NESCAC

[Corazon]

Thanks for the feedback. wow. Clipped running away from the goal should never happen.

How many do you think we get into the NCAAs?  This is where the NESCAC parity and strength of schedule works against us.

[Off Pitch]

If your basis is on SOS than Gordon and WPI have no business getting near this..give me one decent win on either of those 2 schedules. NONE. Gordon will not be on that ranking. Williams beat Wesleyan, Midd and Bowdoin which are all on your rankings and mine. Gordon and WPI and for that matter Coast Guard have no quality WINS

Again, read more carefully.  My basis was winning % AND SOS.  Gordon, WPI and Coast Guard have very high winning %.  Williams does not.  Williams beat some good teams and lost to too many not so good teams.

[Mr.Right]

Regional rankings are not done based solely on winning %. Your rankings are just right for NSCAA. See we both feel happy now

[Mr.Right]

I actually believe Nescac will get 4. Couple things to look at. First most of the good conferences across the country are beating each up a bit and 2nd a lot of teams outside the top 10  have 3 to 4 losses already.  Also, New England usually goes down the rankings to about #7 or #8 to get in the NCAA's. Nescac really needs Brandeis to win the UAA and Wheaton to win the Newmac. Besides Nescac and Newmac they are all one bid leagues this year in New England. That leaves regional rankings to probably have 4 NEWMAC and 5 NESCAC  get ranked this week plus Brandeis and maybe Nichols and ECONN.

[Flying Weasel]

Thanks for the feedback. wow. Clipped running away from the goal should never happen.

How many do you think we get into the NCAAs?  This is where the NESCAC parity and strength of schedule works against us.

How do you figure that the parity and SOS counts against the NESCAC?  Parity, depth, and high SOS has always been the case for the NESCAC and they've always gotten their share of at-large berths.  There has always been a more than twice as many conferences as Pool C at-large berths--that is, less than one Pool C berth for every two conferences.  The NESCAC almost always gets 2 at-large berths, and sometimes 3 while the great majority of conferences don't get any at-large berths. I'm not saying the NESCAC have gotten more than they deserved, but I'm not seeing how parity, depth, and high SOS has worked against the NESCAC when they regularly get the most at-large berths besides the UAA.

The NCAA committee loves SOS and they love wins vs. ranked teams.  Their rankings and at-large selections reflect this year after year.  So SOS can't work against you.  And with so many schools in the New England region resulting in 11 spots in the ranking, the NESCAC will get enough teams in the rankings that the top ones will have the wins vs. ranked to combine with the SOS.  Sure, almost all years there are some teams in the rankings that probably don't deserve it over the next NESCAC team, but those are the spots in the rankings that are not going to get at-large berths anyways.

[MENESCACFAN]

Thanks for the props Corazon, wish I had laid some money down on those picks ;-)  3 correct scores may have turned a profit. 

Very interesting weekend as always, and if there was any doubt that the top 6 teams have separated from the chasing pack of five, I would say that is dead now.  These results did though ensure a little excitement as to who gets a playoff home game.

BATES 1 MIDDLEBURY 2 (OT)

Exciting game by the sounds of it, Middlebury's two star guys (Glaser and Conrad) get goals while gritty Bates take them to OT and Knoth assists a goal by freshman Spofera.

The win draws Middlebury level on points with Wesleyan and Williams, though the Panthers have played more games.

Bates remain in the playoff spots and it is fair to say they are still playing well.  Two trains of thought seem common on these boards.  One being Bates are an embarrassment with no good players, and the other that Stuart Flaherty is clueless.  One or the other is not correct, as they really have salvaged their season for the run in.

CONN 0 BOWDOIN 2

Two second half goals by Henshall and Charlier give the Polar Bears their 6th win in 7 games.  The win also keeps the Polar Bears comfortably locked into the playoff spots as the race enters the home straight.  Given their form, this may be the team the home seeds want to avoid in round one.

Conn are now winless in their last 5 games with a high pressure contest at Trinity on the horizon next weekend.  The Camels find themselves in a playoff scramble among five teams now separated by two points.  They will have to find a win from somewhere to make the tournament, but seem on the slide.

AMHERST 1 WESLEYAN 2 (OT)

It has happened, it has happened!  In all seriousness, can anyone tell me the last regular season loss for Amherst before this one?  Matt Lynch opened the scoring before Greg Singer equalized to save the Jeffs.....or did he?  Freshman Adam Cowie-Haskell likely made himself the front runner for rookie of the year with a big time winning goal to lit Wesleyan to the #3 spot.  With game sin hand, the Cardinals remain a contender for the #1 seed.  Coach Wheeler really does an outstanding job with this group.

