Insider: March at last

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Holly Harvey, a junior guard for Illinois Wesleyan, checks in as her Titans get set to host Franklin in the first round of the NCAA tournament. She has lots of reasons to enjoy March and is hoping to add another big one on March 20.

I have always looked forward to the month of March. My birthday is on the 10th and what kid wouldn’t anticipate the one day a year when it’s all about them and they get showered with gifts? Now that I am older and a little more mature March holds my anticipation for a number of other reasons. Our spring break always falls the week of St. Patrick’s Day (another reason to be a fan of March) and I find myself counting down the days to it after the final week of February was filled with tests and papers. These days I also owe my love for this month to college basketball.

I log some of my longest hours of watching TV in March because I try and catch as much of the Division I NCAA tournaments as possible. It’s convenient that the opening days of the tournaments fall during spring break so I do not have to worry about whether or not I’d be able to drag myself away from the TV to go to class. Since I have been at Illinois Wesleyan the highlight of my March has been the Division III NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament.

All three of my years we have gotten the automatic bid from the CCIW. We are excited to begin our journey in the NCAA Tournament at our Shirk Center as we are a host for the first two rounds. We have Franklin College in our first game and if we are successful we will face either Simpson College or the University of Chicago. We are familiar with Chicago as we faced them at their place in December and won by 7. Just as we are starting our NCAA journey at Shirk we are hoping to end it there.

We have known for a while now that we are hosting the Final Four. It has been pretty hard to not look forward to those games and see ourselves playing for a national championship on our home court. When we find ourselves daydreaming about being in the Final Four we snap out of it and realize the games leading up to it will not just be handed to us because we are hosting. Every team we might face made the tournament for a reason and will challenge us to perform at our best.

We’ve been working hard all season for these important challenges that are about to come our way. I am confident that we are ready and have the potential to do some amazing things in the tournament. We are just going to take it one game at a time and not look past any of our opponents. Hopefully everything works out for us and March 2010 will be one of the most memorable months of my life.

Final 2010 regional rankings

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As promised in the championship handbooks, a final set men’s and women’s regional rankings for the 2009-10 season have been released.

Remember there are three ways a game can be classified as in region.

Through games of Sunday, Feb. 28, 2010.

Men’s rankings

Atlantic Region
1. William Paterson 24-2 25-2
2. Merchant Marine 22-4 23-4
3. Richard Stockton 19-6 20-7
4. Rutgers-Newark 16-6 20-7
5. SUNY-Old Westbury 20-7 20-7

East Region
1. St. John Fisher 21-5 22-5
2. Plattsburgh State 20-6 21-7
3. Medaille 22-4 23-4
4. Oneonta State 21-6 22-6
5. Nazareth 17-8 18-9
6. Ithaca 15-7 18-8

Great Lakes Region
1. Wooster 23-4 23-5
2. Hope 16-3 21-7
3. Wilmington (Ohio) 20-6 21-7
4. John Carroll 18-6 20-6
5. Calvin 15-4 19-9
6. Wittenberg 17-7 21-7

Middle Atlantic Region
1. St. Mary’s (Md.) 22-3 24-3
2. Albright 20-5 21-5
3. Cabrini 25-2 25-2
4. Franklin and Marshall 23-4 23-4
5. DeSales 21-4 22-5
6. Lycoming 17-6 21-6
7. Wesley 16-6 19-8
8. Messiah 15-6 16-9
9. York (Pa.) 17-7 19-7

Midwest Region
1. Washington U. 20-2 23-2
2. Carthage 18-3 22-5
3. St. Norbert 21-3 22-3
4. Illinois Wesleyan 19-7 20-7
5. Defiance 21-5 23-5
6. Wheaton (Ill.) 17-8 18-8
7. Anderson 20-5 22-5
8. Augustana 16-9 16-10

Northeast Region
1. Williams 24-0 26-1
2. Middlebury 20-3 24-3
3. Rhode Island College 20-7 20-7
4. Brandeis 19-6 19-6
5. MIT 21-3 22-4
6. Colby 17-5 19-6
7. Bridgewater State 18-5 19-7
8. Gordon 23-4 24-4
9. Western Connecticut State 18-7 19-7
10. WPI 19-7 20-7
11. Albertus Magnus 22-5 22-6

South Region
1. Guilford 26-2 26-2
2. Eastern Mennonite 18-3 22-4
3. Texas-Dallas 22-4 23-5
4. Randolph-Macon 16-6 22-6
5. Virginia Wesleyan 20-5 22-5
6. Maryville (Tenn.) 16-3 23-4
7. Austin 20-7 20-7
8. Mary Hardin-Baylor 22-5 22-6

