Thanks to Sports Information Directors and our partnership with D3Scoreboard.com, we’re able to bring you a great deal more in-game updates than we ever had in the regular season in past years. As I look now, not even 2 p.m., there are already a half-dozen games with scores of games in-progress. On a busy weeknight you can find more than a dozen going on at the same time.

Thanks to the schools that post them. I hope everyone realizes these are out there for you to keep up on games.

Today’s scores: Men | Women

Also, schools can post links to their live stats package or their audio broadcast by using the Edit feature next to each game under their login.

I’m off to a game myself — want to see Mike Hoyt for Mount St. Mary play in person. The points he’s been putting up are unbelievable. But follow the scoreboard, listen to games, watch the live stats. Should be a good day.

Oh yeah … February is here and the final 25 days leading up to Selection Sunday/Matchup Monday are just going to get more and more crazy.

Some of you don’t even check in here until February begins, and while we certainly welcome you, where have you been? You’ve missed a lot. But we have a lot to get to, as well.

Don’t forget, these tournaments expanded last year. There are 59 men’s teams heading to the NCAA Tournament — 37 automatic bids, three Pool B bids which are set aside for teams not in those conferences, and 19 at-large bids for the teams remaining. In women’s action, there are 63 teams going: 39 conferences have automatic bids, four Pool B bids are set aside and there are 20 at-large bids.

New automatic bids go to the North Eastern Athletic Conference men and women and the Great South Athletic Conference women. The new Northern Athletics Conference won’t be eligible for an automatic bid until 2009.

Remember, too, the NCAA is only going to give us the names of the teams in the tournament on Selection Sunday. They can’t come up with pairings on Sunday anymore, so we’ve dubbed the following day, the day we get the brackets, as Matchup Monday.

It’s a little early to give a good read as to who’s on the bubble, though I did get a call from the Springfield (Ohio) News-Sun this afternoon and gave them my thoughts on a scenario they proposed in which Wittenberg fails to beat Wooster both this weekend and in the NCAC final. (I suggested it would probably be 50-50.)

We still have about 3,000 games left to be played. It’s going to be wild.

I’m looking forward to another new experiences, and perhaps reliving an old one this weekend.

Unlike basically all of the other D3hoops.com regulars, I have never been to NYU’s Coles Center. The five-hour trip from the D.C. area always seemed like a waste when Mark Simon could come down from Connecticut, Ray Martel from Long Island, John McGraw from upstate New York or Gordon Mann from Philadelphia (or Binghamton, previously).

So when Wash U swept all comers this weekend to set up this showdown at NYU this Friday, let’s just say I can’t wait.

I was sitting at home listening in 2001 when Ray and Gordon called a women’s game between the two, won by Dari Magyar on the Miracle in Manhattan shot (audio). While it would be nice if history repeated itself, I’m just looking forward to the spectacle. NYU has drawn pretty well this season and has a promotional program in play that should help pack the Coles Center again.

I’ll only be getting one new team to scratch off my list that night — I’ve never seen the NYU men — but it should be a fun night.

Meanwhile, there’s been some whining (from fans of teams not based in St. Louis) about Wash U’s meteoric rise in the Top 25. I would suggest that they were underrated last week after dismantling Rochester and should’ve been higher in the Week 8 poll. Three wins in a row against ranked teams tends to suggest that one should be ranked.

Just my $.02. I don’t think they should be getting a No. 1 vote without winning their two games this weekend, but I only get one of the 25 ballots. 🙂

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Unbeaten Amherst becomes the fourth team to top the men’s poll this season, moving to the #1 spot for just the second time in D3Hoops.com poll history. Despite being the lone undefeated team in D3, Amherst still hasn’t convinced seven of the voters, as #1 votes were spread among four teams, including last week’s top team, UW-Stevens Point. Amherst puts their top ranking on the line Tuesday as they face 16-2 Rhode Island College in Providence.

The women’s poll also has a new #1 team, as Messiah advances to the top rung of the ladder for the first time since early (week 1) in the 2001-02 season. The Falcons leapfrogged the #2 Polar Bears, an action almost as rare in polling as it is in nature. Messiah grabbed 10 first-place votes to Bowdoin’s 9, helping them to a slim 4-point advantage atop the chart.

The members of University Athletic Association are well-accustomed to receiving the respect of their peers, as they are eight of the most highly-regarded research universities in the world. However, the well-worn adage “all work and no play makes Jack a dull Nobel Prize-winning molecular biologist” certainly applies on the UAA campuses, where this week you’ll find eight top-25 basketball teams and two others in the “receiving votes” category. In St. Louis, both sleuths of Bears received first-place votes in this week’s polls. The Washington U. men’s team moved up to #7 this week, while the women’s team rejoined the top 25 at #11, putting an end to an 8-week streak of being unranked, something the Bears had never experienced before this season. Conference rivals Chicago (women #13, men #19) and NYU (women #18, men #25) also have both programs ranked this week, while the basketball teams at Rochester and Brandeis feature rankings for the women (#7 and #19, respectively) and voting support for the men.

