MBB: NESCAC

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

The Division III NCAA tournaments have already seen their fair share of twists and turns. Both defending champions eliminated on the opening night, several home teams beaten, off-the-radar squads tearing Top 10 teams apart, and much more.

It has been an exciting start. What's next?

Can the home teams parlay a perceived advantage into a Championship Weekend appearence? What Cinderalla team will hear the chimes of midnight? What program will continue to make history? How will the battle of Top 25 teams shake out? And will a storied career end this weekend or in Salem?

There is plenty to talk about ahead of the Sectional Weekend and Dave McHugh has a super-sized list of guests on Thursday night's Hoopsville.

Hoopsville is presented by D3hoops.com and airs from the WBCA/NABC Studio. You can watch the show LIVE staring at 7:00 p.m. ET here: http://www.d3hoops.com/hoopsville/archives/2016-17/mar9 --- or via the Facebook Live simulcast. If you missed any part of the show, you can watch it On Demand or listen to the podcast.

Despite the large list of guests, Dave will find time to answer questions as well. Make sure to email them to hoopsville@d3hoops.com or tweet them and Dave will answer them on air.

Guests scheduled (in order of appearance):
- Brian Morehouse, No. 18 Hope women's coach
- Trevor Woodruff, No. 17 Scranton women's coach
- Craig Carse, Hardin-Simmons men's coach
- Ruth Sinn, No. 2 St. Thomas women's coach
- Michelle Ferenz, No. 16 Whitman women's coach
- Kevin App, Williams men's coach
- Grey Giovanine, Augustana men's coach

You can also tune into the podcast(s) after the show has aired:
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iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/hoopsville/id1059517087

Don't forget you can always interact with us:
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[iwumichigander]

Mr. Ypsi...good points...agreed.  Part of the delay I heard was the FAA debriefing needs.  Think the players are being pushed....the UM party on the plane included the traveling band, etc.
I went thru a quick review of possible switches of games on Thursday to accommodate UMich.  The Verizon center was not crowded for Wednesday  games.  It shouldn't be a major effort to move seating around for fans. 
Some interesting moves by the Big conferences this year to new venues...chasing the big media markets, I hear.  The ACC went to Brooklyn this year and the BIG to D.C. to accommodate newer member schools like UMD as well as the bigger Media markets.

Re: investigation standard is all items remain on the plane until initial physical investigation complete.
Michigan returned to campus after being released by FAA to discover power out due to wind storms (1 million without power at peak outage statewide). Michigan could not practice, the practice gear, trainers gear, and basketball equipment had to be dug out basically n the dark.
The Washington, DC venue was a decision by B1G after Maryland and Rutgers accepted.  B1G wanted the revenue and market exposure so the tournament under current plans will rotate between East Coast, Indianapolis and Chicago.
And by the way, the "traveling party" on the plane was 107 folks and 7 crew members.

[Mr. Ypsi]

UM downed UI, 75-55.  Derrick Walton Jr. was one of the passengers 'banged up' (a cut requiring stitches); nonetheless he led UM with 19 points.  Duncan Robinson had a sub-par game - 15 minutes yielding only 1 assist, 1 TO, and 2 points (and three fouls); I haven't seen any word on whether he was also 'banged up'.

Coach Beilein's wife and two kids were on the plane last night.  The two kids flew again today, but his wife stayed home.  The original damaged plane (with all equipment, luggage, uniforms, etc. still frozen for the FAA investigation) was replaced by "Roundball One", the Detroit Piston's team jet for today's flight - way to go, Tom Gores!  

The Wolverines played the game in yellow practice jerseys with no names or numbers - must have been a nightmare for the official scorer!   (I would guess UM provided a 'spotter' who could identify names and numbers.)

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Um... we all know Williams and Middlebury are playing in the Division III sectionals tomorrow, right?

[Mr. Ypsi]

Um... we all know Williams and Middlebury are playing in the Division III sectionals tomorrow, right?

Yeah, Dave, I think that is well known.

Please pardon a bit of extra interest in a potential tragedy involving (potentially) one of the best players ever in D3 (even if he transferred after only one year).  I'm sure NESCAC posters are fully capable of following more than one story line at a time.

I've since heard that the B1G and some other conference teams were willing to swap times with Michigan due to the circumstances, but UM chose to go with the original time (which WAS held back 20 minutes due to their traffic problems in getting from airport to arena).  I can also understand UM's desire to maintain the ordinary schedule rather than risk 'dwelling' on the near tragedy.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

I had the  face on purpose.

