CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Heading into the highly anticipated second-year seasons under men's head coach
Griff Aldrich and women's head coach
Rebecca Tillett, both Longwood basketball squads were represented on the Big South Preseason All-Conference teams with Lancer men's senior
Shabooty Phillips and women's senior
Dayna Rouse both earning appointments to the conference's annual preseason list.
In a poll voted on by Big South head coaches and media, both Phillips and Rouse were named among the top returners in the conference. Phillips was voted to the second team as part of a Lancer team that also received the No. 6 ranking in the preseason poll, while Rouse was named to the first team after her breakout junior campaign.
The Longwood men also earned multiple top-tier votes in the Big South Preseason Coaches Poll, including a pair of top-four placements, to match their highest preseason ranking since joining the conference in 2012-13.
Phillips' Preseason All-Big South recognition comes on the heels of a breakout 2018-19 campaign in which he was named Big South Newcomer of the Year and All-Big South honorable mention. He led the Big South and set Longwood's Division I record with a .890 (105-of-118) free throw percentage, led Longwood with 14.0 points per game, and ranked among the league's top five with 3.8 assists per game and a 1.6 assist-to-turnover ratio. He was the fulcrum of a Longwood offense that hit a school-record 333 three-pointers in the first year under Aldrich, knocking down a team-high 74 of those himself while assisting on 93 other treys.
Phillips is one of three returning starters and seven returning letterwinners for Longwood in 2019-20 and one-fourth of an impact senior class that includes fellow guards
Sean Flood and
Jaylon Wilson and high-flying swingman
JaShaun Smith. Those four combine to produce 54 percent of Longwood's scoring a year ago and finished the year as the team's top four scorers.
Meanwhile, Rouse emerged as one of the Big South's best in her first season under head coach
Rebecca Tillett, becoming the first player in program history to be named to the All-Big South team when she received second-team honors. She averaged 14.4 points and 5.7 rebounds as a junior while finishing 23
rd in the nation and tops in the Big South with a .565 field goal percentage. She alone accounted for nearly one-fourth of Longwood's scoring a year ago and returns as the centerpiece of Tillett's second-year squad. She is the first Lancer to earn Preseason All-Big South first-team honors.
Like Phillips, Rouse is one piece of an impact senior class for the Longwood women's squad alongside fellow veterans
Khaila Hall and
Jada Russell. Those three have combined to play in 173 career games and enter their senior season as the spearhead of a Lancer team that includes two returning starters, six letterwinners and seven newcomers.
The Longwood men and women will open their seasons in the first week of November, with the men hosting Marymount at home in Willett Hall on Nov. 5 at 7 p.m. and the women making the trip to Harrisonburg for a Nov. 6 road opener at James Madison.
Season tickets for both programs remain on sale at
www.LongwoodTickets.com.
2019-20 Preseason All-Big South Men's Basketball Team
First Team
Carlik Jones, Radford (Preseason Player of the Year)
Jermaine Marrow, Hampton
Jose Perez, Gardner-Webb
Phlandrous Fleming, Charleston Southern
DeVon Baker, UNC Asheville
Second Team
Josh Ferguson, Winthrop
Shabooty Phillips, Longwood
Travis Fields Jr., Radford
Nate Johnson, Gardner-Webb
Cory Hightower, Presbyterian
2019-20 preseason All-Big South Women's Basketball Team
First Team
Ashley Bates, Hampton (Preseason Player of the Year)
Carley Plentovich, Gardner-Webb
Sonora Dengokl, UNC Asheville
Sydney Nunley, Radford
Dayna Rouse, Longwood
Second Team
Khiana Johnson, Radford
Laren VanArsdale, Hampton
Kacie Hall, Presbyterian
ShyAnne Tuelle, Campbell
Hayley Barber, Campbell
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