Pool C

[SaintPaulite]

Williams plays Amherst... if they win that semi-final game that will for sure be a quality win?

You sure about this? I thought Middlebury was the 1 seed...

It's not that they won't lean as heavily on that equation, they're not allowed ot use it at all. So basically all criteria are independent of each other.

I'm also guessing some of those results vRRO will go away. Wesleyan and Colby are done. Regionally ranked below 8 to me shouldn't matter anyway. They're just getting ranked on volume and not merit at that point.

NESCAC reseeds after the first round. So #2 Hamilton as the highest remaining seed will host the semis and final and will play Tufts while #3 Amherst and #4 Williams will play in the other semi.

Boy they game every system they can, don't they? Maybe if they played a real conference schedule they wouldn't have to fiddle with the tournament as it goes.

So Williams pretty much has to beat Amherst or they have nothing for a resume.

I wonder if Amherst will lay down for them to get another NESCAC team in...

A lot of teams re-seed for the second round.  I didn't realize how common it was until I was updating the tourney tracker yesterday.  Short of the four conferences that haven't finished yet, all the info is in and set, so it should be going live soon!!

You shouldn't be able to just change the tournament.

The MIAC has the worst seed playing the #1 seed, but it's *the* #1 seed. It's not 'well if this team loses, then that'. And they actually play a meaningful regular season and about half the league doesn't make the tournament.

Basically everything the NESCAC does is ridiculous and clearly designed to game the system. I'm surprised their tournament isn't a series of best of 3 rounds lol.

What's funny is that the most apt critique of the NESCAC is that they don't care about the system enough.  Whether it's true or not, there's a pretty valid critique that the NESCAC believes it's above all this NCAA hoopla.  I mean, they didn't even compete in the NCAA Tournament for the first half of its existence.  I just don't believe what the NCAA thinks really factors into their decision-making at all.

I think every shred of actual evidence proves that wrong. They do everything possible to pad their ability to look good by the NCAA's flawed reckoning of what "good" is.

If they didn't care, then they'd play everyone twice and not play any other games, have a true regular season conference champion and that's it.

[SaintPaulite]

It's nothing to do with "too good for you."   Certainly no Nescac fans, players or coaches act in such a fashion, so far as I've ever seen.  But certain elements in some Nescac institutions take a dim view of athletics, in general, which is unfortunate.  Of course the idea that these institutions, which are waging internal struggles against such forces with some regularity, would purposefully game anything to increase NCAA participation - which itself remains a source of controversy - is laughable.

I don't think the professor of philosophy or whatever that is anti-college sports is making many decisions about college sports. So this really is irrelevant.

[nescac1]

Nescac since 2003: three national titles. Five second place finishes. Nearly every game against a Midwest or North team in the Final Four has been either a Nescac win, or a loss that went down to the last possession or two.  No one has gotten "exposed" because Nescac more than pulls its weight in the tourney nearly every year and when it plays the very best teams from other regions, wins its fair share.   Lots of very good leagues (heck even the CCIW) haven't won a single national title during the same time frame.  Heck I don't think the NWC has won a single final four game.  You are obviously totally uneducated about D3 basketball.  Kind of like the time you claimed that Nescac always got clocked by MIAC teams, without apparently knowing that a Nescac team had beaten a MIAC team in a national TITLE game.  But I realize that takes all of 30 seconds to figure out, time I realize you'd rather spend spewing ignorance. 


And Saint Paulite you seek to lack any understanding of what "evidence" means.  Here is my evidence - Nescac didn't play each other twice when they weren't in the NCAA tourney.  That alone disproves your specious claim that Nescac has changed its philosophy in any way to try to "game" anything.  And I guarantee your myopic hatred of the league is such that if they DID play a double round robin you'd just switch to, Nescac sucks because they don't play more than four games vs non-league opponents, or anything else to support your inexplicable level of bile. 

[SaintPaulite]

Nescac since 2003: three national titles. Five second place finishes. Nearly every game against a Midwest or North team in the Final Four has been either a Nescac win, or a loss that went down to the last possession or two. 

LOL mostly the latter, especially in the memory spans of just about any current college player.

A lot of games come down to "a possession or two". The better team usually wins.

A lot of those second place finishes came when the first time you played someone from out here was in the final. Which is sort of my point. Get preferential treatment in getting into the tournament in the first place, then get babied through the bracket and el foldo when you finally face some competition.

