Don’t get me wrong — I love the Division I basketball tournament and I can derive a good amount of satisfaction from watching it, but it just isn’t the same. This time of the season I’m always dealing with incredible withdrawal symptoms.

I’ve been going full-bore at this since about mid-July, when we dove deep into preparations for Kickoff on D3football.com. So when the D-III tournament ends … there’s a lot of space to fill.

I know there are fans who feel the same way, and certainly there are players. We don’t often hear about the latter, but Steve Solloway of the Portland (Maine) Press Herald fills the void. He wrote this week about Southern Maine’s Ashley Marble, under the headline “Still driven, with no place to go.”

Best wishes to Marble, and all of this year’s seniors, filling whatever space might be left inside after the end of the season. After all, for me, there will be another season eventually, and my role doesn’t change as time goes on. For each year’s graduating class, the next fall is never the same.

Let me begin by extending my congratulations to the new national champions, the Amherst Lord Jeffs and the DePauw Tigers. Both teams were strong champions, defeating top-flight competition, and both are now unanimous champions of the D3Hoops.com polls. Despite being a frequent member of the top 10, this is the first time that DePauw has ever been ranked #1. Amherst held the top spot in two polls earlier this season, but this is their first unanimous selection as the poll’s top team. Congratulations to the champions!

Although there were several dramatic “Cinderella” runs, no team that reached either Final Four came into the tournament with a ranking lower than #11. However, three of the sectional finalists were unranked: Puget Sound and Kean among the women, and Brockport State for the men. These teams turned their magical March runs into final rankings of #10, #14, and #12, respectively.

Six of the eight Final Four teams were ranked in the preseason poll, and none of those six were lower than #12 at the season’s outset. Both of the eventual champions began the year with the #3 ranking. The men’s Final Four featured the teams ranked #1 through #3 in the preseason poll (Virginia Wesleyan, Wooster, and Amherst, respectively), whereas Washington U. was noticed by just one preseason voter. On the distaff side, the teams ranked #3 (DePauw), #8 (Mary Washington), and #12 (Washington U.) reached the Final Four, while 4th place NYU was in the “receiving votes” category.

With the season in the books, it seems a good time to update the record books:

Women’s records (of 124 total polls):
Most top 10 appearances: Washington U. 102
Most consecutive top 10 appearances: Bowdoin 89 (current)
Most top 25 appearances: Scranton 121
Most consecutive top 25 appearances: Washington U. 110
Most voting appearances: Hardin-Simmons, Scranton, Washington U. 124 (100%)

Men’s records (of 123 total polls):
Most top 10 appearances: Wooster 93
Most consecutive top 10 appearances: Wooster 53 (current)
Most top 25 appearances: Wooster 115
Most consecutive top 25 appearances: Amherst 78 (current)
Most voting appearances: Wooster 123 (100%)

Debutantes:
Women: #23 Denison parlayed their first-round elimination of defending champion Hope, as well as their first-ever NCAC championship, into their debut appearance in the top 25 poll. Hamilton and Manchester each qualified for the NCAA tournament, and received poll votes for the first time ever.
Men: Behind the record-setting play of national Player of the Year Ben Strong, #7 Guilford reached the sectional finals, and this week becomes the newest member of the Top Ten club. #24 Stevens reached the so-called “Sweet Sixteen,” and was rewarded with their first-ever Top 25 appearance. Plattsburgh State opened a few eyes with their first-round upset of Rochester, and for the first time received votes in the final poll.
Congratulations to the Big Red, the Conts, the Spartans, the Quakers, the Ducks, and the Cardinals!

Streakers:
Women: #7 Howard Payne is in the top 10 for the 10th straight poll. #18 Hope is a ranked team for the 30th consecutive time, and is a vote-getter for the 40th week in a row. #3 Mary Washington and #19 McMurry are on the list of vote-getters for the 30th straight time each, while #25 George Fox has attracted support in each of the last 10 polls.
Men: #8 Mississippi College is ranked team for the 25th straight week, and a member of the top 10 for the 10th week in a row. #3 Washington U. and #13 UW-Oshkosh are each ranked for the 10th straight time. Occidental received votes for the 25th consecutive poll. Both #5 Hope and #11 Augustana have received votes in 30 straight polls, but Puget Sound (54 weeks) and Ohio Northern (27 weeks) each saw lengthy voting streaks come to an end.

Milestones:
Women: #7 Howard Payne makes their tenth top 10 appearance this week, as well as their twentieth top 25 appearance. #13 Rochester is in the top 25 for the 60th time. #20 Simpson received votes for the 70th time, while William Paterson is now a twenty-time vote-getter.
Men: Sixth-ranked UW-Stevens Point saw its Final Four dream end prematurely, but this week makes its 100th appearance in the top 25 poll. Congratulations to the Pointers! Both #8 Mississippi College and #11 Augustana are top 25 teams for the 40th time. DePauw’s men can celebrate the championship won by their female counterparts, as well as their own 50th appearance in the men’s poll voting. #13 UW-Oshkosh is a vote-getter for the 90th time, joined by Widener (40 weeks), #22 Aurora (30 weeks), and Lake Erie (10 weeks).

High-Water Marks:
Women: First and foremost, congratulations to women’s champion DePauw, reaching the #1 slot for the first time in their history! Other all-time highs were set by #3 Mary Washington, #14 Kean, #15 Luther, and debutante #23 Denison.
Men: Top 10 debutante and seventh-ranked Guilford leads the men in this category, joined by #15 Rhode Island College and debutante #24 Stevens. Both #14 Carroll and #23 Brandeis tied their all-time highs.

