Our hope, with this article, is to simply point out a few teams each week who are on the rise! Most of our “Stock Risers” will be teams who are outside the Top 25. We will also put a focus on a player or two each week who are having good seasons or coming off of big weeks and who may not be “known” by everyone across the country quite yet!

Stock Risers

Spring Arbor sits at 7-2 on the season and 2-0 inside of Crossroads League play with wins over Marian and at MVNU. They also have a non-conference road win against Indiana Tech. Life doesn’t get any easier for them though as they will hit the road to play, what could end up being the No. 1 ranked Grace Lancers. A lot of their early success is attributed to the play of Gabe Newhof. Gabe currently averages 27.5ppg and had been held under 20pts in just one game thus far. Travis Grayson and Kevyn Robertson have also been tough for the Cougars.

Talladega may be turning NCAA D2 next year, but the Tornadoes are looking to leave the NAIA with a bang and currently sit at 6-1 on the season and are currently on a 4-game winning streak. Dega has a road GCAC win already at defending GCAC champions, Tougaloo and have four wins against NCAA D2 opponents. The Tornadoes have four games left against NCAA D2 opponents and then GCAC play. This is a team that can certainly win the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference.

Rio has started off the season with a 6-1 record with their only loss being to an Indiana Wesleyan team that is a Top 10 team. They bounced back nicely with a good road River States Conference win against RV WVU Tech. They have a big game tomorrow night at home vs an undefeated Point Park team. Rio also has four non-conference games in December all against VERY good teams in Cumberlands, Pikeville, Indiana Tech and Marian. Miki Tadic is the savvy vet that continues to be the leader for Rio, but it’s the two Sophomores, Trey Robertson and Kaden Warner who lead the RedStorm in points per game. The defending RSC Champs are looking tough early!

Players We Are Bullish On

This may be low hanging fruit as Hall is now your back-to-back Sooner Athletic Conference Player of the Week. However, Hall’s stock is soaring right now as he has helped SAGU get off to a hot start and the Lions are just three points from having three Top 25 wins and being a Top 10 team in the next polls. The Lions will get All-American, Cortland Blake back soon enough, and CJ Hall will help alleviate some of the scoring pressures that Blake has.

Follie is a Grad Transfer from Lees-McRae who currently leads the AAC in scoring at 23.6ppg. He also is averaging 7rpg and coming off a week where he averaged 28ppg including a 38pt, 8reb, 4asst outing in Milligan’s win over RV Union. The Buffaloes first win against Union since 2019. The 38pts was also the most from a Buffalo player since 2013. Follie has already been a force in the AAC and is a name to put on your radar!

Ty is a transfer from D1 Eastern Washington who has five 20+ point games thru six games. He is one of the top shooters in the NAIA and can fill it up in a hurry as he has three games with 4 or more 3’s. This is a talented Mustang team, who boasts the reigning GSAC Player of the Year, Kaleb Lowery. Harper was a great addition to the Mustang team this season!