This is our last and final Top 25 poll for this season! It’s been a fun season with tons of ups and downs with teams. It’s all apart of the season, but the teams who are peaking right now are usually the ones who also make the deep tournament runs. For us, the Top 25 mostly stayed intact. The fun part about the NAIA is that, with just 1 division, their remained all season a group between 20 and 33, who were all just really similar. So, while most of the Top 10 teams, at least in our polls, have remained pretty similar most of the year, there has been a lot of turnover in the back half of the brackets. One team we elected to keep in the polls, despite losing 4 straight, is Georgetown. The Tigers are a better product then what they have put out here lately. Does that mean they are going to make a deep run in the National Tournament? Who knows! Time will tell on that one, but they are one of the best 25 teams in the NAIA, so we are keeping them inside of our final poll. SAGU is the other former Top 10 team that has been struggling. However, if you have watched the games you will know they have been without All-Americans Joshua Kashila and Nyk Mason. Two huge pieces to their puzzle! For that, we only drop them a few slots. Same with William Jessup, who was looking like a Fab Four team for awhile and then end up with the 3-seed in the GSAC Tournament. They have been without the services of stud Freshman, Myles Corey. Unfortunately for them, it came at a crucial part of the season. If you look at their entire body of work though, when healthy, they are a team you wont be surprised to see make a Fab Four run. The only other team that we seem to be higher on then the Coaches Poll raters, is Stillman. As a team, who were in the Final 16 last season in Kansas City and return nearly everyone, they are back to playing some really good basketball. They weren’t in the last Coaches Poll though, and have two losses since. Both to Loyola, by a total of 4pts. That is us fighting for them, HA! Either way, it’s been another fun year compiling our Top 25 lists. We build our own lists out to 40 and dive deep into each team. We always leave a couple teams out that deserve to be in and we are sorry for that, but it is hard work to get a list of 40 down to just 25! Hope you enjoy the last NAIA Hoops Report Top 25!!
- Loyola (LA)
- William Penn (IA)
- Arizona Christian
- Thomas More (KY)
- Talladega (AL)
- Oklahoma Wesleyan
- Carroll (MT)
- College of Idaho
- William Jessup (CA)
- Indiana Wesleyan
- Science & Arts (OK)
- Olivet Nazarene (IL)
- Marian (IN)
- Faulkner (AL)
- Hope International (CA)
- Montana Tech
- St Francis (IN)
- Southwestern Assemblies of God (TX)
- Stillman (AL)
- IU South Bend
- Bethel (KS)
- IU Kokomo
- Georgetown (KY)
- LSU Shreveport
- Florida College
