Category Archives: NCAA stuff

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.

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.

Pool C math error, are you kidding?

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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.

Final 2007 NCAA regional rankings

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The number of teams ranked is relative to the number of teams in each region.

Men’s Basketball
The first record listed is the overall record, followed by record in regional games, through Sunday, Feb. 18, 2007. These are the last rankings we’ll see before they select teams.

Atlantic Region
1. Stevens 20-5 20-5
2. Ramapo 18-7 17-5
3. Manhattanville 20-5 19-5
4. New Jersey City 17-8 16-7
5. Rowan 20-5 15-5

East Region
1. Brockport State 21-4 20-4
2. St. John Fisher 20-5 19-5
3. St. Lawrence 20-5 19-5
4. New York U. 19-5 18-5
5 Rochester 17-7 17-6

Great Lakes Region
1. Lake Erie 23-2 19-1
2. Wooster 22-3 17-2
3. John Carroll 17-8 16-6
4. Hope 21-3 14-3
5. Ohio Northern 19-6 14-6
6. Wittenberg 21-4 16-4

Middle Atlantic Region
1. Johns Hopkins 21-4 20-3
2. Messiah 19-5 16-3
3. Alvernia 21-4 20-2
4. Lincoln (Pa.) 16-7 11-3
5. Catholic 19-5 18-5
6. Hood 19-6 18-5
7. King’s (Pa.) 17-8 17-7
8. Scranton 19-6 17-6

Midwest Region
1. Chicago 20-4 19-4
2. Augustana 20-5 20-4
3. Washington U. 19-4 17-4
4. Aurora 23-2 22-2
5. Elmhurst 19-5 15-5
6. Carthage 16-8 13-7
7. Grinnell 17-6 16-6
8. Wheaton (Ill.) 16-8 12-7

Northeast Region
1. Amherst 24-1 23-1
2. Salem State 22-2 22-2
3. Trinity (Conn.) 21-3 17-3
4. WPI 21-2 19-2
5. Rhode Island 21-3 21-3
6. Keene State 21-4 18-4
7. Brandeis 18-6 18-6
8. Bates 18-7 17-7
9. Husson 20-5 20-3
10. Western New England 18-7 18-7

South Region
1. Mississippi College 22-2 20-1
2. Va. Wesleyan 22-3 21-3
3. Guilford 21-3 20-3
4. DePauw 21-4 18-3
5. Mary Hardin-Baylor 21-4 21-4
6. Maryville (Tenn.) 19-6 19-3
7. Centre 20-4 14-4
8. McMurry 19-6 18-4

West Region
1. UW-Stevens Point 22-2 21-1
2. St. Thomas 22-3 22-3
3. St. John’s 19-6 19-3
4. UW-Oshkosh 20-5 17-5
5. Occidental 17-5 12-3
6. Whitworth 22-3 19-3
7. Loras 19-6 17-4
8. UW-La Crosse 17-7 15-6

Women’s Basketball
In-region record first, followed by overall:

Atlantic Region
1 Mary Washington 22-2 23-2
2 Mount St. Mary 21-4 21-4
3 Kean 21-3 22-3
4 William Paterson 20-3 21-4
5 Stevens 20-5 20-5
6 York (Pa.) 17-8 17-8

Central Region
1 Lake Forest 19-1 21-2
2 Carroll 20-3 20-3
3 UW-Stout 19-4 20-5
4 Illinois Wesleyan 19-2 21-3
5 Washington U. 16-4 19-5
6 UW-Whitewater 16-5 19-6

East Region
1 New York University 22-2 22-2
2 Rochester 19-5 19-5
3 Cortland State 21-2 22-2
4 St. Lawrence 21-1 23-2
5 Medaille 19-2 21-4
6 Brockport State 17-6 19-6

Great Lakes Region
1 Calvin 17-0 23-1
2 DePauw 15-3 22-3
3 Denison 19-3 21-4
4 Wilmington 19-4 21-4
5 Hope 17-3 21-3
6 Manchester 19-4 19-6

Mid-Atlantic Region
1 Messiah 23-1 23-2
2 Scranton 22-2 23-2
3 McDaniel 23-2 23-2
4 Gwynedd-Mercy 23-2 23-2
5 Dickinson 20-4 21-4
6 Muhlenberg 18-6 19-6

Northeast Region
1 Bowdoin 22-1 24-1
2 Emmanuel (Massachusetts) 22-1 24-1
3 Southern Maine 22-2 22-2
4 Fitchburg State 23-2 23-2
5 Brandeis 18-4 19-4
6 Maine Maritime 21-2 23-2
7 Norwich 21-2 22-2
8 Williams 17-4 20-5

South Region
1 Howard Payne 23-1 24-1
2 McMurry 21-3 22-3
3 Randolph-Macon 20-3 21-4
4 Oglethorpe 18-4 19-6
5 Hardin-Simmons 19-4 20-4
6 Maryville (Tenn.) 17-3 21-4

West Region
1 Luther 16-2 20-4
2 Simpson 16-4 20-5
3 Puget Sound 16-3 20-5
4 St. Benedict 20-3 20-5
5 Gustavus Adolphus 21-4 21-4
6 George Fox 13-4 17-6