There's talent returning, even if there's only one obvious star heading into the 2018-19 America East men's basketball season.
While the league has seen transition years in the recent past (think following the 15-16 season where only one member of the first team returned and only five of ten returned from the 1st and 2nd team's) this offseason feels a bit different.
The conference will lose all five players selected to the First Team following the 2017-18 season, a bit different from the previous offseason where four of the five members of the 2016-17 First Team returned and seven out of ten returned from the First and Second team's.
If you dive in even deeper you'll notice that three of the five players on the America East Second Team from last season return and two of the five from the Third Team return, leaving us with five all conference selections out of a possible fifteen returning for the 2018-19 season.
Once again, that's five players out of the best fifteen players from last season as voted on by the coaches.
If you include David Nichols who finished on the First Team following the 16-17 season, yet was left off of all three team's last year, you're now looking at five of the top sixteen players from last season no longer in the league.
Here's your list:
First-Team All-Conference
*Tanner Leissner, Sr., F, New Hampshire
Jairus Lyles, Sr., G, UMBC
*Jahad Thomas, Sr., F, UMass Lowell
John Carroll, Jr., F, Hartford
Ernie Duncan, Jr., G, Vermont
Akwasi Yeboah, So., F, Stony Brook
Third-Team All-Conference
Jason Dunne, Jr., G, Hartford
J.R. Lynch, Jr., G, Hartford
Generally a low major conference is going to see substantial loss from their top two all conference selections, as the best players are usually upperclassmen, if not Seniors. Add talented low major players transferring up for their final season to player graduation and you end up with the current scenario in the America East.
The conference is expected to be down in 2018-19 by most, which isn't an unfair assessment. One thing to keep in mind as it happens in every conference in every season, there will end up being major contributors who either didn't get the opportunity to showcase their talent last season or are completely new to the league as an incoming JUCO, Freshman or transfer.
Now the good news.
Anthony Lamb should be back healthy after a year of sitting out of conference action due to a foot fracture suffered late in out of conference play, an injury which left him off of all three conference team's. Lamb was already most writer's preseason POY heading into the 2017-18 season and he now has a year of strictly sitting, watching and learning during conference play under his belt.
If Vegas (or Delaware or New Jersey) created odds for the 2018-19 America East POY Anthony Lamb would be the heavy favorite as of today. There's no debating that, making the real question to ask "Who would have the best odds following Lamb?"
The answer isn't so simple.
Ernie Duncan, Lamb's teammate at Vermont, would have a legitimate shot if they weren't on the same team. The Hartford trio of John Carroll, J.R. Lynch and Jason Dunne are all expected to perform well on a Hartford team which will be picked first or second (first by me) in just about every America East preseason poll.
That pretty much concludes your second tier, with the first tier inhabited solely by Anthony Lamb.
It's worth keeping in mind that the award historically tends to favor players on team's that win the league. There's instances where it goes to an obviously more talented player on a top three team, but it doesn't happen often, which is why this next player finds himself in the third tier.
Akwasi Yeboah enters the 2018-19 America East season as the leading returning scorer after averaging 15.3 points in conference last season which is generally an automatic for preseason POY contention, but many believe Stony Brook's absolute ceiling is a third place finish which makes his POY chances a long shot.
Finally we have the dark horses. Their team will need to perform well over current expectations while they themselves have excellent individual statistics.
Arkel Lamar and Joe Sherburne are the returning players most likely to step up for UMBC with the graduation of Jairus Lyles and K.J. Maura. I've already seen some who like UMBC over Stony Brook for the third slot in the America East in 2018-19, if there's any shot of that happening you'd have to assume these two will play a major part.
If Binghamton can figure it out, which would appear to be a HUGE IF after the conference season they had last year, it's a safe bet that Thomas Bruce and J.C. Show will have played a major role in it. Bruce should be a guaranteed double-double in conference and if healthy has no one but himself to blame if he's not viewed as a dominant player in this conference by season's end.
Ryan Jones should be handed the keys to the car at UMass Lowell with the departures of Jahad Thomas and Matt Harris. I've seen UML as a top five team in other preseason polls, if they're going to get there this is the guy you'd have to expect to light it up for them.
Here's a quick list of my favorites to land on the first or second team at the conclusion of the 2018-19 season. It's July... I haven't heard much publicly from coaching staff's and I haven't contacted any privately (last thing I'm doing is bothering them during the live July recruiting period when team workouts are first getting started) so your guess is as good as mine at this point.
Anthomy Lamb (POY)
John Carroll
J.R. Lynch
Akwasi Yeboah
Ernie Duncan
Jason Dunne
Ryan Jones
Thomas Bruce
Joe Sherburne
Arkel Lamar
Overall value (OOC + Conf) of players in 17-18 according to barttorvik.com & College Basketball Reference:
Quick list of the top three returners in each program:
Albany
Devonte Campbell
Ahmad Clark
The Karate Kid Nick Fruscio
Binghamton
Thomas Bruce
J.C. Show
Everson Davis
Hartford
John Carroll
J.R. Lynch
Jason Dunne
Maine
Andrew Fleming
Isiah White
Ilija Stojiljkovic
New Hampshire
Josh Hopkins
Jordan Reed
John Ogwuche
Stony Brook
Akwasi Yeboah
Jaron Cornish
Elijah Olaniyi
UMass Lowell
Ryan Jones
Josh Gantz
Obadiah Noel
UMBC
Joe Sherburne
Arkel Lamar
Daniel Akin
Vermont
Anthony Lamb
Ernie Duncan
Everett Duncan
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