<body><div><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=3LdvUj_0wCjl0yK00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=3LdvUj_0wCjl0yK00" width="800" height="480" >NEW ORLEANS – Fans' excitement for the impending college basketball season peaks as they begin to focus on what's happening within their favorite programs. Coaches and players are eager to get started and hit the hardwood against new competition with fresh optimism about the season ahead. Within the Sun Belt, all 14 teams have a shot to take home the conference title and earn a coveted spot in the post season.James Madison faces perhaps the highest expectations for the upcoming season. After 23 wins, a trip to the Sun Belt championship game and the number one seed in the WBIT turned heads late in the 2023-24 season. They received 12 of 14 possible first-place votes in a poll of the league’s head coaches to earn the title of preseason favorite.The Dukes return a solid core of players that started in 20 or more of the team's games last season in Peyton McDaniel, Jamia Hazell, Kseniia Kozlova and Olivia Mullins. The Dukes placed three on Preseason All-Sun Belt Teams - the most of any team. With her four years of experience and team-leading stat lines, McDaniel was voted the Sun Belt’s Preseason Player of the Year to complement First Team honors, while Kozlova earned a Second Team nod. Ro Scott, who transferred in for the upcoming season, adds veteran leadership to the group after appearing in 37 games for Marshall last season and was named to the Preseason All-Sun Belt Third Team.“We’re trying to win the league just like everyone else,” head coach Sean O’Regan said. “We failed at that goal last year and this group is hungry for that.”While James Madison returns a core, Troy played to their own strengths with head coach Chanda Rigby being true to who she is with her experience navigating the transfer portal, especially those at the junior college level. The Trojans have a roster filled with upperclassman, free from freshman and sophomores, but Rigby is confident that her new roster’s experience will shine.“We’re going to take advantage of the fact that we do have experienced players,” Rigby said. “We have players who have started at other universities and been in intense situations, and we’re going to take the good from that.”Much like Troy, Old Dominion hit the portal hard and added 10 new players to its roster to complement their four returners. The Monarchs were picked to finish third in the preseason coaches’ poll, and while adding so many newcomers at once can present its challenges, head coach DeLisha Milton-Jones couldn’t be more pleased with how her team has come together.“I am most pleased with our culture on and off the court,” Milton-Jones said. “I think the players have done a tremendous job of policing themselves and buying into whatever philosophy or identity that we want to display for this season.”Three head coaches are new to the Sun Belt this season including App State, Marshall and Georgia Southern. App State brought in Alaura Sharp, The Herd tabbed Juli Fulks and Georgia Southern hired Hana Haden.“This is a really, really good league with lots of good coaches and tons of talent,” Haden said. “This is a league I have been able to follow and have a lot of respect for.”In Huntington, Fulks takes over for the reigning Sun Belt regular season and tournament champions.“I don’t think it’s a secret that coach Caldwell and I probably did some things different on the court,” Fulks said. “I think the piece that has maintained the same is the culture and expectations of what winning programs look like.”A full recording of interviews with all 14 head coaches from Sun Belt Women’s Basketball Media Day can be viewed on the Sun Belt Conference YouTube page.The regular season tips off Monday, November 4 with the second year and first round of the MAC-SBC Challenge. Each Sun Belt Conference women’s basketball program will play an 18-game league slate beginning in December.The 2025 Hercules Tires Sun Belt Women’s Basketball Championship returns to the Pensacola Bay Center in Pensacola, Fla., March 4-10.</div></body>

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Sun Belt Women’s Basketball Head Coaches Discuss Expectations Ahead of 2024-25 Tipoff

NEW ORLEANS – Fans' excitement for the impending college basketball season peaks as they begin to focus on what's happening within their favorite programs. Coaches and players are eager to get started and hit the hardwood against new competition with fresh optimism about the season ahead. Within the Sun Belt, all 14 teams have a shot to take home the conference title and earn a coveted spot in the post season.