A year after winning the Sunshine State Conference Tournament championship and advancing to the semifinals of the NCAA Division II South Regional, Florida Southern College men’s basketball has been selected to finish second in the SSC Preseason Coaches Poll, the conference office announced on Wednesday. The Moccasins, who finished 25-8 last season and finished third in the SSC regular-season standings, received 85 points and two first-place votes in the poll.
Nova Southeastern, which won last year’s SSC regular-season title, was selected to finish first with 98 points and eight first-place votes. Barry and Lynn tied for third with 69 points, while Saint Leo came in at the No. 5 spot with 60 points and the remaining first-place vote. Palm Beach Atlantic (No. 6), Rollins (No. 7), Tampa (No. 8), Eckerd (No. 9), Florida Tech (No. 10), and Embry-Riddle (No. 11) rounded out the rest of the poll.
“This is such a great conference,” said Florida Southern head coach Mike Donnelly. “Despite losing many terrific players to graduation, the programs in the SSC have reloaded their rosters and we know our games will be competitive night-in and night-out. We have added a lot of great talent to our roster as well, and our returners have improved and are ready to defend last year’s SSC Tournament Championship.”
The SSC Preseason Coaches Poll has been a very accurate predictor of the regular-season champion, having selected the SSC champion (outright or tied) 11 times since the 2000-01 campaign, including five of the past six years. However, only six teams picked to win the SSC regular-season title since 2000-01 have gone on to win the SSC Tournament title, and only five times has a team swept both the regular-season and tournament titles.
Florida Southern returns a pair of starters from last year in SSC Tournament MVP Brett Hanson (17.9 ppg) and senior forward Jack Rauch (9.4 ppg). In addition, the Mocs bring back three other players who appeared in at least 30 games a year ago in DeAndre Campbell, Kai Cleary, and E.J. Dambreville, along with veteran guards Josh Brown and Jacob Schner. Florida Southern also added six newcomers over the summer, including Division I transfers Brandon Carroll (Bryant) and Jalyn Hinton (Jacksonville). Senior transfer Jair Rodgers (Concord) led all of Division II in three-pointers per game in 2018-19 (4.03) and averaged more than 20.0 points per game.
The Moccasins kick off the regular season when they take on Delta State (Nov. 9) at the annual GSC/SSC Challenge. Florida Southern will also face West Alabama (Nov. 10) at the Challenge, and will be on the road at USC Aiken (Nov. 16), Embry-Riddle (Nov. 20), and Barry (Nov. 23). The home schedule for the Moccasins begins with games at the Terrace Hotel Thanksgiving Classic against New Haven (Nov. 29) and Valdosta (Nov. 30).
Below are the full results of the 2019-20 SSC preseason coaches poll. Coaches are not allowed to vote for their own team (points: 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1, first-place votes in parentheses).
2019 SSC MEN’S BASKETBALL PRESEASON COACHES POLL
| Rank | School | Points (FPV) |
| 1 | Nova Southeastern | 98 (8) |
| 2 | Florida Southern | 85 (2) |
| T3 | Barry | 69 |
| T3 | Lynn | 69 |
| 5 | Saint Leo | 60 (1) |
| 6 | Palm Beach Atlantic | 45 |
| 7 | Rollins | 43 |
| 8 | Tampa | 42 |
| 9 | Eckerd | 41 |
| 10 | Florida Tech | 29 |
| 11 | Embry-Riddle | 24 |