Weekly Top 25 Mid Majors Poll
A few shakeups in this weeks Maddux Sports Mid Major poll. Texas A&M Corpus Christi (Southland) dropped out of the rankings after losing to Lamar by 1 on the road. Oral Roberts (Mid-Con) was hanging on by a thread last week after losing to Utah State at home, and with the road loss to Oakland on Saturday, the Golden Eagles are no longer ranked. New Entires into this weeks mid major poll include Western Kentucky & Vermont.
Quick prelude to those that haven’t seen the mid major poll before. Sharp sports handicappers that bet on college hoops games and provide NCAA basketball picks generally have a better idea of who the best mid major teams are in the country than a sports writer or media body that only looks at a few factors. Our rankings generally have to do with if a game was played on a neutral court who would come out on top, with a little bit of recent week history thrown in moving teams up and down throughout the season. Without further adu, here is this weeks Top 25 Mid Major College Basketball Poll.
| Rank | Team | Previous Rank |
| 1 | Southern Illinois (MVC) Continued the winning run knocking off Evansville in the regular season finale. 11 game winning streak, if they win the Missouri Valley Tournament and this team is deserving of a 3/4 seed in the tournament. |
1 |
| 2 | Butler (Horizon) 2-1 week wraps up a tie for the horizon league regular season title with Wright State. Will be the second seed in horizon tourney, but I think we all know which team is better regardless of seeding. |
2 |
| 3 | Winthrop (Big South) 2-0 week gives Winthrop undefeated conference season and Big South regular season title. |
3 |
| 4 | Missouri State (MVC) 2-0 week with great win in a war against Wichita State early in the week. Avoid a first round loss in the MVC tournament and this team will be dancing. |
4 |
| 5 | Creighton (MVC) Loss at surging Illinois State is acceptable, nice bounce back double digit win over Wichita State on Saturday. If team gets fully healthy watch them win the MVC tournament. |
5 |
| 6 | Davidson (Southern) 3 more easy wins this week, wraps up Southern conference, south division title. Up next probable rematch against App State in Southern tourney finals. |
6 |
| 7 | Old Dominion (Colonial) 11 wins in a row, Monarchs are peaking at the right time, very well could be an at large bid in the tourney. |
9 |
| 8 | Virginia Commonwealth (Colonial) Wins were not impressive, but a W is a W. Can you say at-large bid VCU fans? |
7 |
| 9 | Appalachian State (Southern) 3 wins this week wraps up North division title, Southern tourney will be do or die for Mountaineers. |
8 |
| 10 | Bradley (MVC) Through a clinker against UNI early in the week, bounced back with double digit win. Team could be deadly in the MVC tournament. |
10 |
| 11 | Akron (MAC) Excusable loss at tough defending Miami Ohio on Wednesday, nice rebound win against Bowling Green on Saturday. Although gap is shrinking between the Zips and Golden Flashes. |
11 |
| 12 | Gonzaga (WCC) 2-0 week, and even though it took OT against San Francisco on Sat, Zags remain still at number 12. |
12 |
| 13 | Drexel (Colonial) 2-0 week, wraps up 4 seed for CAA tourney, if VCU advances #1/#4 game will decide which team is dancing and which team is NIT bound. |
13 |
| 14 | Hofstra (Colonial) Beat 2 cupcakes to finish 14-4 in the Colonial, next up probable game against ODU in the quarterfinals. |
15 |
| 15 | Santa Clara (WCC) Well looks like we were premature on anointing Santa Clara the WCC regular season title. Let us rephrase, you are looking at the WCC co-regular season champions. |
14 |
| 16 | Kent State (MAC) After beating Ohio on the road on Saturday, have won 10 of 11 games, Flashes turning it on at the right time as usual. |
18 |
| 17 | Wright State (Horizon) Loss against Youngstown makes them share the Horizon league title. #1 seed going into the horizon championship. |
17 |
| 18 | Northern Iowa (MVC) Ends losing streak with road win at Bradley and home win against underrated Illinois State team. Could make some noise in the Missouri Valley Conference tournament. |
21 |
| 19 | Holy Cross (Patriot) Beat Colgate and than held Lehigh scoreless for over 12 minutes on Sunday. #1 seed and home court advantage go to the Crusaders for the Patriot League tournament. |
19 |
| 20 | Loyola Chicago (Horizon) Knocked off Butler, yet fell to rival UIC at home on Saturday. |
20 |
| 21 | Marist (MEAC) 8wins in a row, although it took overtime but the Red Foxes defeated the 2nd best club in the MEAC to wrap up the regular season title. Could be a preview to come in the MEAC championship tournament game. |
22 |
| 22 | W. Kentucky (Sun Belt) Finally healthy and starting to reel off wins. Regardless of seed, Hilltopers are the favorite to win the Sun Belt Championship tourney. |
NR |
| 23 | Long Beach State (Big West) Easy win of UC Davis, and still in control of winning Big West conference. Tough game at Pacific looms large for regular season title. |
24 |
| 24 | Wichita State (MVC) Very tough to keep shockers in top 25 this week, but team is talented enough to knock off almost anyone in this poll. Look for inspired effort with their only shot to go dancing being winning the 2007 valley conference tournament. |
16 |
| 25 | Vermont (America East) Time to give the Catamounts some props. 15-1 in conference play, 11 straight wins, and winners of 18 of their last 19 games. Will be #1 seed in the America East tourney this week. |
NR |
Notables: (Teams on the cusp of making the top 25): Austin Peay (OVC), Bucknell (Patriot), Oral Roberts (Mid-Con), Penn (Ivy), Texas A&M Corpus Christi (Southland)
Please note the only excluded teams from the top 25 mid major poll are from the following conferences, A-10, ACC, Big 10, Big East, Conference USA, Pac 10, Mountain West, SEC, and the WAC.
Stay tuned for next weeks top 25 mid major poll released on Monday right here at Maddux’s Blog.
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February 26th, 2007 at 6:04 pm
Very interesting, never really heard of Winthrop, are they that good?
February 27th, 2007 at 2:14 am
James they are solid and very well could be this years George Mason. Last Friday they played on ESPN against Mizz State and beat them pretty easily. They have one of the best unknown coaches in the country who runs some of the best offensive sets I have ever seen.
I honestly don’t see how they don’t win the conference tourney but even if they lose they still have a shot as an atlarge. I will say this, whoever they play in the first round of the tourney it will not be an upset if they win.