MBB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[kiltedbryan]

They also sent Wooster to Augustana one year.

Yes, that one squeaked just under the 500 mile limit by less than 20 miles? and they got to face the national champ Wash University in the first round!  Not a good combination!

Augustana-Wooster was within 5 miles of the limit I think...that was a ridiculous pairing.  A first-round game that should've been bracketed as a sweet sixteen game.  Sending Wooster that far away sent them into the bracket of death that year I think, and IIRC there were certainly other, shorter distance travel options available for Wooster especially.  Both of those teams were final four participants the year before and both had the potential for another run (Wash U, obviously, went on to win its first title).

But that's the difference between winning and losing your conference tournament.  Wooster will most likely not be sent on the road this year—that year might have been the one where Wabash blew out Wooster in the NCAC semifinal, meaning Wooster drew a much lower "seed" in the tournament and drew a rough road assignment.

[fantastic50]

Wow ... the D3hoops projected brackets still have the Scots going to John Carroll, despite JCU's loss in the OAC semifinals.
http://www.d3boards.com/playoffs/proj-mbbbracket2010.pdf

[wooscotsfan]

Wow ... the D3hoops projected brackets still have the Scots going to John Carroll, despite JCU's loss in the OAC semifinals.
http://www.d3boards.com/playoffs/proj-mbbbracket2010.pdf

That projection with John Carroll hosting makes no sense to me.  JCU has 6 in region losses and Wooster only has 4 which is a big difference.  Also, JCU lost in the semi-final game of the OAC tourney while Wooster won the NCAC tourney and the automatic bid.

IF those 4 teams do play in a first/second round pod, then the Scots should be the host and JCU, Calvin and Wheaton can travel to Wooster.

[seinfeld]

One the one hand they have JCU worrying about getting in, but on the other hand they have them hosting? It seems they must be thinking head-to-head is going to be a major trump card. Maybe their right. While head-to-head should mean something, so should the fact the game took place in November at JCU, and both teams (as all other teams) are completely different now. I don't know if this is a factor in early round games, but in 2007, St. Johns Fisher got to host the sectional over Wooster, despite Wooster having a small edge on paper, in part because Wooster had recently hosted a sectional, while St. Johns Fisher hadn't. JCU hosted both early round and sectional games last year.

We shall see, but my guess is that JCU and Grove City will be at Wooster, with a fourth team unknown.

[wooscotsfan]

One the one hand they have JCU worrying about getting in, but on the other hand they have them hosting? It seems they must be thinking head-to-head is going to be a major trump card. Maybe their right. While head-to-head should mean something, so should the fact the game took place in November at JCU, and both teams (as all other teams) are completely different now. I don't know if this is a factor in early round games, but in 2007, St. Johns Fisher got to host the sectional over Wooster, despite Wooster having a small edge on paper, in part because Wooster had recently hosted a sectional, while St. Johns Fisher hadn't. JCU hosted both early round and sectional games last year.

We shall see, but my guess is that JCU and Grove City will be at Wooster, with a fourth team unknown.

Seinfeld - excellent point about a more logical pairing of geographically close teams.  Wooster hosting JCU, Grove City and Defiance (northwest Ohio team) would make a lot of sense to me.

Of course, the big unknown is how the NCAA will balance the brackets to avoid paying airline expenses for teams in the tourney.  In recent years, the Michigan teams have been paired with Illinois and Wisconsin teams, not Ohio, in the first/second rounds.

[Titan Q]

Wow ... the D3hoops projected brackets still have the Scots going to John Carroll, despite JCU's loss in the OAC semifinals.
http://www.d3boards.com/playoffs/proj-mbbbracket2010.pdf

That projection with John Carroll hosting makes no sense to me.  JCU has 6 in region losses and Wooster only has 4 which is a big difference.  Also, JCU lost in the semi-final game of the OAC tourney while Wooster won the NCAC tourney and the automatic bid.

IF those 4 teams do play in a first/second round pod, then the Scots should be the host and JCU, Calvin and Wheaton can travel to Wooster.

I also do not agree with the projection of John Carroll hosting over Wooster.  Seems like Wooster has to be a higher overall seed, and seems like geographically, there is no barrier to the same 4 teams playing in Wooster.

Maybe Pat will explaine their rationale...after he finishes his 2-3 hours of sleep.

[ziggy]

Wow ... the D3hoops projected brackets still have the Scots going to John Carroll, despite JCU's loss in the OAC semifinals.
http://www.d3boards.com/playoffs/proj-mbbbracket2010.pdf

That projection with John Carroll hosting makes no sense to me.  JCU has 6 in region losses and Wooster only has 4 which is a big difference.  Also, JCU lost in the semi-final game of the OAC tourney while Wooster won the NCAC tourney and the automatic bid.

IF those 4 teams do play in a first/second round pod, then the Scots should be the host and JCU, Calvin and Wheaton can travel to Wooster.

I also do not agree with the projection of John Carroll hosting over Wooster.  Seems like Wooster has to be a higher overall seed, and seems like geographically, there is no barrier to the same 4 teams playing in Wooster.

Maybe Pat will explaine their rationale...after he finishes his 2-3 hours of sleep.

