From IUP Sports Information
In what has become an annual occurrence, the IUP men’s basketball team is included in the NCAA.com Division II men’s basketball preseason Power 10 ranking, recently put together by Wayne Cavaldi.
Cavaldi releases his power poll each week during the regular season, with the Crimson Hawks a consistent name included in the top-10 during its existence.
IUP opens the 2020-21 season at No. 10 according to Cavaldi, the only school from the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) and one of only two from the Atlantic Region. Here’s Cavaldi’s notes:
No. 8 Indiana (Pa). It’s not a DII men’s basketball preseason poll without a mention of Coach Joe Lombardi’s squad. Four starters return, including Armoni Foster who should be a PSAC player of the year candidate. The key here is the return of Tommy Demogerontas who was averaging 16 points and nine rebounds per game before getting hurt in just the fourth game of the 2018-19 season.
The Crimson Hawks boast five players with starting experience from last year’s conference championship team, including preseason All-American junior guard Armoni Foster and forward Ethan Porterfield, last year’s PSAC West Freshman of the Year. Foster averaged a team-high 19.8 points per game while Porterfield averaged 10.3 points and was among the league leaders with 54 blocks.
Senior guard Shawndale Jones scored more than 10 points per game and shot nearly 54 percent as IUP’s top reserve a year ago. Junior point guard Dave Morris enters his second year as a starter after averaging 9.5 points, 4.1 assists and 2.0 steals in 2019-20. Forward Tommy Demogerontas looks for a strong return, averaging 16.8 points and 9.0 rebounds through four games last season before losing it to injury.
IUP was also tabbed as the preseason No. 5 team by the Basketball Times last month.
The PSAC suspended all sports during the 2020 fall semester, so the Crimson Hawks cannot start their abbreviated year until January 2021. No schedule or start date has been determined by the conference.
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