Eagles enter season ranked No. 2 in preseason poll
TEXARKANA, Texas — Texas A&M UniversityTexarkana men’s basketball program, which made a surprise run to the conference championship game last year, will begin the 2020-21 season on another high note as the Eagles were picked to be the No. 2 team in the Red River Athletic Conference preseason poll.
The Eagles, who received a first-place vote in the ranking, are entering their second season of the program’s existence and will return four players from last season’s roster, including RRAC second-team, all-conference standout Connor Ouellete.
A&M-Texarkana head coach Ryan Wall said Ouellete will be crucial to the team’s success, after the loss of former first-teamer Desmond Kennedy, who recently signed a professional contract in Argentina.
“(Kennedy) was one of the best kids I’ve coached, all-around — hard-working, always in the gym, tough guy,” Wall said. “And Connor’s going to be very similar. ‘Des is a little bit more athletic and a different position, but Connor brings a special toughness to our group that we need. He’s Mr. Consistent. I don’t question his work ethic, where his heart is and if he’s a winner or not.”
Ouellete played in 33 games and averaged nearly 18 points last season for A&M-Texarkana last season. The Pleasant Grove graduate ranked in the top 20 in the conference for total steals (57), total rebounds (256) and total scoring (585).
Kennedy was named to the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, Division I, All-America team as an honorable mention. He averaged 19.6 points per game, with a 43.4 field goal percentage and four rebounds per game. The shooting guard also ranked second in 3-pointers made with 117 treys.
TAMU-T also gains several transfers, including Kobe Powell from Walters State Community College in Tennessee.
Wall said the team’s biggest strength going into this year is defense, but the aspect they’re focusing on improving the most is consistency.
“The past three or four weeks, we’ve been doing nothing but defense,” he said. “So, I would say probably our best attribute right now is defense. But we’ve got to be a lot tougher. And we work on that every day — just toughness in general. We’ve got a lot of new guys, so meshing with the returners and the new guys, the faster we can do that, the better chance we have of being successful.”
LSU Shreveport begins the season as RRAC’s top team.
The Pilots finished strong last year and received eight of the 10 first-place votes. Last season, they were second in the RRAC standings, made it to the conference title game against A&MTexarkana and was going to be a No. 1 seed in the NAIA national tournament before the event was canceled because of coronavirus concerns.
The Pilots return several starters and have added key transfers from across the country.
No. 3 LSU Alexandria is reloading with JUCO transfers, and is followed by Southwest, Huston-Tillotson, Our Lady of the Lake, Wiley, Texas College, Paul Quinn and Jarvis Christian in the preseason rankings.
The poll was released Wednesday morning and voting was conducted by the head coaches in the conference, RRAC’s website states.