There has been some exciting moments in the 12 Days of Championships so far. But now the real fun starts.
It starts with a blitz of automatic bids given out over the next four days, starting in Reading, Pennsylvania where Alvernia hosts Wesley for the Pennsylvania Athletic Conference Men’s Championship. D3hoopsNet carries the action starting at 6:50 PM.
Here are three other games that should get the blood flowing…
– Last Chance: In 2003 Adam TeBrake (pictured), John Wippler and Trent Hollerich were just a couple plays away from a national championship. The Golden Gusties had an unbelievable run through the NCAA Tournament, falling just short in the title game to Williams.
Now that trio is in their final push to try to capture what they nearly had four years ago. It’s probably a conference title or else for Gustavus Adolphus, who did not crack this week’s regional rankings. They travel to Carleton for the MIAC semifinals (8:30 PM EST).
– One more time: The team who brought home the Walnut and Bronze twice since GAC’s trip to the finals can get a step closer to defending their title tonight. UW-Stevens Point travels to No. 14 UW-Stout in the WIAC Men’s Semifinals (8 PM EST).
– Leave No Doubt: Another NWC team in another sport used that catch phrase a couple years ago. But it could also apply to the NWC women who have only received the automatic bid to the tournament the past couple seasons.
With the expanded tournament, would No. 21 Puget Sound make it even without the AQ? Why leave it to chance – they need to take care of business in their rubber match with Whitman.
While this is the wrong space for it…is the NCAA’s Sunday/Monday bracket announcement possibly intended to give them some more time Sunday night in order to try to better balance the brackets/regions?
One can hope…
Totally.
From a men’s perspective…
There are only about three or four finals on Sunday, but the last one, the Centennial, won’t end until around 4pm ET. If Ursinus doesn’t win, that’s another Pool C most likely. ASC also determines afternoon on Sunday.
Announcing the teams who have made it takes one major item off the plate…giving the committee time to analyze seedings and best pairings will possibly help us avoid rushed pairings that might make sense immediately, but might not have been the best option after some detailed review (which we of course provide).
And hopefully this also allows them to avoid a killer bracket/split some of the strongest regions from having some of the best teams meet so early…
I think the 4 team pods could help in this regard because there’s going to be flights in the second weekend no matter what because the 2nd game that weekend will be between regions. So, since teams will be flying anyway(at least as I see it), it would allow them to possibly have say the winner one group of four from the men’s great lakes fly to a different place than the winner of the other group of four. Of course, this reduces the regional effect of the tournament and wouldn’t give that team homecourt, but it’s theoretically possible…
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