Big Dance 2022 - Let's Go!

[Christan Shirk]

Has any LEC team ever gotten an at-large bid in the history of the tournament?  Of course one might also ask if any LEC team previously has been 20-0-2.

I'm guessing NO to the first question...unless maybe Keene State back in the day or maybe ECSU.

So, the answer is YES.  In 2010, Eastern Connecticut St. (13-3-3 pre-NCAA's) received a Pool C at-large berth with Keene St. (14-4-2 pre-NCAA's) winning the conference tournament and AQ as the #1 seed.  Eastern Connecticut was ranked #6 in the NCAA Regional Rankings for New England, behind four NESCAC teams and Babson.  Keene St was ranked #12.

[PaulNewman]

Wow...with Cristan's help found other stories behind the stories.

Keene St and ECSU finished at the top of the LEC that year.  The semis were wild.  ECSU "lost" in PKs to RIC in one semi, and Keene beat UMass-Dartmouth, TWICE.  Yes, twice.  UMass-Dartmouth apparently had a successful challenge of a goal in their first semi, which led to them playing a fresh 90 minutes.  I don't remember that at all but I do recall Keene going down to Muhlenberg and losing 1st round 2-0 because  kid from our high school played for Keene and his family was begging me to watch the game on livestream which I'm pretty sure I had never used before.

Here's what Keene coach Butcher said after Keene prevailed in conference tourney, beating RIC in the final...

The victory gives Keene State (14-4-2) its sixth Little East Tournament title and its first crown since 2006.  Rhode Island College, which won the LEC championship in 2008, goes to 10-7-2.  The Owls will find out about their NCAA tournament opponent later tonight. KSC will bring a six game winning streak into the NCAAs.

The Owls won the championship the hard way, having to replay their semifinal game against UMass-Dartmouth after the Corsairs protested a goal in their first meeting. "Playing three 90 minute games in five days really takes a toll on you," said Sisco. "This week has been super emotional and been a real test of our togetherness as a team."

"Everybody said you can't do it, but people don't' understand this team," said Butcher.  "We may be short in some places or lacking a little bit of talent, but we never stop running.  And they believed in themselves.  We could see before the game that they were going to persevere."

So ECSU got an at-large, beat Nichols in the 1st round and lost at Bowdoin to Bowdoin 2-1 in the 2nd round.

[PaulNewman]

And oddly enough a couple of weeks ago I was thinking about Keene and how to my knowledge they are one of only two D3 teams named the Owls. 

Now the great thing about this board is that Sager or FW within the next half-hour will list four other D3s that are Owls lol.

[northman]

And oddly enough a couple of weeks ago I was thinking about Keene and how to my knowledge they are one of only two D3 teams named the Owls. 

Now the great thing about this board is that Sager or FW within the next half-hour will list four other D3s that are Owls lol.

And how the heck did Ohio Northern come up with the Polar Bears as their mascot?  Bowdoin came by their mascot name quite legitimately:


The Peary–MacMillan Arctic Museum is a museum located in Hubbard Hall at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. Named after Arctic explorers and Bowdoin College graduates Robert E. Peary and Donald B. MacMillan, it is the only museum in the lower 48 states of the United States dedicated completely to Arctic Studies.

[northman]

On a related note...when players, coaches, family members and fans traveled down to San Antonio for the Final Four in 2010...Bowdoin played Lynchburg in one semi.  Some of the Bowdoin moms were wearing these cute furry polar bear hats with ear flaps in the 80+ degree heat.  Some local middle school kids got out of school to come to the game, and the moms loaned them their hats.  It was great to see these young Texas kids, many of them Hispanic, wearing these polar bear hats and having a great time!

[SierraFD3soccer]

Follow on Christian Shirk's post and how to increase a league's exposure to possible multiple entries in the NCAAs.

