Top 25 talk

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

I agree on that oblong ball sport.  Such a bastardization of rugby; it's not even funny.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Someone on the NESCAC board said Street & Smith's d3 preview is out already.  I can't find it anywhere; little help?

[Titan Q]

Street & Smith's Top 10 is...

1. Wooster
2. Mississippi College
3. Virginia Wesleyan
4. Baldwin-Wallace
5. St. Thomas
6. Amherst
7. Maryville (TN)
8. UW-Whitewater
9. William Paterson
10. Wittenberg

Their All-America team is:

1st
Brandon Adair, Virginia Wesleyan
James Cooper, Wooster
Tori Davis, Baldwin-Wallace
Isaac Rosefelt, St. Thomas
Tyler Winford, Mississippi College

2nd
Ton Ton Balenga, Virginia Wesleyan
Jon Krull, UW-Stevens Point
Luis Martinez, William Paterson
Tom Port, Wooster
Joe Werner, UW-LaCrosse

"Possible Breakthroughs" are:

Albright, Augustana, Bates, Bridgewater State, Calvin, Carroll, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, Cortland, Hamilton, Hope, Howard Payne, John Carroll, Lincoln, Mass-Boston, Mass-Dartmouth, New Jersey City, New York U., North Central, Ohio Northern, Plattsburgh State, Randolph-Macon, Roanoke, Rochester, Rutgers-Newark, Scranton, St. John Fisher, St. John's, SUNY Potsdam, Tufts, Utica, Williams, UW-Oshkosh, UW-Stevens Point, UW-Stout, Worcester Poly, York

[Titan Q]

The Street & Smith's NAIA Top 10, for anyone interested,  is:

1. Robert Morris (Chicago)
2. Louisiana State-Shreveport
3. Oklahoma City
4. Mountain State (W Va)
5. Texas Wesleyan
6. Azusa Pacific (CA)
7. Georgetown (Ky)
8. Oklahoma Baptist
9. Union (Tenn)
10. Olivet Nazarene (IL)

(S&S does not break NAIA into two divisions for their rankings.)

[diehardfan]

Street & Smith's Top 10 is...

1. Wooster
2. Mississippi College
3. Virginia Wesleyan
4. Baldwin-Wallace
5. St. Thomas
6. Amherst
7. Maryville (TN)
8. UW-Whitewater
9. William Paterson
10. Wittenberg

Their All-America team is:

1st
Brandon Adair, Virginia Wesleyan
James Cooper, Wooster
Tori Davis, Baldwin-Wallace
Isaac Rosefelt, St. Thomas
Tyler Winford, Mississippi College

2nd
Ton Ton Balenga, Virginia Wesleyan
Jon Krull, UW-Stevens Point
Luis Martinez, William Paterson
Tom Port, Wooster
Joe Werner, UW-LaCrosse

"Possible Breakthroughs" are:

Albright, Augustana, Bates, Bridgewater State, Calvin, Carroll, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, Cortland, Hamilton, Hope, Howard Payne, John Carroll, Lincoln, Mass-Boston, Mass-Dartmouth, New Jersey City, New York U., North Central, Ohio Northern, Plattsburgh State, Randolph-Macon, Roanoke, Rochester, Rutgers-Newark, Scranton, St. John Fisher, St. John's, SUNY Potsdam, Tufts, Utica, Williams, UW-Oshkosh, UW-Stevens Point, UW-Stout, Worcester Poly, York

Where is Wheaton on this list?

gasp... shock...horror 

[PrideSportBBallGuy]

Explain to me why Maryville (TN) deserves that number 7 spot. Solid team, but at number 7.

[diehardfan]

I think anyone is going to be pretty hesitant to explain or justify Street and Smith, because generally, in a broad sense, they don't make very much sense to us either!

For example, right off the bat. VaWes is the national champ, returns everyone who was a major contributor, and is not picked first...why??? 

Don't worry about it, for most of us, it's just a curiosity thing. And it makes us very, VERY grateful for the obviously much more extensive work the guys in charge of the D3hoops.com poll do in their research!

[Titan Q]

Let the annual Street & Smith's debate begin...

(Division III preview by Chuck Mistovich, Basketball Times)

1. Illinois Wesleyan
2. Mississippi College
3. UW-Oshkosh
4. York
5. Virginia Wesleyan
6. Ursinus
7. Amherst
8. Ramapo
9. Wittenberg
10. Wilkes


Illinois Wesleyan

Coach Scott Trost's Titans are loaded.  The top eight scorers return on this senior-laden team that was 21-5 last year, and they are looking every bit as good as the Wesleyan team that won the NCAA Division III Tournament in 1997.  All-America candidates are 6-6 Keelan Amelianovich (17.9 ppg, 4.8 rpg) and 6-3 Adam Dauksas (15.1 ppg, 5.6 apg).  Wesleyan also features 6-7 Zach Freeman (14.2 ppg, 6.8 rpg) and three 6-6 inside men who make the Titans look more like a Division II team than Division III.  These seniors have reached the NCAA playoffs three straight years with a combined 64-18 record.


