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It's been a long, hard crawl back towards the top, but after a slip up by Harvard, and a solid run since losing in the conference opener, the Toledo Rockets are back near the top of the College Insider Mid-Major Coaches Poll. The Rockets previously held the No. four spot, but check in at No. 3 this week.
Toledo's problem is that its conference isn't regarded in the same respects as the other mid-majors (despite having more teams ranked in the poll than any other conference) so a loss to Kansas, and then a loss to WMU pushed the Rockets down pretty far. But as Toledo keeps winning, and in strong fashion, it has started to earn some respect from the coaches. The Rockets are still far behind No. 2 Gonzaga, and are almost 100 points behind unanimous No. 1 Wichita State, but have built a nice buffer between themselves and No. 4 Green Bay.
Elsewhere in the poll Ohio fell one spot to No. 14 after losing to Bowling Green at home this past Wednesday. Akron moved up a spot to No. 16 after a strong week that included a win over EMU, and Kent State dropped out of the poll all together as the Flashes continue to struggle.
Toledo and Ohio face off Saturday at 1 on ESPNU in a battle between Top 25 teams. The winner of that one should see a significant bump in its point total come next week.
| RECORD | POINTS | PREVIOUS | CONFERENCE | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wichita State (31) | 21-0 | 775 | 1 | Missouri Valley |
| 2 | Gonzaga | 18-3 | 740 | 3 | West Coast |
| 3 | Toledo | 17-2 | 694 | 4 | Mid-American |
| 4 | Green Bay | 17-3 | 641 | 5 | Horizon |
| 5 | Harvard | 15-3 | 631 | 2 | Ivy League |
| 6 | Indiana State | 16-4 | 630 | 6 | Missouri Valley |
| 7 | Stephen F. Austin | 18-2 | 566 | 7 | Southland |
| 8 | North Dakota State | 15-5 | 523 | 10 | Summit |
| 9 | Princeton | 12-3 | 493 | 9 | Ivy League |
| 10 | Manhattan | 14-5 | 489 | 8 | Metro Atlantic |
| 11 | Saint Mary's | 16-5 | 466 | 11 | West Coast |
| 12 | Mercer | 17-5 | 439 | 12 | Atlantic Sun |
| 13 | Northern Colorado | 13-4 | 353 | 15 | Big Sky |
| 14 | Ohio | 14-5 | 344 | 13 | Mid-American |
| 15 | New Mexico State | 15-7 | 314 | 16 | WAC |
| 16 | Akron | 13-6 | 306 | 17 | Mid-American |
| 17 | Belmont | 16-7 | 232 | 23 | Ohio Valley |
| 18 | UC Irvine | 13-8 | 224 | 14 | Big West |
| 19 | UC Santa Barbara | 12-6 | 165 | 18 | Big West |
| 20 | Georgia State | 14-6 | 156 | 25 | Sun Belt |
| 21 | IPFW | 16-6 | 153 | 24 | Summit |
| 22 | Canisius | 14-7 | 71 | NR | Metro Atlantic |
| 23 | Delaware | 14-7 | 67 | NR | Colonial |
| 24 | North Carolina Central | 13-5 | 66 | NR | MEAC |
| 25 | Chattanooga | 14-8 | 61 | NR | Southern |
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OTHERS RECEIVING VOTES: American 60, Western Kentucky 46, Missouri State 40, BYU 37, Eastern Kentucky 33, Boston University 32, Stony Brook 30, Hawaii 23, Kent State 22, Bryant 20, Northern Iowa 15, Sam Houston State 15, Western Michigan 14, Columbia 13, Iona 13, Cleveland State 11, Murray State 11, Buffalo 7, William & Mary 7, Wright State 7, Drexel 6, Portland 4, Quinnipiac 3, Alabama State 2, Eastern Michigan 1, Radford 1, Towson 1, Utah Valley 1, Vermont 1. VOTING PANEL: Casey Alexander (Lipscomb), Randy Bennett (St. Mary's), Murry Bartow (ETSU), Horace Broadnax (Savannah State), Milan Brown (Holy Cross), Will Brown (Albany), Joe Callero (Cal Poly), Jamion Christian (Mount St. Mary's), Billy Donlon (Wright State), James Fox (Davidson), Tyler Geving (Portland State), Steve Hawkins (Western Michigan), Willie Hayes (Alabama A&M), B.J. Hill (Northern Colorado), Jason Hooten (Sam Houston State), Dick Hunsaker (Utah Valley), James Jones (Yale), Robert Jones (Norfolk State), Greg Kampe (Oakland), Danny Kaspar (Texas State), Tod Kowalczyk (Toledo), Greg Lansing (Indiana State), Bob Marlin (UL-Lafayette), Gregg Marshall (Wichita State), Tom Moore (Quinnipiac), Jeff Neubauer (Eastern Kentucky), Jimmy Patsos (Siena), Saul Phillips (North Dakota State), Buzz Peterson (UNC-Wilmington), Barclay Radebaugh (Charleston Southern), Ron Verlin (Pacific). |
