SUPERIOR- Wis. -- The UW-Superior men's basketball team has been picked to finish third in the 2023-24 Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) Preseason Poll, the league announced Monday.
 
The Yellowjackets earned 39 points and one first place vote to finish ahead of Crown (29 points), North Central (25 points), Minnesota Morris (21 points) and Martin Luther (seven points).
 
Bethany Lutheran was picked to win the conference with 49 points and seven first place votes. Northwestern earned 40 points, putting it only one point ahead of Superior.
 
Under seventh-year head coach Greg Polkowski, UWS returns 12 letter winners to a team that went 17-10 overall and 10-4 in the UMAC. Superior made it all the way to the UMAC championship, falling to Bethany Lutheran by a score of 75-93.
 
Back for the Yellowjackets is four-year letter winner Josef Fahrenholtz (Chatfield, Minn./Chatfield) who averaged 14.7 points and 6.3 rebounds per game while scoring in double figures 23 times, Fahrenhotlz had 20-plus points four times. Fahrenhotlz started all 27 games for the Yellowjackets in 2022-23.
 
Also returning are senior guards J'Vaun Walker (Rosharon, Texas/Manvel) and T.J. Moberg (Champlin, Minn./Champlin Park). Walker averaged 13.1 points and 4.2 rebounds while starting all 27 games. Walker scored double figures 16 times and had five 20-plus point games. Moberg averaged 6.8 points while starting every game for the Yellowjackets. Moberg scored a career-best 19 points at Finlandia on Jan. 27th.
 
UWS opens the regular season Wednesday, Nov. 8 against Macalester. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m., at Leonard Center in St. Paul, Minn.