Continuing the electoral tradition started by their forebearers, the women’s and men’s poll voters struggled through waist-high snow to once again caucus last night to cast their votes for the top D3 teams in the country. The Week 5 caucuses have always been seen as a crucial step in securing the nomination of the pollsters; exactly half of the teams ranked #1 in Week 5 have gone on to the regular season poll championship, with three of those 9 teams going on to win national championships.

This year, the men’s voters stuck with the front-runner, Rochester, while the women’s caucus showed its belief in “a school called Hope.”

Rochester had held a slight poll advantage on Brandeis in the weeks leading up to last night’s caucus, and they maintained their slight advantage, outpolling the Judges by 14 points. Finishing a strong third was UW-Stevens Point, a program which had won two of the last three Week 5 caucuses, each time parlaying that victory into a regular season poll championship in March (and, in 2005, winning the national election in Salem.)

On the women’s side, Mary Washington had held a lead in the polls since the beginning of the electoral cycle, but was widely seen to have been bested in Sunday’s debate with #2 UW-Whitewater, causing them to tumble to a fifth-place finish in the caucuses. Moving up to seize the victory was Hope, the 2006 champions and host for this year’s election. Howard Payne, which despite its masculine-sounding name is a candidate for the women’s nomination, was edged out of second-place by the hard-charging Warhawks from Whitewater.

Although unable to garner enough support to crack the Top 25 finishers, the women of Washington U. did receive some caucus support, becoming the only program to attract votes in each of the 130 women’s caucuses. I say “only” because, for the first time ever, nobody attending the women’s caucus was willing to cast a vote for Scranton. The Royals, winners of the Week 5 caucus in the 2004-05 season, have been ranked in all but seven of the polls taken in the 8+ year history of the women’s caucuses, and reached the #1 overall ranking three times in that span. Wash U. may not be far behind them, as one gaffe or misstep may cost them the scant seven votes they received last night.

Rochester and Hope each have tough debates in their immediate futures. Hope will travel to Grand Rapids next week to square off with arch-rival Calvin, while the Yellow Jackets will participate in the always-tough Chase Tournament against a field that includes #11 Brockport St. But for this week, to the victor belong the spoils, and it’s on to New Hampshire!

Debutantes:
Women: A debutante of sorts, the six first-place votes earned by UW-Whitewater were the first in that program’s history. Whitewater becomes the 35th program to receive votes for #1 in the 130 week history of the women’s poll.
Men: The unbeaten Coast Guard Bears received their first-ever poll vote this week. Congratulations!

Streakers:
Women: Although it can hardly compare to Scranton’s and Wash U.’s streaks, Calvin had an impressive 37-poll voting streak come to an end this week. #3 Howard Payne has now received votes in 25 straight polls, and in each of them they have been within the Top 25. Other programs extending votes-received streaks include #22 Rochester at 30 weeks, #21 Medaille at 25 weeks, and #10 Illinois Wesleyan and #19 Lake Forest, each at 20 weeks. #6 Messiah has now been in the Top 25 in 80 consecutive polls, with the team they beat in Cancun, #12 DePauw, a little over a year behind at 60 straight weeks. The teams ranked fourth and fifth, NYU and Mary Washington, each extended their Top 10 streaks to ten weeks.
Men: Worcester Polytech joins the list of programs with lengthy voting streaks snapped; the Engineers had been mentioned in the last 43 polls but received no votes this week. #2 Brandeis extended its voting streak to 20 weeks, while #3 UW-Stevens Point has been a Top 10 team in 20 straight polls.

Milestones:
Women: Top-ranked Hope celebrates its 100th week as a Top 25 team in style, ascending to the top of a regular-season poll for the first time ever. #11 UW-Stevens Point is ranked for the 70th time overall, while the No-Nicknames of #8 McMurry are a Top 10 team for the tenth time. Poll veterans #4 NYU and #15 Southern Maine each notched their 120th week of being among the vote-getters, while #22 Rochester received votes for the 80th time.
Men: Fifth-ranked Williams is a Top 25 team for the 70th time; other ranking milestones were reached by #14 Elmhurst (30 times), #25 Occidental (20 appearances), and #23 Mass.-Dartmouth (10 weeks.) Williams’ archrival, #4 Amherst, is listed among the vote-getters for the 110th time, joining #15 Wheaton (IL) (90 weeks), Rowan (40), Elizabethtown (30), and #2 Brandeis (20) in reaching votes-received milestones.

