City of Basketball Love

CoBL Staff (@hooplove215)
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Welcome, college basketball fans, to the 2016-17 season.

Today -- Friday., Sep. 30 -- is the first day where NCAA Division I programs can officially begin fall practices, and begins the six-week countdown until the first official games.

As has become tradition, it’s also the day that CoBL begins its official preseason coverage, beginning with our fifth edition of the CoBL City 6 Preseason Awards. Over the next six weeks, we'll be running dozens of features and team/conference primers, all of which can be found on our season preview hub.

Without further ado...

Preseason City 6 Player of the Year
Josh Hart (Sr./Villanova)
The NBA beckoned for Hart, a 6-foot-5 shooting guard, after a junior season at Villanova in which he averaged 15.5 points (on 51.3 percent from the field), 6.8 rebounds, 1.9 assists and 1.2 steals per game, leading the national champions in scoring as well as being one of its most versatile and top-notch defenders. But after going through the pre-draft process, Hart withdrew his name from the draft pool just before the May 25 deadline, announcing his decision on Twitter with an emphatic “ONE MORE YEAR!!”

With Ryan Arcidiacono and Daniel Ochefu now graduated and with their respective NBA organizations (Spurs and Wizards, respectively), it’s now on Hart to pick up the Wildcats’ leadership torch and make sure the program doesn’t suffer from any kind of NCAA championship hangover. If he can accomplish that while making further progress in his ability to create his own shot off the bounce and get his 3-point shooting percentage closer to 40 (35.7 last year), he could find himself getting selected in the earlier portion of the 2017 NBA Draft’s first round.

Preseason All-City 6 First Team
Jalen Brunson (Soph./Villanova)
--Brunson arrived on the Main Line last summer with a lot of hype; understandable, as the Stevenson (Ill.) product was a McDonald’s All-American and consensus five-star recruit. And he fit in right away with Villanova’s approach and mindset, starting each of the Wildcats’ 40 games (aside from Senior Day), averaging 9.6 ppg, 2.5 apg and 1.8 rpg while serving mainly as a secondary ball-handling option to take some pressure off Arcidiacono. With Arcidiacono gone, he’ll have the keys to the Villanova offense, and the bar is raised significantly.
Obi Enechionyia (Jr./Temple)
--Enechionyia overcame an uneven first half of his sophomore season to average 15.5 ppg and 4.8 rpg over the final 12 games of the regular season, shooting 43% from 3-point range during that span. The expectation for the 6-8 junior forward is to put up those sorts of numbers over the course of an entire season, which would be a nice step up from the 11.0 ppg and 3.8 rpg he averaged during the course of 2015-16. With his size and shooting ability (38.6 3PT% as a sophomore), Enechionyia should be the Owls’ leading scorer this year and has a chance this season to emerge as a first-team all-AAC contender.
Matt Howard (Sr./Penn)
--The muscular Quakers wing, one of only two seniors on the roster, has made big strides in his production each year. After becoming a full-time starter as a sophomore, when he averaged 8.4 ppg and 3.2 rpg, he improved to 12.3 ppg and 5.7 rpg as a junior, leading the team in minutes played as well; if he can up his 3-point percentage from just 28.4% last year, he’ll make an bigger jump this year. One of just two seniors on the Quakers’ roster this year, he’ll be instrumental in trying to get a program that hasn’t had a winning season in five years back above .500.
Kris Jenkins (Sr./Villanova)
--Now holder of the title of Most Clutch Shot in college hoops history, Jenkins' 3-pointer to win the national championship is already etched in Villanova hoops lore. A 6-6 forward who does most of his damage from beyond the arc, Jenkins averaged 13.6 ppg and 3.9 rpg, shooting 38.6% from 3-point range as a junior. But that percentage doesn’t tell the whole story -- after making only 30.4% of his long-range attempts (25-of-82) in November/December and 35.4% (17-48) in January, he knocked down 45.3% (58-of-128) from February through that final swish.

Jordan Price (RS-Sr./La Salle)
--Ever since he's arrived on the La Salle campus as a transfer from Auburn in the summer of 2013, all Price has done is get buckets. Last year, the 6-5 guard averaged 19.2 ppg and 5.5 rpg, putting him at 1,100+ points already in his two years in an Explorers uniform. More-than-capable of being a one-man show, hitting tough pull-up jumpers and draining 3-pointers, he’s already gone for 30+ points seven times at La Salle. Now he’ll be surrounded by easily the most talent he’s played with in his college career. Preseason All-City 6 Second Team
Phil Booth (Jr./Villanova)
--Booth, battling a knee injury all year, didn't have quite the sophomore season expected of him, averaging only 7.0 points per game while shooting 31.7% (39-of-123) from 3-point range, a year after he knocked down 48.5 percent (32-of-66) from deep as a freshman. But his breakthrough, a 20-point outing in the National Championship game, hints at bigger things to follow; now that he’s back and healthy, we’re expecting a strong bounce-back year from the former top-100 recruit out of Mt. St. Joseph (Md.).
Demetrius Henry (RS-Jr./La Salle)
--Watching La Salle’s practices last year, it was clear that they had something very promising in Henry, who started 48 games in two years at South Carolina before transferring up to North Broad Street to be an Explorer. An 6-9, 230-pound forward, Henry is the perfect complement to La Salle’s guard-heavy attack: an athletic beast of a big man who will run the floor hard, protect the rim, secure rebounds and finish plays around the basket on the offensive end.

