Unbeaten Amherst becomes the fourth team to top the men’s poll this season, moving to the #1 spot for just the second time in D3Hoops.com poll history. Despite being the lone undefeated team in D3, Amherst still hasn’t convinced seven of the voters, as #1 votes were spread among four teams, including last week’s top team, UW-Stevens Point. Amherst puts their top ranking on the line Tuesday as they face 16-2 Rhode Island College in Providence.
The women’s poll also has a new #1 team, as Messiah advances to the top rung of the ladder for the first time since early (week 1) in the 2001-02 season. The Falcons leapfrogged the #2 Polar Bears, an action almost as rare in polling as it is in nature. Messiah grabbed 10 first-place votes to Bowdoin’s 9, helping them to a slim 4-point advantage atop the chart.
The members of University Athletic Association are well-accustomed to receiving the respect of their peers, as they are eight of the most highly-regarded research universities in the world. However, the well-worn adage “all work and no play makes Jack a dull Nobel Prize-winning molecular biologist” certainly applies on the UAA campuses, where this week you’ll find eight top-25 basketball teams and two others in the “receiving votes” category. In St. Louis, both sleuths of Bears received first-place votes in this week’s polls. The Washington U. men’s team moved up to #7 this week, while the women’s team rejoined the top 25 at #11, putting an end to an 8-week streak of being unranked, something the Bears had never experienced before this season. Conference rivals Chicago (women #13, men #19) and NYU (women #18, men #25) also have both programs ranked this week, while the basketball teams at Rochester and Brandeis feature rankings for the women (#7 and #19, respectively) and voting support for the men.
Debutantes:
Women: #25 Norwich enters the top 25 for the first time ever this week. The Cadets are 16-1, with their only loss at the hands of #2 Bowdoin, and are tied (in the loss column) atop the GNAC standings with #20 Emmanuel.
Men: The Hood College Blazers, winners of nine straight games, received votes for the first time in this week’s poll. The Blazers are 16-3 and hold a hearty three-game lead in the CAC.
Congratulations to the Cadets and Blazers!
Streakers:
Being the 10th poll of the season (preseason included), this is a big category this week.
Women: #8 DePauw is in the top 10 for the 20th straight week. Ninth-ranked Hope and #22 Baldwin-Wallace are each ranked for the 25th consecutive week; for #3 Calvin, this is the 10th straight ranked week. #19 Brandeis has now received votes in 50 consecutive polls. For #4 Southern Maine, the voting streak stands at 90 weeks, and Williams has been mentioned 25 weeks in a row. Among those receiving votes in 10 straight polls are #13 Chicago, #15 Wilmington, #18 NYU, #20 Emmanuel, and UW-Stevens Point.
Men: Sixth-ranked St. Thomas is a top 10 team for the tenth straight week. #4 Mississippi College is ranked for the 20th consecutive week; for #3 UW-Stevens Point and #14 Ohio Northern, the consecutive ranking streak stands at 10 weeks. #21 Puget Sound received voting support for the 50th consecutive week. #9 Hope and #10 Augustana each have been among the vote-getters for 25 straight polls. Teams that have appeared in ten consecutive voting lists include #3 UW-Stevens Point, #5 UW-Oshkosh, #11 Wash. U., #16 Aurora, #19 Chicago, #20 Johns Hopkins, #23 Bates, and unranked teams Rhode Island College, Wheaton (IL), and Rochester.
Milestones:
Women: Williams received votes in the poll, marking their 50th appearance on the voting list. UW-Stevens Point has received votes 90 times, Capital 80 times, and Hendrix 40 times. Seventh-ranked Rochester is a top 10 team for the 30th week. #16 Hardin-Simmons is ranked for the 110th time; #2 Bowdoin and #8 DePauw are ranked for the 90th time each; and #12 McMurry is in the top 25 for the 30th time.
Men: Second-ranked Wooster is in the top 25 for the 110th time, a record for the men’s poll. #19 Chicago is to be found in their 30th poll, and #20 Johns Hopkins is a ranked team for the 20th time. #14 Ohio Northern received votes for the 60th time. Lincoln and North Central are vote-getters for the 25th time, and Rhode Island College is in the voting for the 10th time.
High-Water Marks:
Women: Third-ranked Calvin, #14 Illinois Wesleyan, and debutante #25 Norwich are all at their highest-ever ranking this week. #6 Howard Payne tied their highest-ever ranking, set last week, snapping an eight-week string of new highs. #13 Chicago fell nine spots in the poll, ending their string of highest-ever rankings at seven consecutive weeks.
Men: #4 Mississippi College cracked the top 5 this week for the first time ever, and was joined in the high-water mark category by #16 Aurora.
Movers and Shakers:
Women: The biggest splash by far was made by Washington U., which beat two top-15 teams and soared from out of the poll to #11, gaining 326 points. This is the largest regular season single-week jump in the history of the poll, besting Muhlenberg’s 263-point gain in Week 6 of the 2001-02 season. #13 Chicago was defeated at home by both Wash U. and #18 NYU and tumbled 219 points and nine placements, the week’s largest drop.
Men: #21 Puget Sound also dropped two conference games, and as a consequence dropped eight places and 221 points. NWC rival #13 Whitworth also lost a conference game and shed 123 points and six places. The largest upward moves were made by Chicago, gaining 110 points and leaping into the poll at #19, eleventh-ranked Wittenberg (+99 points and 5 places), and #5 UW-Oshkosh (+94 points and 3 places.)
