Daily Archives: February 8, 2006

First regional rankings

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The NCAA Division III men’s and women’s basketball committees released their first regional rankings of the 2005-06 season Wednesday afternoon. The first record listed is the record in regional games, followed by overall record, through Sunday, Feb. 5.

The number of teams ranked in the men’s poll is relative to the number of teams in each region.

Men
Atlantic
1. Baruch 18-1 20-3
2. William Paterson 14-5 15-6
3. New Jersey 12-5 14-5
4. SUNY-Farmingdale 12-4 15-4
5. Mount St. Mary 15-4 18-4

East
1. Cortland State 18-1 19-2
2. St. John Fisher 14-1 16-3
3. New York University 16-3 17-3
4. Hamilton 13-3 17-3
5. Rochester 11-5 14-6

Great Lakes
1. Wooster 16-1 20-1
2. Hope 13-1 19-1
3. Carnegie Mellon 13-2 17-3
4. Baldwin-Wallace 16-2 18-2
5. Wittenberg 14-2 19-2
6. Calvin 7-1 16-5

Mid-Atlantic
1. York (Pa.) 16-2 18-2
2. Widener 16-3 17-3
3. Ursinus 15-3 16-5
4. Lincoln 11-4 19-4
T5. Alvernia 14-3 17-4
T5. Johns Hopkins 14-3 16-4
7. Catholic 13-4 15-5
8. Messiah 13-5 14-7

Midwest
1. Lawrence 17-0 19-0
2. Augustana 18-0 19-1
3. Transylvania 17-3 18-3
T4. Carroll 16-2 18-2
T4. Illinois Wesleyan 11-3 17-3
6 Lakeland 14-3 18-5
7. North Central 10-4 16-4
8. Washington U. 10-5 13-7

Northeast
1. Amherst 19-1 20-2
2. Worcester Polytechnic 18-1 19-1
3. Tufts 16-3 17-4
4. Gordon 16-2 17-3
5. Bates 14-3 18-3
6. Williams 16-5 17-5
7. Trinity (Conn.) 13-3 16-4
8. Salem State 14-5 14-6
9. Norwich 12-3 12-5
10. Keene State 11-6 14-6

South
1. Mississippi College 17-1 19-1
2. Trinity (Texas) 12-2 16-5
3. Virginia Wesleyan 18-3 19-3
4. Fisk 9-2 14-7
5. Howard Payne 15-3 16-3
6. Randolph-Macon 14-5 17-5
7. Southwestern 12-4 16-5
8. Maryville (Tenn.) 13-5 17-5

West
1. Occidental 9-1 16-2
2. Puget Sound 12-1 17-3
3. UW-Stout 14-3 17-4
4. UW-La Crosse 15-5 17-5
5. Wartburg 15-3 17-4
6. Willamette 15-3 14-6
7. Carleton 12-4 15-5
8. UW-Whitewater 11-5 15-5

Women
Atlantic
1. Mary Washington 16-0 20-0
2. Mount St. Mary 17-2 19-2
3. Richard Stockton 16-3 17-4
4. Baruch 14-3 16-5
5. Catholic 13-6 15-6
6. New Jersey 12-6 13-7

Central
1. Maryville (Mo.) 10-0 16-4
2. Washington U. 12-2 18-2
3. Wheaton (Ill.) 12-2 17-3
4. Lawrence 14-2 18-2
5. Carroll 14-3 17-3
6. Illinois Wesleyan 12-4 15-6

East
1. Rochester 15-4 15-5
2. St. John Fisher 15-2 17-2
3. New York University 17-3 17-3
4. Cortland State 16-2 17-2
5. Medaille 17-1 18-1
6. William Smith 13-3 15-4

Great Lakes
1. DePauw 15-0 21-1
2. Baldwin-Wallace 17-0 19-2
3. Hope 16-1 19-1
4. Calvin 11-1 18-2
5. Capital 14-3 18-3
6. Otterbein 14-5 16-5

Mid-Atlantic
1. Scranton 14-0 20-1
2. Messiah 16-1 19-2
3. Muhlenberg 18-2 18-2
4. Johns Hopkins 13-2 16-4
5. Moravian 16-4 17-4
6. Gwynedd-Mercy 16-3 17-3

Northeast
1. Southern Maine 18-1 19-1
2. Bowdoin 15-2 18-2
3. Williams 15-3 18-3
4. Brandeis 15-3 15-3
5. Salem State 14-3 17-3
6. Bates 14-5 15-7
7. Wesleyan 14-4 15-6
8. Eastern Connecticut State 14-4 17-4

South
1. McMurry 18-1 20-1
2. Oglethorpe 16-2 18-3
3. Randolph-Macon 17-1 19-2
4. Hardin-Simmons 17-2 18-2
5. Mississippi College 16-3 16-3
6. Bridgewater (Va.) 17-4 17-4

West
1. Puget Sound 15-2 18-3
2. Pacific Lutheran 12-2 17-3
3. Simpson 12-0 17-3
4. St. Benedict 14-3 16-4
5. Concordia-Moorhead 14-4 15-5
6. Chapman 9-3 12-6

Jostens Trophy deadline approaching

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This post is partially to serve to remind schools that the nomination deadline is approaching for the Jostens Trophy. It’s also intended to explain what the award is and is not.

The award is not for the Division III basketball player of the year. The winner of the Jostens Trophy is chosen by a national selection committee (of which I am a member) that consists of college coaches, former athletes, college administrators, and selected members of the media. The members of the national selection committee cast their votes based on three criteria: basketball ability, academic ability, and community service.

It’s great to have an award that exemplifies the spirit of Division III. I just hope that voters remember the basketball portion of the award. There have been 16 winners of the award between men’s and women’s basketball since it was initiated for the 1997-98 season and I would say a half-dozen were very strong player of the year candidates.

To Sports Information Directors who are nominating players: If you’re borderline about your student-athlete’s academic and community service credentials, nominate anyway. Send it in and let the committee decide. The more nominees, the more credible the 10 finalists will be. I’ve seen finalists with GPAs below 3.00 (although that affected where I placed them on the ballot) and I’ve seen finalists whose only “community service” includes working basketball camps.

Those aren’t attractive on a nomination form, but they’re not unprecedented.

If you misplaced or did not receive the initial mailing from the award’s organizers, download it from the Old Dominion Athletic Conference’s Web site.

A nomination is complete upon receipt of:
1) the nomination form signed by the college president, VP, dean or athletics director.
2) a letter of recommendation from the college president, VP, dean or athletics director.
3) a letter of recommendation from the head basketball coach.

And ahem, if you’re not a coach, athletic director or Sports Information Director (I’m talking to you, parents) do NOT nominate your son or daughter. This isn’t high school.

I have candidates in mind, but I can only hope they will be nominated.