CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. (Oct. 27, 2014) - On Monday, the LIU Post men's basketball team was selected to finish second in the 2014-15 East Coast Conference Preseason Coaches' Poll.

The Pioneers received 107 total points and two first-place votes in the balloting, which was conducted by the league's 11 head coaches. Bridgeport, the reigning ECC regular-season and tournament champion, got the nod as the preseason favorite. It earned 113 points and five first-place nods.

LIU Post, under the direction of second-year head coach Erik Smiles, welcomes back four of its five starters from last season's 17-12 squad. Senior guard P.J. Torres (New Rochelle, N.Y.), an All-ECC and All-Met second-team selection in his first campaign in a Pioneer uniform, averaged a team-leading 16.6 points per game on 41.3 percent shooting from the floor. He also grabbed 6.1 rebounds and dished out 3.8 assists per game in 28 appearances in 2013-14.

Senior forward Tyuan Williams (Newark, N.J.) was the Pioneers' second-best rebounder (8.0) and third-leading point-getter (11.6) a year ago, while senior guard Isiah Stokley (Queens, N.Y.) scored at an 8.7 clip per game. Junior guard Dillon Burns (Staten Island, N.Y.) rounds out Smiles' returning starting five at the point. A threat from three-point range, Burns drilled 38.2 percent (29-of-76) of his attempts from downtown, and allocated 3.8 assists per contest.

Following Bridgeport and LIU Post was Daemen in third. The Wildcats, led by ECC Co-Preseason Player of the Year Gerald Beverly, racked up 88 points and two first-place votes. 2013-14 ECC Championship runner-up St. Thomas Aquinas (76 points) placed fourth, and Dowling (75 points, one first-place vote) rounded out the Top-5.

Smiles and the Pioneers tip off the 2014-15 season on Saturday, Nov. 15 against Franklin Pierce at the Pratt Recreation Center in Brookville at 4:45 p.m.

2014-15 ECC Men's Basketball Preseason Poll
1. Bridgeport (Five First-Place Votes) - 113 Points
2. LIU Post (Two First-Place Votes) - 107 Points
3. Daemen (Two First-Place Votes) - 88 Points
4. St. Thomas Aquinas - 76 Points
5. Dowling (One First-Place Vote) - 75 Points
6. Queens - 62 Points
7. Molloy - 56 Points
8. NYIT - 54 Points
9. Dist. Columbia (One First-Place Vote) - 42 Points
10. Roberts Wesleyan - 37 Points
11. Mercy - 16 Points