10/29/2019 | Men’s Basketball
RICHARDSON, Texas – The Eastern New Mexico men’s basketball team has been selected to finish ninth in the 2019 Lone Star Conference Preseason Men’s Basketball Poll as voted upon by league coaches, sports information directors and media personnel.
The Greyhounds received 484 total votes to finish just outside of the top eight behind UT Permian Basin in the newly expanded 19 team conference. Eastern New Mexico finished in a tie for fourth place with a league record of 10-8 last season, the program’s best finish in the LSC since the 2003-04 season in which the Hounds were league champions with a record of 10-2.
West Texas A&M received 27 first-place votes and 826 total votes to enter the 2019-20 season as the preseason favorites after back-to-back South Central Region Championships. The team that the Buffs defeated in last year’s regional championship game and LSC newcomer St. Edward’s received 14 first- place votes and 790 total votes to appear second in the poll.
Texas A&M-Commerce, Tarleton State and Angelo State finished in third, fourth and fifth place in the poll while LSC newcomers Lubbock Christian and Dallas Baptist followed the original LSC members in seventh and eighth. The surprise to many in the poll came just ahead of the Hounds as UT Permian Basin was selected ahead of Eastern New Mexico with 508 votes despite finishing in seventh place in the league standings a season ago.
The Greyhounds will have to manage a division consisting of Angelo State, Lubbock Christian, UT Permian Basin, West Texas A&M and Western New Mexico if they are to earn one of 12 spots available for the 2019 Lone Star Conference Postseason Tournament.
Eastern New Mexico is scheduled to face off with the University of Tennessee tomorrow night at 5 p.m. in Knoxville, Tenn.
