Although there are a lot of mismatches in the first round since the expansion to 59 and 63 teams we still had a first round to remember. All those 2-15 games and 4-13 games didn’t exist in the old bracket.
As it turns out, Hope’s title defense in women’s basketball lasted only one round longer than the previous four attempts. Remember that the 2002-05 champs didn’t even make the field the next year. And Hope, the 2006 champ, went just 40 minutes longer than UW-Stevens Point, Trinity (Texas), Wilmington and Millikin before getting bounced by Denison. The depleted Calvin women advanced as well.
On the men’s side, Hope and Calvin set up an unprecedented fifth meeting of the season, where they will pack Aurora’s Thornton Gymnasium for a second-round game. Only seems appropriate now that the winner of the five-game series will move on.
Stevens, the subject of grumbling around the NJAC (basically, since they don’t play any of us, they can’t possibly be a tournament team) put up in the first round. I had one NJAC insider telling me they’d lose by 30. I countered that, no, it would be more like 71-59. Final score 68-57. Oh wait, they won? Shoot. Well, still better than a 30-point blowout loss. The Ducks absolutely could beat Ramapo.
And last night showed the importance of hosting the regionals — only one host team in men’s (Aurora) and one in women’s (UW-Stout) lost. The rest advanced.
Looking forward to hearing more about the Wheaton/St. Ben’s game, Johns Hopkins/Villa Julie and others.
Hope and Calvin, Best-three-out-of-five, and a neutral site at that, ought to be videostreamed.
I am hoping that by the 2009-10 season the videostreaming efforts (e.g., Wheaton IL, Midwest Conference, MissColl-ICS) have given us some cost-effective options.
If an NJAC insider suggested a 30 pt. Stevens loss I’d suggest that insider hasn’t seen any other D3 games and should get out more. The NJAC just isn’t a power conference right now.
On the other hand, it is fairly strange that Stevens can go through an entire season by playing only one other out of conference game against other New Jersey competition (a loss to FDU). Especially since you can hop in the car in Hoboken and hit 11 other D3 New Jersey schools on one tank of gas.
Can Ramapo lose tonight? Sure. Just like they lost to Kean and Montclair — two teams that didn’t even make the six-team NJAC playoffs. The question is did the Skyline really deserve two teams — and from an NJAC fan’s perspective — how would have Stevens performed with multiple games against NJCU, Rowan, Ramapo, NJCU, etc?
Stevens was 0-6 against NJAC teams from 2002-2005. They haven’t played an NJAC team since. Not to suggest that Stevens can’t compete and win tonight, but somewhere along the way the Ducks decided it wasn’t in their best interest to play several NJAC teams per year.
Well, before I fulfill my informational obligation, I want to commend UW-Stout on a well played game. Last year, in the second round, Stout and Simpson met up in Indianola, Iowa, and had a repeat performance of this year’s game…. The road team won. It was a fast-paced, knock’em out full-court battle that made me swear I was at a men’s basketball game.
St. Benedict met last year’s fate and fell out in the first round, but this time on a mutually accepted case of the worst referees seen in collegiate basketball by most spectators I talked to.
At the end of the first half all the talk in the hallways was this bad call or that bad call. St. Benedict looked as strong as I had seen them play against Gustavus Adolphus the previous weekend in the blizzard and, I must admit, I was in shock at the level of game Wheaton (Ill.) brought to the court. With both teams playing their A game there is no reason this should have gone to one overtime, let alone two.
In the first overtime there were 6 Wheaton players on the court when the Blazers inbounded the ball and the junior (only by appearances) referee said it was his fault and whistled the clock stopped, the player to the table, and the ball re-inbounded. The player in question went to the bench, immediately stepped on the court and was never buzzed or whistled in. A text book technical foul. One of those two free throws being made could have easily ended the game after 45 minutes instead of going to 50. One of the St. Benedict broadcasters turned to me after the game and said Tonight the headline on D3hoops.com should read “ROBBED” next to a photo of [the St. Benedict] bench. Personally, I think the everyone was robbed of a fair, well-refereed basketball game.
But I digress. We cannot change the past errors of the men and women in black and white.
Having seen these two teams play last night I would definitely say it will be a close one tonight, my edge goes to Simpson.
Your front page headline article of the moment poses the questions “…will Wash U be able to turn it on against Whitworth after never trailing in a 77-58 win against Fontbonne? And does Whitworth have anything left in the tank after an overtime buzzer-beating win against DePauw?”
Believe me, Whitworth had better have something left after one of the slowest paced, most boring basketball game I’ve ever seen. They play a very effective zone defense and DePauw was content to pass the ball around the perimeter most of the game last night, being unable to get it inside, then settle for a 3 point shot. Whitworth didn’t break a sweat until about 5 minutes left in the game.
I think Wash U will solve Whitworth’s zone, make them work hard, and yes, will be able to turn it on. Whitworth basically only played 6 men last night. The other two who saw action played a combine 5 minutes. Whitworth’s apparent lack of depth will be exposed tonight and Wash U will move on.
As I sit here getting ready to broadcast tonight’s 2nd round game between #19 Guilford and Johns Hopkins, I can’t help to think about last night.
In the first game… Manhattanville didn’t have a chance against a much bigger and much more mature team in Guilford. The 20 point spread was true for most of the second half last night.
In the other game, Villa Julie controled all but the last seven minutes of play. They got out to a big start… handled the big Hopkins runs (and the clocked helped stop a major 11-0 run by the Blue Jays to end the half).
As much as Hopkins tried to tie the game, the Mustangs would hold on and then extend their lead. Over and over… the Blue Jays would make a run… then have a key turnover and soon were down double-digits.
Hopkins finally caught fire… and a team that was playing tight early… started to play relaxed… and that was the difference. Hopkins found new ways to run the offense and Villa Julie got stuck in a rut at the wrong time.
Two back to back three pointers by Doug Polster helped the Blue Jays tie the game and then take the lead.
It was back and forth for much of the last seven minutes… before Hopkins put the Mustangs away. 16 of the last 18 points were scored by Hopkins… and as much as Coach Adams tried to get his team to run their offense… it wasn’t to be.
Tonight… great match up between two teams with size inside. Strong vs. Griffin will be a great match up tonight… and could decide the game.
Well so far Stevens is making me eat my words, they blew up my bracket. I really thought Ramapo was poised for a good run through the tournament. Stevens win against Ramapo impresses me, especially since the report that Truck wrote on the game said Stevens was able to stop Ramapo every time they started to make a run. Good win Ducks.
There is one thing i just can’t understand. How do you take the number 1 seed in the Atlantic Region and send them to Baltimore to play at Johns Hopkins University against Guilford one of the best teams in the country. I thought that’s why you play all year to get a high seed and home court advantage. Manhattanville who won the Skyline Conference and had a better record then Stevens and Ramapo but yet they were shipped out to a tougher bracket. Stevens who some think shouldn’t even be in the tournament played their games only a few miles away.Try to leave politics out of sports.
Why would you jump to politics? That’s pretty petty.
Ramapo was the No. 1 seed in the Atlantic region, not Manhattanville.