MBB: University Athletic Association

jagluski · March 10, 2007, 09:42:44 PM

Wash U knocks off Hope 58-55 to advance to the Final Four for the first time in program history! The Bears will take on Virginia Wesleyan University next Friday.

The Wash U Men and Women have both advanced to the Final Four, making this the first time one school has sent both teams to the Final Four since UWSP in 2004.

Go Bears!

(Edited to fix incorrect score)

Ole Ollie · March 10, 2007, 10:06:34 PM

Congrats to the Wash U men for making the FF for the first time. This has to be considered a surprise. Not any knock on the team, but while they have a great starting five, they have little depth and I wouldn't put them in the top five Wash U teams of all time, m aybe not even close to that.

No doubt that, this year at least, the UAA is the premier league in D-III with three of the eight finalists.

mark_reichert · March 10, 2007, 10:58:38 PM

Quote from: jagluski on March 10, 2007, 09:42:44 PM
Wash U knocks off Hope 57-52 to advance to the Final Four for the first time in program history! The Bears will take on Virginia Wesleyan University next Friday.

Ooooohhhh Noooooo! Not a Wesleyan!

Teams with a Wesleyan in their name have kept the Bears out of the Final Four, hopefully Virginia W. won't keep them out of the Final.

Greek Tragedy · March 10, 2007, 11:08:54 PM

58-55, actually.

Ruths was a stud in the middle and Wallis was pure money.

fcnews · March 10, 2007, 11:14:17 PM

Big Congrats to Wash U. two to go!!

jagluski · March 11, 2007, 12:33:24 PM

Quote from: OxyBob on March 11, 2007, 10:09:09 AM
jagluski:

>>Maybe just to me, but it's amusing that the author of the article thinks Wash U is going to Steven's Point(who exactly is this Steven?) instead of Stevens Point. At least for my alma mater's sake, Hayford is very compliamentary of Wash U's team as student-athletes.<<

What's more amusing, criticizing the misplaced apostrophe in Stevens Point, or misspelling complimentary in the very next sentence?

Fortunately, these things don't go unnoticed:

Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 2
Pat Coleman
posted 3/05/07 @ 2:10 PM EST
No apostrophe in Stevens Point, to the headline writer.

What I found amusing was Old School's recommendation of a Mexican restaurant, El Mezcal, in Stevens Point, which received a 3-star Michelin rating: "My favorite resturaunt. you can get filled up for under 5 dollars at lunch." Especialidad de la casa: Bratwurst coció al vapor en cerveza y después asó a la parilla a la perfección, servida con el sauerkraut.

Mexican food: Wisconsin
Polar bear: Equatorial Guinea

OxyBob

Oops. I knew that didn't look right.

Greek Tragedy · March 11, 2007, 01:11:25 PM

Compliments of Just Bill: another Pointer poster.

And I don't know what list OS gave you, but this one is better (it doesn't include the entire state): http://stevenspoint.areaconnect.com/restaurants/

Quote from: OxyBob on March 11, 2007, 10:09:09 AM
What I found amusing was Old School's recommendation of a Mexican restaurant, El Mezcal, in Stevens Point, which received a 3-star Michelin rating: "My favorite resturaunt. you can get filled up for under 5 dollars at lunch." Especialidad de la casa: Bratwurst coció al vapor en cerveza y después asó a la parilla a la perfección, servida con el sauerkraut.

Mexican food: Wisconsin
Polar bear: Equatorial Guinea

OxyBob

In my defense, the link when I copied it was just of Stevens Point restuarants...and I didn't actually recommend the Mexican one, it was on the link. So, when you clicked on the link, it went right to state restaurants, ummm. My personal suggestions were underneath the link! lol. I'm not responsible for that!

Gregory Sager · March 12, 2007, 05:43:23 AM

Quote from: Ole Ollie on March 10, 2007, 10:06:34 PM
Congrats to the Wash U men for making the FF for the first time. This has to be considered a surprise. Not any knock on the team, but while they have a great starting five, they have little depth and I wouldn't put them in the top five Wash U teams of all time, m aybe not even close to that.

No doubt that, this year at least, the UAA is the premier league in D-III with three of the eight finalists.

That's very much in doubt, Ole. The UAA has some unique advantages when it comes to getting teams into the tournament. There aren't any other conferences in D3 that span five regions.

Yeah, you can combine men's and women's basketball and come up with a very favorable profile for the UAA, but let's not forget the fact that those are two completely different sports. You can most likely configure the results of any two sports to make your league look better, provided it's one of the top-tier all-sports leagues (which the UAA certainly is). F'rinstance, I would imagine that if you combined, say, squash and equestrian results, the NESCAC would come out ahead as "the premier league in D3".

