2018 NCAA Tournament

[kiko]

I assume this is also an expense thing, but why the Friday/Saturday contests (rather than Friday/Sunday)?  Last night Neb Wesleyan was the beneficiary of an Aurora team that just had nothing left in the tank. 

I apologize for being a newby, but this feels like a real competitive issue.

That is a missed class time thing.

Aurora and Nebraska Wesleyan had exactly the same number of days between games, so that is on Aurora moreso than the schedule.

Edit:  in summary, What Bob Said...

[njf1003]

Ramapo is hosting top left:
http://ramapoathletics.com/news/2018/3/4/ramapo-to-host-ncaa-mens-basketball-sweet-16.aspx

[Augie6]

Although I know things unfortunately aren't going to change, I can't help but thinking it's a shame that geography plays such a vital role in site determination. That's because the result is often that a team gets it's first four games all at home. If the NCAA wants a true national championship tournament they need to move a percent or two of the multi million dollars they make from the D1 tournament and spent it on a few flights for D3 teams. Otherwise if they allow a team to host both the first two weekends they may just as well call it the (insert team name) Invitational instead of the National Tournament. It just seems inherently unfair to let a team potentially have four home games to get to the Final Four. Any team put in such an advantageous position should be ashamed if they don't make it to Salem.

I understand others might have a differing opinion, and I have no problem with that. I only ask if such is the case, that you please explain your thinking 🤔. Thanks.

Well, then, I guess that all of the men's basketball tournaments that D3 has held since the division's inception in the mid-'70s have not been "true national championship tournaments", because higher seeds have been hosting multiple rounds since the very beginning. What's more, since this model is followed by a large number of the other D3 sports as well for their championships, I guess that the football, volleyball, women's basketball, lacrosse (men's & women's), etc. national championship tournaments have all been fake as well. It seems a shame that so many of us have spent so many years following fake championships, and that so many people over the years have derived so much pleasure from seeing their teams win something that obviously isn't valid. Perhaps some good can come of this, however, by taking all of those Walnut & Bronze trophies that apparently have no value whatsoever to the schools that clearly didn't earn them properly, due to the tournaments being fake, and giving them to other organizations to be re-purposed. I'll bet that, with a little modification, they'd make dandy Employee of the Month trophies for the local Office Depot, Jo-Ann Fabrics, and Burger King franchises located near the schools that won those fake championships.

Since D3 championships are funded on D1's dime, and since D1 owes nothing whatsoever to D3 in return, the desire for D1 to cough up more money to fund either several extra flights or the rental fees for neutral-site sectional venues that will be largely empty constitutes nothing more than wishful thinking. Personally, I'd rather spend my time and energy conversing about pragmatic, real-world aspects of D3 championship tournaments than making conjectures about something that will never happen ... but perhaps that's just me.

I also don't see the point of wishing for more flight money if the purpose is to prevent an "(insert team name) Invitational", because that's a completely separate issue. What's the reasoning behind flying three teams to Walla Walla in that case? Whitman's already hosted a pod. All you're doing is defeating your own purpose, which is to prevent teams from hosting two weekends' worth of games.

I don't see the competitive logic in the other alternative, which would be to award sectional hosting privileges to teams that didn't host first-weekend pods, which means, in effect, disqualifying teams that hosted pods from hosting sectionals. That completely throws seeding right out the window.

As GS points out, this would mean its not "fair" in a lot of other sports, based on your opinion of this situation.  I guess we shouldn't recognize all of the National Championships that Mt. Union has won in football, because a significant number of those came without them playing away from home until the Stagg Bowl.  To say, in any of the sports that follow this same model, that it's not a "true national championship" really diminishes the accomplishments of those teams and, IMO, is not remotely close to being accurate.  Augie went to the championship game last year without hosting a game in the tournament.  The year before, they were at the top of the rankings for most of the year, hosted 4 games at Augie in the NCAA's, but lost in the Sectional final game to St. Thomas.  Did I think it was unfair that they had to play on the road last year?  Absolutely not, because their performance in the regular season leading up to the tourney didn't warrant that happening.  It did in the prior year, but they lost to a very good St. Thomas team (eventual National Champion).  I don't think that team was "ashamed" they didn't make it to Salem.  Disappointed? I'm sure they were, but they had nothing to be ashamed about.

The bottom line is, the NCAA is going to do what they are going to do, regardless of any of our opinions.  During our run of football National Championships in the 80's, we had to go on the road in the playoffs in the 84 and 86 seasons, despite being the higher seed and the defending National Champion.  We didn't really consider that fair, but we also didn't dwell on it, because it wasn't going to change.  National Championship caliber teams find a way to overcome those things and win games. 

[frodotwo]

Unless I missed it somewhere else on the site:

Sweet 16 hosts:

Ramapo
Augustana
Platteville
Swarthmore

http://static.psbin.com/l/9/hi056co0mrg669/mbb-bracket-2018.pdf

[Mr. Mo]

I assume this is also an expense thing, but why the Friday/Saturday contests (rather than Friday/Sunday)?  Last night Neb Wesleyan was the beneficiary of an Aurora team that just had nothing left in the tank. 

