A year ago the Southland Conference overlooked Will Wade’s revamped Cowboys in its preseason poll.

Not this year.

After dominating the league last season, winning both the regular and postseason championships, McNeese State is the overwhelming favorite to repeat as conference champs.

Last year the Cowboys were picked for second in the preseason poll.

This year McNeese received 21 of 24 first-place votes in this year’s poll released by the SLC Thursday morning. McNeese finished with 242 points, well ahead of newcomer Stephen F. Austin which placed second with 208.

Nicholls, which lost the conference title game last spring to the Cowboys, picked up the three remaining first-place votes and is third with 205 points. Coaches and Sports Information Directors vote on the poll from each of the 12 schools and they are not allowed to select their team.

“Everybody looks good on paper,” said McNeese head coach Will Wade. “You have to make it happen on the court. But we have to make it happen. It is on us.”

The Cowboys finished 17-1 in the conference a year ago and 30-4 overall, winning the title for the first time since 2002 and earning the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

McNeese, which returns seven players including three starters, placed five players on the SLC’s Preseasons All-Conference Team.

Christian Shumate, last year’s Defensive Player of the Year, highlights a trio of Cowboys who were selected to the first team. Shumate, a senior from Chicago, led the league in rebounding last season and was 31st in the country at 9.5 a game.’

The forward became a fan favorite with his 57 dunks, many of them highlight-reel-worthy. He finished with 12 double-doubles while averaging 12.1 points and was featured on ESPN’s SportsCenter nine times in the Top 10 Plays of the Day.

“The standard is to win now, but you always have to prove something to somebody,” said Shumate. “Everybody knows we are a talented team. We have to prepare and deal with the little things.”

Shumate is joined on the first team by a pair of transfers, forward Joe Charles from Louisiana-Lafayette and Quadir Copeland from Syracuse. Copeland, a 6-foot-6 guard, spent two seasons at Syracuse, averaging 9.6 points and 4.6 rebounds last year.

Charles started all 33 games for the Cajuns last winter, scoring 11.3 points and pulling down 9.6 boards an outing. He was the first addition to the roster after last season for McNeese.

Two Cowboys were picked for the second team, senior guard Javohn Garcia and Ole Miss transfer Brandon Murray. Garcia averaged 11.2 points for McNeese last year and was named to the All-Tournament team at season’s end.

“The expectation is bigger than anyone,” said Garcia. “We have goals. The difference from last year is we were all underdogs and this season we have expectations.”

Murray, who started his college career at LSU with Wade, averaged 10 points, 3 rebounds, 1.9 assists, and 1.1 steals as he was selected to the SEC All-Freshman Team in his year with the Tigers.

“We can be really good but we can also hold ourselves back,” said Murray. “We can be as good as we want to be.”

After LSU parted ways with Wade after the 2021-22 season, Murray transferred to Georgetown and started 27 games for the Hoyas. He finished second on the team with 13.7 points per game, while also grabbing 3.9 rebounds and 3.2 assists before spending last season at Ole Miss.

Nicholls is the only other SLC team with more than one player on the teams with two.

“Our league has gotten better,” said Wade. “We have to get ourselves ready to go.”

This time the Cowboys will get going from the pole position.