MBB: Northwest Conference

[AO]

NCAA spent an extra flight to let Whitman host this weekend.  That's pretty cool.

Whitman was definitely deserving so it's nice the NCAA did that

Looks like they will have to go through at least one NESCAC team along the way. They could in theory get Williams and Hamilton and Amherst. I want to see them against at least one team from that conference.

I haven't read the d3 guru's takes but on the surface this bracket looks pretty balanced. Right? Augustana looks like it probably has the easiest path to the final four. Whitman maybe the toughest? But overall it looks fairly well put together. NWU possibly having St. Thomas in the 2nd round appears to be the most "unfair" matchup if you were to have an unlimited travel budget.

The NWU-Oshkosh pod is the toughest.  I'd put St. John's as the 5th best team in the tournament, so it's a tough one for sure.  NCC and Loras would be right up there as well.

Yeah that certainly looks to be the most difficult pod, but doesn't necessarily mean NWU would have the toughest path to the title game (though it appears they do by a slim margin). You can't actually play St. John's and Loras and NCC and Oshkosh if you are the Praire Wolves, they all have to knock each other out before they get to the final 8. So having all of those teams in one corner of the bracket doesn't automatically mean you have the toughest path. Of course, with all those teams you are much less likely to get an "easy" late round game because an early round upset will not have the same effect as it would in the bottom left or bottom right brackets. If we got chalk, starting in the second round...

NWU would play d3hoops.com #13, #17, #4, #3

Whitman would get #11, #19, #9, #5

Not a huge difference in terms of projected difficulty, assuming you generally agree with the d3hoops.com poll. Really St. John's probably has the toughest draw in the whole tournament.

Wouldn't it be Oshkosh, since St John's gets to play the first weekend at home?

Wouldn't it be Northwestern since we would have to play against St. John's and Oshkosh?

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

NCAA spent an extra flight to let Whitman host this weekend.  That's pretty cool.

Whitman was definitely deserving so it's nice the NCAA did that

Looks like they will have to go through at least one NESCAC team along the way. They could in theory get Williams and Hamilton and Amherst. I want to see them against at least one team from that conference.

I haven't read the d3 guru's takes but on the surface this bracket looks pretty balanced. Right? Augustana looks like it probably has the easiest path to the final four. Whitman maybe the toughest? But overall it looks fairly well put together. NWU possibly having St. Thomas in the 2nd round appears to be the most "unfair" matchup if you were to have an unlimited travel budget.

The NWU-Oshkosh pod is the toughest.  I'd put St. John's as the 5th best team in the tournament, so it's a tough one for sure.  NCC and Loras would be right up there as well.

Yeah that certainly looks to be the most difficult pod, but doesn't necessarily mean NWU would have the toughest path to the title game (though it appears they do by a slim margin). You can't actually play St. John's and Loras and NCC and Oshkosh if you are the Praire Wolves, they all have to knock each other out before they get to the final 8. So having all of those teams in one corner of the bracket doesn't automatically mean you have the toughest path. Of course, with all those teams you are much less likely to get an "easy" late round game because an early round upset will not have the same effect as it would in the bottom left or bottom right brackets. If we got chalk, starting in the second round...

NWU would play d3hoops.com #13, #17, #4, #3

Whitman would get #11, #19, #9, #5

Not a huge difference in terms of projected difficulty, assuming you generally agree with the d3hoops.com poll. Really St. John's probably has the toughest draw in the whole tournament.

Wouldn't it be Oshkosh, since St John's gets to play the first weekend at home?

Wouldn't it be Northwestern since we would have to play against St. John's and Oshkosh?

Touche.

[(509)Rat]

NCAA spent an extra flight to let Whitman host this weekend.  That's pretty cool.

Whitman was definitely deserving so it's nice the NCAA did that

Looks like they will have to go through at least one NESCAC team along the way. They could in theory get Williams and Hamilton and Amherst. I want to see them against at least one team from that conference.

I haven't read the d3 guru's takes but on the surface this bracket looks pretty balanced. Right? Augustana looks like it probably has the easiest path to the final four. Whitman maybe the toughest? But overall it looks fairly well put together. NWU possibly having St. Thomas in the 2nd round appears to be the most "unfair" matchup if you were to have an unlimited travel budget.

The NWU-Oshkosh pod is the toughest.  I'd put St. John's as the 5th best team in the tournament, so it's a tough one for sure.  NCC and Loras would be right up there as well.

Yeah that certainly looks to be the most difficult pod, but doesn't necessarily mean NWU would have the toughest path to the title game (though it appears they do by a slim margin). You can't actually play St. John's and Loras and NCC and Oshkosh if you are the Praire Wolves, they all have to knock each other out before they get to the final 8. So having all of those teams in one corner of the bracket doesn't automatically mean you have the toughest path. Of course, with all those teams you are much less likely to get an "easy" late round game because an early round upset will not have the same effect as it would in the bottom left or bottom right brackets. If we got chalk, starting in the second round...

NWU would play d3hoops.com #13, #17, #4, #3

Whitman would get #11, #19, #9, #5

Not a huge difference in terms of projected difficulty, assuming you generally agree with the d3hoops.com poll. Really St. John's probably has the toughest draw in the whole tournament.

Wouldn't it be Oshkosh, since St John's gets to play the first weekend at home?

You could make that argument. I was basing it purely on lowest combined d3hoops.com ranking #'s. Since St. John's is ranked below Oshkosh, they would play a group of teams with a higher collective ranking than Oshkosh would to win the national championship (assuming chalk). The Johnnies would have to play #4, #15, #1, #3, #2. Doesn't matter though.