According to the post ODAC has 6 Pool C bids.  Recently, as W&L won the ODAC and Lynchburg performed reasonably well, Lynchburg/ODAC earned one of those bids.  Before this year, W&L earned 3 of these C bids during Mike Singleton's 9 year tenure (7 times in the NCAA's- only his first year and the COVID year did they not appear) and Roanoke earned one in 2019 when W&L won the ODAC. I am not sure about the one other time.  Only once, 2018, did W&L lose in the first round to Hopkins in pks.

Mostly, before Singleton arrived at W&L, ODAC only ever sent its champ to the NCAAs except for one time. Now, ODAC consistently sends two. When Singleton arrived, W&L began scheduling difficult non-conf. games. Two years into his time, W&L won the ODACs and made the second round of NCAAs. The third year of Singleton, which most likely is when he was able to more fully schedule his non-conf. games. W&L went 13-4-2 with ties against F&M and wins against Emory and CNU.  They lost Lynchburg in the ODAC final. This year they earned a Pool C bid and made to the Sweet 16.  In 2016, they won their 1st round game against St. Law.  Prior to 2016 and in its entire history, W&L had only made it the NCAAs twice (2000 and 1989). 

So, one can argue, that by stepping up its non-conf. schedule and winning a few games in the NCAAs, W&L (along with high performing ODAC teams) is now consistently sending two to the NCAAs as it has impressed Pool C officials.  Further, W&L going to the round of 16 in 2019 and semis last year, this may continue for ODAC and W&L.

There might be other examples of this out there, but am not aware.  I was on the W&L team under the previous coach back in the mid 80's. 

[jknezek]

Man... between AnotherMom, Bucket (alum I believe though more involved with the NESCAC now), SierraFD3soccer and myself, I'm feeling like W&L is well represented with participation on the soccer forum. I have carried the load, mostly on the football boards but generally across all the sports, for more than a decade.

And yes, I agree with Sierra's post. Coach Singleton changed the direction, focus, and success of the program in a myriad of ways, but scheduling and challenging the players seems to have been a significant factor. I loved Coach P., he did right by me and I've told the story several times. But Coach S. has turned the program from a consistent ODAC competitor to a consistent regional competitor and, if we can follow on from last year for a few more years, I'm hopeful for a consistent national competitor.

[d4_Pace]

It's interesting that the sentiment now after the fact seems to be nearly 100% in W CT's favor.  A week or so before the selections no one was actually predicting a bid for them.  I borderline endorsed a bid around that time and got a reply that presumed I was joking.

Not saying this was the intent, but the cmte inserting W CT in the rankings week 3 was a bit of tease, opening the door just enough to think W CT might jump Hamilton.  Not many actually seemed to think that would happen.  But now after the fact we're all aghast.

I think I was pretty clear when the regional rankings came out that I didn't think W Conn was going to make the tourney as a pool C. Whether or not its fair is hard to say. Winning 20 games is impressive, but  who knows if they would have done so against better competition. Their situation is similar to the St. Joes teams of a few years ago. We ultimately played them in the tourney one year, (a 0-0 tie) and I would say they were about the level of a Colby or Bates that would finish 8th or 9th in the NESCAC.

I know Tufts struggled to find a 15th team to play this year which is why they ended up having to go play at UMaine Farmington. Maybe W Conn could set up a home and away with Tufts. It would be a fairly easy trip for both teams.

[SierraFD3soccer]

Man... between AnotherMom, Bucket (alum I believe though more involved with the NESCAC now), SierraFD3soccer and myself, I'm feeling like W&L is well represented with participation on the soccer forum. I have carried the load, mostly on the football boards but generally across all the sports, for more than a decade.

And yes, I agree with Sierra's post. Coach Singleton changed the direction, focus, and success of the program in a myriad of ways, but scheduling and challenging the players seems to have been a significant factor. I loved Coach P., he did right by me and I've told the story several times. But Coach S. has turned the program from a consistent ODAC competitor to a consistent regional competitor and, if we can follow on from last year for a few more years, I'm hopeful for a consistent national competitor.

Absolutely.  I did leave out an element that is very important in my mind.  W&L being flush with money.  Without W&L being willing to pay for the travel of the team and recruitment trips for the coaches, the team probably would not be where it is as well. Further, W&L being a top ranked academic college also contributes to its success.

