NWU Athletics
Alex Linden, Sports Information Director
LINCOLN – Nebraska Wesleyan is ranked No. 1 in the D3hoops.com preseason men’s basketball Top 25 poll that was released on Thursday. NWU received 24 of 25 first place votes to sit atop the preseason rankings.
The Prairie Wolves, who ended the year at No. 1 in the D3hoops.com Top 25 after not being ranked all season, received 624 total points to earn the No. 1 spot in the poll. Last year’s NCAA III National Runner-up, Wisconsin-Oshkosh is second in the poll with 567 points. Augustana (Ill.) comes in at No. 3 with 539 points and the other first place vote. The Vikings were 25-6 one year ago. Rouning out the top five are Whitman and MIT.
Nebraska Wesleyan returns four starters, nine of the top ten scorers and 14 letterwinners from the 2018 NCAA III National Championship team that went 30-3 setting a school record for victories.
This is the second preseason No. 1 ranking the Prairie Wolves have received as they were also No. 1 in the Street & Smith Magazine NCAA Division III preseason top ten. NWU basketball was last ranked No. 1 to start a year prior to the 1997-98 season following their national runner-up finish.
NWU begins official practice for the 2018-19 season on Monday (Oct. 15). They will practice twice on both Monday and Tuesday during Fall break, going from 10:30 am-12:30 pm both days then 7-9 pm on Monday night and 5:30-7:30 on Tuesday night.
On Tuesday, the team will have their photo day beginning at 1 p.m. inside Snyder Arena and media is welcome to attend.
D3hoops.com Preseason Top 25 Poll
| Rank | School (First-place votes) | Record | Points | Previous |
| 1 | Nebraska Wesleyan (24) | 30-3 | 624 | 1 |
| 2 | UW-Oshkosh | 25-8 | 567 | 2 |
| 3 | Augustana (1) | 25-6 | 539 | 5 |
| 4 | Whitman | 29-2 | 529 | 3 |
| 5 | MIT | 25-6 | 463 | 9 |
| 6 | Whitworth | 24-4 | 462 | 19 |
| 7 | Springfield | 22-9 | 431 | 4 |
| 8 | Williams | 23-6 | 417 | 17 |
| 9 | Hamilton | 24-5 | 400 | 11 |
| 10 | UW-Platteville | 24-5 | 367 | 7 |
| 11 | Wittenberg | 27-3 | 366 | 10 |
| 12 | UW-Stevens Point | 21-9 | 356 | 14 |
| 13 | Swarthmore | 25-6 | 329 | 8 |
| 14 | Plattsburgh State | 24-5 | 214 | 18 |
| 15 | Johns Hopkins | 24-5 | 206 | 24 |
| 16 | New Jersey City | 19-8 | 179 | — |
| 17 | Middlebury | 21-7 | 166 | 16 |
| 18 | Emory | 23-5 | 147 | 12 |
| 19 | Illinois Wesleyan | 19-8 | 142 | — |
| 20 | John Carroll | 25-6 | 129 | 13 |
| 21 | Wooster | 22-7 | 107 | — |
| 22 | Maryville (Tenn.) | 22-7 | 95 | — |
| 23 | St. Olaf | 20-8 | 92 | — |
| 24 | UW-Whitewater | 16-10 | 81 | — |
| 25 | St. John’s | 23-4 | 77 | 23 |
Others receiving votes: Hope 76; Rochester 67; Nazareth 60; Marietta 47; Roanoke 42; Amherst 36; LeTourneau 35; Ramapo 33; Penn State-Behrend 26; Nichols 25; St. Thomas 23; Washington U. 20; Aurora 19; North Central (Ill.) 19; Loras 17; Cabrini 14; Franklin & Marshall 14; Pomona-Pitzer 11; Wesleyan 10; Montclair State 9; Eastern Connecticut 8; Christopher Newport 6; Hanover 5; Bethel 5; Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 3; Emory & Henry 3; Keene State 2; Ohio Northern 2; Salem State 2; Yeshiva 1.