Category Archives: General

Waiting for the rules to change

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With apologies to John Mayer:

Now if we had the power
To send our best teams off to play
They wouldn’t be around next weekend
Put the WIAC in today

So we keep waiting
Waiting on the rules to change
We keep on waiting
Waiting on the rules to change

It’s hard to make a difference
When they keep changing our distance
So we keep waiting
Waiting on the rules to change

Something running through my head this evening, hoping the new strength of schedule formula promised for next year does a better job.

Quality of Wins Index is going to go down in D-III basketball history with terms such as “64-team play-in” and “seven Pool C teams.” Remember, we used to have opponents’ record and opponents’ opponents’ record as part of the sanctioned selection conversation, but we got this system foisted on us a few years back. It used to be called Strength of Schedule Index, but that formula made no sense as a strength of schedule formula.

So they fixed it.

They changed the name instead of changing the formula.

“Quality of Wins” Index, you are dead to me. Good riddance!

And on the ninth day, upsets continued

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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.

9 Days: Scooore-boooard

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“Scooore-boooard”

Usually that’s the chant you hear when a player is getting a little too happy with him or herself despite a less than happy score in the game. But today we’d like to point you to one of our newest features, the scoreboard panel off the front page directly under the Google search tool (right side of the screen).

It’s a smaller version of the full men’s scoreboard and women’s scoreboard, both of which allow you to follow the plethora of conference tournament action this weekend. It includes all games with any sort of live updating, whether live audio, video, stats or in-game updates posted by SIDs.

There are several teams and conferences providing video broadcasts that are marked “V.” Since the video broadcasts require a lot of bandwidth, we’ve also provided links to audio broadcasts where we know (or suspect) they will be provided. Besides, you never know when one stream won’t work. Redundancy is your friend with new technology. Redundancy is your friend with new technology.

We’ll have crews at the NESCAC Men’s Semifinals (Pat Coleman), NEWMAC Men’s and Women’s Semifinals (Mark Simon), CAC Men’s Finals (Dave McHugh and myself) and NEAC Men’s finals (maybe Dave McHugh and myself). Plus one of the newest members of our team, Matthew Florjancic, will be calling the OAC Men’s Finals on www.wbwc.com.

If you’re at any of those games, please swing by and say hello. And if you’re not, please follow the front page and the “scooore-boooard” for all the news tomorrow as it happens.

Who’s in for 2007?

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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

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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. 🙂