Pool C

[Titan Q]

* (4pm) Benedictine at Concordia WI - a loss could put BU in a tie for the NACC title; maybe moving from Pool A towards C?

Concordia WI 88
Benedictine 79

[Titan Q]

* (4pm) Eau Claire at La Crosse - maybe the biggest implications of all games today; playing for a regional ranking spot.

La Crosse 64
Eau Claire 54

Very big result...
* Eau Claire most likely eliminated from the Pool C picture.
* La Crosse stays in the Central rankings.
* La Crosse staying in the Central rankings is very big for Oshkosh (2-0 vs La Crosse).

[Titan Q]

* (5pm) Loras at Nebraska Wesleyan - Loras could get on the right side of the bubble with a win.

* (5pm) Buena Vista at Simpson - BV is on the wrong side of the bubble now; a loss would knock them out.

Nebraska Wesleyan 88
Loras 73

Simpson 85
Buena Vista 72


I believe these losses put Loras and Buena Vista (both ranked in the West) on the wrong side of the bubble for good.

[D3RetiredHooper]

Benedictine with their loss today has a resume of 20-5 (.800 W%) with a .502 SOS (according to Snyder's most recent update) and 3-0 v RRO's (Wins over N. Central/St Norbert/Letourneau). 

If the committee decides to keep Benedictine in the upper half of the rankings it should be a sign the national committee is willing to take teams from regions outside of the central with better SOS #s than Benedictine and similar win% into the tournament than other Central region teams with gaudy SOS's and low win%.

[Titan Q]

Benedictine with their loss today has a resume of 20-5 (.800 W%) with a .502 SOS (according to Snyder's most recent update) and 3-0 v RRO's (Wins over N. Central/St Norbert/Letourneau). 

If the committee decides to keep Benedictine in the upper half of the rankings it should be a sign the national committee is willing to take teams from regions outside of the central with better SOS #s than Benedictine and similar win% into the tournament than other Central region teams with gaudy SOS's and low win%.

I don't agree.  If the Central regional committee keeps BU regionally ranked (whether in the upper half, or in the top 8 period) it will be because, 1) their 3-0 vs RRO, and 2) the win at North Central.

If BU just had the .800 WP and .502 SOS and stayed ranked, I would agree with you -- huge sign for sure regarding how this national committee views WP and SOS.  But BU has those two huge factors in its back pocket right now (the RRO and NCC head-to-head).

[D3RetiredHooper]

I agree with you Bob but if Benedictine losses in their conference tournament and they have to go outside of the Central "bubble", their resume will be very average (21-6, .778 WP%, .507 SOS, 3-0 v RRO's.) compared to other region's teams on the board.

Their resume could potentially block a bunch of teams from the WIAC and CCIW that are at the bottom of the central region who are regionally ranked or on the cusp of being ranked.

[Titan Q]

I agree with you Bob but if Benedictine losses in their conference tournament and they have to go outside of the Central "bubble", their resume will be very average (21-6, .778 WP%, .507 SOS, 3-0 v RRO's.) compared to other region's teams on the board.

Their resume could potentially block a bunch of teams from the WIAC and CCIW that are at the bottom of the central region who are regionally ranked or on the cusp of being ranked.

I am almost positive that if BU loses in their conference tournament, they will be regionally ranked behind almost all of those CCIW and WIAC Pool C candidates.

[D3RetiredHooper]

So basically you're saying with one more loss Benedictine has zero chance of being regionally ranked in the Central.

[Titan Q]

So basically you're saying with one more loss Benedictine has zero chance of being regionally ranked in the Central.

I think I am saying that, yes.  But it would also depend on what is going on with the other teams competing for those rankings spots.

[Titan Q]

* (8pm) Platteville at Stevens Point - the Pointers could stay alive in that messy bottom of the Central picture; a sweep over Central #1 UWP would be huge.

* (9pm) Whitworth at Linfield - a Linfield win leads to a tie for the NWC title (who wins the tie breaker for seeding?)

Platteville 70
Stevens Point 69

I think that officially ends UWSP's Pool C chances.


Linfield 91
Whitworth 80

Linfield and Whitworth tie for the NWC title - Whitworth is the #1 seed.  Whitworth hurts its Pool C resume, and Linfield is not a Pool candidate.  Regardless of how the conference tourney plays out, I think the NWC is probably going to be a one bid league.

[Greek Tragedy]

Point had nine losses going in and they don't have the resume that Oshkosh did a few years ago when they shocked everyone and got a Pool C bid with 10 losses. The previous week killed them when they got swept by Oshkosh and La Crosse, both at home.

[Titan Q]

Point had nine losses going in and they don't have the resume that Oshkosh did a few years ago when they shocked everyone and got a Pool C bid with 10 losses. The previous week killed them when they got swept by Oshkosh and La Crosse, both at home.

You are most likely right.  But...

At .642 (18-10)/.590 ish/and RROs that include 2 wins over the Central #1 (Platteville - probably a top 3 seed nationally), there would have at least been a strong conversation about a spot in that final Central regional ranking.

