“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.

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

You will notice a new feature on the right hand side of our front page, listing links video and “livestats” updates from in-progress action. It is quite the useful tool for those who like to track multiple games at once. LiveStats is a different kind of way to watch a game and for those of us who appreciate Division III so much, different is good.

However, it should come with a warning…”Staring at LiveStats for too long can cause symptoms such as pounding-heart, increased blood pressure, and significant bouts of impatience .”

I experienced all of those on Wednesday night, when the team for which I normally broadcast, had two playoff games going at once, and I chose to work the women’s game, since the men’s contest had LiveStats capabilites.

My women’s broadcast ended before the men’s game concluded, so I let my listeners know that I’d be staying on the air until the men’s game was done. This led to what essentially was a broadcast of a broadcaster watching LiveStats, which is entertaining if you know me, and rather silly if you don’t. Listening to it now, I find it rather comical. I’m glad no one had a video camera to catch my facial expressions.

The go-ahead basket late in this game was scored by a player who hadn’t scored a point in conference play all season. Surely, I thought, this had to be a misprint, and I mumbled a few choice words under my breath for the scorekeeper, who, it turned out, was correct all along. Trust in the printed word is critical to LiveStat enjoyment.

The final seconds came down to free throws, and there was a good, long pause, between the first and second makes, just long enough for me to check that my heartbeats weren’t being heard over the air. The previous week, LiveStats had caused me moments of great angst, as in one viewing, an opponent made four 3-pointers with less than a minute to play to rally and win. This time, there was jubliation. “I believe that’s it….I believe that’s it!!!” is how I explained to my listeners that the team had won.

LiveStats may zap some of the descriptive process that comes with listening on radio, or if you’re lucky, watching a videocast, but the entertainment value can be just as great. So I encourage you to give it a try and maybe, if you’re lucky, you’ll get as wrapped up in “watching” as I did on Wednesday night.