New for the 2011-2012 seasons, the America East Daily Word, a collaboration between AmericaEast.com and AExtra, will recap the previous day's games and on goings on our nine campuses and provide links to recaps, previews, features and exclusive coverage.

Today's Daily Word is all about basketball – and we'll throw in a little bit of soccer and lacrosse for good measure.

Practices have officially started and we are just over a week away from the annual Tip-Off event in West Hartford, Conn., where we unveil the preseason polls and the preseason all-conference teams.  That means two things – basketball season is pounding on the door and our lives here at the conference office will no longer be the same.

Some organizations released their predictions for the America East season this week.  CBS Sports made the leap first, selecting Stony Brook to win the conference.  The Seawolves were a half court buzzer-beater away from going to the 'Dance' a year ago but fell to Boston U., which grabbed the No. 2 spot according to CBS.  Albany and 2010 regular season champ, Vermont, come in at 3-4 with a healthy New Hampshire squad and Maine taking the next two slots.  Hartford, UMBC and Binghamton round out the CBS poll.  

Preseason all-conference selections include the league's top-returning scorer and rebounder and the conference's active scoring leader.  UMBC's Chris De La Rosa led the league with 15.5 ppg a year ago and Vermont's Brian Voelkel grabbed close to ten boards a game during his rookie of the year campaign. Maine's Gerald McLemore is a two-time all-conference selection and has scored 1,199 points in his career. Boston U.'s Darryl Partin was dubbed preseason conference player of the year and Stony Brook's Bryan Dougher rounds out the five-member squad.

For more of the Daily Word, check out the AExtra Blog.