MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[iwu70]

Much excitement and pride in the B/N area now about the Double Happiness of two Final Fours for the Titans!  Great stuff.  U High finished second in State, and now ISU gets a nice NIT bid (Illinois not!), so things are pretty good for bball fans in Blo/No community just now.  Lots of talk in the local coffee shop this morning about the Titans and their dual runs through the D3 Dance so far. 

I, too, would love to see a "Salem worthy" Final -- IWU vs. Whitewater.  (Just say'in -- where are all those "Salem worthy" teams now?  Few of my choices are there, that's for sure!  Just shows ya what we all know, right?)  Seems MIT has played up to their ranking, played very well so far, so may have something to say about it.  Nice videos, promo pieces on Cabrini, posted by Q earlier.  I didn't know much about the school or the basketball program.  Looks like they have a stellar guard, and a very perimeter oriented, up-tempo style of play.  Their coach is impressive and intense.  If they want to "run with the Titans," sure could be interesting.  Eliud Gonzalez is going to have a busy evening covering Lemons.  Do also feel that the Titans have a huge advantage on the block in this game.  We'll see.  No doubt Cabrini is a good team, having come through the first two weekends with some pretty big wins, by good margins. But SOS difference is really blaring, likely very telling. 

Wish I could be in Salem, but will be cheering from the home base here, due to elder care.  All best and good wishes to Coach Rose and the Team, to all the Titan faithful, the "TITAN nation," as folks head for Salem.  Do us proud, bring home the walnut and bronze.  More banners in the rafters of The Shirk for sure, no matter.  Great job all . . . do well what got us this far, and all will be well.  Enjoy the ride, it's more about the journey than the destination. 

Q, have a great time out there, and give my best to all the CCIW board comrades making it to Salem again.  Taking your golf clubs?  Great fun, no doubt.  Virginia in early Spring is so so nice.  Enjoy your escape behind the "magnolia curtain."

So happy for this Titan Team, grateful for their dedication and hard work, staying with it all season, no matter the success or adversity.

By the way, Zimmer now single season record holder in treys made, too, right?  He got the career record earlier.  Special kudos to Jordan.  Hope is foot is better day by day.  Hope the seniors can play their best, go out in glory, much deserved.  Build on the Titan basketball tradition.

IWU70

[AndOne]

This "problem" isn't uncommon... Amherst hosted the women's sectional along with hockey this past weekend. They hosted the women's regional, the men's game, and the NESCAC hockey championship.

If a school says they can do it... then why take it from them. Schools could pull out of hosting if they want... but I can't think why Wooster would do that.

My opinion here Dave is that you're missing the point.
Of course a school is going to say they can do it. It would be crazy for them to decline. But being a host should involve more than just a school saying they can "do it." A regional or sectional is for all the schools involved, and for all the players and fans of those schools, not just for the benefit of the host school. If you have to drive 6 1/2 hours to a host school, that school should be someplace where the teams and their fans can stay someplace close to where the game action is taking place. That was not possible in Wooster, Ohio this past weekend AND the officials involved, BOTH at Wooster and at the NCAA, knew that in advance!
As far as solely staging the games, sure Wooster could "do it." However, they couldn't "do it" in terms of the whole package which goes far beyond merely having the facility itself. As I said, the screwup was mainly the NCAA's fault. Wooster did what I believe any school would do. The NCAA awarded them host status and they didn't decline. They're not nuts. What they are is rather isolated in terms of easy accessibility and limited, for whatever reasons that were no fault of their own, in their ability to easily accommodate their guests. And again, those problem could have been avoided. However, Woo, like any other school, wasn't going to tell on itself, and the NCAA couldn't see the problems due to having its head in its usual position.
 

[TitansIWU]

Maybe it should just be mandatory that the games are played at a host school that doesn't have a dog in the fight. I don't much care for the home crowd creating an advantage, perceived or otherwise. Even if the Titans hosted, I would still feel this way.

Just make it a requirement that you have to have your schools name in the hat to be available to host even when you are not in the tournament, and if you don't, when you do get in it, you don't play.

Maybe there could be hosting requirements that take into account some of the things that AndOne is talking about... airports, hotels, restaurants, PREVIOUSLY SCHEDULED EVENTS.

I really think the NCAA at the D3 level does a lot of great things, but maybe just needs to just have a little longer vision when it comes to this issue...

Hey, what do I know??? Maybe they are doing it the best possible way for all involved.

GO TITANS!

