The Southeastern Conference announced their media preseason poll and all-conference teams on Monday, selecting Ole Miss senior Malik Dia to the third team and choosing the team to place eighth in the SEC standings. Voting was conducted by a select panel of both SEC and national media members.

Dia returns to Ole Miss for his second year with the program after finishing third in scoring and leading the squad in rebounding a season ago. He started all 36 games for head coach Chris Beard in 2024-25, averaging 10.8 points and 5.7 rebounds per outing, helping lead the Rebels to 24 wins and their Sweet 16 run in the NCAA Tournament.

He scored in double figures in eight of the last 10 games of the season for Ole Miss a year ago, including a 19-point and eight-rebound performance in the SEC Tournament win over Arkansas and 18 points and eight boards in their NCAA Tournament win over three-seed Iowa State.

Dia is joined on the preseason All-SEC Third Team by Aden Holloway of Alabama, Karter Knox of Arkansas, Jaland Lowe of Kentucky, and D.J. Wagner of Arkansas. The media members chose Kentucky guard Otega Oweh as the preseason Player of the Year.

Ole Miss finished in a tie for sixth place in last year’s SEC standings, picking up 10 conference wins. The Rebels advanced to the quarterfinals of the SEC tournament before taking down North Carolina and Iowa State en route to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament.

This year’s team kicks off the 2025-26 campaign with an exhibition on October 26 at 11:30 a.m. in the SJB Pavilion against Saint Mary’s. Admission to the exhibition game is free. Their regular season begins at home in Oxford on Monday, November 3 when they host Southeastern Louisiana at 7 p.m.

Mississippi State

Mississippi State’s Josh Hubbard captured Preseason All-SEC First-Team accolades by the league’s media announced Monday leading into this week’s SEC Media Days in Birmingham.

As a program, the Bulldogs have had at least one player secure All-SEC Preseason honors from the media during four of the last five seasons and in nine of the last 11 seasons since 2015-16.

State was listed among teams receiving votes in the Associated Press Top 25 preseason poll and was picked to finish 10th in the SEC Preseason media poll which also was released on Monday.

The SEC placed six teams inside the AP Top 20 which include No. 3 Florida, No. 9 Kentucky, No. 14 Arkansas, No. 15 Alabama, No. 18 Tennessee and No. 20 Auburn. The Bulldogs were joined by Missouri, Oklahoma, Ole Miss, Texas and Vanderbilt among the receiving votes category.

In 23 days, State takes on North Alabama (Nov. 5 – 8 p.m. CT – SEC Network) for its 2025-26 season opener at Humphrey Coliseum and officially embark on the program’s fourth season under Chris Jans, who has guided State to three consecutive NCAA Tournament trips.

Hubbard finished his sophomore season with 1,240 career points which is the most during the 2000s and the fourth-most among SEC freshmen/sophomores trailing only Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf (LSU 1989-90), Allan Houston (Tennessee 1990-91) and Bernard King (Tennessee 1975-76).

Hubbard’s 1,240 points is third-most in State history through 69 games and ranks 27th overall on the program’s all-time list. He is joined by Bailey Howell (1957-58-59) and Jamont Gordon (2006-07-08) as the only players in school history to amass multiple seasons with 550-plus points.

Hubbard has canned a school-record 108 three-pointers during each of his first two seasons. Overall, he’s tied for fifth in program history with 216 three-pointers and has made a three-pointer in a school-record 47 consecutive games entering 2025-26.

Hubbard became the first State player to pile up at least 600 points and 100 assists during the same season. He was one of 10 major conference players to accomplish the feat in 2024-25.

Hubbard and Erick Dampier are the only State players to earn All-SEC honors during their freshmen and sophomore seasons.

Jans is one of four coaches in SEC history to amass at least 21 victories and guide his squad to a NCAA Tournament appearance during each of his first three seasons. Mississippi State is looking to secure four straight NCAA Tournament bids for the second time in program history.

The Bulldogs will square off with last season’s NCAA National Runner Up and No. 2 Houston (Oct. 26 – 6:30 p.m. CT) at The Preview College Basketball Exhibition located at the Fort Bend Epicenter in Rosenberg, Texas.

State also meets No. 16 Iowa State (Nov. 10) in Sioux Falls, South Dakota along with Kansas State (Nov. 20) who is receiving votes during non-conference action at the Hall of Fame Tipoff Classic in Kansas City.

Posted in College Sports

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