MBB: American Southwest Conference

[Ralph Turner]

Congratulations to UT Dallas.  What a way to start the new year!

Good morning, Bill!!

Glad to see you over here!  The CRU was on the national stage "the night that they drove ol' VWC down"!

We are watching for a Top 25 record entrance by UT-D.  The highest premiere on Top 25 is 17th place and 209 votes.  The poll comes out Tuesday or Wednesday.

UT-D must go to Abilene this weekend for HSU first and then McMurry.  Students resume classes on Jan 15th.

[Ralph Turner]

Lamar 81 LC 64, less than 4 minutes left.  LC has hit 13 3FG's tonight.

[Ralph Turner]

Final D-1  Lamar 91, LaCollege 76.  LC hit 15 3FG's tonight.

[Bearkat00]

Happy New Year to all!

Good to see the ASC represented well over the break.  Props to UT-D with their big win against UTA.  Hopefully this will earn the respect that we all felt they deserved this season in the Pre-season polls.  I have some people from UTA who said that while UTA was far more athletic (which wasn't a suprise), UT-D played some smart basketball and from the start we not intimitated by the D-1 program.  He said he was very impressed with UT-D "knowledge" of the game.  Being from the Houston area (Spring), I know a couple of UT-D players were some big names down in that area who were suprised not to get lower D1 looks (SHSU, Lamar, La. Tech, etc.). 

The thing that suprises me most about this year is UT-Tyler's play.  Any word on why they are down?

[hoopshops]

GREAT WEEK OF HOOPS FOR THE ASC!!!!  If people around the nation didnt know how tough we were they do now.  This should have done alot to give us some of the respect we deserve and help us get some at large bids.  This week definitely proved that we can play with any conference in the nation because i have seen some of the teams in the PA region play such as Lincoln and Wooster out in OH and feel that the tops teams in our league can compete with and beat these schools.

[Ralph Turner]

Hendrix 73, UOzarks 67

[Bearkat00]

UT-Dallas finally received recognition they deserved and entered into the Top 25.  Congrats UT-D!

[kid nice]

Congrats to the Choctaws for winning the tournament in CA and to UMHB to beating the defending champs. UT-Dallas as well. However, everyone on here is saying the ASC is getting the respect it finally deserves, but what has the ASC really done. We have only been out of the Sweet 16 once and up until this year  nobody really has played a strong out of conference schedule.  Of course it is hard to play out of conference when you have 47 conference games.

[mcmfanatic]

To follow Nice Kid's comment, UTD must feel a little like Boise State today.  Granted they cracked the top 25, but to only hit 18 seems a little stingy on the voters behalf.  While you can say that UTD has not yet hit the tough teams in conference at this time, it doesn't really jive when you look at some of the other highly ranked teams.  Whitworth for example has had a pretty weak schedule, plays in a weak conference, but is much closer to the top.  Is it regional bias, lack of respect for the ASC, or something else?  This looks to be a very competitive race this year in the ASC, especially in the west, with several very good teams.  Unfortunately it looks like having a tough conference may not count for much in the rankings or tournament bids.  If I'm all wet, just say so, I can take it.

[Ralph Turner]

To follow Nice Kid's comment, UTD must feel a little like Boise State today.  Granted they cracked the top 25, but to only hit 18 seems a little stingy on the voters behalf.  While you can say that UTD has not yet hit the tough teams in conference at this time, it doesn't really jive when you look at some of the other highly ranked teams.  Whitworth for example has had a pretty weak schedule, plays in a weak conference, but is much closer to the top.  Is it regional bias, lack of respect for the ASC, or something else?  This looks to be a very competitive race this year in the ASC, especially in the west, with several very good teams.  Unfortunately it looks like having a tough conference may not count for much in the rankings or tournament bids.  If I'm all wet, just say so, I can take it.

Actually, coming in at #22 was 4th highest "debuntante" appearance ever.  Whitworth won 6 games by November 25th, including a quality win over Wheaton IL.  They debuted at #18 and they have floated up as higher teams have lost.  Mississippi College started at #11 and then dropped to #20 after the loss to Wesley MS.  The Chocs have "floated back up" just like Whitworth.

mcmfanatic, I don't want to sound like I'm smacking you down, but as for respect, we have Miss College up to #10, and the Chocs have never won an Elite 8 game!  We ASC teams have not seen much top calibre play, and IMHO there is actually very little difference between #12 and #32 in D3 on a national level.

I think that the problem that we have in the ASC is that we are very balanced, and there is very little difference amongst the top 5-7 programs, but our strengths are usually in the Top 30-60 range.

