2020 ASUN Player of the Year:
6’8 JR C Ahsan Asadullah, Lipscomb
2020 ASUN Coach of the Year:
Lennie Acuff, Lipscomb
ASUN Standings:
1. Lipscomb
Plenty for Head Coach Lennie Acuff to build on after finishing their season playing Liberty for the ASUN Championship. 6’8 JR C Ahsan Asadullah returns to the Bisons for his Junior season after his break out year (18.6 ppg, 10.1 rpg) and is joined by Sophomore Guard KJ Johnson who had a solid freshman season last year averaging 11.2 ppg, and JR G Greg Jones who averaged 8.5 ppg last year for the Bisons.
Departures:
Michael Buckland (10.0 ppg)
Andrew Fleming (9.7 ppg)
Additions:
6’1 G Tommy Murr
6’2 G Will Pruitt
Possible Starting Lineup:
G-KJ Johnson
G-Greg Jones
G-Miles Miller
F-Jacob Hobbs
C-Ahsan Asadullah
2. Stetson
Head Coach Donnie Jones turned a 7-24 Hatter team from the previous season, into a 16 win team and has changed the culture of Stetson in his first season in Deland.
The emergence of ASUN Freshman of the Year: Rob Perry (15.1 ppg) and C/F 6’10 Mahamadou Diawara (12.5 ppg, 6.5 rpg) provide a perfect tandem and and the heart and soul of the Hatters offense. Don’t sleep on Christiaan Jones though, who was their top scorer before the emergence of Diawara and Perry last season.
Departures:
Jahlil Rawley (7.2 ppg)
Jalen Crutchfield (2.0 ppg)
Ricky Goutey (0.4 ppg)
Cyriaque Foucart (0.4 ppg)
Additions:
7’1 C Gabriel Wuor
6’3 G Giancarlo Valdez
6’5 G Keith Lamar
6’2 G Stephan Swenson
6’8 F Josh Smith
Possible Starting Lineup:
G-Rob Perry
G-Christiaan Jones
G-Kenny Aninye
F-Joel Kabimba
C-Mahamadou Diawara
3. Liberty
Liberty returns a team without four starters from last season’s team that won the ASUN championship. Head Coach Richie McKay is one hell of a coach and you know that he will get the best out of whatever starting five players are on the court. 5’9 JR G Darius McGhee (9.5 ppg) returns as the leading scorer of the team and is joined by 6’4 SR F Elijah Cuffee (7.0 ppg). 6’7 F Kyle Rode provided a nice spark off the bench and will be another player counted on for the Flames next season as a starter.
Subtractions:
Caleb Homesley (15.3 ppg)
Scottie James (10.8 ppg)
Georgie Pacheco-Ortiz (10.7 ppg)
Myo Baxter-Bell (7.4 ppg)
Additions:
6’7 F Micaiah Abii
6’1 G Drake Dobbs
6’4 G Jonathan Jackson
6’3 G Isiah Warfield
Possible Starting Lineup:
G-Darius McGhee
G-Elijah Cuffee
F-Kyle Rode
F-Shiloh Robinson
F-Blake Preston
4. North Florida
UNF returns their leading scorer and only starter from last season’s team: Carter Hendrickson (14.9 ppg) who had a standout season as an underclassman for the Osprey’s. Coach Driscoll is in a rebuilding season but JR G Josh Endicott (3.9 ppg) and R-SO G Dorian James (3.5 ppg) return from last year’s team and will be counted on for big minutes as starting guards this season. You can always count on UNF scheduling a difficult non-conference schedule and a UNF/UF matchup has already been announced.
Subtractions:
Garrett Sams (14.8 ppg)
Ivan Gandia-Rosa (13.8 ppg)
J.T. Escobar (11.1 ppg)
Wajid Aminu (11.0 ppg)
Ezekiel Balogun (2.2 ppg)
Additions:
6’6 F Garrett Hursey
6’8 G/F Josh Berenbaum
6’10 F Jadyn Parker
6’7 G Jacob Crews
6’9 F Jonathan Aybar
Possible Starting Lineup:
G-Emmanuel Adedoyin
G-Ryan Burkhardt
G-Dorian James
F-Carter Hendrickson
F-Josh Endicott
5. Northern Alabama
Coach Pujol and UNA head into year 3 in the ASUN and playing NCAA Division 1 basketball looking to improve from finishing last season as a #5 seed and ending their season losing to #4 seed Stetson.
The Lions lost their leading scorer, Christian Agnew (12.8 ppg), who is currently in the NCAA transfer portal, so they will be counting on 6’1 JR G Jamari Blackmon (12.3 ppg) and 6’7 SO F Mervin James (9.9 ppg) to lead the team this season.
Subtractions:
Christian Agnew (12.8 ppg)
Logan Windeler (1.0 ppg)
Cameron Diggs (2.0 ppg)
Additions:
6’0 G De’Marquise “Duke” Miles
6’5 G Will Soucie
Possible Starting Lineup:
G-Jamari Blackmon
G-Tavion King
G-Emanuel Littles
F-James Andersen II
F-Mervin James
6. NJIT
Coach Brian Kennedy looks for improvements after a frustrating 2nd half of the season for the Highlanders. SR G Zach Cooks returns to lead NJIT NJIT will be looking for help with the loss of Shyquan Gibbs and Reilly Walsh.
San Antonio Brinson carried NJIT in the early part of the ASUN schedule, scoring 37 points against UNF in a huge road win for the Highlanders, so he has a chance to pair with Cooks and be one of the better Guard/Forward tandems in the conference when healthy.
