Men Picked Last; Women Fifth

[SLCBengal]

The Big Sky coaches' and media polls have been released over the last couple of days...

Big Sky Conference: Men's Basketball Preseason Polls

Big Sky Conference: Women's Basketball Preseason Polls

 

[Skycap]

If I remember correctly the women were picked 5th last year too. Last year they had one returning starter and no All Big Sky selections returning. This year they have 5 returning starters with 3 of them All Big Sky selections and they are picked 5th again. Doesn't seem to make sense.

 

[Skippy]

All of the five top teams have at least 3 starters back, so the voters just basically plugged in teams in the same order they finished last year. I was the "outlier" in the media poll, voting for the Bengals to finish first because not only do they have five nominal starters back, they have two big forwards who I think are going to play very significant roles in improving this year's team. The Bengals have to figure out how to beat Montana this year -- they lost 3 times to the Griz last year, including in the post-season tournament. I think ISU will be bigger and more physical this year, which is what it will take to finally take out the Griz.