WATERBURY, Conn. -- New year, same team pretty much for Post University Men's Basketball which has led the Eagles to being picked to finish first in the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference North Division this winter with 66 points and 11 first-place votes in the newly released Preseason Coaches Poll on Thursday afternoon by the league office.

Last season, Post finished second at 10-6 just one game back of Bloomfield College at 11-5 for the CACC North Division crown followed by three teams all tied at 9-7 to end the 2023-24 campaign. In this year's poll, Dominican (N.Y.) was the one other team to get a first-place vote along with 50 points behind the Eagles followed by Bloomfield College in third with 43 points, Caldwell and Felician University tied for fourth with 35 points, and the University of Bridgeport in last at 17 points.

In the CACC South, Jefferson University was picked to repeat as the division champions with 60 points and six first-place votes followed by Goldey-Beacom College in second with 52 points and three first-place votes, and Chestnut Hill College in third with 49 points and three first-place votes. Wilmington, Holy Family, and Georgian Court University closed out the bottom three in the South with 41 points, 27 points, and 17 points respectively. 

From last year to this year, Head Coach Marc Kuntz, who enters his eighth season and ninth year overall at Post has essentially the same core of players from his team that qualified for the NCAA Tournament last winter. The only one not returning from that core will be Quest Harris while Cape Holden, who is still with the program, will be redshirting this season.

If anything, the Eagles will get a tad deeper with the return of graduate guard Tyler Small who missed all of last year with an injury after a 2022-23 campaign in which he averaged 22 minutes and 7.8 points per game across 26 games. On top of that, graduate forward Harrison Warnock will be back at full strength after coming back ahead of schedule from the knee injury that was expected to keep him out longer last season while finding his footing still putting up 7.4 points and 21.7 minutes per game for Post. 

There are only a handful of newcomers to this year's squad in freshman guard Shane Weber from Brookfield, Connecticut along with freshman forward Chris Yapo from Leicester, England. Freshmen guards Nicholas Tello and Andrew Williams from Ottawa, Canada and Waterbury, Connecticut respectively also join the team along with freshman forward Anthony Chinn from Derry, New Hampshire.

Last season, the Eagles got off to their best start in program history at 12-2 before getting mired in a bit of a shooting slump and finishing the regular season 7-6 with a 19-8 record overall and a 10-6 record in conference play to take second in the CACC North Division. After narrowly getting by Wilmington University at home in the CACC Quarterfinals, Post would be bounced by Jefferson University, 70-58, in the CACC Semifinals as the Rams went on to take the conference title over Bloomfield, 89-69. 

Slipping into the NCAA Tournament as the seventh seed, Post took down nationally-ranked St. Thomas Aquinas College for the second time this season in the first round before dropping against eventual East Region Champion Southern New Hampshire State University, 69-64, in the next round. Including the postseason, the Eagles finished their year 21-10 with a .677 win percentage which was their third-highest in program history as a DII institution. 

Post University kicks off their 2024-25 season next weekend at the Bridgeport Tip-Off Tournament against Franklin Pierce University on Friday afternoon at 5:00 PM in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Next Sunday, they will take on Mercy University to close out the weekend tournament before heading on the road to face Bentley University on Wednesday after that.