Tag Archives: Trine

The Scoop on D3 Women’s Hoops: December 18, 2022: Reacting to the weekend that was

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Hope this edition of The Scoop on D3 Women’s Hoops finds you well on this Sunday night. We’re exactly one week away from Christmas, and plenty of teams played their final games before the holiday over the course of this weekend. There were a few upsets, some especially notable performances, and plenty of action overall, from Hawaii to the midwest United States, and all the way to Puerto Rico. So I’m going to put my reactions to these games below, including thoughts on where certain teams may fall in the Top 25, set to be released tomorrow.

I’ll try to keep these thoughts short. After all, a breakdown of my Top 25 ballot will be hitting your inboxes tomorrow around noon (so be sure you’re subscribed…it’s free!)…so here goes…

Saturday

#16 Trine, 76 @ #1 Hope, 64: The consensus #1 fell for the first time this season on Saturday afternoon, as Trine put together a near-perfect performance at DeVos Fieldhouse. It is very hard to win at DeVos, but as my colleague Scott Peterson wrote on Twitter yesterday, of Hope’s last seven seasons, the Flying Dutch have lost just seven times, five of those coming to Trine. It was Trine who ended Hope’s record win streak a year ago as well. So it goes without saying that the Thunder know how to win against Hope. To me, the key for Trine seemed to be its patience on offensive possessions, even against what was a high-pressure Hope defense for much of the contest. By staying patient and not turning the ball over as much as teams typically do against Hope, the Thunder found the open shooter time and time again. And when Hope’s defense finally seemed to slow Trine, it was just too late. Sidney Wagner was super impressive for Trine, finishing with 29 points on 11-of-17 shooting. Was 3-of-4 from beyond the arc.

Hope will be fine coming out of this. Look what happened after last year’s loss to Trine; they won a national title. Though I don’t think they’ll be #1 come tomorrow’s poll.

And for Trine, I think we can officially say the Thunder are back on track. This win puts them in a good position in MIAA play, and I have little doubt Trine will find its way into the Top 13 (possibly even Top 10). More on this tomorrow.

Carroll, 57, Millikin, 72: I’ll be honest. After Millkin lost three times in five games early in the season, I wasn’t all too sure about where they stood heading into CCIW play. But since then, it’s been nothing but success for Olivia Lett’s squad, who is on a five-game win-streak and sits atop the CCIW at 4-0. Elyse Knudson had 31 in the win, but it seems like more players around her are stepping up on the offensive end, which in my opinion, is the major difference between the Millikin team we’re watching now, and the one that took those losses early on.

#3 Transylvania, 82, John Carroll, 39: Why am I bringing up a 43-point game? Because coming into it, several of us in the D3 WBB media circle thought this might be the long-awaited test for Transy that we had been hoping for. It’s hard to correctly slot a team in one’s Top 25 ballot, when that team is a proven tournament contender, but has zero wins against Massey Top 70 teams. But JCU didn’t put up much of a fight, and Transylvania was well-prepared, outscoring the Blue Streaks 25-5 in the second quarter. Very convincing performance from the Pioneers.

Greenville, 79, WashU, 70: WashU has been on my watch list pretty much since Week 1, and just hadn’t broken into my ballot yet. This loss will set the Bears back a good deal, considering Greenville was #191 according to Massey heading into that contest. I took a look at the box score from this one, trying to figure out what Greenville did so well on WashU’s home court. One of the major components was the free-throw shooting. Greenville went to the line 26 times, and made 23, while WashU was 15-of-23 on free-throws. That’s huge.

Ripon, 62, UW-Stevens Point, 51: With wins over Millikin, Carroll, Platteville, and Luther, UWSP seemed very much on the rise and had broken into the national conversation. But a loss to a Ripon team below .500 entering the game hurts UWSP’s ranking. Ripon shot a lot better, especially in the second half, and I was fairly impressed with how Ripon attacked UWSP in the paint. Those 30 paint points proved key in allowing Ripon to pull away.

Schreiner, 66, St. Mary’s (TX), 62: No, St. Mary’s is not a D-III program. It’s a D-II. And Schreiner went on the road and beat the Rattlers, who were 5-4 entering the contest and had beaten D-I Sam Houston State in an exhibition earlier this year. This won’t have much of an impact on Schreiner’s tournament resume as it’s a non-D3 result, but Schreiner is a program people need to start paying attention to. With a solid pressing defense, and several fleet-footed guards, the Mountaineers are very much on the rise. I’ve been very impressed by Schreiner’s performance so far this season.

