Daily Archives: January 3, 2008

Southern Hospitality: Coaches speak

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That’s “coaches speak” rather than “coachspeak” because I felt like we got some really well thought-out responses in speaking to coaches on the Southern Hospitality tour this week in the deep South.

In all I talked to 13 coaches with the recorder rolling, as well as a couple of others. Most interviews were preceded or followed by some more discussion off the record. Those discussions are great background for me to use in understanding what’s going on.

But I spotlight four coaches in this section, three of them from Georgia and one from Alabama. They have varying levels of experience in Division III and in coaching, varying lengths of time at their schools. But if you listen, you’ll hear some common themes.

For Mitch Cole, at Birmingham-Southern, it’s building a team from scratch. The program itself has been there throughout, obviously, with the infrastructure in place. But every player is new this year after the school did not field a team last season. The things that have to be micromanaged by the coach are somewhat surprising. Listen to his interview for more.

For Philip Ponder, at Oglethorpe, it’s a battle to grow into a competitive program with a young team.

For Lee Glenn, at Piedmont, the concern is getting numbers into the program. And taking care of a newborn baby, as his wife gave birth about five hours after this interview concluded. (Congrats!)

For Jason Zimmerman, at Emory, it’s also getting adjusted to Division III. He’s new to Emory, with a team that has six seniors but not a lot of experience. He has something to say about how Division III players compare with Division I players, having coached at both levels.

But the benefits of some of the schools are interesting as well. Listen in to each take.

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Top 25 News and Notes–Week 5

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Continuing the electoral tradition started by their forebearers, the women’s and men’s poll voters struggled through waist-high snow to once again caucus last night to cast their votes for the top D3 teams in the country. The Week 5 caucuses have always been seen as a crucial step in securing the nomination of the pollsters; exactly half of the teams ranked #1 in Week 5 have gone on to the regular season poll championship, with three of those 9 teams going on to win national championships.

This year, the men’s voters stuck with the front-runner, Rochester, while the women’s caucus showed its belief in “a school called Hope.”

Rochester had held a slight poll advantage on Brandeis in the weeks leading up to last night’s caucus, and they maintained their slight advantage, outpolling the Judges by 14 points. Finishing a strong third was UW-Stevens Point, a program which had won two of the last three Week 5 caucuses, each time parlaying that victory into a regular season poll championship in March (and, in 2005, winning the national election in Salem.)

On the women’s side, Mary Washington had held a lead in the polls since the beginning of the electoral cycle, but was widely seen to have been bested in Sunday’s debate with #2 UW-Whitewater, causing them to tumble to a fifth-place finish in the caucuses. Moving up to seize the victory was Hope, the 2006 champions and host for this year’s election. Howard Payne, which despite its masculine-sounding name is a candidate for the women’s nomination, was edged out of second-place by the hard-charging Warhawks from Whitewater.

Although unable to garner enough support to crack the Top 25 finishers, the women of Washington U. did receive some caucus support, becoming the only program to attract votes in each of the 130 women’s caucuses. I say “only” because, for the first time ever, nobody attending the women’s caucus was willing to cast a vote for Scranton. The Royals, winners of the Week 5 caucus in the 2004-05 season, have been ranked in all but seven of the polls taken in the 8+ year history of the women’s caucuses, and reached the #1 overall ranking three times in that span. Wash U. may not be far behind them, as one gaffe or misstep may cost them the scant seven votes they received last night.

Rochester and Hope each have tough debates in their immediate futures. Hope will travel to Grand Rapids next week to square off with arch-rival Calvin, while the Yellow Jackets will participate in the always-tough Chase Tournament against a field that includes #11 Brockport St. But for this week, to the victor belong the spoils, and it’s on to New Hampshire!

Debutantes:
Women: A debutante of sorts, the six first-place votes earned by UW-Whitewater were the first in that program’s history. Whitewater becomes the 35th program to receive votes for #1 in the 130 week history of the women’s poll.
Men: The unbeaten Coast Guard Bears received their first-ever poll vote this week. Congratulations!

