The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men slipped a bit from No. 12 to No. 15 in the D3Hoops.com poll released on Monday. The Stags (15-1) were dealt their first loss on Saturday falling to Whittier 88-85 in double overtime.
That’s not the worst thing that can happen. A loss takes some of the pressure off and sometimes helps a team refocus. CMS will get anothet shot at Whittier anyway and the SCIAC automatic playoff bid is decided in the conference tournament anyway.
The Stags were also coming off a high from the previous game when they slipped past local Pomona-Pitzer on a last-second layup the previous game. So a letdown was not all that unexpected.
Here’s this week’s poll:
| 1 | Middlebury (24) | 16-0 | 623 | 1 |
| 2 | UW-Whitewater (1) | 17-1 | 595 | 5 |
| 3 | Hope | 16-1 | 549 | 7 |
| 4 | Emory | 15-1 | 514 | 8 |
| 5 | Virginia Wesleyan | 13-2 | 511 | 2 |
| 6 | MIT | 16-1 | 488 | 3 |
| 7 | Amherst | 15-2 | 482 | 4 |
| 8 | Cabrini | 16-1 | 446 | 10 |
| 9 | Franklin and Marshall | 16-1 | 409 | 13 |
| 10 | Mary Hardin-Baylor | 16-1 | 403 | 6 |
| 11 | Whitworth | 14-3 | 339 | 9 |
| 12 | Birmingham-Southern | 16-1 | 323 | 14 |
| 13 | Williams | 15-3 | 296 | 15 |
| 14 | William Paterson | 16-2 | 256 | 18 |
| 15 | Claremont-Mudd-Scripps | 15-1 | 247 | 12 |
| 16 | UW-Stevens Point | 14-4 | 222 | 11 |
| 17 | New York University | 14-1 | 192 | 23 |
| 18 | Eastern Connecticut | 14-1 | 155 | 25 |
| 19 | Wooster | 14-3 | 147 | 24 |
| 20 | Augustana | 13-4 | 136 | 19 |
| 21 | Illinois Wesleyan | 14-3 | 128 | 17 |
| 22 | Wheaton (Ill.) | 14-3 | 123 | 22 |
| 23 | Wabash | 14-3 | 115 | 16 |
| 24 | Rhode Island College | 14-2 | 76 | – |
| 25 | Transylvania | 15-2 | 68 | – |
Dropped out: No. 20 St. Thomas, No. 21 Wittenberg.
Others receiving votes: Lake Forest 49; WPI 48; Oswego State 40; Wittenberg 36; Randolph-Macon 20; St. Thomas 19; Bethany 16; St. Joseph’s (L.I.) 9; Christopher Newport 8; UW-River Falls 7; Washington U. 7; Albertus Magnus 4; Lycoming 4; St. Mary’s (Md.) 4; Wesleyan 4; Western Connecticut 4; DePauw 1; Grinnell 1; Hampden-Sydney 1.
