Top 25 discussion

[troutman]

I'm familar with her.She is by far the best female basketball player to ever play at Gallaudet.I actually ment that except for that run with her it will be the best chance for them to go to the NCAA tourniment.   

[Darryl Nester]

Because of the small numbers of games over this two-week stretch, and an impending trip to visit family in Illinois, I am not going to post a "How They Fared" report tonight, or this Wednesday.  The final report will be posted next Sunday night.

[GuyFormerlyPSBBG]

Team	Record
Mississippi College	10-0
Louisanna College	9-0
Muhlenberg	8-0
LaGrange	7-0
Hanover	8-0
Wartburg	10-0
Bridgewater St	8-0
Hope	9-0
Concordia-Morhead	5-0
Babson	10-0
Denison	10-0
Gallaudet	9-0
Thomas More	9-0
Greensboro	8-0
Bridgewater	8-0
Ameherst	11-0
Williams	8-0
Middlebury	6-0

23 unbeaten teams down to 18 (records from d3hoops.com)  5 more have fallen from the unbeaten ranks.

7 of these teams are ranked.  Williams was left out of bold last post. (There were 8 teams ranked and still unbeaten)  Probably won't post again until the 7th, as there are not many games going on between now and then.

[Darryl Nester]

How They Fared--Complete for the Holiday season

Given the large number of tournament results here, I want to remind everyone that this report does not indicate when a game occurred on a neutral court (apart from Wash U's loss to Hope, which I added manually).

Top 25

Rank	Pts	Team	W-L	Results
#1	622	Amherst	11-0	IDLE
#2	598	Hope	11-0	def. #4 Washington U., 49-47; def. Ohio Wesleyan, 85-58
#3	552	Kean	10-2	def. T#38 Scranton, 56-39; LOST to #15 Illinois Wesleyan, 57-68; def. Regis (Mass.), 82-50
#4	531	Washington U.	9-2	LOST to [n] #2 Hope, 47-49; def. Bluffton, 71-59
#5	466	Thomas More	10-0	def. Ithaca, 74-73; def. Centre, 66-60
#6	465	Williams	11-0	def. Drew, 79-51; def. Widener, 75-63; def. Rivier, 91-42
#7	452	Christopher Newport	9-1	def. McMurry, 67-59; def. Virginia Wesleyan, 68-36; def. Mary Washington, 68-47
#8	440	Babson	10-0	def. Oneonta State, 61-50
#9	421	Rochester	8-1	IDLE
#10	352	UW-Stevens Point	10-2	def. Pacific Lutheran, 74-53; def. #18 Puget Sound, 85-61
#11	324	DePauw	10-2	def. Alma, 84-58; def. Rose-Hulman, 60-33; def. John Carroll, 85-47; def. Centre, 77-57
#12	307	Mount Union	10-1	def. Muskingum, 71-53; def. Case Western Reserve, 64-60; def. Juniata, 79-68
#13	305	Muhlenberg	8-0	IDLE
#14	289	George Fox	8-3	def. FDU-Florham, 77-48; def. St. Mary's (Ind.), 74-64; LOST at #17 UW-Whitewater, 56-73
#15	284	Illinois Wesleyan	8-3	def. Baruch, 75-71; def. #3 Kean, 68-57
#16	194	Carthage	9-2	def. Austin, 72-53; def. Texas-Dallas, 60-38
#17	187	UW-Whitewater	10-2	def. Pt. Loma Nazarene, 70-55; def. Bethany Lutheran, 79-63; def. #14 George Fox, 73-56
#18	167	Puget Sound	9-2	def. Menlo, 57-54; def. UC Santa Cruz, 54-43; LOST to #10 UW-Stevens Point, 61-85
#19	161	Lebanon Valley	10-1	def. Richard Stockton, 64-34; def. Ramapo, 62-48
#20	147	Medaille	9-1	def. William Smith, 79-72; def. St. John Fisher, 82-67
#21	142	Bowdoin	8-1	def. Wellesley, 71-39
#22	109	Louisiana College	10-0	def. Loyola (La.), 78-76
#23	84	UW-La Crosse	10-3	LOST at Chapman, 56-57; def. Occidental, 55-48
#24	75	Calvin	9-3	def. Wesleyan, 59-36; LOST at Cal Lutheran, 61-66
#25	67	Johns Hopkins	8-1	IDLE

