Author Archives: Pat Coleman

And on the ninth day, upsets continued

Posted on by

Well, the day seemed to be starting off alright for Pool C hopefuls. Amherst jumped out to a 15-0 lead on Williams at home and appeared to be ready to run past their archrivals.

Uhm, no, not so much. Williams reacquired the hot shooting touch it had on Saturday at LeFrak and took its first lead with 6:39 left, holding off the Lord Jeffs with a Joe Geoghegan putback with 16 seconds left. Dan Wheeler couldn’t convert and after a missed Williams free throw, Andrew Olson couldn’t hold onto the ball in traffic.

Much like Trinity had two possessions with a chance to beat Williams the day before, in fact.

That sound you hear was Guilford’s bubble popping.

Immediately after this game ends on D3Cast, I flip over to the Coast Guard/WPI game, where Mark Simon has been keeping me apprised. (All the while, as I’ve been trying to finish women’s projections, watch/listen to two games, a D-III insider has decided to berate the selection and seeding process. Like I don’t already know how awful it is?)

Coast Guard won only two games in NEWMAC play all season. The Bears were the bottom seed in the seven-team conference. And they held off WPI at WPI to win 71-66 and claim an automatic bid.

Pop goes the Stevens, at least in our projections.

It’s shaping up to be a crazy day.

Who’s in for 2007?

Posted on by

We’ll update this list as we can throughout the weekend as the 76 automatic bids get handed out to the two NCAA Tournaments.

Who’s in?
Men
Lake Erie – AMCC
Mississippi College – ASC
Catholic – CAC
Johns Hopkins – CC
Wentworth Tech – CCC
Augustana – CCIW
York (N.Y.) – CUNYAC
St. John Fisher – E8
Rivier – GNAC
Transylvania – HCAC
Loras – IIAC
Rhode Island College – LEC
St. Lawrence – LL
Widener – MAC-C
King’s – MAC-F
Salem State – MASCAC
Calvin – MIAA
Carroll – MWC
St. Thomas – MIAC
Elms – NAC
Wooster – NCAC
Villa Julie – NEAC
Williams – NESCAC
Coast Guard – NEWMAC
Ramapo – NJAC
Whitworth – NWC
Capital – OAC
Hampden-Sydney – ODAC
Alvernia – PnAC
Centre – SCAC
Occidental – SCIAC
Manhattanville – SKY
Fontbonne – SLIAC
Plattsburgh State – SUNYAC
Washington U. – UAA
Averett – USAC
UW-Stevens Point – WIAC

Women
Medaille – AMCC
Howard Payne – ASC
Notre Dame (Md.) – AWCC
Mary Washington – CAC
Ursinus – CC
Wheaton (Ill.) – CCIW
Salve Regina – CCC
Lehman – CUNYAC
Ithaca – E8
Emmanuel – GNAC
Piedmont – GSAC
Manchester – HCAC
Luther – IIAC
Hamilton – LL
Southern Maine – LEC
Messiah – MAC -C
Scranton – MAC-F
Fitchburg State – MASCAC
Hope – MIAA
St. Benedict – MIAC
Lake Forest – MWC
Maine-Farmington – NAC
Denison – NCAC
Keuka – NEAC
Bowdoin – NESCAC
Mount Holyoke – NEWMAC
Kean – NJAC
George Fox – NWC
Wilmington – OAC
Randolph-Macon – ODAC
Gwynedd-Mercy – PnAC
Oglethorpe – SCAC
La Verne – SCIAC
Mount St. Mary – SKY
Maryville (Mo.) – SLIAC
Cortland State- SUNYAC
Washington U. – UAA
Christopher Newport – USAC
UW-Stout – WIAC

As things get nuts, a thank-you

Posted on by

This grand adventure I’ve been on this year — changing employers for the first time in 12 years, moving 300 miles away from home, working five nights a week instead of splitting days and night — has had its advantages and its drawbacks. While I’m in a new part of the country and can go out and see different teams I’ve never seen before, I’m also working until 1 a.m. at NBCSports.com and can’t get as much done on the site as early in the evening as I’d like.

That’s where Gordon Mann comes in. Gordon has been pulling a lot of weight at D3sports.com this year, on both the hoops and football sites. The weekly podcast that is on the front page at the moment is completely a Gordon Mann production. He picks an interesting subject to interview and records a sit-down conversation, whether in person or over the phone. This has been a great addition to the site.

Gordon has been a very active blogger as well, keeping the Daily Dose churning at an important time of the season. But Gordon does a lot behind the scenes as well. If you see an early update on a Wednesday night, a big night on Division III schedules, most likely he analyzed the night’s games, decided what was the big news, wrote it, got the photo and posted it. And even further behind the scenes, Gordon has been the man on score cleanup all season — tracking down the missing scores that schools don’t post, more than 1,100 of them. Without Gordon, we wouldn’t have timely scores from a bunch of Division III schools, including some very prominent athletic departments.

He’s come a long way from play-by-play at Trinity College’s student station. I’ve thanked him many times, I’m glad that he’s here and fans should be too.

Just thought you should know. 🙂

Pool C math error, are you kidding?

Posted on by

Some schools hold dual membership in the NCAA and NAIA, and some declare themselves ineligible for the NCAA Tournament in order to participate in a smaller association’s postseason.

But that would all have been decided long ago. There is no reason why we should be finding out three days before Selection Sunday that we’re going to be shorted one Pool C bid, as the men drop from 19 to 18. Pool B gets one added, from three to four.

The mysterious ruling that Carthage and Hope are somehow 199 miles apart this year — that I can accept, though I know and understand why others can’t. But to make a math error in this crucial an area, I cannot accept.

The credibility of the NCAA takes another big hit here.

9 Days: Leapin’ Leopards!

Posted on by

Shirley you saw this coming – an entry about the La Verne Leopards who are the only team to officially seal an NCAA tournament bid so far.

(Go ahead and groan, but that pun killed me when I thought it up at 2 AM last night. Be glad we already had a headline.)

Since we don’t hear much from women’s teams in that corner of the country, here are some facts about the newly crowned SCIAC champs.

Head Coach Julie Kline has been at La Verne for 16 seasons but had to wait until 2003 to capture a SCIAC title. Since then the Leopards have finished in the top four every season. The Leopards were picked fourth in the preseason behind Cal Lutheran, Occidental and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps.

La Verne’s top player is Trenecca Jones, who entered the week averaging double figures in points (16.5) and rebounds (10.6) per game. But the most interesting name on the roster, phonetically at least, is Kayleen Kaaiai. Kaaiai is a 5-foot point guard from Hawaii who unofficially leads the conference in announcers induced to say “How do you pronounce that?”

La Verne’s home facility is very interesting in that it looks like a big top circus tent. Fittingly enough it’s marked on the map as “Super Tents.” Plus the dark green and orange color scheme makes for some sharp jerseys that are colorful but not too floral. Very cool.

And finally the University is the alma mater of former Kansas City Royal great Dan Quisenbery. Quiz was a spectacular reliever who inspired lots of young pitchers (myself included) to drop down on their delivery and give that funky sidearm thing a try.

Good luck to the Leopards in their NCAA future but enjoy the present first. As Quisenbery once said, “”The future is just like the present, only longer.”