Speaking strictly of the men's side of basketball, the unique distributional bias of UAA regional wins doesn't take anything at all away from what Wash U has accomplished this season, but let's not get carried away by pronouncing the UAA as the premier league in this sport. (Not that that's precisely what you did, of course.) I saw most of the UAA's teams this season, and while I think the circuit has really improved from top to bottom over the past two or three seasons and become a top-tier D3 league, I'd still take the CCIW on a team-by-team basis over the UAA. So would Mr. Massey.

http://www.masseyratings.com/rate.php?lg=cb&sub=III&mid=6

fcnews · March 12, 2007, 06:55:26 AM

It's a shame Mr. Massey still isn't playing. But, the Wash U Bears are. So speaking specificly about this year, the UAA rep from the midwest is the only team still playing. Plus, there aren't any bottom tier teams from any league that make the post season.

In the midwest region the UAA placed Wash U. and Chicago into the dance. CCIW just didn't have a second rep., although I do think there was a strong case for Elmhurst.

I'm sure if the field was at 64, instead of 59, Elmhurst probably would of garnered one of the last five spots.

If the yardstick being used is teams in the tournament. UAA has that this year.

Gregory Sager · March 12, 2007, 07:09:48 AM

Quote from: fcnews on March 12, 2007, 06:55:26 AM
It's a shame Mr. Massey still isn't playing. But, the Wash U Bears are. So speaking specificly about this year, the UAA rep from the midwest is the only team still playing. Plus, there aren't any bottom tier teams from any league that make the post season.

In the midwest region the UAA placed Wash U. and Chicago into the dance. CCIW just didn't have a second rep., although I do think there was a strong case for Elmhurst.

I'm sure if the field was at 64, instead of 59, Elmhurst probably would of garnered one of the last five spots.

If the yardstick being used is teams in the tournament. UAA has that this year.

That's not a good yardstick, however. Is the ODAC the second-best league in the nation? I seriously doubt it. Yet the ODAC got three teams into the tourney. Is the Skyline better than either the WIAC or the CCIW? I doubt that even the most rabid Stevens or Manhattanville diehard would say that. Yet the Skyline had as many entrants in this year's field as did those traditional power conferences combined.

The CCIW had a 66-22 non-conference record this season. The MIAA had a losing overall record in non-conference play. The CCIW went 11-0 head-to-head against the MIAA, including sweeps by third-place Wheaton and fifth-place Carthage of the MIAA's Big Two, Hope and Calvin. And yet Hope and Calvin both made the tourney, while the CCIW only had automatic-bid entrant Augustana in the field.

You can't simply count up the number of teams that a league puts into the tourney field and gauge the relative worth of the league. It just doesn't work that way. Every qualifying league automatically gets a berth, and after that it's a matter of which teams best meet the five primary criteria -- which does not necessarily mean that the best at-large teams will make the field. The D3 men's basketball handbook all but admits that.

As for bottom-tier teams not making the field, it's generally accepted that the best way to measure the relative strength of a league is to measure it completely, from top to bottom.

imderekpoe · March 12, 2007, 12:22:04 PM

I visited the 4 team websites this morning and compiled their stats into one file.

Its available here in Excel format
http://www.jtaswell.com/D3BB/2007_FinalFour_Stats.xls

And here in html
http://www.jtaswell.com/D3BB/2007_FinalFour_Stats.htm

fcnews · March 12, 2007, 04:15:41 PM

OK Sager !!! Based on the five NCAA primary criteria's UAA is the premier leaugue this year. If you don't like the word premier, maybe we should use most successful.

GP87 · March 12, 2007, 06:10:53 PM

If you go by entries and results in the tournament, the ODAC (as Sager said) would be the top (or 2nd best) conference in the nation. No team from any other conference has beaten an ODAC team this tournamnet; Va. Wes. took out Hampden Sydney second round and then Guilford in the round of 16. That, in terms of conference performance, is as good as you can possibly get for a conference centered in one region. However, everyone here and in the ODAC knows that the conference is not yet the "premier" or best conference in the nation. The case appears strong and speaks to the ODAC's ability but does not speak to the strength of the entire conference, top to bottom. A conference resume includes far more than how many bids are recieved or even how good the top teams are; overall strength is what determines the best conferences. The UAA has had a great year and tournament, just like the ODAC, but I wouldn't jump to any extravagant conclusions.

Congrats to Wash U on the final four. Good luck!

fcnews · March 12, 2007, 11:18:58 PM

Well said, sir !!!

Gregory Sager · March 13, 2007, 05:40:37 AM

Quote from: GP87 on March 12, 2007, 06:10:53 PMA conference resume includes far more than how many bids are recieved or even how good the top teams are; overall strength is what determines the best conferences.

Exactly!

How would I describe the UAA this postseason? Not as the premier conference, or even as the most successful (as GP87 pointed out, the ODAC is actually the most successful league in terms of tournament performance this March). Let's just say that the UAA is the best represented conference, and leave it at that.