MBB: Northwest Conference

[Gregory Sager]

[(509)Rat]

Back from vacation. Looks like turnovers killed Whitworth against Whitman, they shot well enough otherwise to stay in the game. The Pirates were without Lester and shot 15% from 3 last night against the Pioneers and still won. They can't afford to drop more games to NWC opponents but they should still be a Pool C team even without winning the conference tourney.

[blackhawks4]

Whitworth hasn't had a good win all season. Unless they win the conference tournament, they don't have much of a case for a pool c bid in my opinion.

Why do they continue to get this "pass" into the tourney, and a top 10 ranking? They haven't won a NCAA tournament game in 3 years.  They are 1-7 against Whitman. Outside of that one win, when is the last time they've beaten a top 25 team? 

[Gregory Sager]

Whitworth hasn't had a good win all season. Unless they win the conference tournament, they don't have much of a case for a pool c bid in my opinion.

Why do they continue to get this "pass" into the tourney, and a top 10 ranking? They haven't won a NCAA tournament game in 3 years.  They are 1-7 against Whitman. Outside of that one win, when is the last time they've beaten a top 25 team?

A) Past seasons are irrelevant to Pool C.
B) What Whitworth did against Whitman in seasons other than the current one is irrelevant to Pool C.
C) The d3hoops.com top 25 is irrelevant to Pool C.

These are the criteria that matter to Pool C (from page 17 of the 2018-19 Pre-Championship Manual):

The primary criteria emphasize competition leading up to NCAA championships; all criteria listed will be evaluated (not listed
in priority order).
● Won-lost percentage against Division III opponents;
● Division III head-to-head competition;
● Results versus common Division III opponents;
● Results versus ranked Division III teams as established by the final ranking and the ranking preceding the final ranking.
Conference postseason contests are included.
● Division III strength of schedule;
- Opponents' Average Winning Percentage (OWP).
- Opponents' Opponents' Average Winning Percentage (OOWP).
● Nullification (Bylaw 31.02.4).
Note: Contests versus provisional and reclassifying members in their third and fourth years shall count in the
primary criteria. Provisional and reclassifying members shall remain ineligible for rankings and selections

 

[(509)Rat]

blackhawks4

[blackhawks4]

Fully understand the criteria. The question still stands, what has WW done to deserve a pool C bid?

[Gregory Sager]

According to fantastic50 over on the Pool C board, not enough. He has Whitworth listed at the top of the "bubble-out" category.

[D O.C.]

WW actually beat Willamette this time?

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Here are the first rankings for the men this season: https://www.d3hoops.com/notables/2019/02/men-regional-rankings-first

[Pat Coleman]

Doesn't look great at first glance for Whitworth but if they can right the ship, there will be a number of teams ahead of them who will come off the board quickly.

[D O.C.]

So...the 'rats make three great shots to cut the lead to one against LINFIELD after trailing the second half.
LINFIELD uses the 2 left feet play to cough up the ball and WW goes up by 1 with 13 seconds.
With the last possession LINFIELD does zero.

To the home team go the spoils.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Whitworth all but saved their Pool C chances last night with that full court drive from Hernandez.  They really couldn't have afforded to lose that one.

[(509)Rat]

And again tonight...

Linfield plays Whitman tough again. Awful last possession by the Wildcats, Hart just wasn't thinking.

It looks bad for Fox going to 6-8 while UPS stays ahead of them at 7-7...until you realize that the Loggers last two games are Whitman and Whitworth. As bad as Whitworth has looked the last 2-3 weeks, I think you still assume UPS finishes 7-9. Fox can win their next two games against Linfield and Willamette but they only need 1 if UPS does in fact drop their last two games. Fox swept UPS in conference play this year.

[catjumper]

Anyone know why Roggenbuck didn't play for Linfield tonight at Whitman? I wasn't able to start following the game until the last few minutes and there was no mention of the reason for his absence on the part of the broadcast I heard, and no mention made in the recap posted on Linfield's website. That's a pretty key piece to have missing for a game of that nature.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

The second week Regional Rankings have been released: https://www.d3hoops.com/notables/2019/02/men-regional-rankings-second