Hawai’i, UC Irvine top first RPI rankings of season

No. 1 Hawai’i is atop the national coaches and now the ranking system that is part of the NCAA Tournament selection criteria.

The Rainbow Warriors were ranked No. 1 in the season’s first RPI rankings released Monday.

Along with Hawai’i, UC Irvine, Loyola, Lewis and Pepperdine round out the top five.

This is the first year that the selection committee is using RPI rankings as part of the criteria used to determine the NCAA Tournament field.

Check out the season’s first RPI rankings released by the NCAA.

RPI rankings (March 23)
1. Hawai’i
2. UC Irvine
3. Loyola
4. Lewis
5. Pepperdine
6. Penn State
7. Ohio State
8. USC
9. BYU
10. UC Santa Barbara
11. IPFW
12. Long Beach State
13. Quincy
14. Lindenwood
15. Erskine
16. Stanford
17. Pfeiffer
18. UCLA
19. Ball State
20. Grand Canyon
21. Harvard
22. CSUN
23. McKenderee
24. George Mason
25. Princeton
26. St. Francis
27. Cal Baptist
28. Mount Olive
29. King
30. Sacred Heart
31. Limestone
32. Barton
33. UC San Diego
34. Belmont Abbey
35. NJIT
36. Lees-McRae
37. Coker