| | All-Conference team
Detric Golden, senior, guard, Troy State
Eugene Christopher, senior, guard, Troy State
Shenard Long, junior, forward, Georgia State
Will Daniel, senior, forward, Samford
Reed Rawlings, forward, senior, Samford
Player of the year
Reed Rawlings, senior, Samford
Newcomer of the year
Detric Golden, senior, Troy State
Top backcourts
1. Troy State
2. Georgia State
3. Samford
Top frontcourts
1. Samford
2. Stetson
3. Central Florida/Stetson
Team on the rise
Troy State
Team on the fall
Florida Atlantic
Did you know?
Hugh Durham (Jacksonville) has been to the Final Four with the University of Georgia and Florida State. Lefty Driesell (Georgia State) won the ACC championship with Maryland. Don Maestri (Troy State) played for a Division II national championship with Troy State. Mark Turgeon (Jacksonville State) played for a top-10 team at Kansas. Sindey Green (Florida Atlantic) played with nationally ranked teams at UNLV. These TAAC coaches know success in college basketball, and they know how to get to the top in a hurry. They hunt for the best talent, and if it means shopping down the junior college or transfer aisle, so be it. "Lefty and Hugh raised the bar in this league and told others that they were going to raise the talent level," Maestri said. "Other coaches are going to upgrade the talent level in their programs immediately to keep up. There's a big difference in talent in this league compared to several years ago. Things are more balanced between the seventh-, eighth- and ninth-place teams and the top four teams in the league."
The Trans America Athletic Conference has the right word in its title -- "Trans" means move. Players are on the move in this league. Of the 41 new players joining conference schools, only 20 are freshmen just out of high school. The others are junior college or Division I transfers. Georgia State's entire starting lineup is made up of transfers.
The league schedule will be a 10-team, double round-robin of 18 games. For the first time in TAAC history, every team in the conference will play in the postseason league tournament.
Georgia State's Driesell looks to add to his 716 career victories, which puts him in elite company in the history of college basketball. Only nine coaches are ahead of Driesell in career Division I victories. Only one of those, Indiana's Bob Knight, is still active after the retirement in August of UTEP's Don Haskins, who's in ninth place with 719 wins.
The league's new coach this season is Florida Atlantic's Sidney Green, who played for UNLV and had a 10-year career in the NBA.
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