2012 Division III NCAA Tournament

[Rhodes Scholar]

I just checked my records. I wrote down how Massey ranked all the teams in the tournament based on his MOV ratings. The ratings included games up to March 2. No tournament games were included.

[pabegg]

Link to column from St. Louis Post-Dispatch about WashU's victory.

Nicely put about D3 championships in general.

[Greek Tragedy]

No horse in the Final Four, so I'll just cheer for Washington U. and Ursinus...no real reason, I guess.  Obviously, Washington U. impressed me last year and they beat the team that beat Point...and Ursinus?  Time to get some new blood in there, I guess! lol...good luck to all four teams.

[Pat Coleman]

I thought you just liked Bears.

[Hopester]

No horse in the Final Four, so I'll just cheer for Washington U. and Ursinus...no real reason, I guess.  Obviously, Washington U. impressed me last year and they beat the team that beat Point...and Ursinus?  Time to get some new blood in there, I guess! lol...good luck to all four teams.

Actually they beat Stevens Point last year in the Sweet 16.

[Pat Coleman]

Think he's talking about this year with that phrase -- they beat BVU, which beat Stevens Point.

[Greek Tragedy]

Yeah, trust me, I remember when Washington U. came in and put the smack down on the Pointers last year.  No need to remind me! lol...   And yeah, was talking about this year. 

[Gregory Sager]

Link to column from St. Louis Post-Dispatch about WashU's victory.

Nicely put about D3 championships in general.

I hate those "aw, isn't that widdle D3 tourney cute?" types of stores. They disrespect the very good level of basketball played at D3's topmost echelon, and it does a disservice to the hard work that D3 student-athletes put in, not only in games and practices but in the classroom as well.

[Marty Peretz]

Gregory, I agree with you 110%. It's as if they had the story written from a basic template before they arrived at the game and then they got there and filled it in with a few details. Not to mention, this piece was blatantly misleading, ommitting key facts and completely distorting others. Troy Ruths played well, but hardly had the "game of his life" as the writer stated. There wasn't a pep band at the game not because Wash.U. doesn't have one, but because it was spring break. Oh and despite it being spring break, there were probably more students there than there are at soem SLU games. And the tiny arena he speaks of seats 3,000 and is nicer than some low D1 facilities. Cutsey, self-serving article which required no real reporting and continued to propagate already-exagerated myths.

[ILive4This]

Agreed, a nice touch, but again some things are a bit off. National player of the year and Jostens winner are different, although I think this writer may be a bit clairvoyant as Ruths is my pick for player of the year (even though he did not get he conference nod). Also I would not compare Wash U's gym as something out of hoosiers, old yes, but small...not really, although when you compare anything to the carrier dome it will appear small. Overall though I think the article offered a good profile on the team and what is has accomplished.

[fcnews]

Come on guys!!!
Mr Burwell is a feature writer for the Post and I think it was written that way. If you have a problem with it you can contact him at bburwell@post-dispatch.com. I might add it was a front page article in a 14 page sports section. It is also safe to say, this is probably the first local college campus he's been on. Including SLU, since they play at an oof campus site. I saw him at the game Saturday night and was suprised. He did take the time to attend.

On page 5 "Bears rally into the Final Four" is a half page article with game particulars and more quotes. It appears under the heading College Basketball. I might add that it was much larger then the "Memphis rolls to C-USA tourney title" article.

Publicity is Publicity. And in a major sports market like St. Louis, this is great coverage. I don't think this is something we should knock.

I'd be interested in knowing what kind of coverage the other 3 games received.

Let's see ESPN Sportscenter and the Front page of the Post-Dispatch, I think we've done well the past week.

[old ends]

Ursinus is the local Philadelphia Market and they got the old....Oh! by the way Ursinus won.. here  is the article
Click here: http://www.philly.com/inquirer/sports/20080316_Ursinus_reaches_Division_III_Final_Four.html

Coast Guard write up was a lot better in a tough loss: http://www.theday.com/re.aspx?re=d35f2a22-1987-4dfa-84b0-8593601fafc6

[Greek Tragedy]

Sir Coleman,

I think you forgot to inform me that I won the VIP Final Four Package. 

and the Power Ball officials got it wrong, I did not buy the winning ticket in West Virginia

[Gregory Sager]

I realize that Burwell wrote it as a column rather than as a straight news story. And I agree that publicity is a sorely-needed commodity for D3 basketball. But the entire tone of the story was patronizing and condescending. As a diehard D3 basketball fan I felt vaguely insulted by it; plus, as Marty pointed out, it's essentially a cookie-cutter version of a lot of other "little engine that could" stories about the D3 tourney that have been written over the years.

It's just not good sportswriting.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Gregory... would you rather he had not written a thing?! It isn't perfect... but I will take that over completely missing the point and the event all together!