“Reluctantly crouched at the starting line
Engines pumping and thumping in time
The green light flashes, the flags go up
Churning and burning they yearn for the cup”

– Cake, “The Distance.”

Tomorrow begins nine days of conference championship action after which we’ll have 122 teams – 63 women’s teams and 59 men’s teams – who will make up the 2007 NCAA Tournament fields.

Like last year, we’ll use the Daily Dose to highlight big games and shine a spotlight on the lesser known races worth watching.

Day one brings a formerly ranked team on the brink, a full day of action in New York City and a sleeper with one last chance to wake up.

Rocky Road: For those who doubt the NESCAC’s depth, witness the plight of the Bates Bobcats. They spent a good portion of the season ranked after plowing through their non-conference schedule. Then they hit the conference schedule – or the schedule hit them – and now they are the eight seed in their own tournament.

So all they have to do is win three games. On the road. Starting with an angry No. 3 Amherst team. Might as well get the hardest one out of the way first, I suppose.

If the Bobcats have any hope, it resides in the dynamic duo of Zak Ray (12.3 ppg, 140 assists) and Rob Stockwell (15.9 ppg, 9.2 rpg). The Lord Jeffs held Ray to 8 points on 2 for 11 shooting in the first meeting, a 79-64 Amherst victory.

Webcast: 3 PM EST: Bates @ No. 3 Amherst (Men)

NESCAC fans can also watch Little 3 rivals Wesleyan and Williams battle in the women’s quarterfinals at 4 PM EST.

Almost Paradise: Head Coach Machli Joseph and Baruch played an aggressive non-conference schedule this year that included four likely tournament teams (No. 5 Messiah, No. 6 Scranton, Kean and Chapman). That provided very valuable experience, but it also added a few more regional loses.

The Bearcats are the heavy favorites for the CUNYAC tournament and they probably need to win it to make the NCAA tournament. The next loss will be their seventh in region and they were not ranked in this week’s regional rankings.

It’s up to Preseason All-American Chiresse Paradise (12.5 ppg, 13 games) to help the Bearcats complete an undefeated season in the CUNYAC. They start with New York City Tech tomorrow.

Waking Wesley: Last year Wesley nearly upset Alvernia on the road in the PnAC Tournament final. With players like Rashawn Johnson (22.9 ppg) returning, the Wolverines had a chance to contend for this year’s regular season title. Instead they lost seven of their first 10 and needed a win over Misericordia just to grab the sixth seed.

That gives the Wolverines one more chance to live up to the potential they showed late last year, starting in the conference tournament quarterfinals at Immaculata. The Mighty Macs are a good story themselves having taken the third seed in just their second season of men’s basketball.

There are lots of other good stories and big games out there, including a D3hoopsNet broadcast of the de facto NJAC regular season title game between Ramapo and NJCU.

Feel free to talk them up.

For many years, people have asked when I would be doing D3baseball.com. The answer was always “never.”

Well, never say never, because we’ve opened the doors on D3baseball.com. Though it’s not a brand-new site. Like D3hoops.com itself, D3baseball.com is an existing site that is coming under the D3sports.com umbrella. Jim Dixon’s Division III Baseball Online is now part of the family.

I’ve written more on the D3baseball.com Daily Dose about how the site came about, how it will be run, etc., but we hope you will stop by the site, which is probably about 85% complete.

Then scurry back here — we have some playoffs coming up!

Both #1 teams fell this week and were replaced with grizzled veterans of the top rank. On the women’s side, top-ranked Messiah was upset by Moravian and fell 4 spots. The new women’s #1 is Bowdoin, which is nothing new for the Polar Bears. They have been the top team in the women’s poll 24 times, including seven weeks earlier this season, and haven’t been outside the top ten since early in the 2001-02 season, a record streak that has now reached an incredible 86 weeks. Trailing Bowdoin by just 6 votes is Calvin, who defeated #8 Hope to lay claim to the MIAA championship. Moving up to third is Howard Payne, continuing their amazing run that has seen them match or better their all-time highest ranking in each of this season’s 12 polls.

Two-time champion UW-Stevens Point surged back into the men’s #1 spot this week, capturing 21 first place votes. This is the 18th time the Pointers have held the top spot; like their counterparts from Bowdoin, they are second on the list of all-time top rankings (Carthage leads the men with 22 top rankings, while Washington U. has been atop the women’s poll 53 times.) Former #1 Amherst fell back into a tightly-packed group with the other two teams to have held the top ranking this season, #2 Virginia Wesleyan and #4 Wooster. Just 24 points separate these three teams. Overall, 45 men’s teams were mentioned on at least one ballot; this is the widest dispersal of votes this late in a season since the 2000-01 season, when 49 teams received Week 11 votes.

