MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. - Trinity University, the defending Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference men's basketball champions, is among other teams receiving votes in the 2012-13 D3hoops.com preseason poll, which the website released today.
The Tigers are ranked 35th in the D3Hoops.com preseason top-25 poll. Trinity, which went 21-9 last year en route to the school's sixth SCAC championship, was the only SCAC team featured in the poll.
Last year, the Tigers beat Centre College, 61-50, in the SCAC championship game to earn the league's automatic berth to the NCAA Division III Men's Basketball Championship.
Trinity then upset 10th-ranked Mary Hardin-Baylor on the road, 68-66, in the NCAA tournament first round before dropping a 63-54 decision to 7th-ranked Whitworth in the second round.
D3hoops.com men's Top 25, preseason
Entering the 2012-13 season:
| # | School (1st votes) | Rec | Pts | Final |
| 1 | MIT (12) | 29-2 | 594 | 4 |
| 2 | Virginia Wesleyan (3) | 27-4 | 585 | 5 |
| 3 | UW-Whitewater (10) | 29-4 | 543 | 1 |
| 4 | Middlebury | 26-4 | 474 | 9 |
| 5 | Amherst | 26-3 | 453 | 8 |
| 6 | North Central (Ill.) | 22-8 | 444 | 16 |
| 7 | Hope | 27-2 | 417 | 6 |
| 8 | Illinois Wesleyan | 23-8 | 380 | 3 |
| 9 | Franklin and Marshall | 28-3 | 368 | 7 |
| 10 | Cabrini | 31-2 | 307 | 2 |
| 11 | St. Thomas | 22-7 | 299 | -- |
| 12 | Birmingham-Southern | 25-3 | 295 | 21 |
| 13 | Wooster | 26-5 | 270 | 12 |
| 14 | Whitworth | 26-4 | 210 | 10 |
| 15 | UW-Stevens Point | 20-8 | 201 | -- |
| 16 | Transylvania | 23-5 | 194 | -- |
| 17 | Ramapo | 18-9 | 149 | -- |
| 18 | Scranton | 23-8 | 143 | 15 |
| 19 | St. Mary's (Md.) | 20-8 | 137 | -- |
| 20 | William Paterson | 24-4 | 136 | 24 |
| 21 | Washington U. | 20-7 | 134 | 22 |
| 22 | Ohio Wesleyan | 20-8 | 124 | -- |
| 23 | Wesleyan | 20-6 | 118 | -- |
| 24 | Randolph-Macon | 21-7 | 102 | -- |
| 25 | Hampden-Sydney | 19-8 | 95 | -- |
Others receiving votes: Bethany 84; New York University 76; Albertus Magnus 75; St. Norbert 75; Rose-Hulman 69; Carroll 59; Oswego State 58; Eastern Connecticut 54; Whitman 50; Trinity (Texas) 49; Hobart 40; Christopher Newport 39; Augustana 34; Wittenberg 30; Williams 27; Keene State 23; Hartwick 21; Wheaton (Ill.) 20; Capital 16; Rochester 10; Mary Hardin-Baylor 9; Farmingdale State 9; Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 7; WPI 6; Lebanon Valley 4; Rhode Island College 2; Staten Island 2; Emory 2; Coe 1; Dickinson 1; Salem State 1.
The D3hoops.com Top 25 is voted on by a panel of 25 coaches, Sports
Information Directors and media members from across the country,
and is published weekly.