KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Dalton State Basketball placed sixth in the final 2014 - 15 NAIA Division I Men’s Basketball Coaches’ Top 25 poll, the national office announced Wednesday.
Hope International (Calif.) is the new No. 1. The Royals claimed 9-of-10 first-place votes and 250 points to earn the program's first-ever No. 1 ranking.
Hope International improved to 29-2 after winning the Golden State Athletic Conference tournament championship on Tuesday evening, a 75-61 victory over fellow Top 10 team Concordia (Calif.). The Royals also won the league's regular-season championship with a 14-2 record.
After spending the last three weeks in the top spot, Talladega (Ala.) slipped one position to No. 2 in this week's poll. The Tornadoes also doubled up as regular season and tournament champions, capturing the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference crown on Sunday to improve to 29-4 overall.
Two of the next three positions remained unchanged as Cal State San Marcos and Freed-Hardeman (Tenn.) continued in the No. 3 and No. 4 spots, respectively. Campbellsville (Ky.) moved up two positions to round out the top five after winning the Mid-South Conference tournament championship.
Lewis-Clark State (Idaho) enjoyed the greatest upward movement in this week's rankings, climbing seven spots to share the No. 13 position with Mid-America Christian (Okla.). Conversely, Columbia (Mo.) and Montana-Western each dropped three places from the prior poll.
No. 24 Cumberlands (Ky.) climbed back into the Top 25 after falling out during last week's rankings. The Patriots had been a part of six-straight rankings before dropping out of the Top 25. LSU Shreveport is the only ranked team from a week ago to fall out of this week's Top 25.
All 10 conferences and Association of Independent Institutions (A.I.I.) are represented in this week's poll. With four ranked teams, the Golden State Athletic Conference and Sooner Athletic Conference each claim the most out of any league. The Mid-South Conference and SSAC landed a trio of Top 25 teams.
The poll was voted upon by a panel of head coaches representing each of the conferences and unaffiliated groups. The poll will be used to decide the at-large teams for the upcoming Buffalo Funds-NAIA Division I Men’s Basketball National Championship. The entire field and bracket will be released on Wednesday, March 11 at 8 p.m. CST. For more information on the polls, click here.