Concordia University Irvine senior guard Brian Chambers was selected to the pre-season All-PacWest Conference team. Â (Photo courtesy Troy Makalena)
The Concordia University Irvine men’s basketball team was voted to finish third this season in the PacWest Conference pre-season poll.
Point Loma received 10 of 12 first-place votes and was voted the preseason favorite to win the league while Azusa Pacific was picked second and received the other two first-place votes.
Concordia Coach Ken Ammann returns for his 18th season at the helm and has directed the Eagles to at least 20 victories in 14 of his first 17 seasons on the bench. This will be the second year that Concordia is eligible to make the post season since completing the jump from NAIA to NCAA Division II.
Coming off a 20-11 season and their first-ever victory in the PacWest Conference Tournament, the Eagles have their sights set on clawing even deeper into the post season this coming March.
Senior Brian Chambers returns as Concordia’s leading scorer and was named to the 2018 Preseason All-PacWest Team. The Long Beach native averaged 14 points and two steals per game last year and actually led the entire PacWest Conference in steals.
“Brian’s skill set is as complete as a player as you can find when you consider offense, defense and how hard he plays and competes,” said Ammann. “He’s as good as it gets with that combination of strengths. Â It’s hard to find a player that is that good on offense that loves defense as much as he does and is willing to spend as much energy on that end of the floor as he does.”
Concordia opens its regular season slate this weekend with three games in three days at the Disney DII Tip-Off Classic at Santiago Canyon College.
The Eagles will begin their new campaign against Embry Riddle University on Friday, Nov. 2 at 11:15 a.m. on the first day of the tournament. The Green and Gold will then face Drury University on Saturday, Nov. 3 before matching up with West Texas A&M on Sunday, Nov. 4. All three games begin at 11:15 a.m.
“We played two really good teams in our exhibitions to help us learn as many lessons as possible,” said Ammann, “So we are interested to see if we can put what we learned into practice as we enter a really challenging weekend.”
Concordia will begin the year with seven straight games away from home. Â The home opener is set for Saturday, Nov. 24 against Antelope Valley at 7 p.m. on Thanksgiving weekend.
To see the entire 2018-2019 Concordia men’s basketball schedule click here. Â
-Ben Rosehart, For OC Sports Zone
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