MBB: Great Northeast Athletic Conference

[GnacBballFan]

Magic, appreciate the kind words! On cloud 9 with this team. I remember before Oliver coming aboard and sitting at home games with 7 guys on the team. 3 baseball players who played just for the cardio. I can keep going but I won't. We were maybe the worst program in New England 8 yrs ago. Appreciate the support, now we have the SEC of d3 basketball up next. All the respect in the world for the NESCAC, should be a fun one!

[GnacBballFan]

Of d3 basketball in the northeast I should say

[D3HoopJunkie]

Shout out to ALL the Albertus posters on here too, just like the team is an underdog we are the underdog posters LOL. The GNAC is proud today. Beating that team twice who was ranked #1 in their region is an unbeleivable!!

[D3HoopJunkie]

I shouldn't say underdog because I don't consider us that at all.

But by the POD we were placed in as well as the general lack of respect in the regional rankings I guess we are.

Maybe now the NCAA will start watching the teams that they have to rank instead of just looking at a piece of paper with some numbers on it because lets face it, we all can look at a few stats!!

I think the NCAA should just hand over the rights to Pat and Dave. Leave it to the real professional who live and breathe this stuff instead of some suit who comes out at the end February to pick teams out of a hat!!

[7express]

I shouldn't say underdog because I don't consider us that at all.

But by the POD we were placed in as well as the general lack of respect in the regional rankings I guess we are.

Maybe now the NCAA will start watching the teams that they have to rank instead of just looking at a piece of paper with some numbers on it because lets face it, we all can look at a few stats!!

I think the NCAA should just hand over the rights to Pat and Dave. Leave it to the real professional who live and breathe this stuff instead of some suit who comes out at the end February to pick teams out of a hat!!

Even some of the posters on here could've picked a better bracket then the suits in Indianapolis did.

[D3HoopJunkie]

Absolutley 7!!

Hey to be honest I dont really like bashing the NCAA but you just have to wonder at what point does the train wreck stop. Its not just D3 either it s D2 and D1 as well. From the money that they complain about to the ridiculous process that some kids have to go through with transfering or improper benefits!!! Where does it end??? I just think the NCAA is in far over their own heads sometimes.

Things need to be simplified and they are not. I just think its unfortunate.

[7express]

Absolutley 7!!

Hey to be honest I dont really like bashing the NCAA but you just have to wonder at what point does the train wreck stop. Its not just D3 either it s D2 and D1 as well. From the money that they complain about to the ridiculous process that some kids have to go through with transfering or improper benefits!!! Where does it end??? I just think the NCAA is in far over their own heads sometimes.

Things need to be simplified and they are not. I just think its unfortunate.

The only thing the NCAA cares about is the big $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ stuff: Football & division 1 basketball.  Anything else, is totally useless and a complete waste of time for the corporate suits which is such a shame.  I wish they'd just give the men & women's selections to Dave & Pat, both of whom actually 1) know what they're talking about and B) follow D-3 basketball the whole season, and not just the day before they have to make selections.

[magicman]

I shouldn't say underdog because I don't consider us that at all.

But by the POD we were placed in as well as the general lack of respect in the regional rankings I guess we are.

Maybe now the NCAA will start watching the teams that they have to rank instead of just looking at a piece of paper with some numbers on it because lets face it, we all can look at a few stats!!

I think the NCAA should just hand over the rights to Pat and Dave. Leave it to the real professional who live and breathe this stuff instead of some suit who comes out at the end February to pick teams out of a hat!!

Even some a whole bunch of the posters on here could've picked a better bracket then the suits in Indianapolis did.

Fixed it for you!

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

FYI - suits in Indy don't pick the team and don't set-up the brackets. They may control the money and restrict some of the more creative ideas for the brackets, but the national committee is made up of eight members from each of the regions around the country with a minimum of four coaches (sometimes you can have more than four coaches if the NCAA or the committee assigns them to the committee under their administrative roll for an athletics department - aka a coach who is also an AD, associate AD, assistant AD, etc.). This year's committee actually features five men's basketball coaches, though one is designated by his administrative roll:

Atlantic Region
Linda Bruno
Commissioner
Skyline Conference

East Region
Bob McVean
Men's Basketball Coach
Rochester Institute of Technology

Great Lakes Region
Kevin Vande Streek
Men's Basketball Coach
Calvin College

Mid-Atlantic Region
Steve Ulrich, chair
Commissioner
Centennial Conference

Midwest Region
George Barber
Men's Basketball Coach
Greenville College

Northeast Region
Michael Tully
Assistant Athletics Director/Men's Basketball Coach
Roger Williams University

South Region
Jeff Burns
Director of Athletics
Randolph-Macon College

West Region
Brian Van Haaften
Men's Basketball Coach
Buena Vista University

These men and woman are not paid by the NCAA, they are paid by their own athletics departments or conference offices.

It may be easy to bash the NCAA and the beancounters who restrict some of the bracketing options we want, but to bash the committee under the assumption they are from or work for the NCAA is a bit too much. Would we all have liked a better bracket and different teams selected? Certainly... but that is where simple conversations and arguments can be about without bashing the people who do the job - thanklessly, clearly.

