Sports

Defending champ Rams picked to finish sixth

• The Rams enter the SIAC preseason picked to finish sixth, while the Lady Rams are chosen to finish third.

Scott Chancey

DECATUR — Although Albany State interim men’s basketball coach Chris Cameron’s team won last season’s SIAC tournament championship, he did not seem surprised Wednesday when his fellow coaches picked the Rams to place sixth this season.

After all, Albany State point guard Frank Pinson and post player Travon McGruder were seniors last season and accounted for almost half of the Rams’ 69.8 points a game. And because of that, others’ expectations of the team are lower.

“Frank and Travon played a major role on our team for three years,” said Cameron, who is in his second season as interim coach after serving five years as an assistant under former Rams coach John I. Davis.

The Rams received one first-place vote (Cameron did not recall if he cast that first-place vote), and three others voted Albany State fifth. Two coaches voted the Rams eighth, and they also received votes for ninth and 10th out of 12 teams.

Benedict was chosen to win the conference title.

Cameron, whose team struggled during the regular season before peaking at the tournament, led the Rams to a 15-17 record and a NCAA Division II regional
tournament appearance (Albany State lost to Montevallo, Ala., in the first round).

Guard Sean Glenn, a first-team All-Conference squad selection after averaging nine points last season, does not look at the preseason rankings as something he and his teammates have a chip on their shoulders about.

“That will make us work a little harder,” Glenn said. “It’s not a chip, just more motivation.”

Glenn, along with Tyrone Evans and Isaac Wooden, are the team’s three returning starters.

“There are other players who played minutes, but not a considerable amount of minutes,” said Cameron, who also starred at Dougherty High School and Tulane.

Cameron, who was dressed in a navy-blue suit and gold tie, keeping with the school’s colors, said mental preparation is more important right now than anything else.

“We’ve been talking about it every chance we get,” said Cameron, whose team opens practice Nov. 15. “Every team is going to come at us with their best shot since we’re the defending conference champions (and) our goal is to repeat as conference champions.”

Among the new additions to the Rams is former Westover star Montavious Waters, an All-State selection while in high school who will join the team from Mercer.    

“We do have a good team,” Cameron said. “The team is very close and they work hard. It’s the best collective attitude of the whole time I’ve been at Albany State.”

The Albany State women were predicted to finish fourth after reaching the conference tournament semifinals last season, and have four returning starters — La’Toya Coard, Ashley Scroggins, Randolph-Clay product Aldrany Peak and Vanessa Jackson. Role player Nikia Trice, who led the Rams with an average of 10.9 points, is back.

Although Albany State women’s coach Robert Skinner was unable to attend because of a Lady Rams volleyball match, assistant coach Khadijah Ali was there to talk about the Lady Rams’ season.

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