
Men’s Basketball picked third in preseason SAC poll; quartet make watch list
ROCK HILL, S.C. – The defending South Atlantic Conference co-regular season and tournament champion Catawba College men's basketball team was ranked third in the league's preseason coaches' poll with four student-athletes named players to watch per Friday release.
Lincoln Memorial and Carson-Newman tied at the top of the standings with 137 points and six first-place votes apiece. The Railsplitters shared the regular season chip with Catawba in 2023-24, giving LMU its fifth consecutive conference crown. Paced by three returning all-league selections, the Eagles are favored to rise into the SAC's top three following a fourth-place finish a year ago.
At 125 points and one first-place nod, the Catawba Indians fill the third position after receiving back-to-back regular season and tournament hardware. Wingate trailed the blue and white by 20 points in fourth as Tusculum, Anderson, Coker, and Lenoir-Rhyne took spots 5-8 with just 11 points of separation.
UVA Wise was selected ninth as 2022-23 SAC Player of the Year Bradley Dean returns from a one-year stint at Division I Miami (Ohio). Newberry and Limestone are expected to finish 10th and 11th, respectively, while Mars Hill and Emory & Henry nabbed the poll's final two slots.
The SAC Preseason Players to Watch list included Catawba's Kris Robinson, O'Mazeon Tinsley, Justin Banks, and Montraivis White.
As a junior, Robinson finished second on the team with 11.3 points per game and posted a team-high 37.6 three-point percentage in 24 starts. The Lincolnton, N.C. product has built a reputation for shining in clutch moments, swishing threes to send both the SAC title game against LMU and the NCAA Tournament First Round matchup with UNC Pembroke to overtime where Catawba pulled out victories.
In April 2024, FloSports warned the Instagram world "don't sleep on O'Mazeon Tinsley" for a reason as the Lancaster, S.C. native is intent on having a rudely-awakening senior campaign. A pace-changing guard for the previous three seasons, Tinsley is lined up to be a primary piece of the Catawba frontcourt after averaging 5.9 points with a team-best 1.8 assist-to-turnover ratio.
Banks, a junior forward from Schaumburg, Ill., wreaked havoc in the paint with the SAC's second-best block total of 36 and wound up fifth with 2.2 offensive rebounds per contest. Banks came off the bench to record a 21-point, 10-board double-double in a 92-89 triumph over Coker on Jan. 3.
A 2023-24 SAC All-Freshman Team selection, White shot a consistent 36.4 percent from long range with 6.7 points per game. Hailing from Jenkinsville, S.C., White emerged as a key distributor for the Catawba Indians and is the top returner in assists, dishing out 2.5 dimes per matchup as a rookie.
Head Men's Basketball Coach Rob Perron brings a 193-177 record into his 11th season at the helm in Salisbury. The third-winningest coach in Catawba history, Perron has broken the 20-win barrier in four of the last six seasons with two SAC championships, three league tournament titles, and four NCAA Regional appearances.
Catawba opens its 2024-25 campaign receiving votes in the Top 25 poll, getting the action started on Friday, Nov. 8 at Goodman Arena against fellow vote-getter Lander. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.