The 2016-17 Men's Basketball USA South preseason coaches poll saw the Piedmont College Men's Basketball team earn the No. 2 spot overall. The Lions received 77 points in the poll including one first place vote as head coaches do not vote for their own teams in the preseason poll.
The Lions are coming off a 15-11 season a year ago finishing as the sixth seed in the USA South dropping their quarterfinal matchup with Greensboro as the Pride hit a layup with six seconds to go to seal the victory. The 15-11 finish is the best in Head Coach Greg Neeley's career with the Lions and the best since the 2009-2010 season when the Lions finished 15-11 as well.
The top spot in the poll belonged to LaGrange College as the Panthers reached the finals of the USA South Tournament championship a year ago and earned a bid to the NCAA Division III Tournament for the third consecutive year. LaGrange took four of the available 11 first place votes with 90 points overall.
Coming in behind Piedmont was Covenant College in third place with 70 points and three first place votes as the Scots are the defending USA South tournament champions. Just behind Covenant by a single point was Maryville with 69 points and a first place vote. Fifth place was a tie between Greensboro and William Peace, each with 59 points.
The final two first place votes belong to the seventh and eighth ranked teams as N.C. Wesleyan tallied 55 points in seventh place while Averett had 48 points in eighth place, both taking on first place vote. The final three spots belong to Ferrum in ninth (46 points), Huntingdon in 10th (20 points) and Methodist in 11th (12 points).
The men's basketball regular season gets underway on Tuesday, Nov. 15 as many of the conference's 11 teams are in action.
The 2017 USA South Tournament will once again head to campus sites as the top-seeded team will host all three rounds of the tournament. The tournament will begin on Thursday, Feb. 23 and conclude on Saturday, Feb. 25. The top-eight seeded teams after the conclusion of regular season competition will advance to the tournament.