West Region
1. Whitworth 23-2 25-2
2. UW-Stevens Point 22-4 23-4
3. UW-Whitewater 22-5 22-5
4. St. Thomas 20-4 23-3
5. Central 21-2 23-4
6. Chapman 17-1 23-2
7. Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 17-5 21-6
8. Carleton 19-9 19-9
9. UW-La Crosse 16-8 17-9

Women’s Rankings
Atlantic Region Record Overall Record
1. Kean 25-0 26-1
2. Marymount 23-1 26-1
3. William Paterson 25-2 25-2
4. Farmingdale State 25-1 25-1
5. Mount Saint Mary 21-5 22-5
6. Mary Washington 20-4 21-5

Central Region Record Overall Record
1. Illinois Wesleyan 23-1 26-1
2. Washington U. 20-2 23-2
3. Carthage 19-3 22-4
4. UW-Stevens Point 19-6 21-6
5. Chicago 19-6 19-6
6. UW-Whitewater 19-6 20-7

East Region Record Overall Record
1. Ithaca 22-3 22-5
2. Rochester 17-6 19-6
3. Medaille 24-1 25-2
4. Cortland State 24-3 25-3
5. RPI 14-9 17-10
6. Utica 20-6 21-6

Great Lakes Region Record Overall Record
1. Hope 24-0 27-1
2. Thomas More 25-2 25-3
3. DePauw 22-2 25-3
4. Mount Union 21-4 24-4
5. Washington and Jefferson 23-3 23-4
6. Calvin 19-3 24-4

Mid-Atlantic Region Record Overall Record
1. Moravian 25-2 25-2
2. Messiah 21-3 23-4
3. Lebanon Valley 23-3 23-4
4. McDaniel 20-6 20-6
5. Muhlenberg 21-5 21-5
6. Scranton 20-5 22-5

Northeast Region Record Overall Record
1. Amherst 27-0 27-0
2. Colby 20-4 23-4
3. Bowdoin 17-6 20-6
4. Tufts 17-4 20-5
5. Williams 18-6 18-7
6. Emmanuel 20-5 22-5
7. Western Connecticut 21-5 22-5
8. University of New England 22-5 23-5
9. Southern Maine 20-8 20-8
10. Babson 25-3 25-3

South Region Record Overall Record
1. Christopher Newport 27-0 28-0
2. Louisiana College 21-2 24-2
3. Roanoke 21-3 23-3
4. Howard Payne 21-7 21-7
5. Ferrum 19-6 21-7
6. Mary Hardin-Baylor 20-6 21-6

West Region Record Overall Record
1. George Fox 19-1 25-2
2. Puget Sound 18-3 23-4
3. Redlands 21-4 22-5
4. Simpson 18-4 22-5
5. Gustavus Adolphus 20-5 20-6
6. St. Thomas 21-7 21-7

Who’s in the men’s tournament?

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These teams have secured automatic bids into the NCAA tournament. Find out who is awarded the at-large bids when the NCAA announces the bracket at 10:00 am ET on Monday.

AMCC: Medaille (No. 1)
ASC: Mary Hardin-Baylor (No. 1-West)
CAC: St. Mary’s (Md.) (No. 1)
CCC: Gordon (No. 1)
Centennial: Franklin & Marshall (No. 1)
CCIW: Carthage (No. 1)
CSAC: Cabrini (No. 1)
CUNYAC: Brooklyn (No. 2)
Empire 8: Nazareth (No. 3)
GNAC: Albertus Magnus (No. 1)
HCAC: Defiance (No. 3)
IIAC: Central (No. 1)
Landmark: Merchant Marine (No. 1)
Little East: Rhode Island College (No. 1)
Liberty League: St. Lawrence (No. 1)
MAC Commonwealth: Albright (No. 2)
MAC Freedom: DeSales (No. 1)
MASCAC: Bridgewater State (No. 1)
MIAA: Hope (No. 2)
MIAC: Carleton (No. 4)
MWC: St. Norbert (No. 1)
NAC: Maine-Farmington (No. 1)
NATHCon: Aurora (No. 2)
NCAC: Wooster (No. 1)
NEAC: SUNYIT (No. 1)
NEWMAC: Clark (No. 5)
NESCAC: Williams (No. 1)
NJAC: William Paterson (No. 1)
NWC: Whitworth (No. 1)
OAC: Wilmington (No. 2)
ODAC: Guilford (No. 2)
PAC: Grove City (No. 1)
SCAC: Centre (No. 1-East)
SCIAC: Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (No. 1)
Skyline: Purchase (No. 3)
SLIAC: Westminster (Mo.) (No. 1)
SUNYAC: Plattsburgh State (No. 1)
UAA: Washington U. (No playoff)
USA South: Christopher Newport (No. 3)
WIAC: UW-Stevens Point (No. 2)

Who’s in the women’s tournament?