High-Water Marks:
Women: Second-ranked UW-Whitewater has reached a new poll high each week this season. #7 Thomas More, and #17 Tufts also set new high-water marks, while #8 McMurry and #10 Illinois Wesleyan tied their highest-ever rankings.
Men: #2 Brandeis and #13 Stevens have set or matched new high-water marks in every 2007-08 poll, and this week was no exception.

Movers and Shakers:
Women: The pattern all season has been that the major poll moves have been downward, and this week is no exception. Four teams experienced drops of over 100 points, led by #5 Mary Washington (-119 points and 4 slots) and #25 Oglethorpe (-118/-8), while no team gained more than 99 points (that being #2 UW-Whitewater, which moved up three places.)
Men: #14 Elmhurst beat then-#8 Hope in Orlando and was rewarded with a 140-point and 7-position gain in the poll. #20 Capital (-148 points and 8 poll placements) and #12 Guilford (-135/-6) suffered the largest drops for the week. Two programs bypassed the “Others Receiving Votes” category altogether: #25 Occidental heading up (going from 0 points last week to 80 this week), and then-#24 Calvin heading out (no votes this week, after receiving 70 in the last poll.)

This is the time of year when the D3 hoops world slows down and takes a breather. Remembering that our athletes are students first, most teams take a break to allow the players to concentrate on exams and get home for the holidays. Of the fifty teams in last week’s Top 25 polls, twenty-two took the week off from basketball, and the other twenty-eight played just 38 games between them, ringing up a record of 33-6 (one game pitted ranked foes, as the then-#9 ranked Augustana men handed #13 UW-Oshkosh their first defeat of the season.) With few games and almost no losses, the Week 4 polls look like carbon copies of their Week 3 versions. Each poll has just one new team, both sneaking in at the #25 position. Nineteen of last week’s twenty Top 10 teams are still in the Top 10, with women’s #10 Simpson moving up to replace Southern Maine.

Rather than dwell on the week that wasn’t, perhaps I should look ahead to the week ahead. Actually, next week is a two-week “week,” as there will not be a new poll released next Tuesday, due to the holidays and relative dearth of games this week. Things pick up, however, as the New Year approaches and teams in the north and east make snowbird trips between the semesters. Some of these warm-weather venues will feature top-flight D3 competition, starting this Wednesday in Orlando, where men’s #8 Hope will square off with #21 Elmhurst. On Friday, fans who are otherwise stick with nothing to do in Cancun can take in the matchup of women’s #6 DePauw and #7 Messiah. This Saturday, the tropical resort of Rock Island, Ill. will be treated to the clash of men’s #3 UW-Stevens Point against the homestanding #5 Augustana Vikings. Then on New Year’s Eve eve (i.e., Dec. 30), those lucky enough to be in the vicinity of Huntington Beach will have the opportunity to watch women’s #1 Mary Washington take on #5 UW-Whitewater.

No matter what your travel plans may be, here’s a wish from me that your holidays are safe, healthy, and happy, and filled with D3 hoops!

Debutantes:
Considering the almost complete lack of movement in this week’s polls, it should hardly be surprising that there are no debubantes in any category this week.

Streakers:
Women: Thirteenth-ranked Southern Maine has now received voting support in 100 consecutive polls. Other active voting streaks include Brandeis (60 polls), #4 NYU, and Wilmington (each at 20 weeks.)
Men: This week’s poll is the 20th since the beginning of last season. Six programs entered the voting in that poll and have stayed ever since, including #1 Rochester, #3 UW-Stevens Point (which has been a Top 25 team for all 20 of these polls), #11 Washington U., #18 Wheaton (IL), Rhode Island College (which was a voting debutante in that 2005 poll), and Aurora. Centre has now received votes in 10 straight polls.

