Men's Basketball Picked to Finish Fifth in CCC Preseason Poll

CCC Preseason Poll Video

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – Defending Commonwealth Coast Conference Men's Basketball Tournament Champion Nichols was selected to repeat this year as announced in the 2017-18 CCC Men's Basketball Preseason Coaches' Poll. The Bison received 99 points in the voting including nine first-place votes.

Voting was conducted by the league's 10 head basketball coaches last week.

Gordon earned 82 points in this year's poll to take the No. 2 spot, while Roger Williams was picked to finish third with 80 points. Endicott, which grabbed the other first-place vote, was picked to finish fourth with 70 points while Wentworth rounded out the top five with 64 points.

The bottom of the table includes Western New England (42 points), Eastern Nazarene (35), the University of New England (34), Salve Regina (33), and Curry (11) in that order.

Wentworth's men's basketball team returns 14 letterwinners from last season's team; a team which made its third appearance in at least the CCC Semifinals in the last four seasons. A pair of All-CCC honorees are among the 14 returners for the Leopards in senior Sam Knollmeyer (Hampton, N.H.), the 2017 CCC Defensive Player of the Year, and classmate Jason Ganley (Northbridge, Mass.), who earned All-CCC honors for the second straight season. Knollmeyer helped Wentworth lead the league in scoring defense a season ago and the squad was among the league leaders in field goal percentage defense. He also averaged 5.5 points, 4.0 rebounds, and 2.9 assists per game. Ganley led the team in scoring, averaging 14.5 points per game to go along with 4.3 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game. Senior Ben Kizel (Short Hills, N.J.) returns after a junior season which saw him average 7.4 points, 3.4 rebounds, 3.0 assists, and 1.2 steals per game. Classmate Cesar Fulcar (Watertown, Mass.) averaged 5.3 points, 3.0 rebounds, and 3.3 assists per game as a junior.

The first tip offs of the season are on Wednesday, Nov. 15 with seven CCC schools in non-conference action. The Conference schedule begins after Thanksgiving on Wednesday, Nov. 29. The top eight teams in the 2017-18 regular-season conference standings will qualify for the CCC Tournament, which starts with the quarterfinals on Tuesday, Feb. 20 and concludes with the Conference Championship on Saturday, Feb. 24. The CCC Tournament Champion will earn the conference's automatic qualifier in to the 2017 NCAA Men's Basketball Championship.

2017-18 CCC Men's Basketball Preseason Coaches' Poll

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