Sunday

Luther, 89, Lake Forest, 95: This might go down as one of the best comebacks of the season. Luther led 45-20 at halftime, which was what I had expected, considering Luther was 7-3 and LFC was just 1-5. But LFC HC Tamlyn Tills must have given one fantastic halftime speech, because the small crowd in Hilo, Hawaii witnessed a dramatic rally, as the Foresters outscored Luther by 25 to send the game into overtime, where they won it. It was one of those pay-per-view-type livestreams, so I had to follow the live stats, but it seemed like Luther lost its focus late, and gave up several turnovers that led to layups for LFC. And the improved defense helped as well, as Luther made just one field goal in the final five minutes. Never say never.

Cal Lutheran, 54, #19 UC Santa Cruz, 75: I liked what I saw from UCSC today…they shot the ball with a lot of confidence (29-of-58), had a pair of 20-point scorers in Ashley Kowack (24) and Amanda Inserra (20), and had 24 assists to Cal Lu’s 13. This looks like a team ready to battle UW-Whitewater in a couple of days.

#5 Christopher Newport, 79, Colorado College, 45: Played in Puerto Rico on a neutral court, CNU dominated, with 35 points off 30 forced turnovers. CNU never trailed, and against CC, who had been playing decent basketball as of late (and scored 108 a couple nights ago), that is a notable result. CNU is built like a Final Four team this year, and I like the offensive balance the Captains bring to the table.

Well…that’s a look at a few of the games that piqued my interest over this weekend. We’ll see how the new Top 25 poll reacts to some of these results, and I’m looking forward to some of the matchups set to come in the next couple weeks, with several teams traveling out-of-region. As always, feel free to drop your comments below or email me at rileyzayas@gmail.com. Also, I often mention Scott Peterson in these posts…his rankings are now online and I’d encourage you to check them out! He has a model that ranks D3 WBB teams and if anything, it’s always nice to have another perspective, especially from a numbers standpoint. That is linked below.

https://scottdev.hashnode.dev/division-iii-womens-basketball-rankings

Enjoy the start to the week!

The Scoop on D3 Women’s Hoops: December, 17, 2022: Here’s 5 games you should be watching today

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Good morning! Welcome to this weekend edition of The Scoop on D3 Women’s Hoops. There is a fantastic slate of games set for today, exactly a week before Christmas Eve (this month continues to fly by!), and with that, rather than selecting a “Game of the Day”, I’m going to quickly touch on the top five games you should be tuning into this afternoon and evening. The list starts with a big one…

#16 Trine @ #1 Hope, 3 pm EST: This rivalry played out twice in last year’s regular season, in the MIAA championship game, and in the Final Four, so these teams know each other well. Trine has rebounded from a pair of losses early on with three straight wins, but winning at DeVos Fieldhouse is awfully hard, and Hope continues to meet every test and challenge thrown its way.

Carroll @ Millikin, 3 pm EST: Millikin is 7-3, having won four straight since the loss to WashU and Carroll is 5-4, but with a very impressive SOS. Both teams are in the Top 40 in Massey’s rankings, and the lone two undefeated teams in CCIW play. Of course, only one will still be holding that one honor when the final buzzer sounds this afternoon in what should be a contest dominated by strong guard play.

#3 Transylvania @ John Carroll, 4 pm EST: I’m somewhat unsure about this one, as JCU did not look sharp at all in last night’s 81-60 loss to Marietta. The Blue Streaks have now dropped two straight by significant margins (the other loss coming to Capital), and while I was optimistic we would be able to use this matchup to grade Transylvania as voters, I have my doubts now. But still, JCU is on its home floor, and I know for a fact that head coach Beth Andrews will have her team well-prepared. This is a complete wild card in my opinion.

Wheaton @ Illinois Wesleyan, 3 pm EST: Another CCIW duel, this will be very competitive between two Top 70 Massey teams. IWU needs to build back some confidence after falling by 18 to Carroll last Saturday, while Wheaton has continued putting together a solid resume. These opponents share on common factor in that they both scheduled very tough in non-conference, which makes for great in-conference matchups, as both teams are battle-tested. Plus, in what I project to be a two (or dare I say, three) bid conference this year, these kind of matchups matter in a big way. IWU is currently tied for fourth in the league, and Wheaton is fifth.

