The McNeese Men’s Basketball team, under new head coach Will Wade, have a ton of expectation going into the 2023-2024 season.
After a strong transfer class and the return of star forward Christian Shumate, the Cowboys were picked to finish second in the Southland Conference, the league announced.
Tuesday is the season’s official start with Southland Conference Media Day at the Grand Casino Coushatta Resort in Kinder.
Shumate, an all-conference player last season, returns and finds himself on the preseason all-Southland first team along with TCU transfer Shahada Wells. College of the Sequoias transfer Javohn Garcia is on the preseason second team.
The Cowboys have been picked for their highest finish in the league since being the preseason pick to win the Southland in 2011-2012, a year after winning their last conference title. McNeese tallied 142 points in this year’s preseason poll and six first-place votes. The poll is conducted by head coaches and communications directors from each program.
Southeastern was picked first in the poll with 144 points and six first-place votes. UNO was picked third (132), followed by Texas A&M-CC (124), Northwestern State (84), Nicholls (71), Texas A&M-Commerce (66), Houston Christian (50), Lamar (45), and Incarnate Word (42).
The conference’s first team is as follows:
- Christian Shumate, McNeese
- Shahada Wells, McNeese
- Jordan Johnson, UNO
- Roger McFarlane, Southeastern
- Bonke Maring, HCU
Meanwhile, the second team has just one player from Wade’s squad:
- Javohn Garica, McNeese
- Nick Caldwell, Southeastern
- Alec Woodard, Southeastern
- Micah Tomas, Nicholls
- Tyson Jackson, UNO
- Jerome Brewster Jr., Texas A&M-Commerce
McNeese and Southeastern each had three selections, the most in the league, UNO had two, and HCU, TAMUC, and Nicholls each placed one player on the preseason teams.