Others receiving votes

Rank	Pts	Team	W-L	Results
#26	61	Western Connecticut	8-1	def. Fitchburg State, 87-50
#27	56	Mississippi College	11-0	def. Hendrix, 70-43
#28	51	William Paterson	9-2	def. Hunter, 77-43; def. Frostburg State, 61-56
#29	40	St. Norbert	8-1	def. #32 Bates, 78-69; def. Kenyon, 50-45
#30	33	Eastern Connecticut	8-3	LOST to Ohio Northern, 37-55; LOST at University of Dallas, 53-60
#31	23	St. Vincent	9-1	def. Randolph-Macon, 74-52
#32	16	Bates	8-2	LOST at #29 St. Norbert, 69-78; def. Kenyon, 76-60
#33	13	St. Benedict	7-1	IDLE
T#34	12	Gallaudet	9-0	IDLE
T#34	12	Greensboro	9-0	def. Mary Baldwin, 82-55
#36	11	Wisconsin Lutheran	8-1	def. Marian, 82-47
#37	10	Baldwin-Wallace	9-2	def. Otterbein, 72-63
T#38	9	Colby	8-1	def. Salem State, 98-66; def. Castleton State, 64-37
T#38	9	Scranton	7-3	LOST at #3 Kean, 39-56; def. St. Mary's (Md.), 88-53
T#40	7	Chicago	8-3	def. UW-Platteville, 76-70
T#40	7	Concordia-Moorhead	5-1	LOST to #42 UW-River Falls, 62-63
#42	4	UW-River Falls	10-2	def. T#40 Concordia-Moorhead, 63-62; def. St. Scholastica, 48-24
T#43	3	Millikin	8-3	def. Cornell, 66-46
T#43	3	Whitman	6-4	LOST at Montana Tech, 60-74; LOST at Carroll (Mont.), 54-58
#45	2	Tufts	7-1	def. Keene State, 45-29
T#46	1	Bridgewater (Va.)	8-0	IDLE
T#46	1	Coe	9-2	def. Howard Payne, 61-50; def. Concordia (Texas), 69-67

Other teams to watch (as suggested by posters on this board)

Rank	Pts	Team	W-L	Results
---	---	Denison	12-0	def. Susquehanna, 67-53; def. York (Pa.), 58-31

(I should have included the unranked, undefeated teams from GuyFormerlyPSBBG's list.  If there are any from that list who do not receive any votes in tomorrow's poll, I'll add them to the list for the coming week.)

[BlueZoneBruin]

How does Albion get 3 votes with a 4-8 record? Sure they beat Rochester, but that doesn't warrant votes. Come on voters (you know who you are), you can do better.

BlueZoneBruin

[Pat Coleman]

Thanks for the catch. Surely a typo rather than ignorance.

[deiscanton]

Thanks for clearing up the mistake, Pat.     

Albion defeated Rochester College of Michigan, who is currently 8-8 and is currently rated 5th in the USCAA in the Massey ratings among USCAA teams.  (Just goes to show that the USCAA is not very strong compared to NCAA Division III).   However, the Britons also lost to Brescia, Otterbein and Capital among other teams.  Obviously, Albion is not Top 25 material, and I don't see them beating Hope this season.

