CIAA Basketball: Virginia State, WSSU division favorites

Football season is in mid-swing right now, but in the CIAA it’s always about the CIAA Basketball Tournament.

The conference released its predicted finish list for men’s hoops on Thursday, and Virginia State was crowned as the team to beat, finishing ahead of Northern Division rivals Bowie State and Virginia Union in the overall predicted finish.

Winston-Salem State was predicted to win the CIAA’s Southern Division and finish fourth overall in the conference.

	Overall Predicted Order	2016-17 Team Record Overall/Conf./Div.	2017-18 Head Coach	2017-18 Schedule	Notes
1	Virginia State University, 107 pts.	8-2 / 13-3 / 22-8	Lonnie Blow, Jr.	Schedule
2	Bowie State University, 101 pts.	5-5 / 9-7 / 16-15	Darrell Brooks	Schedule
3	Virginia Union University, 96 pts.	8-2 / 14-2 / 22-8	Jay Butler	Schedule	2016-17 Coach of the Year
4	Winston-Salem State University, 78 pts.	6-4 / 8-8 / 13-14	James Wilhelmi	Schedule
5	Shaw University, 74 pts.	8-2 / 10-6 / 14-13	Joel Hopkins	Schedule
6	Fayetteville State University, 64 pts.	4-6 / 6-10 / 13-16	Ken Spencer	Schedule
7	Johnson C. Smith University, 62 pts.	3-7 / 6-10 / 11-17	Stephen Joyner, Sr.	Schedule
8	Livingstone College, 58 pts.	6-4 / 7-9 / 11-17	James Stinson	Schedule
9	Saint Augustine’s University, 51 pts.	3-7 / 6-10 / 11-17	MarQus Johnson	Schedule
10	Chowan University, 37 pts.	6-4 / 10-6 / 18-9	Brett Vincent	Schedule
11	Lincoln (PA) University, 30 pts.	2-8 / 5-11 / 7-20	Doug Overton	Schedule
12	Elizabeth City State University, 16 pts.	1-9 / 2-14 / 2-23	John Hill	Schedule

Bowie State, the defending CIAA Champ, returns several key players, including guard Ahmaad Wilson. The senior guard caught fire in the tournament, winning MVP honors as BSU turned into Cinderella in Charlotte.

The preseason All-CIAA team is made up of twelve players from six teams. Bowie (Wilson, Omari George), Johnson C. Smith (Christian Kirchman and Robert Davis) St. Aug (Kenneth Collins and Quincy January), Virginia State (Walter Williams and Richard Granberry) Virginia Union (James Paige and Kory Cooley)and Winston-Salem State (Robert Colon and William Crandell) all placed two players each.