HAMILTON 0 COLBY 0 (2OT)

True to form, and while scoreless a very exciting game!  The drama and attrition of the situation clearly visible, and both teams not really throwing numbers forward with abandon.

Wile I do have some Maine bias, I do believe Colby had the bette rod the run of play, and set themselves up nicely for a potential playoff decider at Bates on the final day.

WILLIAMS 0 TUFTS 1

Another mental step for Tufts as they top the cows for a win that lifts them into pole position in the league.  Opposing coaches must get headaches thinking of how many different Jumbo players can hurt you going forward.

Spoke to a friend who is a Tufts parent.  Turns out Santos started the season with a quad strain, so any discussion of Shapiro 'motivating' him by team selection was over analysis.  He has now found his form, and is without doubt one of the premier attacking players in the league.  The scary thing is, Tufts was doing well before he caught fire.  Look out for this team to make a deep run come tournament time.

[Brother Flounder]

Thanks for the feedback. wow. Clipped running away from the goal should never happen.

How many do you think we get into the NCAAs?  This is where the NESCAC parity and strength of schedule works against us.

We drove down to watch the Williams-Tufts game. As stated above, Williams looked flat. Tufts midfield dominated the game until subs came on late. The Williams forward was no threat. Tufts hit the cross bar and post and the Williams goalie made some great saves. Has Tufts turned the corner dominating both Amherst and Williams. I am not so sure and we'll have to wait and see.

[PaulNewman]

MENESCACFAN, only problem with that theory on Santos is that he still was playing major minutes, just off the bench.  How did not starting protect him?

[Nutmeg]

Thanks for the feedback. wow. Clipped running away from the goal should never happen.

How many do you think we get into the NCAAs?  This is where the NESCAC parity and strength of schedule works against us.

We drove down to watch the Williams-Tufts game. As stated above, Williams looked flat. Tufts midfield dominated the game until subs came on late. The Williams forward was no threat. Tufts hit the cross bar and post and the Williams goalie made some great saves. Has Tufts turned the corner dominating both Amherst and Williams. I am not so sure and we'll have to wait and see.

I watched the video of the Tufts game. Their midfield works the best I have seen in the last couple of years. Attacking midfielder Kayne and Pinhero really find ?Brown, Santos and hoppenot, and Kayne can score. While none of those midfielders will win POY they will hopefully get some recognition. They are fun to watch and it's good to see an alternative to the long ball game that has dominated the league the last couple of years. That said, they still have win the big games in the next few weeks. I don't care if Amherst lost, they are dangerous.

[MENESCACFAN]

NCAC

Not a theory of mine.  A statement from a Tufts fan who spoke to Santos at a tailgate.  While not concrete, the opposite theory of Shapiro 'motivating' him really doesn't seem to have any grounding other than being thrown around on here.

I do know as a former coach, trainers can advise players play a certain amount of minutes, if so some coaches bring them off the bench.  It's less exciting, but may just all be the truth.  It is unlikely Shapiro is less aware than all of us as to what Santos can do in a game.

On a side note, Shapiro gets inside track on coach of the year as of today in my eyes.

[PaulNewman]

And does the same rationale apply to last year???

[MENESCACFAN]

Did not really follow the situation year, merely relaying information.  Your excessive use of question marks suggest you are looking for a heated debate over a passing comment so let's move on.  Neither you or I know the truth of the situation, thought it was an interesting piece of insight I heard.

[PaulNewman]

Your acceptance and publishing of a rationalization shared at a tailgate event for something that has been going for at least 2 and maybe 3 years are dubious.  Let's put this another way.  There's probably a little more to the story than your reporting suggested.  That's all.

[MENESCACFAN]

There is a lot more than we both publish, we are outside observers who do not actually know the truth in this or any other scenario. 

What I say could be 100% true for all we know, or maybe not.

As I said let's not get too heated over it, enjoy our debates on here.

[Corazon]

Flying Weasel, my point regarding NESCAC parity and NCAA selections is that I believe in a year like this, a good, solid team like a Middlebury or Williams, might get penalized by having a less than stellar in conference record because they have to play a good team every week. There are no gimmes in the NESCAC. If those two teams were in a weaker conference, I'm sure they'd have a much better record.

For example, if Coast Guard played in the NESCAC, do you think they'd make the NCAAs?  I would bet against it as I'd believe they would be lucky to be in the middle. Would the committee value a mediocre record and a really high SOS (like most NESCACs) over a really good record and a mediocre SOS?  I don't know. Perhaps the ideal for NCAA purposes is to play in a weak conference and win the league but to also have a strong out of conference schedule so that you still have a chance at an at large bid in case you don't.

For the record, I have not previously followed D3 tournament selections so I may be wrong here, though my common sense meter tells me otherwise.