2012 Division III NCAA Tournament

[SUMMIT!!!!!]

a pair of truly excellent games tonight....I like my Tommies chances vs Wooster!! awesome play all around by UST....this team is C-L-U-T-C-H!

[7express]

Is the game on TV this year??  I thought it was normally on ESPNU or CBS college sports but can't seem to find it on the DVR guide tomorrow.  This is incredibly dissapointing.  Granted I haven't seen Wooster nor St. Thomas this year so don't care who wins, but I am at a D-3 school so was hoping to watch the game since UConn doesn't even play until 9:40 tomorrow night.

[Ralph Turner]

Curious if any conference can top any of these.  Since 1994, when NESCAC was first eligible to compete in the tourney:

(1) One NESCAC school has made six Final Fours (Williams)
(2) NESCAC has had two teams make the Final Four twice (Amherst/Williams 2004, Midd/Williams 2011)
(3) NESCAC has had five conference schools make the Final Four (Williams x 6, Amherst x 4, Trinity, Conn College, Midd)
(4) Two NESCAC schools have won national titles (Williams and Amherst) (WIAC I know can equal that one)

Since 2003, NESCAC has AVERAGED one Final Four team per year!

I realize that, in some (but certainly not all) years NESCAC teams have an easier path to the Final Four.  No one can claim that this year, as Midd had to go on the road despite earning a top seed, and Williams had to beat two top-ten caliber teams.  But even given that, that is a pretty damn impressive record over the last 17 years, and especially the last 9 years ...

Midd going on the road?  So did the Tommies.

Please remember.  Officially, there is no Top Seed in D-III.  The proverbial 500-mile radius around Rock Island, IL, however seems to be the "gravitational center" of the strongest teams in D-III basketball.  The recent bracket juggling to find credible competition in the first 4 games for the NESCAC teams in the last 3-4 years has been a huge improvement in the tournament.  

[David Collinge]

Usually the star players or those with the best stories will dominate the talk in hoops, at least at the D3 level.  But on Saturday, the focus has to be on the coaches, two of the classiest and most successful coaches in all of college basketball, each going for their first national title.  Steve Fritz has won 570 games in his 30 years at St. Thomas.  Steve Moore has tallied 656 victories in his career, 569 of those in his 23 years as Wooster's head coach.  Both have the respect of everyone who knows beans about college hoops, and the winner will be richly deserving of his long-awaited first national title.  Although, obviously, I have a preference, I wish good luck and congratulations to both of these outstanding coaches, and will be very happy for the winner.

[SUMMIT!!!!!]

Usually the star players or those with the best stories will dominate the talk in hoops, at least at the D3 level.  But on Saturday, the focus has to be on the coaches, two of the classiest and most successful coaches, each going for their first national title.  Steve Fritz has won 570 games in his 30 years at St. Thomas.  Steve Moore has tallied 656 victories in his career, 569 of those in his 23 years as Wooster's head coach.  Both have the respect of everyone who knows beans about college hoops, and the winner will be richly deserving of his long-awaited first national title.  Although I obviously have a preference, I wish good luck and congratulations to both of these outstanding coaches, and will be very happy for the winner.

uh, you short-changed Fritzie...counting the semifinal win, he is now at 593 and this is his 31st year as head coach (as a player, assistant and hea coach, hes been involved in something like 1200 consecutive games for St Thomas)... ....added feature-- the two coaches are good friends.

I share your repect for both coaches and their programs, but Wooster should make the trip to St. Paul sometime soon   

[David Collinge]

Thanks; I was going by the UST website, which I now see is a year out of date.

[Pat Coleman]

No television tomorrow.

[SUMMIT!!!!!]

No television tomorrow.

It REALLY stinks that this game isn't televised. SO typical of the way the NCAA disrespects D-III. I suppose we should just be happy to have a championship game. I'm not advocating prime time, but I notice that truTV , TBS and TNT 's cameras will all be idle this afternoon....you'd think one of them could be showing what should be a classic battle between two of the 3 winningest programs in Division III history!