Streakers:
Women: Although it can hardly compare to Scranton’s and Wash U.’s streaks, Calvin had an impressive 37-poll voting streak come to an end this week. #3 Howard Payne has now received votes in 25 straight polls, and in each of them they have been within the Top 25. Other programs extending votes-received streaks include #22 Rochester at 30 weeks, #21 Medaille at 25 weeks, and #10 Illinois Wesleyan and #19 Lake Forest, each at 20 weeks. #6 Messiah has now been in the Top 25 in 80 consecutive polls, with the team they beat in Cancun, #12 DePauw, a little over a year behind at 60 straight weeks. The teams ranked fourth and fifth, NYU and Mary Washington, each extended their Top 10 streaks to ten weeks.
Men: Worcester Polytech joins the list of programs with lengthy voting streaks snapped; the Engineers had been mentioned in the last 43 polls but received no votes this week. #2 Brandeis extended its voting streak to 20 weeks, while #3 UW-Stevens Point has been a Top 10 team in 20 straight polls.

Milestones:
Women: Top-ranked Hope celebrates its 100th week as a Top 25 team in style, ascending to the top of a regular-season poll for the first time ever. #11 UW-Stevens Point is ranked for the 70th time overall, while the No-Nicknames of #8 McMurry are a Top 10 team for the tenth time. Poll veterans #4 NYU and #15 Southern Maine each notched their 120th week of being among the vote-getters, while #22 Rochester received votes for the 80th time.
Men: Fifth-ranked Williams is a Top 25 team for the 70th time; other ranking milestones were reached by #14 Elmhurst (30 times), #25 Occidental (20 appearances), and #23 Mass.-Dartmouth (10 weeks.) Williams’ archrival, #4 Amherst, is listed among the vote-getters for the 110th time, joining #15 Wheaton (IL) (90 weeks), Rowan (40), Elizabethtown (30), and #2 Brandeis (20) in reaching votes-received milestones.

High-Water Marks:
Women: Second-ranked UW-Whitewater has reached a new poll high each week this season. #7 Thomas More, and #17 Tufts also set new high-water marks, while #8 McMurry and #10 Illinois Wesleyan tied their highest-ever rankings.
Men: #2 Brandeis and #13 Stevens have set or matched new high-water marks in every 2007-08 poll, and this week was no exception.

Movers and Shakers:
Women: The pattern all season has been that the major poll moves have been downward, and this week is no exception. Four teams experienced drops of over 100 points, led by #5 Mary Washington (-119 points and 4 slots) and #25 Oglethorpe (-118/-8), while no team gained more than 99 points (that being #2 UW-Whitewater, which moved up three places.)
Men: #14 Elmhurst beat then-#8 Hope in Orlando and was rewarded with a 140-point and 7-position gain in the poll. #20 Capital (-148 points and 8 poll placements) and #12 Guilford (-135/-6) suffered the largest drops for the week. Two programs bypassed the “Others Receiving Votes” category altogether: #25 Occidental heading up (going from 0 points last week to 80 this week), and then-#24 Calvin heading out (no votes this week, after receiving 70 in the last poll.)

Streakin’ into 2008

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With the season revving up again, it’s worth noting the eight teams who are still undefeated. That means they haven’t lost to any opponent yet, regardless of their level of play. Sorry, Puget Sound and Lewis & Clark, but it was too difficult to make these lists using only Division III games.

There are three other teams that sport double-digit winning streaks in conference, none of whom are ranked. Then there are those teams who are still looking for their first win.

Without further adieu – and with a nod to the folks on the message boards who are tracking this stuff – here are a few streaks to watch the rest of the way.

Undefeated

Most of these teams have a winning streak as long as their list of games played this season. That makes sense – good teams win games and make the playoffs, at least in their conference, where they eventually lose or win the national title.

