2022-23 NAIA Men’s Basketball Coaches’ Top 25 Poll Three (December 14, 2022)
| RANK | LAST WEEK | SCHOOL [1st Place Votes] | RECORD |
| 1 | 3 | Arizona Christian [17] | 9-1 |
| 2 | 1 | Thomas More (Ky.) [4] | 9-1 |
| 3 | 4 | College of Idaho | 8-1 |
| 4 | 2 | Grace (Ind.) | 11-1 |
| 5 | 8 | Oklahoma Wesleyan | 11-1 |
| 6 | 10 | Southwestern (Kan.) | 11-1 |
| 7 | 15 | Langston (Okla.) | 11-0 |
| 8 | 7 | Faulkner (Ala.) | 9-1 |
| 9 | 6 | Jamestown (N.D.) | 10-2 |
| 10 | 11 | Florida College | 12-1 |
| 11 | 21 | Indiana Wesleyan | 9-3 |
| 12 | 17 | Union (Ky.) | 11-1 |
| 13 | 12 | Montana Tech | 9-2 |
| 14 | 5 | Marian (Ind.) | 11-2 |
| 15 | 9 | Georgetown (Ky.) | 11-2 |
| 16 | 14 | Indiana Tech | 10-2 |
| 17 | 25 | William Penn (Iowa) | 9-2 |
| 18 | 20 | LSU Shreveport (La.) | 7-2 |
| 19 | NR | Freed-Hardeman (Tenn.) | 10-2 |
| 20 | 13 | Evangel (Mo.) | 9-2 |
| 21 | 18 | Kansas Wesleyan | 9-1 |
| 22 | 16 | Wayland Baptist (Texas) | 7-2 |
| 23 | RV | Morningside (Iowa) | 9-3 |
| 24 | 23 | Carroll (Mont.) | 7-2 |
| 25 | RV | Huntington (Ind.) | 10-2 |
NAIA Hoops Report Top 25
NAIA Hoops Report Top 25 – 3rd Edition – NAIA Hoops Report
Streaks And Notes
Top Streaks
No. 11 Indiana Wesleyan – 109 straight polls (January 23rd, 2012)
No. 17 William Penn (IA) – 63 straight polls (October 27th, 2015)
No. 14 Marian (IN) – 36 straight polls (January 23rd, 2018)
No. 1 Arizona Chrisitan – 21 straight polls (February 5th, 2020)
Notes
It is already apparent, on social media, that people are upset because of last night’s Grace win over Arizona Christian. It is important to understand how the NAIA Polls work. Conference Ratings are posted, by conference raters on Monday, and the Top 25 raters turn around and will turn in their rating sheets, to be calculated, on Monday and Tuesday. So, the top 25 was set prior to last night’s game. Both Grace and Arizona Christian are really good teams. ACU, fully healthy, is a serious National Title contender. Grace proved last night they are in that conversation as well. The best part of the polls is that it will all play itself out! No need to get overly worked up about the Top 25 polls yet!
The other big game from last night, Tx A&M Texarkana taking down No. 19 LSU Shreveport, didn’t get played in time for this rating either. Again, there is still a lot to be played out. It’s the Holiday season, so bring some more cheer to the World instead of finding things to be upset about!
Who’s New?
No. 19 Freed-Hardeman (TN) – Deserved the nod after beating previously ranked Cumberland and RV UT Southern this past week. The Lions have now won 9 straight contests and the emergence of Freshman, Ryley McClararn has the Lions sitting atop the Mid-South standings.
No. 23 Morningside (IA) – Was one of the toughest teams to leave out of our own Top 25. The Mustangs have some nice wins under their belt and when they are playing well they certainly are a Top 25 team. For us, they came in at No. 27 but fully understand the nod as there are about 10-12 teams, for us, between 20 and 32 who we felt had legit argument to get a Top 25 nod!
No. 25 Huntington (IN) – Good to see Huntington slide into the Top 25 here as they did in our poll as well. A very deserving nod, as you look at everyone’s full “body of work”. They finally were able to get their signature win this past week against Marian and boast one of the NAIA’s best point guards in Zach Goodline.
Who’s Out?
Concordia (NE) – GPAC road losses to Morningside and Hastings, since the last poll, ultimately doomed them this week. Still a talented group that can surely find themselves back inside the Top 25 down the road.
MidAmerica Nazarene (MO) – After the conference rater putting them 4th on Monday, we knew this would be the case. However, MNU’s only two losses are a 2pt loss to No. 5 Oklahoma Wesleyan and a road Heart of America loss to No. 20 Evangel. With that Evangel loss being the only loss since the last poll.
Cumberland (TN) – Lost 4 of their past 6 games. A talented group, that is still finding their way a bit. Life doesn’t get any easier before break though as Cumberland hosts both No. 15 Georgetown and RV Cumberlands (KY) this week in Mid-South play.
Biggest Movers
Indiana Wesleyan – Moved up 10 spots, from 21st to 11th. A team, who has really figured it out, after some early season struggles and the rise of Freshman Javan Buchanan has given this talented IWU squad that missing piece to get them back to being a serious title contender!
Langston (OK) – Moved up 8 spots, from 15th to 7th. A team that only had one win as a program last season. BUT a team, with a new head coach and entire new team, that we have had ranked since our PRESEASON poll!
William Penn (IA) – Moved up 8 spots from 25th to 17th. A team that is normally amongst the NAIA’s top rebounding teams, is back to pounding the glass over the past few games. Coach John Henry has his Statesmen back atop the Heart Standings, a league they have won 4 years in a row.
Freed-Hardeman (TN) – Moved up from RV to 19th. See ‘Who’s In’ section.
Breakdown By Conference
AMC – None
AAC – (11) Union (KY)
CAC – (10) Florida College
CALPAC – None
CASCADE – (3) College of Idaho
CCAC – None
CROSSROADS – (4) Grace (IN), (11) Indiana Wesleyan, (14) Marian (IN), (25) Huntington (IN)
FRONTIER – (13) Montana Tech, (24) Carroll (MT)
GSAC – (1) Arizona Christian
GPAC – (9) Jamestown (ND), (23) Morningside (IA)
GCAC – None
HEART – (17) William Penn (IA), (20) Evangel (MO)
KCAC – (5) Oklahoma Wesleyan, (6) Southwestern (KS), (21) Kansas Wesleyan
MID-SOUTH – (2) Thomas More (KY), (15) Georgetown (KY), (19) Freed-Hardeman
NSAA– None
RRAC – (18) LSU Shreveport
RSC – None
SAC -(7) Langston (OK), (22) Wayland Baptist
SSAC – (8) Faulkner (AL)
SUN – None
WHAC – (16) Indiana Tech
Breakdown By ARC
| GREAT LAKES | WEST | NORTH-CENTRAL | MIDWEST | SOUTHWEST | SOUTHEAST |
| 2. Thomas More | 1. Arizona Christian | 9. Jamestown | 5. Oklahoma Wesleyan | 7. Langston | 8. Faulkner |
| 4. Grace | 3. College of Idaho | 23. Morningside | 6. Southwestern (KS) | 10. Florida College | 12. Union |
| 11. Indiana Wesleyan | 13. Montana Tech | 17. William Penn | 18. LSU Shreveport | ||
| 14. Marian | 24. Carroll | 20. Evangel | 22. Wayland Baptist | ||
| 15. Georgetown | 21. Kansas Wesleyan | ||||
| 16. Indiana Tech | |||||
| 19. Freed-Hardeman | |||||
| 25. Huntington |
