FOREST, Va. --- Virginia Wesleyan College stands atop the ODAC Men's Basketball preseason poll for the second straight season, earning eight first place votes and 117 points overall from the league's head coaches. Roanoke College sits second with 108 tallies including a pair of top nods. Guilford College earned one first place vote and collected 89 points, beginning a group from the third thru the seventh positions separated by just 19 points. Hampden-Sydney College received the remaining first place vote.

Men's Basketball Virtual Guide

For the first time since 2009-10, only the conference's champion earned entry in the NCAA Division III Tournament in 2016. Lynchburg College carried the ODAC banner well after responding to its #1 mantle in the ODAC Tournament with a 3-0 march in Salem. The Hornets topped sixth-seeded Randolph College, 62-60, in a nail-biter that came down to the final shot. For the WildCats, the championship game appearance was their third in just eight seasons as an ODAC competitor.

Lynchburg continued its season with the program's third entry into the NCAA Tournament and first since 1979, which also coincided with the Hornets only other conference crown. LC took care of Scranton University, 82-55, in the first round before squaring off with early round host Ohio Wesleyan University. Lynchburg clawed back from a 10-point halftime deficit only to find itself on the other side of a nerve-splitting ending in a 97-94 loss to the Bishops.

The 2016-17 season will feature a bevy of returning talent with 12 of the 18 All-ODAC honorees from a season ago back on their respective campuses.  Three of those earned spots on the All-ODAC First Team. Combo guard Zack Burnett is a major cog in Lynchburg's effort to become the conference's first repeat champion since Virginia Wesleyan lifted trophies in 2005 and 2006. The Marlins have their own perimeter standout returning to Virginia Beach in dynamic scorer Khory Moore. The remaining first team returner, Joey Miller, will look to help continue Roanoke's resurgence after a strong sophomore campaign.

Listed below is the full 2016-17 ODAC Men's Basketball Preseason Poll.  For more information on ODAC men's basketball, visit any of the participating school's websites, or go to the ODAC's home on the Internet at www.odaconline.com and view the men's basketball virtual media guide.  The virtual media guide and this release will be updated with interviews featuring the ODAC's head coaches.

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2016-17 ODAC MEN'S BASKETBALL PRESEASON POLL
(#) Denotes First Place Votes