Funny also, that one of W&L's first big non-conf. games was F&M where my son currently plays.  He actually got in ED to W&L, but we could not afford the $70K plus (now over 80K) per year with two younger kids.  This is all another sad story and he would have loved to play for Singleton.  Fortunately, he has had a successful career.

As to Coach Piranian, he gave me a shot. PTBAG

[Hopkins92]

hey all - i knew last year someone created a bracket, but haven't seen it yet. i went ahead and created a pool for this season, feel free to join here.

https://www.runyourpool.com/p/j/8da271f5b60243f586c393ea94dc3b62

let me know if you have any thoughts or questions!

This needs more folks!! There are 12 in there right now... It's a really nice platform, just fyi.

[Hopkins92]

Is there seeding in this and if so, is it done on regional rankings? And not knowing the geography all that well, at what stage could teams have to travel long distances, i.e. fly for a game?

The team listed first for each game is considered the favorite, higher seed, right?

No one ever responded to this... I think so?

When you look at Massey, there are two instances where the team listed first is not ranked higher in Massey: MHB (30) v. Pac Lu (20) and Rowan (42) v. Middlebury (5).

But in most other cases, it does appear the "favored" team is listed first.  (Tough to really say with Williams and NYU, for example, where they're only 5 spots apart in Massey, and likely just as close from the committee's view point.)

[Gregory Sager]

And oddly enough a couple of weeks ago I was thinking about Keene and how to my knowledge they are one of only two D3 teams named the Owls. 

Now the great thing about this board is that Sager or FW within the next half-hour will list four other D3s that are Owls lol.

Keene State
Kenyon
UMPI
Rowan
Westfield State

That's the five D3 schools nicknamed Owls.

Sorry that I didn't meet the deadline, but I just logged in.

[SierraFD3soccer]

hey all - i knew last year someone created a bracket, but haven't seen it yet. i went ahead and created a pool for this season, feel free to join here.

https://www.runyourpool.com/p/j/8da271f5b60243f586c393ea94dc3b62

let me know if you have any thoughts or questions!

This needs more folks!! There are 12 in there right now... It's a really nice platform, just fyi.

Done.

[Gregory Sager]

And oddly enough a couple of weeks ago I was thinking about Keene and how to my knowledge they are one of only two D3 teams named the Owls. 

Now the great thing about this board is that Sager or FW within the next half-hour will list four other D3s that are Owls lol.

And how the heck did Ohio Northern come up with the Polar Bears as their mascot?

Here's how.

[PaulNewman]

It's interesting that the sentiment now after the fact seems to be nearly 100% in W CT's favor.  A week or so before the selections no one was actually predicting a bid for them.  I borderline endorsed a bid around that time and got a reply that presumed I was joking.

Not saying this was the intent, but the cmte inserting W CT in the rankings week 3 was a bit of tease, opening the door just enough to think W CT might jump Hamilton.  Not many actually seemed to think that would happen.  But now after the fact we're all aghast.

I think I was pretty clear when the regional rankings came out that I didn't think W Conn was going to make the tourney as a pool C. Whether or not its fair is hard to say. Winning 20 games is impressive, but who knows if they would have done so against better competition. Their situation is similar to the St. Joes teams of a few years ago. We ultimately played them in the tourney one year, (a 0-0 tie) and I would say they were about the level of a Colby or Bates that would finish 8th or 9th in the NESCAC.

I know Tufts struggled to find a 15th team to play this year which is why they ended up having to go play at UMaine Farmington. Maybe W Conn could set up a home and away with Tufts. It would be a fairly easy trip for both teams.

We do know how they would have done against better competition.  The short answer is...not as well.  The key, then, is to what extent a situation like there's should come down to that.  Should they have to be at a level where they would finish top 5 in NESCAC?  This is where some would say teams like that just need to go win their AQ.  Others of us think there should be room for teams like W CT regardless of how we believe they might have fared against a schedule laced with several heavyweights.