and Alcorn State are seventh and eighth and Mississippi Valley rounded out at 10th.
The Jaguars begin their season Nov.9 against Iowa State.
On the women’s side, head coach Sandy Pugh doesn’t place a lot of value in preseason predictions. But she insists that her team will not begin their schedule as a second place team.
“We have a lot to look forward to,” Pugh said. “We were attempting to go for the three-peat on the regular season and that didn’t happen…I think the kids are really looking for to gaining ground and getting back to being in that number one chair; the place we’re familiar with and where we would like to be.”
Selected by SWAC head coaches, the predicted order to finish: Prairie View, Southern, Alabama A&M, Alabama State, Alcorn State, Mississippi Valley State, Jackson State, Grambling State, Texas Southern, and Arkansas Pine Bluff.
The two-time defending SWAC tournament champions Prairie View, coming off its title run a year ago, is the unanimous pick to win the league. Their junior forward, Latia Williams was named the preseason Player of the Year. 
The Panthers received six first place votes and SU received zero. No.3 Alabama A&M, No.6 Mississippi Valley and No.9 Texas Southern each had one first place vote.    
SU’s junior guard Kendra Coleman also picked up preseason honors. Coleman was selected preseason First Team ALL-SWAC after leading the Jaguars with 12.9 points per game.
The Jaguar women are scheduled to play No. 12 Texas A&M and No. 22 Ohio State this season and Dillard, UL-Lafayette, Tulane and Southeastern at the F.G. Clark Activity Center.