2014 NCAA Tournament

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Looks like I'll be heading up to Cabrini once again this year.  I was hoping Wesley could host and be closer to me, but Cabrini is just a little over an hour, so not too bad.

Not sure why you had your hopes up for Wesley hosting... they were never hosting even if they were #1 in the region or #1 in the country!

[Pat Coleman]

Looks like I'll be heading up to Cabrini once again this year.  I was hoping Wesley could host and be closer to me, but Cabrini is just a little over an hour, so not too bad.

Not sure why you had your hopes up for Wesley hosting... they were never hosting even if they were #1 in the region or #1 in the country!

And to actually explain why -- it's because Wesley's facility can't host. And they did not bid.

[kiltedbryan]

Wooster was absolutely, positively the #1 team in the final Great Lakes regional rankings and Hope was surely #2. Wash U was absolutely, positively the #1 team in the final Midwest regional rankings and IWU was maybe #2, maybe lower. I think, in the NCAA's eyes, at least, that Wash U and Wooster are the clear #1 and #2 seeds, respectively, in this bracket, with Hope/IWU as flip-a-coin 3/4s.

None of the teams in the Wooster pod are within 500 miles of St. Louis, so Wash U won't host the second weekend even if there's total carnage among the top seeds in the bracket. It's possible, I suppose, that the committee considered the possibility that Wash U's women would host that second weekend and therefore felt comfortable slotting the Wooster pod into this bracket. But that would've required some advanced thinking skills not demonstrated elsewhere by the committee.

But I do think that if the four teams still standing on Saturday can all reach Wooster in 500 miles, Wooster will host due to seeding considerations over IWU or Hope. I think Wash U, St. Norbert and Webster are the three teams that can't reach Wooster without a flight.

In a way, it'd be amazing to see Geneseo State, Penn State-Behrend, Wash U and St. Norbert advance because you'd have two east teams and two west teams with 600+ miles and the entire states of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois in between them any way you measure.

[sac]

Wooster is highest on the bracket, suggests they're next in line to host.  After that IWU.

In order for Hope to host, you'd need WashU to win and probably St. Norbert to win at IWU or someone other than Wooster to win that regional.  Wheaton would be in the mix under the first scenario as well.

Anyone other than Wooster winning would also bring Calvin/Witt/Wilmington into the hosting the next round discussion.

But that would've required some advanced thinking skills not demonstrated elsewhere by the committee.

I think we've found this years motto for the tournament.

[jeffjo]

There will hopefully NEVER be a Bracket of Death to compare to 4-5 years ago - if memory serves, ONE quadrant had 7 of the top 8 teams in the d3hoops poll!!

Round #1 in 2009: 2 v. 20, 8 v. 19, and 21 v. RV; then 1, 3, 4, and 5 playing unranked teams. That's 7 round 1 games involving 9 top-21 teams; #7 Puget Sound got a bye, and then #21. So round #2 also had 2 v. 8, 3 v. 5, and 1 v. 4. Sounds like round 4 to me.

Using Massey final ratings (all I saw in their archive), it was 1 thru 11 missing only #10. That was Augustana, who didn't make it in.

[David Collinge]

Wooster is highest on the bracket, suggests they're next in line to host.  After that IWU.

In order for Hope to host, you'd need WashU to win and probably St. Norbert to win at IWU or someone other than Wooster to win that regional.  Wheaton would be in the mix under the first scenario as well.

Anyone other than Wooster winning would also bring Calvin/Witt/Wilmington into the hosting the next round discussion.

But that would've required some advanced thinking skills not demonstrated elsewhere by the committee.

I think we've found this years motto for the tournament.

Apropos of nothing, it occurs to me that (in no particular order) Calvin, Hope, IWU, and Wooster have some of the very best facilities in all of D3, and I believe these are the top four in average attendance. It's too bad that only one (or none) of them will be able to host a sectional.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Looks like I'll be heading up to Cabrini once again this year.  I was hoping Wesley could host and be closer to me, but Cabrini is just a little over an hour, so not too bad.

Not sure why you had your hopes up for Wesley hosting... they were never hosting even if they were #1 in the region or #1 in the country!

And to actually explain why -- it's because Wesley's facility can't host. And they did not bid.

Yeah, I guess I would know that if I'd ever been there, but that $5 admission is still keeping me away.  I was going to go to the Wesley-St. Mary's regular reason finale (which went to overtime), but we had some sick people in the house, so I stayed home.

[y_jack_lok]

So there is a good chance that we'll have the 2 Sweet 16 games be repeats, even though that could have been avoided by some juggling and careful attention, which was quite lacking on the Great Lakes/Midwest/West side of the bracket.

Same thing could happen in the quadrant that has Randolph-Macon and Virginia Wesleyan.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

So there is a good chance that we'll have the 2 Sweet 16 games be repeats, even though that could have been avoided by some juggling and careful attention, which was quite lacking on the Great Lakes/Midwest/West side of the bracket.

