2018-19 NAIA Division II Women’s Basketball Coaches’ Preseason Top 25 Poll
National runners-up Concordia (Neb.) gets the top spot
By Pete Scantlebury, NAIA Manager of Athletic Communications
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – After finishing just short of a national title a season ago, Concordia (Neb.) starts the new season at No. 1 according to the NAIA Division II Women’s Basketball Coaches’ Preseason Top 25 Poll. The Bulldogs received ten of the possible 12 first-place votes in the initial ballots.
Top 25 Highlights
- Concordia returns three starters from a team that went 36-2 a season ago. That includes two NAIA All-American forwards in Philly Lammers and Quinne Wragge. That duo combined for 26.8 points and 13.6 rebounds per game last year.
- Dakota Wesleyan (S.D.), the reigning national champions, begin the season at No. 2. The Tigers went 32-6 in 2017-2018, on their way to the program’s first national championship.
- Newcomers to the preseason poll, compared to the final regular-season poll of 2017-2018, are: No. 14 Saint Francis (Ind.), No. 20 Tabor (Kan.) and No. 22 Cardinal Stritch (Wis.)
- Morningside (Iowa), which checks in at No. 11, holds the record for most No. 1 rankings of all-time with 38. Indiana Wesleyan – 15th in the preseason poll – is second with 33.
- Morningside also holds the record for longest consecutively ranked active school with 172 straight polls. Saint Xavier (Ill.) is second on the list with 159, which includes its time in DI Women’s Basketball.
Poll Methodology
- The poll was voted upon by a panel of head coaches representing each of the conferences and the Association of Independent Institutions.
- The Top 25 is determined by a points system based on how each voter ranks the best teams. A team receives 30 points for each first-place vote, 29 for second place and so on through the list.
- The highest and lowest ranking for each team (a non-rating is considered a low rating) is removed and the team’s ranking will be recalculated with an additional point added to each team for every ballot (including discounted ballots) that the teams appear on.
- Teams that receive only one point in the ballot are not considered “receiving votes”
2018-19 NAIA Division II Women’s Basketball Coaches’ Preseason Top 25 Poll (Oct. 23)
| RANK | LAST WEEK | TEAM (FIRST-PLACE VOTES) | 2017-2018 RECORD | POINTS |
| 1 | 2 | Concordia (Neb.) (10) | 36-2 | 311 |
| 2 | 7 | Dakota Wesleyan (S.D.) (1) | 32-6 | 295 |
| 3 | 1 | Southeastern (Fla.) (1) | 31-1 | 290 |
| 4 | 4 | Saint Xavier (Ill.) | 32-3 | 277 |
| 4 | 5 | Marian (Ind.) | 32-3 | 277 |
| 6 | 3 | College of the Ozarks (Mo.) | 31-2 | 268 |
| 7 | 6 | Eastern Oregon | 31-3 | 243 |
| 8 | 11 | Northwestern (Iowa) | 25-9 | 240 |
| 9 | 9 | Indiana Tech | 30-5 | 220 |
| 9 | 19 | St. Francis (Ill.) | 22-10 | 220 |
| 11 | 13 | Morningside (Iowa) | 22-12 | 212 |
| 12 | 10 | Southern Oregon | 28-5 | 203 |
| 13 | 12 | Hastings (Neb.) | 26-7 | 195 |
| 14 | NR | Saint Francis (Ind.) | 17-14 | 183 |
| 15 | 17 | Indiana Wesleyan | 25-9 | 156 |
| 16 | 14 | Valley City State (N.D.) | 25-5 | 150 |
| 16 | 8 | Jamestown (N.D.) | 31-5 | 150 |
| 18 | 16 | Olivet Nazarene (Ill.) | 23-10 | 138 |
| 19 | 15 | Taylor (Ind.) | 24-11 | 136 |
| 20 | RV | Tabor (Kan.) | 18-14 | 123 |
| 21 | 21 | Lawrence Tech (Mich.) | 25-7 | 121 |
| 22 | RV | Cardinal Stritch (Wis.) | 19-10 | 95 |
| 23 | 23 | Bryan (Tenn.) | 25-10 | 85 |
| 24 | 20 | Rio Grande (Ohio) | 30-4 | 67 |
| 25 | 24 | Antelope Valley (Calif.) | 22-7 | 58 |
* Last week refers to the final regular-season poll of the 2017-2018 season. Beginning last year, there is no longer a postseason coaches’ poll.
Others receiving votes: Oregon Tech 55, Bethany (Kan.) 47, Reinhardt (Ga.) 28, Aquinas (Mich.) 28, Bellevue (Neb.) 18, Oklahoma Wesleyan 14, St. Thomas (Fla.) 12, IU East (Ind.) 7, UC Merced (Calif.) 6, Huntington (Ind.) 5, Northwest Christian (Ore.) 4, Rochester (Mich.) 4, Indiana Northwest 3