Above photo provided by the UMHB Athletics Department
BELTON, Texas- The UMHB women’s basketball team, the winner of two consecutive ASC championship tournaments, will begin the season unranked, but having received votes in the D3hoops.com Top 25 Preseason Poll.
The Crusaders tallied 17 points in Monday’s poll, one of 29 teams who did not earn a national ranking, but did pick up points from the voters.
Additionally, three of UMHB’s opponents this season open the year ranked in the Top 25, no doubt a boost in the Crusaders’ strength of schedule. East Texas Baptist, whose only loss a season ago came to UMHB in the ASC title game, tallied three first-place votes and a No. 2 rank. ASC foes Hardin-Simmons and UT-Dallas start the year at No. 14 and No. 15, respectively.
The Cru’s first two opponents in the 2021-22 season also earned points in the preseason poll. Trinity, the defending SCAC champion who will face UMHB on Nov. 5, received the fourth-most points amongst unranked teams, with 63. Last year’s SAA champ, Rhodes, tallied 35 points.
Coming off a season in which several teams played less than 10 games, or better yet, not a single game, the parity in the preseason poll was expected. According to D3hoops.com, 54 teams earned at least one point in this season’s preseason poll, 11 more than in the 2019-20 preseason poll.
Riley Zayas serves as the managing editor of True To The Cru. He has worked in sports journalism since 2016 and can be contacted at rileyzayas@truetothecru.com.
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