Seasiders Favored in PacWest

Laie, HI—The Brigham Young University Hawaii men’s basketball team is the coaches’ pick to repeat as the champions of the Pacific West Conference according to the conference pre-season poll released today.  The Seasiders, who finished last season ranked third nationally, finished 27-2 last year and won the Pacific West Conference championship before advancing to the NCAA II West Regional Championship game.

BYU–Hawaii received all nine of the first place votes from the coaches to finish ahead of second-choice Grand Canyon.  The Seasiders also placed two players on the pre-season All-Conference squad including pre-season Player of the Year pick Lucas Alves and J.R. Buensuceso.

The Seasiders, who were ranked number one nationally in the Division II Bulletin pre-season poll earlier this month, return Daktronics NCAA II National Player of the Year Alves (19.8 ppg, 7.5 rpg), Cousy Award finalist Buensuceso (11.4 ppg, 6.0 apg), junior Marques Whippy (8.2 ppg, 7.4 rpg, 2.3 spg), who was named a pre-season Honorable Mention All-American by the Sporting News, and sophomore Tsung-Hsien (Jet) Chang (12.3 ppg), the Pacific West Conference Freshman of the Year last season.

BYU–Hawaii will open the season with an exhibition game against the University of Hawaii on November 5th in the Stan Sheriff Center in Honolulu at 7:05 pm.  The Seasiders will host the American Money Group Asia Pacific Tournament on November 13th and 14th before opening the regular season at home in the Cannon Activities Center against Oakland City on November 25th at 7:30 pm.  This season, all but two of BYU–Hawaii’s regular season home games will be carried live worldwide on BYU Television which is available on DirectTV and numerous cable outlets around the world.

Complete Poll