Top 25 talk

[Ralph Turner]

And I certainly remember the 1997 game (being IWU's only title)!

From reading it in the alumni magazine months later. We all know.

Well, if you had started this site earlier ...

Tell me what your internet access was like in 1997!

Touche'!  Internet was basically inaccessible from home (dial-up modem and so slow it wasn't worth it), but had very good (by 1997 standards) access at work.  But, yeah, probably a pretty low population of potential users back then.

You could have learned about it on my predecessor site. Here it is from archive.org:
https://web.archive.org/web/19970815024939/http://www.cua.edu:80/www/athl/cac/mpairs.htm

That is almost like viewing the Dead Sea Scrolls!

[Pat Coleman]

Tell me about it ... especially as the publisher.

[mailsy]

Thanks Pat. I forgot that was the year Alvernia got to the final 4.

[kiko]

Tell me about it ... especially as the publisher.

The linked page from the wayback machine notes "Some of the links will expire over time. Please let me know if they have."

I just wanted to let you know that some of them no longer work... 

[D3ball1845]

Does anyone have some insight into why Salem State is still getting votes for the Top 25 sitting at 10-3? Sure, record wise they're a having a strong season. However, they had a 10+ loss to Williams, 48 point loss to MIT, and 17 point loss to Endicott. While two of these teams are ranked, and Endicott is a decent team, how can you ignore the 48 point loss? Additionally, their only wins that stand out to me are the wins against Tufts and Babson (who is barely sitting above .500 this season and is nowhere near the championship caliber team they were last year). Maybe it's just me, but something doesn't seem to be adding up right.

I posted this over a month ago regarding Salem State. While they have continued to win, it is in the conference of the MASCAC, which to be fair has less than stellar competition. I think Salem State is getting way too much credit despite their winning streak. They currently sit at #20 in the country and their best win is against a decent/good Tufts team. As I previously stated and Ryan Scott discussed on the most recent Hoopsville, their games against caliber teams have resulted in losses (MIT, Williams, and Endicott (maybe a stretch to call the Gulls a caliber team)). We could compare Salem State to a team like Nichols, who plays in the CCC. Granted the CCC isn't seen as the most competitive conference either, which those who follow my posts know I strongly disagree with. However, the CCC is a much stronger conference than the MASCAC; you look at the games between the two conferences and the CCC is 7-1 against the MASCAC. Nichols has beaten Endicott twice this season and Salem State lost to them by 17 when they played them. Nichols and Salem State have the same record, as they both sit at 22-3. And before anyone claims that two of Nichols losses were to subpar teams like WNE and UNE, they were without their second best player, DeAnte Bruton, in both of those games. How is Nichols not ranked above Salem State in the national poll? Seems like a no brainer to me.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

No brainer to one person is not a no brainer to another.

Salem State is at least winning when others seem to lose to anyone and everyone, in strong and weak conferences. I have admitted Salem State might be a little high in on my ballot, but I can adjust it next week accordingly.

Voters I think are looking for consistency when we haven't gotten much over the season. So a team not stumbling even against weaker competition (and we can point to a number of teams with gaudy records who can't get through easy conferences unscathed this season)... voters may lean on them a little more this season.

As for Nichols, when Bruton came back they still seemed to struggle. Ryan and I have discussed it and several other voters I think saw the same thing and were concerned. I think Nichols is coming back and back in stride and will move up accordingly.

[nescac1]

I do think Salem is a tough call.  They definitely have solid talent in my view, not elite talent but I view them as kind of a mid-tier NESCAC team along the lines of Bowdoin, Bates or Trinity.  If they were in NESCAC, my guess is they would probably have finished in the 6-9 range in the conference with something like a 15-9 record overall.  The MASCAC is just absolutely terrible this year (the worst I have ever seen for that league), outside of Salem no one is any good, so it's hard to tell if Salem is playing really well, just feating on awful competition, or (probably) a bit of both.  I'm not sure why MASCAC is struggling so much to attract talent, as the league used to have typically 2-3 reasonably strong teams in any given year and was more of a mid-tier league in the region than such an awful one. 

