The 2019-20 Summit League men’s basketball season is expected to be a highly-contested journey all the way to the first week of March and a strong indicator of that is nearly half of the programs received first-place votes in the preseason poll.
And, after all the votes were tabulated, it was 2019 Tournament Champion North Dakota State that found itself on top of that poll after receiving 23 of 34 first-place votes from a panel of the league’s nine head coaches, sports information directors and select media members.
South Dakota followed NDSU in second place with six first-place votes and 457 total points. The Coyotes have Preseason Player of the Year Stanley Umude.
Umude is the first Coyote to earn that distinction since USD joined the league prior to the 2011-12 season.
Oral Roberts was pegged to finish third in the poll. After its runner-up finish from a year ago, Omaha was picked to finish fourth.
South Dakota State’s Eric Henderson inherits a Jackrabbits’ squad that has won the last four regular-season titles. The Jacks are picked to finish fifth, while receiving the final two first-place votes.
