It’s a clean sweep for Stephen F. Austin when it comes to the Southland Conference expectations in basketball.

Both the men’s and women’s teams from the school were picked to win conference titles, the league announced Wednesday.

In fact, the first two teams in both polls were the same, as Northwestern State came in second in both the coaches and sports information directors voting.

McNeese State was picked to finish fifth in both men’s polls and fourth and sixth on the women’s side.

The top eight teams in each qualify for the SLC tournament at the end of the season in Katy, Texas. However, the Cowboys are one of eight teams on the men’s side eligible for the postseason, meaning they have already qualified.

After an 11-20 season, 9-9 in the Southland, the Cowboys hope to make more noise this year. Last season a slow start and a rough schedule that saw them travel all over the country and play one home game before conference play hurt.

“We have done a better job scheduling,” head coach Dave Simmons joked. “Last year we put ourselves in a tough situation.”

Not so this season as McNeese will play 16 games at Burton Coliseum and none at the Lake Charles Civic Center. Kevin Hardy and Desharick Guidry lead a senior class that has something to prove.

“This team has better chemistry,” Simmons said. “Our guys want to show our fans we are a lot better than the way we played last year.”

Coming off a program-best 32-3 record that included an 18-0 conference mark, SFA, which advanced to the third round of the NCAA tournament, returns three starters, including reigning conference player of the year Jacob Parker. The Lumberjacks earned the No. 12 seed in the NCAA tournament and defeated No. 5 Virginia Commonwealth before losing to No. 4 UCLA.

SFA received 11 first-place votes from the coaches for 143 points while picking up 10 first-place nods from the SIDs and 144 total points. Northwestern State received 129 points from both polls.

On the women’s side, the coaches picked McNeese to finish tied for fourth with Central Arkansas while the SIDs had them pegged for sixth.

“I think this is going to be an exciting year for us,” said Cowgirls head coach Brooks Donald Williams.

After a three-year run as one of the conference’s elite, the Cowgirls fell to 10-8 in the Southland last year but were 19-14 overall. With seven newcomers and two starters returning, the Cowgirls are a bit of an unknown.

“We have an exciting dynamic here,”

said Donald Williams. “We have a nice balance between returning players and some fun newcomers.”

The Cowgirls will be counting junior guards Allison Baggett, a first-team preseason pick who led McNeese in scoring at 17.8 points a game, and Jayln Johnson. Getting Baggett scoring help will be the key.

“She put us on her back a lot last year,” Donald Williams said. “I think we will have more balance this season.”

The Ladyjacks got 11 of the first-place votes from coaches and nine from the SIDs to run away with the poll for the second consecutive year. Their 142 and 137 points, respectively, were well ahead of second-place Northwestern State, which won the title a year ago.

SFA leads all schools with 16 regular-season championship and looks to make its 24th postseason appearance in school history. SFA returns 10 letterwinners, including three starters from last season’s squad.

After slated to finish eighth in last season’s poll, the Northwestern State Lady Demons made a run to win the SLC tournament title, altering the minds of the league’s coaches and SIDs heading into the 2014-15 campaign. The Lady Demons gathered 116 points and the final two first-place votes in the coaches poll for second and tied for second in the SIDs poll with Lamar as they each calculated 115 points.(Rick Hickman/American Press)