Look at Fitchburg State, which is 6-6 in that league.  They lost to Middlebury by 39 and to Williams by 50.  Bridgewater State is in second place in the league at 9-3, and they lost to MIT by 39.  Westfield State is pretty much the only MASCAC team other than Salem to keep it close against strong competition (they lost to Bowdoin, Springfield and Williams, but all in competitive games), but even they managed to lose to Amherst by 36.  Salem is the only team in the entire conference that has even one strong out-of-league win.  Salem does have solid wins over Tufts, Babson, and WPI, but man, it's hard to know much based on those league games.  And they also got absolutely crushed by MIT. 

[FCGrizzliesGrad]

My question is how is Salem St or Nichols getting so many votes when LeTourneau with an identical record (and in my opinion a better schedule) has 0 votes? Someone even picked Lehman over LeTourneau

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

My question is how is Salem St or Nichols getting so many votes when LeTourneau with an identical record (and in my opinion a better schedule) has 0 votes? Someone even picked Lehman over LeTourneau

I was just looking at LETU's resume as I did extensively on Monday. There just isn't anything there I was ready to pull the trigger on this week. I want to see how this week unfolds. They get through and I assure you they will be on my ballot.

But comparing them to Nichols and Salem State... it is a fair comparison. Resumes could be argued as being similar. I have said from about 5 on down (6 this week) it is wide open for me. Someone I have 15th could easily be replaced by someone else or moved anywhere between 6-25. There is a lot of equality in there and thus I have about 40 teams for 20 spots. I could change my mind each week and swap nearly the entire group out if I felt like it. Thus why Plattsburgh jumped onto my rankings midway up last week.

LETU is on my radar just as 15 other schools are sitting there as well.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

The NCAA men's basketball regional advisory committees released their third set of rankings, and as expected, the Atlantic Region was among those getting shuffled. Here's the full list: http://www.d3hoops.com/notables/2018/02/men-regional-rankings-third

[Darryl Nester]

How They Fared (So Far)

I had to double-check Illinois Wesleyan's schedule; their loss to NC was their regular-season finale, and the conference tournament begins tomorrow.

Top 25

Rank	Pts	Team	W-L	Results
#1	625	Whitman	25-0	02/22 vs. Linfield
#2	600	Washington U.	22-2	02/24 at Chicago
#3	560	St. John's	23-2	02/23 vs. Augsburg
#4	538	Whitworth	22-3	02/22 vs. Puget Sound
#5	533	UW-Platteville	22-3	02/23 vs. #37 UW-River Falls
#6	459	Wittenberg	24-2	def. Oberlin, 70-54; 02/23 vs. Denison
#7	457	Emory	20-4	02/24 at Rochester
#8	421	Williams	20-5	02/24 vs. #13 Hamilton
#9	389	Augustana	20-5	def. Elmhurst, 79-77; 02/23 vs. Wheaton (Ill.)
#10	376	Eastern Connecticut	23-3	def. Plymouth State, 107-67; 02/23 vs. Western Connecticut; 02/24 at TBA
#11	359	Swarthmore	21-4	02/23 vs. Ursinus
#12	320	York (Pa.)	21-4	02/22 vs. Salisbury; 02/24 vs. TBD
#13	312	Hamilton	22-3	02/24 vs. #8 Williams
#14	279	Wesleyan	20-5	02/24 at #30 Amherst; 02/25 vs. NESCAC Championship Finals
#15	218	Illinois Wesleyan	19-6	LOST to North Central (Ill.), 74-83; 02/23 vs. North Central (Ill.)
#16	202	Johns Hopkins	21-4	02/23 vs. #27 Franklin and Marshall
#17	199	Wooster	21-5	def. DePauw, 70-63; 02/23 vs. Ohio Wesleyan; 02/24 at TBA
#18	170	Middlebury	19-6	IDLE
#19	165	UW-Oshkosh	20-6	def. UW-La Crosse, 76-74; 02/23 at TBA; 02/23 at #23 UW-Stevens Point; 02/25 at TBA
#20	135	Salem State	22-3	02/22 vs. Fitchburg State
#21	92	Plattsburgh State	20-4	02/23 vs. Oswego State
#22	91	Nichols	23-3	def. Western New England, 100-68; 02/22 vs. Roger Williams
#23	85	UW-Stevens Point	17-8	02/23 vs. #19 UW-Oshkosh
#24	83	Marietta	21-5	def. Wilmington, 86-71; 02/22 vs. Ohio Northern
#25	82	MIT	20-5	02/24 vs. Babson

