Defending champion Westminster is the overwhelming favorite to repeat as the Frontier Conference regular season champion in men’s basketball, according to the preseason poll of the conference coaches, while Lewis-Clark State College was picked sixth.
Westminster drew six of the eight-first place votes in the poll, while Carroll College received the remaining two. Coaches were not allowed to vote for their own teams and the voting breakdown gave seven points for a first-place vote, six for second, and so on down the line.
Westminster finished with 48 points in the poll, 14 points ahead of second-place Montana State-Northern. However, only 11 points separated second from sixth and only 1.5 points separated second through fourth.
MSU-Northern had 34 points, followed by Rocky Mountain with 33.5, Carroll with 32.5, Montana Western at 28.5, LCSC at 23.5, Great Falls with 16.5, and Montana Tech at 7.5
In the poll, there was one ballot that gave Carroll, Lewis-Clark, Rocky Mountain and Montana Western each a second place vote in which the points for second, third, fourth, and fifth were added together, divided by four with each school receiving 1/4 of the total. There was also a ballot that gave Montana Tech and the University of Great Falls each a seventh place vote, in which the points for seventh and eighth were added together, divided by two with each school receiving half.
The Warrior men return only three players who saw action on the court a year ago. LCSC will kick off its season with three consecutive exhibition games against NCAA Division I teams on the road. On Nov. 4, LCSC is at Montana, followed by Washington State in Pullman on Nov. 5 and Idaho in Moscow on Nov. 6.
LCSC opens its regular season on Nov. 9 at Portland Bible College in Portland. The Warriors’ first home game is Nov. 12 against Southern Oregon.
