NAIA Hoops Report Top 25 – Jan. 24th

We are sure that Loyola, Talladega and William Penn will all 3 split 1st place votes this week in the coaches poll and deservedly so. All three teams have lost a game while missing players, most recently Loyola losing to Faulkner without All-American Myles Burns. For us, with all of that in mind, we kept our Top 8 teams in the same order. National Power House, Georgetown jumps inside this week’s Top 10. As does a SAGU team that is coming off a blowout win over USAO. The toughest spot for us, and we expect the same for the Coaches Poll voters, are those pesky 20-25 slots. For us leaving out an undefeated Alice Lloyd team was super tough. They are coming off of a nice home win against WVU Tech and all they have done this season is WIN! Maybe they make an appearance inside the Coaches Top 25 poll on Wednesday, but for us, they remain just outside of it. New to the poll this week is St Francis (IN) who make the biggest jump. They were 26th last week for us, but a team that has gotten back on track behind All-Americans, Antwaan Cushingberry and David Ejah. Briar Cliff finally gets the nod as the leaders of the GPAC. A team that has played a tough schedule and while they lost some games early, they have been playing great basketball. Lastly, Oregon Tech sneaks inside the Top 25. A team that had won 11 straight games before their loss to College of Idaho on Saturday. One of the hardest decisions was dropping Jamestown out of the poll, but losing 3 of their last 6 games, all to the top teams in the GPAC and two of the three at home, were what the ultimate factor for us were. The Jimmies are still a very dangerous squad, who like last season, if they can find some momentum late again, watch out! That won’t cover all of the questions with this poll I am sure, but we try to explain some of the tougher decisions that were made. These are going to be many of the same dilemma’s that the Top 25 raters will face as well. While, many have started to refer this poll as the Media Poll, and we do align on a majority of things in the Coaches Top 25 polls. We do differ on our opinions on teams from time to time! Eager to see what the Coaches Poll looks like on Wednesday!

1. Loyola (LA) 17-1 ARC Rank: 1st, Southeast – RPI: 4 – SOS: 116
2. TalladeIga (AL) 17-1 ARC Rank: 2nd, Southeast – RPI: 11 SOS: 137
3. William Penn (IA) 19-1 ARC Rank: 1st, Midwest – RPI: 5 – SOS: 38
4. William Jessup (CA) 21-2 ARC Rank: 1st, West – RPI: 1 – SOS: 24
5. Indiana Wesleyan 19-3 ARC Rank: 1st, Great Lakes/South RPI: 1 -SOS: 24
6. Arizona Christian 20-3 ARC Rank: 4th, West – RPI: 25 – SOS: 151
7. Thomas More (KY) 17-2 ARC Rank: 3rd, Great Lakes/South – RPI: 8 – SOS: 60
8. Oklahoma Wesleyan 21-1 ARC Rank: 2nd, Midwest – RPI: 10 – SOS: 127
9. Southwestern Assemblies of God (TX) 16-3 ARC Rank: 2nd, Southwest – RPI: 25 – SOS: 113
10. Georgetown (KY) 16-2 ARC Rank: 7th, Great Lakes/South – RPI: 31 – SOS: 171
11. Carroll (MT) 19-3 ARC Rank: 2nd, West – RPI: 22 – SOS: 166
12. College of Idaho 18-3 ARC Rank: 5th, West – RPI: 14 – SOS: 74
13. LSU Alexandria 13-1 ARC Rank: 3rd, Southwest – RPI: 40 – SOS: 204
14. Hope International (CA) 16-4 ARC Rank: 3rd, West – RPI: 18 -SOS: 91
15. Southeastern (FL) 18-3 ARC Rank: 3rd, Southeast – RPI: 22 – SOS: 120
16. Faulkner (AL) 15-4 ARC Rank: 4th, Southeast – RPI: 12 – SOS: 70
17. Science & Arts (OK) 16-4 ARC Rank: 1st, Southwest – RPI: 7 – SOS: 24
18. St. Francis (IN) 18-4 ARC Rank: 4th, Great Lakes/South – RPI: 6 – SOS: 8
19. Grace (IN) 18-4 ARC Rank: 2nd, Great Lakes/South RPI: 3 – SOS: 30
20. West Virginia Tech 17-3 ARC Rank: 6th, Great Lakes/South – RPI: 15 – SOS: 131
21. Olivet Nazarene (IL) 18-3 ARC Rank: 1st, North Central – RPI: 8 – SOS: 38
22. Briar Cliff (IA) 14-6 ARC Rank: 3rd, North Central – RPI: 30 – SOS: 9
23. IU South Bend 15-3 ARC Rank: 4th, North Central – RPI: 44 – SOS: 162
24. Oregon Tech 15-6 ARC Rank: 6th, West RPI: 46 – SOS: 95
25. Marian 14-4 ARC Rank: 5th, Great Lakes/South – RPI: 27 – SOS: 120