Milestones:
Women: Defending champion DePauw is ranked #6 this week, marking the 100th time the Tigers have been ranked. Eighth-ranked McMurry is celebrating its 40th week as a Top 25 team, while top-ranked Mary Washington is a member of the Top 10 for the 20th time. #10 Simpson has now received votes in 75 polls. Other votes-received milestones were reached by #25 Baldwin-Wallace (110 polls), #22 UW-Eau Claire (90), #9 Thomas More (20), and #19 Tufts (10).
Men: #23 Wooster, which has been flirting with the bottom of the poll for three weeks, nevertheless has extended their poll record of Top 25 appearances to 120 polls (out of 128 all-time.) Twelfth-ranked Capital has now been ranked thirty times, while #8 Hope is a Top 10 team for the 30th time. Nineteenth-ranked Lewis & Clark has now been mentioned in the voting 50 times, while William Paterson has received votes in 60 polls. Other vote-getting plateaus were reached this week by UMass-Dartmouth (30 weeks), Rhode Island College (20), and Centre (10).

High-Water Marks:
Women: The five programs that reached or tied new highs last week did so again this week: #5 UW-Whitewater, #8 McMurry, #9 Thomas More, #17 Oglethorpe, and #19 Tufts. This quintet is joined this week by #20 Medaille, which matched its highest-ever ranking.
Men: #2 Brandeis and #16 Stevens each matched their highest-ever ranking, set or tied a week ago.

Movers and Shakers:
Women: With just three losses among last week’s Top 25, movement in the women’s poll was practically glacial this week. The biggest moves were suffered by #13 Southern Maine and #7 Messiah, which lost road games and fell 134 and 118 points, respectively. The largest gains, such as they were, were earned by #19 Tufts and #17 Oglethorpe, moving up 59 and 50 points respectively.
Men: If the women’s poll was glacial, the men’s poll was practically static. There were just three defeats sustained: one to a D2 squad, one in a matchup of Top 25 teams, and one by a mere two points. The largest moves were made by the loser in the first of these games (#9 Mary Hardin-Baylor, which lost 65 points) and the winner in the second (#5 Augustana, which gained 57 points), teams that switched positions from last week’s poll.

Chaos has attacked the Top 25 this week. On the women’s side, the voters keep trying new and different combinations of teams to make up the body of the poll, while on the men’s side there is unprecedented confusion as to who the #1 team should be.

With defending men’s champion Amherst falling at the hands of then-#3 Brandeis, which in turn had been upset by Mass.-Dartmouth earlier in the week, there was room for a new #1 in the Week 3 poll. Approximately half of the voters agreed that it should be former #2 Rochester, enough to propel the Yellow Jackets into the top slot for the third time in program history. The other twelve voters, however, could only agree that Rochester was not the top team; who the #1 team should be drew a record number of responses. Never before in the history of the men’s Top 25 poll have the voters been in such furious disagreement over the top spot, doling out #1 votes to a record seven different teams. The previous record was six, and if one restricts the analysis to regular season polls, the #1 vote has never been split more than five ways before this week. One of the #1 votes went to UW-Oshkosh, a team that received a grand total of 12 vote-points last week—the equivalent of one vote for #14, or twelve votes for #25—but scored an impressive victory over then-#6 UW-Whitewater.

On the distaff side, the top of the poll contains a number of the usual suspects, including Mary Washington, perched atop the poll for the fourth consecutive week, and longtime poll stalwarts #8 Southern Maine and #4 Messiah, members of the 81 and 78 consecutive Top 25s, respectively. In fact, seven of the teams ranked in the top nine positions have been in the Top 25 since the middle of the 2005-06 season (or longer.) But this picture changes dramatically, starting with #10 Thomas More, a member of the Top 25 for just the sixth time in program history. None of the teams ranked #10 or lower has a current stay in the Top 25 longer than five consecutive polls. Five teams in this group (those ranked #20-#24) are new to the Top 25 this week, including #20 Tufts, making its Top 25 debut.

With teams now moving into final exams and holiday breaks, the number of games drops off dramatically. It seems likely that confusion will continue to reign over the polls as we move into the new year and begin conference play in earnest.

Debutantes:
Women: #10 Thomas More is off to a 7-0 start, which includes wins over #7 DePauw and #22 Wilmington. As a result, the Saints cracked the Top 10 for the first time in program history. #20 Tufts has parlayed a 9-0 start into a first-ever berth in the Top 25. Congratulations to the Saints and the Jumbos!
Men: In the same week that Rochester ascends to the top of the poll, conference mate Case Western Reserve receives a Top 25 vote, becoming the eighth and final UAA squad to enter the all-time list of vote-getters. Congratulations to the Spartans!