Meanwhile out here you have to beat a final four-caliber team just to get out of the first weekend a lot of times.

[nescac1]

Your false claim that Nescac faculty have no influence over Nescac athletic policies only against exposes your total lack of knowledge about the conference. 

[kiko]

That's not reseeding. That's just saying the #1 seed plays the lowest seed.

... Which is exactly what the NESCAC is doing here.  Highest remaining seed plays the lowest remaining seed.

they'll get exposed when they play a midwest/north team, like they almost always do.

There's a whole lot of walnut and bronze mixed in with the fall colors in New England that suggests otherwise.

it's a sham playoff after a sham season from a sham conference

I do not think that word means what you think it means...

[nescac1]

Ryan, to your earlier point, it's never Nescac posters who are arrogant or dismissive.  A claim that any tourney win - even in the Final Four - vs any team outside of the Midwest is fundamentally illegitimate / worthless, on the other hand, is beyond insulting to the other 80 percent of D3 hoops programs.  And apparently even when Nescac teams DO win vs the exalted Midwest (Gustavus, North Central, Wooster x2), those wins don't matter either. 

[SaintPaulite]

Kind of like the time you claimed that Nescac always got clocked by MIAC teams, without apparently knowing that a Nescac team had beaten a MIAC team in a national TITLE game.  But I realize that takes all of 30 seconds to figure out, time I realize you'd rather spend spewing ignorance. 

El. Oh. El.
I don't think you want me to go through the recent history.

The time you're talking about, the kids playing now were playing biddy ball. That says it all about what's happened since.

[SaintPaulite]

That's not reseeding. That's just saying the #1 seed plays the lowest seed.

... Which is exactly what the NESCAC is doing here.  Highest remaining seed plays the lowest remaining seed.

No, it's not.

There is no "highest remaining seed" It's *the* #1 seed. There's no ambiguity. It will always be the #1 seed and there will only ever be one #1 seed.

[SaintPaulite]

Ryan, to your earlier point, it's never Nescac posters who are arrogant or dismissive. 

Why would you be? You get the rub of the green at every turn and then usually flame out when faced with a team from a team from outside the east, and lately often even before then.

The only reason I care is because your gaming of the system deprives teams elsewhere of opportunities through no fault of their own. Like Bethel several times recently, highly ranked in Massey but don't get a Pool C because their conference actually plays a full schedule.

I'm sure there are others as well.

[nescac1]

Ok, you win.  On behalf of Nescac, I apologize that our sham league's desparate prioritization* of participation in the NCAA D3 basketball tourney, above all other institutional values, has cost Bethel (surely) two or three national titles.  Can we move on?

*I'm not sure how starting practice two weeks later than the rest of D3 figures into the grand plan to game the system and get into the tourney at all costs, but I'm sure you could educate me, given your demonstrated expertise on all things Nescac. 

[Conts Fan]

That's not reseeding. That's just saying the #1 seed plays the lowest seed.

... Which is exactly what the NESCAC is doing here.  Highest remaining seed plays the lowest remaining seed.

No, it's not.

There is no "highest remaining seed" It's *the* #1 seed. There's no ambiguity. It will always be the #1 seed and there will only ever be one #1 seed.

I don't understand what you are saying

[Gregory Sager]

That's not reseeding. That's just saying the #1 seed plays the lowest seed.

... Which is exactly what the NESCAC is doing here.  Highest remaining seed plays the lowest remaining seed.

No, it's not.

There is no "highest remaining seed" It's *the* #1 seed. There's no ambiguity. It will always be the #1 seed and there will only ever be one #1 seed.

I don't understand what you are saying

What SaintPaulite is saying is that he doesn't know the meaning of the phrase, "Quit while you're behind." 

[SaintPaulite]

That's not reseeding. That's just saying the #1 seed plays the lowest seed.

... Which is exactly what the NESCAC is doing here.  Highest remaining seed plays the lowest remaining seed.

No, it's not.

There is no "highest remaining seed" It's *the* #1 seed. There's no ambiguity. It will always be the #1 seed and there will only ever be one #1 seed.

I don't understand what you are saying

What SaintPaulite is saying is that he doesn't know the meaning of the phrase, "Quit while you're behind." 

Says the guy that threw a ****ing fit over an exclamation point earlier this year.

Rest assured that when we're talking about power programs out here, no one is talking about you all.

[Pat Coleman]

I mean, I know it's just St. Paul and not Minneapolis, but why you gotta give one of the twin towns such a bad name?