Men?s Basketball Picked Ninth in Big South

CONCORD, N.C.?The defending Big South Conference Regular Season Co-Champ UNC Asheville Bulldogs were picked to finish ninth in the Big South Preseason Poll announced by the conference office at its annual Media Day Tuesday afternoon at the Embassy Suites Hotel.

The Bulldogs who went 23-10 and earned a spot in the Postseason NIT for the first time in school history graduated four senior starters off last year's team and the pollsters were not impressed by the eight true-freshmen on this year's roster. Reid Augst is the only senior on the 2008-09 roster. Augst along with junior Sean Smith and red-shirt sophomore John Williams are the returners who played more than six minutes per game last season.

“This is an unusual year for us,” said head coach Eddie Biedenbach. “We lost 74 percent of our scoring from last year. But I like the guys we have coming back. I think we are going to be better than ninth place this season. In my first year here we were picked to finish dead last and we ended up winning the league. They pick these polls based on what you did last year and who you have coming back. They saw we lost four starters and so they don't think we will be very good, but I like our team. I think we will be alright.”

Winthrop who tied Asheville as Co-Champions last season and won the Tournament title was picked to repeat as conference champions. Radford and conference newcomer Gardner-Webb were only separated by one vote for second and third respectively. Liberty was picked fourth, High Point fifth, and Charleston Southern sixth. VMI and Coastal Carolina were picked ahead of Asheville with only Presbyterian picked below at 10^th.

Asheville has an exhibition game on Nov. 3, vs. Lees-McRae before opening the regular season at home on Nov. 14, against Belmont-Abbey.