CHARLOTTE, N.C. — As the 2020-21 basketball season approaches, the Big South Conference announced its preseason awards and rankings at its Virtual Media Day on Tuesday. On the men’s side, the Hampton Pirates were picked ninth with tournament champion Winthrop picked to win the league.
For the women, the Lady Pirates were picked fourth in preseason voting behind Campbell, Radford, and High Point. Campbell received six first-place votes and totaled 112 points. Radford received two first-place votes and totaled 107 points. High Point received three first-place votes and totaled 104 points. The Lady Pirates received 86 total points for fourth place in voting.
[inArticle]
Junior Laren VanArsdale, the 2018-19 Big South Rookie of the Year and was selected to the 2019-20 preseason All-Conference second team, was awarded a preseason first-team All-Conference selection. Sophomore Nylah Young was also selected for preseason first-team All-Conference.
VanArsdale played and started all 29 games last season for Hampton, averaging 15.2 points, 2.7 rebounds, and 3.4 assists per contest. Shot 146-for-360 (40.6%) from the floor on the season. She was named BoxToRow National Player of the Week for the week ending February 16. VanArsdale had seven 20+ point games and seven games with six or more assists and scored a season-high of 31 points against Longwood. She finished 1st in scoring, and was 2nd in assists on the team, while she was first in minutes played (38.3mpg), fifth in scoring with (15.2 ppg) and eighth in assists (3.4 apg) in the Big South Conference. She earned a first-team selection as well as All-Academic, played a total of 1085 minutes, finished the season with 442 points, 56 steals, 100 assists, and 77 rebounds all in her sophomore season.
Young played in 29 games, making 27 starts for the Lady Pirates last season while averaging 12.7 points, 7.1 rebounds per contest as a freshman. She shot 137-for-366 (37.4%) from the floor and was 21-for-58 (36.2%) from beyond the arc on the season. Young was named Big South Freshman of the week for games played Jan. 6-12, Jan. 13-19, and Jan. 27-Feb. 2. She had six 20+ point games and recorded 10 double doubles on the season with a season high of 30 points against Longwood. She finished 1st in rebounds, and 3rd in scoring on the team. Young landed 11th in scoring with (12.7 ppg), tied for 10th in blocked shots (0.8 bpg) and 7th in rebounds (7.1 rpg) in the Big South Conference. She earned All-Freshman Team, played a total of 860 minutes, finished the season with 369 points, 42 steals, 16 assists, and 206 rebounds.