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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Menu Guide Wedding Weather Subscribe Contact Us December 8, 2005 SOU men ascend to No. 1 Raiders one of three Cascade Conference teams in top 25 poll By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings The “X” on Southern Oregon’s back just got bigger. The SOU men’s basketball team ascended to No. 1 in the first NAIA Division II regular season poll Tuesday, a first-ever feat for an on-the-rise program that finished 14 games below .500 just three seasons ago. The Raiders (10-1), who were No. 2 in the preseason poll, picked up 16 of 17 first-place votes to gain 509 poll points, well ahead of second-ranked William Jewell (472). Embry-Riddle (457) jumped from 11th to third in the weekly poll, while Cedarville is fourth with 448 points. SOU is one of three Cascade Conference teams that made the top 25 — streaking Warner Pacific, which is still undefeated at 9-0, moved all the way to fifth after being unranked in the preseason poll, and Oregon Tech dropped from fourth to 17th after two road losses to start league play. McDermott “I don’t know what it means in the big scheme of things,” said SOU head coach Brian McDermott, who guided the Raiders to the national quarterfinals last season. “Hopefully, it means that we’ll have a little more interest and some more fans who want to watch and find out about us a little bit more.” Those fans the Raiders hope to draw don’t have to wait long to see the newly-crowned NAIA D-II kings. SOU hosts Linfield in a nonleague game at 7 p.m. Saturday. The move to No. 1 makes the Raiders just the third intercollegiate sports team in school history to take over the top spot and the first since the 1998-99 women’s basketball team. McDermott said SOU’s impressive start, which included two road wins last week over Corban and Concordia, is only part of the reason. “This is earned by two things: by this current team and also by our conference — the respect that our conference has garnered over the last four or five years,” McDermott said. “There’s a lot of teams in the nation that have one loss and a lot of them could have been ranked No. 1. I think we were there because of our league.” Sports editor Joe Zavala can be reached at 482-3456 ext. 3020 or [email protected]. DailyTidings.com Home Page Archives | Revels | Classifieds | Real Estate Guide | Weather | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2005 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Deep Muscle Stimulator Ceramic Piggy Banks FREE Entertainment Guide Women's & Men's Slippers Accelerate Weightloss Products Backpacks Generic Viagra Vegas Travel Guide Search Engine Optimization Sportsbook Absinthe Supply Student Loans Hotel & Airline Reservations African Safari Hammocks Helzberg Diamonds Online Casinos Community Bonus Casino King of Spirits ink cartridges Mortgage Calculator Security Systems Mailing Lists Click Here Advertisement .:Advertisements:. Site Search: RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams