KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The Lincoln Memorial University men's basketball program will enter the 2021 NCAA Division II Southeast Regional Championship ranked in the top 15 of both national polls. Winning 28-straight games inside B. Frank "Tex" Turner Arena and on the heels of a league record ninth South Atlantic Conference regular season championship in 11 years, the Railsplitters (16-3) are ranked No. 13 in the final National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Division II Top 25 poll of 2020-21, which was released Tuesday afternoon.
 
Earning the No. 2 seed for the upcoming Division II Southeast Regional Championship, held this Saturday and Sunday, March 13-14 and Tuesday, March 16 in Harrogate, LMU is No. 15 for the second consecutive week in the ninth D2SIDA Media Poll of 2021, also announced Tuesday afternoon.
 
Selected to the NCAA Championship field for the 10th time in 11 seasons, the Railsplitters have now spent 29-straight weeks ranked in the top 15 dating back to Nov. 19, 2019. LMU has spent a total of 148 weeks in the national polls since December of 2010.
 
Colorado Mesa (21-1) jumped three spots to take over as No. 1 in the final coaches poll, while Northern State (18-1) moved up four spots to No. 2. Mercyhurst (11-0), the lone undefeated team in the NABC Top 25, closes out the season at No. 3 for the second consecutive week and the nation's previous top team, Northwest Missouri State (23-2), dropped a trio of spots to No. 4. West Texas A&M (15-2), the Railsplitters' last non-conference loss in November of 2019, rose three spots to No. 5 and the top 10 of the coaches poll is rounded out by sixth-ranked Colorado School of Mines (16-2), No. 7 Truman State (18-2), eighth-ranked Flagler (15-2), No. 9 Hillsdale (20-2) and 10th-ranked Lubbock Christian (17-2).
 
Three of the other five Division II Southeast Regional Championship teams appear in at least one of the national polls with top-seeded Belmont Abbey College out of Conference Carolinas checking in at No. 19 in the NABC Top 25 and No. 14 in the media poll. The SAC's regular season and conference championship runner-up, Queens University of Charlotte, is No. 22 in the coaches poll and receiving 32 voting points in the D2SIDA Media Poll, while league tournament winner Carson-Newman is No. 23 in the NABC Top 25 and receiving 23 voting points in the media poll.
 
LMU has defeated three teams this season ranked in the final coaches poll of 2020-21, downing No. 12 The University of Alabama in Huntsville 93-68 on Dec. 13, topping 22nd-ranked Queens 77-63 on Feb. 3 and ousting No. 23 Carson-Newman 70-59 on Jan. 27.
 
Chosen to host the Division II Southeast Regional Championship for the fifth time in seven years, LMU has earned a top-two seed in the regional championship for nine of its 10 bids.
 
How to Follow
Stay tuned to LMURailsplitters.com, as well as LMU's social media platforms - @LMURailsplitter on Twitter, @LMURailsplitters on Facebook and @lmurailsplitters on Instagram, for complete coverage of Railsplitter basketball throughout the 2020-21 postseason.