2009-10 Schedule | Media Guide

DAHLONEGA, GA – The North Georgia men’s basketball team has been picked to finish eighth in the Peach Belt Conference in 2009-10, according to a poll voted on by the league’s head coaches the conference office announced Wednesday afternoon.

Augusta State is favored to win the regular season championships after making back-to-back elite eight appearances. The Jaguars received 10 of the possible 12 first-place votes in the poll for 142 total points, 19 ahead of Clayton State. USC Aiken was third in the poll with GCSU fourth and Lander fifth.

North Georgia was eighth in the poll, receiving 74 points that broke down into one fourth place vote, three fifth place votes, four seventh place votes, two eighth, one ninth, and one tenth.

The Saints return just four players off the 2008-09 team, but will look to make a push to the front of the Peach Belt Conference with the addition of six transfers and four incoming freshman.

North Georgia will open the season at nearby and NCAA Division I opponent’s the University of Georgia and Kennesaw State University as the Saints oppose the Bulldogs and Owls in back-to-back weeks in exhibition play.

The Saints will then host four home games to open the regular season before traveling to the Carson-Newman Tournament in Jefferson, Tennessee, to take on Tusculum and Carson-Newman College.

North Georgia will play 10 non-conference games before finally breaking into the Peach Belt Conference schedule the first week of January as they play host to Augusta State University in Memorial Hall.

With the addition of Flagler College and the University of Montevallo to the Peach Belt Conference for the 2009-10 season, the number of teams in the league has now been stretched to 13. Due to this, the PBC has split into two divisions. North Georgia is now in the West Division with Clayton State, Columbus State, Georgia Southwestern, GCSU, and Montevallo, while the East Division consists of Armstrong Atlantic, Augusta State, Flagler, Francis Marion, Lander, UNC Pembroke, and USC Aiken.

The format for the 2010 PBC Tournament has also changed with only eight of the top 13 teams qualifying for the event to be held for the third straight year at the Convocation Center on the campus of USC Aiken. The top two seeds from each division will host a first-round contest on campus on March 3, and the four winners will then advance to the new PBC Final Four to be held the first weekend of March (5-7).