EKU Men’s Basketball picked to finish fourth in OVC, two Colonels named to All-OVC team

BRENTWOOD, Tenn. (EKU Athletics) – The Eastern Kentucky University men’s basketball team has been picked to finish fourth out of 12 teams in the Ohio Valley Conference preseason poll of league head coaches and sports information directors.

Juniors Jomaru Brown and Tre King, meanwhile, were named to the Preseason All-OVC Team.

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EKU turned the corner in head coach A.W. Hamilton’s second year at the helm. Hamilton – the 2020 OVC Coach of the Year – led the Colonels to 12 OVC wins (tied for second most in program history) and a first-round bye in the OVC Tournament. Eastern defeated Tennessee State in the quarterfinals before falling to eventual tournament champion Belmont in the semifinals.

EKU received an invitation to play in the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament (CIT) in March; however, the event was canceled due to COVID-19.

The Colonels finished the season ranked fifth in the country in turnovers forced/game (18.27), seventh in steals/game (9.3) and 10th in turnover margin (+4.3).

Eastern returns four of five starters from last season, including Brown and King.

Brown – a 6-2 guard from Raleigh, North Carolina – was a first-team All-OVC selection last year after averaging 18.4 points-per-game. That ranked fourth in the OVC and 12th among all sophomores in the country. He poured in a career-high 41 points versus in-state rival Western Kentucky last November at McBrayer Arena. That was the most points scored by an OVC player all season, and it was tied for the fourth-most points ever scored by a Colonel in a single game.

Brown scored his 1,000th career point last year as a sophomore, reaching the milestone in the regular season finale versus Morehead State, an 80-76 victory at home.

King – a 6-9 forward from Lexington, Kentucky – was voted second team All-OVC last season after posting 11.3 points and 5.1 rebounds-per-game. He did a little bit of everything for the Colonels, ranking in the top-15 in the OVC in field goal percentage (14th / 52.8%), free throw percentage (4th / 79.1%), steals-per-game (12th / 1.2), blocks-per-game (12th / 0.8) and offensive rebounds (1.9/game).

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EKU received 173 points in the poll, finishing ahead of No. 5 Eastern Illinois (153), No. 6 Tennessee State (139), No. 7 Jacksonville State (124), No. 8 Morehead State (87), No. 9 Tennessee Tech (84), No. 10 UT Martin (80), No. 11 SIUE (48) and No. 12 Southeast Missouri (30).

Murray State (10 first-place votes, 226 points) and Austin Peay (nine first-place votes, 226 points) tied for the top spot in the poll, while Belmont (five first-place votes, 214 points) checked in at No. 3.

Austin Peay’s Terry Taylor – last year’s OVC Player of the Year – was tabbed this year’s Preseason Player of the Year.