MBB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[ustbumkneez]

nkwest, i wasnt thinking. thank you for pointing out my blunder. touche.

[oleroll]

Who wants to go OleRollin' tommorow?

[SUMMIT!!!!!]

bumkneez, I assumed you were talking about Saturday when you said Tommie-Royals

[ustbumkneez]

Maniac, I was. I also thought a high 90s kinda game would be a good way to head into the NCAA tournament, a nice contrast to what I presumed would be a physical, grind it out game against the Gusties in the semis. Diversify your club for the Tourney Run. I just neglected to mention "in the finals" at the end of my first line in the post nkwest was referring to. Thats why I said, "thanks for pointing out the blunder". I suppose I should have just edited the post and avoided the confusion, but I got a little distracted watching some conference tourney webcasts.
What time did you get to the Tommie-Johnnie game at? Early enough that we can expect a writeup on the UST JV teams victory after a 15 minute field goal drought? It was nice to get a clean sweep on Saturday. haha.

WW, i think your points about SJU are valid-im just not sure they would override the Johnnies regional ranking and their QOWI. As Pat C pointed out on the Multi Regional Board:

Pool Cs weren't straight QOWI last year, but almost all the top teams were in there.

[SUMMIT!!!!!]

bumkneez-- I walked in as the JV game was starting and was stunned how full the place was... I dont think there have been that many UST students at a game if you add up all of them from the past 5 home games...and none were using cells or primping themselves...they were making NOISE. I thought I was at GAC or BU or SJU 10-15 yrs ago. That JV game was probably the worst officiated game on record, and UST not hitting bucket for 15 mins to start (and only trailing 18-11) was unreal.

You coming to see Koz melt down? Is AK47 gonna show?

[Touchdown Tommy]

Good one Freebird.  Very kneeslapping worthy.  Dood don't be sad and pout bc I busted out a GEM on the football board today.  Don't pretend you didn't see that.  I know you lurk.  Better luck next year PUNK.  BTW: keep that avatar up, I hope it makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside.  Typical Bethel, more happy with a win versus SJU than ANYTHING ever in the playoffs.

[ustbumkneez]

I know, I got there right at tipoff and had to settle for an upper deck, tucked in the corner seat with fellow recent alumni. Id venture to say it hasnt been that full since the Oshkosh game in 2001, and certainly not as rowdy. I found it interesting that some questioned the size of the arena, considering that many people havent been there at one time in years. Most of the time, it can be downright cavernous, or at the very least, placid. Nice to see that was not the case for such a big game, and hopefully that atmosphere continues throughout the playoff run. And yeah, I dont know if the officiating crew was flustered by the large crowd, or really just was that bad. Id like to think it was the former, and not the latter. Credit T.
I will at the Shoe tomorrow night, complete with a fallout suit for when Koz inevitably blows up. Im almost giddy anticipating it...and the game should be decent. The Mig might be there, so long as I pester him enough. Perhaps the lure of a pitcher will garner a commitment.

[PTPer35]

Willy, kel, or anyone else know the status of Wittwer for tomorrow night?

[piperinsider]

bumkneez-- I walked in as the JV game was starting and was stunned how full the place was... I dont think there have been that many UST students at a game if you add up all of them from the past 5 home games...and none were using cells or primping themselves...they were making NOISE.

You must've missed the really cute blonde who said:
"This is so exciting with all these people.....who are we playing again?"

[miacwatchmen]

I've been reading the board for awhile now and I know its playoff time, but I'd like to go back to the Tommie jokes and borrow one from a friend:

Q: Whats the difference between a Tommie girl and a toilet?

A: One doesn't follow you around after you use it.

Ah another Johnnie fan, welcome to the board. + K for the joke!

watchmen, not exactly, although I'm glad you liked the joke. I was already negative in karma before my second post, so I appreciate you making me neutral again. There is another version of the joke which is much more dirty, I thought that was PG-13 at worst. I'd also like to see Bakko try to run the show if he worked a Grinnell type game.

Thanks for making me feel welcome watchmen and CMob!

Well we like new posters now, well ever since we were scolded for smiting the last newbie we had 

[Freebird]

Good one Freebird.  Very kneeslapping worthy.  Dood(sic) don't be sad and pout bc I busted out a GEM on the football board today.  Don't pretend you didn't see that.  I know you lurk.  Better luck next year PUNK.  BTW: keep that avatar up, I hope it makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside.  Typical Bethel, more happy with a win versus SJU than ANYTHING ever in the playoffs.

It is so easy to get you worked up, take a deep breath and count to 10.  I'm not sure what "GEM" you are refering to but I'm sure it was some witty comment about us losing in the playoffs.  I bet Moe(KR) and Curly(Duffman) had a pretty good laugh inbetween posting pictures of Anna.  I have never seen a person try so hard to us the same joke over and over and over.  Maybe that is the reason you got kicked off D3sports for a year in the first place.  Seriously try coming up with some new material or disappear for a few days like last time we talk about this on the WIAC board   

[TommieHoops4Life]

LBOW,

Saw you and Danny P. at West Gym tonight. I was gonna try and stop to say hello after, but I had to get some interviews done and meet my deadline for the paper, so I didn't have much time. What happened to your girl? Seemed like she had about 4 or 5 open perimeter shots that she passed up, and didn't make one until it pretty much didn't matter at the end. Did she lose confidence in her J? Refs were kind of brutal and I can't say I was surprised. Anyhow, I'll be at UST tomorrow night covering Olaf, so maybe I'll see you there.

