MBB: Coast 2 Coast Athletic Conference

[CNU85]

CNU downs #1 Emory at the Freeman Center. To me, the most impressive stat is that sophomores played a combined 140 (70%) of the total 200 minutes.  All 9 Freshmen returned from last year and we added a sophomore transfer. 10 Sophomores on a 13-3 team. Three of them started today's game against Emory. Of course it helps having the Hines Brothers as the other two starters.

I just noticed the picture on D3hoops.com of Ofcarcik and Hollenbeck. Sophomores.

[HoopsDad34]

Johnson and Wales-Charlotte joining the C2C next year. I think they're currently D3? 

[Pat Coleman]

Johnson and Wales-Charlotte joining the C2C next year. I think they're currently D3? 

Not D3 until the fall of 2028.
https://www.d3sports.com/notables/2025/01/c2c-adds-school

Always possible they might qualify for a streamlined timeline.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

If they get the expedited timeline, they should qualify in time for the C2C to keep its AQs, right?

[Pat Coleman]

Regent should be No. 6. Or perhaps they both become eligible together.

[stlawus]

Wonder what the deal is with Mary Washington.  I thought their roster looked pretty good on paper, but already 11 losses after dropping another to Hopkins tonight. 

[Tigerfan]

They're a pretty good team, but always play a hard schedule against top programs.  UMW is in a bizarre conference, so they end up playing a bunch of games against the conference in closest proximity, the ODAC.  And they play all of the top teams in the ODAC, who are either nationally ranked or very close to it.  And then some other tough games.  They've got some good young players who should win more games in the future, but they could use some help on the boards. 

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Wonder what the deal is with Mary Washington.  I thought their roster looked pretty good on paper, but already 11 losses after dropping another to Hopkins tonight. 

Very young.  They're going to be quite good if everyone sticks around.

[CNU85]

I never really paid attention to UMW roster. Very young, indeed.
As usual, I did an analysis of rosters for CNU and UMW. 80% of CNU's roster consists of Freshmen and Sophomores. For UMW that figure is 86%.

Last season, CNU had 9 Freshmen in a very turbulent locker room. The fact that all 9 returned (plus Ofcarcik transfer), lends me to believe there was some serious coaching going on behind the scenes.

There should be a few fun years ahead for these teams!

         CNU                                     UMW   
5th Yr   2         10.0%                   2   14%
SR           1            5.0%                   0   0%
JR           1            5.0%                   0   0%
SO         10          50.0%                   5   36%
FR           6          30.0%                   7   50%
Total       20                                     14   

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

UMW will lose Zack Blue, the PG, a very valuable piece for such a young team, but assuming they can get a reasonable replacement, they're big and long and talented, for sure.  I saw them at Guilford on Wednesday and they were very impressive.  Really had no clue how to close out a game against a good team, so the score doesn't look close, but it was neck and neck down to the last minute or two.  And the bigger revelation was how well they matched up physically to a very experienced Guilford roster - full of 5th year guys.

[HoopsDad34]

Excellent analysis on UMW (Young, needs height, etc.). But also: they lost a 6'8" senior about 7 games in who quit, have had a 6'8" frosh hurt all year and recently had injuries to a 6'3" soph and a 6'5" freshman who were arguably the most explosive players on the team. So they only have 11 guys on the roster and only play 9 (which is another story since the two guys on the bench are 6'5" and 6'4" so some needed height on a team with no one over 6'5"). Also, Zach Blue is a great defender (lots of steals) but struggles offensively with splits of 33/32/64. I still see a bright future if everyone returns.

[deiscanton]

NCAA DIII Men's Basketball Committee is incorrectly coding matchups between C2C men's basketball teams as conference games, which explains most of the discrepancies the past 2 weeks between the NPI numbers shown on the NCAA NPI summary reports, and those numbers produced by D3Datacast.  According to the C2C Handbook on page 18, which can be found on the C2C Sports website -- SECTION V--CHAMPIONSHIP SPORTS-- MEN'S BASKETBALL-- the handbook specifically states that teams are responsible for creating their schedule, and that there will be no conference games.

The C2C Handbook can be found at http://c2csports.com

The official NCAA DIII NPI summary report for men's basketball can be found at http://stats.ncaa.org/selection_rankings/nitty_gritties

Here are the discrepancies in the adj w/l records and the NPI numbers this week for the C2C Men's basketball teams.