Lamarr Kimble (Soph./Saint Joseph’s)
--The Philly native and Neumann-Goretti grad got stronger and stronger as his freshman season went on, averaging 6.0 ppg and 2.5 apg, with an assist-to-turnover ratio above 2-to-1. Considering there’s only one scholarship senior on the roster and the progress that “Fresh” is expected to make from year one to year two, it’s fully plausible he’s the best player on the Hawks’ roster this year. At 37.2% from 3-point range, he’s certainly their top returning shooter.
Eric Paschall (RS-Soph./Villanova)
-- As a freshman at Fordham in 2014-15, Paschall won Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Year honors after averaging 15.9 ppg and 5.5 rpg, then made the decision to leave the Manhattan institution and ended up in the Big East. After sitting out last year, the 6-6, 205-pound wing forward adds some serious physicality, toughness and scoring ability to the Wildcats with his ability to play inside and out, a la JayVaughn Pinkston a few years ago.
Cleon Roberts (RS-Sr./La Salle)
--A transfer from Georgia Southern in 2013, Roberts, a 6-5 guard, made 38.5% of his 3-point attempts as a freshman at GSU but hasn’t quite gotten back to that level, though his 35.9% rate as a junior bettered his 33.3% he put up in his first year at La Salle in 2014-15. The addition of perimeter threats around him in Syracuse transfer B.J. Johnson and Memphis transfer Pookie Powell should open up shots and help Roberts, currently at 690 points, easily get to 1000 in an Explorer uniform.
Rodney Williams (Sr./Drexel)
--Williams will have to be a two-way anchor for the Dragons this season under new head coach Zach Spiker as the entire program hopes to rebound from a six-win season, the worst since joining Division I in 1970. A 6-7 forward, Williams averaged 10.5 ppg and 5.6 rpg last year, and already has 100 career blocks. His dependable right-hand hook shot might be the most consistent option on the DU offense, and he’ll need to convert inside to keep defenses honest.

Preseason All-City 6 Rookie Team
A.J. Brodeur (PF/Penn)
-- A highly-skilled 6-8 forward out of Northfield Mt. Hermon (Mass.), Brodeur brings a college ready body and game to the Quakers frontcourt; can score equally well around the rim as he can knock down 3-point shots and in the midrange. Looking like he’ll be an All-Ivy player before long, Brodeur has a chance to start right away alongside former NMH teammate Jackson Donahue, a sharpshooting sophomore guard.
Charlie Brown (SF/Saint Joseph’s)
--A Philadelphia native and George Washington HS product, Brown spent the 2015-16 season doing a post-grad year at St. Thomas More (Conn.), and has made some seriously impressive strides in that extra year. Now 6-7, the sharpshooting wing has an incredibly high ceiling, and the progress he’s made in the last two years bodes well for his future. Might be the best pro prospect in the Big 5, though he’s got plenty of work still to do to get there.
Kurk Lee, Jr. (PG/Drexel)
--Spiker was able to nab this scoring point guard out of St. Frances Academy (Md.) soon after taking over the Drexel job in the spring, and it’s quite possible that Lee is the starting point guard from day one in the new Dragon regime thanks to the offseason transfer of previous starting point guard Terrell Allen. Despite being somewhat undersized (5-8, 140 pounds), Lee averaged 16.4 ppg and 5.8 apg as a senior, making the Baltimore Sun’s All-Metro First Team.
Alani Moore (PG/Temple)
--With senior Josh Brown going down in the offseason with an Achilles injury, Moore’s role on this years’ Owls becomes much more important, and it’s possible he starts alongside sophomore Levan Alston Jr. in Temple’s backcourt. A 5-10, 170-pound point guard out of Friendship Collegiate (D.C.), Moore is a heady lead guard who can score the ball as well as he facilitates, and should work well with Alston in the TU backcourt.
Dylan Painter (PF/Villanova)
--This spot would have gone to fellow 'Nova incoming big man Omari Spellman, but the St. Thomas More (Conn.) product and top-20 talent was ruled academically ineligible for this season, and will take a forced redshirt. So that opens up big minutes for Painter, a 6-foot-9 post from Hershey (Pa.) who's already made a positive impression on the staff with a strong showing on the team's trip to Spain in August. As a senior at Hershey, Painter averaged 22.5 ppg, with an impressive ability to score inside and out, and he's a tough rebounder and shot-blocker as well.