Category Archives: General

Second-Round Reactions

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As we sit here waiting for the sectional hosting announcements (women’s are in… not the men’s), it seems like a perfect time to look back on the second-round games last night.

I got the chance to see a very good Guilford team in a battle against Johns Hopkins. While Guilford was up for most of the game by double-digits, JHU made another comeback to claw within one possession… only to see Guilford eventually put the Blue Jays away. Ben Strong showed why so many are talking about his play and abilities. As my color guy Larry Carney said last night, if there was a category for altered-shots (not actual blocks), Strong would lead that category as well. Guilford also shot the lights out of the building both nights. First night, 50% from the field… last night 56%… including going like 60% or better from beyond the arc.

How about some of the other surprises:
On the men’s side Stevens got another win – this time over Ramapo – to advance to the Sweet 16 in the school’s first ever trip to the tournament… and after a couple of disastrous years. Lake Erie tried to garner some respect from many in the D3 world, only see John Carroll come back from ten down to win. Hope made quick work of Calvin, who almost cost Hope’s chances of making the tournament this year… 80-64. Rhode Island College continued to take advantage of its opportunities, getting past a tough Brandies squad. And Carroll continues to surprise… with a big win over St. Thomas to advance.

On the women’s side… Scranton’s M&M’s got the job done… and will lead the team into another sectional round of games at their site. Mary Washington made quick work of its opponents (Notre Dame and Christopher Newport). NYU was rewarded for their easy dispatch of Ursinus and then Gwynedd-Mercy and will host. And how about Puget Sound and Howard-Payne! Puget Sound is onto the Sweet 16 thanks to a big win over McMurry and George Fox… but next up is Howard-Payne which continues to impress with the attendances at their place.

How about other reactions after the second round?

First-round reaction

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Although there are a lot of mismatches in the first round since the expansion to 59 and 63 teams we still had a first round to remember. All those 2-15 games and 4-13 games didn’t exist in the old bracket.

As it turns out, Hope’s title defense in women’s basketball lasted only one round longer than the previous four attempts. Remember that the 2002-05 champs didn’t even make the field the next year. And Hope, the 2006 champ, went just 40 minutes longer than UW-Stevens Point, Trinity (Texas), Wilmington and Millikin before getting bounced by Denison. The depleted Calvin women advanced as well.

On the men’s side, Hope and Calvin set up an unprecedented fifth meeting of the season, where they will pack Aurora’s Thornton Gymnasium for a second-round game. Only seems appropriate now that the winner of the five-game series will move on.

Stevens, the subject of grumbling around the NJAC (basically, since they don’t play any of us, they can’t possibly be a tournament team) put up in the first round. I had one NJAC insider telling me they’d lose by 30. I countered that, no, it would be more like 71-59. Final score 68-57. Oh wait, they won? Shoot. Well, still better than a 30-point blowout loss. The Ducks absolutely could beat Ramapo.

And last night showed the importance of hosting the regionals — only one host team in men’s (Aurora) and one in women’s (UW-Stout) lost. The rest advanced.

Looking forward to hearing more about the Wheaton/St. Ben’s game, Johns Hopkins/Villa Julie and others.

Wacky Final Four projections

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No, not a serious Final Four pick — we have plenty of those already on our message board. This is the craziest group of four teams you can bring to Salem or Springfield, one from each bracket. Tie them together and tell us why they’re related.

For example, the All-Skyline Final Four. We easily take Manhattanville from the Skyline Conference in the lower-left bracket, Stevens in the upper right, then St. John’s in the upper left (nobody from the league, but there’s another St. John’s that is in the city with the skyline in question) and St. John Fisher (the Empire 8) in the lower right.

OK, maybe that’s too much of a stretch.

How about the All-We-Get-Mistaken-For-Somebody-Else Final Four? Take Washington U. (in Missouri, not Maryland or Washington), Lincoln (Pa., not Missouri), Westminster (Pa., not Missouri) and Trinity (Conn., not Texas). Or York (N.Y.).

