Another season has come and gone much too quickly. Allow me to be the first (okay, maybe not the first) to congratulate the new National Champions, the Howard Payne Yellow Jackets and the Washington U. Bears. Huzzah!

With the long offseason looming, it’s time to take stock of where the various poll records stand, and who might threaten them next season. With a total of 140 women’s and 139 men’s polls, covering nine seasons, in the books, two programs stand alone as the only ones to receive votes in each and every poll ever taken. The Washington U. Bears have never failed to attract voting attention in a women’s poll, which can also be said of the men’s team at the College of Wooster. DePauw sits in second place on the women’s side, having received votes in 139 polls, including the last 129 in a row. UW-Stevens Point is the second-most frequent votegetter among the men, appearing in the voting in 132 of the 139 polls. The second-longest votegetting streak belongs to Amherst, but at 95 weeks it would take the Lord Jeffs well over two years to surpass the Scots’ streak.

The Bears and Scots go into the offseason holding a bushel of poll records. Wash U. has been in the women’s Top 10 a record 104 times, 15 times more often than their closest challengers from Bowdoin and Scranton. The Bears also recorded the longest streak of Top 25 appearances, being ranked in 110 straight polls between 1999 and 2006. The longest current streak belongs to Messiah at 90 weeks, meaning that Wash U.’s streak will not be headed next season.

On the men’s side, Wooster holds three records beyond their vote-getting streak. Their 94 Top 10 appearances lead Amherst by 11; their 131 Top 25 appearances are 15 more than UW-Stevens Point; and their streak of 54 straight Top 10 appearances (between 2004 and 2007) is 16 longer than the longest currently active streak, belonging to Amherst. The Lord Jeffs, however, do hold one poll record, having been in the Top 25 for 94 straight weeks, two more than the Fighting Scots—and both of these streaks are currently active.

The other two women’s poll records belong to Scranton and Bowdoin. The Royals have made 123 appearances in the Top 25, three more than Wash. U., while the Polar Bears hold the one record that may never be topped: 89 consecutive weeks in the Top 10, between 2001 and 2007. The longest currently active Top 10 streak belongs to Howard Payne, but at 26 weeks, they’d have to stay in the Top 10 for about four more years to top the Bowdoin streak. That would be a nice achievement, but not one that compares to an undefeated national championship season, I imagine.

Debutantes:
Women: First and foremost, by “Finishing It” in Holland, Howard Payne becomes the 19th member of the women’s #1 Club. The other South Region team that advanced to the Final Four, #6 Oglethorpe, cracked the Top 10 for the first time ever. Congratulations to the Jackets and Petrels!
Men: Six squads that had impressive showings in the NCAA tournament populate this section this week. Final Four participant Ursinus moved up to #7, and sectional finalist Millsaps advanced to the #6 slot; for both teams, this is their first-ever Top 10 ranking. #15 Coast Guard also reached a sectional final, while #23 Ohio Wesleyan and #24 St. Mary’s (MD) each knocked off Top 10 teams while reaching the Sweet Sixteen. Each of these teams was rewarded with their first-ever placement in the D3hoops.com Top 25 poll. Finally, Elms fell one point short of the third round, and for the first time received votes in a Top 25 poll. Congratulations to the Bears (x2), Majors, Bishops, Seahawks, and Blazers!

Streakers:
Women: The men’s team may have won the national title, but the women’s team at Washington U. has long ruled the roost in St. Louis. This week the women received 25 votes, extending their perfect run of 140 consecutive appearances in the poll voting. #20 Rochester extended their voting streak to 40 weeks, and #14 Illinois Wesleyan received votes for the 30th consecutive time, but Lake Forest saw their vote-getting streak terminate at 29 weeks. Ninth-ranked Mary Washington is a Top 10 team for the 20th straight week. Southern Maine came up three places shy of a Top 25 ranking, snapping the longest current ranking streak at 92 weeks. The new holder of the longest current ranking streak is #3 Messiah, which reached 90 straight weeks in this poll. #5 DePauw has been ranked in each of the last 70 polls, the second longest currently active streak.
Men: Fourth-ranked Brandeis has now made 30 consecutive appearances in the voting rolls.

