Men's Basketball Predicted 10th in First Season in AMCC
The Alfred State men's basketball team has been predicted to finish 10th in the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference preseason rankings. 2019-20 will be the first year that the Pioneers will compete in the AMCC.
La Roche is the coaches pick to be the top team in the AMCC. The Red Hawks won the 2018-19 regular season but Penn State Behrend earned the AMCC automatic bid to the NCAA DIII Tournament with a 67-65 victory in the AMCC Tournament Championship game. La Roche junior forward Tyler Frederick has been named the AMCC Preseason Player of the Year. Frederick is coming off of a stellar sophomore campaign in 2018-19. He averaged a double-double with 14.4 points per game and 10.2 rebounds per game in 27 games last season.
The back court duo of Ryan Gentile (Spencerport) and Josh Redding (Spencerport) will be asked to lead the Pioneers this season. Gentile averaged 9.2 points and 2.4 rebounds in 17 games last year while Redding averaged 8.2 points and 2.0 rebounds in 27 games last year. The Pioneers will have to replace the production on both sides of the court of six players that graduated from last year's 15-12 team.
The 2019-20 schedule features 25 games including 20 AMCC games (one home and one away). The Pioneers open up next Friday (11/15) when they co-host the Special Tees Tournament with Alfred University. Friday's action will be at the Orvis Activities Center with Alfred State taking on Clarkson at 7 p.m. after AU takes on Cobleskill. The tournament continues on Saturday with Alfred State taking on Cobleskill at 2 p.m. at Alfred University.
The AMCC Championship will be held Saturday, February 29 at the site of the number one seed, with the winner earning the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
AMCC Pre-Season Rankings (Number in parenthesis is order of 2019 regular season finish, 2019-20 is Alfred State's first year in the AMCC)
1. La Roche (1)
2. Mount Aloysius (4)
3. Penn State Behrend (2)
4. Franciscan (T5)
5. Medaille (3)
6. Hilbert (T7)
7. Pitt-Greensburg (9)
8. Penn State Altoona (T7)
9. D'Youville (T5)
10. Alfred State
11. Pitt-Bradford (10)
