FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Wildcats collect eight first-place votes,
top second-place Albertus Magnus

WINTHROP, Mass. – Johnson & Wales University received eight first-place votes and 98 points overall to take the top spot in the 2015-16 Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) Men's Basketball Preseason Poll, as voted upon by the league's 10 head coaches.

Perennial GNAC power Albertus Magnus College, winners of four straight conference titles, finished second with 90 points in the ledger and a pair of first-place tallies.

Anna Maria College finished in the third spot with 73 points, one point ahead of fourth-place Saint Joseph's College of Maine, while Lasell College rounded out the top-five with 61 points.

Johnson & Wales returns a pair of All-GNAC First Team selections from a year ago in senior guards Tom Garrick and Quarry Greenaway. The backcourt duo combined to average 39.7 points and 14.3 rebounds per game last season en route to a GNAC Championship appearance, where the Wildcats fell to Albertus Magnus, 98-85.

Albertus Magnus, which is receiving votes in the d3hoops.com Top-25 Preseason Poll, last season witnessed four seniors garner All-GNAC honors. The Falcons will go young in 2015-16, boasting a roster of 11 freshmen and sophomores under ninth-year head coach Mitch Oliver.

Making up the remainder of the poll was Emmanuel College with 51 points, Norwich University with 33 points, Mount Ida College with 31 points, Suffolk University with 25 points and Rivier University with 16 points.

The regular season kicks off this weekend with eight GNAC teams in action. The league schedule gets underway on Tuesday, December 8, with the eight-team GNAC Tournament slated to begin with quarterfinal action on Tuesday, February 23.

Founded in 1995, the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) is an NCAA Division III association made up of 12 member institutions and over 3,000 student-athletes across the New England region. Each year, the GNAC sponsors and administers 17 championships, while balancing academic integrity, athletic opportunities and community involvement. 

2015-16 GNAC Men's Basketball Preseason Coaches Poll
1. Johnson & Wales (8) - 98
2. Albertus Magnus (2) - 90
3. Anna Maria - 73
4. Saint Joseph's Maine - 72
5. Lasell - 61
6. Emmanuel - 51
7. Norwich - 33
8. Mount Ida - 31
9. Suffolk - 25
10. Rivier - 16

– #TheGNAC –