Milestones:
Women: Second-ranked Hope is in the Top 25 for the 110th time. Vote-getting milestones were achieved by Washington U. (140 weeks), Southern Maine (130), #20 Rochester (90), Eastern Connecticut and St. Lawrence (75 weeks each), and #4 UW-Whitewater and #25 St. Norbert (25 weeks each.)
Men: #11 Wheaton (IL) appears in the voting for the 100th time this week. Other teams reaching significant voting milestones include #2 Amherst (120 polls), Trinity (CT) (75), #4 Brandeis (30), #6 Millsaps and #17 Mary Hardin-Baylor (25 each.) #20 Mass.-Dartmouth is ranked for the 20th time, while #9 Centre is a Top 25 team for the 10th time.

High-Water Marks:
Women: The two debutantes, #1 Howard Payne and #6 Oglethorpe, top this list, accompanied by NESCAC rivals #12 Tufts and #13 Amherst.
Men: This list is the same as the list of debutants: #6 Millsaps, #7 Ursinus, #15 Coast Guard, #23 Ohio Wesleyan, and #24 St. Mary’s (MD).

Movers and Shakers:
Women: The largest gain, by a wide margin, was recorded by Final Four participant #6 Oglethorpe. The Stormy Petrels gained a staggering 432 points and leapt 18 spots in the final poll. Four other teams made gains exceeding 130 points: #20 Rochester (+151), #12 Tufts (+146), #4 UW-Whitewater (+140), and #16 George Fox (+133). #22 UW-Stevens Point lost in the first round (to #25 St. Norbert), costing the Pointers 221 points and nine positions in the final poll. Other significant drops were sustained by #8 Thomas More (-187), Southern Maine (-167), and #21 Medaille (-165).
Men: #11 Wheaton (IL) reached a sectional final, gaining 317 points and a berth in the Top 25 as a result. National champion Washington U. dispatched six teams ranked in the final poll, and gained 273 points and 10 positions as well as a nice big trophy. Two Cinderella Sweet Sixteen teams which had no votes in the Week 14 poll jumped into the top 15: #14 Buena Vista (+253) and #15 Coast Guard (+239). UW-Whitewater was upset by Loras in the first round, shedding 194 points and causing the Warhawks to drop from #2 to #8. #20 Mass.-Dartmouth failed to reach the Sweet Sixteen despite receiving a bye; the Corsairs lost 183 points and 10 spots in the final poll.

Best wishes to everyone for a happy and healthy offseason!

So I’m sitting here with the brackets, trying to figure out who all the winners are going to be so I can finally win this dadgum Pick’em competition. I’m surrounded by tea leaves and goat entrails, my fingertips are numb from the Ouija board, and still I’m stumped. On the women’s bracket, I have not one but three unbeaten teams to choose from; and on the men’s side, well heck, I’ve been confused all season.

Fortunately, we have the collective wisdom of 50 pollsters to help us out. But before I pack up my Magic 8 Ball, I’d better see how good they are at prognosticating the tournament. Let’s ask a few questions of the poll; everyone please join hands.

Q: The Hope men and women are the #1 teams; aren’t they the favorites?
Well, yes and no. Teams ranked #1 by D3hoops.com coming into the tournament have won the title four times (two on each side) in 16 chances. That’s not bad. Oddly enough, though, teams ranked #6 have done just as well, and while the #1s have been shut out since 2005 (UW-Stevens Point men), #6s have won two of the last four titles (2006 Hope women and 2007 Amherst men). Furthermore, on the women’s side, the #9 team has had as much success as the #1, with two titles including last year’s champion, DePauw. Top-ranked teams are heavy favorites to go deep; all but one have reached the Sweet 16, and ten of sixteen qualified for the Final Four. But when it comes to championships, don’t sleep on the #6 Augustana men, #6 DePauw women, or #9 Simpson women.

Q: If the #1 team isn’t golden, can’t I at least I can count on the teams in, say, the top 5?
Oddly enough, no. #1 teams do pretty well, but the teams ranked #2-#5 have combined to win just one of the 16 championships (#3 Williams in the 2003 men’s bracket.) The top 5 teams do a great job of reaching the Final Four—out of 64 semifinalists, 24 have been in the top 5—but they tend to falter once they get there. By contrast, the second five (i.e., teams ranked #6-#10) get there barely half as often (just 13 semifinalists in eight tournaments), but the ones that reach the Final Four are gangbusters: eight of them have won the title, and of the five that didn’t, three lost out to another member of the “Second Five.”

