2020 NCAA Tournament

[Mr. Ypsi]

The debacle showed up a few years ago when SUNY Geneseo was awarded hosting of the Sectional when somehow the NCAA thought Hope could get there in under 500 miles ... then it was quickly realized the committee had been given bad intel from those above them. The mileage was as if Hope went through Detroit and Canada around the upper part of Lake Erie.

That was changed a few hours later to a school (which I can't remember) in Ohio instead.

They also have to make sure it doesn't use ferries. Back when 200 mikes was the range for a way to be in-region and in-region was the record used and not overall record, the program said Hope and Carthage are less than 200 miles from each other but the only way that was possible was a ferry ride across Lake Michigan, in December.

This is true ...

For an early season football game, or a late season spring sport game, the ferry would be both plausible and pleasant.  In the basketball season, it would be both unpleasant and impossible, since the ferries don't run then!

Before 9-11-2001, cutting thru Canada would be totally reasonable and mileage and time saving.  Since then, while Michigan-born players might well have 'enhanced drivers' licenses', allowing travel into or thru Canada, others might not.  (And it appears that even Michiganders may need full-fledged passports pretty soon.)  My wife and I used to go to Canada 5-6 times as year; we now rarely go (getting into Canada is rarely a problem, and always done very politely, it's getting back to the country we were both born in that is a major hassle! )
 

[thebear]

Try living 25 miles from the border.  For 30+ years we always played a preseason exhibition game against a Canadian team, not any more. That stopped when Border patrol sent half of the Canadian team back home on the way to a scheduled game.   [Bush administration].

[SpringSt7]

On a basketball note---does it feel like this is the first time in a couple of years that we have most of arguably the top 16 teams in the country, minus the usual standard midwest cannibalism?

[thebear]

13 of the 16 are D-III hoops top 20.
Hobart, Christopher Newport, and Whitworth are the others, should be a great week.

[TheOsprey]

I probably wouldn't say the 16 best teams. However, they are in the sweet sixteen from what is probably the most difficult overall opening round games I have ever witnessed!
Go DIII.

[Greek Tragedy]

13 of the 16 are D-III hoops top 20.
Hobart, Christopher Newport, and Whitworth are the others, should be a great week.

Pomona-Pitzer got two votes in the last regular season poll.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Question(s) about the All Start voting announcement just posted.

1> It states that "The game will be played on March 20 at xxx p.m. ET, prior to the NCAA Division III men's basketball championship game."  Will it be that weekend in Fort Wayne?  Or two weeks later in Atlanta?

2> It states that the list of players will be from a "list with eight top senior student-athletes whose team is no longer participating in the NCAA Tournament."  Will that list be updated as teams get knocked out of the tournament? Not my Pirates of course 

Sorry - us anal-retentive accountants want to know these details...

We will fix that. It is ahead of the semifinals on Saturday in Fort Wayne.

I just can't remember the game time.

[SpringSt7]

I probably wouldn't say the 16 best teams. However, they are in the sweet sixteen from what is probably the most difficult overall opening round games I have ever witnessed!
Go DIII.

Definitely not the best 16 teams---I don't know if that will ever be possible with the current regional set-ups (not a complaint). But with all things considered, we are set up for some really nice matchups down the stretch, thanks to a relatively upset free first weekend.

[Greek Tragedy]

Relatively upset free? HALF of the 1st weekend hosts were knocked out. Wooster, JHU and Stevens lost the 1st night.

[SpringSt7]

Relatively upset free? HALF of the 1st weekend hosts were knocked out. Wooster, JHU and Stevens lost the 1st night.

Losing as a host does not necessarily mean that they were upsets, or huge, huge upsets. Platteville losing to St. Thomas, Emory losing to Pomona, Springfield to Hobart, etc., those are maybe surprising outcomes, but a lot of those games are essentially coin flips. We can't consider the 16 hosts to be the top 16 seeds like we could if this was Division 1.

With that being said, I just checked last year's bracket and it was much more upset-free than I recall, so maybe this is a bit of an overreaction, or I probably still have the first weekend of 2018 etched into my memory forever. My overall point was that we were able to hang on to almost all of the teams that have a real shot at winning the National Championship. Wooster and Stevens weren't going to win 6 games in a row.

[CNU85]

unranked CNU beat #11 Colby

[SpringSt7]

unranked CNU beat #11 Colby

As a Williams fan, that wasn't an upset. 

[CNU85]

unranked CNU beat #11 Colby

As a Williams fan, that wasn't an upset. 

[WUPHF]

Increasingly, it seem as though Johns Hopkins was leading the way rather than overacting...

There could very few basketball games played in front of crowds this weekend, but time will tell.

[sac]

At some point there will be a moment when people go........Oh, thats why.