Jan. 18, 2001

On the strength of two wins on the road this past weekend, The South Dakota men's basketball team has jumped up five spots to No. 13 in the NCAA Division II poll, according to rankings released by the NABC/Division II Bulletin Wednesday, Jan. 17. The Coyotes, 13-2 and 7-1 (first) in the North Central Conference, defeated No. 11 North Dakota, 71-68 in overtime, at Grand Forks on Jan. 12 and turned back North Dakota State, 84-72, at Fargo on Jan. 13.

Southern Indiana (13-0) is ranked No. 1 in the country. The rest of the top 25 includes: Adelphi (13-0), 2nd, Kentucky Wesleyan (12-1), 3rd, Salem International (12-1), 4th, Northwest Missouri State (13-0), 5th, St. Michael's (13-0), 6th, Northern Kentucky (14-2), 7th, Wingate (14-1), 8th, Cal State-San Bernardino (11-1), 9th, Tampa (13-2), 10th, North Dakota (13-2), 11th, Longwood (10-1), 12th, South Dakota (13-2), 13th, Western Washington (13-1), 14th, Queens, N.C. (10-1), 15th, South Dakota State (13-2), 16th, Fort Hays State (12-2), 17th, Alabama-Huntsville (12-3), 18th, St. Anselm (11-3), 19th, Winston-Salem State (12-3), 20th, West Chester (10-3), 21st, Johnson C. Smith (12-2), 22nd, Findlay (13-1), 23rd, Missouri Southern (12-3), 24th, Catawba (12-1), 25th.

SOUTH DAKOTA #1 IN REGIONAL RANKINGS: South Dakota has jumped three spots to number one in the most recent North Central Region rankings. Following South Dakota is North Dakota, 2nd, 13-2, Fort Hays State, 3rd, 12-1, South Dakota State, 4th, 13-2, St. Cloud State, 5th, 12-2, Southwest State, 6th, 13-4, Southern Colorado, 7th, 10-4, Nebraska-Kearney, 8th, 9-3, Mesa State, 9th, 9-4, and Morningside, 10th, 11-5. The other No. 1 regionally ranked teams in NCAA Division II includes: East - Salem International (11-1), Great Lakes - Southern Indiana (12-0), Northeast - St. Michael's (12-0), South -- West Georgia (12-3), South Atlantic - Wingate (14-1), South Central - Northwest Missouri State (13-0), and West - Western Washington (13-1).