Q: Hmmm. So are you telling me I can’t go wrong by filling up my Final Four with teams ranked in the Top 10?
That’s a good strategy, but maybe not a winning one. Of the 64 Final Four teams in the D3hoops.com era, a bit more than half (19 men, 18 women) have been in the final Top 10. Looked at from another angle, about 23% of the teams in the final Top 10 have reached the Final Four over the past eight years, so if you push a Top 10 team that far in your bracket, historically you have about a one in four chance of being right.

Q: Well, okay. But at least I can forget about unranked teams going as deep as, say, the sectional finals, right?
Basically, yes; 86% of the sectional finalists since 2000 have been ranked teams. No unranked team has made the men’s Final Four this decade; however, eight of them have reached the Elite Eight, exactly one per year. The past two years, the unranked Elite 8 teams (Brockport St. in 2007 and William Paterson in 2006) didn’t receive a single vote in the final poll. For the women, a total of 10 sectional finalists (nearly 16%) have been unranked, including four Final Four squads. The 2004 women’s champions from Wilmington started the tournament as an unranked team. The Ohio Wesleyan women didn’t appear on any pollster’s final 2001 ballot, and two weeks later the Bishops were headed to the Final Four.

Q: All right. Let’s lay our cards on the table. Who’s going to win these tournaments?
Answer hazy; ask again later.

Oh well. At least I still have my tea leaves and goat entrails. Anyone care to join me for lunch?

Debutantes:
Women: none this week.
Men: Hope moved up to the top spot this week, becoming just the 19th member of the men’s #1 club. Three other programs received their first-ever #1 votes in this poll: #2 UW-Whitewater, #7 Plattsburgh St., and #8 Guilford. Congratulations!

Streakers:
Women: Second-ranked Howard Payne is ranked in the top 10 for the 25th straight week. #22 George Fox received votes for the 25th consecutive time, while the vote-getting streaks for #17 Southern Maine and #20 William Smith reached 110 and 10 polls, respectively.
Men: For the 30th straight week, #9 UW-Stevens Point, #11 Washington U., #13 Rochester, and Wheaton (IL) each received votes. For UWSP, this is also the 30th straight week in the Top 25, while Wash. U. is ranked for the 25th straight time. Tenth-ranked Mass.-Dartmouth has now been ranked in 10 straight polls. #4 Centre extended its vote-getting streak to 20 weeks, while both #14 Millsaps and #25 Occidental have received voting support for ten consecutive weeks.

Milestones:
Women: Twenty-first ranked UW-Eau Claire appears in the voting rolls for the 100th time this week. Other vote-getting milestones were reached by #10 Baldwin-Wallace (120 weeks), #19 DeSales (80), #20 William Smith (40), #3 Thomas More (30), and #18 Tufts (20 weeks.) McMurry is ranked #12 this week, the 50th time they’ve been in the Top 25. Sixth-ranked DePauw is ranked for the 110th time. #5 Mary Washington, #2 Howard Payne, and #9 Simpson have now appeared in the top 10 in 30, 25, and 20 polls, respectively.
Men: Wooster, ranked #17 this week, has now been ranked in 130 polls, extending their poll record in this category. #20 Capital is a Top 25 team for the 40th time. Ninth-ranked UW-Stevens Point is a top 10 team for the 80th time; new #1 Hope is in the top 10 for the 40th time, while #6 Augustana has now made 30 appearances in the top 10. Randolph-Macon received a single vote, marking their 75th appearance on the voting list. Other programs to achieve vote-getting milestones include #10 Mass.-Dartmouth (40 weeks), Richard Stockton (30), and #4 Centre (20 weeks.)

High-Water Marks:
Women: Illinois Wesleyan moved up to #7 this week, their highest-ever D3hoops.com ranking. All-time highs were matched by #2 Howard Payne, #3 Thomas More, and #14 Amherst.
Men: Top-ranked Hope leads this category with their first-ever #1 ranking. #7 Plattsburgh St., #14 Millsaps, and #16 Ursinus also reached new highs this week, while #2 UW-Whitewater matched their best-ever ranking.

Movers and Shakers:
Women: UW-Stevens Point won the WIAC championship, resulting in a gain of 146 points and six-position leap to #13. Two teams that were upset in their conference tournament finals, #17 Southern Maine and #20 William Smith, suffered the largest drops, 125 and 113 points, respectively.
Men: Millsaps ended Centre’s 25-game winning streak, and was rewarded with an eight-point vault to #14, gaining 182 points in the process. Two Ohio rivals that failed to win conference tournaments they hosted led the list of point-shedders: #17 Wooster dropped 167 points and six spots, while #20 Capital lost 158 points and seven places. But the biggest loser of all was #23 UW-Platteville, which lost to UW-Eau Claire in the WIAC quarterfinals, costing them 107 points, four notches in the poll, and a spot in the NCAAs, the only team in either poll to fail to make the tournament.

