MBB: Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[bbaddict]

Oxy won't back down to anybody.  They'll give MC more than any other 1st round opponent should. 

it is unfortunate that we aren't playing you (Whitworth)  this year because we have made strides to narrow the gap between our conferences and view you as the barometer of our progress.  It would have been fun to see if we are there now.  But please don't come in here and tell us that we shouldn't be complaining about being given a seed against the #1 seed in the South.  DePauw ain't MC. 

Believe in your team DIII and your first statement!  When Oxy makes it past MC & Va. Wesleyan & Whitworth makes it past the 5 (as ranked by D3hoops) teams in its bracket, they can play on March 16 in the semifinals.  So, let's root for that, OK?  No more accusations or namecalling or anything.  I call a truce.   Great playing to the two teams from the West!!  (So, they can go beat on each other for awhile!)  Truly, the left side of the playoff bracket got hosed entirely if you believe the rankings on D3 hoops.  Me, I just always believe the team I'm rooting for will win -- until they prove otherwise!!

Looking forward to some great basketball!

[bbaddict]

Just so no one has to read my mind, I meant to say when Whitworth makes it past the 5 of the top 10 ranked teams (by D3hoops) in its bracket . . .

Hope that makes more sense.  If it doesn't, drink more beer!

[DIIIghetto]

Now that the godfather has spoken on it, I'll leave it alone.  Game time. 

[diehardfan]

Sigh....

The UMHB coach probably simply (correctly) pointed out, that his team is not supposed to play a conf opponent in the first round unless travel cost is an issue. If you have the ability to advocate for your team, why not do it? It's not really his fault, they did what they were supposed to do, albeit late in that context. The problem was that they switched it (in terms of seeding) when they did correct it.

And of course, the one sitting on that seeding call would have been the chair on the South region anyway, as the national committee is basically made up of the chairs from each region. Consider yourself screwed by the rep from waaay out in NC if you really want.

Who you really have a beef with is the IIAC guy who represents the West region on that national committee. They would have been in on that decision... and the current SCIAC rep, Mr. Dow of CalTech, for not noticing the problem, and advocating adequately.

With all that said, I really think that it would be much healthier to get over it now that it's Thursday and the game is just around the corner. But if you want to be angry, go for it. I obviously can't stop you. Just don't misplace that anger.

[scottiedoug]

Ralph:  And your point is???  It seems sensible that Maryville would rather not play Mississippi College in the first round.  Neither does either of the other teams want to do that (esp. Oxy if you can believe the posters). 

If I understand this right, and I am sure you (or Pat) will let me know if I am wrong, these contested decisions were made by a group of people including the AD at Methodist, who as far as I know is not Randy Lambert's agent.  As I said elsewhere, if Lambert is as "curiously" powerful as is being implied, the Scots would have not gone to Mississippi in the first place. 

I hope Oxy wins and then overlooks Maryville....

[Ralph Turner]

I thought that avoiding a conference foe was fair.

How about avoiding a first round matchup of teams that have played three times in the previous four tourneys?

Will Maryville "bus" or "fly"?  The new software runs 504 miles as shortest distance when it doesn't consider the Cleaveland TN shortcut.

[Ralph Turner]

OxyBob, I went back to the QOWI page from Saturday.

MissCollege and Oxy were #10 and #16.

You have made your point!

[golden_dome]

Live video will be available Friday for Mississippi College's game against Occidental Friday. I have something up on our site now about it at www.gochoctaws.com but links will not be up until tomorrow. It is a large feed so a strong DSL connection is required. I would say a minimum connection of 4-5 Mbps should work. The stream is about 550 Kbps and a 4 meg connection should handle it, maybe even 3 megs.

[diehardfan]

http://www.d3sports.com/post/index.php?topic=5147.0

Would anyone like to do an Oxy preview for the national pool of previews we are making? I've seen them four/five times this season, but am probably not the best person to do it. Oxy Bob? tigersports? Sabertooth?

