BIDDEFORD, Maine – In its second year in the league, Suffolk men's basketball has been projected to finish as runner-up in the Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) according to the conference's preseason coaches' poll released Thursday.
The second-place prediction is the highest league preseason prediction for the Rams to date, surpassing the previous fourth-place selection that Suffolk received in the Great Northeast Athletic Conference on multiple occasions with the most recent being 2019-20 . The blue-and-gold earned the second spot with 81 votes, finishing behind the reigning CCC Champion Nichols, who collected nine of the possible 10 first-place picks for 99 points.
Endicott and Western New England shared the third spot with 75 points apiece and Salve Regina's 59 rounded out the top five.
The remaining first-place nod landed on Roger Williams ballot. The Hawks had 48 points to slid into sixth, one point ahead of Gordon. Wentworth (32), University of New England (21) and Curry (13) rounded out the poll in eighth through 10th, respectively.
Jeff Juron brings back the core of his line-up with just one player lost to graduation from a team that went 16-10 overall and 10-8 versus conference competition in its first CCC campaign that featured a semifinal showing. Fifth-year players William Rowe (10.0 ppg, 6.3 rpg) and Conor Creane (6.6 ppg) and upperclassmen Aidan Sullivan (12.0 ppg, 4.9 apg) and John Gates (8.5 ppg) will look to lead Suffolk to a CCC Championship for the first time in program history.
Suffolk's 77th season is set to get underway Saturday, Nov. 12 against Salem State at 3 p.m.