Monthly Archives: January 2008

Top 25 News and Notes–Week 7

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This week, I decided to do some number-crunching to see what the historical Top 25 polls might have to say about which regions are the strongest. Be prepared to be bored, and don’t say you weren’t warned!

The first thing that leaps off the page at me is the balance in the men’s polls, relative to the women. At present, there are 386 non-provisional D3 men’s teams; of those, over one in three (138, 35.8%) have been ranked in at least one of the 131 polls taken since 1999. There are 23 more women’s programs, but 16 fewer teams (122, 29.8%) have cracked the poll (and there’s even been one extra women’s poll!) The same pattern holds when you look at voting patterns rather than rankings: nearly 60% of the men’s teams (229) have received votes, while less than half of the women’s programs (195) have earned voting support. What these data suggest to me is that the women’s game tends to be more concentrated at the top, with the best programs sticking in the poll, while the men’s teams have a slightly stronger tendency to come and go. This is perhaps underscored by the fact that there are now eight women’s programs that have been ranked in at least 100 polls, vs. just two for the men.

Looking at the men’s regions, it seems to be the conventional wisdom that the “strongest” regions have generally been the three westernmost–the West, Midwest, and Great Lakes—but the data doesn’t necessarily support this. The Midwest (48%) and West (44.4%) have each produced 24 ranked teams, but third on this list is not the Great Lakes (17) but the South (20 teams). These two regions are roughly equal on percentage terms, as the south is a larger region (33 to 26), meaning that about 40% of each region has been ranked. The four eastern regions lag far behind, with 17 teams each from the large Northeast (24%) and smaller Mid-Atlantic (33%), and less than 30% of the East (10) and Atlantic (9), having been ranked. The voting patterns are somewhat more balanced, with each of the West, Midwest, and South regions having two-thirds of their current members receiving votes, leading the Great Lakes (62%), East (57%), Atlantic (56%), and Northeast (49%).

The women’s polling has been much more balanced. The Central Region (20 ranked teams out of 52 non-provisionals, 38.5%) is on top, but only the Atlantic (11/46, 24%) is more than 12 percentage points behind. The voting show a greater discrepancy, with the Great Lakes a clear leader at 61%, 9 percentage points ahead of the second-place Central. Perhaps this suggests that the Great Lakes has a number of good-but-not-great programs (15 that have received votes but never enough to reach #25), while the Central is filled with haves (20 ranked teams) and have-nots (25 programs that have yet to receive their first vote) with little (7 schools) in between.

On a somewhat related note, by virtue of the three points earned by Middlebury this week, the NESCAC becomes the seventh men’s conference to have every team receive votes at one time or another. (The other six are the HCAC, NJAC, OAC, UAA, USA-South, and WIAC.) Of these, the WIAC stands alone as the only conference in which each team has been ranked. There are four other men’s conferences that are one program short of 100% participation (CCIW, Empire 8, LEC, and NEWMAC), and one conference that is one team away from joining the WIAC with every team ranked: the CCIW (and that team is Millikin.) This is all in sharp contrast to the women, where the only conference to have every team receive votes is the UAA (and all but Emory have been ranked), and just two conferences (HCAC and NESCAC) are one team short.

For those of you who are still awake, on with the categories!

Debutantes:
Women: Two excellent women’s programs that have recently been overshadowed by their male counterparts stepped into the limelight this week. #11 Amherst, one of the dwindling number of unbeatens left, cracked the Top 25 for the first time ever. Down in Jersey, the Stevens Ducks are out to an 8-0 start in the Empire 8, and this week joined the voting rolls for the first time.
Men: Used to success in a wide variety of sports, Middlebury College can now add men’s basketball to their list of honored programs, as the Panthers become the 10th and final NESCAC member to debut as vote-getters in the D3Hoops.com poll.
Congratulations to the Lord Jeffs, Ducks, and Panthers!

Streakers:
Women: Third-ranked NYU, in addition to reaching a pair of significant milestones (see below), extended their streak of Top 25 appearances to 20 weeks. Both #11 Kean and #12 Randolph-Macon have now received votes in 10 straight polls, while Brandeis saw their own voting streak come to an end after 62 weeks.
Men: #3 Amherst finds itself among the Top 10 for the 30th straight week, while #22 Virginia Wesleyan has an ongoing Top 25 streak of identical duration. VWC’s conference mate #17 Guilford has received votes in 20 straight polls, ten more than Amherst’s archrival #8 Williams.

