Seasiders Top Coaches Poll

Laie, HI—The Brigham Young University Hawaii men’s basketball team will open this season as the nation’s number-one ranked team according to the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Division II poll released today.  It is the first time the Seasiders have ever been ranked number one in the poll.  BYU–Hawaii finished last season as the third-ranked team in the nation for the school’s previous high ranking.

The Seasiders return Daktronics NCAA II National Player of the Year Lucas Alves (19.8 ppg, 7.5 rpg) as well as Cousy Award finalist Virgil (J.R.) Buensuceso (11.4 ppg, 6.0 apg).  BYU–Hawaii also returns 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.

“We are excited about being ranked number one,” said BYU–Hawaii Head Coach Ken Wagner.  “Our players have worked hard to earn this kind of respect and now we need to work even harder to keep it.  This is exciting for our program, our conference, and for the State of Hawaii.”

The Seasiders were also ranked number one earlier this month by the Division II Bulletin and were ranked second in the Sporting News pre-season rankings.

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