The Associated Press college basketball preseason poll was released on Friday and as everyone sifted through the rankings in search of their team, one small group got a pleasant surprise. LeTourneau University received 9 votes, good enough for 36th in the rankings.
The unsuspecting Division-III YellowJackets somehow landed above the likes of Cincinnati, Oklahoma State, Georgetown, Maryland and others in ESPN’s graphic of the results. LeTourneau had its moment in the sun for about 10 minutes before they change it to Louisiana Tech University.
When reached for comment, first-year head coach Dan Miller thought it was a prank call but quickly laughed it off and gave his reaction after hearing of their inclusion in the poll:
We’re excited to try to build up a program and we’re building it with a very young team so any attention we get it is great. I know it was a mix up but it was funny.
I’ll probably use this as a joke before we start practice this afternoon and say hey, for a few moments we’re in the same poll as Kentucky and Duke. We’ll enjoy the 15 minutes while it lasts but hopefully everyone will be reading about us on top of Division-III very soon.
