5 unranked teams on the rise after the first weekend
On this Monday evening, here is a look at five teams outside of the Preseason Top 25 who you need to be keeping an eye on
The first weekend of the season is when many of our preseason questions begin to have answers. For the first time, we see how many of these teams look on the court, and have an opportunity to compare our preseason expectations, thoughts, and projections against the actual performance. It seems that every year, there are teams outside of the Top 25 radar who turn out to be nationally-ranked by the end of December.
And many times, those teams become evident pretty early on. Out of all the games that were played this past weekend from coast to coast, five unranked teams seemed to separate themselves with the quality of their results and level of performance. So here’s a look at those five and what stood out to me through their first games of the 2024-25 season…
UW-La Crosse: The Eagles stepped inside the brand-new, state-of-the-art Sonnetag Center on UW-Eau Claire’s campus and came away with a split, going 1-1. Saturday saw UWL takes #11 Gustavus Adolphus down to the wire, and while the Gusties won, 52-49, it said a lot for UWL to keep pace with such an experienced, mature team for a full 40 minutes. Coming into the season, UWL was definitely one of those programs that seemed to be set up as a dark horse, having shown flashes of playing at a super high level within WIAC play last season, but unable to maintain that success over a multi-week period. Then they followed up Saturday’s defensive duel by combining with Simpson for 190 points, winning 101-89 on Sunday in what was more than likely the highest-scoring game of opening weekend. The offenses were both terrific, and UWL hit 11 3s, shot 49.4% from the field, and scored fast. Their possessions were quick, especially as Simpson utilized full court pressure frequently, though they didn’t score a ton of layups off breaking the press, rather ending a good portion of those possessions with mid-range or 3-point shots. We saw a team this weekend that can torch the nets when the offensive opportunities arise and hold a veteran-laden Top 15 team to just 52 on a neutral court. Lauryn Milne continues to be a huge piece of UWL’s success on both ends of the floor (she had 36 points on the weekend, including 27 against Simpson), and most around the WIAC are already well aware of her high caliber of play. But I also think UWL has a deeper bench this season, a significant benefit for a program that gets Hope and Concordia (MN) later in non-conference in addition to what will undoubtedly be a brutal WIAC schedule again. That bench includes freshman Molly Janke, who had 17 points in 17 minutes against Simpson and played 10 minutes against Gustavus.
Ohio Northern: The Polar Bears played just once on opening weekend, beating Wittenberg, 77-49, but I certainly liked what we saw from ONU. With Brynn Serbin having graduated, ONU, on paper, had a pretty significant void in the backcourt considering how talented Serbin was. But the guard play was solid from the Polar Bears, highlighted by Abi Akamine’s 10 points. As a team, ONU put together a noteworthy showing, as Wittenberg came off a 19-7 season and started three seniors on Friday. To win by 28 is a quality result in my opinion, in the process, we also saw ONU’s bench perform pretty well. Eight players scored off the bench, highlighted by sophomore Courtney Sumner going 3-of-5 from 3-point range in 16 minutes.
St. John Fisher: New head coach. All-Region Rookie of the Year now at another program. It seemed like SJF might need some time to build momentum with a few of those changes between last year and this year. But in Pittsburgh, the Cardinals met the challenge of a tough Friday-Saturday stretch against Susquehanna and Chatham. And came away 2-0. To give some perspective, Susquehanna comes into this season picked fourth in the Landmark Conference Preseason Poll, and considered to be one of the more underrated programs in a very tough league. Chatham brought in a number of transfers after winning the PAC last season and earned 10 points in the D3hoops.com Preseason Poll. Yet, SJF won by double digits in both games, 77-64 over Susquehanna and 73-63 over Chatham. Credit to head coach Sarah Cartmill for having her squad well-prepared for both of those big tests, as SJF shot the ball fairly well (41.2%), and defended on the perimeter (opponents were 6-of-40 from 3-point range). Senior guard Sidney Tomasso was fantastic as well, starting the season in top form, as she averaged 25.0 PPG and 9.0 RPG.
Ohio Wesleyan: OWU has all the pieces to be a Top 25 team. Obviously, it was just two games, so you don’t want to overreact, but beating Elizabethtown 72-58, and the players they have on the floor makes me confident OWU is in position for a big year. Kasey Schipfer, Lauren Denison, and Elizabeth Homan give the Battling Bishops a trio of 5th-year senior starters who play with poise and have developed strong chemistry over the previous four years. Macy Miller put together two really impressive performances as well, with a 17-point, 12-rebound double-double against Widener and 22 points in the win over Elizabethtown. Miller is only a sophomore, yet plays at the level of a senior, and I believe she will be in the All-American conversation in due time, especially based on what I saw from her this past weekend. From a resume standpoint, the Elizabethtown win on the road is going to stand out for the rest of the season, and getting a victory of that caliber on opening weekend is especially notable.
Redlands: The SCIAC has a chance at being a two-bid league this season. Cal Lutheran is going to be a major contender out of Region 10, but don’t overlook Redlands, not after what we saw from the Bulldogs this past week. The 2-0 start saw Redlands jump out to a 32-13 halftime lead on St. Catherine on Friday en route to a 60-45 victory. Saturday then saw Redlands take down No. 17 Transylvania, 61-50. Those are two solid wins, and Redlands jumped 69 spots in Massey with the win over Transy, moving all the way up to No. 37. The Bulldogs outrebounded their first two opponents by a margin of 13.0 and also averaged 16.5 assists/game on the offensive end. We’ll see them in another quality test at home against No. 14 Smith on Friday, and right now, Redlands is on a major upward trajectory. I think it’s possible we see back-to-back weeks of Top 25 upsets inside Currier Gymnasium.
Be sure to stay tuned for tomorrow morning’s newsletter, taking a look at Monday’s big results including Scranton/Cortland and W&L/Southern Virginia.