KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Defending Frontier Conference regular-season and tournament champion Rocky Mountain College earned the No. 4 ranking in the NAIA men's basketball preseason top 25 coaches poll, which was announced Wednesday.
Rocky's ranking highlighted the release of the men's and women's polls. Grace (Ind.) took the No. 1 ranking in the men's poll with 14 first-place votes, while defending champion Marian (Ind.) is No. 1 in the women's poll, picking up four first-place nods.
Outside of Rocky, there wasn't much Frontier recognition in the men's poll. Montana Tech and Bellevue (Neb.) appeared in the receiving-votes category as the only other Frontier teams mentioned.
Rocky is coming off a season in which it went 31-4 overall and 20-2 in the league under first-year coach Danny Neville. The Battlin' Bears at one point won 21 straight games. They advanced to the quarterfinals of the national tournament before bowing out in a 60-55 loss to Langston (Okla.).
Check out the full men's preseason top 25 by clicking here.
The Frontier Conference is more well-represented in the women's preseason poll, with four teams cracking the top 25.
Dakota State (S.D.) is the highest-ranked among the four, slotted at No. 3. Rocky Mountain College checks in at No. 12 while Montana Tech (No. 16) and Carroll College (No. 24) are also ranked.
Dakota State went 30-6 last year and advanced to the Fab Four of the tournament before being eliminated. Rocky, under longtime coach Wes Keller, is coming off a 21-10 campaign, while Montana Tech, coached by Jeff Graham, is fresh off its best season in years, one in which they won the Frontier tournament championship for the first time since 1983.
Carroll, a perennial Frontier contender under coach Rachelle Sayers, went 19-11 last season. To see the full women's preseason top 25, click here.
