Men's Basketball NAIA D II Top 25 Poll Announced
COI No. 6, CU No. 10, WPC No. 15, SOU No. 23, NCU RV
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Indiana Wesleyan holds the No. 1 position for the 11th-straight time and grabbed 13 first-place votes in the 10th regular-season edition of the NAIA Division II Men’s Basketball Coaches’ Top 25 Poll, the national office announced Tuesday. With 374 total points, the Wildcats are 28-2 overall and have won eight games in-a-row. With one game remaining, they have already earned the Crossroads League regular-season championship.
The final regular-season edition of the NAIA Division II Men’s Basketball Coaches’ Top 25 – used to decide the at-large teams for the upcoming NAIA Division II Men’s Basketball National Championship – is scheduled for Wednesday, March 4. The 32 national championship qualifiers will be announced at 3 p.m. CST on March 4. The national championship bracket will be announced via a live selection show at 8 p.m.
The Wildcats have held the No. 1 spot the longest of any NAIA program since Jamestown (N.D.) went 11-consecutive polls in 2003-04. Indiana Wesleyan is attempting to become just the third program in NAIA Division II history to run the table from start-to-finish ranked No. 1 joining Jamestown (N.D.) in 2003-04 and Embry-Riddle (Fla.) in 2000-01.
With the remaining first-place nod, No. 2 Embry-Riddle posted 362 total points. The Eagles are the only one-loss team in Division II (29-1) and won The Sun Conference regular-season title.
Third-ranked Dakota Wesleyan (S.D.) finds itself tied for its highest position this year. The Tigers, who shared the Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) regular-season championship with No. 5 Morningside (Iowa), recorded 350 points.
No. 4 Cornerstone (Mich.) and No. 5 Morningside also improved two positions with 328 and 321 points, respectively.
No. 19 (tie) Olivet Nazarene (Ill.) teamed up with No. 21 St .Francis (Ill.) to claim the status as best improvement with a three-spot spike. Recently, the Tigers claimed a 94-85 victory over then-No. 14 Cardinal Stritch (Wis.) on Feb. 18 in the NAIA Game of the Week. St. Francis wrapped up the regular season with a 22-8 mark and a No. 2 seed in the upcoming Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference (CCAC) tournament.
Both No. 18 Cardinal Stritch and No. 23 Southern Oregon fell four spots to suffer the worst drop this week.
Eleven of the 13 conferences/Association of Independent Institutions/unaffiliated groups are represented throughout the Top 25, led by four teams each from the Cascade Collegiate Conference, Crossroads League and GPAC. The CCAC and Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference is next with three Top 25 programs.
The poll was voted upon by a panel of head coaches representing each of the conferences and independents. For more information on the polls, click here.
NOTES (All information dates back to 1991 – 1992 season, which is the start of Division II) For the first time all season, there were no newcomers… For eight-straight weeks, top-ranked Indiana Wesleyan and No. 2 Embry-Riddle (Fla.) have held down those two positions… No. 17 Union (Ky.) owns Division II’s longest active winning streak at 17-straight wins – the last loss for the Bulldogs was Dec. 13, 2014… Embry-Riddle leads Division II with 29 wins… Top-ranked Indiana Wesleyan is looking to become the first Division II program since Jamestown (N.D.) in 2003-04 to claim the No. 1 ranking all season long (11 polls)… Through 11 polls (including Preseason Top 25), 43 different teams have been ranked this season – there were 45 different programs last year… Fifteen teams have held a position in all 11 polls this year… With today’s mention, Indiana Wesleyan earns its 14th overall No. 1 ranking in school history… In the Dec. 2 release, then-No. 13 Cardinal Stritch (Wis.) snapped a streak of 27-straight polls ranked within the top-five dating back to the start of 2012-13 season… Bethel’s (Ind.) 35 all-time No. 1 mentions tops the list, followed by 21 by Embry-Riddle, 15 by Oregon Tech and 14 by Indiana Wesleyan and former Division II member MidAmerica Nazarene (Kan.)… Davenport (Mich.) now holds the active streak of being consecutively ranked with 74-straight mentions… There have been 36 teams to be ranked No. 1 all-time… Jamestown and Embry-Riddle are the only Division II programs to last the entire season ranked in the No. 1 position – Jamestown did it during the 2003-04 campaign (11 polls) and Embry-Riddle’s run was during 2000-01 (nine polls).
2014 – 15 NAIA Division II Men’s Basketball Coaches’ Top 25 Poll – (Feb. 24)
|
RANK |
LAST WEEK |
SCHOOL (1ST PLACE VOTES) |
2014-15 RECORD |
TOTAL POINTS |
|
1 |
1 |
Indiana Wesleyan (13) |
28-2 |
374 |
|
2 |
2 |
Embry-Riddle (Fla.) (1) |
29-1 |
362 |
|
3 |
5 |
Dakota Wesleyan (S.D.) |
27-3 |
350 |
|
4 |
6 |
Cornerstone (Mich.) |
25-5 |
328 |
|
5 |
7 |
Morningside (Iowa) |
25-3 |
321 |
|
6 |
3 |
College of Idaho |
25-5 |
320 |
|
7 |
4 |
Davenport (Mich.) |
25-5 |
307 |
|
8 |
8 |
Saint Francis (Ind.) |
24-6 |
294 |
|
9 |
9 |
Bellevue (Neb.) |
25-5 |
275 |
|
10 |
11 |
Concordia (Ore.) |
24-5 |
265 |
|
11 |
12 |
Bethel (Ind.) |
25-5 |
255 |
|
12 |
10 |
College of the Ozarks (Mo.) |
22-6 |
230 |
|
13 |
13 |
Mount Mercy (Iowa) |
24-4 |
228 |
|
14 |
15 |
Midland (Neb.) |
23-7 |
210 |
|
15 |
16 |
Warner Pacific (Ore.) |
22-6 |
205 |
|
16 |
17 |
Northwestern Ohio |
24-6 |
188 |
|
17 |
18 |
Union (Ky.) |
26-4 |
183 |
|
18 |
14 |
Cardinal Stritch (Wis.) |
22-8 |
181 |
|
T19 |
22 |
Olivet Nazarene (Ill.) |
22-8 |
155 |
|
T19 |
21 |
Indiana East |
23-7 |
155 |
|
T21 |
24 |
St. Francis (Ill.) |
22-8 |
112 |
|
T21 |
20 |
Grace (Ind.) |
21-9 |
112 |
|
23 |
19 |
Southern Oregon |
22-8 |
107 |
|
24 |
23 |
Briar Cliff (Iowa) |
21-9 |
97 |
|
25 |
25 |
Tabor (Kan.) |
18-11 |
92 |
|
|
Others receiving votes: Ashford (Iowa) 67; Jamestown (N.D.) 65; Cal Maritime 32; St. Thomas (Fla.) 25; Northern New Mexico 14; Milligan (Tenn.) 10; Saint Mary (Kan.) 8; Northwest Christian (Ore.) 7; Brescia (Ky.) 5; Northwood (Fla.) 5; AIB (Iowa) 4.