MBB: Liberty League

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Week 2 Regional Rankings are out: http://www.d3hoops.com/notables/2018/02/men-regional-rankings-second

[Caz Bombers]

gonna post this over here on the men's board where someone might actually see it, but a genuine congrats to Bard women's basketball and head coach Casi Conelan-Dobbins, who ended a 63-game losing streak Monday night by beating Purchase 63-54 in non-conference action. The Raptors had not won a game since December 12, 2015 at Elms or at home since December 2, 2015 against CCNY.

[Bartman]

Week 2 Regional Rankings are out: http://www.d3hoops.com/notables/2018/02/men-regional-rankings-second

Hobart stays No.1 in basketball, and is No.5 in NCAA East RR  for hockey....could be some playoff action in Geneva...just keep winning

[Oline89]

Week 2 Regional Rankings are out: http://www.d3hoops.com/notables/2018/02/men-regional-rankings-second

Hobart stays No.1 in basketball, and is No.5 in NCAA East RR  for hockey....could be some playoff action in Geneva...just keep winning

So I am posting here, rather than one of the "general" sites, there is some very complicated math going on (RPI, SOS, VRRO...).  It looks to me that Hobart needs to win the league tournament to get the NCAA bid.  If they lose during the tournament, despite a high winning percentage, the SOS of the LL will lower their overall ranking.  This seems to me an unfortunate error where computer rankings may not always pass the "smell test".  Regardless, just keep winning and you control your own destiny....

[Pat Coleman]

Oline79 -- while pessimism is always a reasonable course of action, I think Hobart is just fine if they have four D-III losses on Selection Sunday. A .528 SOS isn't awesome, but it's definitely acceptable. Just three games vs. regionally ranked teams, and just one of them a win, might mean that they wait a while before getting selected, but I feel Hobart is in if it loses in the LL tournament.

[ITH radio]

Dave mentioned the same earlier. Statesmen will have a tough task of beating Union 2x in a row (reg season finale and in the tourney), but it's not impossible. This team is on quite a run.

[Oline89]

Does make me feel better, we are going to make the trip to Geneva on Saturday to see the season finale.  It is a double edged sword to have the tournament determine the automatic bid for lower ranked leagues.  It certainly keeps everyone interested to the end, but does damper the regular season champion.  The Ivy League finally succumbed to the pressure last year and instituted a season ending tournament. 

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Does make me feel better, we are going to make the trip to Geneva on Saturday to see the season finale.  It is a double edged sword to have the tournament determine the automatic bid for lower ranked leagues.  It certainly keeps everyone interested to the end, but does damper the regular season champion.  The Ivy League finally succumbed to the pressure last year and instituted a season ending tournament.

Ha... pressure? Ivy League finally realized how much money was able to be brought in and decided to do a season ending tournament.

BTW - only one league in the entire NCAA doesn't have a playoff and they are in DIII: UAA.

[hopefan]

As an RPI Basketball Alum, tough for me to get very excited regarding this year's team... to work their way into a decent position for the conference tourney, then to lose to Bard and Vassar... BARD AND VASSAR... are you kidding me??  Well I guess times have changed... a lot...

Well as I look at the RPI site, at least the basketball team has a better record than the hockey team... and as I view videos of games, I must say the new facility looks beautiful, not that the old '87 Gym didn't provide us with some home court advantage....

Guess I'll stick to Midwest and Great Lakes regions hoops..

[Oline89]

Does make me feel better, we are going to make the trip to Geneva on Saturday to see the season finale.  It is a double edged sword to have the tournament determine the automatic bid for lower ranked leagues.  It certainly keeps everyone interested to the end, but does damper the regular season champion.  The Ivy League finally succumbed to the pressure last year and instituted a season ending tournament.

Ha... pressure? Ivy League finally realized how much money was able to be brought in and decided to do a season ending tournament.

BTW - only one league in the entire NCAA doesn't have a playoff and they are in DIII: UAA.

Trying to be nice, it was obviously financial pressure!!

