KANSAS CITY, Mo. – West Liberty’s two-time defending West Virginia Conference men’s basketball team is ranked No. 6 in the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Preseason NCAA Division II Top 25 poll.
Defending national champion Bellarmine (Ky.) received all 8 first-place votes to enter the 2011-12 season as the nation’s No. 1-ranked team. Alabama-Huntsville is No. 2 with BYU-Hawaii, Missouri Southern and Lincoln Memorial, Tenn. rounding out the top five.
Coach Jim Crutchfield’s Hilltoppers hold down the No. 6 spot with Findlay (Ohio), Tarleton State (Texas), Bowie State (Md.) and Metropolitan State (Colo.) wrapping up the top 10.
West Liberty finished the 2010-11 season as the nation’s No. 1-ranked team, having received every first-place vote from the committee for the final nine weeks of the regular season while they were wrapping up the only unbeaten regular-season for any college basketball team in the country.
That 9-week run at No. 1 is the longest streak ever for a West Virginia Conference team. The Hilltoppers have now been ranked in the Top 25 for 24 consecutive weeks – the longest run by a WVIAC program since former league member Salem set an NCAA Division II record with 76 consecutive weeks in the poll from 1997 to 2003.
The 2010-11 West Liberty team captured the WVIAC Tournament championship – winning every game by double-figures – before claiming the school’s first-ever NCAA Division II Atlantic Region title with a thrilling victory against 2010 national runner-up Indiana (Pa.) at the ASRC.
That earned the Hilltoppers a trip to the NCAA Division II Elite Eight national championship tournament in Springfield, Mass. West Liberty opened the tourney with a 113-95 rout of Anderson, S.C. – the most points scored in an Elite Eight game in nearly two decades – before falling to BYU-Hawaii, 110-101, in a thrilling national semifinal shootout.
Entering his eighth season at the West Liberty helm, Crutchfield has the highest career winning percentage of any active NCAA Division II head coach at 175-40 (.814). His Hilltoppers led the nation in an NCAA Division II-record eight statistical categories, including the fifth national scoring title in the past six seasons.
Crutchfield must replace four 1,000-point scorers – including All-Americans Corey Pelle and Jordan Fortney – but the cupboard is far from bare. Junior starter Alex Falk (13.3 ppg.) leads 9 returning lettermen and several impressive newcomers for the Black and Gold.
West Liberty is scheduled to tip off the 2011-12 season on Nov. 12 when the Hilltoppers take on East Stroudsburg (Pa.) in the Wolf Bus Lines Classic at Shippensburg (Pa.) University.
The much-anticipated home opener is set for Nov. 17 when No. 7-ranked Findlay comes to town. Tipoff is set for 7:30 p.m. at the ASRC.
Discussion about this post