Samford MBB Picked 1st, WBB Picked 3rd in Preseason Polls
Talking season for Southern Conference basketball continued with SoCon Media Day.
The Field of 68 Media Network hosted a virtual media day over on their YouTube page complete with interviews from every coach and selected players from every team. The original day was postponed from a couple weeks ago due to the effects of Hurricane Helene around the state of North Carolina.
Both Samford basketball teams were firmly in the spotlight as Bucky McMillan’s squad was picked to repeat as SoCon champions by the coaches. G Rylan Jones and Tulane transfer F Collin Holloway were selected to the Preseason All-SoCon Team.
Meanwhile Carley Kuhns’ team was picked to finish tied for third in the Southern Conference. Sophomore G Kennedy Langham made the All-SoCon team. Langham was the SoCon’s Freshman of the Year last season.
Bucky Ball returns just one starter from a season ago but brought in a highly regarded transfer portal class highlighted by Collin Holloway. Holloway joins two other former high-major transfers in Mississippi State G Trey Fort and Vanderbilt G Isaiah West on this Samford roster.
So what must Samford do to repeat? McMillan answered that question and it all starts in the locker room.
“At the end of the day in the SoCon we went 15-3 last year and 15-3 the year before. There’s a lot of close games in there, so that could flip either way in those years. Same deal in the tournament (SoCon) those games in Asheville will be decided by 1,2, 3, or 4 points. “We’re gonna have to make sure at the end of the day that there is just an intense desire to win from within the locker room. They are going to do everything necessary, not for the coach, but because they have that in them that there is enough invested with each other that they’re going to do something extremely special.”
McMillan mentioned someone like Jermaine Marshall from last season who you could tell, wanted it more than anybody.
Rylan Jones was asked what he thought of the high-major transfers that McMillan brought in and what they bring to the table. One phrase that he used was high level.
This version of Bucky Ball will also be extremely fun to watch.
For the Samford women, they return G Kennedy Langham and C Emily Bowman among others. Kuhns’s group has a veteran laden group with eight upperclassmen. They also brought in some transfers of their own in former Richmond G Kylee Lewandowski and UCF G Sierra Godbolt.
Kuhns talked about what goes into motivating an older team.
“I think this group honestly does that a lot on their own. One, they are motivated. We had kind of a down year last year and anytime that happens you should be internally motivated. We’ve got kids that have never won championships and want to win a championship before they leave. I think a lot of that is driven with our senior leadership and people that just are here that want to win.”
The Samford women have multiple players that have grown and are growing up in this program. There is a good nucleus of older players that know what it takes to win. F Annie Ramil returned to the team after a two year break and adds another experienced player who has won a SoCon title before.
Samford men’s basketball opens their season on November 4th at home against Mississippi College while the Samford women start on November 5th at the Tennessee Volunteers. Basketball season is almost here, you can feel it.