There can be no argument that the colleges and universities that make up Division 3 are clustered in a swath extending from New England through Pennsylvania and the DC area, then up into the Great Lakes and upper Mississippi valley, with members being few and far between in most of the rest of the country. But it doesn’t necessarily follow that the best quality hoops is played in this D3-rich area. I’d like to turn the spotlight to an area known locally as the Mid-South, where some of this year’s best teams dwell in near isolation.

The Commonwealth of Kentucky has long been known for hoops, horses and bourbon, but few Kentuckians are aware of the top-flight D3 hoops in their midst. Even though there are just three D3 programs in the Bluegrass State, each has left its mark on the national hoops scene. In recent years, NAIA transplant Transylvania has represented the state in the D3 wars, and done so quite successfully. But this year the Pioneers have had to share the limelight with their Kentucky counterparts, Centre and Thomas More. The Saints of TMC completed an undefeated regular season this week, and will begin defense of their 2007 President’s Athletic Conference championship as the nation’s #3 women’s team. After a disappointing loss to Calvin in the first round of the NCAA tournament last March, the Saints racked up marquee wins over DePauw and Wilmington this fall, before running unscathed through conference play and setting themselves up for a potential deep run in the 2008 NCAAs.

The men’s team at Centre, after suffering a one-point loss to Rust in the season opener, defeated Sewanee to finish the regular season on a 23-game winning streak, and now sits comfortably in the #2 spot in the men’s poll. The Colonels, who advanced to the second round of NCAA play last season by defeating Capital, will now look to defend their 2007 SCAC title in Conway, AR, a state with even fewer D3 programs than Kentucky.

Further south, in Tennessee, there are also just three members of Division 3, now that Fisk has decided to discontinue their intercollegiate athletics programs. One of them has long been a regional power and national presence, and this year is no different for the Maryville Scots. The men of “Murvul” have run out to a 22-2 record, including a perfect 6-0 mark in the four-team Great South Athletic Conference, and enter their conference tournament with an NCAA tournament berth (via Pool B) securely tucked away. When that bid is awarded next week, it will be the tenth consecutive year that the NCAA has invited the Scots—quite an accomplishment for a team that does not have an automatic bid to play for.

Another Mid-South state with just three D3 programs is Mississippi, a state dominated in recent years by Mississippi College. That dominance is being threatened this year by the up-and-coming Millsaps Majors, ranked #22 in this week’s men’s poll. The Majors, who will join Centre in Arkansas at this weekend’s SCAC tournament, have just three losses on the year, two in one weekend (to Centre and DePauw), and take a seven-game winning streak into their quarterfinal matchup with Rhodes (another Mid-South team.)

If so many strong programs can arise out of the fly-over (or perhaps bus-through, given that this is D3) states of the Mid-South, perhaps there’s hope for D3-free states like Nevada, Kansas, and Florida!

Debutantes:
Women: Thirty-five women’s programs have earned #1 votes in the D3hoops.com Top 25 poll. The newest member of that august assemblage is third-ranked Thomas More, which pried a top vote away from #2 Howard Payne this week.
Men: Tenth-ranked Plattsburg St., regular season champions of the SUNYAC and winners of sixteen straight, moved into the Top 10 for the first time ever this week.

Streakers:
Women: It was a wintry week across D3 nation, with consequently very few streakers. Fifth-ranked Messiah received votes in the 120th consecutive poll. Baldwin-Wallace, ranked #11 this week, has now been ranked for ten straight weeks.
Men: Elmhurst is a vote-getter for the 25th straight time. #18 Virginia Wesleyan appears among the vote-getters for the 40th consecutive week, while #19 UW-Platteville now has a 10-week voting streak. Eleventh-ranked Wooster has now cracked the Top 25 for 90 consecutive weeks, remaining two short of the record streak Amherst has been building since March 2002.

