GREENWOOD, Ind. – Action around the Great Midwest Athletic Conference men’s basketball landscape is fast approaching and select players/coaches gave their thoughts on the upcoming 2015-16 season.
 
Training camp is well underway for the rigors of a long season as the rest of the league attempts to dethrone Alderson Broaddus and its back-to-back G-MAC titles.
 
Keep an eye on the following throughout the year:
 
- Stellar guard play around the league with the return of Tatum, KWC’s Ken-Jah Bosley, OVU’s Darryl Walker and TNU’s Byron Sanford
- High-profile exhibitions against Division I opponents Louisville (Nov. 9), Alabama (Nov. 6), Western Kentucky (Nov. 6)
- G-MAC Player of the Year Malcolm Tatum (AB) and Freshman of the Year Gerard Tarin (SIU) following their award-winning 2014-15 season
- AB/KWC both received votes in the NABC Preseason Poll – can a G-MAC team fight its way into the top 25?
 
It comes as no surprise that Alderson Broaddus and Kentucky Wesleyan were tabbed at No. 1 and No. 2 in the preseason coaches poll. The 2015 championship game came down to the final shot in a defensive grind.

Alderson Broaddus has been close -- but just left on the outside looking in by the selection committee the past two seasons in the final Midwest Region ranking of the year.
 
The G-MAC will receive an automatic qualifier to the NCAA Division II Championship this year for the first time.
 
There is a new coach at the helm in Davis & Elkins as John Beilein protégé and former West Virginia Mountaineer student-athlete Nick Patella takes the reins of the Senators.
 
Team capsules below are in the order picked in the 2015-16 G-MAC Preseason Coaches Poll.
 

2015-16 Outlook: On any given night, a handful of Battlers could be the team’s leading scorer, a healthy balance in head coach Greg Zimmerman’s system that kept teams guessing in 2014-15.

 
Yes, G-MAC Player of the Year Malcolm Tatum’s court savvy, playmaking ability and scoring stand out, but the supporting cast of all-conference performers Thylas Perkins and Richard Lemon can fly under the radar at times.
 
Perkins and Lemon complement each other well as bookend forwards. Both are double-digit scorers and Perkins hit a team-high 46 three-pointers. Lemon is a bruiser and proves adept at carving out space underneath.
 
Tatum averaged 14.6 points per game as a junior. He also passes with precision and crashes the glass at the guard position while knocking down nearly 83 percent of his tries at the free throw line.
 
Departed seniors Tobias Dowdell and Ali Bilal showed their senior leadership in the postseason and both will be missed. Dowdell was an interior force and a double-double threat.
 
The Battlers marched their way to a 22-7 overall record in 2014-15 and were nearly unbeatable in Rex Pyles Arena at 12-1.
 
At the time of release, the 2015-16 roster for Alderson Broaddus had not yet been published.



 

2015-16 Outlook: As senior C.J. Blackwell echoed in his preseason video, finishing runner-up to Alderson Broaddus in last year’s championship final left a bitter taste in his mouth during the offseason.
 
And if you were in Rex Pyles Arena as Kentucky Wesleyan faithful for that game, the would be-tying shot at the buzzer that hit back iron was as good of a look as you could hope for.
 
Fast forward to 2015-16, Kentucky Wesleyan is loaded at every position and things could get really exciting in Owensboro as the year progresses.
 
All-conference guards Blackwell and Ken-Jah Bosley are back. Slashing athletic forward Devin Langford is back. Senior guard Marcus Fillyaw is back. Tre Boutilier and Basil Deveaux are back as seniors.
 
The new-look Panthers imported more talented transfers and will test their mettle shortly against the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers and Louisville Cardinals in preseason tilts.
 
The reviews are exciting from head coach Happy Osborne as he added Tamron Manning (Marshall), 6-9 big man Marcus Fuggins (FUDGE-ins) from Morehead State and 6-8 center Jermaine Morgan (Bradley), in the offseason.
 
Big men come at a premium, especially at the Division II level, and on paper, KWC’s frontcourt is super intriguing.



 

2015-16 Outlook: Senior guard Byron Sanford is a consummate triple-double threat and his efficiency, while already strong, could be scary good and even better as he gears up for his final year.
 
Sanford makes almost half of his shots from the floor, he averaged 18.0 points per game, pulled in 6.6 rebounds per game and was top two in the conference in assists (first) and steals (second).
 
The Trojans’ starting five remains intact with Sanford, Jalen Palm, Tyrell Corlew, Matt Gamberoni and Percy Blade -- there were no seniors on the 2014-15 roster.
 
Another year of playing together should result in another step forward for the program, which gave Alderson Broaddus all it could handle in the G-MAC Championship semis last year.
 
A 13-15 record in 2014-15 record is misleading -- the Trojans really put it together in the their quarterfinal win against Cedarville and could really factor at the top of the league standings when it’s all said and done.
 
TNU’s inside-outside balance is there. The bench is strong with Jacob Williams, Mac Walden and Christopher Elliott all combining to average over 21 points per game.



 

 
2015-16 Outlook: New head coach Nick Patella succeeds Chris Cottrell and the Senators will look to build on a frustrating 2014-15 season that included six wins.
 
The good news is that two of the team’s top-three scorers return in Kevin Bracy-Davis and Wesley Sprinkle.
 
Senior Aleksandar Vasiljevic was close to averaging a double-double and sophomore big man Rickenjee Bellevue landed on the all-freshman team last year.
 
Patella has hit the ground running in Elkins, laying out a clear plan for year one and beyond for his program.
 
The Senators have a host of newcomers in place and preseason will be telling for D&E as the rotation sorts itself out for the season.