AUGUSTA, Ga. — The Peach Belt Conference has released the 2023-24 men's basketball season preview featuring the coaches preseason poll and the preseason All-Conference team. University of North Georgia men's basketball player Frank Champion was named to the preseason All-Conference team while the Nighthawks were selected first in the coaches poll.
For the first time in program history, North Georgia stands atop the men's basketball preseason poll as UNG received five first-place votes and 76 total points, edging out defending PBC co-champions USC Aiken and Augusta.
The Nighthawks return the bulk of their roster from last season, including Champion who took home PBC Player of the Year honors last season. The junior forward was second in the league in scoring and first in rebounding last year. Champion earns the preseason All-Conference selection after taking home a list of awards last season.
Frank Champion, North Georgia (Jr., F, Lithonia, Ga.)
- The 2022-23 PBC Player of the Year, he was a first-team All-Conference selection, D2CCA first-team All-American, D2CCA Southeast Region Player of the Year and NABC first-team All-District
- Ranked second in the PBC in scoring at 20.2 ppg and led the conference in rebounding with 9.9 per contest; was also tied for the league lead in assists, second in the conference in field goal percentage, fourth in blocks and fourth in steals
- Surpassed the 1,000-point mark for his career last season with 15 games of 20 or more points and two games of 30 or more
The preseason coaches poll is below with first-place votes in parentheses. Coaches were not permitted to rank their own teams.
| Rank |
Team |
Points |
| 1. |
North Georgia (5) |
76 |
| 2. |
USC Aiken (4) |
74 |
| 3. |
Augusta (1) |
66 |
| 4. |
Lander |
57 |
| 5. |
Flagler |
46 |
| 6. |
Columbus State |
43 |
| 7. |
Georgia Southwestern |
30 |
| 8. |
Georgia College & State University |
25 |
| 9. |
Clayton State |
24 |
| 10. |
USC Beaufort |
9
|