Then there’s the All-Mispronounced Final Four on the road to Springfield. That would be Medaille, perhaps DePauw, Gustavus Adolphus and Kean. And the All-Our-Name-Says-It-All Final Four: Maine Maritime, Southern Maine, Puget Sound and Piedmont.

We open the floor and open the door for your ideas.

Be loud, be proud, be positive

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NCAA banner

With only a few notable exceptions, I’ve seen the NCAA’s banner with those words in every football stadium and basketball gymnasium I’ve been in this year.

If only the fans were paying it any heed.

NCAA Tournament games are different in a lot of ways. In many places you’ll be paying more because of ticket sale prices required by the NCAA. (In some places, paying at all is a change of pace.)

The seating is required to be divided by a specific formula. The public address announcer is instructed to be neutral. The starting lineup is to be announced in alternating fashion, one player from Team A followed by one player from Team B. Artificial noisemakers are prohibited. Etc., etc., etc.

However, fan decorum should not be limited solely to NCAA Tournament games. And I’m sad to say that some places I’ve been this year this has been sorely lacking. In fact, I recently saw four games in a row in four different venues were a fan was kicked out.

Folks, what’s the deal? Can’t you enjoy the game without insulting each other? Without drinking all afternoon before tipoff?

I’ve said this before on other sites and I’ll say it again here: These players do not deserve your abuse. A Division III football player gets no special treatment above and beyond what you get. They’re not on scholarship, don’t get special dining halls or treatment in the classroom (in fact, you can count on some professors being harder on football players than on the rest of the class).

Just support the participants in a positive manner.

Top 25 News and Notes–Week 13

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I think it is safe to say that the top 25 voters would have made different decisions on Pool C bids than the Men’s and Women’s Basketball Committees did. According to the pollsters, one women’s and five men’s teams that did not receive tournament invitations are among the top 25 in the nation. This includes men’s #9 UW-Oshkosh, the highest-ranked men’s team ever to be denied a chance to play for the national title. The five “snubbed” men’s teams matches the record total from the 2002 tournament, a tournament played before the expansion from 48 teams to the current 59-team field.

The women’s bracket, by contrast, looks pretty satisfactory from a top 25 persepective. The only ranked team to be left out is #18 Hardin-Simmons, which is a far cry from the 2005 bracket, which omitted seven of the season-ending top 25 from it’s 50-team field.

The final regular-season top 25 poll has proven to be a good but by no means perfect predictor of the national tournament. On the men’s side, there have always been either one or two Final Four teams that were in the year-end top 4. The teams ranked #1, #3, and #4 have reached the Final Four roughly half of the time, but oddly enough the team that finished the season ranked #2 has not made the Final Four in the seven-year history of the poll. The team that carries this dubious burden into the weekend is Wooster. There has yet to be a men’s Final Four team that was unranked at the end of the regular season. The men’s tournament has been won by a top 10 team in every year of the poll except 2001 (won by #14 Catholic,) with the average ranking of the champion being #6 (good news for fans of Amherst.)

The year-end women’s top 25 is also a good predictor, with a bit more variability than the men’s. There was a year (2004) where the Final Four had three top 4 teams, and another (2002) where the entire top 4 was eliminated prior to the final weekend. That was the only year that the year-end #1 team failed to make the Final Four, so women’s #1 Bowdoin looks to be in good shape to reach Springfield. On the other hand Scranton has reason to worry, as the team ranked third in the final pre-tournament poll has never reached the semifinals. On three occasions, including last year’s Hardin-Simmons team, an unranked team has reached the Final Four. There was even one semifinalist that failed to receive a single vote in the year-end poll (Ohio Wesleyan in 2001). The top-ranked team has not won the title since Washington U. ’s last title, in 2001. In the five years since, the Walnut and Bronze has been shipped home by teams ranked anywhere from #6 (Hope last year and Millikin the previous year) to #21 (Trinity (TX) in 2003,) with the average rank of the winner over that period being approximately #12, a good augur for McMurry.

Good luck to all of the participating teams, and may the best teams win!

