MBB: USA South Conference

[scottiedoug]

Looks like the AC is up for grabs.  Predictions?

[mattgrubb]

Words to Describe Lagrange College Head Men's Basketball Coach:  Sand bagger, Master of the Art of War, Maker of Men Disciple of Defense, and hater.

If LC wins the USA South/Nick Mitchell Men's Basketball Tournament and gets a 4th straight NCAA tournament bid then I will officially change his title to:
Maker of Gender Gifted, Disciple of Defense
That is a much better term from the 31 genders that NYC recognizes than the term MEN.  He creates more than men.
If they don't get a bid, I will emphasize that McGreal left and now McGreal's "scoreboards" are huge and much bigger than Wallace's.

[mattgrubb]

Maker of the gender gifted, disciple of defense, undertander of tournament aka championship basketball- The Kendal Wallace. So for all of y'all that it was all McGreal the past couple of years, you were right, but he can do it on his own too!  Even without Nick Mitchell!
2017 USASouth/Nick Mitchell Men's Basketball Tournamnet champions:  Kendal Wallace and the Lagrange Panthers.

4 straight trips to the dance.  If they don't win at least one game in the tourney I am going to beat Wallace. His seniors are going into their 4th tourney.  Best of luck panthers players. Win some games to keep your coach from getting tied up, slapped, and dominated. 

[scottiedoug]

Mr. Grubby was, as is often the case, right on target. Panthers came a long way from the first encounter with the MC Scots this season.  I hope they win a few!!

[Ben Stein Fan]

Great job Coach Wallace and the LaGrange College Panthers!

My question is when the USA South is going to give LC and Coach Wallace some credit.  No players on the All-Conference team and Coach Wallace has won 3 of the last 4 Tournaments but has never been voted COY.  It is a travesty.

Only two players from this year's senior class have been at LC all four years and while great guys they are not the backbone of this team. 

Knowing the NCAA Division III selection team will give Emory an at-large bid and LC will have to play Emory at Emory the first game even though LC beat them head-to-head this season. 

[scottiedoug]

They will just have to do it again....

[mattgrubb]

Ben Stein
This is D3. No one cares about individual awards!!!!  Well actually you are 100% correct and theory and practice are light years apart. There's no way Olsen wasn't an all conference player. He grew and morphed into Mark Wagner.  A sign of good coaching.  Same skills built on fundamental. I know exactly where Wallace learned how to manufacture skilled players. See Randall Dean Lambert.

Here is the one overriding fact: if you don't play for the national title, why did you play???
It's like the Brady v Manning argument:  are stats or championships more important. Easy. We play to win. Not score a bunch and lose. Now If you are going to compare wallace to his mentor, wallace is in the right track.  9 more in a row and he can tie Randy's D3 record of 13 straight tourney appearances.  Randy did not have an AQ. The AQ has confused D3s 3rd all time winningest coach and #1 all time best looking.   But the protege learned very well. Now Wallace needs a second or third weekend in the big dance!!!!!!!!!

Get it Panthers.

[Ben Stein Fan]

Can anyone explain to me this lovefest D3Hoops.com and the NCAA selection committee have with Emory?  This post is not a slam against Emory as an institution or the coaching staff and players.  Emory can only control its schedule and results.  Emory has no control over the selection process.  So please do not take this as somehow Emory is to blame for this lovefest. 

How can Emory have a so-so out of conference record (L's against LaGrange and Covenant), a modest conference record but still get an at-large bid?  Proponents will argue that their conference is so much harder than why does Emory have a losing record against the USA South?  There is nothing compelling about their season that would justify an at-large bid or even host.  Home court advantage matters so much in basketball that it is simply unfair that Emory would get to host almost year in and year out that it is almost a bye into the second weekend. 

I am not proposing that another team from the USA South should get an at-large bid, but Maryville with 20 wins should be in the conversation.  Detractors of Maryville will argue their SOS is much weaker.  But I think this goes back to Emory playing in a different conference than Maryville.  However, head-to-head competition although a small sample size shows that USA South teams do compete with Emory.   

If someone wants to argue that Emory gets the nod over Maryville because of the earlier match this season in which Emory won then fine. But, don't don't tell me that SOS is so important when automatically one conference has a higher SOS based only on reputation and would appear nothing else.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

It's the numbers.  I don't think Emory is as good as their numbers, but that SOS is a real thing.

