Rio Grande moves up to #5 in the nation...NAIA

[Focused]

Rio Grande, who was picked to finish 10th in the AMC continues to win and move up in the polls... The Red Storm has some southeastern local flavor with: P.J. Rase (Chesapeake) Brett Beuchler (Eastern Brown) Drew and Cory Copas (North Adams) and Jordan Lowe ( South Webster) Lower hasn't played yet as he has been involved with a very good Rio soccor team that advanced far in the tourney.. Congratulations to the team and especially the local players from our area.

December 9, 2008
RedStorm vault to No. 5 in NAIA Division II
Kansas City, Mo.---The University of Rio Grande RedStorm men’s basketball team continues to improve and impress as they move toward the toward the conference portion of the season. Rio Grande has vaulted to No. 5 in the latest NAIA Division II poll, released late Monday.

Rio Grande is up 13 spots from the previous week and was nowhere to be found in the pre-season ratings. The RedStorm accumulated 263 points for the week and knocked off the No.4 rated Cedarville Yellow Jackets last Tuesday, one week after downing No. 3 Mount Vernon Nazarene.

Cedarville slipped to No. 9 this week, while MVNU continued to tumble, falling all the way to No. 24 from No. 7 last week.

A fourth American Mideast Conference team, Walsh, also appears in the Top 25 at No. 15 while Notre Dame College and Ohio Dominican also received votes.

This is highest rating for Rio Grande since the 2001 Final Four season.

“To be honest it (the ranking) makes our guys feel good, but it doesn’t mean a whole lot right now,” Rio Grande head coach Ken French said. “The only ranking that matters to us is the pre-season coaches ranking in the AMC and we were picked 10th.”

“But the guys have earned it up to this point, Mount Vernon was ranked third in the country when we beat them and Cedarville was fourth when we were able to beat them so, right now we good about ourselves, 10-1 start, we’re not going to give any of them back by no means, but we still have a long way to go,” French added. “Theses guys are mature enough to understand that we take it one game at a time. Is it nice to be recognized? Yes. But, is it going to change how we do anything? No.”

“We’re looking forward to the rest of the season and the record that counts right now is that we’re 0-0 in AMC play,” French said.

Rio Grande is back in action on Saturday, hosting Ohio State-Newark in the Newt Oliver Coaches Classic at 3:30 p.m.

[BubbleGumTiger]