The Association of Indpendent Institutions (AII) is made up of independent institutions. They are deemed independent because they do not belong to an NAIA member institution conference. The AII is made up of institutions from across the USA and Canada. The AII members are allowed to schedule their own regular season games without having to worry about a conference schedule. The Association does host a tournament championship at the end of the regular season. The teams who make it to the Championship game, and the winner of the 3rd place game, all get automatic bids to the National Tournament.
2018-2019 Men’s Basketball Overall Standings
While the AII does not have a regular season conference schedule, the Association does host a tournament championship at the end of the regular season. The top three teams from the tournament get automatic bids to the NAIA DII National Tournament. Voorhees (SC) came away with the tournament title, beating College of the Ozarks (MO) in the finals. Qualifying for Nationals with them was Washington Adventist (MD), who knocked off top seed IU Northwest in the 3rd place game. Unfortunately all three teams exited in the first round at nationals.
Teams Leaving
IU Northwest joins the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference
Kentucky Christian Joines the Applachian Athletic Conference
Top Players Returning
ALL-CONFERENCE 1ST TEAM
Therence Mayimba SR F Washington Adventist University
3rd Team All American, AII Defensive Player of the Year, AII Newcomer of the Year
Brant Cochran SR G College of the Ozarks
ALL-CONFERENCE 2ND TEAM
Naquwan Solomon SO G Northern New Mexico College
Alex Brooks SR G Voorhees College
Xavier Sewell SR G Washington Adventist University
Key Players Lost
Seniors
Co-Players of the Year
Chris Dixon-Williams Indiana University Northwest
Ethan Davidson College of the Ozarks
1st Team All-Conference
Zach Thomspon Lincoln Christian University
2nd Team All-Conference
Nakia Hendricks Haskell Indian Nations University
Nakia Hendricks Haskell Indian Nations University
**Second Team All-Conference Rashad Richardson, who will be a senior next year, won’t return due to IU Northwest joining the CCAC.
New Members
While the Lincoln Lynx were a member of the league last season, it was their first year as an NAIA program, and thus were unable to compete on the national stage until this season!