[NCF]

Maybe it should just be mandatory that the games are played at a host school that doesn't have a dog in the fight. I don't much care for the home crowd creating an advantage, perceived or otherwise. Even if the Titans hosted, I would still feel this way.

Just make it a requirement that you have to have your schools name in the hat to be available to host even when you are not in the tournament, and if you don't, when you do get in it, you don't play.

Maybe there could be hosting requirements that take into account some of the things that AndOne is talking about... airports, hotels, restaurants, PREVIOUSLY SCHEDULED EVENTS.

I really think the NCAA at the D3 level does a lot of great things, but maybe just needs to just have a little longer vision when it comes to this issue...

Hey, what do I know??? Maybe they are doing it the best possible way for all involved.

GO TITANS!

I agree. But, let's take it one step further. There should be rotating sites for regionals and sectionals. The sites should be set up a year in advance and take into consideration the surrounding area's facilities, hotes, etc. A school could apply on a yearly basis if they desire. Would take all the guess work out of the process and make life so much easier for everyone involved.  Just MHO.

[NCF]

Violate these...

http://www.d3boards.com/index.php?topic=5787.0

And then contiue violating them after Pat and the other mods give fair warning.

Thanks, seems like simple enough rules to follow.

[Just Bill]

Neutral site regionals and sectionals are not going to happen and they shouldn't. Schools just simply won't commit time and manpower to an event that they are not participating in, unless it's a national finals event (and even those sometimes have trouble finding hosts). With the exception of the NCAA D-I basketball tournaments, it doesn't even work in Division I. All other D-I tournament events, except for national finals, have the host participating.

You can look at D-III baseball for an example. They have predetermined regionals, and in certain regions, the NCAA committee is literally out begging for schools to bid to host. In other regions, there's only one school willing to do it, so they do it over and over.

All you'll get is a crappy tournament environment in front of half full gyms and a staff who will mean well, but won't be fully invested in the event.

[Titan Q]

While I'm flying to Salem this week, was just thinking today that a few of the best times I've ever have had in following the Titans were the 1996, 1997, and 2001 road trips from Bloomington.  They pretty much looked something like this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlCprJPwBSI&feature=fvsr


Salem, baby!  Salem!!!

[mactitan]

Sorry to break in, but I thought people here might like this.  It's my 2012 Mascot Bracket.  The entire NCAA DI tournament picked on the basis of "Which mascot would win in a fight?"  http://wp.me/plb5b-w0.  Taken into the DIII Final Four, I would say that the Titans would have a good chance to beat the Cavaliers and I think a War Hawk would take out an unarmed Engineer, but then be easily dispatched by the Titan.

[TitansIWU]

Sorry to break in, but I thought people here might like this.  It's my 2012 Mascot Bracket.  The entire NCAA DI tournament picked on the basis of "Which mascot would win in a fight?"  http://wp.me/plb5b-w0.  Taken into the DIII Final Four, I would say that the Titans would have a good chance to beat the Cavaliers and I think a War Hawk would take out an unarmed Engineer, but then be easily dispatched by the Titan.

Wouldn't an Engineer just have the brain power to rid the world of not only this particular attacking War Hawk, but all War Hawks in general?

[NCF]

Sorry to break in, but I thought people here might like this.  It's my 2012 Mascot Bracket.  The entire NCAA DI tournament picked on the basis of "Which mascot would win in a fight?"  http://wp.me/plb5b-w0.  Taken into the DIII Final Four, I would say that the Titans would have a good chance to beat the Cavaliers and I think a War Hawk would take out an unarmed Engineer, but then be easily dispatched by the Titan.

Wouldn't an Engineer just have the brain power to rid the world of not only this particular attacking War Hawk, but all War Hawks in general?
One would think

[hopefan]

Curious if the Final had been the Miami Hurricane vs the Iowa State Cyclones...  

[TitansIWU]

Neutral site regionals and sectionals are not going to happen and they shouldn't. Schools just simply won't commit time and manpower to an event that they are not participating in, unless it's a national finals event (and even those sometimes have trouble finding hosts). With the exception of the NCAA D-I basketball tournaments, it doesn't even work in Division I. All other D-I tournament events, except for national finals, have the host participating.

You can look at D-III baseball for an example. They have predetermined regionals, and in certain regions, the NCAA committee is literally out begging for schools to bid to host. In other regions, there's only one school willing to do it, so they do it over and over.

All you'll get is a crappy tournament environment in front of half full gyms and a staff who will mean well, but won't be fully invested in the event.

