OVC Basketball: Preseason power rankings for 2023-24 season
10. Southern Indiana Screaming Eagles – Head Coach Stan Gouard
2022-23 record: 16-17 overall, 9-9 in the OVC
No Ohio Valley Conference team lost as much talent this past offseason than Southern Indiana. After a surprisingly successful first Division 1 season, the Flaming Eagles lost two all-conference players and suddenly the OVC’s best rebounding and three-point shooting team was without its three most important players.
Rebounding machine Jacob Polakovich (12.8 per game) and long distance champion (3.1 triples per game) Trevor Lakes graduated and all-OVC guard Isaiah Swope transferred to Indiana State. Swope was the league’s fourth leading scorer (15.6 ppg) and fourth most accurate long range bomber (.423). The speedy Swope is a game-changing player.
USI lost nearly 80 percent of its game experience to graduation and transfer. None of the team’s top six scorers return. Coach Stan Gouard’s offseason job was not an easy one, but the former two-time D2 all-American and a coach with a .651 winning percentage is unmoved by the obstacles.
Three D1 transfers will help ease the pain of those massive departures. Florida A&M transfer Jordan Tillmon arrives to take up the lead guard role. The 6’2 junior was a double-digit scorer and logged 35 minutes per game for a seven-win A&M team. Yarin Hasson had the opposite issue. The U Conn transfer couldn’t get off the bench for the national champions, but the 6’11 native of Israel is young and long on potential.
Coming from league foe Tennessee Tech is another big. Nolan Causwell is a 6’11 senior who averaged 3.9 points and 3.1 rebounds for the Golden Eagles. Hasson, Causwell and sophomore Kiyron Powell should be up the filling the Polakovich rebounding hole. Powell is an Evansville native that went to Houston and returned last season to play for USI. While he struggled to find his way on last year’s team, this three-star recruit could be ready to emerge.
Guard Jeremiah Hernandez is the leading returning scorer (4.9 ppg) but neither he nor guards Jack Campion nor A.J. Smith averaged more than 16 minutes per game. Campion started 13 contests and made 37 percent from deep.
Junior college transfers Ryan Hall, Javius Moore and Xavier McCord should earn ample playing time.
Another ‘sleeper’ could be junior Jack Mielke. In his limited playing time the 6’7 junior has demonstrated a good shooting touch and Gouard has praised both his work ethic and leadership ability. He expects Mielke to have something of a breakout year.
This is an OVC mystery team. How the newcomers mesh with the high-energy Gouard and with one another will determine how high the Screaming Eagles fly. They have been dealing with some early practice session injuries and that could hinder early season progress and success.