Movers and Shakers:
Women: The final pairing of #1 DePauw and #2 Washington U. made two of the largest gains from the week 13 poll, gaining 232 and 233 points, respectively. The largest upward move was made by #10 Puget Sound, which ousted two top 12 teams and gained 324 points, vaulting into the top 10 from outside the poll. The defending champions took the largest tumble, as #18 Hope lost in the first round, shedding 304 points and thirteen poll placements.
Men: With a relatively unsurprising Final Four, the largest gains were recorded by teams making deep runs that ended short of Salem. #7 Guilford added 312 points and twelve poll positions after reaching the sectional finals. Brockport State had no votes in week 13, but was just an overtime period away from the Final Four. They gained 280 points and leapt into the final poll at #12. Carroll upset two teams in week 13’s top 10, a fact recognized by their gain of 263 points and move into the poll at #14. Carroll’s two victims, #10 St. Thomas (-209 points/5 spots) and #11 Augustana (-206/4), were the poll’s biggest losers.

Congratulations to all of the scholar-athletes, coaches, and others who made this fantastic season possible for us fans to enjoy. And we’ll see you in November!

Many years, we are the last ones out of the Salem Civic Center. It’s a working night for us, where we try to update the site before heading out and grabbing dinner and a couple of drinks.

So happy St. Patrick’s Day. The Purple and White will be wearing the green, and the Walnut and Bronze.

We’re the last ones on the floor, our crew and Diehardfan and David Collinge, posting Hall of Famers. The Amherst players left about 20 minutes ago, destined for the Golden Corral. No lie. I suggested to Dave Hixon, the D3hoops.com Coach of the Year by the way, that since the NCAA was paying for it, they might want to step up a couple classes in restaurant. But they don’t have all night, exactly. Might take a while to get served.

Congrats to Amherst and the NESCAC for adding another title. I asked in the postgame news conference whether the players had any extra glee over joining their archrival Williams in the pantheon of champions, and I think there is.

And congrats to DePauw and coach Kris Huffman for their title as well. We’ll leave it to our Springfield crew to wax poetic about the weekend.

We will post the All-American teams later tonight.

Please note the broadcast is available here.

Although this afternoon’s title game is a rematch of the season opener for Washington U and DePauw, I’ve a feeling these two teams are quite different — and a lot better — than they were back in November. The Bears certainly are as they’ve gone 24-2 since starting 1-3. Bondi scored 14 points for the Tigers in that first match-up, a 75-68 DePauw win.

Here are some keys to success for both teams…

DEPAUW

Don’t get killed on the glass:

Washington U has obliterated its last two opponents on the glass, outrebounding Puget Sound 47-31 in the sectional final and NYU 46-27 in the yesterday’s semis. Rebecca Parker and Jaimie McFarlin have made a living off second chance baskets and follow-up shots. DePauw needs its forwards to limit those.

Establish offense inside the arc:

As obvious as that sounds, there was a stretch in yesterday’s Mary Washington game where Tiger guards were taking a lot of long jumpers early in the shot clock. Fortunately, they were also following their shots and grabbing boards. That’ll be harder against Wash U so the Tigers need to get Liz Bondi and Bridge Bailey going to prevent the Bears from packing into a zone defense.

Critical players:

Liz Bondi has played like a tournament MVP so far. She has the athleticism, skill and court knowledge to be the best player on the floor. Cassie Pruzin struggled yesterday (0-5, 2 points) and needs to bounce back to her average (8.8 ppg).

X-Factor:

Emily Marshall is the kind of forward who can help neutralize the Bears’ Parker/McFarlin tandem. Bailey will likely play more minutes but, should she get in foul trouble, it’ll be up to Marshall to prevent the Bears from blasting the Tigers on the glass.

WASHINGTON U

Youth Movement:

As well as Parker and Schell have played during the tournament, it’s sophomore Jaimie McFarlin and freshman Zoe Unruh who push the Bears to another level. Unruh will likely have a size advantage on whoever guards her and McFarlin has an excellent array of low post moves.

Make your freethrows:

Wash U shoots free throws at a 63.2 percent clip, way below DePauw (73.0 percent). If the game is close late as expected, Parker and McFarlin will have to shoot better than their 45.1 and 60.8 percent average to win.

Critical players:

McFarlin is very talented and has played with a lot of poise in this tournament. If Bondi and her are matched up, that will be a lot of fun to watch. Much like Pruzin for DePauw, Sarah Schell did not play well last night (1 for 8 in 21 minutes) and looks to finish her career strong.

X-Factor:

The Bears don’t shoot threes very often, but Jill Brandt (35.7 percent) is probably the best candidate to take a late three. Unruh also has good range and the quick first step to get free.

The Wooster Scots are first on the floor to begin practice at the renovated Salem Civic Center. A new floor awaits the teams, which was first used during the Old Dominion Athletic Conference tournament.

New scoreboards, new floor, new end zone backdrops and blue, blue, blue everywhere.

One of the Wooster players comments that they are surprised there is no center-court scoreboard hanging from the rafters. Steve Moore stands and center court taking some notes…88:10 left on the clock.

Practices today are precisely 90 minutes for each team. No more, but less if they choose. Amherst will be next. More from Salem coming up.