Milestones:
Women: The Violets of #3 NYU are ranked for the 100th time in this poll, with 60 of those rankings being within the Top 10. Ninth-ranked Simpson and #16 George Fox each made their 50th appearance in the Top 25 this week. Other Top 25 milestones reached this week include #15 Southern Maine (110 weeks), #12 Randolph-Macon and #24 Cortland St. (40 weeks), #25 Puget Sound (30), #18 Illinois Wesleyan (20), and #6 Thomas More (10 weeks.) IWU also reached a voting milestone, appearing on the list of vote-getters for the 30th time, a distinction they share with #20 Medaille.
Men: This week marks the 75th time that #3 Amherst has been ranked among the Top 10 teams. Both #2 Brandeis and #4 Mary Hardin-Baylor are ranked for the 10th time. #8 Williams received votes for the 90th time; #17 Guilford and #24 Carnegie Mellon are twenty-time vote-getters, and #15 Stevens received support for the 10th week.

High-Water Marks:
Women: New all-time highs were achieved this week by #2 Howard Payne, #6 Thomas More, #14 Tufts, and Top 25 debutante #22 Amherst. Both #8 McMurry and #20 Medaille equaled their previous high-water mark.
Men: Fourth-ranked Mary Hardin-Baylor and #20 Centre reached new all-time high rankings this week, while #2 Brandeis tied their best-ever mark.

Movers and Shakers:
Women: It seems like the same story every week: the largest moves were again the downward ones. #18 Illinois Wesleyan lost to 2005 champion Millikin, costing them 161 points and 8 poll positions. #24 Cortland St. had their hopes of an undefeated season ended by new #23 William Smith, resulting in a 159-point, 8 position drop for the Dragons and a best-of-the-week 62 point gain for the Herons.
Men: Unbeaten Mass.-Dartmouth was the week’s biggest gainer, adding 104 points in their five-slot gain to #14. Five teams each fell at least four places on the average ballot after losing this week: #18 Wheaton (IL) (-129 points), #9 Augustana (-120), #17 Guilford (-118), Lewis & Clark (-114), and #22 Virginia Wesleyan (-101.)

Opening night moved to Nov. 15

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It’s Monday at the NCAA convention, the day in which Division III member schools vote on the various legislative proposals.

It’s not a day in which they will vote on whether to split into two divisions. We have at least another year before that happens, and perhaps more, since we’ve heard discussion that it may be delayed from its planned 2009 convention date. But there are other proposals on the docket as well that will have an impact on Division III.

The basketball season will start on Nov. 15 in 2008 and in the future after a vote that passed 248-185 with two abstentions. Currently Oct. 15 is the first date of practice but the date of the first game is subject to the calendar (the Friday before Thanksgiving). This would make it more consistent, though Opening Night would float during the week as Nov. 15 does.

This means the 2008 season will open a whole six nights earlier than usual, 12 days before Thanksgiving … and the night before Division III football’s Selection Sunday!

The usage of male practice players was restricted in women’s sports, in another key vote. It passed narrowly, 223-206 with 17 abstentions (presumably from single-gender schools). It allows use only one day a week, among other cutbacks. Practice players must be declared eligible and use a season of intercollegiate eligibility in order to participate. Only three men can be used in a basketball practice, six in soccer, three in volleyball, or half of the typical starting lineup, rounded up.

Division III members voted overwhelmingly to ban text messaging to prospective recruits. Or, more specifically, they voted to limit electronic transmission of correspondence with recruits to e-mail and faxes. So, no text messages, no Facebook/MySpace, no IMs, etc. It passed by a vote of 362-72 with two abstentions, with good turnout from Division III schools.

A proposal to allow student-athletes to work at schools’ camps passed overwhelmingly as well, 425-13 with two abstentions.

Further proposals of note got voted down, then withdrawn. A proposal to allow provisional Division III members to be counted toward meeting a league’s seven-member automatic bid requirements failed 252-185-7. This was a proposed amendment to another proposal that was then withdrawn. Another proposal, to lift the ban on new single-sport conferences, was pulled from the agenda. This primarily affects women’s ice hockey but could have a football impact as well.

It’s important to note that, while many people assume that rules in Division III come down from the NCAA national office as if engraved on stone tablets, in fact Division III schools vote on all legislation and the membership shapes the rules.

From the Chase: Rochester’s big week

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Last week was big and this week will be even bigger for the No. 1 team in the country. Rochester hosts NYU on Friday to get back into the UAA schedule before No. 2 Brandeis comes to town on Sunday afternoon. Gordon Mann’s trip to the Chase Tournament gave D3hoops.com a chance to find out, up close and personal.

