NE Region General Questions

[WPI89]

Hoops - I agree with almost all of what you said.  Amherst is certainly the exception - being defending national champs.  But the difference this year for Williams, Midd, or Bowdoin getting a pool C just might be a win against a team exactly like WPI...................at least 1 if not 2 or 3 of them will wish they came a callin'.

[rlk]

At the same time, Pool C selection is a big deal.  There are many years where top teams get left out because of freak losses.  The difference between D1 and D3 is that they've got 36 at-large bids; we have less than 20, with 100 extra teams to choose from.

Why is the D3 tournament 61 or 62 teams, rather than a full 64 team bracket?  Those few extra bids would make a big difference to teams on the bubble.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

All NCAA tournaments except Division I basketball and maybe one or two others have the bides based on 6.5 teams eligible to 1 bid. Thus Division III women's basketball has 64 bids and men's basketball has 62 because women have more teams.

By the way, once they hit 64... even if the 6.5 ratio indicates adding bids... the NCAA will not. 64 is the max.

[jackson5]

Which is stupid as it screws up alot of sports. Hockey for example has 11 bids which is a logistical nightmare. They should be able to go to 12 or 16 to make things easier. Basketball makes more sense at 64. I understand not wanting to water down the field, but they should keep the tournaments to powers of 2 to make it easier all around.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Which is stupid as it screws up alot of sports. Hockey for example has 11 bids which is a logistical nightmare. They should be able to go to 12 or 16 to make things easier. Basketball makes more sense at 64. I understand not wanting to water down the field, but they should keep the tournaments to powers of 2 to make it easier all around.

It's all about the money.  They run the whole of Division III on about 3.5% of the money raised from the D1 men's basketball tournament - that's not just basketball, but every sport, men and women.

Money matters to the NCAA.  One extra team traveling cost more money.  A strange, mixed-up schedule is inconvenient, but it doesn't cost them any more.

We'll get to 64 soon, I suspect.  There are always more teams in the pipeline.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Just remember the ratio: 6.5 teams to 1 tournament team. It is the ratio used in almost every NCAA tournament in all divisions.

Women are at 64 (and will not get bigger) because they have more teams than the men... men are at 62 and will grow in the next few years to 64.

[WPI89]

Thought I heard/read that the first regional rankings were to come out yesterday?  Perhaps delayed because of weather?

Anyone have info?

[lildave678]

Believe its 2/12 they come out

[WPI89]

Gotcha - thanks.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

The first ones are 2/12... followed by the 19th and 26th.

[pjunito]

Can't wait for the first regional rankings!!!

[GnacBballFan]

1 Amherst 20-2 20-3
2 Williams 18-3 19-3
3 Bowdoin 18-3 18-3
4 Babson 16-5 16-5
5 Eastern Connecticut 16-5 16-5
6 WPI 18-3 18-3
7 Springfield 15-5 16-5
8 Albertus Magnus 19-1 19-2
9 Rhode Island 14-7 14-7
10 Nichols 16-5 16-5
11 midd

I totally disagree with albertus being 8. Purchase is one in their regional. Albertus has a higher Massey then everyone in their region after Williams, Amherst, and Bowdoin I believe. It's ok though, that's why they play the games.

[7express]

Rankings are out: http://www.d3blogs.com/d3hoops/2014/02/12/2014-ncaa-regional-rankings-week-1/

Needless to say I'm pretty shocked Eastern is above both Albertus & WPI.  I don't think the LEC is better than the NEWMAC is, and besides sweeping RIC (who are terrible this year) who else have they beaten??

All 3 have gaudy records, but play in bad conferences (both the NEWMAC & LEC are down this year).  While Eastern scheduled tough (Purchase, Carthage, Amherst) their 0-3 in marquee games, while AMC (a win over #1 Atlantic Purchase) and WPI (a 4 point home win over #4 NE Babson) have just those wins and nothing else.  Granted, the region in general sucks this year (14-7 RIC is 9th??  Really?) and someone has to be ranked 5th, but when there's a significant drop off between 1 & 2 (Amherst & Williams) and the rest of the region, I'd give those spots to teams with winning %, and go from there.

I mean look at Bowdoin who's #3.  All they have this year is a win over Babson, as they've failed in their NESCAC matchups (but they'll probably have another chance in the quarters and or semi's).  Let's say they play Mid in the 4/5 game and then lose to Amherst in the semifinals.  Sure, the Polar Bears have had a nice year and all, but I wouldn't be even remotely confident in the P'Bears making the field in that scenario.  I would EASILY take the 3 SUYNAC teams (Geneseo/Brockport & Plattsburgh) before I took anyone else from NE after selecting the Amherst/Williams loser, and that's just 1 region.

[GnacBballFan]

7 point on as usual. I'm scratching my head.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

You need to take the SOS into consideration.

AMC: .468 (that's bad)
Bowdoin: .541 (good)
Eastern Connecticut: .559 (solid)
WPI: .515 (eh at best)

Also, quality wins and all of the other data. Overall records represent just one part of the criteria.