1.)  #10 NPI rating is correct-- Christopher Newport-- Adj w/l record of 12.5 wins and 3.8 losses is correct.   However, the NCAA summary report has the NPI number at 65.295, while D3Datacast has the NPI number at 65.284.

2.)  #52 NPI rating is correct-- Salisbury-- Adj w/l record of 12.5 wins and 7.0 losses is correct.  However, the NCAA summary report has the NPI number at 59.307, while D3Datacast has the NPI number at 59.244.

3.)  #118 NPI rating is correct-- Mary Washington-- Adj w/l record of 8.0 wins and 10.8 losses is correct. However, the NCAA summary report has the NPI number at 54.505, while D3Datacast has the NPI number at 54.503.

4.)  UC Santa Cruz-- Discrepancy in placement of ranking on NPI table-- NCAA has UC Santa Cruz at #159 NPI ranking, while D3DataCast has UC Santa Cruz at a #158 NPI ranking.   As for adjusted win/adjusted loss totals, NCAA has UC Santa Cruz at 9.8 wins and 9.4 losses, while D3Datacast has UC Santa Cruz at 9.8 wins and 9.2 losses. The adjusted loss total discrepancy can be explained by how the NCAA is treating UC Santa Cruz's away losses at Salisbury and Christopher Newport on January 30 and Feb. 1, 2025 respectively.   D3DataCast is correctly coding the adjusted losses at 0.8 losses each game for those 2 matchups, in accordance with C2C policy.  NCAA DIII is incorrectly coding these losses as conference game losses at 0.9 losses each.

NCAA DIII summary report has UC Santa Cruz's NPI at 52.926, while D3Datacast has UC Santa Cruz's NPI at 52.999.

5.) #407 NPI ranking is correct-- Warren Wilson.  Warren Wilson has 0 wins this season.  NCAA NPI summary report has Warren Wilson with an NPI of 29.163, which matches with D3DataCast's NPI number for Warren Wilson. 

BTW, the NCAA DIII summary report has Norwich of GNAC at the NPI ranking of #158 with an adjusted win/loss total of 14.2 wins and 5.0 losses.  This week's NCAA DIII Men's Basketball NPI summary report has Norwich with an NPI of 52.987.   D3DataCast has Norwich with the NPI ranking of #159, and has Norwich's NPI at 52.993.  14.2 adjusted wins and 5.0 adjusted losses is correct for Norwich.

[CNU85]

Wow! Deiscanton. That is a lot of research and analysis. I love it. Thanks for pointing it out. How does that information get relayed to the NCAA?

[deiscanton]

Wow! Deiscanton. That is a lot of research and analysis. I love it. Thanks for pointing it out. How does that information get relayed to the NCAA?

If you know someone is on your regional advisory committee for DIII men's basketball, alert him or her to this.    One of the current jobs of the RAC members in this NPI era is to make sure that the data on all of the DIII basketball games is entered in correctly.   Other jobs right now in this NPI era is to undergo training to become site representatives in the NCAA DIII men's basketball tournament, and to make sure that potential host schools submit in the necessary paperwork to host.  In addition, the RAC members probably can perform any tasks not listed here that are delegated to them by the NCAA DIII men's basketball national committee.  The major thing that the RAC members no longer have to do is to individually rank the teams in their region to assist the national committee in selecting teams-- the computer in the NPI era automatically does this in terms of highest to lowest NPI assuming the data is entered in correctly.

BTW, D3Datacast has also pointed out that in addition to the incorrect coding of 2 UC Santa Cruz games that I previously mentioned, a game between NE College and Dean that was played on November 11, 2024, is currently incorrectly coded in as a conference game according to the official NCAA Division III men's basketball NPI summary report where it should be listed as a non-conference game.   The GNAC has a single round-robin for men's basketball conference games, and those conference games started in January.  The GNAC conference game between NE College and Dean was played on January 15, 2025.   

[CNU85]

Wow! Deiscanton. That is a lot of research and analysis. I love it. Thanks for pointing it out. How does that information get relayed to the NCAA?

If you know someone is on your regional advisory committee for DIII men's basketball, alert him or her to this.   

I sent to my friend, the AD. I'm also having lunch with him today and will bring it up.

Update: I copied and pasted a couple of your posts and they are now in the hands of the C2C Commissioner.