Remember, success isn’t new to the Rochester seniors, who played in the national championship game as freshmen. How is this year’s team different and, with No. 2 Brandeis coming to town on Sunday, are they ready for UAA play? Jon Onyiriuka has the answers in an interview below.

Despite the geographic dispersion of Rochester’s conference rivals, women’s coach Jim Scheible was concerned the Yellowjackets were too “scoutable” last year. Listen to how they’ve addressed that this season.

And picture traveling to Chicago and St. Louis. Cleveland and Atlanta. New York and Boston. That could be the weekend schedule for an NBA team’s charter jet but instead it’s just another weekend in the UAA. Yellowjacket junior Julie Marriott explains what life is like in Division III’s frequent-flyer miles conference.

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Following the Chase

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From Rochester, New York, welcome to the JP Morgan Chase Scholarship Basketball Tournament.

Each winter for 42 years the colleges from this area have gathered for a men’s basketball tournament. In 1992-1993 the women’s teams joined the fun. And while the name has changed with the times and bank mergers, it’s still a great event and a good opportunity to put eyes on a slew of East region teams at once.

On the women’s side, St. John Fisher plays NAIA Division II Roberts Wesleyan in the third place game (1 pm), which we’ll broadcast live. Obviously the game has no impact on the Cardinals’ Division III season, but it does matter to Coach Phil Kahler’s quest for 800 wins. He entered the season with 784 wins and the Cardinals won 13 last year, needing a three-win improvement to get him the milestone.

The championship (5:30 pm) features No. 22 Rochester, the top seed in the tournament, and cinderella-story Nazareth, the seventh seed. Tough to see the Golden Flyers (5-7) hanging with the Yellow Jackets, but they weren’t supposed to win the first two games either. JC DeLass and WYSL do a fantastic job so we’ll just link to their broadcast below.

The men’s games should be particularly interesting given the depth of this year’s field. The third place game features two teams who are likely to see a lot of each other, Geneseo State and Brockport State. In fact, they’ll see each other again on Tuesday night to re-open conference play.


The Knights picked up their first loss last night after Nazareth rallied from a double-digit second half deficit. The Golden Eagles have played better this week after dropping three straight to start the New Year. They pushed No. 1 Rochester to the limit last night. But it’s tough to have a moral victory and lose five of six so Brockport needs the win here today against Geneseo State (3 pm). We’ll broadcast that one.

The men’s title game (8 pm) is a rematch from earlier this year, won by Rochester 68-51. The Unpronouncables (Onyiriuka and Ndubizu) combined for 42 points and 21 rebounds in that one. Nazareth is playing without injured Ryan McAdam but has already had a nice showing in the tournament. WYSL will carry that broadcast.

Webcasts

1 pm : Roberts Wesleyan 79 St. John Fisher 67 F
3 pm: Brockport State 83 Geneseo State 59 F
5:30 pm: Rochester 83 Nazareth 46 F
8:00 pm: Rochester 87 Nazareth 75 F

In addition to the broadcasts, we’ll keep the blog updated throughout the day and post coaches interviews later. So check back in between all the other big games, the NFL playoffs and whatever else your Saturday entails.

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What D3 basketball players get for Christmas…

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We are three junior women who play basketball for Oglethorpe University. We would like to share with you the life of a D3 basketball player. We will recap our Christmas break.

The campus was a buzz about the ensuing month long winter break. The women’s basketball team was excited about the 9 day break we received! While everyone else was joyously stuffing there face with chocolate cookies, mac & cheese, Aunt Kathy’s chocolate cake, or anything that tasted delicious, we had to watch what we ate! We knew that we could not return to the gym as big as buses and slow as snails.

On Christmas Eve we were all snug in our beds dreaming of good ol’ Saint Nick and his presents. But the real excitement came when we realized the real Santa, aka Coach Sattele, had many more surprises in store for us. Once we anxiously returned we received these surprises. What else could they be but two-a-days and game film! What else would a girl need?!

No matter how grueling two-a-days can be we all knew that this was something that needed to be done to rise above the competition. We willingly sacrifice our break because we love the game and want to be the best. The goals we have set this year are high. We want to go as far as possible in the NCAA tournament as we can. We are not practicing two-a-days to have another disappointing ending, what team does? Now that the break is almost over we’re looking forward to the second half of the season. There will be more blogs to come just so you can really get into our basketball shoes!