The University of Hartford’s men’s basketball players John Carroll and Jason Dunne have been named to the America East Preseason All-Conference Team.

Carroll, a forward coming from Dublin, Ireland, earned his spot after he finished last season on the America East’s top-10. Carroll’s top-10 honors came as he was seventh in the America East for scoring with an average of 15.2 points per game, sixth for rebounding with an average of 6.4 per game, seventh in field goal percentage with 469, and seventh in average blocks per game with 0.9. He was able to accomplish this as a junior even after being injured the two seasons prior.

Similarly, Jason Dunne had an amazing 2017-2018 season that helped him earn the spot on this season’s preseason team. Dunne averaged career high stats with 14.8 points, 2.8 assists, and 1.3 steals. Dunne also shows he earns his spot on the team after last season’s record breaking 98 three-pointers. These three-pointers boosted him to second place for the Hawks’ program history. He was also ranked 33 in the nation for three-point field goals per game with an average of 2.97. The Hawks also have another reason to be prideful of its men’s basketball team; they are tallied second for the pre-season.

The Hawks received three first-place votes by the polls but did not get enough to beat the regular-season victors, Vermont who received six first-place votes for pre-season. Hartford totaled 59 points, just three short of Vermont for this vote. The team that came in third place for the pre-season is UMBC who tallied up 44 points. UAlbany and Stony Brook tied for fourth, both having 40 points while Binghamton took fifth, and Maine and New Hampshire tied for seventh.

This preseason projection for the Hawks is the best projection the program has seen since 2008. This marks the best single-season turn around in the 69 years of the program’s existence. The Hawks’ last season, which was one of the best in the program’s history, broke the program’s record for regular-season wins with 18 and overall wins with 19. Hartford will begin its season in the next few weeks on Nov. 6 at 7p.m. in the Reich Family Pavilion against Central Connecticut State University. The University’s men’s basketball team is looking to go even further this season than it did last season.