Streakers:
Women: #25 Puget Sound extends their streak of Top 25 appearances to 25 weeks. Fourth-ranked Messiah receives votes in the 110th consecutive poll. Both Scranton and Wash. U. received votes, extending their perfect streaks to 128 weeks, but for the first time in poll history neither squad is in the Top 25. Calvin is also not in the Top 25, snapping a string of 18 weeks. And for the first time in 98 weeks, Bowdoin did not receive a single Top 25 vote.
Men: #18 Virginia Wesleyan fell out of the Top 10 for the first time in 22 weeks, but extended their string of voter-roll appearances to 30 weeks. #23 Wooster is a member of the Top 25 for the 80th consecutive week.

Milestones:
Women: Hope moves up to #2 this week, extending their string of Top 10 appearances to 60 weeks and marking their 120th week as a vote-getter. #12 Kean is among the vote-getters for the 25th time, while Amherst received votes for the 10th time.
Men: Third-ranked UW-Stevens Point has now received votes in 120 of the 127 men’s polls, while Nazareth is a vote-getter for the 10th time. Augustana’s #9 ranking marks the twentieth time that they have been a Top 10 team.

High-Water Marks:
Women: Sixth-ranked UW-Whitewater, Top 10 debutante Thomas More, #19 Oglethorpe, and Top 25 debutante Tufts all achieved highest-ever rankings this week. #9 McMurry matched their high mark, the fifth time they have been the ninth-ranked team in the women’s poll.
Men: In defeating the then-top ranked team, #2 Brandeis ascends to their highest-ever ranking. #16 Stevens reached a new poll high for the fifth consecutive week. Mary Hardin-Baylor repeated their #5 ranking of a week ago, matching their all-time high.

Movers and Shakers:
Women: For the second straight week, the primary movement in the women’s poll was provided by those in freefall. #5 Kean was upended by William Paterson and consequently lost 202 poll points, falling seven spots. Wash. U. suffered their third defeat, falling out of their #18 slot and shedding 171 of their 179 points. Most of the other Top 25 teams of a week ago merely bubbled up in the wake of these capsizes, with the largest gain being made by #19 Oglethorpe (+76 points/+6 places).
Men: Unbeaten UW-Oshkosh knocked off last week’s big mover, #11 UW-Whitewater, and soared into the #13 slot with a gain of 321 points. Helping to make room for the Titans were #18 Virginia Wesleyan, which dropped 192 points and 9 slots, and Keene St., which shed 216 points and fell from the #16 slot into the “others receiving votes” category.

“Dropped out: No. 21 Bowdoin, No. 23 Scranton”

That’s right–you can search the women’s Top 25 high and low, and you won’t find any Polar Bears or Royals until you reach the “others receiving votes” category. The last time there was a women’s Top 25 with neither Bowdoin nor Scranton in it was the final week of the regular season in 2001, a time when most of the current players at these traditional powers were still in junior high school or below. Scranton, which had dropped from the Top 25 the week before, had just completed a strong 20-5 season with a disappointing loss to De Sales in the Freedom Conf. tournament. The Royals would re-enter the poll in the preseason the following year, and (after a one-week hiatus), stay for 93 consecutive weeks. The Polar Bears captured their first NESCAC title and made their then-deepest run in the NCAA tournament, losing to second-ranked NYU in the sectionals by a mere 4 points. Bowdoin jumped into the final 2001 poll at #19, and has been there for the past 96 consecutive polls.

Until this week, that is.

Bowdoin, ranked 11th in the preseason poll, is off to a disappointing 3-3 start, losing twice this past week (at #9 Southern Maine and at home to Emmanuel). Scranton had somewhat lower expectations, opening at #25 in the preseason, and fell out of the poll after losing at fourth-ranked Messiah. Scranton is better-positioned to regain their Top 25 status, with 52 points (equivalent ranking of #30) vs. a mere 11 points for Bowdoin. Any more trouble for the Bears and their 97-week string of receiving votes may be at risk. Scranton has never failed to receive votes in a D3Hoops.com women’s poll (a record they share with the #18 Washington U. women and the #25 Wooster men, two other storied programs off to rocky starts this season), but has a difficult week ahead with three games in five days, including a date with a 3-1 Hamilton squad.