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All of the automatic bids have been awarded. Tune into the NCAA selection show on Monday at 12:30 pm ET.

AMCC: Medaille (No. 1)
ASC: Louisiana College (No. 1-East)
CAC: Marymount (No. 2)
CCC: University of New England (No. 1)
Centennial: McDaniel (No. 3)
CCIW: Illinois Wesleyan (No. 1)
CSAC: Neumann (No. 1)
CUNYAC: Baruch (No. 1)
Empire 8: Utica (No. 3)
GNAC: Emmanuel (No. 1)
GSAC: No. 1 Maryville (Tenn.) (No. 1)
HCAC: Franklin (No. 1)
IIAC: Simpson (No. 2)
Landmark: Moravian (No. 1)
Liberty League: RPI (No. 3)
Little East: Western Connecticut State (No. 1)
MAC Commonwealth: Messiah (No. 2)
MAC Freedom: DeSales (No. 2)
MASCAC: Massachusetts College (No. 4)
MIAA: Hope (No. 1)
MIAC: St. Thomas (No. 5)
MWC: St. Norbert (No. 1)
NAC: Husson (No. 1)
NATHCon: Lakeland (No. 3)
NCAC: Denison (No. 3)
NEAC: Penn State-Berks (No. 3)
NEWMAC: Babson (No. 1)
NESCAC: Amherst (No. 1)
NJAC: Kean (No. 1)
NWC: George Fox (No. 1)
OAC: Mount Union (No. 2)
ODAC: Washington and Lee (No. 3)
PAC: Thomas More (No. 1)
SCAC: DePauw (1-East)
SCIAC: Redlands (No. 2)
Skyline: Farmingdale State (No. 1)
SLIAC: Fontbonne (No. 1)
SUNYAC: Cortland State (No. 1)
UAA: Washington U.
USA South: Christopher Newport (No. 1)
WIAC: UW-Stevens Point (No. 2)

Taking a whack at Pool C

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Last night I started running numbers with the intent of producing a full bracket, but was unable to do so before having to give up and get some sleep. Sleep is precious this time of year — way too much work to do and not enough time to do it.

But I got far enough through it to generate something useful, and that was my Pool C rankings. Here’s were I saw the teams shaking out if the season ended Wednesday night:

Pool C
1 UW-Stevens Point
2 Middlebury
3 Guilford
4 Virginia Wesleyan
5 Wheaton (Ill.)
6 Lycoming
7 Richard Stockton
8 Illinois Wesleyan
9 Colby
10 Brandeis
11 Randolph-Macon
12 Rutgers-Newark
13 Messiah
14 Oneonta State
15 Mary Hardin-Baylor
16 Ithaca
17 Augsburg
18 York (Pa.)
19 Defiance

After that, the teams on the board were Ramapo, NYU, Calvin, Wesley, Western Connecticut, DePauw, UW-La Crosse. Augustana was next behind Defiance.

To do this, of course, I had to pick champions in a bunch of conferences, to determine who the Pool C teams would be. Mostly these are top seeds, or top teams in the regional rankings from each conference.

Pool A Projected winner
AMCC Medaille
ASC Texas-Dallas
CAC St. Mary’s (Md.)
CC Franklin and Marshall
CSAC Cabrini
CUNYAC York (N.Y.)
CCIW Carthage
CCC Gordon
E8 St. John Fisher
GNAC Albertus Magnus
HCAC Anderson
IIAC Central
LAND Merchant Marine
LL St. Lawrence
LEC Rhode Island College
MASCAC Bridgewater State
MIAA Hope
MAC-C Albright
MAC-F DeSales
MWC St. Norbert
MIAC St. Thomas
NESCAC Williams
NEWMAC MIT
NJAC William Paterson
NAC Maine-Farmington
NATHC Aurora
NCAC Wooster
NEAC SUNYIT
NWC Whitworth
OAC John Carroll
ODAC Eastern Mennonite
PAC Thomas More
SLIAC Westminster (Mo.)
SKY SUNY-Old Westbury
SCIAC Claremont-Mudd-Scripps
SCAC Austin
SUNYAC Plattsburgh State
UAA Washington U.
USAC North Carolina Wesleyan
WIAC UW-Whitewater

It’s a rough first draft, and nothing ever accounts for conference tournament upsets. But the further down you are on the Pool C list, the less safe you are is someone on the Pool A list gets upset.