WBB: Little East

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

As the regular season draws ever closer to the end, the intensity of conference races increases. There are very few teams in both the men's and women's side of Division III basketball that seem comfortable at the top. With conference tournaments starting, being at the top is important, but it also comes with a big target.

This Thursday's Hoopsville is a special podcast edition - not live.

On the show, Dave talks to several coaches who teams seem like they have wrapped up their conferences races and one who may not be able to take the top spot, but is in great position to win it all their first time in the league.

We also talk to a coach who has more time than it seems anyone else. How she is using that time to help her school's SAAC in many ways and how that help is allowing the student-athletes at Southern Maine to give back to the school, the community, and many more.

Hoopsville is presented by D3hoops.com and airs from the WBCA/NABC Studio. You can listen to this week's podcast here: http://bit.ly/2EtvKH0

If you have questions, be sure to email them to hoopsville@d3hoops.com or interact with the show via the social media avenues.

A reminder, Hoopsville will return to live shows on Sunday, February 18, starting at 7:00 p.m. ET.

Guests include (in order of appearance):
- Pete Moran, No. 18 John Carroll men's coach
- Allison Coleman, Sage women's coach
- Samantha Allen, Southern Maine women's coach (WBCA Center Court)
- Trevor Woodruff, No. 13 Scranton women's coach

To get access to all the podcasts during the season, there are three ways (click on the images when necessary):
SoundCloud: www.soundcloud.com/hoopsville



Don't forget you can always interact with us:
Website: www.d3hoopsville.com
Twitter: @d3hoopsville or #Hoopsville
Facebook: www.facebook.com/Hoopsville
Email: hoopsville@d3hoops.com
YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/d3hoopsville

[7express]

So, the top 4 is officially set after Boston beats Maine and Eastern loses to Western: Dartmouth is 1, Boston is 2, Southern Maine is 3, Eastern is 4.  On the bottom half of the bracket, Western & Keene are tied, but due to Western's win over Eastern they currently own the tiebreaker so if both win or both lose Saturday (Western @ Boston, Keene @ Dartmouth) Western wins the 5th seed & Keene will wind up 6.  Plymouth & RIC are currently tied for 7th, but since the 2 teams play each other on Saturday the winner gets the 7 seed, loser to 8th.

[SidelineHero]

New question: How is Mass Boston not regionally ranked at this point?  They should at least be ahead of UNE.

[deiscanton]

New question: How is Mass Boston not regionally ranked at this point?  They should at least be ahead of UNE.

Data from Feb. 14 rankings--

UMass Boston's d3 w/l record through Feb. 11 was 18-3 (.857) (Fisher is NAIA, Dean is a 1st yr provisional school-- wins vs Fisher and Dean are not counted in primary criteria.)

UMass Boston's SOS is .489 in Feb. 14 data sheet.

UMass Boston was 0-2 vs d3 teams ranked in Feb. 7 rankings (both losses to #6 NE UMass Dartmouth)

Univ of New England was 18-5 (.783) through games of Feb. 11, with all of their games counted in primary criteria.

Univ of New England's SOS is .524 in Feb. 14 rankings.

Univ of New England is 1-4 vs d3 teams ranked in Feb. 7 rankings. (1-1 v Roger Williams, losses vs Bowdoin, Tufts, and St Joe's Maine)

No head to head between these two, and both teams beat the same common opponents on their schedules.

Univ of New England gets the edge with a result vs a regionally ranked opponent, plus an SOS above .500

Keep in mind, though, that Univ of New England is ranked #11 in Northeast this week-- therefore, Univ of New England will have to win their conf tournament to get into NCAAs, as would UMass Boston.

[7express]

New question: How is Mass Boston not regionally ranked at this point?  They should at least be ahead of UNE.

Because their schedule is atrocious.  They've really only played 1 good team all season (UMass-Dartmouth) and got crushed twice and their 3rd loss is to a bad Colby team.

[AllStar]

[7express]

This tournament isn't even worth paying attention to.  The top team (Dartmouth) is just so completely far and away better than the others there is absolutely no intrigue at all, and really the 2nd team (Boston) has a big leg up on the other 6 as well that it may not even make 1 of the semifinals worth paying attention to.  The only intrigue worth paying attention to is whether Western or Eastern gets the 4th semifinal spot. 

[AllStar]

[7express]

What a complete surprise, the top 4 seeds all won.  Who didn't see that??

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

The NCAA released the third set of women's basketball regional rankings with few changes from last week's version. This is the final set that we'll see before the Tournament bracket is released on Monday. Full list here: http://d3hoops.com/notables/2018/02/women-regional-rankings-third

[SidelineHero]

The NCAA released the third set of women's basketball regional rankings with few changes from last week's version. This is the final set that we'll see before the Tournament bracket is released on Monday. Full list here: http://d3hoops.com/notables/2018/02/women-regional-rankings-third

How Roger Williams is still ranked ahead of MassDartmouth at this point is beyond me.  If you tell me, "the data..." then guess what?  The algorithm applied to the data is wrong.  MassDartmouth's record is better with a higher SOS.  They have only lost to RRO's.  RWU has three losses now to unranked opp's.  They need to tweak how the criteria is applied!