And by the way, complain about Indy isn't why AMC is eighth in the last regional rankings we saw. That was the work first and foremost of the Northeast RAC. They made that decision that the national committee either affirmed or adjusted. From what I gathered, AMC's position wasn't really adjusted much by the national committee. If you are wondering who is on the Northeast RAC... here you go:

Michael Tully, chair
Roger Williams
Commonwealth Coast

Ed Silva
University of New England
Commonwealth Coast

Aaron Galetta
Lasell
Great Northeast

Brian Baptiste
Massachusetts Dartmouth
Little East

Jason Doviak
Salem State
MASCAC

Dave Faucher
Daniel Webster
NECC

David Hixon
Amherst
NESCAC

Larry Anderson
MIT
NEWMAC

Dick Meader
Maine-Farmington
North Atlantic

And the criteria put in place for men's basketball is the same criteria across the board in all sports in Division III. That is approved by the NCAA Championships Committee which once again is made up of institutions or conferences of Division III. Of course the entire system is not actually run by the NCAA, decisions that impact Division III are made by the presidents of Division III... the NCAA just executes the directives - just like the commissioner of Major League Baseball, the National Football League, etc. That person is actually paid to do their job by the owners of the teams and he only does what the owners direct or allow him/her to do. The NCAA and its staff only executes or makes decisions based on the directive or allowance given by the presidents of the NCAA institutions.

I am certainly not making excuses as we all would like to see some tweaks and modifications and we have seen plenty in just the last decade alone... but to just blame "suits" in "Indy" is firing the wrong argument in the wrong direction.

[pjunito]

7, WPI, Hoops, or Hoops,

Have any of you seen Williams play this season? I know the names, but not the game.

Thanks for the support and well wishes.

Dave, thanks for the information. You help make many of us better fans of Division 3 basketball. I will still disagree with you SOS... but all in good fun. Thanks for the wonderful contribution you and Pat and the rest of the volunteers do to make this such a great informative site.

Go Falcons!

[pjunito]

Congrats to JWU for winning the Northeast ECAC tournament.

Awesome job by the GNAC, as they went 5-1 in the tournament. The only lost was Lasell to JWU.

JWU and Lasell will both be bringing back their best players next year, Hopefully a better group of GNAC team.

[7express]

7, WPI, Hoops, or Hoops,

Have any of you seen Williams play this season? I know the names, but not the game.

Thanks for the support and well wishes.

Dave, thanks for the information. You help make many of us better fans of Division 3 basketball. I will still disagree with you SOS... but all in good fun. Thanks for the wonderful contribution you and Pat and the rest of the volunteers do to make this such a great informative site.

Go Falcons!

I've seen a couple minutes here and there on the computer, but never a full game.  Duncan Robinson, the big for the Ephs sounds like the real deal and he's only a freshmen!

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

I saw a lot more of Williams last year than this year, so the big wildcard for me is Robinson.  People are talking about him as the best freshman in the country - obviously that's NESCAC talk, so I don't know how much to believe, but he's a tough matchup for a lot of people.

I haven't seen Albertus this year either, so I don't know how the inside game is, but so long as there's somebody decently tall and physical, they should be able to keep Mayer from doing too much.  Mayer is a very skilled big man, but he's not overly physical or aggressive, so a good defender can take him out.

Williams has some shooters as well.  I do think they were ranked too highly for most of the year.  This is not as good a Williams team as they've had in past years.  I didn't have them in the Final Four - and as of today, I'd pick Albertus to win on a neutral floor, the way both teams are playing.

[Saint-Paul]

Watched both AMC games this weekend.  Impressed with the intensity of the games, much more so than a regular season game.  Two things that I noticed; first, teams that reach this level of play have no holes in their starting line up.  They are solid at all five starting positions. Second, the benches get shortened, no more nine or ten man rotations, only six or seven players get into the games.  Players with two or three fouls in the first half stay in the games.  I was really surprised that WPI came out in a triangle and two defense, with man coverage on Davis and Watson and zone coverage on Victor L.  You don't usually see teams experiment with a new defensive strategy in the NCAA tournament.  They usually stick to what they have been playing all year. I thought that AMC handled it nicely.  The Purchase was really a hard fought game with both teams goining at each other right from the opening tip. Good games.

[madzillagd]

I haven't seen Albertus this year either, so I don't know how the inside game is, but so long as there's somebody decently tall and physical, they should be able to keep Mayer from doing too much.  Mayer is a very skilled big man, but he's not overly physical or aggressive, so a good defender can take him out.

I realize you dislike Mayer because you think he is soft, but I'd love to know who these people are that are shutting him down?  Mayer has had 1 game this year (when he is fully healthy and in shape after his injury) that he did not play well - and that was in the 3rd Amherst game against David George where he was held to 10 pts, 5 rb, 2 asts - and that was primarily because he picked up 2 early fouls and sat right away and never got in rhythm.  His other 2 games against George:  18 pts, 11 rebs;  24 pts, 9 rebs.  Last game, against 6'9 DPOY Miersma he put up 13 pts, 11 rebs - and he did that even though he was sick and had a fever on Saturday.  Other "decently tall and physical" guys - against 7'0 260 lb Swords he went 26 pts, 9 reb; against 6'8 240 lb Sabety of Tufts he went 23 pts, 10 rebs the first time and 30 pts & 8 rebs the second time.  I think you need to look past your opinion of how Mayer plays and focus on the results he provides.  He's scored at least 13 points in 21 of the 24 games he's played in which shows he extremely consistent regardless of who he is matched up against.  If I remember past conversations, you think Mayer should be doing more than what he does, but the counterargument to that is Mayer is on the most talented offensive team in the country.  I'll get to that below. 

Now that we've level set expectations a bit of Mayer, I think this will be an extremely fun match up to watch. Ljuljdjuraj definitely has the quickness and athleticism advantage between the two but I'd give the edge to Mayer in terms of skill set and being able to score around the basket.  VL is going to beat Mayer down the floor repeatedly and the Eph backcourt will need to make sure they account for that and pick him up to prevent the easy transition buckets (obviously making shots is the best way to prevent transition points).  I expect Williams to play a fair amount of zone during this game which may limit the head to head post play a bit as a result.  VL is a nice shot blocker but Mayer has a tendency to do pretty well against athletic guys because he's so unorthodox in a lot of his moves and tends to get guys off their feet.