Wooster definitely deserves the host over John Carroll. We have Wooster/Wilmington and John Carroll/Defiance at Wooster.

[sac]

Wow ... the D3hoops projected brackets still have the Scots going to John Carroll, despite JCU's loss in the OAC semifinals.
http://www.d3boards.com/playoffs/proj-mbbbracket2010.pdf

The d3hoops guys have always at been good at projecting the teams that make the tournament..........they are not so good at projecting brackets.  Take it with less than a grain of salt.

[ziggy]

Wow ... the D3hoops projected brackets still have the Scots going to John Carroll, despite JCU's loss in the OAC semifinals.
http://www.d3boards.com/playoffs/proj-mbbbracket2010.pdf

The d3hoops guys have always at been good at projecting the teams that make the tournament..........they are not so good at projecting brackets.  Take it with less than a grain of salt.

Aside from the JCU/Wooster hosting they seem to have more potential early flights than are necessary. I don't like the link between the Guilford and Stevens Point pods and the Wash U. and Albright pods. We shall see.

[ScotsFan]

Wow ... the D3hoops projected brackets still have the Scots going to John Carroll, despite JCU's loss in the OAC semifinals.
http://www.d3boards.com/playoffs/proj-mbbbracket2010.pdf

The d3hoops guys have always at been good at projecting the teams that make the tournament..........they are not so good at projecting brackets.  Take it with less than a grain of salt.

Aside from the JCU/Wooster hosting they seem to have more potential early flights than are necessary. I don't like the link between the Guilford and Stevens Point pods and the Wash U. and Albright pods. We shall see.

I too am having trouble grasping how JCU deserves to host over Wooster for 1st and 2nd round games.  What exactly is the reasoning here?  If they're basing the head to head match-up won by the Blue Streaks, then why would Wooster have been ranked ahead of JCU in the regional rankings prior to the Scots' loss to Witt 2 weeks ago?  And I also don't get why you would reward a team that LOST at home in their conference semis by allowing them to host over a team that WON their conference tournament and very well should be the top ranked team in the GL Region?

Also, looking at the projected brackets, I don't like how they are projecting all of those ODAC teams.  Four teams projected to get in and 3 hosting sectionals?  If you're conference gets 4 teams in, I don't agree with the fact that 3 of those 4 teams, 3 would be hosting first round games.  And what makes even less sense is that R-MC is the only ODAC team not projected as hosting even though they just beat EMU yesterday in the ODAC semis.  Yet, they've projected EMU as a possible host? 

I realize that these are just best guess projections, but some of them just don't make a whole lot of sense IMO.

[OWho?]

OWU will be a major player in the conference next year. Tim Brady for Player of the Year= lock, as he has the powers of Pikachu behind him.

[Gregory Sager]

I'm also baffled as to why the Guru and his elves have JCU hosting rather than Wooster next weekend, but ...

While head-to-head should mean something, so should the fact the game took place in November at JCU, and both teams (as all other teams) are completely different now.

The date of head-to-head contests is not part of the criteria.

I too am having trouble grasping how JCU deserves to host over Wooster for 1st and 2nd round games.  What exactly is the reasoning here?  If they're basing the head to head match-up won by the Blue Streaks, then why would Wooster have been ranked ahead of JCU in the regional rankings prior to the Scots' loss to Witt 2 weeks ago?

Good point.

And I also don't get why you would reward a team that LOST at home in their conference semis by allowing them to host over a team that WON their conference tournament and very well should be the top ranked team in the GL Region?

That's not part of the criteria, either. Losing in the finals versus losing in the semifinals versus winning the conference tourney doesn't matter when it comes to seeding. Only the five primary criteria count ... and after that, the secondary criteria, none of which make any distinction between conference tournament games and regular season in-region games.

[goscots]

Before all the non-Wooster posters depart until the '10-'11 season, how about each of you listing your schools team of the decade. Technically the decade doesn't finished until the end of this year but this is the the last complete season. Let's go 8 deep and anyone who played '00-'01 onward should count. Having followed NCAC for about 8 years now it should be fun to see some early decade names pop up. Should be easy to pick the first three or four but then the debate starts.

[seinfeld]

Has anyone ever asked the question if the selection is done only by the book, following the criteria to the letter with no subjectivity, why there is even a selection committee at all? Might as well just have one guy take an hour, make some matchups, and call it a day. Yet having almost no leeway on who to take, we wait until the following morning, almost two days after the vast majority of teams are done playing.

[Titan Q]

Has anyone ever asked the question if the selection is done only by the book, following the criteria to the letter with no subjectivity, why there is even a selection committee at all? Might as well just have one guy take an hour, make some matchups, and call it a day. Yet having almost no leeway on who to take, we wait until the following morning, almost two days after the vast majority of teams are done playing.

The criteria is used to guide the process, but there is still a lot of subjectivity to both selection and bracketing.  There are some really good "basketball guys" on the regional/national committees...

http://web1.ncaa.org/web_files/champ_handbooks/basketball/2010/10_3_mbasketball.pdf
(Appendix D)

They do the best they can with the rules and budget constraints they are handed by the NCAA.