After the 2011 CIAA pre-season poll was released Thursday at the Charlotte Convention Center, Stan Lewter of Urban Sports and Entertainment, center, spoke with a panel of conference coaches. (Photo: Glenn Burkins for Qcitymetro.com)
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The 2011 CIAA basketball pre-season picks are in, and Shaw University – both the men’s and women’s teams -- is predicted to finish No. 1 atop the Southern Division.

The men’s and women’s teams of Johnson C. Smith University are picked to finish second.

Shaw stunned opponents in last year’s CIAA tournament by taking home both crowns. The women’s team defeated JCSU in the tournament finals; the men’s team defeated JCSU in a semifinal matchup.

“We’ve got our work cut out for us,” Vanessa Taylor, head coach of JCSU’s women’s team, said Thursday after the poll was released.

Taylor likened last season’s tournament loss to Shaw to Cinderella’s carriage turning into a pumpkin at the stroke of midnight. The Lady Golden Bulls, 20-3 in the regular season, then lost to Shaw again in the regional finals.

“Shaw was our pumpkin on two occasions,” Taylor said.

The pre-season predictions, as seen by coaches and sports writers, were released Thursday during a CIAA media event at the Charlotte Convention Center.

“Ever so often, the predictions will serve as a motivator to teams that thought they should have been number one,” said Stan Lewter of Urban Sports and Entertainment, who moderated the event. In other instances, he said, the predictions can also motivate teams that are “predicted at number one but didn’t think they were that good.”

After the poll was released, coaches from each team offered their thoughts.

Jacques Curtis, head coach of the Shaw women’s team, said he hopes to win the national title this year, and he named Allyssa Lane among the players he expects to help him get there.

Lane, a 4-foot, 11-inch senior out of Winter Park, Fla., was “huge” in leading Shaw to the victory in last year’s CIAA championship. She scored 16 points, hitting all seven of her shot attempts.

“She didn’t miss a shot,” Curtis recalled.

When asked if he felt additional pressure from teams gunning for his top position, Curtis replied, “No, not at all.”

He said that when he first began coaching in the CIAA 12 years ago, the women’s side was less competitive, but that has since changed. “It’s highly competitive,” he said. “It’s a battle every year.”

The Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) is the nation’s oldest historically black conference. The first CIAA tournament was a 2,000-seat sellout. The tournament is now the third-most-attended basketball tournament among all NCAA divisions.

This season marks the 100th anniversary of the CIAA and the sixth year the tournament has been held in Charlotte. Last year’s tournament attracted more than 190,000 fans to the week-long event.

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