KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The unbeaten West Liberty University men’s basketball team continued its run at No. 1 in this week’s NCAA Division II coaches’ poll when the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) released the results of its weekly voting on Tuesday afternoon.
Coach Jim Crutchfield‘s Hilltoppers (8-0), who opened the season on top of the national rankings, remained comfortably ensconced at the head of the pack with 12 of the 16 first-place votes.
There was little change at the top of the poll as the top seven spots remained unchanged from a week ago.
Washburn, Kan. (7-0), Metro State, Colo. (7-0), Alabama-Huntsville (7-1) and Bellarmine, Ky. (6-0) once again rounded out the top five behind the Hilltoppers with each of those teams receiving one of the remaining four first-place votes.
Defending national champion Western Washington (7-0) held onto No. 6 for the third consecutive week with Southern Indiana (7-0) at No. 7. Cal Poly-Pomona (7-0) moved up a spot to No. 8 followed by Seattle Pacific (8-1) and Northwest Missouri State (8-0), which returned to the Top 10 for the first time in five years.
West Liberty, which cracked the century mark twice more last week in a 119-59 rout of West Virginia State and a 105-98 win against Glenville State, has now appeared in 43 consecutive NABC Top 25 polls. That’s the longest run in the national rankings by a WVIAC team since former league member Salem was ranked for an NCAA Division II record 76 consecutive weeks from 1997 to 2003.
The Hilltoppers were the only conference team to crack the Top 25 but Shepherd (6-1) popped onto this week’s list of teams also receiving votes after being listed on one of the 16 ballots.
The West Liberty team is off this week for semester exams before closing out its pre-Christmas slate on Dec. 17-18 with a pair of games in a Puerto Rico tournament.
NABC DIVISION II TOP 25 – Men’s Basketball
1. WEST LIBERTY (12) 8-0 393 1
2. Washburn, Kan. (1) 7-0 377 2
3. Metro State, Colo. (1) 7-0 361 3
4. Alabama-Huntsville (1) 7-1 344 4
5. Bellarmine, Ky. (1) 6-0 340 5
6. Western Washington 7-0 333 6
7. Southern Indiana 5-0 296 7
8. Cal Poly-Pomona 7-0 285 9
9. Seattle Pacific, Wash. 8-1 276 8
10. NW Missouri State 8-0 247 12
11. St. Cloud State, Minn. 6-0 233 14
12. Franklin Pierce, N.H. 7-1 201 15
13. Kentucky Wesleyan 5-0 194 16
14. Indianapolis, Ind. 7-0 187 17
15. Augusta State, Ga. 5-0 160 21
16. Barton, N.C. 7-1 134 10
17. Assumption, Mass. 8-0 119 24
18. Indiana, Pa. 6-1 114 22
19. Drury, Mo. 6-0 109 NR
20. Lincoln Memorial, Tenn. 6-1 91 11
21. Minnesota State 6-1 54 20
22. Tampa, Fla. 6-0 51 NR
23. Winston-Salem State, N.C. 6-2 40 NR
24. Findlay, Ohio 5-2 36 13
25. Alaska-Anchorage 7-2 32 NR
Others receiving votes: King (Tenn.) 29, Newman (Kan.) 27, Winona State (Minn.) 19, Florida Southern 16, Colorado Mesa 15, Christian Brothers (Tenn.) 14, Adams State (Colo.) 11, Augustana (S.D.) 11, Wayne State (Mich.) 9, West Texas A&M 7, Cal State-San Bernardino 6, Maryville (Mo.) 6, Anderson (S.C.) 5, Michigan Tech 4, Post (Conn.) 4, East Stroudsburg (Pa.) 3, UMass-Lowell 2, North Alabama 2, Colorado School of Mines 2, Grand Canyon (Ariz.) 1, SHEPHERD 1.
