BB: WIAC: Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[cubs]

Don't know if anyone noticed, but the New jersey Athletic Conference received multiple bids for this years NCAA Tournmanent.  Anyone want to take a guess as to how many they recieved?  Not two, not three, but four bids.

It kind of shows you what kind of respect that confernece has when it comes to baseball.  Kind of reminds me of the WIAC and Men's Basketball this season (La Crosse, Whitewater, Stout.)

[Just Bill]

UW-Stevens Point has put up a Regional web site:  http://www.uwsp.edu/athletics/baseball/NCAARegional06.htm

[Greek Tragedy]

I read that their 5th place regular season team got an at-large bid and they didn't even reach the championship game, whereas Whitewater, the regular season champion who got to the championship game twice, didn't get a bid.  Their records were very similar.  I think Whitewater had 30 wins too.

[Pat Coleman]

Looks like Rowan was 18-9 in-region, 7-5 against regionally ranked teams.
I see UW-Whitewater as 25-10, 0-1 against regionally ranked teams.

[Ralph Turner]

Looks like Rowan was 18-9 in-region, 7-5 against regionally ranked teams.
I see UW-Whitewater as 25-10, 0-1 against regionally ranked teams.

The Handbook also cites "Results vs In-region Ranked teams".  The fact that Rowan played 12 such games vs one for UW-W also worked to their favor.

Now I can see some WIAC fans complaining about why that doesn't work for them in basketball, but this time it didn't.

[voice]

Ralph,
I understand totally what you are saying.  The one hole in the NCAA's in-region philosophy in baseball is teams from the Midwest that travel annually to Florida, Arizona or California for spring games just to fill out their schedules. This year's cast of teams in Phoenix was made up largely of teams from the East.  I talked about this situation with several coaches in Phoenix earlier this year and they all agreed that "in-region" games are totally at the whim of what schools decide on travelling to a certain spring location, be it Arizona, Florida or Caifornia.  I truely believe that the many week-long spring trips to warm weather sites should not be penalized by the archaic  NCAA III "in region" rule.  Division III is Division III isn't it? 

[Pat Coleman]

Yes, it's Division III, which has an overarching divisionwide philosophy citing regional competition as a point of emphasis. You're not going to change that.

[formerd3db]

Yes, it's Division III, which has an overarching divisionwide philosophy citing regional competition as a point of emphasis. You're not going to change that.

Ralph,
I understand totally what you are saying.  The one hole in the NCAA's in-region philosophy in baseball is teams from the Midwest that travel annually to Florida, Arizona or California for spring games just to fill out their schedules. This year's cast of teams in Phoenix was made up largely of teams from the East.  I talked about this situation with several coaches in Phoenix earlier this year and they all agreed that "in-region" games are totally at the whim of what schools decide on travelling to a certain spring location, be it Arizona, Florida or Caifornia.  I truely believe that the many week-long spring trips to warm weather sites should not be penalized by the archaic  NCAA III "in region" rule.  Division III is Division III isn't it?

One solution, then, is to have teams from the same region (different conferences) go to those spring site baseball complexes in FL, Arizona or California and play their week long spring games there.

[Spence]

I personally would dislike that. I like the idea of going and playing good teams from other regions. You see the people in your region all the time anyway, you can play them up north if you want. Why play them down south too? I understand why, but still don't like it, even though it happens anyway sometimes whether you want it to or not. I feel the same way about playing non Division III competition. A few years back Cortland State started out like 6-7. Well, that was because they were playing very strong Division I and II competition in Ormond Beach.

I dislike that the in-region games are given so much weight, almost as if the rest of the season doesn't even matter.

[Greek Tragedy]

I personally would dislike that. I like the idea of going and playing good teams from other regions. You see the people in your region all the time anyway,...

Apparently you don't.  Whitewater only played one in-region game vs. a ranked opponent, as Pat pointed out.  Why didn't they play Ripon, like Point did (SP swept them in Ripon and may get to face them in the regional too). 

Anyway, I really didn't take time to look at the in-region records and all that.  Point accomplished an amazing feat by winning three games in less than 9 hours in one day, including back to back games vs. WIAC reg. season champ. and defending national champs Whitewater.  Pretty impressive.  So, I just decided to hop on the baseball site for a look-see.

[Just Bill]

First game of the Regional is underway.  No score after two innings.  Zimmerman is pitching for the Pointers and has struck out 5 of the first 6 CSS batters.
http://www.uwsp.edu/athletics/baseball/NCAAregional/ncaa1.htm

[badgerwarhawk]

Deja Vu....

It looks like Point is going to have to come back thru the loser's bracket.

CSS 4-3.

Zimmerman pitches a complete game, 13 K, 4 hitter.   But CSS turns a hit batter, walk, wild pitch, single into two runs and gets a pair of solo home runs to pull out the victory.  Point left 10 runners stranded, CSS none. 

[formerd3db]

Spence:
I can understand your point of view.  Many discussed this earlier in the year as well i.e. DIII teams getting the opporunity to play DII and even DI teams if they desire.  Personally, I like that as well, yet as Pat pointed out, the NCAA has made their policy on this a long time ago and it will continue, despite some of us perhaps not liking it.

Again, you have a valid point; yet I was also only suggesting that option might be a consideration for perhaps some of the teams, say in the southern regions who might not have the opportunity to play other division teams, and that might help them in this regional aspect.  On the other hand, the obvious best way for many teams is to just win your conference's AQ (if they give one) - many teams here in the Great Lakes area go for that, while still being able to get in a few games against DI and/or DII teams during the regular season.  But, admittedly, a team takes a chance doing it that way if for some reason they falter in their conference's tourney to get the AQ, thereby having to rely on an "at large" bid and thus, these regional aspects come into play for consideration for some teams.  Indeed a dilemma for some coaches, but every program has to decide how they want to "handle this" as far as scheduling.  Thanks to all for this interesing discussion and your opinions.

[Spence]

Old School, a lot of the UW-Whitewater in-region record vs. ranked teams is owed to the fact that they were the only ranked team in the WIAC this year. Oshkosh wasn't, Stevens Point wasn't. The WIAC plays 4 game series for conference meetings. So that's 24 games right there. The only northern non-conference series UW-Whitewater played were against Lawrence and Concordia. I don't know why they didn't play Ripon, maybe it wasn't UW-W? I don't know.

They played Augsburg, North Central, Johns Hopkins, MIT, Southern Maine, Gustavus, Williams, and N.C. Wesleyan in Arizona. There's two former national champions and a couple of other solid programs in that list. There's absolutely no shame in that schedule.

UWW got penalized for playing Stout and Superior 4 times, their own slow start (8-6, albeit against the aforementioned schedule) and for the perceived downness of the WIAC (was UWO ranked at all this year?). All of this said, I think Stevens Point was the better team. Out of seven meetings, Whitewater went 3-4, winning two while being outhit 15-7 and 12-6. Aggregate score was 67-40 UWSP. UWSP outhit Whitewater 6 of the 7 games, none at Stevens Point. Them winning the WIAC was not an upset, it was a correction from anomaly.

I think UWW played a better schedule and made a better show of themselves in a tougher conference than tournament than at least one Pool C team that made the field.

[RR_Dad]

Sorry, but I think it is time for the UWW fans to stop whining and just enjoy the  tourney!