RJ Felton Named To American Athletic Conference Preseason First Team; Pirates Picked Ninth

Irving, Texas – East Carolina senior guard RJ Felton has been named to the American Athletic Conference Preseason First Team and the Pirates were picked to finish ninth in the league as the conference office announced its preseason polls and teams on Friday afternoon ahead of the 2024-25 season.

Voting is done by the league's 13 head coaches, who are not allowed to vote for their own schools or student-athletes.

Felton joins Jayden Gardner as the only ECU player to earn AAC First Team preseason honors and be named to an AAC preseason team in back-to-back seasons. The Aiken, S.C. native led the Pirates in scoring last season with a career-best 17.3 points per game and set other career-highs in statistical categories including rebounds per game (six), steals per game (1.8) and three-point percentage (35.5 percent). Felton also was the first ECU player to record back-to-back 30-point games since former Pirate and NBA player Theodore "Blue" Edwards did so back in 1989. He became the 34th player in Pirate Men's Basketball history to score 1,000 career points and has scored in double figures in the last 25 games dating back to last year.

East Carolina will tip-off its third season under Michael Schwartz on Nov. 4 when the Pirates welcome N.C. Wesleyan to Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum.

Preseason Poll		Points
1	UAB (9)	141
2	Memphis (4)	136
3	South Florida	108
4	Wichita State	102
5	Florida Atlantic	97
6	Temple	86
7	North Texas	83
8	Charlotte	65
9	East Carolina	63
10	Tulsa	44
11	UTSA	35
	Tulane	35
13	Rice	18

First-place votes in parenthesis

Preseason Player of the Year
Yaxel Lendeborg, Sr., F, UAB

Preseason Freshman of the Year
Jared Harris, G, Memphis

Preseason All-Conference First Team
Yaxel Lendeborg, Sr., F, UAB*
RJ Felton, Sr., G, East Carolina
PJ Haggerty, R-So., G, Memphis
Tyrese Hunter, Sr., G, Memphis
Jamal Mashburn Jr., Gr., G, Temple

Preseason All-Conference Second Team
Efrem 'Butta' Johnson, Jr., G, UAB
Alejandro Vasquez, Sr., G, UAB
KyKy Tandy, Gr., G, Florida Atlantic
Colby Rogers, R-Sr., G, Memphis
Jayden Reid, So., G, South Florida

* denotes unanimous selection

RJ Felton Named To American Athletic Conference Preseason First Team; Pirates Picked Ninth

Players Mentioned

RJ Felton

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