SPARTANBURG, S.C. - The Samford men's basketball team was picked to finish third in the Southern Conference Preseason Coaches poll released by the conference office this afternoon. The Bulldogs also had two players, Jadin Booth and Dylan Faulkner, named to the All-SoCon team.

The Bulldogs finished with 62 points in the coaches poll, behind just Chattanooga and Furman, who had 77 and 73 respectively, and split the 10 first-place votes evenly. Samford is narrowly ahead of ETSU while UNCG rounds out the top five. 

A new era of basketball begins at Samford under the leadership of first-year head coach Lennie Acuff, who joins the Dogs after taking Lipscomb to the NCAA Tournament last season. There are 13 newcomers to the Bulldog's roster, three freshmen and 10 transfers. 

Two of those transfers were recognized to the Preseason All-SoCon team in Jadin Booth and Dylan Faulkner. Booth is a 6-2 graduate guard who joins the Bulldogs after spending four seasons at Florida Southern College. The Nebraska native has been one of the top scorers at the Division II level, averaging over 20 points per game the past three seasons for the Mocs in the Sunshine State Conference. He started 66 of the 91 games he appeared in and scored 1594 points during his FSC career. He is a 41 percent career three-point shooter and 90 percent from the line, and averaged 3.7 assists per game. 

Faulkner comes to Samford with head coach Lennie Acuff after spending two seasons at Lipscomb with the Bison. A 6-9 forward, Faulkner started 13 of 44 games during his college career. He averaged 7.7 points and 4.4 rebounds on 14.6 minutes per game over his two years in Nashville.  The Calhoun, Georgia native is a defensive presence in the paint as he has 61 career blocks, third in the ASUN in blocks per game during his freshman season, and led Lipscomb with 25 blocks his sophomore year with 25 blocks despite suffering an injury after 15 games. Before his sophomore season was cut short, Faulkner was scoring 10.5 ppg and scored in double digits in eight of his 15 games.

Samford opens their season at Tulane on Nov. 3 before their home opener at the Pete Hanna Center on Nov. 7 against South Carolina State. 

The full preseason poll and All-SoCon team are listed below.

2025-26 Southern Conference Preseason Coaches Poll

Team (1st-place votes)	Total
1. Chattanooga (5)	77
2. Furman (5)	73
3. Samford	62
4. ETSU	61
5. UNCG	43
6. VMI	41
7. Western Carolina	32
8. Mercer	30
9. Wofford	21
10. The Citadel	10

 
2025-26 Preseason Southern Conference Player of the Year
Rickey Bradley Jr, Sr., G, VMI
 
2025-26 Preseason All-Southern Conference team
Jaylen Smith, Jr., G, ETSU
Cooper Bowser, Jr., F, Furman
Tom House, Sr., G, Furman
Jadin Booth, Gr., G, Samford
Dylan Faulkner, Jr., C, Samford
Jikari Johnson, Gr., G, Chattanooga
Collin Mulholland, R-So., F, Chattanooga
Teddy Washington Jr., Gr., G, Chattanooga
Rickey Bradley Jr, Sr., G, VMI
Marcus Kell, R-Jr., F, Western Carolina

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