[GuyFormerlyPSBBG]

Team	Record
Mississippi College	11-0
Louisanna College	10-0
Muhlenberg	8-0
Hanover	10-0
Wartburg	12-0
Hope	11-0
Babson	10-0
Denison	12-0
Gallaudet	9-0
Thomas More	11-0
Greensboro	9-0
Bridgewater	8-0
Ameherst	11-0
Williams	12-0
I went to just update a few records found out there was a bit of action since the last post.  4 teams dropped from unbeaten ranks. There are now 14 unbeaten teams 8 of which are ranked. 5 of the 6 teams that are unranked are getting votes.  Hanover is the only team not getting votes? What is the deal with that conference/team not getting votes?

[deiscanton]

Here is my opinion on why Hanover is not getting Top 25 votes.

The Heartland Conference has not done well in the NCAA tournament in recent years-- Last year, Franklin, which won the Hearland Conference by beating Hanover in the final,  lost big in the first round to Illinois Wesleyan.

Hanover was not picked to win the Heartland Conference by the coaches in the pre-season poll this year-- Franklin was picked as the favorite to repeat.

I'm of the school of thought that I would like to see Hanover defeat Franklin by a convincing margin that would convince me that Hanover could make a run in the NCAAs before Hanover gets Top 25 status.

This is where the Massey ratings are disagreeing with the D3Hoops.com voters.   The Massey computer rankings as of Jan. 2, 2011 are giving Hanover a rating equivalent to #15 among DIII teams in the Massey system. 

The Trip Sports Las Vegas Hoopla did not have Hanover playing Babson in that tournament-- that contest would have settled the question of whether or not Hanover should be considered for Top 25 votes.

LIke everyone else, I would like to see the first game's result of Hanover v. Franklin.

[Pat Coleman]

I think Hanover is definitely worthy of consideration. I considered ... but then again, I didn't give them a vote on my ballot.

The win against UW-Eau Claire was what got them onto my radar. Hanover doesn't promote its teams on D3sports.com sites so thankfully UW-EC posted a game story and we did feature it in the daily roundup a few days back. (Thanks to Hanover's radio guy for the heads-up.)

[David Collinge]

Thanks, voters, for giving Denison a look this week.  21 votes and effective #28 seems about right to me. 

[sunny]

I, too, gave Hanover consideration this week. It basically came down to them or Wartburg for me for the #25 spot. Looking back on it, I'm still unsure.

Denison I had sorely overlooked and I thank David for bringing them to my attention. I try to do a thorough job reviewing teams across the country - I usually vote before Pat even sends out his weekly info - but I had whiffed on the Big Red.

[David Collinge]

It's easy to overlook NCAC teams, no matter how gaudy their record may be.  We haven't made a deep run in the NCAA tournament in a decade, since OWU's Cinderella trip to the Final Four in 2001.  Our champion usually gets murdered in the first round by a top 5 team like DePauw or IWU--although Denison did upset fifth-ranked and defending national champion Hope in the first round in 2007.  This year's DU team plays the sort of basketball that might result in a couple of NCAA victories if they aren't bracketed with legitimate national title contenders.

[GuyFormerlyPSBBG]

I think Wartburg was the better choice over Hanover.

I am a Greensboro fan, it is probably obvious.

The votes (11) for Wartburg and the votes (15) for Greensboro, indicate that either one team is overrated, one team is underrated or both.

Greensboro and Wartburg, played Maryville a team that has made it to the NCAA's a few times the last couple years.

Greensboro beat Maryville @ Maryville 72-61 (11 pts) 25-5 at home (2010-11 to 2008-2009)
Wartburg beat Maryville @ NEUTRAL 66-63 (3 pts)

It is hard to see Greensboro much higher at this point (around where Denison is most likely), but then Wartburg could be higher too, or got a little bit too much respect.  Those are my thoughts.


No disrespect for LaGrange, but I did watch the Greensboro @ Maryville game, and I do believe Maryville will blow right through the GSAC

[jumphigh]

#15 284 Illinois Wesleyan 8-3 def. Baruch, 75-71

Looks like Baruch made a good showing