By FHSU SPORTS INFORMATION
INDIANAPOLIS – Fort Hays State Men’s Basketball is ranked No. 10 in the latest NCAA Central Region Rankings, released on Wednesday (Mar. 1). The Tigers moved down two spots from their previous ranking of No. 8 last week, even though they won the only game they played last week.
The Tigers had a dip in strength of schedule value from the previous week since they played a well-below .500 Nebraska-Kearney team to close out the regular season, but Sioux Falls and Bemidji State have moved in front of the Tigers this week. Bemidji State was not in the region rankings last week, while Sioux Falls moved up to No. 8 from No. 9 last week. Southeastern Oklahoma State fell out of the rankings from No. 10 last week despite rising in performance indicator, RPI and win-loss percentage.
Sioux Falls was knocked out of the NSIC Tournament in the quarterfinals, which was figured into this week’s region rankings formula. Bemidji State made it to the semifinals and lost to eventual NSIC Tournament champion MSU Moorhead in a game played after this week’s region formulas were put together.
According to the report for the Central Region located at the bottom of the region rankings page on NCAA.com, Fort Hays State has better values in five of six categories than Bemidji State. FHSU is even in categories (3-3) with both Sioux Falls and Southeastern Oklahoma State. Fort Hays State and Southeastern Oklahoma State play in their respective conference tournaments this week.
Eight teams from the Central Region are selected to compete in the Central Regional of the NCAA Tournament. The three winners from conference tournaments from within the region will receive automatic bids to the NCAA Tournament. As mentioned before, MSU Moorhead won the NSIC Tournament on Tuesday night and will be a lock for the national tournament, but the MIAA and GAC Tournaments are this week.
Below are the NCAA Central Region Rankings for March 1, 2023.
| Ranking | School | Overall DII Record | In-Region Record |
| 1 | Northwest Missouri State | 25-2 | 23-2 |
| 2 | Northern State | 23-5 | 23-4 |
| 3 | Southern Nazarene | 25-3 | 25-3 |
| 4 | Central Oklahoma | 20-4 | 19-4 |
| 5 | MSU Moorhead | 23-6 | 21-6 |
| 6 | Minnesota Duluth | 22-8 | 21-8 |
| 7 | Emporia State | 20-7 | 20-7 |
| 8 | Sioux Falls | 18-11 | 18-11 |
| 9 | Bemidji State | 17-10 | 17-10 |
| 10 | Fort Hays State | 17-8 | 17-8 |