Others receiving votes

Rank	Pts	Team	W-L	Results
#26	81	John Carroll	21-5	def. Heidelberg, 86-65; 02/22 vs. Baldwin Wallace
#27	61	Franklin and Marshall	20-5	02/23 vs. #16 Johns Hopkins; 02/24 vs. TBA
#28	59	Hobart	21-4	02/24 vs. Skidmore
#29	58	Cabrini	23-3	def. Rosemont, 91-72; 02/24 vs. Neumann
#30	26	Amherst	17-8	02/24 vs. #14 Wesleyan
#31	24	Nebraska Wesleyan	22-3	02/22 vs. Wartburg
#32	18	Lycoming	19-7	LOST at Lebanon Valley, 75-76 OT
#33	14	St. Olaf	19-6	02/23 vs. Bethel
#34	13	Juniata	22-4	def. Catholic, 77-70; 02/24 vs. Moravian
#35	10	Christopher Newport	20-5	02/22 vs. Mary Washington
#36	7	Albright	20-5	def. Arcadia, 58-45; 02/24 vs. Lebanon Valley
#37	2	UW-River Falls	17-8	def. UW-Whitewater, 79-68; 02/23 at #5 UW-Platteville
T#38	1	Brockport	19-6	02/23 vs. SUNY Oneonta
T#38	1	Lehman	22-4	def. (n) John Jay, 78-55; 02/23 vs. Staten Island

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

It is down to the final week of the regular season. It is now or never. Win the conference tournament, earn the automatic qualifier, and a team will be playing in March. Don't win it and either hold out hope for an at-large selection or the season is over.

The season continues or ends on the bounce of a ball from here on out.

So who may be in jeopardy and who is sitting pretty? On Thursday's edition of Hoopsville, we start to read the tea leaves while also chatting with teams who are hoping to punch their ticket for the Road to Salem or Rochester themselves. Plus, we get a preview of what could be a fascinating weekend of NESCAC tournament action at Amherst.

Hoopsville is presented by D3hoops.com and airs from the WBCA/NABC Studio. You can watch the show LIVE starting at 7:00 p.m. ET here: http://bit.ly/2BIbiUe

If you have questions, be sure to email them to hoopsville@d3hoops.com or interact with the show via the social media avenues located to the right.

Guests include (in order of appearance):
- Steve Schulman, Lehman men's coach
- Matt Ducharme, UMass-Dartmouth women's coach
- Jamie Purdy, Piedmont women's coach
- Grey Giovanine, No. 9 Augustana men's coach
- Michele Durand, No. 24 Ohio Northern women's coach (WBCA Center Court)
- Howard Herman, Berkshire Eagle writer (NESCAC tournaments preview)

If you enjoy the show via the podcasts instead, you can get access to them or subscribe one of the three following ways (click on the images when necessary):
SoundCloud: www.soundcloud.com/hoopsville



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[deiscanton]

Final

Chicago 86, #2 Wash U 77

Wash U finishes at 13-1 in the UAA

[(509)Rat]

Final
Whitworth   91
@Whitman  88

[mailsy]

Wow! Last undefeated goes down.