Banks Earns Preseason Honors; Bulldogs Picked Fourth in Preseason Poll

BIG SOUTH PRESEASON ALL-CONFERENCE TEAM

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – The Big South Conference has released the 2024-25 Men's Basketball Preseason Poll and Preseason All-Conference Team, and the Asheville Men's Basketball team is predicted to finish fourth, while Josh Banks landed on the Preseason All-Conference Second Team.

Asheville Notes

The Bulldogs are returning 2,685 minutes of the team's 6,875 minutes from last season.
The Bulldogs earned 104 points in the conference preseason rankings.
The Bulldogs' past two-year record of 49-20 is the second-best record in the state of North Carolina, and they are tied for 27th in the country for most wins over two years. Among mid-major schools, Asheville checks in at No. 17 for most wins in the last two years.

Josh Banks Notes

In his debut season as a Bulldog, Banks played in 34 games and started in 33.
He had the second most minutes played on the team with 974 and is returning the most minutes to this year's roster.
Banks had the second-most 3-pointers on the team with 68 and the second-most field goals with 131. He finished the season with a .419 shooting percentage from the field and a .395 shooting percentage from 3-point range
Banks set the new program record for most 3-pointers in a single game with 10 and had a season-high 33 points in Asheville's win over App State on Dec. 21, 2023.
His efforts during the 2023-24 season helped Banks earn a spot on the Big South Conference Honorable Mention team.

2024-25 Men's Basketball Preseason Poll

Rk - School (first-place votes)	Points
1 - High Point (17)	161
2 - Winthrop (1)	134
3 - Longwood	121
4 - UNC Asheville	104
5 - Charleston Southern	98
6 - Gardner-Webb	63
7 - Radford	56
8 - Presbyterian College	54
9 - USC Upstate	19

2024-25 Big South Conference Men's Basketball Preseason All-Conference Team

First-Team

Kezza Giffa, High Point (Preseason Player of the Year)
Kelton Talford, Winthrop
Kimani Hamilton, High Point
Juslin Bodo Bodo, High Point
Taje' Kelly, Charleston Southern

Second-Team

RJ Johnson, Charleston Southern
Michael Christmas, Longwood
Josh Banks, UNC Asheville
A'lahn Sumler, Charleston Southern
K.J. Doucet, Winthrop

Asheville's season begins on Monday, Nov. 4, as the Bulldogs travel to Tuscaloosa, Ala., to face No. 2 Alabama at 9 p.m. ET.

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