Hampton and Jermaine Marrow expected to contend for Big South title

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The 2018-19 Big South Conference Preseason Polls and All-Conference teams were announced on Tuesday at Media Day and the men’s basketball team was selected third in the poll and junior Jermaine Marrow was selected to the first team.

Defending champion Radford earned 28 of the 33 first-place votes to lead the preseason poll with 357 points. Winthrop had two first-place votes and picked second with 280 points while Hampton was third with 253 points and two first-place votes.

Hampton finished 19-16 last season, losing to North Carolina Central in the MEAC Tournament title game.

Marrow earned Preseason All-Conference honors along with Chris Clemons (Campbell), Ed Polite (Radford), Christian Keeling (Charleston Southern) and David Efianayi (Gardner-Webb). Clemons was selected as the Preseason Player of the Year.

After a season where he averaged 19.1 points, 5.4 assists and 5.0 rebounds, Marrow nearly recorded a triple-double against Bethune-Cookman with 35 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists. He had a career-high 11 assists against Mid-Atlantic Christian.

HU will also bring back contributors such as Akeem Mitchell, Kaylin Fisher and Lysander Bracey in addition to Marrow. It’s a solid core that should cause some noise in the Big South as it was starting to in the MEAC.