[Bartman]

Oline79 -- while pessimism is always a reasonable course of action, I think Hobart is just fine if they have four D-III losses on Selection Sunday. A .528 SOS isn't awesome, but it's definitely acceptable. Just three games vs. regionally ranked teams, and just one of them a win, might mean that they wait a while before getting selected, but I feel Hobart is in if it loses in the LL tournament.

This team has the spread of talent to survive the poor shooting performance of one or two of the starters, which I think is why they have weathered the opponent comebacks in a few of the games recently.I have confidence that they should win out and win the tournament, but in basketball you never know because on any given night you can go cold and the Vassar ,as an example, can rain 3 s. This a great team to watch(at least for D3) as they play so well as a team on both offense and defense. Hoping the streak continues this weekend...

[Pat Coleman]

Does make me feel better, we are going to make the trip to Geneva on Saturday to see the season finale.  It is a double edged sword to have the tournament determine the automatic bid for lower ranked leagues.  It certainly keeps everyone interested to the end, but does damper the regular season champion.  The Ivy League finally succumbed to the pressure last year and instituted a season ending tournament.

Ha... pressure? Ivy League finally realized how much money was able to be brought in and decided to do a season ending tournament.

BTW - only one league in the entire NCAA doesn't have a playoff and they are in DIII: UAA.

Trying to be nice, it was obviously financial pressure!!

+1 -- exactly

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Does make me feel better, we are going to make the trip to Geneva on Saturday to see the season finale.  It is a double edged sword to have the tournament determine the automatic bid for lower ranked leagues.  It certainly keeps everyone interested to the end, but does damper the regular season champion.  The Ivy League finally succumbed to the pressure last year and instituted a season ending tournament.

Ha... pressure? Ivy League finally realized how much money was able to be brought in and decided to do a season ending tournament.

BTW - only one league in the entire NCAA doesn't have a playoff and they are in DIII: UAA.

Trying to be nice, it was obviously financial pressure!!

+1 -- exactly

Well, maybe pressure for the athletic departments to generate more revenue, but no Ivy actually has financial pressure. If they really didn't want to do it, money wouldn't have been a problem.  I suspect they just liked the excitement and exposure (and the extra money doesn't hurt, even for the haves).

[Bartman]

Fantastic effort by Vassar but Hobart hangs on to win 79-74 at Bristol for their 15th straight. Vassar bigs were very effective and gave Hobart fits. Union looks hot, so should be a good ending to the regular season tomorrow night. If Hobart has any chance to win a few games in the NCAA tourney competitive games from the Liberty League will only help them play under pressure down the line.

[Libertatem Foederis]

LL Playoff Picture


# 1 Seed:


Hobart - LOCKED


# 2 Seed:


Union - LOCKED
- A win or lose they have the tie breaker with RIT & Ithaca (they split with both) of which I'm assuming its best record vs top of the league (Hobart) of which they are the only team the LL to beat them.

# 3 Seed & # 4 Seed:

RIT
- A Win & an Ithaca lose- Both Ithaca & RIT win or lose.....your guess is as good as mine how this gets figured out, they split this year & share the same results against the 2 teams ahead of them.

Ithaca
- A Win & a RIT lose- Both Ithaca & RIT win or lose.....your guess is as good as mine how this gets figured out, they split this year & share the same results against the 2 teams ahead of them.

# 5 Seed & 6 Seed:
What a mess..... fun thou

RPI
- Win & their in. Beat the Golden Knights today and they are either 5th or 6th , but they are in.
- Lose to the Golden Knights and it gets complicated. potentially a 4 way tie between Clarkson, Skidmore , & Vassar ... Vassar as swept them so if they lose they need Vassar to lose as well to keep their playoff hopes alive.

Skidmore
- Win & their in. SLU is on tap.
- Lose , & they like RPI need Vassar to lose as well to get in or at least give themselves a chance.

Vassar
- Win & RPI or Skidmore loses and they will take their spot b/c they will share the same record & they swept both teams this year.

Clarkson
- I put them here, but I don't think them can get in regardless of what happens.  If they win & everyone else loses (RPI , Vassar , Skidmore) they have a 3 way tie & skidmore swept them this year, & RPI split w/ Clarkson , but split with skidmore...and i think that will give them the edge .