Sul Ross State @ #15 Mary Hardin-Baylor, 2 pm EST: UMHB looked strong against Howard Payne Thursday, but SRSU, led by women’s basketball legend E.J. Lee Smith, in her first year as head coach, is on another level. The Lobos are 3-1 in the ASC, tied with UMHB for second place, and boast wins over Schreiner and Concordia-Chicago. UMHB beats you with depth, so the question is if SRSU can withstand the constant defensive pressure of the Cru, and do so for four quarters. I’ll be in Belton covering this one live. Just the second home game for UMHB this season.

Check out today’s full slate here! https://www.d3hoops.com/seasons/women/2022-23/schedule

A couple quick notes on yesterday’s games:

  • #19 UC Santa Cruz looked really strong in its first game in 12 days, taking down Linfield handily, 72-43. Tess Oakley Stilson had 20 points on 8-of-9 shooting, as she drove to the lane and earned a number of scoring opportunities at the rim. Kaylee Murphy had 11 rebounds, 6 offensive, and UCSC is one of those teams where, if just a few players get going, they can quickly run away with it. Can’t wait for the Dec. 20 duel with UW-Whitewater.
  • UW-Stout is now 9-1 after rolling past Cornell last night, 64-46. The Blue Devils have won four straight on the road and hold wins over Oshkosh, Stevens Point, and Luther (all Massey Top 100 teams). Once again, Raegan Sorensen came off the bench to lead the team in points (19). It feels like one of those things where Stout head coach Hannah Quilling-Iverson puts five starters on the floor, and once the opponent subs in a few reserves midway through the first quarter to rest the starters, Sorensen is inserted.
  • #20 Puget Sound had little trouble in a 76-59 win over Redlands, shooting 43 percent and outscoring Redlands 42-26 in the second half. Really liked the balance I saw from PS on the offensive end…three starters finished in double figures in points, with Katie Minnehan and Sophie Nilsson scoring 17 apiece.

That’s all for today…tomorrow will be a sort of recap article/look ahead to Monday’s slate (which is going to be even better than today’s!) and then Monday will be my Top 25 breakdown. Not expecting a lot of Top 25 changes, though there will be some. And who knows what will happen today. Saturdays are traditionally a day for big upsets! Enjoy the day and this Christmas season!

The Scoop on D3 Women’s Hoops: November 27, 2022: Two Top 10s fall…

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Welcome back! What a day it was in D3 women’s hoops yesterday. Let’s get right into it!

Game of the Day: WashU @ Illinois Wesleyan, 4 pm EST

This is going to be a good one. Perhaps both of these teams deserve to be ranked. Perhaps both will. The bottom line is, WashU is still undefeated, having shown exeplorary effort in the comeback over #14 Millikin last week. IWU is 4-2, but those two losses are to Hope and UW-Whitewater, two teams ranked in the Top 4. IWU looked sharp in yesterday’s win over DePauw and will be on their home court, but WashU is looking better and better each time the Bears step out there.

