The LIU Sharks basketball program is primed to leave its mark at the top of Northeast Conference. And, they might have the talent to do it.
LIU basketball’s redshirt-senior forward Ty Flowers and junior guard Brandy Thomas earned unanimous preseason all-conference bids, the league announced earlier today. The men’s program was also tabbed to finish second in the coaches’ poll, while the women’s team was projected in fifth.
Flowers set single-game highs in points (27), rebounds (12), assists (7) and blocks (5) last season. He led the team averaging over nine rebounds per game and was second with 14 points per game.
The redshirt-senior leads all returning Sharks with 318 rebounds, 171 field-goals made, 59 blocks and 41 steals produced last season. Flowers was named to the conference second team last year after making the third team following the 2018-19 season.
LIU Men’s Basketball earned four head coach votes, despite losing starters Julian Batts, Raiquan Clark and Jashaun Agosto to graduation. The team finished the 2019-20 season as the fourth seed and went 9-9 in conference play (15-18 overall). It eventually fell to top-seeded Robert Morris in the conference semifinals.
The Sharks only trail the Fairleigh Dickinson Knights, who earned the other six head coach votes in the poll.
Thomas followed up her NEC Rookie of the Year season by ranking among the top-five conference scorers, averaging nearly 15 points per game. The guard shot 42 percent from the floor and grabbed around seven rebounds per contest in conference action.
Both award winners had five outings scoring 20 or more points and led LIU with eight double-doubles, last season.
The women’s basketball team rounded out the top-five, up three spots from last season. The Sharks finished 8-22 last season, earning all but one of their wins against conference opponents.
