Vermont Once Again Tabbed Men's #AEHoops Favorites

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BOSTON – For the fifth-straight season, Vermont is the America East men’s basketball preseason favorite as the conference unveiled its preseason poll and all-conference team on Wednesday morning, exactly two weeks away from the start of the 2020-21 season. Additionally, five standout players were named to the league’s preseason all-conference team led by returning first-team All-America East selections, Obadiah Noel and Steph Smith.

Vermont, last year’s regular-season champion which reached the league championship game before its cancellation, received eight of 10 possible first-place votes and topped the poll with 80 points. The Catamounts are joined by Kentucky as the only team in the country to be tabbed their conference’s preseason favorite five years in a row. UMBC is second for the second-straight year earning the other two first-place votes and 72 points, while New Hampshire is third with 66 points, its best showing since the 2016-17 campaign.

Noel and Smith are joined by NJIT’s Zach Cooks, who is ready for his first season in America East after earning All-Atlantic Sun honors with the Highlanders last season. Juniors Nick Guadarrama (UNH) and Cam Healy (UAlbany) round out the team.

2020-21 America East Men’s Basketball Preseason Poll
No.        School                 Points (1^st Place Votes)
1.           Vermont                           80 (8)
2.           UMBC         72 (2)
3.           New Hampshire 66
4.           UAlbany 51
5.           Stony Brook                     44
6.           Hartford 43
7.           UMass Lowell                  38
8.           NJIT    28
T9.         Binghamton                     14
Maine 14

2020-21 America East Men’s Basketball Preseason All-Conference Team
Zach Cooks, Sr., Guard, NJIT
Nick Guadarrama, Jr. Forward, New Hampshire
Cam Healy, Jr., Guard, UAlbany
Obadiah Noel, Sr., Guard, UMass Lowell
Stef Smith, Sr., Guard, Vermont

Sixteen players who earned All-Conference, All-Defensive, or All-Rookie honors in the past return for 2019-20.

The 2020-21 season kicks off Nov. 25 with conference play slated to begin Dec. 12. America East announced its conference schedule on Nov. 2. With the addition of NJIT, each team is scheduled to play an 18-game, double round-robin schedule with teams playing weekend series where a team hosts the same opponent on back-to-back days for two games in order to reduce travel.

The league champion will earn an automatic berth into the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship, where America East teams have won nine games all-time, including UMBC’s historic upset of Virginia in 2018. After Vermont earned a #13 seed in the most recent tournament, the conference is in the midst of its best four-year seeding average since 1999-2002.

Fans will once again be able to watch every #AEHoops home game on The AE on ESPN. The majority of games will air on ESPN+ or ESPN3 while one of the five conference matchups on Feb. 18 will be nationally televised on ESPNU.

Follow the @AEHoopsNews Twitter account to stay up-to-date on #AEHoops news all season long.

About America East: The America East provides its member schools and their athletic programs a platform upon which student-athletes can achieve both collegiate and life success through the promotion and nurturing of athletic excellence, academic achievement, and leadership, on and off the field.