Quote from: nescac1 on February 26, 2025, 01:57:11 PMYeah, hitting RMC at any time is generally bad luck.  But for terrible luck with the COVID interruption just as RMC was peaking, we might be comparing this current RMC run to the Bo Ryan Platteville teams in terms of pure dominance, and I'm convinced Josh Merkel could have just as much success if he ever moves up to D1.  Kind of stunned a strong D1 program hasn't recruited him away (though maybe he is happy dominating D3 in perpetuity). It doesn't really matter who graduates or if they seem undersized or too young or lack depth in a particular year, they are at a minimum nearly impossible to score on year after year, and when the roster is full of veterans, good luck. 

2019: 27-4, one point loss in Sweet 16
2020: 28-2 (only one D3 loss), and probably the favorite to win the title before COVID
2021: 12-0, another loaded team that could have won the title
2022: 33-1, a one-point road loss to CNU short of a perfect season, maybe the most dominant D3 tournament run ever
2023: 29-2, number one for most of the year, tough loss in the Sweet 16
2024: 25-5, lost in the Sweet 16 in a "down" year
2025: 22-3, currently on a 19-game winning streak and looking poised for another deep tourney run

Beyond being a great coach, he is a great person as well. One of my all-time favorites. I too am a bit surprised that a mid-Atlantic low-major hasn't tried to woo him away yet but a lot of coaches will tell you you don't mess with happy!

Quote from: SpringSt7 on February 24, 2025, 08:22:28 PMAmherst and...Bates? A little early in the season for D3 HCs to be getting promotions

Bowdoin on the list of potential openings, too?

Quote from: BaboNation on February 25, 2025, 09:25:18 PMThere'll be no 3-peat for Babson.

Coast Guard takes them down in the NEWMAC first round 80-69, in a game that was much closer than the final score, but CG controlled for most of the night.

Babson hung with everyone on their schedule til the Wheaton game mid-January when they seemed to lose their mojo and never got it back.  They were never the same team again.

Luke Farrell 20-10 is exactly the kind of player Babson needs and doesn't have - a low post option on offense.  And the CG guards were quicker and posed matchup problems.  Not enough lateral quickness from the Babson guards opened up the lane and caused rotations to be late.  And CG hit their shots when it counted.

Early commits for Babson look promising, but a Nate Amado (20-9 tonight) doesn't grow on trees.

I wonder how much the fairly smooth win on Saturday against Coast Guard played into the struggles last night - having not watched the playoff game but seeing parts of Saturdays game.

D3 Datacast does a great job calculating Non-Conf SOS specifically:

https://d3datacast.com/efficiency-ratings/

And to Babo's point, the Beavers are 6th in the nation in Non-Conf SOS while WPI is 88th (which is 4th highest in the conference).

Quote from: D3BBALL on February 18, 2025, 05:04:35 PMI always thought top 25 was at that time of the vote, not looking forward or who is hot or not.
On WPI I would say they are somewhere in the middle in this argument. They have been dominant in their conference but as the NPI shows it does not value their conference that highly nor did the committee last year and the year before. I believe they were regular season champs, or tied, lost in conference playoffs and did not receive a bid the last 2 years. I believe both years they started in top 25 but by regular season end they were not. Both years only 1 team made NCAA out of the NEWMAC. This year unless they lose the conference championship, which is very possible, only 1 team gets in. This year not sure they're out of conference schedule was that good except tufts, who they did beat, but they lost to Suffolk on neutral court. No matter what they are in NCAA, but I don't view them as a contender for final 4. Since 2007 they have made it past the 2nd round once and been in the NCAA like 10 times. How many of those years were there multiple bids.
So I think they are close but not blue blood, as they haven't really had the benefit of blue bloods, as they have had good records and then don't make NCAA.

And that was my only call out - the descriptor "blue blood." When someone says a blue blood you think of programs like Duke, Kentucky, Kansas, UNC, etc.

Coach Bartley does a great job recruiting & coaching his guys up. They just don't compete on the national stage the way that other schools do on a consistent basis.

Or at the D3 level I would say UW-Whitewater, UW Stevens Point, Williams, Amherst, Randolph-Macon and schools that regularly have reached Final Fours across multiple eras.

