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Rock Valley College off to a hot start + a look at how the Top 25 NJCAA D1 teams fared

By Brad Winton , 11/10/15, 11:45AM EST

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Southern Idaho's (NJCAA D1 #1) Armond Davis. Photo Credit: Magicvalley.com

The junior college basketball regular season has been underway for more than a week now and plenty of ranked teams have already taken losses early in the season. There should be plenty of movement when the next NJCAA D1 Top 25 ranking is released.

Before taking a look at how the top 25 D1 teams fared, we need to focus, for a moment, on how well Rock Valley College has been playing to start the season. Rock Valley, an NJCAA D3 school, is led by head coach, Craig Doty. They have had plenty of success over the last several years. Rock Valley won the NJCAA D3 National Championship in 2013-14 and was the national runner-up last season. They are off to a 5-0 start this season and have knocked off three NJCAA D1 teams (Vincennes, Indian Hills and Olney Central). Vincennes and Indian Hills were ranked #6 and #7 in the NJCAA D1 pre-season top 25 poll.

Rock Valley is averaging 94.8 points per game through five games this season and has been led by sophomores, LT Davis and Elijah Williams. Davis is averaging 21.8 points per game and shooting 44% form the three-point line, while Williams is averaging 18.4 points per game and 9.4 rebounds per game. Rock Valley is back in action tonight against Black Hawk College – Moline. Rock Valley was ranked as the top team in NJCAA D3 in the pre-season poll, which was released in late October.

Moving back to the NJCAA D1 level, here is a look at how the top 25 teams in the country have fared in the first week and a half of the season.

  1. College of Southern Idaho (3-0): CSI is off to a 3-0 start and plays Western Nebraska CC and Casper College this weekend.
  2. Hutchinson CC (4-0): Hutch is off to a 4-0 start and heads to Brown Mackie College tonight for their fifth game of the season. Hutch has been led by sophomores Bashir Ahmed (15.5ppg/6.5rpg), Akbar Hoffman (16ppg) and freshman Samaje Haynes-Jones (16.5ppg).
  3. NW Florida State (4-0): NW Florida, the defending NJCAA D1 National Champ, is off to a quick start this year. They have knocked off two ranked teams and are currently sitting at 4-0. They play Richard Bland College and San Jacinto College this weekend.
  4. South Plains College (1-1): South Plains split their first two games with a win over Carl Albert and a loss to San Jacinto College. They play this weekend against Coastal Bend and Mesa CC.
  5. Connors State (3-1): Connors is 3-1 with their lone loss coming to Arkansas Baptist. Arkansas commit Arlando Cook is averaging 17 points and 12 rebounds pre game.
  6. Vincennes (2-2): Vincennes dropped their first two games of the year. They are back in action against Indian Hills tonight.
  7. Indian Hills CC (2-1): Indian Hills won their first two games and dropped a game to Rock Valley College. They play at Vincennes tonight and host Coffeyville on Friday night.
  8. Hill College (5-0): Hill is off to a 5-0 start and host Murray State College on Thursday.
  9. Coffeyville CC (1-2): Coffeyville lost to Northeastern Oklahoma A&M and Northern Oklahoma Enid. They are back in action tonight against Carl Albert.
  10. Georgia Highlands (3-1): Georgia Highlands only loss came against #1 NW Florida St. They play Fort Benning tonight.
  11. Trinity Valley CC (5-0): TVCC already has several quality wins over Odessa, Midland, Dodge City and others. They play Thursday against McLennan CC.
  12. Pearl River CC (2-0): Pearl River is 2-0 and played Baton Rouge CC last night, but the score hasn’t been reported yet.
  13. Southwest Tennessee CC (3-2): SW Tennessee dropped their first two games of the year to NW Florida and Tallahassee. They play Roane State on Thursday.
  14. Monroe College (2-0): Monroe won their first two games of the year and plays Central Florida and St. Pete CC on Thursday and Friday.
  15. Salt Lake CC (3-0): Salt Lake is off to a 3-0 start and plays Casper and Western Nebraska this Friday/Saturday.
  16. Palm Beach State (3-0): Palm Beach is off to a 3-0 start and is back in action on Wednesday night.
  17. Moberly Area CC (3-0): Moberly is sitting at 3-0 and plays John Wood CC tonight.
  18. Cape Fear CC (2-2): Cape Fear dropped back to back games against NW Florida State and Chipola. They play Combine Academy on Friday.
  19. Shelton State (1-0): Shelton won their first game of the year against Wallace St- Selma. They play Faulkner State tonight.
  20. Holmes CC (3-0): Holmes has won their first three games of the year and is back in action tomorrow night.
  21. San Jacinto (3-2): San Jacinto lost to Ranger College last night. They play Chipola on Friday.
  22. John A. Logan (4-0): John Logan is off to a 4-0 start. They play three straight games Thursday-Saturday.
  23. Iowa Western (3-0): Iowa Western plays Missouri State – West Plains on Friday.
  24. Casper College (3-1): Casper lost their first game of the year to North Dakota College of Science on Saturday.
  25. Eastern Florida (4-0): Eastern Florida is off to a 4-0 start this year. They play Eastern Wyoming on Thursday and  Snow College on Friday. 

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