Posters' Poll

[Ralph Turner]

- Greg?  titanfan? PS? FDF? stalker? smed? (and, what the heck, it's the final PP - Q? David? April? anyone??).

C'mon, friends!  Please vote!  If we cannot get a decent number of voters for the final poll, why should anyone try to have a posters' poll next year?

[Greek Tragedy]

I agree with Mr. Ypsi, that I don't feel obligated to crown the champion #1.  But, Virginia Wesleyan deserved it.  If you think about it, polls are basically based on weekly performances.  If Team A is 5-0 going into a week and loses, then Team B is likely to leapfrog Team A if they didn't lose during the week.  That's the nature of the polls, IMO.

We can argue until the cows come home that Amherst wouldn't have been in Salem had they played in the Great Lakes/Midwest Region or whatever.  But, they haven't done that all year.  I've never considered Lawrence's schedule very demanding, aside from two games with Carroll, the early season battle with obviously over-rated Oshkosh and possibly their away game to rival Ripon considered "quality wins".  But, you have to give Lawrence credit for winning ALL of their games in the regular season...just like you have to give credit to Amherst, IWU, Virginia Wes and Wittenberg for winning the games they won. 

All four teams, IMO, warranted 1-4 since they were all highly ranked prior to the tourney starting.  VWC deserves the #1 ranking for not only winning it all (though, as I said, that's not a guarantee), but for basically upsetting the Final Four favorite, IWU, and for upsetting Wittenberg, who was ranked higher than they were as well.


Wittenberg deserves the #2 ranking because they lost in the final, after topping #4 Amherst in the semi-finals.  IWU should get the nod for #3 because, IMO, they had the toughest road to the Final Four.  They beat WIAC tourney and regular season champ. Whitewater on their home floor, and then knocked off the #1 team and only undefeated team in the nation on their home floor as well...that, o f course, being Lawrence.  Is it a big jump from #11 to #3? Yeah, but they deserved it.  Wittenberg came out of probably the hardest sectional and IWU came out of the 2nd hardest sectional.  Amherst?  They were ranked #4 going into the tourney and made it to the Final Four.  Who has a better case for #4?  Hope?  They lost in the 3rd round to Wittenberg.  Wooster?  They lost in the 2nd round to Transy.  Yeah, both were on the road, but IWU was on the road as well and they won. 

I'm disappointed about the lack of posters joining the Poster's Poll this year.  I certainly hope that more posters join in next year, otherwise, I don't think it's worth Mr. Ypsi's time and efforts.  I would hope closer to 20 than 10 next year.  Thanks again for putting it together and running it.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Yeah, I think VWU earned the #1 by beating two really, really good teams on back to back days.  One win of that calibre and a win over a lesser opponent might not have convinced me.

Lawrence and even Puget Sound were impressive, with narrow defeats against the most talented team in the tournament were also impressive.

I had Hope losing in the final, basically because I assumed they'd be playing the sectional at home.  Had I thought Witt would get it, I would have picked them.  Those teams are essentially even in my book.

Amherst got gradually better all year long.  I never thought they would get to the level that they achieved by the final four, but congratulations to them.  Although, if you put Amherst that high, you have to have Tufts in the top ten as well.  Those teams are so even, its not funny.

The final four plus Lawrence and Hope all have rights to those six spots.  The order isn't as big of a concern to me.

UPS, Wooster, Transy, Lincoln, Tufts, Calvin and Augustana would be my next tier, maybe Baldwin-Wallace in there too.

There was just a lot more parity this year than I expected, a lot more than most people thought.

[Flying Dutch Fan]

I finally got mine done and sent it in - better late than never

[Knightstalker]

Sent mine in.

[sac]

I'll only say this about Hope being a top 4 team........they lost 3 games to 3 teams I voted in the top 12.  One on a last second shot.........one on the road to a team that played lights out basketball......and one on the road in the tournament who finished as National Runner-up and one shot away from Champion. 

Albion was in my opinion better than any team I saw in the tournament outside of Witt, Hope and Calvin........and I think they were pretty even with those 3 teams.


The fact that the D3 tournament is not a nationally seeded tournament allows some leeway in ranking teams ahead of a final four team.

[Gregory Sager]

I've sent mine in as well.

[Mr. Ypsi]

With Greg, we're now up to 9 ballots - can we reach (or exceed) 10 by the deadline (just 72 minutes away)?!

[titanfan]

Ypsi,

I'm working on mine right now.  Can you give me 20 minutes?!

[Mr. Ypsi]

The final Posters' Poll (hopefully only meaning that for THIS year!), revised to include the late ballot from titanfan:

1. Va Wes, 250 (unanimous)
2. Witt, 235 (2-4 - 6 seconds)
3. IWU, 233 (2-3 - 7 thirds)
4. Amherst, 214 (4-6)
5. Larry, 206 (4-7)
6. Hope, 203 (2-12)
7. UPS, 170 (5-14)
8. Lincoln, 165 (6-18)
9. Transy, 163 (5-15)
10. Augie, 162 (7-12)
11. Woo, 156 (7-15)
12. Calvin, 128 (9-16)
13. BW, 124 (8-17)
14. MissC, 118 (9-20)
15. UWW, 92 (8-24)
16. Tufts, 86 (11-22)
17. Stout, 77 (11-24)
18. SJF, 70 (15-21, 2 NV)
19. NCC, 60 (15-25)
20. St Thomas, 59 (14-22, 1NV)
21. WmPat, 58 (7-24, 1NV)
22. Carroll, 57 (13-25, 1NV
23. York, 53 (14-25, 1NV)
24. Albion, 34 (6 voters, hi 12)
25. Widener, 30 (3 voters, hi 12)

26. R-M, 11 (4 voters, hi 19)
27. CMellon, 9 (4 voters, hi 22)
28. Oxy, 8 (2 voters, each 22)
29. Elmhurst, 5 (1 voter)
30. Utica, 4 (1 voter)
t31, Cortland, 3 (1 voter)
t31, LAX, 3 (1 voter)
t31, Farmingdale,3 (2 voters)
t34, ChrisNewport, 1
t34, ONU, 1

[Mr. Ypsi]

titanfan,

Didn't catch your message while I was typing up the results - I'll add yours in on a revised posting.

[titanfan]

I sent it to your d3hoops inbox.  Let me know if you get it.

[Mr. Ypsi]

BTW, in answer to a previous teaser, Widener was the team selected 12th and 13th by two of the first four posters, and completely omitted by the other two.  Of the next 5, 4 omitted them, 1 had them 23rd.  While I would not presume to say you're wrong, you two 'Widener lovers' are certainly in the minority!  (Incidentally, Harvard's library is the Widener - same guy?  And who the heck is he?)

[Mr. Ypsi]

Revised poll (10 voters) appears above.

[Gregory Sager]

Thanks for doing this for us this season, Chuck.