I am not 100% sure about this, but isn't that average size crowd for a D3 baseball game significantly lower than that of a D3 basketball game to start with? If I am correct with that, a school has no chance to profit from hosting one of those. So I don't see the correlation being really relevant.

If the school knew in advance they were going to be hosting, a greater effort could be made on their part to maximize all "break even" profit potential. I have been to enough games to see that many schools drop the ball big time when it comes to trying to make money. I'm not wanting to see D3 schools engage in schemes to make money at the expense of the fan base, but there are ways to do it without being offensive. I have been to a game where there was no bottled water for sale? Run to Sam's Club, buy a case for $8 and sell it for $1 a bottle. HELLO??

As for them being out and begging, the NCAA holds all the cards... if they were to make it MANDATORY for participating schools to host, then I am pretty sure the schools would be lining up to get on the hosting list.

If it truly meant that a school couldn't be in the tournament unless they were signed up as a possible host site when they weren't in it, do you really think they would just say, "no, we're out."

As I said, I think they would sign up right away.

As for the crowds being smaller, I don't have an answer for that except to say that I don't think it provides a fair competitive environment when the hosting school practices in their own gym, has no travel, and basically waits for the games to begin.

[Titan Q]

Sorry to break in, but I thought people here might like this.  It's my 2012 Mascot Bracket.  The entire NCAA DI tournament picked on the basis of "Which mascot would win in a fight?"  http://wp.me/plb5b-w0.  Taken into the DIII Final Four, I would say that the Titans would have a good chance to beat the Cavaliers and I think a War Hawk would take out an unarmed Engineer, but then be easily dispatched by the Titan.

Glad IWU moved away from "Boy Beauties"...that mascot might not fare well.

http://www.iwu.edu/~iwunews/sports/Mascot.html

[Pat Coleman]

Don't know the reason why the IWU men's bsketball team is staying in a motel on the outskirts of Seville, Ohio, 20 miles from Wooster. I think a women's hockey event in Wooster might be the reason. Wonder if Wooster memtioned that to the D3 committee before Wooster was chosen to host the sectional for the second consecutive year.  Coincidentally, Wooster's road record (not including neutral court games) in D3 tourney games is an appalling 1-10! Their record when playing tournament games at home is 19-5, including the 58-53 win over IWU in 2004.

Division 1 Hockey Tournament, Bowling Tournament and, Oh Yes, my favorite - a cattle auction --- all have rooms tied up before the NCAA awarded site to Wooster which is something I doubt College of Wooster could anticipate.  But, the NCAA had to know about the Hockey Tournament

Hey, the NCC Cardinals were 30 miles away in Mansfield. But seriously, as you said, the NCAA   certainly had to know about the hockey tourney. Just another example of the NCAA operating with its head up its a$$. Its certainly not the 1st time we've seen that play. 3 CCIW teams in the round of 16, but none worthy of hosting. Instead, the NCAA chose to have Wooster, a rural town of 25,000 with 5 hotels, the best 4 of which were already fully booked, host for a SECOND weekend. Of course Naperville, a city of 145.000 boardering on a major interstate and having 16 hotels with a total of 1481 rooms wasn't worthy. And Wheaton and Bloomington (not that IWU needed any extra help  ) evidently weren't worthy either.

But Wooster has ethernet in the gym, I'm pretty sure. I didn't have any problem getting on the Net there in 2007.

[Pat Coleman]

Maybe it should just be mandatory that the games are played at a host school that doesn't have a dog in the fight. I don't much care for the home crowd creating an advantage, perceived or otherwise. Even if the Titans hosted, I would still feel this way.

Just make it a requirement that you have to have your schools name in the hat to be available to host even when you are not in the tournament, and if you don't, when you do get in it, you don't play.

Maybe there could be hosting requirements that take into account some of the things that AndOne is talking about... airports, hotels, restaurants, PREVIOUSLY SCHEDULED EVENTS.

I really think the NCAA at the D3 level does a lot of great things, but maybe just needs to just have a little longer vision when it comes to this issue...

Hey, what do I know??? Maybe they are doing it the best possible way for all involved.

GO TITANS!

I agree. But, let's take it one step further. There should be rotating sites for regionals and sectionals. The sites should be set up a year in advance and take into consideration the surrounding area's facilities, hotes, etc. A school could apply on a yearly basis if they desire. Would take all the guess work out of the process and make life so much easier for everyone involved.  Just MHO.

I think you overestimate the interest schools have in hosting neutral sectionals and regionals.