[nescac1]

So, a few interesting stories from the Tufts student paper.  This article focuses on the rematch with Babson, noting that Vinny Pace and Tom Palleschi are both rounding into form, health-wise.  For Pace, I think the 37 point outburst speaks for itself.  As for Palleschi, he's only been back a few weeks from his latest injury in a career full of them, but having a few weeks of practice plus a few games under his belt should help.  If he can give even 80 percent of peak Palleschi going forward, Tufts will be really, really tough to beat. 

https://tuftsdaily.com/sports/2017/03/10/jumbos-look-to-avenge-dec-3-loss-in-sweet-sixteen/

This article on transfer KJ Garrett is really interesting. 

https://tuftsdaily.com/sports/2017/03/09/from-seattle-to-somerville-kj-garretts-journey-to-brown-and-blue/

Garrett is perhaps the most explosive athlete in NESCAC.  He is capable of really hurting teams inside or out and could have a huge senior year ahead of him.  Apparently, Garrett chose Tufts over Babson when deciding on his transfer destination -- add him to that already physically-imposing Babson front court, and that would have been pretty scary.  I was pretty shocked by the following quote from Coach Sheldon in this article -- a strange thing to say at any time, but especially-so when your team is about to play in front of an amped-up Babson crowd:

"I told him he could go to Babson because they had his exact major," Tufts coach Bob Sheldon said. "He could go there and major in business and get a decent job, or he could come to Tufts and be that guy's boss."

Wow. 

[middhoops]

Three big games tonight for NESCAC survivors.
According to the computer at Massey, Tufts has a 31.52% chance of defeating Babson (I strongly disagree with this unless Bohmiller returns for Babson), Williams is given a 61.84% chance to beat Susquehanna, and in sort of a statistical surprise, Middlebury is favored to beat Endicott with a 77.74% probability.

One suspects the computer doesn't factor in the healthy resurgence of Vinny Pace.

[P'bearfan]

http://www.si.com/campus-rush/2017/best-schools-for-sports-lovers

A bit off-topic - Sports Illustrated just listed the top 25 schools for sports lovers and Bowdoin and Middlebury each made the top 10!

Congrats to both schools - great to see D3 schools and specifically NESCAC schools getting some media attention.

[grabtherim]

http://www.si.com/campus-rush/2017/best-schools-for-sports-lovers

A bit off-topic - Sports Illustrated just listed the top 25 schools for sports lovers and Bowdoin and Middlebury each made the top 10!

Congrats to both schools - great to see D3 schools and specifically NESCAC schools getting some media attention.

Nice to see this.  Congrats to both schools indeed.  My favorite line: "Middlebury also has one of the best student participation rates in college athletics, with 27% of the student body playing a varsity sport."

[NEhoops]

The wide range of sports offerings and high participation rate among the students is the norm in the NESCAC.

I'm not sure of the point of the rankings. Is it best schools for fans or participants?

Great line by Sheldon, anyone that knows him can probably picture him saying that. 

[Old Guy]

I see that all tickets are now sold for Friday and Saturday in Middlebury.  Sure hope you got yours Old Guy!  I can't imagine Pepin without you.

Box office opened at 8:30 am on Monday. It usually opens at 10:00, which is when I got there - and discovered that the Friday games had sold out in an hour. I was grateful to find out the team had reserved me two tickets. Wednesday at 6:00 pm the tickets returned from other schools went on sale: I got there at 4:00 and was fifth in line, so was able to get four more. So now Old Guy and wife (I dare not call her Old Girl) and Young Guy and Young Girl will all be there. If I could invite the 25 people locally I most like to see a game with, they're all there with me in the section where we sit. What a good time!

I respect Endicott - I hope Midd plays well and advances. No matter what happens it's a joy to be able to host these games. AD Erin Quinn deserves a lot of credit. He and his staff run a great tournament. Go Panthers.

[Old Guy]

Um... we all know Williams and Middlebury are playing in the Division III sectionals tomorrow, right?

I can't speak for Williams, but I don't know anyone at Middlebury taking the Endicott game for granted, nobody anyway who saw the first game in Pepin against them.

[nescac1]

Old Guy, Dave can speak for himself, but I think he was referring to the fact that Midd and Williams are both independently participating in games tonight, not presuming that they will later be playing each other ! 

Go Ephs!

[P'bearfan]

http://www.si.com/campus-rush/2017/best-schools-for-sports-lovers

A bit off-topic - Sports Illustrated just listed the top 25 schools for sports lovers and Bowdoin and Middlebury each made the top 10!

Congrats to both schools - great to see D3 schools and specifically NESCAC schools getting some media attention.

Nice to see this.  Congrats to both schools indeed.  My favorite line: "Middlebury also has one of the best student participation rates in college athletics, with 27% of the student body playing a varsity sport."

Not certain, but I believe that figure is ~45% at Bowdoin.