LIBERTY, Mo. - The William Jewell men's basketball team is ranked eighth in the latest Division II Midwest Region rankings, announced on Wednesday afternoon. This is the season's first set of official rankings, as last week all programs were listed in alphabetical order as "under consideration." The top-8 teams in each region will earn a bid to the NCAA Division II Men's Basketball national tournament, and among those eight will be the automatic qualifiers out of each of the region's three conferences.
Jewell is looking to secure it's second-ever appearance in the NCAA tournament, with the first occurring in 2024. Winners of 13 of their last 16 games, the Cardinals are currently 17-8 overall with one week to go in the regular season.
After receiving a vote in the national poll for the first time since November 2024, Jewell is at home this week with critical match ups against Illinois Springfield and Truman State. The Cardinals, who have secured their spot in the GLVC Championship Tournament, currently sit in second in the league Point Rating System standings, just ahead of the Prairie Stars of UIS. Meanwhile, Truman comes into the week holding on to the last spot in the tournament, sitting at No. 8 with two games remaining.
The complete region rankings can be found below.
NCAA DII MIDWEST RANKINGS (Feb. 25, 2026)
| RK |
SCHOOL |
DII REC |
IN-REGION |
| 1. |
Michigan Tech |
20-5 |
16-5 |
| 2. |
Rockhurst |
19-5 |
19-5 |
| 3. |
Grand Valley State |
18-6 |
17-6 |
| 4. |
Northern Michigan |
18-5 |
17-5 |
| 5. |
Walsh |
16-3 |
16-3 |
| 6. |
Lake Erie |
18-7 |
17-7 |
| 7. |
Ashland |
17-7 |
17-7 |
| 8. |
William Jewell |
16-9 |
16-9 |
| 9. |
McKendree |
20-5 |
19-5 |
| 10. |
Missouri S&T |
15-7 |
14-6 |