And apologies for not including Northwestern. I was only looking at teams that are likely to make it past the first night... 

[Pat Coleman]

The UMAC lasted longer than both Whitworth and St. John's in last year's bracket.

[D O.C.]

But we never use last year's criteria, right?

[(509)Rat]

The UMAC lasted longer than both Whitworth and St. John's in last year's bracket.

Which is why I picked Bethany Lutheran to make it to the second weekend this year...

[Pat Coleman]

But we never use last year's criteria, right?

Not sure of your need to troll here.

[(509)Rat]

But we never use last year's criteria, right?

Not sure of your need to troll here.

I laughed...

[Smitty Oom]

https://athletics.whitman.edu/news/2019/2/19/mens-basketball-send-austin-butler-to-the-division-i-final-four-vote-now.aspx

Everyone vote for Austin Butler! Some impressive dunks in his Blues career, what an athlete.

[AO]

NCAA spent an extra flight to let Whitman host this weekend.  That's pretty cool.

Whitman was definitely deserving so it's nice the NCAA did that

Looks like they will have to go through at least one NESCAC team along the way. They could in theory get Williams and Hamilton and Amherst. I want to see them against at least one team from that conference.

I haven't read the d3 guru's takes but on the surface this bracket looks pretty balanced. Right? Augustana looks like it probably has the easiest path to the final four. Whitman maybe the toughest? But overall it looks fairly well put together. NWU possibly having St. Thomas in the 2nd round appears to be the most "unfair" matchup if you were to have an unlimited travel budget.

The NWU-Oshkosh pod is the toughest.  I'd put St. John's as the 5th best team in the tournament, so it's a tough one for sure.  NCC and Loras would be right up there as well.

Yeah that certainly looks to be the most difficult pod, but doesn't necessarily mean NWU would have the toughest path to the title game (though it appears they do by a slim margin). You can't actually play St. John's and Loras and NCC and Oshkosh if you are the Praire Wolves, they all have to knock each other out before they get to the final 8. So having all of those teams in one corner of the bracket doesn't automatically mean you have the toughest path. Of course, with all those teams you are much less likely to get an "easy" late round game because an early round upset will not have the same effect as it would in the bottom left or bottom right brackets. If we got chalk, starting in the second round...

NWU would play d3hoops.com #13, #17, #4, #3

Whitman would get #11, #19, #9, #5

Not a huge difference in terms of projected difficulty, assuming you generally agree with the d3hoops.com poll. Really St. John's probably has the toughest draw in the whole tournament.

Wouldn't it be Oshkosh, since St John's gets to play the first weekend at home?

You could make that argument. I was basing it purely on lowest combined d3hoops.com ranking #'s. Since St. John's is ranked below Oshkosh, they would play a group of teams with a higher collective ranking than Oshkosh would to win the national championship (assuming chalk). The Johnnies would have to play #4, #15, #1, #3, #2. Doesn't matter though.

And apologies for not including Northwestern. I was only looking at teams that are likely to make it past the first night... 

Apology accepted!

[Pat Coleman]

But we never use last year's criteria, right?

Sometimes history repeats itself.

[(509)Rat]

Williams could cause Whitman a lot of problems from a size/length standpoint. Though they might be the first team to actually do that. Whether it is lack of talent from the opponents' bigs or Whitman's halfcourt pressure that makes it tough to get the ball into the low post, the Blues rarely have a team beat them up inside. Whitman will shoot a lot better from 3 than both of William's previous opponents. And they will be the most athletic and deepest team Williams has played all year. As always with Whitman, if Williams can avoid turning the ball over they will make it a game. If the pressure bothers them or if Whitman's athleticism gets Haskett or Casey in fould trouble it could be a long night for the Ephs.

I wasn't super impressed with Hamilton in the first two rounds. If CNU continues to shoot from outside well, they should be waiting for the winner of Whitman v Williams (my money is on Whitman). I think the only team that beats Whitman in this tournament is one who has a Swarthmore like effort from the field (72.5% for the game and 14-17 from 3). Well, maybe not quite that good, but they will have to shoot a high percentage to make up for the fact that Whitman will likely have more possessions.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

All year, my biggest concern has been Williams' ball-handling.  They really only have one PG - Kyle Scadlock, one of the post players, is the secondary ball-handler and he's fine, but not a guard.  They had real trouble against the Moravian press for a while, ultimately prevailing because of superior talent.  I'm just not sure how well they'll handle what Whitman does, although I'm sure they'll spend all week working on it.

[(509)Rat]

All year, my biggest concern has been Williams' ball-handling....They had real trouble against the Moravian press for a while, ultimately prevailing because of superior talent.

Yeah, not an area you want to have question marks about when playing against this Whitman team. And you can bet Whitman will throw a different look at Williams. They usually have enough wrinkles in their press to make it hard to prepare for. They'll mix it up from one night to another or in this case from one weekend to another.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

All year, my biggest concern has been Williams' ball-handling....They had real trouble against the Moravian press for a while, ultimately prevailing because of superior talent.

Yeah, not an area you want to have question marks about when playing against this Whitman team. And you can bet Whitman will throw a different look at Williams. They usually have enough wrinkles in their press to make it hard to prepare for. They'll mix it up from one night to another or in this case from one weekend to another.

Williams is a very good team, especially if they get can into half court sets and pound the ball inside, but this is about the worst possible matchup for them.