Elizabethtown is the exception to the rule. The Blue Jays have 10 wins overall dating back to last season when they missed the four-team MAC Commonwealth playoff. They head to York (Pa.) this weekend where they’ll face fellow bluebirds Johns Hopkins. If E-town leaves town with two Ws, its next big test will be January 19 at home versus DeSales (8-1).

Here are the other undefeated teams with their next big test.

– Elizabethtown (9-0, 10 wins overall)
– Williams (10-0): From 0 to difficult in 8 days, the Ephs play winless Mitchell on Friday and archrival Amherst on January 12.
– Rochester (9-0): Next weekend’s Chase Tournament is very deep with ranked Brockport State, upstart Nazareth and undefeated Geneseo State involved.
– Coast Guard (8-0): After Lesley on Saturday, the Bears won’t be able to coast by WPI (7-3) to start NEWMAC play.
– Emerson (8-0): The Lions play Rivier, who gave No. 15 Wheaton (Ill.) a fight before falling in overtime. Later Emerson travels to Nashua to play Rivier on the road. I’m really fighting the urge to make a “Lake and Palmer” joke here.
– Mass-Dartmouth (8-0): Next week the Corsairs play Salem State (9-1), who appears on this list for a different good reason.
– Stevens (8-0): The Ducks have a big weekend ahead at RIT and Nazareth (7-1). Other than a win against CCNY (1-10), Stevens hasn’t played a road game this year.
– Geneseo State (6-0): The Chase Tournament looms large for the Knights as it does for Rochester

Masters of their domain

Here are the longest active winning streaks in conference play, dating back to last year or longer if necessary. This includes conference playoff games but not games against conference opponents in the NCAA tournament. Why? Because. So there.

– Aurora: 14 straight in NATHC
– Salem State: 12 straight in MASCAC
– Centre: 10 straight in SCAC
– Manhattanville: nine straight in Skyline; plays in MAC Freedom this year
– Averett: nine straight in USAC
– Wooster: nine straight in NCAC

I feel your pain

I’ve never played for an undefeated team, but I’ve played for a winless one. If you’re a competitive person, it’s painful beyond words. Since I’ve also played on a one-win team, I also know that one win makes a huge difference. Here’s hoping all these guys are on the right side of at least one score this year.

– Rockford (0-9 this season, 18 straight overall)
– Albertus Magnus (0-8, 14 overall)
– Mitchell (0-10, 13 overall)
– Delaware Valley (0-9, 12 overall)
– Alma (0-11, 11 overall)
– Denison (0-11, 11 overall)
– St. Mary’s (Minn.) (0-9, 11 overall)
– Philadelphia Bible (0-9, 11 overall)
– Colorado College (0-10, 10 overall)
– Maine-Presque Isle (0-7, 10 overall)
– Monmouth (0-8, 9 overall)

Something’s gotta give

You may already know who heads the list for longest active conference losing streak. According to my count, Caltech hasn’t won a SCIAC game in (5^3 + 4^3 + 3^3 + 2^5 + (1 x 11)) tries. But they can probably point out multiple math errors in that last sentence. At least one of these teams is guaranteed to drop off the list since Centenary moved into the PnAC and plays Marywood twice.

– Caltech: 259 straight in SCIAC
– Austin: 17 straight in SCAC/ASC
– Centenary: 17 straight in PnAC/Skyline
– Marywood: 16 straight in PnAC
– Crown: 16 straight in UMAC
– Lynchburg: 14 straight in ODAC
– Elmira: 14 straight in Empire 8
– Bard: 13 straight in NEAC/Skyline
– Rockford: 13 straight in NATHC
– Luther: 12 straight in IIAC
– MCLA: 11 straight in MASCAC
– Beloit: 10 straight in MWC

If time permits, I’d like to get the list of undefeated and winless women’s teams. And I’m sure there are errors with the men’s lists. In fact, I made them…uh…on purpose. Yeah, that’s it. On purpose. So go ahead, see if you can find them and post them below. Please?