Southern Conference basketball media day: Where's Mercer finishing?

Southern Conference basketball media: Where’s Mercer?

          Mercer’s women have been the Southern Conference preseason favorite pretty regularly lately, for both the media and coaches.

          But they split this year, the coaches picking Mercer third out of eight teams and the media predicting the Bears to win the conference again.

          Furman was picked first and second.

          Wofford’s Chloe Wanink got the nod as the player of the year.

          Ironically, Mercer had only Shannon Titus on the all-conference team, while Chattanooga, UNCG, Furman, and Wofford all had two players picked.

          Mercer hosts LaGrange on Nov. 5 in the season opener, three days before a visit from Western Kentucky.

Mercer’s Cummings makes preseason team; Bears picked where?

          Senior guard Ross Cummings is among the seven seniors named to the Southern Conference preseason all-conference men’s basketball team, as announced Monday at the conference basketball media day in Asheville, N.C.

          The conference media and coaches agreed on the predicted finish of everybody in the league, and both picked Mercer eighth out of 10.

          So new head coach Greg Gary doesn’t have much pressure on him.

          East Tennessee State is the favorite, while Isaiah Miller of UNCG is the player of the year.

          Cummings finished sixth in scoring in the conference last year at 17.4 points game.

          Mercer also returns Ethan Stair and Djordje Dimitrijevic on a roster that underwent a fairly serious shakeup after Gary was hired to replace the fired Bob Hoffman.

          The Bears, after hosting St. Andrews on Oct. 29 in an exhibition, open the season on Nov. 6 at St. John’s, two days before the home opener against Columbia International.