(HALIFAX, N.S.) The defending AUS champion and U SPORTS silver medallist STFX X-Men remain the team to beat according to AUS men's basketball head coaches who voted them into first place in the annual AUS preseason coaches' poll.
The X-Men received all seven first-place votes available to them for a total of 49 points in the poll. They finished the 2022-23 regular season with a 17-3 record and in first place in the conference standings.
The poll results were announced Thursday, ahead of the AUS regular-season opener featuring the Acadia Axemen visiting the Saint Mary's Huskies for an 8 p.m. AT tipoff.
All games of the AUS regular season and postseason will once again be webcast at www.AUStv.ca.
The annual AUS men's basketball preseason coaches' poll was voted on by the league's eight head coaches, who were not permitted to vote for their own teams.
The Dalhousie Tigers finished in second in the poll with 42 points and the remaining first-place vote. Prior to STFX's title win last season, the Tigers had managed to claim six of the last seven conference banners. The 2022-23 Tigers finished third in the AUS regular season with a 12-8 record. They return much of last season's roster, including 2023 AUS first team all-star Nginyu Ngala.
The UNB REDS finished third in coaches' voting with 32 points in the poll, after posting a 7-13 record last regular season, finishing in fifth and being ousted in the quarterfinal round of the AUS championship.
Things are looking up for the Acadia Axemen who were voted fourth in this year's poll with 28 points after finished in last place last season with a 4-16 record and missing the postseason. The Memorial Sea-Hawks closely followed in coaches' voting with 25 points in the poll for fifth place.
The Cape Breton CAPERS finished sixth in the poll with 21 points after finishing last season with a 9-11 record, good for fourth in the conference standings, and eventually being taken out by STFX in the championship semifinals.
The UPEI Panthers will look to prove their seventh-place finish (18 points) in this year's coaches' poll wrong after graduating 2023 AUS MVP Elijah Miller. They finished last season with a 15-5 record and in second place, making it to the championship final game before falling to STFX.
The Saint Mary's Huskies rounded out the poll in eighth place with nine points. They narrowly missed the 2023 postseason with an 8-12 record and a seventh-place finish in the regular season.
Beginning this season, all AUS regular season basketball games will now be worth the same number of points (2) in the conference standings regardless of the opponent.
Formerly, the conference weighted games at either two points or four points according to the number of times a team faced a given opponent in the run of a season. If a team faced an opponent twice, those games were worth four points. If they faced that opponent four times in a given season, each game was worth two points.
Regular season play wraps up Feb. 17 with the top six teams qualifying for the 2024 AUS Men's Basketball Championships, presented by Bell, which will be held Feb. 23-25 at Scotiabank Centre in Halifax, N.S.