Debutantes:
Women: None this week.
Men: One voter decided to add Emerson college to the bottom of his ballot this week, the very first vote that Lions have received in the Top 25 poll. Congratulations!

Streakers:
Women: As noted above, Bowdoin and Scranton were unable to extend their Top 25 streaks beyond 96 and 93 weeks, respectively. The same cannot be said for #9 Southern Maine and #10 McMurry, which extended their Top 25 streaks to 80 and 30 weeks, respectively. #21 Cortland St. received votes for the 10th consecutive week.
Men: Top-ranked Amherst is enjoying their 25th straight week in the men’s Top 10, while further south, #9 Virginia Wesleyan celebrates their 25th consecutive Top 25 appearance. There is no joy in Springfield, O., however, as Wittenberg’s 56-week voting streak has come to an end. Mississippi College dropped off the bottom of the poll this week, snapping their 27-week string of Top 25 appearances.

Milestones:
Women: Twenty-first ranked Cortland St. appears on the list of vote-getters for the 50th time this week. Other milestones in the “receiving votes” category were reached by #4 Messiah (110 weeks), #14 Lake Forest (60), Salem St. (60), #2 Howard Payne (40), and William Smith (30.)
Men: Albion is among the vote-getters for the 50th time, while Mississippi College has received votes for the 75th time. #1 Amherst is in the Top 10 for the 70th time, and #19 Brockport St. is ranked for the 20th time.

High-Water Marks:
Women: Seventh-ranked UW-Whitewater, #11 Thomas More, and #19 Carroll each reached a new all-time high D3Hoops.com ranking this week. Programs tying their all-time high include #2 Howard Payne, #5 Kean, and #14 Lake Forest.
Men: New all-time high rankings were achieved this week by #3 Brandeis, #5 Mary Hardin-Baylor, #16 Keene St., and #17 Stevens.

Movers and Shakers:
Women: The principal movement in the women’s poll was downward, led by #23 Calvin and #18 Washington U. Calvin fell 323 points and 17 poll places after being swept in the MIAA/CCIW Challenge; Wash U. was knocked off by new #22 Capital and dropped 9 spots and 169 points. The best gains were made by Capital (+101) and #11 Thomas More (+119 points and 6 slots.)
Men: #6 UW-Whitewater knocked off then-#2 UW-Stevens Point and consequently leaped 212 points and 14 places in the poll. #25 Wooster and #10 Augustana each lost 155 points, falling eleven and six places, respectively.

The conventional wisdom in D3 men’s basketball has long been that there are four “power conferences” that dominate the national landscape: the CCIW, NJAC, OAC, and WIAC. Recent successes by the NESCAC and UAA have expanded this group into a “Big Six.” But this week’s poll begs the question of whether this group is still the best of the best.

There’s no argument about the UAA and CCIW, each of which has three top 25 teams this week. The NESCAC, winners of two national titles in the past five seasons, have two teams in this week’s top 10. There are signs that the WIAC may be slipping a bit, but they still have two top 25 teams, as well as two of the last four trophies. But the time may have come to reevaluate the status of the Ohio and New Jersey conferences.

The OAC was well-regarded by the voters in the preseason poll, with two top 25 teams and two others receiving votes, but these four teams stumbled to a collective 9-8 start to the season, and three of them (preseason #20 Baldwin-Wallace, John Carroll, and Ohio Northern) fell out of the voting altogether. Only #18 Capital, which fell 8 places this week, and upstart Heidelberg (with a mere five votes) remain on the voters’ ballots this week.

That’s still better than the NJAC, which has no top 25 teams at all this week. The best-placed New Jersey team is Rowan, whose 36 votes are surpassed by twenty-nine teams from coast to coast.

Overall, there are ten conferences with at least two teams in the top 25 this week, including such upstarts as the SUNYAC (#11 Plattsburgh St. and #17 Brockport St.), the ASC (#9 Mary Hardin-Baylor and #23 Mississippi College), and the NWC (#12 Puget Sound and #25 Lewis & Clark), but not including either the Ohio or New Jersey Athletic Conferences.

