Minnesota State is the reigning DII men’s basketball national champion, having gone from 17-12 in 2023 to 35-2 last year. Two years ago, No. 8-seeded Black Hills State stunned the world, downing undefeated No. 1 Nova Southeastern in the DII Men’s Elite Eight. Back in 2019, a Northwest Missouri State team full of freshmen ran the table in a DII Men’s Elite Eight that was full of upsets.
It’s March. And over the past five or six tournaments, we’ve seen that anything can happen in the DII men’s basketball championship. That’s precisely why you want to avoid playing these teams down the stretch and beyond. None of these teams are nationally ranked, most have more than six losses, and all are playing red-hot basketball right now.
DII MEN’S BASKETBALL CENTRAL
Minnesota Duluth
The Bulldogs began the season in the preseason Power 10 rankings and fell out quickly when they dropped five games heading into the winter break. Since play resumed in January, the Bulldogs are 13-3, and some of those wins are downright impressive. The Bulldogs took down first-place Concordia-St. Paul and second-place Southwest Minnesota State in consecutive games and then beat the defending national champs a few nights later. Their only loss in February was a one-pointer to MSU Moorhead, yet another team that has flirted with the national rankings for a part of the season. Minnesota Duluth owns the best scoring defense in the NSIC and has entirely too much experience on this roster to think the Bulldogs are your typical eight-loss team.
Lubbock Christian
Here’s the bottom line. For the last five or six seasons, the South Central has been pretty standard. West Texas A&M usually found its way to the DII Men’s Elite Eight and the RMAC was a battle between Fort Lewis, Black Hills State, or Colorado Mesa beating each other up to reach the finals. There’s a pretty solid chance that, unless any of those four teams win their respective conference tournaments, not one of them make the DII basketball championship in 2025.
That’s why the Chaps are poised to do big things. They weren’t in the most recent NABC top 25, likely because they are a six-loss team, but they are also on fire winning their last eight in a row. They also own a top-20 scoring defense in DII, making them a very formidable opponent. Everyone in the rotation contributes and that makes them equally tough to defend on offense. The South Central will certainly be interesting this year and the Chaps could very well make some noise.
Regis
Let’s stay in that wide-open South Central and talk about what the Rangers are doing. You can look at the standings and see that they are a nine-loss team, or you can realize a few short weeks ago, they were a 5-8 team and have been cruising ever since. The Rangers have won 10 of their last 11, and that includes must-wins against nationally ranked Colorado School of Mines and MSU Denver in the same week. Now, their defense actually lets up more points per game than they score, but that isn’t what’s been happening of late. They are clicking right now, and guys like Kobe Sanders (pictured) are playing their best ball of the season.
Carson-Newman
The Eagles are a very surprising eight-loss team, but their recent streak — one in which they have won six of seven, with the only loss by a basket in overtime — may hint that they are gearing up to play their best ball of the season. Their starting five is absolutely absurd in both experience and talent. Both Jack Browder and John Zhao average north of 19 points per game and the entire starting rotation scores in double-digits. They are averaging just about 93 points per game over the last month — including a victory over Power 10 Lenoir-Rhyne in which they dropped a season-high 114 points.
Miles
As always, the Golden Bears are fueled by a top-5 scoring defense, something they’ve had every season since 2018-19. Right now, that defense has them as one of the hottest teams in DII, winners of 10 in a row and 16 of their last 17. The flip side of that coin is that the offense is middle of the pack, but they do have a pair of players in Alvin Miles (15.8 points per game and a team-high 83 assists) and Corey Trotter (9.1 points, 8.7 rebounds per game) that can get the job done. Now, the big issue is that Miles is in the South Region, where Nova Southeastern, Alabama Huntsville, Florida Southern and a few other of DII’s high-scoring teams reside. Will that defense hold up in the tourney? Who knows, but it will be fun to watch the Golden Bears try.