Same thing could happen in the quadrant that has Randolph-Macon and Virginia Wesleyan.

Purchase and Albertus is a repeat - and that's set for round two.

[HOPEful]

Wooster is highest on the bracket, suggests they're next in line to host.  After that IWU.

In order for Hope to host, you'd need WashU to win and probably St. Norbert to win at IWU or someone other than Wooster to win that regional.  Wheaton would be in the mix under the first scenario as well.

Anyone other than Wooster winning would also bring Calvin/Witt/Wilmington into the hosting the next round discussion.

But that would've required some advanced thinking skills not demonstrated elsewhere by the committee.

I think we've found this years motto for the tournament.

Apropos of nothing, it occurs to me that (in no particular order) Calvin, Hope, IWU, and Wooster have some of the very best facilities in all of D3, and I believe these are the top four in average attendance. It's too bad that only one (or none) of them will be able to host a sectional.

Reminds me of a playoff pod a few years back (2007?) with Hope playing Chicago and calvin playing Aurora. It was hosted by Aurora and I remember walking into the gym and thinking "my high school gym was twice this size and twice as nice"... Hope beat calvin the next day, roughly 200 miles away from both schools... Ten years prior, they played each other in Van Andel Arena in downtown Grand Rapids with more than 11,000 fans watching... I believe this is still a D3 record.

Fine line, however. If Hope and calvin meet in the playoffs, the gym should be able to hold all of the people willing to make the 3 hour drive. But, from a "fairness" standpoint, how much should facilities really factor into hosting. Obviously, it's needed to some extent. But the next round should go to Wooster, IWU, or Washington, based on merit. If those don't work because of the 500 mile rule, then Hope/Wheaton.

[lildave678]

Purchase and Albertus is a repeat - and that's set for round two.

Not sure about the other games but this was a late January game too. Not like it was a first semester, pre-conference game.

[John Gleich]

Here's an idea to throw out there...

This committee lacked the creativity to make a bracket that balanced things as well as they could have been balanced, set up a definitive west vs. east championship, gave a bye where it didn't need to be given, etc etc.

They appear to have been in over their heads when it came to the bracketing process.  Also, there was some disagreement with the selection, but let's leave one alone for a bit.


Why does the national committee do the bracketing AND the selection? Why isn't there a second (RESTED, Correctly THINKING, etc etc) committee to set up the brackets? The selection committee has a tough job... weeding through the possible field... and then we expect them to turn around and make intelligent decisions on brackets, given certain restraints (but one of which is NOT balance, creativity, etc)...


I think that the NCAA needs to have two different committees. One to select the teams and a second committee to set up the brackets.

[Pat Coleman]

Wooster is highest on the bracket, suggests they're next in line to host.  After that IWU.

In order for Hope to host, you'd need WashU to win and probably St. Norbert to win at IWU or someone other than Wooster to win that regional.  Wheaton would be in the mix under the first scenario as well.

Anyone other than Wooster winning would also bring Calvin/Witt/Wilmington into the hosting the next round discussion.

But that would've required some advanced thinking skills not demonstrated elsewhere by the committee.

I think we've found this years motto for the tournament.

Apropos of nothing, it occurs to me that (in no particular order) Calvin, Hope, IWU, and Wooster have some of the very best facilities in all of D3, and I believe these are the top four in average attendance. It's too bad that only one (or none) of them will be able to host a sectional.

Reminds me of a playoff pod a few years back (2007?) with Hope playing Chicago and calvin playing Aurora. It was hosted by Aurora and I remember walking into the gym and thinking "my high school gym was twice this size and twice as nice"... Hope beat calvin the next day, roughly 200 miles away from both schools... Ten years prior, they played each other in Van Andel Arena in downtown Grand Rapids with more than 11,000 fans watching... I believe this is still a D3 record.

Fine line, however. If Hope and calvin meet in the playoffs, the gym should be able to hold all of the people willing to make the 3 hour drive. But, from a "fairness" standpoint, how much should facilities really factor into hosting. Obviously, it's needed to some extent. But the next round should go to Wooster, IWU, or Washington, based on merit. If those don't work because of the 500 mile rule, then Hope/Wheaton.

Aurora's gym is a perfectly reasonable Division III gym. The bar should be set even lower than that, frankly, for hosting the tournament.

[sac]

Attendance from that Hope/Calvin game at Aurora was 1800 with some seating blocked off.  It was perfectly acceptable.
http://miaa.org/mbb/stats/0607/0303hoca.htm


In fact at that time, 2000 might have been the 3rd largest Gym in the MIAA.

[Pat Coleman]

Attendance from that Hope/Calvin game at Aurora was 1800 with some seating blocked off.  It was perfectly acceptable.
http://miaa.org/mbb/stats/0607/0303hoca.htm


In fact at that time, 2000 might have been the 3rd largest Gym in the MIAA.

Good point. A first-weekend set of games could be played in buildings of less than half that size, with clearing the gym between games if necessary.