Street & Smith's Preseason All-America Team:

First

Keelan Amelianovich, Illinois Wesleyan
Adam Dauksas, Illinois Wesleyan
Tyler Rhoten, Trinity (Conn)
Justin Wansley, Randolph-Macon
Tyler Winford, Mississippi

Second

Chris Braier, Lawrence
Sekani Francis, Lehman
Cedric Isom, East Texas Baptist
Kyle Myrick, Lincoln (Pa)
Daniel Russ, Wittenberg

Last year's Street & Smith's ranking.  They did have all 4 Final Four teams in their Top 10.

[diehardfan]

Wow... I'm just going to sit here with my mouth hanging open in amazement for a while. They picked all four of the final four contenders in their top ten. Wow. There's some teams that didn't belong there, and the places are a little confused, but... dang... 

PrideSportBBallGuy... never mind. 

The D3hoops.com poll is still better. 

[David Collinge]

Wow... I'm just going to sit here with my mouth hanging open in amazement for a while. They picked all four of the final four contenders in their top ten. Wow. There's some teams that didn't belong there, and the places are a little confused, but... dang... 

PrideSportBBallGuy... never mind. 

The D3hoops.com poll is still better. 

The D3Hoops.com preseason poll had all of the final four in the top 11.

[Titan Q]

I think anyone is going to be pretty hesitant to explain or justify Street and Smith, because generally, in a broad sense, they don't make very much sense to us either!

For example, right off the bat. VaWes is the national champ, returns everyone who was a major contributor, and is not picked first...why??? 

I would expect Virginia Wesleyan to be the #1 team in any Division III preseason poll - they deserve it - but I'd entertain debate on it.  The Marlins beat Illinois Wesleyan in the national semifinal by one possession and the same with Wittenberg in the title game.  They play great team basketball and they have some guys who play huge in the clutch, but I certainly didn't leave Salem in March thinking they were any better than, say, Lawrence or Wittenberg or Illinois Wesleyan. 

Virginia Wesleyan is obviously going to be #1 until someone knocks them off, but if a team like Wooster is supposed to be significantly better this year I'd listen to the argument for them being #1.

[PrideSportBBallGuy]

Going back to d3hoops preseason poll of 99-00 year to present day.  Whomever was in the 9-13 spot preseason. (3 out of 7 times)  Ended up winning the National Championship.  I think you all can debate where Wooster will be preseason. I think Street & Smith are banking on that they will be in the 9-13 range. Once that preseason poll comes out from d3hoops,  we might have our National Champions in that range. Virginia Wesleyan could be that case (UW-Stevens Point) where they are Final, Preseason, then Final. 

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

I just like that they're not afraid of the regional bias and always put Mississippi College up in the top.  MC has a good squad, but no one sees them.


I don't know who Street & Smith have doing this preview, but they know just enough to make it seem like they know what they're talking about.  Probably helps the profit margin to operate that way.

[Titan Q]

Street & Smith's does a Division III Top 10 each year, but they do not have any sort of ongoing poll.

As noted above, the S & S 2005-06 Division III preview was done by Chuck Mistovich, who is the Small College Editor for Basketball Times magazine.  I don't know much about Mistovich, but I do know he has been covering small college basketball (NAIA, NCAA II, NCAA III) for a long time.

A sample of a couple articles by him I found via Google search...

http://nabc.collegesports.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/021805aaa.html

http://nabc.collegesports.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/011905aaa.html


I think it is fair to say that Street & Smith at least found someone who knows small college basketball to put together their small college pieces.

The above is a post I made last year at this time regarding who does the Street & Smith's preview.  It is not D3hoops.com obviously, but I do feel like they at least give it a decent effort nowadays.

[Gregory Sager]

I agree. Chuck Mistovich's credentials are impeccable when it comes to small-college basketball. He's been covering this beat for a long time. Thing is, he's just one guy -- and we all know how impossible it is for one person to cover the entire waterfront when it comes to D3 basketball, given the national spread of teams and the absence of television exposure. That's the beauty of Pat's poll -- one person isn't required to see every team, because it's all farmed out among various pollsters. Plus, Mistovich's beat is much bigger than D3 men's basketball -- he also covers D2 and NAIA, which means that there's even less of him to go around as far as D3 is concerned.

All things considered, it's impressive that Mistovich gets as close to getting it right as he does.