The dynasty is complete. Nova Southeastern lost last year's national championship game in the closing seconds but turned the tables this year. DII national player of the year MJ Iraldi hit two free throws with just seconds remaining to give the Sharks the 74-73 victory and their second title in three years. That sees the Sharks finish the season at No. 1 in the final DII men's basketball Power 10 rankings.
Unlike the national polls, the Sharks never fell lower than the No. 2 spot in the Power 10 rankings from the preseason to these final rankings. Also unlike the national polls, the Sharks reclaimed the No. 1 spot in the Power 10 rankings way back on Jan. 28 and never relinquished it. Spoiler alert: They will be No. 1 in next year's preseason Power 10, too.
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These Power 10 rankings are mine and don't reflect the input of any voting body or the Ƶ selection committee. Part of what goes into these Power 10 rankings are metrics from and the , but some have to do with what happened in the final month of the season. Making the DII Men's Elite Eight does not guarantee admission into the Power 10 party, and I usually have a different top 10 than you'll see in the national polls, which is precisely why I started the Power 10 rankings over half a decade ago.
The Final Power 10 of the 2024-25 season
No. 1 Nova Southeastern | Previous: 1. It seemed like the second Dallas Graziani (who finishes his tenure with the Sharks with an 80-1 record) transferred back to Nova Southeastern for the 2024-25 season, the Sharks would win again. Though Iraldi was the DII player of the year, Graziani is the motor that makes the Shark attack run. This team led DII in nearly everything — offensive stats and efficiency, the top KPI, the top RPI, the top SoS — and now they lead the way to the offseason with a shiny new trophy to add to a seemingly growing collection.
No. 2 UAH | Previous: 2. I expect there to be some disagreement here, especially since the Chargers didn't make the DII Men's Elite Eight. How could they? They were in the same region as Nova Southeastern. The Chargers beat two good teams in Tampa and Florida Southern to reach the South Region finals and until they lost that game to the Sharks — in a tightly contested battle, mind you — they had the longest winning streak in the country at any level, The metrics support the lofty rankings, and when you consider both of their losses came to Nova Southeastern — one of which was by one point in double overtime — you quickly realize this was one of the best teams in DII from start to finish.
No. 3 Cal State Dominguez Hills | Previous: NR. The Toros run was something movies are made of but ultimately fell just short. And to their credit, they controlled a large part of that championship game; they simply couldn't pull away enough to keep the Sharks from coming back. This run began in the West Region final where they defeated Point Loma and then pulled off those back-to-back double-digit come-from-behind victories over West Liberty and DBU to get to the finals. Those were the Nos. 4, 5 and 7 teams in the previous Power 10. Jeremy Dent-Smith became a superstar on the biggest stage and the Toros are very deserving of the lofty final ranking.
No. 4 DBU| Previous: 7. The Patriots were a Power 10 team all season long and did not disappoint their fans with a historic run to the national semifinals. The Patriots entered the tournament on a five-game winning streak and then pummeled the South Central Region, including a 21-point victory over then-Power 10 Colorado School of Mines in the finals, to reach its first-ever DII Men's Elite Eight. They simply ran out of gas against the Cinderella of the tournament, but that doesn't take away a single thing from this strong season.
No. 5 Washburn | Previous: 9. The Ichabods were on undefeated watch for more than half the season until a pair of mid-February losses and then had that stunning early exit to No. 8 Central Oklahoma in the MIAA tournament. However, in a deep Central Region, the Ichabods won its three games by an average of 24 points and then opened its stay in the DII Men's Elite Eight with a 12-point win over a Power 10 Lenoir-Rhyne. The starting five was one of the best in DII, and Jacob Hanna, Brayden Shorter and Jack Bachelor all spent time on the Bevo Francis watchlists. The 'Bods were stacked and simply ran into the buzzsaw that was Nova Southeastern.
No. 6 West Liberty | Previous: 5. The Hilltoppers really caught fire over the last month of the season. Prior to the DII Men's Elite Eight, they had scored 100 points in 10 of 13 games, including 101 in the Atlantic Region final. It looked as if they were headed to their second semifinals in three years when Cal State Dominguez Hills pulled off that 17-point come-from-behind victory, ending West Liberty's season. The Hilltoppers have been a DII men's basketball powerhouse for more than a decade, and this year was yet another chapter in their illustrious lore, with their eighth trip to the DII Men's Elite Eight in the last 15 years.
No. 7 Lenoir-Rhyne | Previous: 8. The Bears may be a little highly ranked here, but this is why I have them this high. The Southeast turned into quite the deep region with four tournament teams ranking among the top 10 KPI. That's more than any other region — and there were also three regions not represented by eve one team in the top 10 KPI. That sure sounds like the Southeast was one of the best regions in DII men's basketball, and if Lenoir-Rhyne was able to navigate that to program history and a DII Men's Elite Eight berth, well, that makes it one of the best teams in DII.
No. 8 Lake Superior State | Previous: First five out. This was the team that I predicted on Nov. 5 would win the Midwest and that's exactly what they did. And to their credit, the Midwest was arguably tougher than it has been — possibly since Ferris State won it all in 2018. The Lakers rarely faltered this season and had signature wins up and down their schedule. The numbers support it as well with the 13th toughest SoS and second-best KPI in the Midwest Region and 15th overall.
No. 9 Daemen | Previous: 3. I know what you are thinking. How does a team that went 28-0 until that stunning second-round upset to St. Thomas Aquinas finish the season ranked this low? Conversely, you may be asking how the Wildcats are ranked in the top 10 while the team that went to the Elite Eight from the East (Assumption) is not. The Wildcats were a tough team in the East this year, and they had some very nice wins against Atlantic Region foes like Gannon and Charleston (WV). However, when splitting hairs to see what separated these final few teams, Daemen had the weakest SoS — the weakest in the tournament field. That doesn't mean that this wasn't a great team with two of the best players in DII (Benjamin Bill and Justin Hemphill), but it simply sees the Wildcats drop a few spots to close the year.
No. 10 Point Loma| Previous: 4. This is where it got really tough, and I can see some disagreeing on this spot and the first five out. However, the Sea Lions were in the Power 10 for almost the entire season, as well as in the top 10 of KPI all while playing the 22nd toughest schedule in DII. They were a missed 3-pointer away from another trip to the DII Men's Elite Eight and still reeled off 29 wins. This team was very good.
First five (ish) out (in alphabetical order):
- Colorado School of Mines. The Orediggers were in and out of the Power 10 all season and made it to the South Central Region championship.
- Florida Southern. The South Region was stacked and if Florida Southern could have snuck by UAH in the second round, the Mocs would be much higher. They had a top 10 KPI and played the third-toughest schedule in DII.
- Gannon. It was hard not to be impressed by the Golden Knights. Their DII record-setting roster from a year ago was decimated, including the head coach, but here they were, winning their second-straight PSAC title and one win away from a second-straight trip to the DII Men's Elite Eight.
- Lincoln Memorial/Lubbock Christian. These were two peas from the same pod. Both teams were very good this season, and both teams had good metrics against tough schedules. However, both teams were upset in the first round making it very difficult to separate the two — or even know where to rank them.
- MSU Moorhead. I went 5-for-8 on my Elite Eight predictions, and the Dragons were one of the three that I got wrong. But that also tells you how good I thought this team was. Heading into the selection show, there were seven (SEVEN!) NSIC teams in the top 8 of the regional rankings, and the Dragons had to beat them to win the NSIC title. That's impressive.
