Both #1 teams fell this week and were replaced with grizzled veterans of the top rank. On the women’s side, top-ranked Messiah was upset by Moravian and fell 4 spots. The new women’s #1 is Bowdoin, which is nothing new for the Polar Bears. They have been the top team in the women’s poll 24 times, including seven weeks earlier this season, and haven’t been outside the top ten since early in the 2001-02 season, a record streak that has now reached an incredible 86 weeks. Trailing Bowdoin by just 6 votes is Calvin, who defeated #8 Hope to lay claim to the MIAA championship. Moving up to third is Howard Payne, continuing their amazing run that has seen them match or better their all-time highest ranking in each of this season’s 12 polls.
Two-time champion UW-Stevens Point surged back into the men’s #1 spot this week, capturing 21 first place votes. This is the 18th time the Pointers have held the top spot; like their counterparts from Bowdoin, they are second on the list of all-time top rankings (Carthage leads the men with 22 top rankings, while Washington U. has been atop the women’s poll 53 times.) Former #1 Amherst fell back into a tightly-packed group with the other two teams to have held the top ranking this season, #2 Virginia Wesleyan and #4 Wooster. Just 24 points separate these three teams. Overall, 45 men’s teams were mentioned on at least one ballot; this is the widest dispersal of votes this late in a season since the 2000-01 season, when 49 teams received Week 11 votes.
Women’s #23 Chicago lost for the fifth time in their last six games and fell out of the women’s poll, leaving the fourteenth-ranked male Maroons alone to defend Hyde Park’s honor. The departure of the distaff Maroons leaves just three schools with both of their hoops teams ranked: Hope College (women #8, men #10), Washington U. (women #12, men #11) and New York U. (women #7, men #20.) These schools are no strangers to poll success: there has been at least one Wash. U. team ranked in 117 of the 121 weeks of D3Hoops.com polling, while Hope and NYU have appeared in one or both polls 91 and 89 times, respectively.
Debutantes:
Women: #25 Fitchburg State has reeled off 21 straight victories after a season-opening loss to Mt. Holyoke, and sits alone atop the MASCAC. This week the Falcons joined the top 25 for the first time ever.
Men: #23 Mary Hardin-Baylor enters the men’s Top 25 poll for the first time ever. The Crusaders have won 16 consecutive games, placing them atop the ASC-West, and become the second ASC team (after UT-Dallas) to make their poll debut this season. Stevens Institute of Technology has won 10 straight games and holds a slender half-game lead in the Skyline Conference at 19-4. The Ducks debut as vote-getters with 4 points this week.
Congratulations to the Falcons, Crusaders, and Ducks!
Streakers:
Women: Sixth-ranked Scranton is a member of the top 10 for the 25th straight week. #19 Illinois Wesleyan took a tumble in the poll, but still extended their ranking streak to 10 consecutive weeks. #11 DePauw also slid in the poll, falling out of the top 10 for the first time in 22 weeks, but extended their votes-received streak to 110 consecutive weeks. #22 Baldwin-Wallace has received votes in 30 straight poll weeks, and Norwich has attracted votes in 10 straight polls. Williams saw the end of a vote-getting streak that extended back 26 weeks to the beginning of last season.
Men: The three record streaks in the men’s poll all hit significant milestones this week. #3 Amherst has now been ranked for a record 75 straight weeks. #4 Wooster‘s top 10 streak has now reached 50 straight polls, and their voting streak stands at a perfect 120 weeks. Congratulations to the Lord Jeffs and Scots! #6 Wittenberg and #21 Puget Sound have each been ranked for 50 consecutive weeks. Ohio Northern fell out of the top 25 for the first time this season, but still extended their votes-received streak to 25 weeks. #20 NYU, Carthage, and Keene St. have each received votes in the last 10 polls.
Milestones:
Women: #11 DePauw received votes for the 120th time, a mark exceeded only by the triumvirate of #6 Scranton, #12 Washington U., and #13 Hardin-Simmons, each of which has been supported in all of the 121 polls in D3Hoops.com’s top 25 history. Mt. St. Mary and Puget Sound each attracted votes for the 40th time; Luther is a vote-getter for the 20th week; and Norwich received votes in their 10th poll. #4 Southern Maine is a top 10 team for the 60th time, while #20 Wilmington is a top 25 team for the 60th time. #21 McDaniel is ranked for the 20th week; #19 Illinois Wesleyan received their 10th ranking this week.
Men: #21 Puget Sound makes their 50th appearance as a top 25 team this week. For #3 Amherst, this is the 80 ranked week. #2 Virginia Wesleyan is ranked for the 30th time, and #13 Worcester Polytech is in the top 25 for the 20th time. Fourth-ranked Wooster has received votes in each of the 120 men’s polls in D3Hoops.com history, and has now been in the top 10 in 90 of them. #11 Washington U. received votes for the 75th time, and #2 Virginia Wesleyan attracted support for the 50th week. Rochester is a vote-getter for the 80th time; #9 Augustana and #10 Hope received votes for the 70th week apiece; and Bluffton and Grinnell each received a single vote, bringing their all-time voting appearance totals to 10 each.