Quote from: BaboNation on February 17, 2025, 05:57:41 PMRegarding WPI, first off they are pretty safely in this year.  They could probably lose their final regular season game and lose the NEWMAC semi, finish 22-4, and still get a Pool C, unless there's an unprecedented run of bid thieves.

And I have always respected their program under Bartley.  He develops players and gets guys to fit his system year after year.  Just look at how Marelli and Reidy have made huge leaps in their game this year.

But their SOS needs to get better by scheduling tougher out of conference.  Massey has them 6th out of 9 NEWMAC teams for end-of-season projected SOS.  And they barely beat out Wheaton (186 vs. 188).  The last 2 years they finished 22-4 and 21-5 and missed the tournament both years.  There's simply no margin for error with a 186 Massey.  And compounding the issue was adding the 9th NEWMAC team (Salve Regina) so that 16 out of 25 games are now conference games.  Then add the factor that the conference as a whole has gotten weaker in the last 3 years (I watch the games - I don't like to say this).

If it can't be Babson I'll be rooting for the NEWMAC entry, whoever that turns out to be.

Agree 100%. Bartley is one of the best coaches in New England, if not the country, at this level. He gets so much out of his guys, he's a great recruiter, and the culture he has built at WPI is second-to-none in DIII basketball. Guys play so hard and work so hard in that program, it's truly impressive.

I just wish that they would go out and play a better non-conference. I get the Worcester State game but do you need to be playing Salem State, Fitchburgh State, & UMass Dartmouth? Bottom 100 teams? Go play Colby, go play Brandeis, go play Midd, go play Nichols/Endicott/WNEC. Just beef up that schedule a bit more.

Especially knowing that you'll still get two games each against Salve, Wheaton and Coast Guard.

Quote from: Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan) on February 16, 2025, 05:39:39 PM

Quote from: WashedUp1 on February 16, 2025, 10:35:00 AM

Quote from: Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan) on February 09, 2025, 03:56:29 PM

Quote from: GusD on February 09, 2025, 12:47:15 PMLet me start out by saying that it would not be at all surprising if IWU stood at the top of the pile when the season's final buzzer sounds.
And, I'm not sure what anyone's floor or ceiling or whatever is, but now those supposedly #1 mighty (small m  ) Titans have lost two in a row. But granted, last night's loss wasn't to another "inferior" team as on Wednesday. Perhaps the Titans problem is winning away from the Taj Mahal, oops, Shirk Center? Although, aren't #1 teams supposed to also win on the road?
At any rate, floor, ceiling, or whatever, is there another team that more often profits in polls by it's past reputation than IWU?

There's a whole class of blueblood programs who get the benefit of the doubt based on past performance.  That's one of the ways to make decisions when it's unclear which teams are better.  Williams, Randolph-Macon, Christopher Newport, WashU, Stevens Point, Whitworth, WPI.

Ryan - I have a ton of respect for you and all you do for D3. But putting WPI in the same "blueblood" group as Williams, RMC, CNU, WashU, Stevens Point & Whitworth?

Since the 2015-16 season, WPI has three tournament appearances total & three wins in the tournament. If that is what is considered a blueblood......

WPI has basically had a Top 20 team for two straight decades.  They play great defense and compete with 95% of the teams in the division.  That's reliability.  When it comes to Top 25, if I'm stuck picking between WPI and a team on a hot streak for the first time in a decade for my #25 spot, I'm going with WPI almost every time.

I'd put Whitworth in the same category.  They've rarely got teams capable of winning the title, but they've got Top 25 teams almost every year.  That's blueblood to me.

It was shared earlier that the Top 25 poll is meant to be forward looking - trying to identify who will be the top 25 teams at the end of the year. I believe the statement was something along the lines of "if it was meant to be a retrospective, then we can look at computer polls for that."

So all these years of voting for WPI to be a top 25, you would think they would be routinely reaching the Round of 32 or the Sweet 16. Because that is where you would find the teams that are the top 25 in the country at the end of the year.

Quote from: Greek Tragedy on February 17, 2025, 07:49:11 AMMeanwhile, Babson is 1-3 against Clark and WPI.

Ha! Fair play. But recent years, Babson has had both their numbers in the tournament.

