Pool C

[bopol]

Quick Thoughts on the NCAA Tournament:

1) As many here have pointed out, the bottom of the Pool C is a bit of a mess.  Of course, that'll clear out when there are some upsets in the conference tournaments.

2) I think we're looking at two three-team pods based on minimization of travel.  First, Birmingham-Southern (492 miles) and Texas Lutheran going to East Texas Baptist (no planes).  Second, Chapman (plane) going up to Washington to play Whitman at Whitworth.  I'm pretty sure the rest of the first weekend won't need planes.

3) On first pass, I don't see any way to avoid Benedictine and Augustana happening on the 2nd weekend without a lot of plane travel.

[KnightSlappy]

Quick Thoughts on the NCAA Tournament:

1) As many here have pointed out, the bottom of the Pool C is a bit of a mess.  Of course, that'll clear out when there are some upsets in the conference tournaments.

2) I think we're looking at two three-team pods based on minimization of travel.  First, Birmingham-Southern (492 miles) and Texas Lutheran going to East Texas Baptist (no planes).  Second, Chapman (plane) going up to Washington to play Whitman at Whitworth.  I'm pretty sure the rest of the first weekend won't need planes.

3) On first pass, I don't see any way to avoid Benedictine and Augustana happening on the 2nd weekend without a lot of plane travel.

The only question with #2 is does that put Emory on an island? They'd be within 500 miles of the USAC champ, and would be within 500 miles of Birmingham-Southern. I think they can get to Lynchburg (or vice versa) within 500 miles, but not Virginia Wesleyan. Looks like Mount St. Joseph could get to Emory within 500 miles as well. I'm not sure if anyone else can. Maybe they'd have to move that pod.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Not to mention, if Whitman loses against PacLu, they're very much on the bubble.  That SOS is pretty bad.


If there are three west coast teams, you might just see them fly TxLutheran to Whitworth and have Birmingham Southern host a pod with ETBU and Emory (if Greenville wins the SLIAC, they can get there driving, too).

I'm not going to get too caught up in eventualities, though, until we have actual teams qualified.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Keep something in mind that we learned from 2014... the first weekend they don't like to put pods together with a host that deserves it only for geographical reasons. Remember how much some of us liked Centre hosting with Emory there because it made a great geographic pod? The committee basically said the only way they make geographical pods is because of Texas, Northwest, etc. They gave Emory a bye and sent a team to them instead which had major ramifications around the country with the rest of the bracket.

Furthermore, as much as TLU is highly ranked now... I am a little worried if they don't win the tournament. Their latest loss hasn't been reflected in the rankings as of yet (will on Wednesday) and another loss will have them fall even further. TLU could easily be out of the NCAA tournament in a loss-filled South Region where their SOS probably won't stack up. You could easily be left with just one team in Texas should Colorado College win the AQ over TLU (certainly possible).

Honestly, I wait until the third regional rankings are in before I start looking at this too seriously because so many factors are changing, especially this year with so many more losses on the board than usual.

[fantastic50]

At intermission, Brooklyn leads Staten Island by a point.  All the other bubble-relevant games today were won by the higher seeds.

Bubble watch games - Tuesday, February 23
(Status in parenthesis is for a Pool C berth; any team still playing can get in by winning a conference tournament)

CUNYAC semis: #3 Brooklyn (longshot) vs #2 Staten Island (longshot)

GNAC quarters: #8 St Joseph, Maine (out) at #1 Johnson & Wales (bubble)

LEC quarters: #8 Mass-Boston (out) at #1 Eastern Connecticut (bubble)

NCAC quarters: #8 Wabash (out) at #1 Ohio Wesleyan (lock)
NCAC quarters: #7 Oberlin (out) at #2 Wooster (likely)
NCAC quarters: #6 Kenyon (out) at #3 Hiram (unlikely)

OAC quarters: #8 Wilmington (out) at #1 Marietta (lock)
OAC quarters: #7 Capital (out) at #2 John Carroll (lock)
OAC quarters: #6 Heidelberg (out) at #3 Mount Union (longshot)

SUNYAC quarters: #5 SUNY Geneseo (bubble) at #4 Oswego State (bubble)
SUNYAC quarters: #6 Buffalo St (out) at #3 Brockport (bubble)

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

I don't think there were any bubbles burst tonight.  The CUNYAC lost both top seeds, but I'm not sure either one is real C material.  Maybe, maybe Staten Island, but they're basically even with Brooklyn anyway, so no real loss to Pool C.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

CUNYAC for a chance at a Pool C needed the favorites to make the title game... that's done with now.

[Greek Tragedy]

CUNYAC for a chance at a Pool C needed the favorites to make the title game... that's done with now.

We'll see how the rankings look today, but with Staten Island's loss last week, I think that Brooklyn may jump them anyway, actually giving Brooklyn a better Pool C shot than S.I. if they got to the title game.

[KnightSlappy]

CUNYAC for a chance at a Pool C needed the favorites to make the title game... that's done with now.

Yep, and as Fantastic50 pointed out, Lehman and Staten Island were going to be longshot candidates anyway. Bunch of .700s winning percentages with SOS of right around .500. Not going to get it done.

[HOPEful]

...On first pass, I don't see any way to avoid Benedictine and Augustana happening on the 2nd weekend without a lot of plane travel...

Of course, the most obvious way to avoid it would be one of them losing in the first weekend.

[Greek Tragedy]

...On first pass, I don't see any way to avoid Benedictine and Augustana happening on the 2nd weekend without a lot of plane travel...

Of course, the most obvious way to avoid it would be one of them losing in the first weekend.

If they have to meet to see who goes to the Final Four, I don't think that's the worse scenario in the world.

[KnightSlappy]

...On first pass, I don't see any way to avoid Benedictine and Augustana happening on the 2nd weekend without a lot of plane travel...

Of course, the most obvious way to avoid it would be one of them losing in the first weekend.

If they have to meet to see who goes to the Final Four, I don't think that's the worse scenario in the world.

Yeah, with the realities and constraints of the way D3 is bracketed, getting a Sectional Final matchup between two of the top 4-5 teams isn't terrible.

Throw St. Thomas in the mix as well though. It's probably going to take some creativity to split that trio up as much as possible.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Yeah - as long as there isn't a first weekend matchup, I consider it a win. Would it be better for quarterfinals? Sure, but depends on what the committee has to work with for the bracket before I would decide if a Sweet 16 matchup is bad.

[AO]

...On first pass, I don't see any way to avoid Benedictine and Augustana happening on the 2nd weekend without a lot of plane travel...

Of course, the most obvious way to avoid it would be one of them losing in the first weekend.

If they have to meet to see who goes to the Final Four, I don't think that's the worse scenario in the world.

Yeah, with the realities and constraints of the way D3 is bracketed, getting a Sectional Final matchup between two of the top 4-5 teams isn't terrible.

Throw St. Thomas in the mix as well though. It's probably going to take some creativity to split that trio up as much as possible.

Is this the result of too many west/central region teams in the tourney or too few?  If they can put Augustana and Stevens Point on the opposite side of the bracket last year, I don't know why they couldn't do the same for Augustana and Benedictine.

On the other hand, If the champion is going to come from the West or Central again, the "true" championship game might as well take place in the Midwest with the biggest possible crowd.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

The easy answer for that... Benedictine has good numbers, but I don't think their overall resume was on the same level as USWP and Augustana last year to deserve being on the other side of the bracket.