2012 Division III NCAA Tournament

[Scrub023]

Though it would be interestin to see how the bracket of death would look like if translated into the D1 world. Looking at both of their pre-selection national rankings and replacing the DIII team with their D1 counterpart. I put the teams that don't have a top 25 ranking as Unknown since I couldn't find it on the website. Based off USA today's polls by the way. In front of the team is their actual seeding in the the D1 tournament. I put the DIII equivalent afterward.

The bracket would look like this if you just sub in the D1's for the DIII's just based off of their national rankings and not their seedings. Goes through the first 2 rounds. Four 1 seeds, two 2 seeds, a three seed, a four seed, and a six seed, and multiple D1 national champion hopefuls.

2|Memphis #3 -->(Wheaton) ------------>              2|Memphis #3 -->(Wheaton) Won
Unknown(Fontebonne)                                                        vs
                                                   
1|Louisville #5 -->(Platteville) ----------->            1|Louisville #5 -->(Platteville)             
Unknown(Hope)

1|Pittsburgh #2 -->(Wash U) -------------->          1|Pittsburgh #2 -->(Wash U)    Won     
3|Syracuse #20 -->(Lawrence)                                            vs

2|Duke #8 -->(Whitewater) --------------->             2|Duke #8 -->(Whitewater)   
4|Xavier #19 -->(Elmhurst)

1|North Carolina #1 -->(St.Thomas) --------->      1|North Carolina #1 -->(St.Thomas) Won
Unknown(Aurora)                                                                vs                                             
                                                                                                                               
1|Connecticut #4 -->Stevens Point ---------->       1|Connecticut #4 -->Stevens Point
Unknown(Cornell)                                                           

6|Marquette #21 -->(Whitworth) ----------->         6Marquette #21 -->(Whitworth)                     
Unknown(Clairemont #32)                                                    vs                                                             
                                                                      2Oklahoma #7 -->(Puget Sound) Won   

RIDICULOUS!!! lol                                                       
                                                       

[Mr. Ypsi]

Has any school ever had quite the day of d3 basketball that Washington U had yesterday?  Both teams reaching the Final Four by beating undefeated, #1-ranked teams - WOW!

[Greek Tragedy]

Maybe if I have some time, I was thinking in the same lines of you.

I was just thinking of the Top 4 seeds.

Three of the top four seeds, in my opinion, would be Wash U, Wheaton and Stevens Point based on RPIs, OWP and OOWP.  Not sure about the 4th.  St. Thomas' numbers are pretty low.  Ithaca's numbers are similar to Wash. U's.  More later...

[Scrub023]

Amazing how many experts have 8 of those teams as being potential champions or final four teams. Those 8 being, Louisville, North Carolina, Syracuse, Pitt, UConn, Oklahoma, Memphis, and possibly Duke. All of those 8 DIII teams who have those same national rankings probably thought they had a good chance of making it to the final four as well. Its a shame it had to come down to all of those great teams eating each other alive. Whats done is done, and I wish Wash U, aka:Pitt, good luck. Buena Vista turned out to be the DIII equivalent of St.Mary's in D1. Thats a Shame.

[nescac1]

I do feel bad for the midwestern / western teams, especially this year.  It seems like at least the NCAA could have placed the three WIAC teams and St. Thomas in a different bracket from the rest of the midwestern powers (I am new to this discussion so forgive me if that has already been explained).   Just doesn't make any sense at all especially when some other schools were spread out and had to travel ...

What is interesting to note is that 3/4 final four teams are in some ways a year ahead of schedule -- Guilford, F&M, Richard Stockton all return nearly all of their key guys; they will likely all be legit top-five pre-season teams next year.  Next year, for the first time in awhile, (and this is projecting wayyyy ahead of course) it seems like there may actually be some parity among the brackets, given how decimated the top squads from the traditional power conferences in the midwest and west (WIAC, CCIW, Wash U., top Ohio teams, just an unusual concentration of truly stellar seniors, even by that group's high standards) generally will be by graduation.  Meanwhile, the eastern brackets will have a lot more powerful teams, as in addition to the three final four teams, I think New England will return to producing at least one true national contender (UMass Dartmouth, Amherst, Williams being the most likely contenders) after a very balanced, but unusually not-top-heavy, year in that region.   Not much of a silver lining of course, consider that is is highly unlikely that 3/4 final four teams would have made it out of the bracket of death THIS year. 

