20 thoughts on “Women’s Field of 63”

1. Albion, 19-6 with 3 losses to unbeaten Hope. Shame they aren’t in the tournament.

2. haha, might as well put the women’s record instead of the men’s.

   Albion women 22-5, 3 losses to unbeaten Hope.

3. Howard Payne Women are going to win it all this year. No one can touch them.

4. You got all but one of the Pool C bids right…well done. Except for the folks in Ada, Ohio. How does this one difference affect the projected brackets?

5. Most accurately, they picked all but the 21st Pool C bid, and that one bid was selected over the other seven teams that were on the table at the time.

   Albion, 17-4 in-region. I think that you needed about three more Great Lakes region wins. The Muskingum win did not help at all, and Transylvania did not make it into the final (unpublished) Great Lakes Region Rankings.

6. Ralph, I bet one win over Hope for Albion would have done it. They had Hope down 13 at home and ended up losing 64-62. They’d be 18-3 in region and would hold a win over a regionally ranked opponent. OWP might not have mattered if that had happened.

7. Yes, you are right.

8. In projecting the bracket, the first step is to do mock regional rankings to determine the order by which teams would receive at-large bids in their own region. For the Great Lakes, we had Wilmington, ONU and Albion in that order. Had DePauw lost, they would’ve been ahead of all three.

   Albion was tough to slot any higher because they never appeared in the regional rankings and there was no guarantee they were on the last one either.

   Looking at the numerical criteria, they were really hurt by the strength of schedule measures — .503 OWP and .519 OOWP as of last night. As Sac pointed out, the Britons were also 0-0 versus regionally ranked teams.

   While it’s tough to look at any one team in isolation and there are two completely different bodies picking the brackets, this should give Albion men’s fans pause, too. The Britons have a OWP of .465 and OOWP of .501. They do, however, have at least one win against a regionally ranked opponent. Depending on whether IWU and OWU make the rankings, Albion is between 1-2 and 2-3.

9. Gordon, wasn’t Albion 0-3 versus Hope? A win would have made them 1-2 versus Hope, a regionally ranked team. I may have assumed that a regular season win over Hope would have been worth more than I thought.

   I hope that the NCAA will explore the challenges that geographically isolated areas have with the OWP/OOWP. The lower peninsula has the same problem with “low” OWP/OOWP’s that the “southwest” does.

10. Sorry, Ralph, you’re correct. We had Albion 0-3, not 0-0. Hope was certainly in our last regional rankings. 🙂

11. I can’t believe Virginia Wesleyan did not get an at-large bid. They win the ODAC, then lose in the conference finals on a last minute shot. They should be in the field, no doubt.

12. I am new to D3 hoops but how are Howard Payne and Hope on the same side of the bracket being #1 and #2? Wouldn’t you want them in the finals. My niece plays for Howard Payne that’s why I am following it now.

13. Can someone explain how a 21-6 Cortland team doesn’t make the tournament…Was it based on strength of schedule or what?…Anyone know that process?

14. I join the folks who question why the Albion College women, runner-up of the nation’s oldest athletic conference, and 22-5, did not get in. 3 of their losses were to undefeated and No. 1-ranked Hope. Albion was ranked 34th – and to miss a 63 team field – that’s not right. Make the brackets equal and have 64 teams – that’s a joke too. I saw Albion 5 times this year and they can play – and alomost knocked Hope off on their home floor (a 64-62 loss). This is a conference that has produced recent national champs and the runner-up should get more respect.

15. I am a fan of the Medaille College Lady Mavs program, so as to declare my biases. Medaille have made the tournament for the third straight year, ranked either #16 (D3 hoops) or tied for 13 (ESPN poll)… the Lady Mavs are the highest ranked team in their 4 team pod….they beat Rochester (who play unranked Eastern Conn in the companion pod first round game) by 22 in the regular season…is it terribly fair that they get to play home court Scranton (honourable mention at best ) in the first round??? Yikes….nice reward for a strong 23-2 season

16. Okay, the first thing is to go to the NCAA Handbook and review the guidelines which the D-III Competition Committee of the NCAA has voted and approved for the determination of the playoff bids.

    http://www.ncaa.org/library/handbooks/basketball/2008/2008_d3_w_basketball_handbook.pdf

    1) Specifically, geographic proximity is a fundamental consideration to all bracketing. There is a specific budget and time constraints on the players time out of the classroom. Hope and Howard Payne will meet in the Elite 8 if all goes well. Hosting considerations have impact these two teams in that HPU is getting a “geographically imposed” bye. There are no airplane flights (used when the distance between schools is 500 miles or more) in Trinity McMurry and HPU. Hope women must let the men have access to the playoffs in the Hope Gym (DeVos Center) in the first weekend of the tourney in even numbered years.

    2) Poll rankings have absolutely no impact on the decision of the committee. Poll rankings are not criteria either.

    3) Read the Pool C message boards and the blogs and then listen to the Hoopsville archives that discuss the Pool C bids.

    4) The oldest conference (the MIAA–Hope) and the newest Pool A conference ( the President AC–Thomas More) have equal access to a bid.

    5) Past history in the playoffs is not a criterion. It is what the players did this year on the court. In this decade, the Trinity 2003 champion did not receive a bid in 2004, and their coach was chair of the committee.

    6) Albion is discussed above. They did not play enough strong Great Lakes Region teams to be evaluated as highly as other Pool C candidates around the country. Specifically, if they had not blown the lead to Hope, they might have been in.

    7) The NCAA tourney is specifically about fair access to the championship. Win your conference, get a bid. Pool B bids are allocated at the same mathematical ratio as the other Pool A conferences. The 21 Pool C bids are essentially “do-overs” that have been thrown into the process.

    8) The decision to award games to various facilities are based on availability, on the submission of the necessary paperwork to the NCAA to host, geographic constraint (essentially avoiding plane fares), etc.

17. Ralph with regards to #1

    The manual(s) would allow a school to host both the men and women if one has a bye. Hope men have a bye, yet they still sent the Hope women to lower regionally ranked Baldwin Wallace.

    I don’t know the reason(s) why, but I’d like to.

18. Maybe the women did not know for certain that Hope men had the bye?

    Huntingdon PA (Juniata) to Holland MI is 564 miles. Maybe that was the bracketing procedure that made the most sense??

19. Ralph, thats what I’d like to know.

    I can only assume it was the bracketing and taking travel distance into consideration.

20. vjak32, i completely agree with your thought about VWC not getting in. Like you, i was there at the game and believed Bridgewater earned their bid with knocking off the Numbers 3, then 2, then 1… but VWC shouldn’t be penalized for it. Losing on a tough turn-around fall-awaybucket with 28 sec to play shouldn’t keep them out of the tourney. Bravo to Coach Dunmeyer and her girls for a great season. Still a little in shock why the Marlin’s are not in and wish someone could explain.

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