We beat each other up, and that won't get a Pool C bid.  Let me encourage you to review the Basketball Handbook.  I think that the best chance for an at-large bid is for someone to upset MissCollege, who gets the Pool C bid, and win the tourney championship (Pool A) bid for themselves.  Mississippi College is the only ASC team to get a Pool C bid anyway.

I think that the best way for us to get more bids is for the ASC to break into 2 conferences.  But that is another discussion.

[CUAfan]

Granted, I don't entirely understand the alphabet soup concerning tourney bids (a link to a description thereof would be greatly appreciated), but here's my take on it.

If UTD and MC keep it up, that's two teams in the Dance. Now, I haven't been around D3 sports for long, but I'm thinking that getting two teams from one conference into the tourney is a fairly impressive feat in and of itself. If even one team from the ASC makes the Sweet 16, that's good. Being able to boast one of the top 16 teams in D3 is good for the conference. I just don't get all this "haven't made it past the Sweet 16" talk. If the ASC can keep a team in the Sweet 16 with regularity, that's not too shabby at all. Not that I don't understand the idea of getting to the "next level," but keep in mind that only 16 teams out of all D3 make it that far, making it a rare feat.

[Pat Coleman]

To follow Nice Kid's comment, UTD must feel a little like Boise State today.  Granted they cracked the top 25, but to only hit 18 seems a little stingy on the voters behalf.  While you can say that UTD has not yet hit the tough teams in conference at this time, it doesn't really jive when you look at some of the other highly ranked teams.  Whitworth for example has had a pretty weak schedule, plays in a weak conference, but is much closer to the top.  Is it regional bias, lack of respect for the ASC, or something else?  This looks to be a very competitive race this year in the ASC, especially in the west, with several very good teams.  Unfortunately it looks like having a tough conference may not count for much in the rankings or tournament bids.  If I'm all wet, just say so, I can take it.

Why is the NWC so automatically weaker than the ASC?  They are pretty darn similar in the postseason. Whitworth also played a Top 25 on the road and won. UTD beat a team that has been described as an average D-III team (one of our voters saw UTA play at Illinois State).

If UTD beats the strong teams on its schedule the next week or so -- at least one of whom is better than UTA -- then it might climb.

[CUAfan]

Speaking of which, what is the overlap (roughly) between the divisions? Is the D3 champ the equivalent of mid-D2 or what? I've always wondered that.

[Ralph Turner]

CUAfan, I have bolded the hyperlink to the Handbook in my previous post.

The Handbook outlines that there will be 59 bids this year.  The 37 Pool A conferences, of which the ASC is one, get a Pool A bid.  The ASC gives its Pool A bid to the tourney winner.  In 2005, UT-D earned the Pool A bid and MissCollege earned a Pool C bid.

The Pool B bids go to teams that are not in conferences of 7 members or newly-forming conferences that are less than 2 full seasons old, or independenets like University of Dallas.  There will be 3 Pool B bids given this year.  Please go to the Bumblin B's message board for those discussions.

The remaining 19 bids will be given the remaining teams that have not been selected regardless of whether they are in a Pool A conference or come from Pool B.

The Basketball Handbook outlines how the committee determines the seedings, the brackets and who gets the 19 Pool C bids.

Look in the FAQ for Playoff information.

The Handbook outlines the Primary Criteria that the Selection Committee:

• Win-Loss Percentage against Regional Opponents  (The in-region games have a "block" beside them.)
• Quality of Wins Index (QOWI)  (Pat will supply this later in the season.
• In-Region Head-to-Head
• In-Region results vs. common in-region opponents
• In-Region results vs. Regionally ranked opponents (only the last ranking is used)*

The Regional Rankings will first appear on Wednesday February 7th.  Follow the South Region Ranking message board and other similar sites later in the season.

*The last ranking will be the one that is determined over selection weekend, and we won't likely see that one.  We might guess the nature of it from the rankings of Feb 21st, before all of the tourneys are finished.

We are basically hoping for 1 Pool C bid.  We D3Fans have gotten pretty good at looking at the data and projecting the likely candidates.  The 2 toughest conferences (IMHO) in D3, the WIAC and the CCIW, may get 2 Pool C bids, unless they beat themselves up and knock each other out of the playoffs.  One might also expect a Pool C bid to go to the NCAC, the OAC, the MIAA, the NESCAC and maybe NJAC.  I think that the remaining Pool C bids are up for grabs.

[CUAfan]

Oh, my mistake for missing that. Don't know how that happened. Thanks.