WEST BABYLON, N.Y. – By three points, St. Thomas Aquinas topped the East Coast Conference Men's Basketball Preseason Poll, as voted on by the league's nine head coaches and announced on Tuesday afternoon. Additionally, Daemen graduate student forward Joey Atkins (Watervliet, N.Y.) was selected as the league’s Preseason Player of the Year.

Entering the 2023-24 campaign receiving votes in the NABC Division II Coaches Poll, four-time defending league champion St. Thomas Aquinas takes the top spot in the poll with six first-place votes and 78 points. The Spartans, who have won seven of the last eight ECC titles, are led by 2022-23 ECC Coach of the Year Matt Capell and return ECC Rookie of the Year James Patterson, who ranked in the ECC's top ten in points per game (14.4), rebounds per game (7.1), and steals per game (1.6) and Jamal Barnes (12.1 ppg), who drained a league-best 98 three-point field goals a season ago.

Also entering the 2023-24 campaign receiving votes in the NABC Division II Coaches Poll, Daemen sits right behind St. Thomas Aquinas in the second spot with three first-place votes and 75 points. The Wildcats, who have won at least 19 games in every full season since joining the ECC in 2013, return four All-ECC selections in Atkins (1st), Dylan Fasoyiro (2nd), Nick MacDonald (3rd), and Andrew Mason (3rd). Fasoyiro (13.36 ppg), MacDonald (12.39 ppg), and Atkins (11.89 ppg) all ranked in the ECC's top 15 in scoring last year while Mason shot a league-best 51.6 percent from beyond the arc (82-for-159).
 
ECC Preseason Player of the Year Atkins started all 28 games for the Wildcats and ranked third in blocked shots (65), seventh in defensive rebounds (134), eighth in steals (42), 11th in free throw percentage (53.5 percent), 12th in rebounding (174, 6.21 rpg), and 15th in scoring (333, 11.89 ppg) among ECC competitors last season. The Daemen graduate student forward ranked ninth nationally in blocks per game (2.32), recording at least one block in 25 of 28 games, and scored in double figures 21 times, which included a career-high 19 points and a career-high 11 rebounds against Queens. 

District of Columbia (50 points), Staten Island (50), and Queens (48 points) took the 3-5 spots.

UDC returns its top defensive pair of Hartnel Haye and Micah Campbell, who combined for 390 rebounds last season (7.22 rpg each); Campbell also finished fourth in the ECC in blocked shots, swatting away 46 attempts for 1.70 blocks per game. CSI returns All-ECC First Team pick Messiah Mallory, who led the ECC in defensive rebounds (183), ranked second in blocked shots (73),  and sat third in both scoring (15.56 ppg) and rebounding (8.89) a season ago. All-ECC Third Team pick Sunnie Diamond is back for his second season for QC after leading the Knights in scoring 11 times and and pacing Queens in several categories, averaging 17.6 points, 3.2 assists, 2.1 steals, 5.8 rebounds, and 0.96 blocks per game.
 
Molloy, Roberts Wesleyan, D'Youville, and Mercy round out the remainder of the poll.

( ) - first place votes

Preseason Player of the Year – Joey Atkins, Daemen (Gr., F., Watervliet, N.Y.)