Keep an eye on…

#7 Smith @ Trinity (CT), 3 pm EST

UNE (4-2) @ #11 Tufts (4-0), 1 pm EST

Swarthmore @ Washington & Lee, 12:30 pm EST

Thoughts…

  • No. 4 UW-Whitewater was the highest-ranked of the Top 25 teams that fell yesterday, as Calvin came up with an upset, winning 66-64 on Whitewater’s home court. Talk about a big-time win for Calvin, who is now 5-0. It was tight all the way down the stretch, with Calvin refusing to go away, though the Knights trailed 34-31 at the half. In perhaps one of the most impressive plays from my perspective, Gabby Timmer stepped up on the defensive end for Calvin, blocking a Whitewater shot with under 20 seconds to play, Calvin leading 62-61. After a pair of free throws, the Warhawks again had a chance to tie it on a three, but failed to convert. Playing in a conference that includes Hope and Trine, wins like this one are huge come selection time in March (though Calvin in my opinion is a legitimate MIAA contender).
  • Whitewater wasn’t the only Top 10 team to fall. In another game I mentioned you should keep your eye on yesterday, No. 8 Trine suffered its second loss of the season at the hands of Ohio Northern, who is unranked, but also undefeated. Trine had a chance to go ahead late, trailing 51-50 with under 10 seconds left. But the three point try was missed, and Ohio Northern’s Brynn Serbin made a leap as the ball was traveling out of bounds of the hands of an ONU player. She grabbed the ball, and got it to a teammate before her feet landed out of bounds. The ensuing free throws were enough for a 53-50 win for ONU. Trine seemed to struggle more than I thought they would, but ONU is definitely a team I’ll be paying closer attention to in the weeks to come.
  • #5 Trinity beat #18 Hardin-Simmons for the second time this week, winning both on the road, and at home. Trinity will be at least #4 in my Top 25 ballot this week. The Tigers beat HSU 81-68 yesterday, as their offense continues to roll, and that is without Maggie Shipley, mind you. Her presence is worth at least another 8-10 points for Trinity, meaning we’re not even seeing the Tigers are full strength right now.
  • Augustana definitely has scorers. It will serve them well in CCIW play. Against Webster yesterday (an 87-64 win), four different players had double figures in points, including Carly Stone, who came off the bench with 14. Gabriela Loiz had 18 points in just 18 minutes of action and Presley Case nearly had herself a double-double, with 14 points and nine rebounds.
  • In today’s action, I’m keeping an eye on some matchups that could impact the way the Top 25 shakes out. As mentioned above, #7 Smiths plays a talented Trinity (CT) team on the road today. Smith has been somewhat inconsistent against quality, yet unranked opponents to start the year. But they’re also 4-0, and I really want to get a good idea of where they stack up amongst the nation’s best. UNE also plays #11 Tufts today in a game that I think could be close. UNE is 4-2, having played well as of late, but nobody has been able to slow Maggie Russell.

Enjoy the rest of your day and your weekend. Be sure to read The Scoop on D3 Women’s Hoops each day, either right here, or on my Substack. 

The Scoop on D3 Women’s Hoops: 18 Top 25 teams battle tonight!

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After two days of fairly light schedules, we have a massive set of games on tap for the first Friday night of the season. 18 Top 25 teams are in action, some against fellow Top 25 opponents, and there are some games you certainly will not want to miss. What games, you say? Let’s take a look at my Game of the Day…

Game of the Day: No. 8 Trine @ No. 12 Baldwin Wallace, 6 pm EST

This is going to be extremely competitive and will be a major resume boost for whoever pulls out the victory. Both teams have had to replace at least two starters from last year’s team, so there are new contributors in new roles, which can play a significant impact at this point in the year. And this is the first look we’ll get at Baldwin-Wallace as well, since it is Yellow Jackets’ season opener, so there is a lot be watching for in our first Top 15 matchup of the year.

Keep an eye on…

  • No. 16 Springfield @ No. 9 Amherst, 7 pm EST
  • No. 6 Christopher Newport @ East Texas Baptist, 7 pm EST
  • Wartburg @ No. 13 UW-Eau Claire, 9 pm EST

Thoughts from around the division…

  • I wrote about the potential for NJCU to come away with a win over D-I Monmouth (N.J.) in yesterday’s post, and the Gothic Knights proved my prediction right. Though they fell 79-70, the score was tied at 34 when halftime rolled around. Monmouth never really pulled away, and the majority of the team stats were balanced. The difference came in the offensive rebounding and points in the paint, where Monmouth’s taller lineup paid dividends. NJCU was outrebounded 19-8 on the offensive boards, and had just 16 points in the paint as compared to Monmouth’s 42. But in the big scheme of things, this showed the NJCU is certainly as good as we anticipated, well on its way to a three-peat in the NJAC.
  • To add one more note about that one, Damaris Rodriguez will be a player fans across the nation should be keeping an eye on. All-American potential for sure. The junior guard had 33 points for NJCU, shooting 14-of-26 from the field. Just a special player that should only improve as the season goes on.
  • No. 23 Whitman suffered a loss to NAIA Lewis Clark State for the second straight year, falling 66-60 in last night’s road matchup. Whitman had defensive troubles out of the gate, outscored 23-13 in the opening quarter, before fighting back against a really solid opponent that went 28-5 a year ago. I think Whitman is certainly a Top 25 team, though they’ll need to improve their defending of the three-point line: Lewis Clark State was 8-of-17 from beyond the arc.
  • Bridgewater State is on my radar, as they’ve started the year 2-0, adding a decent road win over Suffolk last night. Sydney Bradbury was really impressive, making five three-pointers as she had 19 points. The MASCAC seems to be a battle between BSU and Framingham State this year, and with the way BSU has started, we should be in for some excellent duels between the two once conference play gets going.
  • Really looking forward to finally getting to see a bunch of Top 25 teams in action on the same night. 7 of the Top 10 will be playing this evening, and some will be tested early on. I don’t see No. 1 Hope having much trouble against Geneva, but it will still be interesting to see how the Flying Dutch have made up for some of the key departures from last year’s team.
  • Speaking of Hope, I really appreciate the tournament format that is put together for this season-opening weekend. You don’t see this very much, and one of the reasons for that I would expect is that coaches do not get guarantees on who they will be playing, which can be concerning for SOS purposes. But come on. It will be fun to see if Illinois Wesleyan and Hope do indeed win their respective games today, and play for a “championship” of sorts tomorrow. IWU is unranked but received votes in the Preseason Top 25, and if the Titans found a way to pull off the upset of No. 1, they could easily find themselves in contention for a national ranking.

