The Midwest Conference released its 2018-19 Men's Basketball Preseason Coaches Poll on Wednesday and Lake Forest College was tied for second place in the rankings.
Voting is done by the MWC head men's basketball coaches. Each coach votes for the other nine schools in the league in order of predicted finish. Points are assigned in reverse order of voting (nine points for first, eight for second, etc.). Coaches may not vote for their own teams.
St. Norbert College was the top team in the poll with 72 points, despite receiving just two of 10 first-place votes. Lake Forest and Ripon College had 69 points apiece with the Foresters atop a league-high four ballots. Fourth-place Monmouth College (65 points), the defending conference champion, received three first-place votes and Ripon one.
The Foresters return six of their top eight scorers from a year ago, including forward Danny Sotos, who was responsible for 12.9 points and a team-high 6.3 rebounds per game, and point guard Sean Espinosa, who scored 9.1 points per contest and led the league with 132 assists. Lake Forest was 17-9 overall and 14-4 in the league and qualified for the four-team MWC Tournament for the third year in a row.
Fifth-year head coach Ken Davis and his Foresters will open the 2018-19 season against visiting Carthage College on Friday. They will begin their conference schedule three weeks later against Grinnell College and play 16 league games. The top four teams in the conference will qualify for the MWC Tournament, which will be hosted by the league champion February 22-23.
| PLACE | TEAM (First Place Votes) | POINTS |
| 1 | St. Norbert College (2) | 72 |
| 2t | Lake Forest College (4) | 69 |
| 2t | Ripon College (1) | 69 |
| 4 | Monmouth College (3) | 65 |
| 5 | Grinnell College | 50 |
| 6 | Lawrence University | 40 |
| 7 | Illinois College | 27 |
| 8 | Knox College | 21 |
| 9 | Cornell College | 20 |
| 10 | Beloit College | 17 |