Men's basketball ranked ninth in D3hoops.com preseason poll

The Hamilton College men's basketball team will start the 2018-19 season at No. 9 in the D3hoops.com Top 25 preseason poll that was released on Thursday, Oct. 11. 2018-19 D3hoops.com Preseason Poll Hamilton's ranking in the preseason poll is the program's highest in any D3hoops.com poll. The Continentals were ranked 11th, which was their best position previously, in the final poll of the 2017-18 season after the completion of the NCAA championship. The D3hoops.com poll is the only national poll for Division III men's basketball. 2018 NESCAC Coach of the Year Adam Stockwell, who is in his eighth season at Hamilton, returns four starters and 10 letter winners from a team that finished 24-5 last season. The Continentals received an at-large bid to the 2018 NCAA Division III Men's Basketball Championship, won two games in the tournament, and advanced to the third round for the fifth time in program history. Hamilton tied for first place in the conference regular season standings with a 7-3 record and won a NESCAC championship quarterfinal at home for the first time since the Continentals joined the conference for basketball in 2011-12. Kena Gilmour '20 -- a 6-foot, 3-inch guard -- made the D3hoops.com all-region team and the National Association of Basketball Coaches all-district team last season. He averaged 18.5 points, 7.2 rebounds and 1.8 steals per game. Gilmour shot 47 percent from the field, including 33.1 percent from 3-point range, and 74.8 percent at the free-throw line. He poured in a career-high 40 points in the season-ending overtime loss to Springfield College in the third round of the NCAA tournament. Gilmour and 6-foot-5 forward Peter Hoffmann '19 made the all-NESCAC team last winter.