Apparently coaches around the Northeast Conference placed more importance on one player that Mount St. Mary's lost than on the team's nine wins in a row to get the NEC Tournament title game last season.
The Mount was picked to finish sixth out of 10 teams in a poll of the league's coaches that was announced on Tuesday at the NEC's social media event at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.
The Mountaineers return five players who started at least 10 games a year ago. They had been picked to finish as high as first in the conference by some national publications. But their stock was downgraded a bit when reigning NEC Rookie of the Year Shivaughn Wiggins announced in mid-August that he was transferring to Coastal Carolina.
Wagner was picked to finish first. The Seahawks received first-place votes from seven of the 10 coaches. Robert Morris and Bryant each earned enough votes to tie for second in the preseason poll, followed by reigning league champion LIU Brooklyn and Central Connecticut State.
"The league is so tough," said MSM coach Jamion Christian said during a media day interview streamed live over the NEC website. "Game in, game out it's going to be very competitive.
"I just love our league."
Christian turned around a program that had suffered through consecutive losing seasons and instituted a new style of play he dubbed "mayhem" that featured full-court pressing on defense and quick 3-point shots on offense.
The Mount went 18-14 last year, closing the regular season with seven consecutive wins and then winning a pair of road games in the NEC tourney before falling at LIU Brooklyn in the NEC Championship game. The 18 wins are the fourth-most in a season since the school moved to Division I in 1988-89.
"Our players did an unbelievable job of buying into our system and just believing in the three things we talk about: Share, shoot, suffocate," Christian said.
One of those players, senior Julian Norfleet, joined Christian in Brooklyn on Tuesday. He said it's "a lot of fun" to play in the Mount's system.
"It definitely is. Everybody gets to touch the ball," he said. "We all share it. And everybody gets the opportunity to score."
Norfleet has filled many roles during his career, often having to switch roles in the middle of the season. This year, he's entrenched as the team's point guard and its unquestioned leader.
"I take pride in just trying to be whatever the team needs to be," he said. "I just go out there every night and try to be the missing link ... and help our team get through any adverse time that we might go through."
After the Mount, St. Francis Brooklyn was picked seventh, Sacred Heart eighth, St. Francis (Pa.) ninth and Fairleigh Dickinson last. (Former NEC members Quinnipiac and Monmouth bolted from the league July 1.)
The preaseason all-NEC team consists of Jason Brickman of LIU, Jalen Cannon of St. Francis Brooklyn, Kyle Vinales of Central Connecticut, and Bryant teammates Alex Francis and Dyami Starks.
The Mount opens Nov. 8 at West Virginia, one of five road games to begin the season. The MSM home opener is set for Nov. 23 at American. While NEC play won't begin until January, Christian said he is excited about the teams the Mountaineers will be seeing.
"Many different styles of play [in the NEC]," he said. "For a Thursday night game you may need to be ready to go against a zone attack and on Saturday you may need to go against pressure man to man.
"It's great for basketball."