F&M, by the way, is a very likely possilibility to follow in the recent tradition of teams planting themselves in a few straight championship games (or at least final fours) (Williams, Stevens Point, Va Wesleyan, Amherst, Wash U ...).  They may not even peak until two years from now.  I have been aware of a few of their players for awhile: soph star James McNally is a beast, and was absolutely dominant for several years at a very strong NJ high school program, featuring great coaching (I actually attended that school back when it was producing three future Big East players, one of whom went on to the NBA) that played very tough competition-- I was following him hoping he'd end up in NESCAC as he also had the academics to get in anywhere.  Their star frosh point guard also excelled at a very, very strong high school program that sends many guys to big-time Div I programs.  Plus I think their other star, a D-I transfer, has another year of eligibility as well. 

[Greek Tragedy]

Washington U., in their 3rd Final Four in a row, loses ONE player. 

[nescac1]

I thought Wash U. lost two of its stars (Nading and Wallis)?  No?

[Pat Coleman]

Wallis has a hardship year coming from last season, and it appears he intends to make use of it.

[hopefan]

no - Wallis, while listed as a Senior this year, missed last year with a broken leg and torn ligaments in the third game of the season - he is planning on doing grad work and playing next year....

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

With all the talk about how to compare the d1 and d3 tournaments, I thought I'd translate the whole thing.

I ranked the d1 teams by starting with Louisville and moving around clockwise to Connecticut then backward ladder style until all 65 teams were ranked.  I then removed the bottom five at-large teams (Arizona, Wisconsin, Dayton, Minnesota, and Michigan) to get to our number of 60.

I used the final d3hoops.com poll to rank teams, followed by teams no ranked, but receiving votes, and finally by some educated guessing for the last 20 or so.  I know this is imperfect, but it can't be too far off and properly illustrates the comparison.

I then put all the teams into the d3 bracket where their counterpart was located (I did switch one set of teams to avoid two teams from the same conference playing in round one, per our general rules).

We had a West Bracket second round equivalent of:

UNC v Memphis; Pitt v Michigan State; Louisville v UCONN; and Purdue v Duke.

Ultimately it gave us a decent final four (Marquette, Pittsburgh, Oklahoma, and Texas), but certainly not what it could have been if things were even.

I've tried to attach a Word doc with all the matchups, etc, but I'm not sure it will work properly or not.

[nescac1]

Thanks for Wallis info; wow, what a ridiculous run.  Sounds like they are the favorites in this final four and then going into next year all over again.  Has any team made four straight final fours in recent years?  I think Amherst made three; maybe Platteville or I.Wesleyan during their heydeys? 

[Pat Coleman]

Nobody in the Salem era has made the Final Four four years in a row.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Yeah, I can't get the document to attach to the post.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Midwest Bracket
Arizona State
BYE

Wake Forest
Portland State

Washington
Alabama State

Tennessee
Ohio State

Villanova
E Tennessee State

Cleveland State
Boston College

Gonzaga
LSU

UCLA
Marquette

West Bracket
North Carolina
Stephen F Austin

Memphis
Texas A & M

Pittsburgh
Illinois

Michigan State
Florida State

Louisville
N Dakota State

Connecticut
American

Purdue
BYU

Duke
BYE

Northeast Bracket
Kansas
BYE

Chattanooga
Siena

Utah
Butler

Northern Iowa
VCU

Maryland
Morgan State

Syracuse
Binghamton

Oklahoma
Radford

Western Kentucky
West Virginia

East Bracket
Clemson
Mississippi State

USC
Temple

Texas
CSU-Northridge

Oklahoma State
Robert Morris

California
Morehead State

Xavier
Cornell

Utah State
Akron

Missouri
BYE

[David Collinge]

Next year, for the first time in awhile, (and this is projecting wayyyy ahead of course) it seems like there may actually be some parity among the brackets, given how decimated the top squads from the traditional power conferences in the midwest and west (WIAC, CCIW, Wash U., top Ohio teams, just an unusual concentration of truly stellar seniors, even by that group's high standards) generally will be by graduation.

The consensus top Ohio/Great Lakes team this season, John Carroll, returns their entire 10-man rotation next year.  Capital will be decimated (loses 7 seniors), but look for very strong bounceback years from Wooster, Ohio Wesleyan, and Wittenberg out of the NCAC next year.  Wooster in particular looks like they may return to national contender status next season, as they lose just one player and get back two key players (potential all-America point guard and seven-foot center) who missed this season with injuries.