By Riley Zayas
February 12, 2024
Welcome back to another week! I’ll have a Top 25 ballot breakdown for you soon, but wanted to first take a look at the teams whose resumes rose and fell the most over this past week. These are my thoughts and assessments, and not necessarily the way it will be perceived by the regional advisory committees in putting together regional rankings today. Additionally, as I will note throughout this, not all of these teams are in Pool C contention, so some of the teams I mention are still only able to reach the national tournament via Pool A, even with an improved set of results.
But here are a few thoughts for you as we begin the FINAL week of the regular season (for everyone except the UAA)!
Teams whose resumes are on the rise
Trinity (CT): The Bantams are 18-6 overall, but 8-2 in the NESCAC, which is tough to do considering the depth in the league this season. With five straight wins heading into the NESCAC Tournament, something has certainly clicked for Trinity as of late. A 59-45 win over Bates on Friday really pushes the Bantams into a position where they could host in the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament, an opportunity that appeared pretty doubtful when they dropped four games between Nov. 26 and Dec. 9. Reilly Campbell has recorded four-straight double-digit scoring performances and the Bantams currently lead the NESCAC in scoring defense and free throw percentage. I will not be surprised if we see Trinity still playing in the second weekend of the national tournament.
Concordia-Moorhead: The Cobbers’ 2-0 week was highlighted by their 73-65 win over #4 Gustavus Adolphus, as it not only makes the MIAC title race a bit more interesting, but very much keeps Concordia in the Pool C conversation. The Cobbers are 9-0 at home this season, and by splitting the season series with Gustavus, solidified their spot within the Region 9 regional rankings. Now 17-4, and 16-2 in MIAC play, Concordia is on the rise and playing some of its best basketball at the right time of year.
Smith: The Pioneers went 3-0 on the week, opening things up with a 68-61 win at Tufts before holding Mount Holyoke to 26 points in yet another victory, followed by Saturday’s 68-63 road win at MIT. Two of those wins (both on the road) came against Massey Top 100 opponents along with another RRO win over MIT for Smith. The Pioneers have reached the 20-win mark now, as well, and are 20-3, sitting atop the NEWMAC standings along with Springfield. Smith should be a solid No. 2 in Region 2 behind Rhode Island College.
UW-Stout: The Blue Devils were sitting dead last in the WIAC three weeks ago, with a 1-5 league record. But in a pretty remarkable turnaround, Stout has won four straight and five of its last six. The Blue Devils now sit in fourth place in the league standings, and are 16-7 overall, playing with plenty of confidence and momentum in a late-season surge. Raegan Sorensen had 35 points to lead Stout to a dominant win at UW-Eau Claire on Saturday, 96-64. Why is Stout’s stock rising so much? Well, they beat both UWEC and UW-La Crosse on the road by double-digit margins this past week, and the fact that they previously lost to both of those teams at home makes the victories that much more impressive. The Blue Devils head into the final week of the regular season with a pair of home games upcoming against UW-River Falls and UW-Platteville and are #14 in Massey.
Willamette: The Bearcats now likely have the No. 1 resume in Region 10 after a pair of huge home wins over Pacific and Puget Sound this past week. Willamette now holds a two-game lead in the NWC and just continues to find ways to win. The Pacific win came on a buzzer-beating 3-pointer from Elyse Waldal in a dramatic conclusion to such a back-and-forth game and Saturday’s 57-47 victory over a quality Puget Sound squad saw Willamette lead 34-17 at halftime. The Bearcats are really in a good position to close the regular season this week with a 12-2 record since January. That’s impressive.
Albion: There are a couple potential bid stealers in the MIAA, and Albion is certainly one of them. The Britons have won five straight, including a statement 67-41 over Calvin on Wednesday that now puts them a half-game back of Trine in the MIAA standings. Albion isn’t in position to be ranked in the Top 25 or contend for a Pool C spot, but the win over Calvin was an impressive result. Going further back, Albion has wins over Trine and Alma and while the Britons are just 5-5 on the road this season, I do think this is a team with the capability to spring an MIAA Tournament upset, especially with the way they are playing lately.
Teams whose resumes took a hit
Dickinson: I’m not sure what happened to Dickinson this past week, but the Red Devils looked very much out of sorts. They dropped three straight games in the span of seven days, including a 70-67 OT loss to Massey #147 Washington College (MD) on Saturday. That came on the heels of double-digit home losses to Centennial Conference foes Gettysburg and Johns Hopkins, and Dickinson is now 16-7 overall with a 13-5 mark in the league. In a very tough Region 5, I’m not sure the win percentage will hold up, despite a projected SOS of .550, much less earn Dickinson a Pool C bid. This week’s performance may put Dickinson in that “Pool A or bust” category, especially because Elizabethtown holds a 1-0 head-to-head against them, and has a good chance to move ahead of Dickinson, potentially “blocking” the Red Devils from even getting to the Pool C table until late in the process.
Mary Hardin-Baylor: The Cru are 1-3 on the road in their last four road games and two of those losses came this past week to UT-Dallas and Ozarks. UMHB has now dropped to second place behind Hardin-Simmons and while the Crusaders are still in a fairly comfortable Pool C position, UMHB does have McMurry and Hardin-Simmons coming up this week at home in a two very tough conference duels. The offense has stagnated, even with Arieona Rosborough back on the floor this week, and UMHB is now shooting below 40% from the field on the season (39.7%).
Messiah: Out of the MACC, the Falcons still have a Pool C shot, but it is fairly low, and a loss at Widener on Wednesday hurt those chances quite a bit more. Ranked #153 by Massey, Widener sprung the 56-50 upset and I’m interested to see how the Region 5 committee evaluates both this loss for Messiah as well as Dickinson’s results that I mentioned above. Credit to Messiah, we saw a bounce-back win at York, 52-39, two days ago, but in a league like the MACC, you really can’t afford any conference losses if you want to be in a prime Pool C position.
Colorado College: The Pool C chances are essentially nonexistent for Colorado College (now 16-7, 10-4 in SCAC), but still, the Tigers were in close contention with Trinity (TX) for the SCAC regular season title and No. 1 SCAC Tournament seed entering the week. Instead, CC heads back to Colorado with back-to-back losses, having dropped consecutive games for just the second time all season (the first came when they played NYU and Tufts in consecutive order). Having watched both games, credit goes to both Schreiner and Trinity (TX) for the big wins over CC, and the travel schedule isn’t easy for the Tigers. But they certainly looked out of sorts in a 69-63 overtime loss at Schreiner on Friday, and yesterday, Trinity hit several big 3-pointers and the CC defense struggled to keep up in a 90-80 loss. Their resume took a hit, and from a logistics standpoint, CC will now most likely be the No. 3 seed in the SCAC Tournament, meaning Trinity and TLU get the coveted first-round tournament byes while CC will now need to win three games in three days to make it to March.
There are several other teams that would qualify for this conversation, but these were a handful that stuck out to me. We don’t have a very large slate of games at all tonight, but the schedule really ramps up as the week progresses. Lots of marquee matchups are on tap especially on Friday and Saturday! Plus, the NESCAC Tournament tips off this weekend. Also, stay tuned for tomorrow’s release of the ordered regional rankings, as we’ll find out how many of these regions are shaping up, and what the Pool C order could look like based on where the committee placed several teams, especially in the deeper regions. Until then, have a great rest of your day!