VIDEO: Mike Mincey Interview

ROCK HILL, S.C. – In the South Atlantic Conference's annual preseason coaches' poll, No. 14 Carson-Newman was picked to win the league, receiving four first-place votes, the league announced on Friday morning.

"I think it was really hard for the coaches to figure out how to select teams," Carson-Newman women's basketball head coach Mike Mincey said. "A lot of the teams that were at the top of the standings last year lost a key contributor and obviously we lost our all-time leading scorer and the second all-time in the SAC. There is no exact science in trying to pick who is going to win the league this year."

Carson-Newman has been at the top of the preseason poll five of the past seven seasons. C-N received 130 points and four first-place votes.

The Lady Eagles made the NCAA Tournament for the 13th time in program history during the 2023-24 season, earning the number two seed in the Southeast region, the program's best ranking since 2018. Mincey has led the program to seven NCAA Tournaments in 13 seasons.

The Orange and Blue finished with the top field goal percentage defense in the SAC, forcing opponents to shoot just 37.2 percent from the field. C-N also stood out statistically in scoring offense (76.3), field goal percentage (42.3), rebounds (42.9), assists (17.4), blocks (4.4), and steals (11.2), finishing second in the league in all those categories. The scoring, rebounding and assist marks, finished top 15 nationally as well.

This season, Mincey returns five of his top six scorers by average but does lose his top scorer and the program's all-time leading scorer Braelyn Wykle to graduation. All-SAC forward Lindsey Taylor (Maryville, Tenn.) headlines the group of returning players, coming off a season where she posted 14.7 points per game and was the fifth-most efficient player in the country, making 59.8% of her shots. Campbell Penland (Sevierville, Tenn.) was the third leading scorer in her junior season, averaging ten points a game, and reached the 1,000-point scoring mark for her career. Penland made multiple three pointers in 15 games and had six games where she knocked down three or more. Overall, C-N returns 68% of its scoring from this past season.

Anderson finished four points below C-N in second place in the poll. Matching Carson-Newman's four first-place votes was Lenoir-Rhyne, who finished two points below AU in third.  

Wingate and Catawba earned the rest of the first-place votes with two and one, respectively, to finish fourth and fifth in the poll.

There was an 18-point gap between fifth-place Catawba and sixth-place Lincoln Memorial. Followed by another substantial gap between LMU and seventh-place Coker who had 72 points.

Mars Hill, UVA Wise and Limestone rounded out the top ten. Emory & Henry is 11th with Newberry and Tusculum finishing as the bottom two teams in the preseason poll.

Carson-Newman begins the 2024-25 season against Lander on Nov 9th at 5:00 p.m. Coverage on the Eagle Sports Network begins at 4:45 with the AEC Countdown to Tipoff on MIX 105.5 (WSEV-FM, Sevierville) and online at cneagles.com/live.