NABC Poll (Week 4)
INDIANAPOLIS – Two men’s programs from the Great Midwest Athletic Conference are officially in the National Association of Basketball Coaches Top-25 Poll that was released on Tuesday during the Christmas holiday break.
Findlay is ranked for the third consecutive week since the regular season tipped on December 3. The Oilers started with a position of No. 24 and then leaped significantly up nine spots to 15 while leading the conference standings.
Findlay is undefeated at 4-0 overall and is tied with national rankings newcomer Hilldale with a 3-0 Great Midwest record heading into the new calendar year.
The Chargers broke through at No. 3 after receiving votes one week ago. Hillsdale has claimed two Great Midwest Player of the Week awards in the form of forwards Austen Yarian (Week 1) and Patrick Cartier (Week 3).
Senior guard Connor Hill is averaging double figures in scoring while also ranking top 10 in the Great Midwest in both assists (3.7) and steals (2.0) per game. Among players who have appeared in more than one game, Yarian is second in the conference in scoring at 20.3 ppg behind Tiffin’s Jaeden King (20.7).
Cartier’s sky-high field goal percentage has caught the attention of NCAA Division II beat writer Zach Pekale in his weekly features and he is the top player in Division II among players who have appeared in more than one game.
Cartier has made 21-of-26 tries from the field for a DII-leading percentage of 80.7. In second is Augusta 7-footer Tyshaun Crawford with 79 percent made in a two-game sample size.
This is Hillsdale’s first Division II national ranking in nearly a decade after closing out the 2011-12 campaign ranked 20th.
The Oilers remain paced by sophomore Nathan Bruns and his 13.5 ppg. Bruns earned conference player of the week status for the second week of the season and is also fifth in the league in rebounds with 7.3. Anthony Masterlasco and Tommy Schmock have continued to be marksmen in their own different ways.
Masterlasco is second in the conference only to Cartier in field goal percentage and is the league leader in steals (3.0). Schmock has been lights out from deep with by making 10 of his 17 tries from three for the top percentage in the Great Midwest at 58.8. That number also puts the senior guard fifth in Division II.
Both teams are on a collision course Saturday, Jan. 2, for a showdown in Croy Gymnasium at Findlay for a 3 pm ET tipoff. Hillsdale and Findlay are also the top two defensive programs in the league, allowing 62.3 and 67.0 points per game, respectively.
Findlay and Hillsdale tied for the regular-season conference championship a year ago; the Chargers had the No. 1 seed by virtue of the point rating system and Findlay would go on to host the Great Midwest Championship tournament Final Four for the third time.