3MW’s All Conference Team:
Player of the Year: Jibri Blount, R Sr., North Carolina Central
Coach of the Year: Willie Jones, North Carolina A&T
Newcomer of the Year: Jermaine Bishop, R Sr., Norfolk State
Freshman of the Year: Wayne Bristol, Howard
Season Storylines:
The story of the season in the MEAC was North Carolina A&T’s surge under interim coach Willie Jones, who slammed the gas pedal and guided the Aggies to the brink of a conference title before falling to North Carolina Central on the season’s final day.
Those NC Central Eagles clinched the title (and the 1-seed) with that victory, and despite the loss of Randy Miller to injury early in the season, LeVelle Moton’s squad had enough firepower to complement the league’s best defense. As usual, down-transfers played a huge role in deciding the outcome of the league, as NCCU leaned on Player of the Year Jibri Blount (Cleveland State), C.J. Keyser (Wichita State), and Ty Graves (Boston College/Saint Louis), while Norfolk State got a major boost from Jermaine Bishop (also Saint Louis).
Coppin State was the story of the non-conference portion of the year, winning at MVC power Loyola (Chicago), East Carolina, and James Madison en route to a stellar 10-5 ATS performance in November and December. That gravy train ran out for a while when Kamar McKnight vanished from the roster for most of January and February, though.
Howard managed to “outrace” Delaware State and UMES to the bottom; a look at Howard’s KenPom roster page is nauseating with all of the ins and outs of the lineup (for various reasons). Meanwhile, Dayton transfer John Crosby was a monster for Hornets, and it was entirely too predictable that a guy going from Dayton to Delaware State would rank 2nd in the league in usage rate.
Tournament Preview
The league tournament returns to Scope Arena in Norfolk (not Norfolk State’s home gym), where it has been held since 2013. Florida A&M is home on their couches due to “a lack of institutional control,” a great corporate speak of buzz words that says pretty much nothing.
This tournament has a clear top two, in my opinion: despite the aforementioned brilliance of Willie Jones at North Carolina A&T, this comes down to North Carolina Central and Norfolk State. If you’re looking for value in a pick’em league, Norfolk is the clear choice: the 3-seed Spartans are actually the highest-rated team in KenPom, and they’re obviously playing quite close to home. This event has belonged to LeVelle Moton lately, as his Eagles have won it three straight times (and four of the last six), and he has certainly won it with less talented teams than his current one.
I don’t love any of the bottom half of the field to make a deep run, though with Kamar McKnight back, I would likely have taken Coppin State over NC A&T in the quarterfinals had that matchup happened. As it stands, I don’t think Juan Dixon and the boys can take down Norfolk.
Tournament Predictions
(8) Delaware State over (9) UMES
(7) South Carolina State over (10) Howard
(1) North Carolina Central over (8) Delaware State
(4) Bethune-Cookman over (5) Morgan State
(2) North Carolina A&T over (7) South Carolina State
(3) Norfolk State over (6) Coppin State
(1) North Carolina Central over (4) Bethune-Cookman
(3) Norfolk State over (2) North Carolina A&T
(1) North Carolina Central over (3) Norfolk State