Quote from: Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan) on February 09, 2025, 03:56:29 PM

Quote from: GusD on February 09, 2025, 12:47:15 PMLet me start out by saying that it would not be at all surprising if IWU stood at the top of the pile when the season's final buzzer sounds.
And, I'm not sure what anyone's floor or ceiling or whatever is, but now those supposedly #1 mighty (small m  ) Titans have lost two in a row. But granted, last night's loss wasn't to another "inferior" team as on Wednesday. Perhaps the Titans problem is winning away from the Taj Mahal, oops, Shirk Center? Although, aren't #1 teams supposed to also win on the road?
At any rate, floor, ceiling, or whatever, is there another team that more often profits in polls by it's past reputation than IWU?

There's a whole class of blueblood programs who get the benefit of the doubt based on past performance.  That's one of the ways to make decisions when it's unclear which teams are better.  Williams, Randolph-Macon, Christopher Newport, WashU, Stevens Point, Whitworth, WPI.

Ryan - I have a ton of respect for you and all you do for D3. But putting WPI in the same "blueblood" group as Williams, RMC, CNU, WashU, Stevens Point & Whitworth?

Since the 2015-16 season, WPI has three tournament appearances total & three wins in the tournament. If that is what is considered a blueblood......

NESCAC ends the year 55-55 in league play. Really hope they can turn it around headed into the post-season and better represent the talent of the league in the tournament [/sarcasm]

I have a sneaky suspicion that Babson will run thru the tournament for another conference championship despite being middle of the pack thru league play YTD.

With wins against Trinity, Wooster and WPI they have what would be the equivalent of three Quad 1 wins in Division I.

Meanwhile, Clark and WPI have more wins but against who? At some point the two teams from Worcester are going to have play someone that is good at basketball in the non-conference...

Marcus Montagnino is such a fun story. Plays club basketball at Xavier and transfers to Endicott as a grad student. Is averaging 22 ppg with 59/41/81 shooting splits. Leads the league in scoring. 7 straight "rookie of the week" awards and probably the odds on favorite to win CPOY.

It's a little bit of an eye chart but I was curious as we head into finals and winter break at most schools, how the D3 poll stacked up when compared to Massey and D3 Datacast rankings...

Team	D3Hoops	Massey	D3 Datacast	Composite
Emory	1	1	3	1.7
Trinity (CT)	3	3	2	2.7
NYU	7	4	1	4.0
Trine	4	8	4	5.3
WashU	2	6	10	6.0
Hampden-Sydney	9	2	9	6.7
Wesleyan	17	5	5	9.0
Tufts	11	10	8	9.7
UW-Platteville	5	7	25	12.3
Wooster	8	9	22	13.0
Keene State	12	14	16	14.0
Wisconsin Lutheran	6	11	30	15.7
Catholic	24	22	6	17.3
WPI	16	23	13	17.3
UW-Lacrosse	20	15	19	18.0
Illinois-Wesleyan	10	17	29	18.7
St. John's	21	20	21	20.7
Stockton	23	19	24	22.0
Randolph Macon	45	12	11	22.7
Christopher Newport	18	21	36	25.0
UW-Stevens Point	14	25	37	25.3
UW-Oshkosh	26	13	47	28.7
Carnegie Mellon	19	32	39	30.0
Whitworth	15	16	63	31.3
Roanoke	46	34	15	31.7

First time in a long time doing a Top 25... But here is how I see it so far in 2024-25...

1) Trine
2) Hampden Sydney
3) Trinity (CT)
4) Randoplh-Macon [probably too high but played H-S close and got a lot of faith in them over the next few months continuing to get W's]
5) Emory
6) Keene State
7) Tufts
8) NYU
9) St. John's (MN)
10) Christopher Newport
11) Wash U
12) Guilford
13) Wisconsin Lutheran
14) Illinois Wesleyan
15) UW LaCrosse
16) WPI
17) Catholic
18) Wooster
19) TCNJ
20) John Carroll
21) Williams
22) Oswego State
23) Trinity (TX)
24) Mount Union
25) St. Thomas (TX)

Next up: Wesleyan (CT), Johnny Hopkins & Gettysburg