On Nov. 19, the Mid-American Conference announced the preseason men’s basketball honors with UB senior guard Jayvon Graves named to the preseason All-MAC First Team and junior forward Josh Mballa named to the second team.
After being named a first-team All-MAC selection last season with the Bulls, Graves also led the team in scoring at 17.1 points per game while also notching his career best of 5.4 rebounds per game. He broke the school record for most field goals attempted in a single season while also ranking third in school history for most field goals made in a single season.
Graves currently sits at 18th place on the all-time UB scoring list with 1,080 points.
He was joined by Akron’s Loren Christian Jackson, Bowling Green’s Justin Turner, Ohio’s Jason Preston as well as Toledo’s Marreon Jackson for the first team.
Junior forward Josh Mballa averaged 10.8 points and a team-best 9.6 rebounds per game after spending his freshman year at Texas Tech. Mballa grabbed 308 rebounds in 32 games played, the most by any UB player since Sam Pellom during the 1975-76 season. Mballa finished top-ten in the nation in offensive rebounds.
Mballa is joined on the second team by Ball State’s Ishmael El-Amin, Bowling Green’s Daeqwon Plowden, Kent State’s Danny Pippen and Ohio’s Ben Vander Plas.
The Bulls ranked fourth out of 12 teams totaling 109 points.
UB is set to tip off the 2020-21 regular season on Nov. 25 at Alumni Arena facing off against Gannon.
The sports desk can be reached at sports@ubspectrum.com
Hunter Skoczylas is the sports editor for The Spectrum. In his free time, he can be found looking up random sports statistics, jamming to Fleetwood Mac and dedicating his Sunday afternoons to watching the Buffalo Bills.
Photo: Ryan Hagen | UB Athletics
