KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The Chaminade University men's basketball team moved up one spot to No. 19 in the NABC Coaches Top 25 Poll which was released Tuesday.
It marks the fifth consecutive week the Silverswords (13-2, 7-2 Pacific West Conference) are in the national rankings.
PacWest leader Point Loma (13-2, 9-0 PacWest) jumped up five spots to No. 11. Bellermine (Ky.) is the top-ranked team in Division II.
The 'Swords have two key home games this weekend beginning Thursday when they host the Sea Lions at McCabe Gymnasium in a highly anticipated PacWest meeting. It will be the first-ever game played at McCabe Gym in the D-II era that a ranked Chaminade squad faces another ranked foe.
It is also the first head-to-head match-up of nationally-ranked PacWest teams since February 2017 when No. 3 Hawai'i Pacific and No. 4 California Baptist faced each other in Riverside, Calif.
On Saturday, Chaminade faces second-place Concordia Irvine (11-6, 7-1 PacWest). The Eagles have won four of the five meetings in the series.
Also Small College Basketball announced Tuesday that guard
Grant Dressler (Las Vegas/Sacramento State/Palo Verde HS) is one of 100 candidates on the Clarence "Bevo" Francis Award watch list for college basketball's top men's player spanning NCAA Divisions II and III, NAIA Divisions I and II, USCAA and NCCAA.
The list will be pared down to 50 on Feb. 15.
Bevo Francis, for whom the award is named, played at Rio Grande College (now the University of Rio Grande) in Ohio in the early 1950s. He was one of college basketball's most prolific scorers, averaging over 50 points per game during his first year at Rio Grande with the highlight being a 116-point game against Ashland College.