I apologize for being a newby, but this feels like a real competitive issue.

That is a missed class time thing.

Aurora and Nebraska Wesleyan had exactly the same number of days between games, so that is on Aurora moreso than the schedule.

Edit:  in summary, What Bob Said...

Having seen all of the games, I would disagree.  Wesleyan had a relative walkover on Friday night, while Aurora played their hearts out in their victory over WashU.

I think Aurora was the better team, but yhey never had a chance in that game.

To not give adequate recovery time to account for game differential is an unfair advantage.

Plenty of time on Sunday to get home for class on Monday morning.

[Greek Tragedy]

Unless I missed it somewhere else on the site:

Sweet 16 hosts:

Ramapo
Augustana
Platteville
Swarthmore

http://static.psbin.com/l/9/hi056co0mrg669/mbb-bracket-2018.pdf

Wow. Not Plattsburgh? No bid? Distance?

[Titan Q]

Wow. Not Plattsburgh? No bid? Distance?

1. Hamilton: .846 (22-4)/.574/6-3  Northeast #4
T2. Swarthmore: .815 (22-5)/.541/3-4 Mid Atlantic #3
T2. Plattsburgh State: .846 (22-4)/.523/3-3  East #1
4. Springfield: .692 (18-8)/.558/4-2 Northeast #6

In terms of seeding of these 4, I think Hamilton is pretty clear #1.  Swarthmore and Plattsburgh State seems like a tie.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

I doubt the committee would comment, but I wonder if this is makeup for Swat getting passed over the first weekend?  They had priority over CNU for the MA region and there was no real reason not to have Swat do it.  This might be giving them the hosting chance they missed last week?

[AndOne]

I assume this is also an expense thing, but why the Friday/Saturday contests (rather than Friday/Sunday)?  Last night Neb Wesleyan was the beneficiary of an Aurora team that just had nothing left in the tank. 

I apologize for being a newby, but this feels like a real competitive issue.

That is a missed class time thing.

Aurora and Nebraska Wesleyan had exactly the same number of days between games, so that is on Aurora moreso than the schedule.

Edit:  in summary, What Bob Said...

Having seen all of the games, I would disagree.  Wesleyan had a relative walkover on Friday night, while Aurora played their hearts out in their victory over WashU.

I think Aurora was the better team, but yhey never had a chance in that game.

To not give adequate recovery time to account for game differential is an unfair advantage.

Plenty of time on Sunday to get home for class on Monday morning.

They never had a chance? I think Lance Robinson and the Aurora players would beg to differ.

[Mr. Mo]

 Perhaps a bad choice of words, but my point was that — with both of their high scoring guards  playing 40 minutes and cramping up on Friday night — it was obvious that their play and their shooting percentages were seriously impacted by the short turnaround.

[Greek Tragedy]

Perhaps a bad choice of words, but my point was that — with both of their high scoring guards  playing 40 minutes and cramping up on Friday night — it was obvious that their play and their shooting percentages were seriously impacted by the short turnaround.

You can't really blame the short turn around or "our game was harder" as an excuse. Augustana ran a track meet on Friday against System team Greenville and still won on Saturday...and they played the late game too.

[kiko]

I assume this is also an expense thing, but why the Friday/Saturday contests (rather than Friday/Sunday)?  Last night Neb Wesleyan was the beneficiary of an Aurora team that just had nothing left in the tank. 

I apologize for being a newby, but this feels like a real competitive issue.

That is a missed class time thing.

Aurora and Nebraska Wesleyan had exactly the same number of days between games, so that is on Aurora moreso than the schedule.

Edit:  in summary, What Bob Said...

Having seen all of the games, I would disagree.  Wesleyan had a relative walkover on Friday night, while Aurora played their hearts out in their victory over WashU.

I think Aurora was the better team, but yhey never had a chance in that game.

To not give adequate recovery time to account for game differential is an unfair advantage.

Plenty of time on Sunday to get home for class on Monday morning.

If Aurora's guards were gassed because they played 40 minutes the night before, that is on Aurora -- whether for conditioning, for not going deeper into their bench, or for not recruiting more players that the coaching staff would feel comfortable playing.  Their Saturday opponent also started two guards on Friday, and they also had to play on Saturday.  There was no unfair advantage here -- it was two teams asked to win under the same back-to-back conditions.

Regarding class time -- a number of teams had flights to return home, some of which were against time zones.  These teams would not have made it back for Monday classes with a Sunday game.  The same holds true for this coming weekend.

[BBJones]

Why don't the Titans get any respect on this site?  They were lampooned in the pre-tournament reviews as well.

[AndOne]

Why don't the Titans get any respect on this site?  They were lampooned in the pre-tournament reviews as well.

Congratulations to Illinois Wesleyan 🏀 

[Winifred Durfee]

The WashU vs. Aurora finish was just posted on Twitter by SportsCenter.

https://twitter.com/SportsCenter/status/970411509523406848