Milestones:
Women: Both #1 Hope and Scranton have now received votes in 130 of the 138 polls in D3hoops.com’s history. Only Washington U. (138) and #7 DePauw (137) can boast of higher totals. In 70 of those weeks, Hope received enough votes to reach the Top 10. Mount St. Mary makes their 50th appearance on the voting rolls this week, while vote-getting milestones were also reached by Trinity (TX) (80 weeks) and #14 Amherst (20). #21 Lake Forest has now been ranked 25 times, while #25 Chicago’s return to the Top 25 marks their 20th appearance.
Men: Occidental slipped to #24 this week, but still marked their 25th appearance in the Top 25. Eighth-ranked UW-Stevens Point, which has been left out of the voting just seven times, appears on the voting list for the 130th time this week, a category in which they trail only #11 Wooster (137). #17 Ursinus has now received votes in 25 polls, joining Stevens Point, #20 Maryville (TN) (80 weeks), #16 Lawrence (60), and Aurora (40) in reacing vote-getting milestones.

High-Water Marks:
Women: Illinois Wesleyan moved up to a new all-time high ranking of #9 this week. #2 Howard Payne, #3 Thomas More, and #14 Amherst all matched their best-ever rankings.
Men: Top 10 debutant Plattsburgh St. leads this category with their highest-ever ranking of #10, while #2 Centre and #17 Ursins matched their all-time highs.

Movers and Shakers:
Women: By this time of the year, the upper echelon is expected to win their games, so there’s little upward traction available. (The biggest gainer this week is UW-Eau Claire, which gained a mere 58 points, moving up three slots to #20.) On the other hand, losses can send a team skidding wildly. #12 Kean lost at Rowan, costing the Cougars 136 points and five poll positions. Similarly, Rochester lost at home to Emory, resulting in a loss of 124 points and a tumble out of the poll from the #19 slot.
Men: UW-Oshkosh lost twice, shedding all but nine of their 137 points and dropping out of the poll from #20. Seventh-ranked Washington U. was upended by #6 Brandeis and gave back 114 points, falling three spots. Like the women’s poll, the best gain was a fairly modest one, recorded by #19 UW-Platteville (+80 points and four slots.)

This week is the final week of the regular season for the great majority of D3 teams. Most conferences hold their post-season tournament next week, with the NCAA Tournament beginning the following week. I thought this might be a good time to catch up with last years Final Four teams.

Men’s 2007 champion Amherst sits atop the men’s poll for the third straight week and fifth this season. The Lord Jeffs have completed an unbeaten NESCAC season, finishing a full three games clear of their nearest competitors, and for the fourth consecutive year will be the top seed in the NESCAC Championship. Amherst sits at 22-2 overall, with their only D3 loss at #6 Brandeis back in early December, and hosts Colby to open the conference tournament.

Virginia Wesleyan, the 2006 champions and 2007 runners-up, have now won four straight games and check in at #19 in this week’s men’s poll. The Marlins are 13-4 in the ODAC, in second place, trailing #13 Guilford by two games in the loss column, and tied (also in the loss column) with Randolph-Macon. The Marlins finish their regular season on Saturday hosting Lynchburg, before advancing to the ODAC Championships at Salem, VA.

Both the men’s and women’s squads from Washington U. reached the Final Four last year, with the women falling in the final and the men winning the third-place game. The men’s team started this season as the #1 team, but lost two of their first four games, falling to #12 before recovering to their current ranking of #4. The Bears currently lead the UAA by a game at 9-2, and as the UAA has no post-season tournament, the league title is still up for grabs. Wash U. still has three league games remaining, starting with a matchup with second-place and sixth-ranked Brandeis Friday in St. Louis.

Last year’s fourth-place finisher, Wooster, knocked off arch-rival Wittenberg this week, clinching the top seed in the NCAC tournament for the fourth straight year, and avenging one of their two D3 losses (the other was at Lake Erie back in November.) With the win, the #12 Scots reached the 20-win plateau for the 12th straight year.

2007 women’s champion DePauw sits at #8 in this week’s poll with an overall record of 20-3. Of their three losses, one was to a quasi-scholarship D3 provisional team (Birmingham-Southern), and the other two were to teams currently in the top 5 (#3 Thomas More and #5 Messiah), both before the New Year. As the BSC loss does not count in the SCAC standings, the Tigers hold down the conference lead at 12-0, two losses better than #25 Oglethorpe and 2003 NCAA champion Trinity (TX) . The Tigers and Stormy Petrels meet this Sunday in a game that will influence the seeding in the upcoming SCAC tournament in Conway, AR.

