FORT WORTH, Texas - The outstanding beginning to the 2002-2003 season by the Texas Wesleyan University men’s basketball team was rewarded by NAIA voters this week with 18 votes towards the association’s national rankings. The Rams, who returned to the NAIA this season after six years as an NCAA Division II program, fell nine votes short of obtaining the 25th spot, which went to Rocky Mountain College in Montana, but did receive the highest total among schools not making the list.

The announcement made yesterday by the NAIA home office in Olathe, Kansas, essentially means that voters consider the Rams to be the 26th best team in the country, which could be important later in the season as the national tournament field is comprised of just 32 teams.

“We’re happy with the national attention, obviously,” said head coach and athletic director Terry Waldrop. “Twenty-fifth or twenty-sixth, it really doesn’t matter to me. It’s just good to see Wesleyan back among the top NAIA schools in the country.”

The last time Wesleyan cracked the NAIA top 25 is believed to be at the conclusion of the 1983 season, when the 13-seed Rams lost to Santa Fe in the second round of the NAIA national tournament. In the 1940’s, however, Wesleyan was one of the strongest NAIA programs in the country. Though they never won a title, the Rams compiled a 224-66 record from 1939 to 1951, and played in the national tournament six times.

This season, despite losing their last two contests to highly-ranked NAIA programs at a tournament in Oklahoma, Wesleyan still boasts an 11-4 record for the year and lead the Red River Athletic Conference at 3-0. The Rams won their first seven games of the season and have yet to lose at home, defending the Sid Richardson Gymnasium by an average margin of victory of nearly 23 points. Their only other losses this season were on the road against McNeese State University and UT-Arlington, both members of the NCAA Division I Southland Conference. McNeese State, in fact, is the two-time reigning champion of that conference, and has played in the last two NCAA championship tournaments.

Voting for the top 25 list takes place every Monday, with the results posted on the NAIA website on Tuesday mornings. The Rams play only one game, Saturday night at home against UT-Permian Basin, before the next round of voting on January 13, but a victory in that contest might be enough to crack the top 25. The team will remain at home for their nest two contests as well, on Monday, January 15 against Texas College and on Saturday the 18th against Huston-Tillotson.

The only other Red River Conference school to make the list was Houston Baptist, up two spots this week to number eight. The Rams and the Huskies meet for the first time this season on January 20th in Houston. They will play in Fort Worth on February 24th.

For more information about the NAIA men‘s basketball, visit the NAIA website at www.naia.org.