For the first time since the leadup to the 2015-16 season, the Stony Brook men’s basketball program was selected to win the league by the America East’s 10 head coaches.
The Seawolves, who received five first place votes, edged Vermont for the top spot heading into a much-anticipated 2021-22 campaign. Geno Ford‘s club sits three points ahead of second place Vermont, who received four of the available 10 first place selections and New Hampshire received the third.
Stony Brook comes into the 2021-22 campaign with a plethora of storylines, including the return of preseason all-conference selection Elijah Olaniyi. The Newark, N.J., native was selected to the six-man preseason all-conference team in his return to Seawolves Country after a year with the ACC’s Miami (FL).
A 2019-20 First Team All-America East and NABC First Team All-District selection, Olaniyi leads a four-man transfer class that brings in the most total points of any incoming class in the country. This includes Fairleigh Dickinson’s Jahlil Jenkins, St. Bonaventure’s Anthony Roberts and Indian River’s Tanahj Pettway.
The four-man class currently holds a total of 4,203 career points, ahead of classes headed to Arkansas, Penn State and Florida, among others.
The Gators are on the Seawolves’ schedule as their penultimate non-conference game, slated for December 22 in Gainesville, Fla. Stony Brook also battles No. 3 Kansas in its second game of the year, November 18 in Lawrence, Kan.
Stony Brook opens its home schedule on November 22, playing host to Sacred Heart as part of the two-game Stony Brook Invitational and will host 17 games at Island Federal Arena this season, the most of any Stony Brook campaign in program history.
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