The Bears of Washington U., runners-up in 2007 and champions for four straight years from 1998 through 2001, have had an up-and-down season. They sit at 16-6 overall after losing at Emory this past week, a loss that cost them their position in the Top 25 as well as a chance at sole possession of the UAA lead. At 8-3 in conference, the Bears are part of a four-way logjam atop the standings with three games remaining.

Preseason #1 and last year’s third-place finisher Mary Washington lost their first CAC game of the season this week at St. Mary’s, but recovered to wax second-place and then-#22 ranked Marymount by 31 points on Saturday. The sixth-ranked Eagles are 21-2 overall and lead the CAC with a 13-1 record, one game ahead of the Saints with two to play. UMW’s only other loss this season was in December at the hands of #4 UW-Whitewater on a neutral court in California.

The news is not so good for last year’s fourth-place finisher, NYU. After starting the season with twelve straight wins and reaching #3 in the poll, the Violets have dropped 8 of their last 10 to sink to 14-8 overall and just 3-8 in the UAA, leading only winless Carnegie Mellon. Of all of last year’s Final Four teams, it looks like the Violets are the most likely to miss out on this year’s tournament. Still, they can exact a measure of revenge, as their final three games are all against co-leaders of the UAA (Chicago, Wash U. , and Brandeis).

Debutantes:
Women: none this week.
Men: Not really a debutant, per se, but nevertheless congratulations to #2 Centre, which this week became the 39th men’s program to attract at least one #1 vote.

Streakers:
Women: Third-ranked Thomas More has been in the Top 10 for ten consecutive weeks. #15 Tufts, #16 Medaille, and #19 Rochester are each ranked for the tenth straight time. Longer ranking streaks belong to #12 Southern Maine (90 weeks) and #9 McMurry (40 weeks.)
Men: Guilford, the lucky #13 this week, has now received votes in 25 consecutive polls. Third-ranked Hope is Top 10 team for the tenth straight week, while #20 UW-Oshkosh is ranked for the 10th week in a row.

Milestones:
Women: Unbeaten and #2-ranked Howard Payne has now received votes in fifty polls, while Chapman has a reached the 25-poll votegetting threshold. Other voting milestones were achieved by #5 Messiah (120 polls), #21 Lake Forest and Salem State (70 each.) Tenth-ranked Illinois Wesleyan is a Top 25 team for the 25th time. #19 Rochester is ranked for the 70th week, while #16 Medaille (20) and #15 Tufts (10) also reached ranking milestones. Finally, this week marks the tenth Top 10 appearance by #3 Thomas More.
Men: Top-ranked Amherst is a member of the Top 10 for the 80th time. #16 St. Thomas has been ranked 60 times, while #22 Occidental has received votes 60 times. #13 Guilford reached two milestones this week, their 25th appearance among the votegetters, and their 20th week as a ranked team.

High-Water Marks:
Women: Thomas More remained unbeaten and moved up to a new high ranking of #3 this week. #14 Amherst also reached a new poll high, while previous highs were matched by #2 Howard Payne and #10 Illinois Wesleyan.
Men: For the second straight week both #2 Centre and #17 Ursinus reached new highest-ever perches in the poll. #11 Plattsburgh St. matched their all-time high, set earlier this season.

Movers and Shakers:
Women: UW-Stevens Point knocked off then-#3 UW-Whitewater as part of a 2-0 week, and scored the week’s largest gain (120 points.) The biggest fall was recorded by #19 Rochester, which lost at Brandeis and discarded 136 points and six poll placements. Other downward movers included NWC compatriots #18 George Fox and #22 Puget Sound, which each lost 129 points and six slots.
Men: Stop me if you’ve heard this before… UW-Stevens Point knocked off then-#2 UW-Whitewater as part of a 2-0 week, and scored the week’s largest gain (100 points.) The biggest fall was recorded by #14 Rochester, which lost at Brandeis (and at NYU in double overtime) and discarded 179 points and eight poll placements. Joining Rochester in free-fall mode was #23 UW-Platteville, which lost 159 points and seven slots after an 0-2 week.

Today we celebrate the 199th birthday of Abraham Lincoln, widely considered to be one of the greatest men in history—and not just because he was tall and from Illinois! I thought I’d use his inspiration* to guide me in understanding what’s important in the D3hoops world this week.