It is also worth noting that the Old Dominion has two of the top 5 teams in this week’s poll. Now, this is not news for the traditionally top-heavy ODAC, which has had two top 5 teams in fifteen previous polls. But on all 15 of those occasions, the two teams have been bitter rivals Hampden-Sydney and Randolph Macon. This week, neither of these teams is ranked, and the two standard bearers are #3 Guilford and #5 Virginia Wesleyan.

So what’s the lesson? Perhaps what we’re seeing is a trend towards nationwide parity in Division 3. Maybe the days of the “power conference” are waning. One thing is certain, though: never trust the conventional wisdom!

Debutantes:
Women: #10 UW-Whitewater became a top 10 team for the first time ever this week.
Men: The Student Princes of Heidelberg received 5 votes this week, marking the first time the program has attracted voting support. Both #7 Brandeis and #9 Mary Hardin-Baylor joined the top 10 for the initial time in this poll. Congratulations to these outstanding programs!

Streakers:
Women: #6 Calvin is in the top 10 for the 10th straight week, while Luther and Fitchburg St. have now received votes in ten consecutive polls. Brandeis dropped two home games and fell from the top 25 for the first time in 50 weeks.
Men: When the Wooster Scots suit up this Saturday at Cedarville University, it will be the first time that any of them will do so not as a player on a top 10 team. Wooster fell to #14, their lowest ranking since week 3 of the 2003-04 season and the first time they’ve been out of the top ten in 54 weeks, a poll record. They will have the consolation of knowing that they’ve received votes in 125 straight polls, also a record. New #1 Amherst appears in the top 25 this week for the 80th straight time, extending their poll record. #3 Guilford is in the top 25 for the 10th consecutive week, while #5 Virginia Wesleyan is a top 10 team for the 20th straight week. Both Occidental (26 weeks) and Whitworth (20 weeks) had lengthy poll-appearance streaks snapped, while voting streaks were extended at #23 Mississippi College (40 weeks), WPI (40), #9 Mary Hardin-Baylor (10), and DePauw (10).

Milestones:
Women: #21 Bowdoin was among the vote-getters this week, marking their 100th appearance on the voting rolls. Marymount received votes for the 50th time in this poll. Other voting milestones were achieved by #19 George Fox (70 weeks), #6 Calvin (60), #22 Randolph-Macon (40), and Fitchburg St. (10). The top 25 appearance by #15 Puget Sound marks the 25th time the Loggers have been ranked.
Men: #20 UW-Whitewater received votes for the 100th time this week. #14 Wooster and #16 Hope appear in the voting rolls for the 125th and 75th times, respectively. #8 Wash U. is a vote-getter for the 80th time and a top 25 team for the 60th time, while #17 Brockport St. received votes for the 30th time. Fifth-ranked Virginia Wesleyan is a top 10 team for the 20th time, while their conference foe #3 Guilford is ranked for the 10th time. #25 Lewis & Clark held on to the tail end of the top 25, their 30th appearance in that august assemblage.

High-Water Marks:
Women: #5 Kean and top 10 debutante #10 each set a new high ranking this week, while #2 Howard Payne and #25 Carroll each matched their previous high rankings.
Men: New all-time high rankings were achieved this week by #3 Guilford, top 10 debutantes #7 Brandeis and #9 Mary Hardin-Baylor, #11 Plattsburgh St., and #21 Stevens.

Movers and Shakers:
Women: #17 Thomas More, entirely overlooked in the preseason poll, defeated two recent national champions (Wilmington and DePauw) in their first four games and leaped into the poll with 207 votes. The trio of Luther, Millikin, and Brandeis, ranked #12-14 in the preseason, opened the season with a composite record of 4-6 and all fell out of the top 25.
Men: Aurora, ranked #13 in the preseason, lost twice in five days and dropped out of the poll. Preseason #1 Wash U.’s early struggles were well-documented on this site, and were reflected in their drop of 266 poll points and 7 places in this week’s poll. The strongest gains were made by #12 Puget Sound (+134 points and +7 placements) and #7 Brandeis (+135/+5).