The Division III third-place game is an anachronism and its time has passed. So it’s good to see it go.
Although indeed, sometimes the third-place game is a spirited, wide-open entertaining affair, it cannot be ignored that the game often features one, if not two teams that truly don’t want to be there. Someone has had their heart ripped out the night before, must come back for a walk-through the next morning (though often a coach will pass on the team’s allotted time) and play a game which doesn’t do much except allow one team to go home with an extra win.
Of course, someone goes home with two losses at the end of a season that should be celebrated.
So, for the NABC to step in and do something immensely positive for Division III men’s basketball is a great step forward for our game. We hope the WBCA will consider doing something for women’s basketball as well.
This will give an additional 16 or so players who never would have gotten the Salem experience a chance to perform in front of Division III fans and be recognized. Fans who drove to southwestern Virginia to see their team play will have reason to stick around and see their best senior player or players in action the next day. And they’ll get to see a bunch of All-Americans on the floor as well, giving some context to fans who don’t get to watch D-III games on television.
It’s a win-win. And I hope it stays a part of the Salem experience for many years to come, like the NABC has done for Division I and Division II.
Never having to play in the third place game, I can’t really speak either way to how good or bad it was… but I wonder about a situation where a losing team has multiple players that might have played. I’m thinking about my Pointers… Kalsow and Bennett both would have deserved to play in 04-05 if we had lost to York on the first night. Or in 03-04, Williams had Coffin and Crotty if they had lost to Amherst.
Actually, now that I’m reading it, your note DOES say “player or players” so maybe it’s already been worked out… because most teams that make it to Salem are Senior-laden teams. It would make sense for those guys to get a shot.
In order to include players from the semifinal teams, I suppose the organizers would have to reserve 1 or 2 spots beforehand. This can’t logistically be a decision that’s left to Friday night. If that means you have to decide between Coffin and Crotty, but can’t take both, them’s the breaks. But that raises an interesting question: suppose there’s one truly deserving player on a semifinal loser, and you invite him to play, and he tells you to shove it up your nose with a rubber hose? (Not that Vinny Babarino played hoops.) Do you then ask the next-best player on that team, and on down to the last guy on the bench, so you’ll have a full roster? Do you have an alternate, perhaps an ODAC player, on standby? If I were the person setting this thing up, I’d probably opt for letting the semifinal game be honor enough, and filling out my all-star team with players not in the Final Four, just to avoid the logistical headaches. And if the best player in D3 is then forced to watch both the all-star game and the championship game because his team lost on Friday, well, he probably doesn’t feel much like playing anyway.