[Roy Dow]

I recognize dhf is a wonderful fan of DIII basketball and posts with great enthusiasm for DIII, but be careful in introducing me into this scenario so callously without knowledge of what happened.  The regional committee has a certain "charge" in our process as does the national committee for setting up the tournament.  The process is/was followed at each level, a welcome process from the days of the "old boys" network selecting the teams to participate, and a mistake was made and unfortunately had to be corrected publicly.

As of 6 a.m. on the Pacific coast this past Monday, I was greeted at home with the original seeding. Upon arrival later that morning at the office (and not much later) the seedings had changed.  You suggest that I should have noticed the  Miss Col/MHB problem and apparently did not "advocate adequately" after the re-setting of the pairings. 

You don't know what happened to change the seedings and you don't know what ensued  (phone calls, emails, etc.) to question my representation of my conference.  Suffice to say, a change was made after recognition of an error and another change was not going to be made.  As you know, policy is for conference foes to avoid each other in the opening round games and just a year removed from CMS and OXY being paired in the first round, citing that policy seemed unjust but was the correct decision by the national committee; a decision that does not seek the input or approval of the regional reps.  Last year's situation and this year's situation are 2 distinct unrelated decisions based on not-so-easy to satisfy parameters in setting the national tournament.

[Gray Fox]

Thank you Coach Dow for shining some light on the process.

[diehardfan]

Coach Dow,

I am more than a little bit embarassed at the fact that you felt the need to post to correct me. I have enormous respect for your program at Cal Tech as the Flagship of everything that DIII is, could be, and should be. There are many coaches around the league that could learn a lot from you. Thank you for correcting me kindly (although I didn't deserve it) and for giving us a look into the process as well.

As a neutral fan that was looking at the situation with an unbaised eye, I was getting extremely sick of the Oxy people whining. Despite my attempts to get them to see things in a positive light it kept coming back to the negativity. I posted a knee jerk response to defend the South Region Reps as it was quite clear that the South Reps were being accused unfairly and had done nothing wrong. In doing so, I was in turn completely unfair to you, and very much on the level that I was trying to get people to transcend. I didn't realize how thoughtless, abrupt and offensively my post came off toward those on the West region committee until I reread it just now. I should have been more careful with my words, or just stuffed my frustration with the whining.

I hope you will accept my apology.

Respectfully,
April

[golden_dome]

Here is link to the Mississippi College Regional website where you can find MC/Occidental video and live stats for the games.
http://www.gochoctaws.com/index.asp

[DIIIghetto]

DHF, I am sure you are forgiven.  This wasn't the fault of any one person.   Multiple layers of failure had to take place for this royal drubbing to occur - one that many non-SCIAC folks have called attention to. 

Stop apologizing for the mistakes of others.   Our kids and our conference deserve to have someone care more than a few angry calls or maybe a letter with a bunch of signatures.   Someone cared enough about their team to avoid placing them against the strongest team in the South in the 1st round.  Why should we accept less?   Thanks to this medium, this community, we get our chance to let them know about their mistake.  There are some folks who were involved with this who gave us a good 'ol southern screwing.  As a SCIAC fan nobody should be apologizing for them.  We should continue to call attention to it for as long as we can (granted, that probably will be about the time the ref tosses up the ball tomorrow night).   

Of course I hope that OB is right and this crooked play by some partisan folks creates enough bad ju-ju that the basketball gods seal up that rim on those kids with the unnamed benefactors.  We'll see.  One-and-dones are something that we in the SCIAC should all have grown sick of and every single post-season game for us is critical for us to continue to raise our national profile.   Sure, playing a number 1 seed is a great opportunity for us in that quest, it just would have been nice to have not had to worry about that tall task until at least the second game. 

We all know that our boys will be out there tomorrow night not worrying about this and giving MC more than they ever wanted from a 1st round opponent. 
 

[tigersports]

Will there be an audio only feed?  I'd like to know so I can put it on my website for my loyal droves of listeners who are going wonder why "Golden Throat" isn't there.