High-Water Marks:
Women: As noted above, #3 Howard Payne set a new high this week, reaching or tying a high-water mark in the 12th straight poll. #2 Calvin, #17 Lake Forest, and debutante #25 Fitchburg St. each established new all-time high ranks, while #9 McMurry tied their high-water mark.
Men: #15 Aurora set a new high-water mark this week, their fourth this season. #17 Guilford and debutante #23 Mary Hardin-Baylor also set all-time highs in this poll.
Movers and Shakers:
Women: Rochester dropped games to UAA foes #7 NYU and #14 Brandeis, and subsequently dropped 231 points and 10 places this week, landing at #16. Illinois Wesleyan also lost two conference games and slid nine spots to #19, donating 211 points back to the field. Moving up were UAA conference-mates #12 Washington U. (up 5 places) and #14 Brandeis (up 7 spots), each of which gained 121 points in this week’s poll.
Men: Most of the movement in this week’s poll was downward. Then-#15 Carthage lost twice and fell out of the poll, leaving 172 poll points behind. Ohio Northern, which has been ranked as high as #2 this season, also dropped out from the #19 spot, shedding 133 points. #8 St. Thomas lost one game and won another in double overtime, causing them to drop 123 points and 5 poll placements. The biggest upward mover was #22 Trinity (CT), which parlayed a win over then-#1 Amherst into a 107-point gain and entry in the top 25.
I don’t understand how Lake Erie (22-1) cannot be even ranked in the top 25; when they are ranked # 1 in the recent NCAA Great Lakes region poll in D3 and have not lost to a D3 team all year. When your only loss is to a ranked team (# 10) at the time (U of Findlay) in NCAA D2 and the regular season nearly 90% over Lake Erie should get some respect in the polls as a ranked team in the top 25 somewhere.
http://www.d3hoops.com/faq.php?question=7
Why is your poll so different from the NCAA’s regional poll?
And that’s great about who they’ve lost to. Is Rochester the best win? That’s the reason Lake Erie is as high as it is — one game against a Top 50 team. Otherwise they’d be even lower.
Pat hit it on the head. The schedule has improved ever so slightly, but voters aren’t going to be fooled. Lake Erie will have to do better than a 36 point first round loss in the tournament to get any benefit of the doubt.
jcp, when I am considering a Top 25 ranking, I try to imagine if they win their first round game versus a credible opponent. That gets then “close” to the Top 32. (We sometimes see the 8/9 or 7/10 games that might be toss-ups in a tough region.)
You are already receiving votes (“#26”). That is “lots of love”, but most of it is “float up”… when another team which is thought to be better than Lake Erie loses, you just “float up the ballot”.
Don’t forget that Cortland State debuteed at #24 in the women’s Top 25 this week. I didn’t see them mentioned as a debutante, like you did for Fitchburg State.
Debutantes are those who have never been in the Top 25. Cortland State’s women have been in the Top 25 before.
Ralph — I would say any Top 35-style opponent might push them over the top.
I also think that there may be some voters hesitant to pull the trigger on Lake Erie right before a big game just to have them potentially lose to Behrend. If that game even gets played tomorrow because of the weather.
Jeremy, Pat’s correct. I use the “debutantes” category for teams making their first-ever appearance in the voting, the top 25, or the top 10. Cortland St. has been ranked 33 times, about once in every four polls over the years. Fitchburg St., on the other hand, had never cracked the top 25 before this week.
Regarding Lake Erie, they received 52 votes this week, which equates to a #24 ranking on the mythical average ballot. Considering the overall weakness of their schedule, which Kenneth Massey rates as the 289th strongest in D3, that’s pretty good.
Two comments about the rankings, if this is the place to make them
1) Why is/was Messiah ranked so highly? They really don’t play anyone.
2) How is it that USM gets two votes for #1? They and Bowdoin have lost one game each, but Bowdoin beat them badly in the match up. USM is still a good team in an incredibly weak league, but it’s not nearly the team it was a year ago.
I can’t tell you what the Southern Maine voters are thinking. Bowdoin seemed to make that statement pretty clearly head to head and Southern Maine has not dominated teams it usually does.
It might time to a story what is year in and year out the toughest conference in D3 B-Ball. The Massey ranking list UAA as the toughest men’s B-ball conference in America this year so far. I do not agree but I am limited to seeing the teams around north eastern ohio for my viewing sample.
I did feature the UAA quite prominently in the last two editions of this column (weeks 9 and 10). You can find them by clicking on “General” in the right-hand column.