Women’s #23 Chicago lost for the fifth time in their last six games and fell out of the women’s poll, leaving the fourteenth-ranked male Maroons alone to defend Hyde Park’s honor. The departure of the distaff Maroons leaves just three schools with both of their hoops teams ranked: Hope College (women #8, men #10), Washington U. (women #12, men #11) and New York U. (women #7, men #20.) These schools are no strangers to poll success: there has been at least one Wash. U. team ranked in 117 of the 121 weeks of D3Hoops.com polling, while Hope and NYU have appeared in one or both polls 91 and 89 times, respectively.

Debutantes:
Women: #25 Fitchburg State has reeled off 21 straight victories after a season-opening loss to Mt. Holyoke, and sits alone atop the MASCAC. This week the Falcons joined the top 25 for the first time ever.
Men: #23 Mary Hardin-Baylor enters the men’s Top 25 poll for the first time ever. The Crusaders have won 16 consecutive games, placing them atop the ASC-West, and become the second ASC team (after UT-Dallas) to make their poll debut this season. Stevens Institute of Technology has won 10 straight games and holds a slender half-game lead in the Skyline Conference at 19-4. The Ducks debut as vote-getters with 4 points this week.
Congratulations to the Falcons, Crusaders, and Ducks!

Streakers:
Women: Sixth-ranked Scranton is a member of the top 10 for the 25th straight week. #19 Illinois Wesleyan took a tumble in the poll, but still extended their ranking streak to 10 consecutive weeks. #11 DePauw also slid in the poll, falling out of the top 10 for the first time in 22 weeks, but extended their votes-received streak to 110 consecutive weeks. #22 Baldwin-Wallace has received votes in 30 straight poll weeks, and Norwich has attracted votes in 10 straight polls. Williams saw the end of a vote-getting streak that extended back 26 weeks to the beginning of last season.
Men: The three record streaks in the men’s poll all hit significant milestones this week. #3 Amherst has now been ranked for a record 75 straight weeks. #4 Wooster‘s top 10 streak has now reached 50 straight polls, and their voting streak stands at a perfect 120 weeks. Congratulations to the Lord Jeffs and Scots! #6 Wittenberg and #21 Puget Sound have each been ranked for 50 consecutive weeks. Ohio Northern fell out of the top 25 for the first time this season, but still extended their votes-received streak to 25 weeks. #20 NYU, Carthage, and Keene St. have each received votes in the last 10 polls.

Milestones:
Women: #11 DePauw received votes for the 120th time, a mark exceeded only by the triumvirate of #6 Scranton, #12 Washington U., and #13 Hardin-Simmons, each of which has been supported in all of the 121 polls in D3Hoops.com’s top 25 history. Mt. St. Mary and Puget Sound each attracted votes for the 40th time; Luther is a vote-getter for the 20th week; and Norwich received votes in their 10th poll. #4 Southern Maine is a top 10 team for the 60th time, while #20 Wilmington is a top 25 team for the 60th time. #21 McDaniel is ranked for the 20th week; #19 Illinois Wesleyan received their 10th ranking this week.
Men: #21 Puget Sound makes their 50th appearance as a top 25 team this week. For #3 Amherst, this is the 80 ranked week. #2 Virginia Wesleyan is ranked for the 30th time, and #13 Worcester Polytech is in the top 25 for the 20th time. Fourth-ranked Wooster has received votes in each of the 120 men’s polls in D3Hoops.com history, and has now been in the top 10 in 90 of them. #11 Washington U. received votes for the 75th time, and #2 Virginia Wesleyan attracted support for the 50th week. Rochester is a vote-getter for the 80th time; #9 Augustana and #10 Hope received votes for the 70th week apiece; and Bluffton and Grinnell each received a single vote, bringing their all-time voting appearance totals to 10 each.

High-Water Marks:
Women: As noted above, #3 Howard Payne set a new high this week, reaching or tying a high-water mark in the 12th straight poll. #2 Calvin, #17 Lake Forest, and debutante #25 Fitchburg St. each established new all-time high ranks, while #9 McMurry tied their high-water mark.
Men: #15 Aurora set a new high-water mark this week, their fourth this season. #17 Guilford and debutante #23 Mary Hardin-Baylor also set all-time highs in this poll.

Movers and Shakers:
Women: Rochester dropped games to UAA foes #7 NYU and #14 Brandeis, and subsequently dropped 231 points and 10 places this week, landing at #16. Illinois Wesleyan also lost two conference games and slid nine spots to #19, donating 211 points back to the field. Moving up were UAA conference-mates #12 Washington U. (up 5 places) and #14 Brandeis (up 7 spots), each of which gained 121 points in this week’s poll.
Men: Most of the movement in this week’s poll was downward. Then-#15 Carthage lost twice and fell out of the poll, leaving 172 poll points behind. Ohio Northern, which has been ranked as high as #2 this season, also dropped out from the #19 spot, shedding 133 points. #8 St. Thomas lost one game and won another in double overtime, causing them to drop 123 points and 5 poll placements. The biggest upward mover was #22 Trinity (CT), which parlayed a win over then-#1 Amherst into a 107-point gain and entry in the top 25.