Monday, Oct. 30

      ROANOKE, VA--The Winthrop men's basketball team has been picked for the first time in school history to capture the Big South Conference championship next March when all is said and done at the 2001 league tournament which will be held in the Roanoke Civic Center.

   Coach Gregg Marshall's Eagles, winners of the last two Big South titles and recipients of back-to-back NCAA tournament bids, received 120 points in the annual poll of the league's head coaches and sports information directors.  Radford, last year's regular season champion, was second with 107 points while UNC Asheville was third at 93 and Liberty came in fourth with 83 points.  The bottom half of the predicted finishers had Coastal Carolina fifth with 59 points followed by Elon, sixth, with 52; Charleston Southern, seventh, 33; and High Point, eighth, 29.

   The Eagles garnered 10 first place votes, four seconds, and two thirds while Radford received five first place votes, eight seconds, two fourths, and one eighth place vote.  Coastal Carolina had the other first place vote.