Upper Iowa men's basketball has received votes in the latest NABC Top 25 Rankings for the first time this season. The Peacocks are 8-4 on the year and 3-1 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference, with one of their losses coming from No. 14 Northwest Missouri State in the Small College Basketball Tournament earlier this season, where they fell 91-82.
The Peacocks are currently on a five-game win streak, eclipsing the century mark in three of those contests. Their recent scoring patterns have fueled their mark of 91.4 points per game, ranked ninth-best in the country. In addition to their high-scoring habits, they are listed on a handful of other national leaderboards.
- Ranked No. 1 - Turnovers per game (6.9 per game)
- Ranked No. 2 - Assist to turnover ratio (166 assists, 83 turnovers, 2.00 ratio)
- Ranked No. 12- Free throw percentage- 78.65%, (210-267)
Senior guard
Jake Hilmer is tabbed in several of the individual rankings on the national scene. He sits second in the country in points per game with 24.4, trailing Kelvin Jones of Emmanuel with 26.1 points per contest. He ranks fifth in assist to turnover ratio with 59 assists and only 14 turnovers (4.21) and tenth in free throw percentage with 92.13% (82-89).
Hilmer is aided by two other double-digit scorers in
Noah King (19.2 per game) and
Nick Reid (14.2 per game). Reid leads the team in rebounds with 6.6 per game, followed by
Kyle Hrncir with 5.4. Hrncir is shooting 66.1% from the floor, while
William Kiburis and
Caleb Delzell fall in line behind with 54.8% and 51.4%. Delzell paces the team beyond the arc with 52% shooting on 26 makes.
Upper Iowa heads to Illinois this weekend to take on Illinois Springfield on Thursday and Quincy on Saturday.
