2012 Division III NCAA Tournament

[Gregory Sager]

Man, as the first half winds down, St. Thomas looks like they could beat either of the All-Star teams.

[John Gleich]

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.

That may have some validity... but I'm not sure if it has any more validity than college kids from Illinois at Augustana or Illinois Wesleyan.  The flagship state university, whether there is any affiliation or not, is going to garner a lot of attention.

I don't think that there's any difference in allegiance to the University of Wisconsin at UW Stevens Point or UW Oshkosh as their is at Lawrence or Ripon.

[Greek Tragedy]

I think it's believed that Stevens Point's 73-49 victory over Rochester in the 2005 Championship game was the largest margin of victory ever.  

St. Thomas's margin of victory tied that.  We're all purple anyway!

Checking the attendence:

2005:  2877
2010: 2835
2011: 2838

I assume a lot of the crowd was Wooster.  How many Tommie fans were there?

[ScotsFan]

I think it's believed that Stevens Point's 73-49 victory over Rochester in the 2005 Championship game was the largest margin of victory ever.  

St. Thomas's margin of victory tied that.  We're all purple anyway!

Checking the attendence:

2005:  2877
2010: 2835
2011: 2838

I assume a lot of the crowd was Wooster.  How many Tommie fans were there?

I'd estimate less than 1/4 of the total crowd were Tommy fans.

[Greek Tragedy]

How many Wooster fans?

[fantastic50]

I don't know how many Wooster fans were there (I'm guessing 500-1000) but Wooster's four home games in the NCAA tournament each had a higher attendance than the championship game in Salem.  I realize that D-III isn't as marketable as D-I, but it's a shame that the Salem Civic Center is less than half-full for one of our division's biggest events.

[ScotsFan]

How many Wooster fans?

If the total attendance was 2800+, I'd have to guess that Wooster fans were easily between 1000-1500 and of that total and I'd wager it was closer to 1500.  Wooster fans almost filled one half of the Civic Center across from the benches and spilled over to the other side behind the benches.

[Gregory Sager]

I think it's believed that Stevens Point's 73-49 victory over Rochester in the 2005 Championship game was the largest margin of victory ever.  

St. Thomas's margin of victory tied that.  We're all purple anyway!

Checking the attendence:

2005:  2877
2010: 2835
2011: 2838

I assume a lot of the crowd was Wooster.  How many Tommie fans were there?

I'd estimate less than 1/4 of the total crowd were Tommy fans.

It looked like the vast majority of UST fans were adults. Even more than the distance involved, I'm guessing that spring break kept down the number of UST students who attended the game.

[Pat Coleman]

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?

No, in fact they disappeared and did not attend.

Turner got called for a T ... for the laughs, really.

[woosterbooster]

I think the all-star game was mostly a bust, actually, as are all all-star games.  Lots of guys shooting open threes, an occasional dunk.  We've all seen that before, so many times.  No one, of course, was motivated to do much more.  Unfortunately, that's probably the way it was with the consolation game, too.

However, the game involving the Special Olympians was heartwarming.  One of the teams had a taller guy, maybe in his mid-twenties.  He was athletic, really enthusiastic, and fun to watch.  After scoring one time, he took these long majestic strides back up court and then leaped, just for fun, and almost touched the rim of his own basket.  After his initial points, every time he got the ball he made sure to get it down court to one of his teammates, who was actually playing as a sixth man, a permanent basket-hanger.  This guy was clearly less functional than the others, but with help, he was able to get off some shots from the baseline.

The other team had a guy who lined up and swished a three.  Just to prove it wasn't luck, a possession or two later he took another one that just rimmed out.  These teams only got to play for a few minutes but had the crowd cheering loudly almost immediately.  It would have been great to see them on the the court longer.

[Ralph Turner]

A D-1 Men's question that is pertinent to D-III.

Who is the last D-1 Men's "at large" selection team in the bracket before the remainder of the seeds are the Pool A/AQ's from the "weaker" conferences?  How is that team seeded?

Thanks.

[hopefan]

that's an obvious one this year Ralph, because there were 2 playin games to determine it...  USC and VCU played for an 11 seed, and UAB and Clemson played for a 12 seed....  the 3 other 12 seeds were automatics, as were all seeds below that.

[ziggy]

We talked a lot about the impact of flights on the DIII tournament so I found the first part of this article particularly interesting: http://www.startribune.com/sports/gophers/118341884.html (h/t d3hoops facebook feed)

Apparently in the case of St. Thomas, a "flight" to Salem involved some going to New Jersey and some going to Atlanta and each itinerary ending with a bus ride. I dearly hope this was because of extremely extenuating circumstances and not the NCAA norm.

[Just Bill]

We talked a lot about the impact of flights on the DIII tournament so I found the first part of this article particularly interesting: http://www.startribune.com/sports/gophers/118341884.html (h/t d3hoops facebook feed)

Apparently in the case of St. Thomas, a "flight" to Salem involved some going to New Jersey and some going to Atlanta and each itinerary ending with a bus ride. I dearly hope this was because of extremely extenuating circumstances and not the NCAA norm.

Teams on multiple flights happens quite frequently. When you are trying to book 20 plane tickets on three days notice, it's bound to happen. The NCAA's travel department handles the reservations and purchasing, and they do the best they can, but if there's only X number of seats available on a flight, there's not much they can do.

[Ralph Turner]

that's an obvious one this year Ralph, because there were 2 playin games to determine it...  USC and VCU played for an 11 seed, and UAB and Clemson played for a 12 seed....  the 3 other 12 seeds were automatics, as were all seeds below that.

Thanks Hopefan.

I just have not paid attention to D1.  This tells us that there were six #16 seeds, four #15, #14 and #13 seeds, plus three #12 seeds from AQ's.  Twenty-one in all.  The bottom two-thirds of the D-1 conferences got 1 bid.

In D-3, our Pool C bids fall in the middle, too.

The Final Four is not the best 68 teams in D-1. It is access for every full member of D1, with allowances for enough at large teams to have the best 47 teams in the country by the determination of the D1 Committee.