Well, this ended up longer than I thought it would. But there’s a lot to cover, and I didn’t even get to it all! Such is the case when you have a massive slate on one evening like we have today. It should be exciting. What game(s) will you be watching? Drop your responses in the comments below!

Dave’s Top 25 Blog: Week 7

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Kenny Love and the overall #1 Whitworth Pirates moved back into second spot on my ballot.

It was an interesting week for the D3hoops.com Top 25 – at least I thought so. We are getting to the point where things appear to be getting more stable. I didn’t think we would ever get to that point and having said that I have probably jinxed myself for the rest of the season. However, I think myself and other voters are starting to feel more comfortable with far more of the ballot. It used to be just the top five, then maybe eight or nine, but now I feel like the top fifteen or more are a bit more solid and I am just working on filling out the rest. In other words, this week’s ballot felt more like ballots of seasons past!

Unfortunately, I did not get to see as many games online as I normally do this past week. Despite the fact a blizzard kept me indoors over the weekend, it didn’t mean I had all of this free time to just watch games. When you are expecting two to three feet of snow, you spend part of that time shoveling during the storm so you can open your doors and have less to break your back over after the storm. Thank goodness I got out a few times during the storm as three feet is what ended up falling on us and I wouldn’t have wanted to tackle that all at once (I am still shoveling three days later!).

As a result, I have concentrated my efforts a little more on posts on the Posting Up boards from those who see teams in action and know them the best. You have to be careful with this tactic as you will get some very different points of view from two people who were at the same game – seen through whatever tint their glasses are per their rooting interests. However, there are a number of solid posters who continually give great accounts of games or input that you can’t always appreciate watching a game online. I will admit, I am not great at breaking a game down through written word, so I truly appreciate those who do.

There still remains one major challenge: There are a number of deserving or seem-to-be-deserving teams worthy of Top 25 love, but not enough spots to put them in. Each week I struggle to figure out how to get teams on my ballot and figure out who to remove. In weeks past when there were losses-a-plenty, it was a little bit easier. However, the last few weeks have seen a downward trend in losses on my ballot meaning I have less teams I am willing to dump for others.

The other challenge comes with squads people think deserve to be in the Top 25 because they got a big win or two. One such team came up in conversation on Twitter recently:

While the tweet wasn’t directed at me, I saw it and it made me think. Wesleyan has been on my radar for weeks, but I keep having problems with some of their results. This past week they beat up on Amherst and beat Tufts as well. Pretty good week, right? But prior to that they had lost three of four games including Amherst beating up on them in a game that actually counted for the NESCAC. (Amherst, Wesleyan, and Williams all play a second round of games against each other for Little Three bragging rights. The first Amherst-Wesleyan game counted for NESCAC play: Amherst won. The second game counted for the Little Three only: Wesleyan won.) By the way, when I say they beat each other up, Amherst won the first game by 24 and Wesleyan won the second game by 27. And then there is that Lyndon State (6-9) game the very first game of the season which Wesleyan lost by 2. While it was the first game of the season, it is still a loss I struggle to understand other than it was the first game of the season.

