Seven Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) teams will be in action on Tuesday to tip off a highly anticipated 2019-20 men’s basketball season.
Florida A&M will begin its non-conference schedule, which doesn’t feature a home game, with a game against USC, while South Carolina State will take on the 14th-ranked Memphis Tigers and Maryland Eastern Shore will visit Penn State. North Carolina A&T State will take on crosstown foe UNC Greensboro, while Howard will host local foe Washington Adventist.
Coppin State and Norfolk State will host Rider and Greensboro College to wrap up Tuesday’s slate.
Coppin State will face Virginia Tech on Friday. Saturday will feature a slate of great games as Bethune-Cookman pays a visit to defending national semifinalist Texas Tech, defending MEAC Tournament champion North Carolina Central takes on Stephen F. Austin and Howard faces crosstown rival George Washington.
The conference features several talented players this season. After finishing second in the country with 22 double-doubles last season, Bethune-Cookman senior forward Cletrell Pope was named the MEAC Preseason Player of the Year. He was the only player in the MEAC to average a double-double in 2018-19, with 13.8 points per game and 12.2 boards per game. He led the nation in offensive rebounds per game and was 11th in defensive rebounds. He was won the MEAC Defensive Player of the Week eight times last season.
Pope was joined on the All-MEAC First Team by Howard’s Charles Williams, South Carolina State’s Damani Applewhite, Coppin State’s Dejuan Clayton, and his teammate Malik Maitland.
The biggest question of the season is whether anyone can take down North Carolina Central. The Eagles have won three straight MEAC championships, which is the first time that’s been done since North Carolina A&T State won seven straight from 1982-88. The Eagles bring back starting guards Randy Miller, Jr., and Jordan Perkins, and top reserve Jibri Blount is also back. All three were named preseason All-MEAC.
The Eagles are projected to win the MEAC, with Bethune-Cookman, defending regular-season champion Norfolk State, and North Carolina A&T State rounding out the top four.
Bethune-Cookman returns a senior-laden team led by Pope, Malik Maitland, Wali Parks, Houston Smith and Leon Redd. Norfolk State lost seven of its top eight scorers from last season, although guard Steven Whitley, who was named Preseason Second Team All-MEAC, is back. North Carolina A&T State returns junior point guard Kameron Langley, who was also named Preseason Second Team All-MEAC.
Howard, Morgan State and Maryland Eastern Shore all have new coaches leading their respective programs. Howard’s Kenneth Blakeney is the new head man on the Hilltop, and he takes over a program that lost last season’s MEAC Player of the Year, RJ Cole, and Third Team All-MEAC guard Chad Lott.
After making various coaching stops around the DMV area, including as an assistant at Georgetown and Maryland, Kevin Broadus takes over as the head coach at Morgan State. Broadus inherits a team led by seniors Stanley Davis, who was preseason Second Team-All MEAC, and David Syfax.
He also brings back sophomore Sherwyn Devonish-Prince, who was also named Preseason Third Team All-MEAC.
Jason Crafton takes over at Maryland Eastern Shore after spending last season as an assistant coach with the Philadelphia 76ers’ G-League affiliate Delaware Blue Coats. He has also served as an assistant coach with Navy and Villanova.
The conference has four nationally-televised games this season. Florida A&M tips off the slate with a visit to Norfolk State on Jan. 27, and Norfolk State then travels to Durham, N.C. to take on North Carolina Central on Feb. 3. Both North Carolina Central-North Carolina A&T State games (Feb. 17 and Mar. 5) will be televised. All four games will be televised on ESPNU and will tip off at 7 p.m.
The men’s championship game of the 2020 MEAC Basketball Tournament will be shown live on ESPN2 at 1 p.m. The MEAC Basketball Tournament will be held March 10-14, 2020 in the Norfolk Scope Arena in Norfolk, Va.