And if you get ranked, you never know.  The teams on the bubble seem to have weaker resumes than normal this season (due to parity across the country).  For example, in the round-by-round projection I did last week, here was round #17...

Round 17
AT - Purchase (Sky): .696/.513/1-2
C - UW-La Crosse (WIAC): .783/.532/1-4
E - Rochester (UAA): .682/.596/2-6
GL - Wabash (NCAC): .696/.539/1-4
MA - York Pa. (CAC): .792/.531/1-4
NE - Brandeis (UAA): .682/.559/2-5
S - East TX Baptist (ASC): .783/.515/1-3
W - Loras (ARC): .739/.530/1-2

I think the hypothetical UW-Stevens Point resume I mentioned above (which is no longer possible, to be clear) would be competitive here.  Pretend UWSP is in that La Crosse spot (because La Crosse gets in at spot #16, say).  Those 2 wins vs Platteville would have jumped off the page vs these other teams.  And heck, UWSP beat East TX Baptist head-to-head.

Just saying, the bubble is different this year.  It's why I think Oshkosh has a great chance to get in.

[Greek Tragedy]

True. Good points. To make matters harder to accept is that Point really should've won that game last night. Up 9 at the break, at the line with the game tied near the end. Ball in hand (albeit with only 2 seconds to go at midcourt inbounds) down one. They had their chances. And like many other games this year, they blew it.

[Smitty Oom]

I think it's pretty crazy how much 4 games can impact SOS numbers. Look at UST and SJU, they played the same conf schedule and even both played NWU on a neutral court. UST ends up having a SOS around .550 and SJU is currently at or below .500. Which may not seem like a lot, but ends up being a huge difference when talking about Pool C selections and deciding between similar resumes.

Furthermore, SJU even played a 20 win Linfield in one of the remaining 4 different non-conf games. In terms of making the tourney I don't think it will matter for SJU, but a couple of more losses and they would have been in trouble. A future game(loss) against UST would definitely help the resume as well.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

There is just one week left in the regular season and with it comes conference chaos.

Some conference tournaments are already underway and have seen upsets. It will be the theme of the week. With conference tournaments come upsets. Those upsets will cause teams on the NCAA tournament bubble to have their hopes burst. And there will be some Cinderellas who will capture the headlines.

Could it be any more fun?

Sunday on Hoopsville (starting at a special earlier time) we chat with a few programs who are either looking to avoid the conference chaos or be a part of it.

Plus, there is changes coming to the way we look at the current regional structure. How the process started and flowed for the last 18 or more months. And what you can expect it all to look in the future.

Guests Schedule (order subject to change):
- Pat Devaney, Sr., NJCU women's coach
- Brad Bankston, ODAC Commissioner
- Josh Merkel, No. 2 Randolph-Macon men's coach
- Ashlee Rogers, Marymount women's coach
- Jeff Gard, No. 7 UW Platteville men's coach
- Bob Quillman & Ryan Scott, Top 25 Double-Take 

Hoopsville is presented by D3hoops.com and airs from the WBCA/NABC Studio. You can watch Sunday's show LIVE starting at 6:30 pm ET in the following ways:
- Main page: www.d3hoops.com/hoopsville
- Show page: http://bit.ly/2T6OV1S (or www.d3hoops.com/hoopsville/archives/2019-20/feb23)
- Facebook Live Simulcast: www.facebook.com/Hoopsville
- YouTube Simulcast: www.youtube.com/d3hoopsville
- Team1 Sports: www.team1sports.com/Hoopsville/
- Team1 Sports app (Android TV, Amazon Fire, Apple TV, Roku) - you will either find it under the "live" section or search for the Hoopsville channel
Monday's show primarily covers the Atlantic, Central, South, and Northeast Regions. All men's coaches appear in the NABC Coach's Corner. And all guests are featured on the BlueFrame Technology Hoopsville Hotline.

Sunday's show primarily covers the Atlantic, Central, South, and Northeast Regions. All men's coaches appear in the NABC Coach's Corner. And all guests are featured on the BlueFrame Technology Hoopsville Hotline.

If you have questions about Division III basketball, feel free to send them and we will answer them on a the show. Email them to hoopsville@d3sports.com or use any of the social media options to the right.

Please also consider helping us out. We are accepting donations to the show - which many of you have asked about. We have updated the goal to $7,500 by the end of Monday, March 2. We are currently at $3,712.52.

We will be raising the goal after tonight!

To donate, click our PayPal link here: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=BSRFLPUJQ9MKL&source=url

And thank you for your contributions.

If you enjoy the show via the podcasts, choose your favorite avenue to listen and/or subscribe via the the following four avenues (click on the images when necessary):
SoundCloud: www.soundcloud.com/hoopsville


 
   
We also have the podcast now on Tune-In and others coming. We will update them once we have better abilities to do so.

Don't forget you can always interact with us:
Website: www.d3hoopsville.com
Twitter: @d3hoopsville or #Hoopsville
Facebook: www.facebook.com/Hoopsville
Email: hoopsville@d3hoops.com
YouTube: www.youtube.com/d3hoopsville