Tim Smith named Preseason Southern Conference POY

The Southern Conference men’s basketball coaches, meeting here as part of the Southern Conference’s preseason Basketball Tip-Off event, today named their preseason All-Southern Conference team and player of the year.

East Tennessee State point guard Tim Smith was named the Southern Conference Preseason Player of the Year. Smith, a 5-9 junior from Newport News, VA, averaged 17.7 points and 4.5 assists per game last year in leading the Bucs to the 2004 Southern Conference Tournament Championship and the regular season North Division crown. Smith was named the Most Outstanding Player of the Southern Conference Tournament for a second consecutive year. He was a unanimous choice for MVP, earning first place on all 44 media ballots.

Davidson guard Brendan Winters was the runner-up for the preseason player of the year award. Both Smith and Winters were first team All-SoCon selections from last season. Smith was a preseason All-SoCon selection in 2003-04 as well.

Smith and Winters’ selection highlights a 10-member All-Southern Conference Preseason team as selected by the coaches. Georgia Southern was the only school to land two players on the team, placing guards Elton Nesbitt and Terry Williams on the squad. Williams was a first team All-SoCon selection last March.

The rest of the preseason All-Southern Conference team includes forwards Ronnie Burrell of UNC Greensboro, Howard Wilkerson of Wofford, Alphonso Pugh of Chattanooga and Quan Prowell of Furman. Prowell was the SoCon Freshman of the Year last season. The remainder of the preseason team includes center Jackson Atoyebi of Elon and guard Tony Mitchell of the College of Charleston.