[deiscanton]

The NCAA released the third set of women's basketball regional rankings with few changes from last week's version. This is the final set that we'll see before the Tournament bracket is released on Monday. Full list here: http://d3hoops.com/notables/2018/02/women-regional-rankings-third

How Roger Williams is still ranked ahead of MassDartmouth at this point is beyond me.  If you tell me, "the data..." then guess what?  The algorithm applied to the data is wrong.  MassDartmouth's record is better with a higher SOS.  They have only lost to RRO's.  RWU has three losses now to unranked opp's.  They need to tweak how the criteria is applied!

The criteria is determined by the DIII Championships Committee and is not just specific to basketball.  It applies to all d3 team sports across the board.

The NCAA has always made it clear that some championship caliber teams may be left out with this criteria.  It is not that the team is not deserving to make the tournament-- it is quite clear to me that both Roger Williams and UMass Dartmouth belong in the field of 64.  However, the ratings percentage index number is not part of the d3 selection criteria. . If we ranked both teams by RPI, both teams RPI numbers would be above .595, and UMass Dartmouth would have a higher RPI number than Roger Williams.

However, one cannot ignore the fact that Roger Williams defeated UMass-Dartmouth in head to head competition this year.  UMass Dartmouth's higher winning pct and SOS numbers are not so significantly higher so as to outweigh the head to head result.

UMass Dartmouth is 2 wins away from their first Little East AQ.  Win on Friday and Saturday-- so that the order of the ranking will not matter.

BTW, only 2 RWU losses of their 4 overall losses are to teams not in this week's regional rankings.  Tufts and Univ of New England are regionally ranked.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

What deiscanton said... and you can remove "algorithm" from the conversation... there isn't one applied to anything. They look at the primary, and secondary if necessary, criteria and make a determination.

The SOS is significant, but so is the head-to-head result. UMD is 0-3 vRRO as Roger Williams is 2-1... that is significant as well. And yes, your only losses are to vRRO teams, but that also means you haven't beaten ranked teams. You have only beaten unranked teams. While Roger Williams may have lost to unranked teams, they have also beaten ranked teams... INCLUDING UMD (again, that's part of the criteria).

Eye test... doesn't matter... a damn bit.

Win the conference and it doesn't matter where they are ranked.

[SidelineHero]

The NCAA released the third set of women's basketball regional rankings with few changes from last week's version. This is the final set that we'll see before the Tournament bracket is released on Monday. Full list here: http://d3hoops.com/notables/2018/02/women-regional-rankings-third

How Roger Williams is still ranked ahead of MassDartmouth at this point is beyond me.  If you tell me, "the data..." then guess what?  The algorithm applied to the data is wrong.  MassDartmouth's record is better with a higher SOS.  They have only lost to RRO's.  RWU has three losses now to unranked opp's.  They need to tweak how the criteria is applied!

The criteria is determined by the DIII Championships Committee and is not just specific to basketball.  It applies to all d3 team sports across the board.

The NCAA has always made it clear that some championship caliber teams may be left out with this criteria.  It is not that the team is not deserving to make the tournament-- it is quite clear to me that both Roger Williams and UMass Dartmouth belong in the field of 64.  However, the ratings percentage index number is not part of the d3 selection criteria. . If we ranked both teams by RPI, both teams RPI numbers would be above .595, and UMass Dartmouth would have a higher RPI number than Roger Williams.

However, one cannot ignore the fact that Roger Williams defeated UMass-Dartmouth in head to head competition this year.  UMass Dartmouth's higher winning pct and SOS numbers are not so significantly higher so as to outweigh the head to head result.

UMass Dartmouth is 2 wins away from their first Little East AQ.  Win on Friday and Saturday-- so that the order of the ranking will not matter.

BTW, only 2 RWU losses of their 4 overall losses are to teams not in this week's regional rankings.  Tufts and Univ of New England are regionally ranked.

Where you and I differ is that to me the SOS is significantly different.  RWU's is equivalent to MassBoston's.  Also RWU now has another loss which now gives MassD an edge in overall record while playing a more difficult schedule.  As for the head to head, yes, RWU won but by two points AT Roger Williams.  Not exactly decisive.  I stand by analysis.  Those who decide got it wrong.  All that being said, I am also happy for RWU and the season they are having. Maybe the Bball gods will set up a rematch. Hmmmmmm

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

I don't think you understand.. what we are explaining to you is how the committee is reading it. They aren't wrong if they are the ones making the decisions based on a system they have been fine-tuning for years. You are reading it how you wish, but you have to understand how it is actually being read.

The head-to-head might have been two points, but it still favors RWU whether you want to understand that or not.

The SOS is significant by the margin of being over .030 and that is an advantage to UMD. However, it doesn't just trump all of the other criteria points. It has the same weight as the head-to-head in RWU's favor.

All five criteria in the primary criteria are equal. If you look across the board, RWU has more criteria in their favor than UMD. Thus, the committee is going to hand this to RWU has they have for several weeks now. And trust me, they are looking over this criteria every single week from scratch. However, the criteria hasn't swung in UMD's favor as of yet, especially not with a 0-3 vRRO and they can't take that loss in head-to-head away.

WL - a wash
SOS - UMD
vRRO - RWU
Comparable games - RWU

It is close, but it is RWU by how the criteria is to be read and factored in. If they were wrong, I would be saying it as well and I would break it down the same way. I don't see how you can give it to UMD when they lead one... ONE category in the primary criteria.