Debutantes:
Women: #25 Norwich enters the top 25 for the first time ever this week. The Cadets are 16-1, with their only loss at the hands of #2 Bowdoin, and are tied (in the loss column) atop the GNAC standings with #20 Emmanuel.
Men: The Hood College Blazers, winners of nine straight games, received votes for the first time in this week’s poll. The Blazers are 16-3 and hold a hearty three-game lead in the CAC.
Congratulations to the Cadets and Blazers!

Streakers:
Being the 10th poll of the season (preseason included), this is a big category this week.
Women: #8 DePauw is in the top 10 for the 20th straight week. Ninth-ranked Hope and #22 Baldwin-Wallace are each ranked for the 25th consecutive week; for #3 Calvin, this is the 10th straight ranked week. #19 Brandeis has now received votes in 50 consecutive polls. For #4 Southern Maine, the voting streak stands at 90 weeks, and Williams has been mentioned 25 weeks in a row. Among those receiving votes in 10 straight polls are #13 Chicago, #15 Wilmington, #18 NYU, #20 Emmanuel, and UW-Stevens Point.
Men: Sixth-ranked St. Thomas is a top 10 team for the tenth straight week. #4 Mississippi College is ranked for the 20th consecutive week; for #3 UW-Stevens Point and #14 Ohio Northern, the consecutive ranking streak stands at 10 weeks. #21 Puget Sound received voting support for the 50th consecutive week. #9 Hope and #10 Augustana each have been among the vote-getters for 25 straight polls. Teams that have appeared in ten consecutive voting lists include #3 UW-Stevens Point, #5 UW-Oshkosh, #11 Wash. U., #16 Aurora, #19 Chicago, #20 Johns Hopkins, #23 Bates, and unranked teams Rhode Island College, Wheaton (IL), and Rochester.

Milestones:
Women: Williams received votes in the poll, marking their 50th appearance on the voting list. UW-Stevens Point has received votes 90 times, Capital 80 times, and Hendrix 40 times. Seventh-ranked Rochester is a top 10 team for the 30th week. #16 Hardin-Simmons is ranked for the 110th time; #2 Bowdoin and #8 DePauw are ranked for the 90th time each; and #12 McMurry is in the top 25 for the 30th time.
Men: Second-ranked Wooster is in the top 25 for the 110th time, a record for the men’s poll. #19 Chicago is to be found in their 30th poll, and #20 Johns Hopkins is a ranked team for the 20th time. #14 Ohio Northern received votes for the 60th time. Lincoln and North Central are vote-getters for the 25th time, and Rhode Island College is in the voting for the 10th time.

High-Water Marks:
Women: Third-ranked Calvin, #14 Illinois Wesleyan, and debutante #25 Norwich are all at their highest-ever ranking this week. #6 Howard Payne tied their highest-ever ranking, set last week, snapping an eight-week string of new highs. #13 Chicago fell nine spots in the poll, ending their string of highest-ever rankings at seven consecutive weeks.
Men: #4 Mississippi College cracked the top 5 this week for the first time ever, and was joined in the high-water mark category by #16 Aurora.

Movers and Shakers:
Women: The biggest splash by far was made by Washington U., which beat two top-15 teams and soared from out of the poll to #11, gaining 326 points. This is the largest regular season single-week jump in the history of the poll, besting Muhlenberg’s 263-point gain in Week 6 of the 2001-02 season. #13 Chicago was defeated at home by both Wash U. and #18 NYU and tumbled 219 points and nine placements, the week’s largest drop.
Men: #21 Puget Sound also dropped two conference games, and as a consequence dropped eight places and 221 points. NWC rival #13 Whitworth also lost a conference game and shed 123 points and six places. The largest upward moves were made by Chicago, gaining 110 points and leaping into the poll at #19, eleventh-ranked Wittenberg (+99 points and 5 places), and #5 UW-Oshkosh (+94 points and 3 places.)

Mike DiMauro of The(New London, Conn.) Day authored a very nice piece on why Division III basketball matters, mentioning some players at this level from a high school conference based in Eastern Connecticut.

The article is a good, quick read by someone who understands what makes Division III special:

“Here’s the best part: [the players] will earn college degrees that will get them virtually any jobs they want, except playing for the Celtics. They are the NCAA commercial, among the 380,000 who will go pro in something other than sports.”

He goes on write:

“This is merely a message for all Division III athletes and especially their parents, that there is ample nobility and significance to the games.

Just because you can’t see them on television doesn’t mean they mean less. They still count.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself…though I might have a different perspective on those Conn College teams that ousted my beloved Trinity Bants from the tournament.

If you enjoy the article, please take a moment to write DiMauro to tell him so. His email address is m.dimauro@theday.com.