To me, the one real issue with the criteria is that it basically overlooks losses to non regionally ranked opponents.  You could drop three bad games to terrible teams, but if you win 85% of your other games, you have a shot.  Emory started the year rough.  Even so, if they hadn't beat Rochester in that last game, they wouldn't be in.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

If someone wants to argue that Emory gets the nod over Maryville because of the earlier match this season in which Emory won then fine. But, don't don't tell me that SOS is so important when automatically one conference has a higher SOS based only on reputation and would appear nothing else.

That head-to-head was certainly a factor... but there is no math in the SOS equation that adds in "reputation."

[Ben Stein Fan]

David,

Then how can one conference have a higher SOS than another conference when there is little to no head-to-head matchups?

Unequal scheduling in D3 Basketball leads to uneven SOS.  Because of time, travel, and D3 limitations this will never be resolved to create equality across the D3 landscape.  It just seems to me there is nothing in Emory's record this season to dictate that they are the 3rd best team in the South region.  Emory's SOS is based on the fact they play in a national conference and not a regional conference.  Explain to me the math that shows that they are the 3rd best team in the South when they hardly play any South Region teams after December, and they only played one team in the region top 10.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

David,

Then how can one conference have a higher SOS than another conference when there is little to no head-to-head matchups?

Unequal scheduling in D3 Basketball leads to uneven SOS.  Because of time, travel, and D3 limitations this will never be resolved to create equality across the D3 landscape.  It just seems to me there is nothing in Emory's record this season to dictate that they are the 3rd best team in the South region.  Emory's SOS is based on the fact they play in a national conference and not a regional conference.  Explain to me the math that shows that they are the 3rd best team in the South when they hardly play any South Region teams after December, and they only played one team in the region top 10.

While I understand the theory... I don't think Rochester last year would agree. Left out of the tournament despite a high SOS (north of .570).

There is more to the SOS... and while a national conference is helpful, they still did enough in said conference including beating Rochester to earn a bid. If a conference is good, it will get more bids. There are reasons for that. It was also a year where parity made numbers very interesting and allowed certain numbers to stand out or teams who didn't seem significant to rise to the top. Looking at the numbers, I have no problems with Emory in the tournament. And there are teams in non-national conferences and in less than ideal areas who have been able to figure how to stand out.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

David,

Then how can one conference have a higher SOS than another conference when there is little to no head-to-head matchups?

Unequal scheduling in D3 Basketball leads to uneven SOS.  Because of time, travel, and D3 limitations this will never be resolved to create equality across the D3 landscape.  It just seems to me there is nothing in Emory's record this season to dictate that they are the 3rd best team in the South region.  Emory's SOS is based on the fact they play in a national conference and not a regional conference.  Explain to me the math that shows that they are the 3rd best team in the South when they hardly play any South Region teams after December, and they only played one team in the region top 10.

http://web1.ncaa.org/champsel_new/exec/pdf/staticpdfrank

There's the data sheet.  You can compare teams and numbers.  All games count as regional games, so long as 70% of a team's games are against regional opponents.  All conference games for every team are considered in-region - that's been true as long as I've been following d3 basketball.

There are only four teams in the South with a better winning percentage than Emory - Guilford, HSU, Maryville, and LeTourneau. Emory's .547 SOS number is pretty darn good - the other, in order: .514, .565, .486, .505.

Based on those numbers, one might argue Emory is the second best team in the region, so third really isn't a stretch.

[Ben Stein Fan]

Ryan,

The link doesn't work.

Let me ask you a question, so I am clear on how the NCAA allocates Emory's wins.

Because Emory is physically located in the South but plays in a conference in which it is the only South Region team, all of its wins counts as in-region for the South Region?

That seems highly unfair because Emory's out of conference records wasn't bad, but it wasn't spectacular.  But, because it plays in a conference which plays other teams from a more predominant D3 region in the nation, Emory gets a higher SOS than other South Region teams who do not get to play a more national schedule.

Why doesn't the NCAA move Emory into a region that is more reflective of its schedule than physical location?

[Pat Coleman]

All Division III opponents are in-region for everyone, with almost no exceptions.