On Dec. 26, 1839, in a speech before the Illinois House of Representatives, Rep. Lincoln said “[t]he probability that we may fall in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just.” These words could have been the motto for the Howard Payne women’s team as they faced the roughest stretch of their schedule, home-and-home dates with both #9 McMurry and perennial power Hardin-Simmons over a 10-day stretch. The Yellow Jackets came through the struggle with their just cause, an undefeated season, intact, winning all four contests, three of them by double-digits. They continue to slowly eat away at the poll lead that Hope has now held for seven weeks.

Barely one year before Pres. Lincoln’s tragic assassination, he wrote to Albert G. Hodges “I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me.” A similar statement may have been made by Rochester’s Michael Chmielowiec, whose would-be game winner rimmed out on Sunday, allowing homestanding Washington U. to escape with a 54-53 victory, reversing the result of last week’s overtime classic. These UAA rivals, both of which have sat atop the poll this season, now sit back-to-back at #6 and #7 in the poll, with an 11-point advantage for the Yellow Jackets.

“The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion.” Although President Lincoln said this to Congress in 1862, it might as easily have been said by Mass.-Dartmouth men’s head coach Brian Baptiste to his team after their 21-game winning streak was snapped in overtime at Keene St.. As a result of this loss, the voters, “dedicated to the proposition that all men[‘s teams] are created equal,” dropped the Corsairs to #5 in a virtual tie with #6 Rochester at 483 points.

The men’s team at UW-Stevens Point won twice last week to stay in the hunt for the WIAC regular-season title. Brandeis extended its winning streak to four games, while (as noted elsewhere) Washington U. avenged last week’s defeats at the hands of Carnegie Mellon and Rochester. All three teams worked hard to achieve these victories, and were rewarded by the voters by being slotted in this week’s Top 10. Furthermore, all three teams snuck past #11 Capital in the rankings, despite the Crusaders’ 2-0 week. It seems that the voters were most impressed with the labors of the Pointers, Judges, and Bears, and they followed the sage guidance of President Lincoln, who told Congress in 1861 that “Labor is the superior of [C]apital, and deserves much the higher consideration.”

*as channeled by Roger Norton, at the Abraham Lincoln Research Site.

Debutantes:
Women: none this week.
Men: none this week.

Streakers:
Women: Eighth-ranked DePauw has appeared on the list of vote-getters for 125 consecutive polls, while at the other end of the spectrum, #20 Amherst and Salem St. have made ten straight appearances each. #9 McMurry has been a member of the Top 10 for ten consecutive weeks.
Men: Top-ranked Amherst is ranked for the 90th consecutive week, extending their poll record in this category. #13 Mary Hardin-Baylor has received votes in 20 straight polls, while #24 UW-Oshkosh is a vote-getter for the 10th consecutive time.

Milestones:
Women: Washington U. returns to the Top 25 this week at #23, marking their 120th week as a ranked team. #8 DePauw is a Top 10 team for the 40th time. Twelfth-ranked George Fox has now received votes in 80 polls, and #22 Marymount is a vote-getter for the 60th time.
Men: UW-Oshkosh, the #24 team this week, is a vote-getter for the 100th time this week. Chicago received votes for the 50th time, and vote-getting milestones were also achieved by #2 UW-Whitewater (110 weeks), #7 Washington U. (90), and Cal. Lutheran (10). #22 Lawrence is ranked for the 50th time, twenty weeks fewer than #7 Washington U. , but ten more than #16 UW-Platteville.

High-Water Marks:
Women: William Smith reached a new all-time high at #14 this week. Best-ever rankings were matched by #2 Howard Payne, #5 Thomas More, and #10 Illinois Wesleyan.
Men: New high-water marks were set this week by #2 UW-Whitewater, #3 Centre, and #19 Ursinus.

Movers and Shakers:
Women: Rochester dropped both of its games on its annual Chicago/St. Louis trip, and fell six slots to #13, losing 139 points in the process. Southern Maine lost at home for the first time since 2003, a loss which cost them 138 poll points and a four-position drop to #15. #12 George Fox parlayed victories over teams with records of 5-16 and 9-12 into a 118 point gain, the largest of the week in either poll.
Men: Puget Sound shed 178 points and 8 poll positions (to #21) after losing one game and winning another in overtime. Fifth-ranked Mass.-Dartmouth became the last men’s team to taste defeat, falling three places and giving back 114 points (but retaining one first-place vote.) There was very little upward movement, with the biggest gain being recorded by #7 Washington U., which gained 57 points and two spots after avenging last week’s defeats by Carnegie Mellon and #6 Rochester.