Departures:
Shyquan Gibbs (8.2 ppg)
Reilly Walsh (5.0 ppg)
Additions:
6’4 G Mekhi Gray
6’3 G Adetokunbo “Tokes” Bakare
Possible Starting Lineup:
G-Zach Cooks
G-Diego Willis
G-Levar Williams
F- San Antonio Brinson
F-Souleymane Diakite
7. FGCU
Coach Michael Fly is left scrapping for relevant players after another down year for the Eagles. The Eagles don’t have the swagger from previous seasons and struggled to score during most of the season. FGCU dropped critical games last season that could have changed the trajectory of their season and with Coach Fly in the final year of his contract this season, he has plenty of questions to answer with this current roster.
Leading scorer 6’5 JR G Caleb Catto (12.7 ppg) returns to the team looking to play two complete halves of basketball. Catto is a solid guard but sometimes can get lost in the shuffle in games. 6’3 SR G Jalen Warren (10.9 ppg) is in his 2nd year with the program and if he can count down on turnovers he could be huge for the Eagles if is still in the starting lineup season.
With the departure of Zach Scott, 6’1 G Cyrus Largie received a scholarship and is no longer a walk on and could be a solid 6th man off the bench if the coaching staff uses him the right way. Sam Gagliardi has been a major disappointment so far but if he can find a rhythm in his role, he could hit some big shots off the bench.
Departures:
Zach Scott (10.8 ppg)
Malik Hardy (4.5 ppg)
Tracy Hector Jr (2.8 ppg)
Brian Thomas (2.0 ppg)
Ryan Roucant (0.5 ppg)
Kyle Hoffman (0.3 ppg)
Christian Carlyle (redshirt due to injury)
Additions:
6’5 G Victor Rosa
6’3 G Luis Rolon
6’0 G Dom London
6’7 F Zachary Anderson
6’8 GR F Eli Abaev (transfer from Austin Peay)
Possible Starting Lineup:
G-Caleb Catto
G-Jalen Warren
G-Cyrus Largie
F-Eli Abaev
F-Justus Rainwater
8. Jacksonville
JU is another one of those teams that seems to finish towards the bottom in the ASUN every season. Head Coach Tony Jasick really hasn’t done enough to warrant keeping his job and is constantly on the hot seat joining Coach Fly.
JU returns leading scorer 6’7 SR F/G Destin Barnes (12.1 ppg) who is going to have his hands full with the departures of Bell, McCallum, and Santos. Samford transfer, Kevion Nolan gets right to work in the starting lineup looking to make JU relevant again. The Boozer twins will try to replace the size lost by Bell in the post.
Subtractions:
David Bell (12 ppg, 10 rpg)
DeAnthony McCallum (8.1 ppg)
Aamahne Santos (7.9 ppg)
Additions:
6’9 F Zameron Boozer
6’10 C Cameron Boozer
6’8 F Tyrese Powers
Possible Starting Lineup:
G-Kevin Norman
G-Kevion Nolan
G-Mo Arnold
F-Bryce Workman
F-Destin Barnes
9. Kennesaw State
Coach Abdur-Rahim and the Owls had as bad of a season last season that they could have had, finishing 1-28 and dropping their last twenty games in a row.
The roster is pretty much starting from scratch losing 3 of 5 starters and a majority of the scoring. G Tyler Hooker was a household name and staple for the Owls at point guard, and it is now a youth movement at KSU.
Optimistically, this year’s class brought is the top recruiting class in the ASUN, and the Owls were able to land four star recruit, 6’3 G Chris Youngblood, along with three star recruits, 6’5 G Brandon Stroud and 6’3 G Kasen Jennings.
Departures:
Tyler Hooker (13.5 ppg)
Bryson Lockley (8.6 ppg)
Ugo Ubineke (8.4 ppg)
CJ Washington (4.9 ppg)
Alidi Kuerban (3.6 ppg)
Pietro Agostini (2.1 ppg)
Additions:
6’3 G Chris Youngblood
6’5 G Brandon Stroud
6’3 G Kasen Jennings
6’9 F Cole Larue
6’6 F Mason Quartlebaum
6’4 G Spencer Rodgers
Possible Starting Lineup:
G-Kasen Jennings
G-Chris Youngblood
G-Brandon Stroud
F-Antonio Spencer
F-Mayson Quartlebaum
10. Bellarmine University
Bellarmine begins their first season in the ASUN Conference and NCAA Division I basketball after coming into the conference from NCAA Division II. Head Coach Scott Davenport has done everything you can possibly do at the D2 level, with the Red Knights advancing to 12 straight D2 NCAA Tournaments and even four Final Fours and a NCAA Championship in 2011. Bellarmine earned a #5 seed in this year’s D2 NCAA Tournament that didn’t take place due to the corona virus.
Bellarmine is located in Louisville, Kentucky and it will be interesting to see which other ASUN team they will be paired with as travel partners.
6’3 JR G Dylan Penn takes over as the leading scorer for Bellarmine (11.2 ppg) and will be joined by 6’0 SR G CJ Fleming (9.6 ppg) and it will be huge to have an upperclassman backcourt heading into ASUN conference play. When you have a team like Bellarmine, they know how to win, and could surprise a few teams the way UNA did in their first season of NCAA D1 basketball.
Subtractions:
Alex Cook (16.6 ppg)
Ben Weyer (11.2 ppg)
Parker Chitty (3.8 ppg)
Chris Palombizio (3.4 ppg)
Additions:
6’3 G Ben Johnson
6’6 G Kooper Jacobi
6’6 F Christopher Mantis
6’9 F Langdon Hatton
Possible Starting Lineup:
G-Dylan Penn
G-C.J. Fleming
G-Cobe Penny
F-Ethan Claycomb
F-Pedro Bradshaw
Eagles Nest Cast 
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