Pride men's basketball picked in the middle of the pack in 2021-22 Heart Preseason Poll

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – As we near the second half of October, the beginning of basketball season approaches as the Clarke University men's basketball was picked to finish eighth overall in the Heart of America Athletic Conference Preseason Poll that was released by conference officials on Friday afternoon.

The Pride received 80 points in the poll after finishing 10-12 overall with a 9-10 in the Heart to finish in third place in the North Division of the Heart in the 2020-21 season. The defending Heart regular season champions and NAIA Tournament No. 2 seed in 2020-21, William Penn University were voted the top team in the preseason poll receiving 169 total voting points.

The Statesmen were the only team in the North Division to finish with double-digit conference wins in 2020-21 as Mount Mercy and Clarke finished with nine wins. The South Division had five teams finish with double-digit wins inside of the Heart led by Benedictine College who was voted No. 2 in the 2021-22 preseason poll.

The rest of the top half of the preseason poll is filled with teams in the South Division as the Pride are the second-highest voted North Division team in the poll at No. 8. Park, MidAmerica Nazarene, Baker, Central Methodist, and Evangel were voted to the 3-7 spots.

The Pride return their top-two scorers 2020-21 in Keith Johnson (15.8 ppg) and Jordan Lake (15.3 ppg) while adding a large group of incoming transfers and freshmen that will look to boost CU back to the 24-win overall and 18-win Heart season that they had in 2019-20 before the postseason was cut off by COVID-19.

Clarke men's basketball will play their first regular season game of the 2021-22 season on Oct. 26 when they travel to Fulton, Mo. to face William Woods University.