NEWARK, N.J. - After being named the Northeast Conference's Most Improved Player last season, FDU men's basketball junior forward Ansley Almonor (Spring Valley, N.Y./St. Joseph Regional [Mont.]) was named to the Preseason All-NEC Team, unveiled Tuesday morning at Prudential Center as part of the 2023-24 NEC Basketball Social Media Day. Additionally, FDU was selected third in the NEC Preseason Coaches Poll with one first place vote.

One of eight returning Knights from last season's Cinderella squad which won two NCAA tournament games after advancing to the NEC tournament final, Almonor is the first Knight since Jahlil Jenkins and Elyjah Williams in 2020-21 to be named to the preseason team.

Almonor started in all but two games played last season and shot 43.4 percent from the field as a sophomore. The Spring Valley, N.Y. native, one of FDU's Media Day representatives, averaged 13.6 points and 4.8 rebounds a night en route to a spot on the Third Team All-NEC in 2022-23.

"Watching Ansley's growth over the last year has been incredible," said head coach Jack Castleberry, entering his first season at the helm of the Burgundy and Blue after serving as an assistant last season. He went from being a guy who worked really hard on the court but was a quiet, shyer-type to a more of a vocal leader on the court. He's developed a little bit of a killer instinct and is a guy who outworks pretty much everybody he comes across. We certainly expect big things from him."

Selected third by the nine-team league's coaches, FDU improved from 4-22 in 2021-22 to 21 wins in 2022-23, an improvement of 11.5 year-over-year, one of the top 10 improvements in the country. After being selected sixth in last year's poll, FDU exploded for 10 conference victories, including a regular season sweep of defending champion Merrimack and sweeps of LIU and St. Francis Brooklyn.

"Where we finish in the end is all that matters," Castleberry commented. "We're picked where we're picked. We go out that and play the games but our guys are going to work really hard and we're certainly going to do everything we can to compete for a Northeast Conference championship."

Rounding out the 2023-24 NEC Preseason Coaches Poll are Sacred Heart in first (seven first place votes), followed by Central Connecticut, FDU, Merrimack, Wagner, Stonehill, LIU, Saint Francis U and the league's newest member, Le Moyne in ninth.

The Knights return three of five starters from last season's squad and return more than 64 percent of minutes and 59 percent of points.

FDU men's basketball opens their 75th season on November 6 at Buffalo at 7:30 p.m. The game will air live on ESPN+.

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