BURNSVILLE — The Southwest Minnesota State men’s basketball team was picked to finish seventh in the South Division in the annual Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Preseason Coaches’ poll released on Thursday.

Augustana was selected to win the South Division with 46 points and earning four first place votes. Sioux Falls was picked second with 41 points and three first place votes, while Winona State was picked to finish third with 36 points and one first place vote. Minnesota State recorded 31 points to place fourth, followed by Upper Iowa in fifth place with 30 points, Concordia-St. Paul in sixth with 15 points, SMSU seventh with 14 points and Wayne State in eighth place with 11 points.

Northern State was selected to win the NSIC North Division with 49 points and seven first place votes, with MSU Moorhead slated to finish second with 43 points.

Due to a reduced 14-game NSIC schedule this winter, no overall champion was selected in the poll. All NSIC schools are scheduled to play 16 regular season games with 14 conference games versus teams from their own division.

SMSU will look to rebound this season after finishing the 2019-20 season with an 8-21 record, including 5-17 in NSIC. Last season’s team did not have a senior on the roster and had five sophomores, redshirt freshmen or true freshmen play a majority of the minutes.

SMSU head coach Brad Bigler, the program’s all-time wins leader with 187 and two-time NSIC Coach of the Year, begins his 12th season at the helm and has a roster with 17 players. The 2020-21 roster features three seniors, one junior, four sophomores, four redshirt freshmen and five true freshmen.

This season’s team will be fairly young once again as two expected returning starters will miss the 2020-21 season. Senior guard Kenny Byers, who was named second team All-NSIC last season after leading the team in scoring, rebounding and assists, will opt out. He is expected to return in 2021-22. Junior guard Grant Kramer averaged 7.2 ppg in 20 games in 2019-20, but will miss this season due to injury.

Mustang senior guard Nick Dufault headlines the returning players this winter and was named a “Player to Watch” in the NSIC. Dufault played in 27 games with 13 starts last season and ranked second on the team in scoring (10.8) and connected on a team-high 55 3-pointers. He begins the season ranked 10th in team history in 3-point field goal pct. (40.5), while his 148 career 3-pointers ranks 12th in program history.

Also back is sophomore guard Cliff McCray, who started every game as a true freshman a season ago and averaged 8.7 ppg with 31 3-pointers and dishing out 58 assists. Sophomore center Jake Phipps had a strong finish to the 2019-20 season and closed the year averaging 7.6 ppg and shooting 63 percent from the field, which ranks third best in team single-season history. Senior forward Weston Baker-Magrath is another returning starter after setting a team single-season record last year with 57 blocked shots.

Also returning is sophomore forward Brian Dayman, who appeared in 29 games with 26 starts a season ago and averaged 4.3 ppg and 3.5 ppg. Redshirt freshman guard Kaden Evans, who missed all but six games last season due to injury, returns after averaging 3.8 ppg and making five 3-pointers in 2019-20.

SMSU opens the regular season on Jan. 2-3 with two non-conference games at Minot State. The Mustangs open NSIC South Division play on Jan. 8-9 hosting Winona State.

The NSIC Sanford Tournament will also change this season with an eight-team format instead of the traditional 16-team tournament. The top four teams in each division will qualify for the tournament which will take place Feb. 25-28 at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, S.D.

— Content courtesy

of SMSU Athletic

Communications