2013 Division III NCAA Tournament

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Per Middlebury and Cortland State... Cortland finished #2 in the regional rankings... Middlebury was #5 - outside of breaking down the SOS numbers, Cortland would get the nod. It is also speculated that because Middlebury is hosting the skiing championships, the school did not put in to host the second weekend.

Per the Sunday game... it would be moved to 12:00 PM Sunday at Phillips Arena. Also, keep in mind the DII and DIII championship games are free to everyone, including as part of the package for those fans who purchased D1 Final Four tickets... so I think the draw will be pretty good on a dead Sunday or a Monday which game doesn't start until probably 9 PM.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Hosts this coming weekend: UW-Stevens Point, St. Thomas, Virginia Wesleyan, Williams, Mary Hardin-Baylor, Whitworth, Alvernia, Rhode Island, Amherst, WPI, Wooster, Ohio Wesleyan, Wash, North Central, Rochester, Cortland State.

[Titan Q]

How bad is the pairing of North Central vs UW-Whitewater in round 2?  For perspective, I tried to project which teams would be the true top 8 seeds in the tournament, based on criteria but not taking geography into account.  I came up with the following...


#1  Amherst (NE): 25-2 (.926)/.585/9-1
#2  St. Thomas (W): 26-1 (.963)/.548)/7-1
#3  WPI (NE): 25-2 (.926)/.568/5-2
#4  North Central (MW): 22-3 (.880)/.551/6-2
#5  Williams (NE): 21-4 (.840)/.577/5-4
#6  UW-Whitewater (W): 22-4 (.846)/.588/5-3
#7  Rochester (E): 20-4 (.833)/.575/7-3
#8  Alvernia (MA): 23-4 (.852)/.552/5-2
-----
#9 UW-Stevens Point (W): 21-5 (.808)/.586/7-2


I think it's pretty fair to say that both NCC and UWW are in the top 8 of the 2013 tournament field, based strictly on the criteria.  In a perfect world they would not meet until round 4 at the earliest.

This is by far the most unfair and unfortunate round 2 matchup as I see it.  It seems like we see these types of early round pairings in the West and Midwest all too often, but we rarely do on the east coast.

[jaybird44]

On the women's side yesterday:  Hope vs. Ohio Northern, the #2 and #3 ranked teams in the country, in the 2nd round of the tournament.

I understand the geographic and financial limitations under which the NCAA operates, but there has to be a better way to separate those top 5 or top 10 teams so it doesn't look like such a haphazard mockery of a traditional championship tournament.  If that means paying for 2-3 extra flights, I would believe that would be money well spent to try and avoid a situation where clusters of top-ranked teams are forced into basketball cannibalism...and perhaps a final 8 or final 4 bereft of top-shelf teams that would make those rounds potentially more competitive.

[Pat Coleman]

I don't think the women's committee put together the best bracket it could have, even given the NCAA limitations.

One simple, quick and free change that could have been made with competitive balance in mind would have been to swap the position of the ONU/Hanover game and the Thomas More/Carthage game in the bracket.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

I hate to harp on this... but there are only a few tournaments in the NCAA that are "traditional." But I will say the women did a horrible job with match-ups and looking ahead at games (which they admit they don't forecast possibly scenarios). On the men's side it isn't great, but I know the men's committee worked hard to try and solve the issue. Not a lot of choices in the Midwest/West with so many good teams getting in a not a lot of upsets that placed more teams within 500 miles so you can creatively bus teams around. As we have been saying on the CCIW board... Pat and I did our mock bracket and spent well over an hour trying to get creative with the Midwest/West and still had NCC vs. Wash U as a potential second round game and Transylvania vs. Wheaton as a first round game along with other not so great match-ups early on.

[Titan Q]

I hate to harp on this... but there are only a few tournaments in the NCAA that are "traditional." But I will say the women did a horrible job with match-ups and looking ahead at games (which they admit they don't forecast possibly scenarios). On the men's side it isn't great, but I know the men's committee worked hard to try and solve the issue. Not a lot of choices in the Midwest/West with so many good teams getting in a not a lot of upsets that placed more teams within 500 miles so you can creatively bus teams around. As we have been saying on the CCIW board... Pat and I did our mock bracket and spent well over an hour trying to get creative with the Midwest/West and still had NCC vs. Wash U as a potential second round game and Transylvania vs. Wheaton as a first round game along with other not so great match-ups early on.

What would have been wrong about Wheaton/Transylvania in round 1?  Just curious.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Nothing wrong... just not a match-up I would have loved... I would rather give Wheaton a slightly less tough an opponents - as with IWU.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Nothing wrong... just not a match-up I would have loved... I would rather give Wheaton a slightly less tough an opponents - as with IWU.

Um, IWU played Transy in round one, and IWU was ranked higher in the region than Wheaton.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Thus my comment "I would rather give Wheaton a slightly less tough an opponents - as with IWU."

[sac]

On the women's side yesterday:  Hope vs. Ohio Northern, the #2 and #3 ranked teams in the country, in the 2nd round of the tournament.

I understand the geographic and financial limitations under which the NCAA operates, but there has to be a better way to separate those top 5 or top 10 teams so it doesn't look like such a haphazard mockery of a traditional championship tournament.  If that means paying for 2-3 extra flights, I would believe that would be money well spent to try and avoid a situation where clusters of top-ranked teams are forced into basketball cannibalism...and perhaps a final 8 or final 4 bereft of top-shelf teams that would make those rounds potentially more competitive.

The GL was unique on the women's side this year because they had 5 of the top 10 in the country in their region probably.

The committee moved DePauw into a bracket that avoids all of those schools until the final, and moved  Calvin (probably #4 or #5 in the final poll) out to the West.

It has always been a problem in the GL/MW/W of avoiding 2nd round matchups of highly ranked teams.  They at least attempted some moves which might make sense based on the NCAA's criteria, but not to the d3hoops poll.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

sac - they could have swapped an entire 4-team pod on the women's side from the Mid-Atlantic/Atlantic with an entire 4-team pod from the Northeast/East and balanced the upper left bracket without changing one thing with mileage. As for the lower left... there they could have easily swapped the Ohio Northern pod with Thomas More or Simpson ones and had better balance.

[FanJacket]

RMC to WPI...about 7---8 miles short of flying.  Thoughts of appealing to the NCAA if there are "detours" from Ashland to WPI (there are) which would bring the distance over.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

To fly RMC? Don't think so... based on the official mileage... not if there are detours . By the way... the official mileage from campus to campus is 496.

[Pat Coleman]

Doesn't matter what the actual driving mileage is on the road, only what the NCAA mileage chart shows.