EIU Men's Basketball Picked to Finish Sixth in Preason Poll

The Ohio Valley Conference held its annual basketball media day event at the Ford Center in Evansville, Indiana, site of this year’s OVC Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tournaments taking place Feb. 28 to March 3.  Eastern Illinois was selected to finish in sixth place in the men’s basketball preseason poll released at the event.
 
The Panthers are coming off a 14-15 season including a 6-10 mark as they missed the OVC Tournament for the first time under head coach Jay Spoonhour.  EIU returns four senior starters from that team that provide the Panthers a balance of scoring, rebounding, assists and defense.
 
Terrell Lewis became the Panthers all-time career leader in assists last season and enters the season with 463 career assists. The three-year starter at point guard ranked fourth in the OVC in assists per game last season and lead the conference in assist-to-turnover ratio.
 
Muusa Dama returns after leading the OVC in both rebounding and blocked shots last season.  The big man set the EIU single season record for blocked shots last season with 61 while pulling down 269 rebounds.
 
Guard Montell Goodwin is the Panthers top returning scorer this season after ranking second on the team last year.  Goodwin averaged 14.3 points per game and ranked 10th in the OVC in 3-point field goal percentage.
 
Ray Crossland provided a defensive stopper for the Panthers as he ranked among the OVC leaders in steals with 44 including a season high of six steals.
 
EIU will host Southern Indiana on Monday, November 6 at 7:30 p.m. in exhibition play in Lantz Arena.  The regular season opens on Saturday, Nov. 11 at Nebraska with the regular season home opener on Friday, Nov. 17 against IUPUI at 7:30 p.m.   Season, single game and group tickets are now available by calling 217-581-2106.
 
This season the Ohio Valley Conference men went away from the divisional format and expanded the league schedule to 18 games.  Belmont was selected as the overall preseason champion with 18 of 24 first place votes.  OVC Tournament Champion Jacksonville State was picked to finish second followed by Murray State.  Both the Gamecocks and Racers earned three first place votes.  Eastern Kentucky was picked fourth with Tennessee Tech, Eastern Illinois, Tennessee State and UT Martin in the top eight.  The top eight teams in the standings will advance to this year’s OVC Tournament.   Morehead State was picked ninth with Southeast Missouri, Austin Peay and SIUE rounding out the preseason poll.
 
Murray State’s Jonathan Stark was selected as the OVC Preseason Player of the Year.   EIU did not have a player selected to the 11-man preseason squad.