Nice work as always.
Good analysis and little kernels of humor for the careful reader.
Chris Brooks, the Mississippi College SID, and I believe that the #4 ranking by the Choctaws ties the highest-ever ranking by an ASC Men’s team. In week #13 of 2000, McMurry also rose to #4. They finished #6, having made the Elite 8.
That’s correct, Ralph and Chris. McMurry was #4 for two weeks in that first year of the men’s poll (weeks 12 and 13), and Mississippi College has now matched that conference high-water mark. The not-Indians and still-Choctaws are the only ASC teams to appear in the top 10 in the 8 years of the D3Hoops.com men’s poll.
Gordon: “little kernels?” Harumph! 😀
From the “Tales of Sound and Fury, Signifying Nothing” category, women’s #5 Scranton had 469 vote-points this week, making the Royals the third D3 team to top the lifetime 50,000 point mark (now at 50,221.) The others each hold significant (albeit trivial and meaningless) distinctions:
* Wash. U.’s women have 59,679 points. Add to that the men’s total of 24,470 (9th among the men), and you get 84,149, far and away the highest point total for a school.
* Wooster’s men have 52,143. Add to that the women’s total and, well, you still have 52,143. Wooster therefore has D3’s biggest point disparity between the men’s and women’s teams.
I don’t know how many of those who vote in the polls have seen Wash U’s women play. They are getting better as the season progresses, and may now merit a spot in the top 25, but I’d have to say that Rochester and NYU, whom Wash U recently defeated, were both overrated at their prior rankings and Wash U’s huge leap to #11 is too much, too soon. If they can run the table the rest of the way in the UAA, and some of the others in the polls falter, then such a lofty ranking might be in order.
A 20 point defeat of the #1 team in the country doesn’t mean a thing to at least ONE voter in the Top 25 poll? Legitimate? I don’t think so…
I guess Scranton women get alot of respect, lose to an unranked team by 20 points and only slip to fifth? maybe to much respect.
I was going to vote for MSM but I couldn’t find room for King’s and Manhattanville on my ballot too. 🙂
Pat, thats a good one, but I didn’t mention anything about a vote for MSM. I wondered how Scranton only sliped to fifth and even received a first place vote?
Someone asked on the WIAC board if the WIAC had ever had two top 5 teams at the same time before. Can you help us Dave?
I am that someone! … I didn’t think of posting that here!! As far as I can remember, there haven’t been… Other conferences have had two top 5 teams to my recollection… Williams and Amherst, Wittenberg and Wooster… but the WIAC?
Two men’s conference rivals in the top 5 is not as rare a feat as you might think. This is the fifth time the WIAC has accomplished the feat, the others being in the 1999-2000 season (Platteville and Eau Claire in weeks 4-6, and EC and Stevens Point in the final poll.) Other conferences that have done this include:
* NCAC: 17 times in 2000-01 (3), 2004-05 (3), 2005-06 (11)–always Wooster and Wittenberg
* ODAC: 15 times in 2002-03 (13) and 2003-04 (2)–always Hampden-Sydney and Randolph-Macon
* UAA: 12 times in 2000-01 (4), 2002-03 (7), and 2002-03 (1)–Washington, Chicago, and Rochester
* NESCAC 8 times in 2003-04–Williams and Amherst
* MIAA 3 times in 2004-05 (1) and 2005-06 (2)–Albion, Calvin, and Hope
* CCIW 3 times in 2000-01 (1) and 2001-02 (2)–Carthage, Illinois Wesleyan, and Wheaton
* NJAC 1 time in 1999-2000–Rowan and William Paterson
There has also been a week where there were two WIAC women’s teams in the top 5: 2000-01 week 6 (Eau Claire 3, Oshkosh 5). Other women’s conferences:
* UAA: 36 times, every year except this year (so far), including every week of the 2000-01 season, involving Washington, NYU, Rochester, and Brandeis
* NESCAC: 6 times in the 2004-05 season, Bowdoin and Bates
* OAC: twice in the 2000-01 season, Baldwin-Wallace and Capital
* MACF: once in 2002-03, King’s and Scranton
Geez Dave, it took all of 50 minutes to pull that data, type it and respond? You’re slipping. 🙂
Scranton also lost to Rochester, who happens to have just as good a record (minus one additional win). Rochester beat Scranton by 18 and yet they are ranked 2 spots BELOW Scranton. I would love to know whose hat the Top 25 gets pulled out of and just how much clout our Editor & Publisher has when it comes to those voters…
I also never knew Pat Coleman was a comedian on the side!
“I also never knew Pat Coleman was a comedian on the side!”
Read the posting site’s terms of service… I think they’re pretty funny…
hey capital beats two top fifteen teams they dont get in the top twenty five what did washington do that capital did not plus on a eight game win streak that should be nine after wedsday.
Randolph Macon wins again! Thats 10 in a row. (15-3 overall) With a win over Va. Wesleyan this weekend , will they show up on the radar?
capital wins its ninth game in a row last night
bball4life:
I don’t tell the voters who they should vote for. I simply provide them with a boatload of information and let them decide.
I tend to think that November games carry less and less weight as the season goes on. That was a loooooooong time ago.
Never said you did. You’re not the only commenter on the post.