Marty Gordon
The Big South Conference released its 2024-2025 preseason basketball polls Tuesday during media days in Charlotte, North Carolina.
The Radford University women were picked second, and the men were chosen seventh.
The ladies also received a first-place vote in the preseason poll for the first time since the 2020-21 season. The Highlanders were just behind first-place High Point and ahead of Charleston Southern who were picked to finish third and fourth, respectively.
High Point, Winthrop and Longwood were tabbed 1-3 in the men’s poll. Only Presbyterian and USC Upstate were picked to finish behind Radford.
The Radford women placed two players on the preseason teams also released on Tuesday.
Gardner-Webb guard Ashley Hawkins (Long Beach, Calif.) has been voted the 2024-25 Big South Conference Women’s Basketball Preseason Player of the Year by the league’s head coaches.
Last year’s Big South Newcomer of the Year, Hawkins earned First-Team All-Conference honors as she was third in the league with 15.7 points per game. She also paced the circuit with 5.6 assists per game — the lone player to average at least five dimes a contest.
Hawkins, who scored a Big South Tournament First Round record 33 points vs. UNC Asheville last March, was among the conference leaders in field goal percentage and free throw shooting (third at 77.9 percent). She started all 30 games for the Runnin’ Bulldogs in 2023-24, had a league-leading nine 20-point games, and posted two point-assist double-doubles with 17 and 11 against College of Charleston (Nov. 20) and 15 and 10 vs. Longwood (Jan. 24).
Hawkins received seven first-place votes and 73 points in the voting to earn the top spot on the preseason All-Conference team.
Radford’s Adriana Shipp-Davis (grad-student forward) was named to the first team, while teammate Joi Williams (sophomore guard) was named second-team.
Transfer Shipp-Davis was a prolific scorer during four seasons at Longwood in which she scored 1,050 points in 119 games with the Lancers. A 2022-23 Second-Team All-Big South selection, Shipp-Davis total 228 points, 94 rebounds, 31 assists and 23 steals during her final season in Farmville in 2023-24. She helped Longwood win the Big South Championship in 2022.
Williams, entering her sophomore campaign with Radford, stepped up in her debut season last year coming primarily off the bench but earned some big starts for totals of 208 points and 45 assists. Williams earned a starting role over 12 games for Radford including the team’s first five conference contests where the Highlanders went 6-1 in her starts.
In Radford’s final two regular season conference games, Williams entered the starting nod again and helped lead the team to two wins totaling 28 points. She ended the season earning the Big South all-freshman team nod and continued her hot streak into the postseason earning all-tournament honors with 28 points and four assists.
Meanwhile Radford was left out of the men’s preseason teams.
High Point guard Kezza Giffa (Paris, France) has been voted the 2024-25 Big South Conference Men’s Basketball Preseason Player of the Year by the league’s head coaches and media panel.
The college basketball season tips off Monday, Nov. 4. The first conference date is Thursday, Jan. 2, as the teams will play a 16-game schedule in 2024-25. The season culminates with the 2025 Hercules Tires Big South Men’s Basketball Championship March 5-9 at Freedom Hall Civic Center in Johnson City, Tenn.