[7express]

No television tomorrow.

I take it no television for the women either then Pat??  That stinks.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

No television tomorrow.

It REALLY stinks that this game isn't televised. SO typical of the way the NCAA disrespects D-III. I suppose we should just be happy to have a championship game. I'm not advocating prime time, but I notice that truTV , TBS and TNT 's cameras will all be idle this afternoon....you'd think one of them could be showing what should be a classic battle between two of the 3 winningest programs in Division III history!

Did that many people really have whatever channel it was that it's been on in the past?  They haven't put the d3 game on CBS in quite a few years, right?  Was it CSTV?  I've never lived anywhere where that was even an option.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

You're not missing anything -- they haven't been released yet.

They're out now.  http://www.d3hoops.com/notables/2011/03/nabc-all-star-rosters


Smart money is on the West in this one.

Real smart.  West is killing East.

[David Collinge]

Classic.  Retired Albion coach Mike Turner, the East's assistant coach, gets called for a T (for what?), and retired Muskingum coach and West head coach Jim Burson steps out to bury the free throws.

I haven't been paying close attention; have the Williams and Middlebury players appeared?

[hopefan]

No television tomorrow.

It REALLY stinks that this game isn't televised. SO typical of the way the NCAA disrespects D-III. I suppose we should just be happy to have a championship game. I'm not advocating prime time, but I notice that truTV , TBS and TNT 's cameras will all be idle this afternoon....you'd think one of them could be showing what should be a classic battle between two of the 3 winningest programs in Division III history!

Did that many people really have whatever channel it was that it's been on in the past?  They haven't put the d3 game on CBS in quite a few years, right?  Was it CSTV?  I've never lived anywhere where that was even an option.

On the contrary, I've had Dish Network, then Directv.. and ALWAYS been able to see the finals if I didn't drive to Salem from the Midwest... this will be the first year I WON'T be able to watch givne no DSL available where I live.....

[Gregory Sager]

As to 2, interesting hypothesis, which might well have merit.  Although, of course, at the privates it is likely to be PARENTS' investments, while at WIAC and places like EMU it has a higher likelihood of STUDENTS' investments, which would seem to undercut your hypothesis.  Maybe students at private schools have more regard for their parents' investment than we might have guessed?!

As a private school student back in the days when $30,000 was still a lot of money, I had no regard whatever for my parents' investment.  Of course, that's just anecdotal evidence.

Yeah, I was more or less just thinking out loud, which is why I said that it is a hypothesis that would seem to elude a proof. I'm still searching for a reason as to why WIAC schools, as indicated by Tom and PS, seem to have so little student-fan interest, in spite of the fact that it's the league that's universally understood to have the highest caliber of basketball in D3 (and is the home of the current national champions).

I dunno. I'm groping for an explanation. Maybe it's the cheese.

Greg, I'm sure my hypothesis is also unprovable, but have you given it serious thought?

The larger the school, the more likely at least some of the classes are 100+ lecture halls.  Is an athlete in such a class really a 'classmate'?  I have no data to support it, but it just seems intuitive to me that sharing a class of 15-20 with someone might make me more likely to want to go see how he does on the field/court than being in the same lecture hall.  IMO, other things beings equal, a smaller school will have a better turnout of students than a larger school due to greater integration of the athletes into the student body.

Again, though, you're disregarding the mania surrounding football and basketball on the major D1 campuses, most of which are mega-huge and have very little interaction between the athletes in question and their supposed student peers.

[Gregory Sager]

So here's one that seems obvious and just never struck me.  Perhaps at the WIAC schools there's a larger percentage of students who just don't care about sports because they're in d3?  I know we love d3 athletics, but maybe the students are just less inclined to follow closely when opponents have strange names and there's no televised tournament at the end of the year to hold out hope you might qualify for?

I hate to say it, but I think you may be right. Also, in line with apstorey's comment about branch-campus affinity for the main campus's sports, I would imagine that some WIAC students are big Badgers fans and follow the Badgers more closely than the teams from their own branch campus.