[Willy Wonka]

If (when?) the Tommies reach the title game, I'd like to make the following request of Ike: get some Game on your warmup music (apologies if it already is - I didn't show up early enough for the GAC/UST tilt to hear it). Looking at you, Compton or California Vacation would seem good selections.

Also, I can't wait to burn one of my two SJU practice jerseys tomorrow to provide the Gusties with the proper motivation (I might have to wear the other one on Saturday, however... )

[Gregory Sager]

Not to provide SJU with any extra motivation, but I'd feel confident wagering against their inclusion if the Gusties pull the upset tomorrow.

They'd be 18-7 overall, with an 18-4 region record. With all but two of those wins coming against an extremely down league, that's hardly that impressive. Perhaps more telling would be a 6-4 record in their last 10, including two losses that would fall in the BAD category (@SMU, home vs. GAC). This isn't the time of season where you can often get away with such a bad stretch.

In the "what have you done for me lately" world, the Johnnies would be pinning their hopes on the mercy of a committee who is staring at two straight losses and an early exit from their conference tourney.

I'm not sure this is relevant to the NCAA committee who makes the selections, but the 73-49 loss to a 16-9 Ursinus team might look worse now than it did when it happened. I have no idea how good the AMCC is as a conference, but the 64-59 loss to Penn-State Behrend doesn't look that bad, since it finished the regular season with an 18-6 record. While these might remain periphery elements in the process, the embarrassment remains.

Also, "beefing up" that nonconference schedule with two wins against 7-15 UM-Morris aught to be illegal — especially when you lost your other 3 non-MIAC games. That's a downright Bethel-esque schedule

A lot of the stuff you mention with regard to the Johnnies isn't relevant to the Pool C selection process, my top-hatted chocolatier friend. Overall record? Not relevant. Record over the last ten games? Not relevant. Record over the last two games? Not relevant. Games vs. non-regional opponents (i.e., Ursinus and PSU-Behrend)? Not relevant. UMM's overall record? Not relevant (the Cougars went 4-7 in regional play, which means that they aren't even in the bottom quartile with regard to SJU's QOWI calculations).

There are five primary criteria that are used to select Pool C teams:

* Winning percentage against regional opponents
* Quality of Wins Index (QOWI) -- and, like the other four, this is strictly a regionally-based criterion
* In-region head-to-head competition
* In-region results vs. common regional opponents
* In-region results vs. regionally ranked teams

As you can see, there's nothing on there about overall record, record over the last x number of games, etc.

It's widely suspected that the two most commonly-used criteria out of the five in terms of how the selection committee grades the teams are regional winning percentage and QOWI. That's what SJU needs to worry about.

The Johnnies are currently 19-3 in region (not 18-4 as you said). That works out to a stellar .864 regional winning percentage. Remember, the lowest regional winning percentage sported by any of the 18 Pool C teams in last year's tournament was Illinois Wesleyan's .714, so you can see just how far above the baseline SJU is at the moment. SJU's current QOWI is 10.318, good for 19th in the nation. "Extremely down league" or not (and, incidentally, the evidence really isn't there in terms of records to prove that the MIAC was particularly worse than normal in 2006-07), the 19th-best QOWI in the nation is nothing to sneeze at. Keep in mind that most of the teams in the top twenty QOWI list are going to win Pool A slots as the automatic-bid winners from their respective conferences.

OK, now let's play out your what-if scenario of SJU losing at home to GAC in the MIAC semis. That would put SJU's regional record at 19-4, which means an .826 regional winning percentage. That's still more than a hundred points above the Pool C baseline for RW% from last year. The QOWI of the Johnnies would drop to 10.043 with the loss. A 10.043 QOWI would currently rank 31st in the nation -- still outstanding, and better than the QOWIs of 11 of last year's 18 Pool C teams.

Relax, Johnnies fans. Your bandwagon is going to roll into March, regardless of how SJU does against GAC in the semis.

Incidentally, kudos to Sumander and Bumkneez for taking the time to venture over to the Pool C room under the Multi-Regional Topics header and for doing their homework. I'm always surprised at how many people engage in speculation about the tourney within their own conference rooms without ever bothering to go into the national rooms to look at the overall coast-to-coast D3 picture.

[nkwest]

If (when?) the Tommies reach the title game, I'd like to make the following request of Ike: get some Game on your warmup music (apologies if it already is - I didn't show up early enough for the GAC/UST tilt to hear it). Looking at you, Compton or California Vacation would seem good selections.

You might not be able to hear the music (if they're even playing it) over the pep band.  There's an ongoing joke in the parents section that they know three songs, which is about the same number of cheers that the cheerleaders know.  And I don't think Game is on their playlist.   8)