Debutantes:
Women: The Falcons of Concordia University of Wisconsin ended their regular season on a 19-game winning streak, which included the regular season and tournament championships in the Northern Athletics Conference, and enter the women’s poll voting for the first time ever. Concordia travels to Luther this weekend to battle the 25th-ranked Norse.
Men: #23 Centre College enters the men’s Top 25 poll for the first time ever. The Colonels shared the SCAC title this season with DePauw, then won the SCAC tournament in Memphis to advance to the NCAA tournament. Centre takes its 23-4 record to Wooster, OH this weekend, where they will face Capital University.
Congratulations to the Falcons and the Colonels!

Streakers:
Women: #3 Scranton, undaunted by their bad-luck ranking, are a top 25 team for the 90th consecutive week. Puget Sound received votes for the 20th straight week, while Baldwin-Wallace dropped off the voting rolls for the first time in 32 weeks.
Men: The College of Wooster, holders of the unpropitious #2 ranking, are in the top 25 for the 75th consecutive week. This impressive streak is second only to the record 77-week string held by #6 Amherst. #4 Virginia Wesleyan is a vote-getter for the 25th straight time. #16 UW-La Crosse and #13 Elmhurst, both denied bids to the NCAA tournament, can take small consolation in the extensions of their voting streaks to 20 and 10 weeks, respectively. Puget Sound dropped out of the top 25 for the first time in 51 weeks.

Milestones:
Women: #16 Wilmington makes their 100th appearance among the vote-getting teams this week. Congratulations to the Quakers on this achievement! Twelfth-ranked McMurry received votes for the 50th time. Other teams reaching milestones in the vote-getting category include St. Lawrence (70 weeks), #17 Brandeis (60 weeks), #10 Mary Washington (40 weeks), and Kean (20 weeks.) Fourth-ranked Messiah’s appearance in the top 25 this week is their 100th of all-time. Congratulations to the Falcons! #3 Scranton is a top 25 team for the 120th time, while #13 Emmanuel and #20 Medaille are in the poll for the 40th and 10th times, respectively. #7 Calvin is among the top 10 for the 10th time.
Men: #13 Elmhurst and #15 Occidental each appear in the voting results for the 50th time this week. #22 Salem St. is a vote-getter for the 60th time; Capital received votes for the 40th week; and Averett was named on ballots for the 10th time. Fifth-ranked St. Thomas is a member of the top 10 for the 20th week. #25 John Carroll is ranked for the 40th time, while #16 UW-La Crosse and #24 NYU are each a top 25 team for the 10th time.

High-Water Marks:
Women: The hits just keep on coming in Brownwood—#2 Howard Payne has once again set a new record for highest-ever ranking, a record they have broken or matched in every poll this season. Other women’s teams that reached new all-time highs just in time for the NCAAs include #14 Lake Forest, #20 Medaille, and #21 Maine-Farmington.
Men: Men’s teams carrying their highest-ever rankings into the NCAA tournament include #3 Mississippi College, #14 Aurora, #21 Rhode Island College, and debutante #23 Centre. UW-La Crosse tied their highest-ever ranking at #16.

Movers and Shakers:
Women: For the second straight week, the principal movement in the women’s poll was downward. The largest gains were recorded by #16 Wilmington (+66 points and 4 rankings) and #5 Hope (+59/+2), both relatively modest gains. The downward march was led by #24 Illinois Wesleyan, who lost twice last week and shed 144 points and six spots in the final poll. #7 Calvin’s loss to archrival Hope cost them 98 points and 5 placements, while the premature end of #18 Hardin-Simmons’ season was reflected in their 96-point, five-spot drop in the poll.
Men: #17 Wittenberg fell in the NCAC semifinals, costing them 131 poll points, 7 ranking placements, and a chance for a second straight trip to Salem. #19 Guilford also lost 131 points after losing in the ODAC quarterfinals, but it cost them just 2 spots in the poll; and #18 WPI slipped 5 spots and 119 points after losing in the NEWMAC title game. #8 Washington U. clinched the UAA title, moving up 123 points and 4 placements, while CCIW conference and tournament champion #7 Augustana gained 114 points and 2 spots.