BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – The Freed-Hardeman Lions have climbed to the pinnacle, claiming the top-rating in the NAIA Men's Basketball Coaches' Top 25, the national office announced Wednesday.

The Lions have collected four straight Mid-South Conference victories since the previous iteration of the national poll. They have bested opponents in that span by 22 points per game, including a 21-point victory against #15 Georgetown (Ky.) and a 27-point win over #17 Cumberlands (Ky.). Freed-Hardeman's Rico Sain just this week earned his second MSC Defensive Player of the Week honor of the year.

The Georgetown Tigers moved up three spots and past the Patriots in the release. They have gone 3-2 since January 28th, suffering the aforementioned loss to the #1 Lions, but also were defeated by Campbellsville (Ky.). However, they did defeat Cumberlands most recently.

The Cumberlands Patriots slid 11 positions down the ranking to #17. They have gone 2-3 in their last five, scoring 63 points or fewer in two of those three losses.

Grace (Ind.) moved to #2 with 489 voting points. Indiana Wesleyan pushed up to #3 with 462 voting points while Ave Maria (Fla.) landed #4 and Oklahoma Wesleyan fifth with just one voting point separating those latter two teams.

The final poll is set to be released Wednesday, February 25.

Poll Methodology

• The national poll is for publicity purposes only and does not influence the selection process for national championship consideration.
• A panel of head coaches representing each conference and the Continental Athletic Conference (Independents) votes in the poll.
• The Top 25 teams are selected using a points-based system: 
  • 30 points for a 1st-place vote, 29 for 2nd, 28 for 3rd, and so on.
• The highest and lowest rankings received by each team are discarded before final tallying.
• Teams receiving only one point are not listed as “receiving votes.”
• For the Preseason Poll, there is no "previous ranking" column since it is the initial poll and differs from the prior rating system.