Rashid Epps and Wesleyan have had an up and down three weeks. Credit: Wesleyan Athletics

In my back and forth Twittersation with 757Basketball, they expressed bewilderment as to why Wesleyan wouldn’t be getting love for winning the NESCAC title last season. This is the funniest part because I can’t tell you how many people will tell me they want me voting on only this year’s results, while another set of people understands if I take history into account (not winning a title, but trends and consistency), and other set of people want me to lean heavily on history. I can’t win! LOL

Wesleyan is ranked in the Top 25 on this week’s D3hoops poll, but I will break the suspense and tell you they are not on my ballot below. The Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde routine of the past three weeks doesn’t make make comfortable putting them on my ballot just yet. However, the Cardinals have some solid opponents coming up in the final five games of the season. Play well and I am sure I can find room on a crowded ballot.

One more thing before I continue on with this week’s ballot, I want to recognize Ira Thor and Ryan Scott. Last week Ira started blogging his ballot for the world to see and Ryan Scott followed suit with his blog this week. They both recognized the fact I am doing it as part of the reason they are being transparent and I congratulate them for taking what is honestly a bold step forward in revealing their voting and even thinking behind their decisions. It only helps to give people a better understanding of how different voters vote because there are 25 completely different voters with very different mindsets and interpretations. Some of us might chat with one another, but we certainly don’t all vote the same way. To see their ballots, you can click here for Ira’s and click here for Ryan’s.

Now on to my ballot from this week (forgive the lack of brevity for some of these, not a lot of time this week for writing):

1 – Augustana^ (Unchanged)

2 – Whitworth* (Up 1)

3 – St. Thomas* (Up 1)

4 – Benedictine (Up 1)

5 – John Carroll (Up 1)

6 – Ohio Wesleyan (Up 1)

Elmhurst last unbeaten to lose in the CCIW this season.

7 – Elmhurst (Down 5)
My point a few weeks ago when Augustana lost to Elmhurst on the road was that I expected the Vikings to lose a game in CCIW play. It’s been 43 seasons since someone went through conference play undefeated and I didn’t expect it to happen this year. As a result, I did not and I have not moved Augustana off of my top spot. So Elmhurst losing to North Central, on the road, isn’t all that surprising in the fact that I didn’t expect the Blue Jays to go undefeated in the CCIW either (or they would have been my number one team!). However, it was an 18-point loss not a two-point, overtime loss like Augustana’s. North Central shot very well and Elmhurst was average. So I knew I was going to drop the Blue Jays a couple of spots. They fell a few extra spots only because I couldn’t argue they were better than the teams ahead of them right now. So, five spots is a tough drop for a road loss in conference, but to be honest I expect them to lose another road game this week (Augustana).

For those wondering, no, North Central did not make my ballot this week. I only have one five-loss team on my ballot and seriously considered dropping them off this week as well. It is a decision I am not exactly sure of even as I write this, but it is the decision I went with when it click “submit.”

8 – Hope (Unchanged)

9 – Christopher Newport (Up 1)

10 – Susquehanna* (Up 1)

11 – Marietta (Up 1)

12 – Chicago^ (Up 1)

13 – Johnson and Wales (Up 2)
The Wildcats continue to dominate in their conference. I am serious when I say even Albertus Magnus didn’t dominate the GNAC like this in the last few years. 36 points per game! But for those who have followed my blog over the years, you will notice J&W is in about the same spot as AMC has been this time of the year almost every season.

14 – WPI (Up 2)

Lord Jeff no more at Amherst. Just part of a rough week on campus. Credit: Independent Journal

15 – Amherst (Down 6)
Not a good week for the Lord Jeffs – and the final time I will probably be uttering those two words. I’m not sure the ramping up style of scheduling Amherst has done over the last few years (starting with easier opponents and working towards more challenging ones before conference play) is working out this season. That coupled with the fact the NESCAC is a far deeper conference than in years past contributed to a 1-2 week for Amherst. Wesleyan, as noted earlier, and then Colby nipped the purple team from central Massachusetts. The only bright spot, a thorough thumping of Bowdoin in the middle of a three-game road trip. It won’t get any easier for Amherst, maybe, as they continue what is a five game road stretch with games at Williams (12-6) and Trinity (14-4) this week. Amherst is clearly not as good as what voter’s thought in the preseason (#3) nor I (#5). I will be watching very closely to see how Dave Hixon’s squad responds this week.

