2018 NCAA Tournament

[Gregory Sager]

As I said the other day, you people should've invited NWU into your league thirty years ago.

[FCGrizzliesGrad]

Cooper Cook the Tournament MVP

[Gregory Sager]

Well-deserved, although I think that they could've given it to Nate Schimonitz or Jack Hiller as well. NWU has so much balance that it's hard to sort out the individual accolades sometimes.

[TheOsprey]

Great way to end a great tournament.  Congratulations to NWU!! 

I cannot understand how UWO did not win the WIAC. Great season.

Would not be surprised to see a rematch in this game next year.  Augie and MIT could have a say.

God I live D-3!!

[TheOsprey]

IL-Chicago to the Sweet Sixteen.  March Madness continues!!

[NCF]

IL-Chicago to the Sweet Sixteen.  March Madness continues!!

What a shot to win it!!

[AndOne]

Congrats to my alma mater, the Nebraska Wesleyan Prairie Wolves (née Plainsmen) on their National Championship! 
The green beer will be flowing freely amid the numerous celebrations which will no doubt be taking place tonight around the NWU campus, and at various quaffing establishments in the Pleasure Capital of the Plains, otherwise known as Lincoln. 

[Gregory Sager]

I enjoyed PBP man Lincoln Rose in the postgame show saying that working with Dave and Pat was the coleman-nation of his play-by-play assignments this year.

[AllStar]

Congratulations Nebraska Wesleyan!

[Greek Tragedy]

Congrats to my alma mater, the Nebraska Wesleyan Prairie Wolves (née Plainsmen) on their National Championship! 
The green beer will be flowing freely amid the numerous celebrations which will no doubt be taking place tonight around the NWU campus, and at various quaffing establishments in the Pleasure Capital of the Plains, otherwise known as Lincoln. 

You went to Nebraska Wesleyan? 

Congrats to the Prairie Wolves.

[AndOne]

Congrats to my alma mater, the Nebraska Wesleyan Prairie Wolves (née Plainsmen) on their National Championship! 
The green beer will be flowing freely amid the numerous celebrations which will no doubt be taking place tonight around the NWU campus, and at various quaffing establishments in the Pleasure Capital of the Plains, otherwise known as Lincoln. 

You went to Nebraska Wesleyan? 

Congrats to the Prairie Wolves.

Somehow I knew that question was coming sooner or later, AND who it would be coming from! 
    😏

[Ralph Turner]

Whether UW-Oshkosh or Nebraska Wesleyan, this will be the 30th national title won by a school in the "midwest" states in 44 years of the Division III MBB tournament. Titles have come from:

- Wisconsin 12
- Illinois 6
- Ohio 4
- Michigan 2
- Missouri 2
- Minnesota 2
- Indiana 1

After tonight, 9 of the last 11 titles will have come from this part of the country.

Bob's doing his best to make sure that he cuts down on his holiday season mail flow by not getting any Christmas cards from NESCAC fans.

(But, hey, I've pointed out this same tendency in past years on d3boards.com. As I said here yesterday, I typically cheer for the midwestern teams in the Final Four ... and I'm usually pleased by the results.)

Hoping for a close, well played game with the Walnut & Bronze going home to Nebraska.

It would be the farthest west that the Walnut & Bronze has ever gone ... although the same can't be said of The Belt^TM, of course, of which NWU is currently in at least overnight possession after taking It^TM from Springfield. The Belt^TM has actually been to the West Coast more than once.

Nebraska Wesleyan would also be the first of the so-called "island schools" of D3 to win the national championship, so I'm sure that the Prairie Wolves are being cheered on in such distant precincts as Presque Isle, Maine; Hancock, Michigan; Santa Cruz, California; Colorado Springs, Colorado; and Abilene, Texas ... eh, Ralph?

...and Alpine TX or even the entire West Coast.  I think that any team that must fly for the first 2 weekends is an "island" team for practical purposes.

I look back at all of those Pool B posts about NebWes. Now they have made it!

[Ralph Turner]

Wait, what??? A team from the mediocre IIAC won the title. Unreal.

Congrats to Nebraska Wesleyan, way to represent your school and your LEAGUE.

As I said the other day, you people should've invited NWU into your league thirty years ago.

Tongue-in-cheek  and mild ribbing... or an outstanding team from a mediocre league?      I have been a big proponent of the conferences and I am glad that Neb Wes was accepted by the IIAC, even without a travel partner from Nebraska, e.g., a Doane, etc.

Congrats Neb Wes and to the IIAC

[Ralph Turner]

How about this?

1996, 1st year in Salem -- Rowan: Brown and Gold
2018, last year in Salem -- Neb Wes: Brown, Gold and Black

After all those years of purple ...

[Gregory Sager]

Interesting point, Ralph. I hadn't thought about the color connection between Rowan and NebWes, even though Pat and Dave kept going on in yesterday's broadcast about the purple-clad teams that have dominated in Salem over the past two decades.

The reason why I keep bringing up, half tongue-in-cheek, that the IIAC should've invited NebWes into the league three decades ago is because that four-year span in the mid-'80s in which the Plainsmen (as they were known then) reached the Final Four three times took place in an era in which NebWes was an independent, having left the Nebraska Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (precursor to the NAIA league, the GPAC, which NebWes recently left in favor of the IIAC) to which it would later return. It would've been the perfect opportunity for the ever-woebegone IIAC to invite NWU into the fold.