16 – Alma (Up 2)

17 – Texas Lutheran (Up 2)

18 – Lancaster Bible (Up 2)

19 – St. Norbert (Unranked)
I am making up for last week’s mistake of accidently leaving St. Norbert off my ballot. However, it might have been a blessing in disguise. It forced me to reevaluate the Green Knights since I had them off my ballot. I needed to find a spot to place them and maybe broke up a rut I was in with SNC. I didn’t seem to be able to move them out of the twenties. This might get me moving them around a bit more since with two-losses they are playing better than expectations – AGAIN. I could have moved them up further as well, but at least they are back on the poll where they deserve to be!

20 – Roanoke (Up 3)

21 – Northwestern (Up 3)

22 – Brooklyn (Up 3)

Mount Union needs to win a big game other than Chicago earlier this season.

23 – Mount Union (Down 9)
I’ll be brutally honest, despite having them 14th and losing to a team I and the D3hoops.com voting group had ranked ahead of them (Marietta), I almost pulled the plug on the Purple Raiders. Five losses are the most any team has on my ballot. It is also the most on the overall poll, but that team is North Central. I realize Mount Union has played a very difficult schedule, in what has become a fascinatingly tough OAC race, but at some point I have expected UMU to beat a ranked team! They have a win over Chicago, but they have losses to William Paterson (once ranked), North Central, John Carroll, and Marietta (last two in back-to-back games). What is worse, when Mount Union losses it isn’t close. The average spread in a loss is 13.8 with six being the closest in a game against Colby. I decided to hold on just a little longer because I think the Purple Raiders are a very good team, but they won’t get another “big” game until Feb. 17 against John Carroll. I expect them to win every game between then to be blunt.

24 – Tufts (Down 7)
I nearly pulled the plug here as well. The Jumbos have lost two of their last four including to starting-to-get-hot Middlebury and schizophrenic Wesleyan. At least the games have been close, but as NESCAC play has intensified Tufts seems to be wilting a little. They only beat Conn College by two the other day on the road. Interestingly, Tufts has two non-conference games in the next three which might not tell us anything, so I wait patiently.

25 – Franklin & Marshall (Down 4)
The Diplomats only ended up playing one game due to the Blizzard last week and lost to Gettysburg (they have since beaten McDaniel in a twice-postponed-game). While F&M made a run in the second half to try and make it interesting, the Bullets pulled away in the end and left F&M floundering with 57 points. This is the same point in the season last year when the unexpectedly hot season fizzled on the Diplomats. They had started 14-0 and 7-0 in conference before losing their first game on January 17. They would go on to lose six of their final twelve games of the season and miss out on the NCAA Tournament. This is basically the same team, expect supposedly with more experience. However, the conference isn’t scared of the Diplomats and with Dickinson looking to prove they are still good coming up and a tough finishing set of games remaining, F&M needs to put the blinders on and focus on the task at hand – securing home-court advantage for the Centennial playoffs or this season is going to end just as suddenly as last year’s.

Dropped Out:

Trine’s undoing started with a loss at Calvin. Courtesy: Trine Athletics

Trine (Previously 22)
I did to Trine what I nearly did to Mount Union. After starting the season 10-1, the Thunder have gone 3-3 in their last six and now sit 3-3 in the conference race in a three-way tie for third. Furthermore, they haven’t beaten the really good or ranked teams on their schedule. They have lost to Ohio Wesleyan, Calvin, Hope, and Alma. Three of those teams ranked and all three conference losses to teams ahead of tied with them in the standings. Trine needs to man-up and get a significant win. They have a home game against Calvin coming up this week which can help them greatly (since they are tied with the Knights in third place), but Hope and Alma won’t show up on the schedule for a few more weeks.

* – teams I have seen in person this season
^ – teams I have saw in person last season

Previous Ballots
Week 6
Week 5
Week 4
Week 2
Week 1
Preseason

So, only one team entered the ballot (with one team dropping out) and it’s the first team to re-enter my ballot this season. They also shouldn’t have been off my ballot in the first place!

There are still probably 20 or so teams I have “on my radar” that I spend the most time on each week trying to figure out if they deserve to be on my ballot or not. And if they do, who should be removed.

Sometimes I blow up my ballot because I have gotten into ruts and teams probably should be moved more drastically then I am allowing in its current structure. Other times I blow it up is when I feel like I have put myself in a corner and can’t find good enough reasons to move teams on or off accordingly. This week with the bottom third of the ballot feeling somewhat set, I feel a ballot blow up coming… just to shake up my thinking.