2023 NCAA Tournament

[SpringSt7]

St. Thomas has plenty of grad programs but I can't fault former D3hoops.com national Rookie of the Year Anders Nelson for going to William and Mary.

Fully aware that only makes him at best the No. 2 former D3hoops.com Rookie of the Year of all time.

My bad on that. University of St. Thomas...maybe I should've known better. I do wonder if there was a D3 connection that facilitated Nelson ending up at W&M however, between St. Thomas associate HC Mike Maker, the former head coach of Williams, and former Williams assistant, Dane Fischer, now the head coach at William & Mary...hopefully for another year.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

St. Thomas has plenty of grad programs but I can't fault former D3hoops.com national Rookie of the Year Anders Nelson for going to William and Mary.

Fully aware that only makes him at best the No. 2 former D3hoops.com Rookie of the Year of all time.

He was only ROY because none of you believed me that the best freshman in the country was playing for a 19 win Skyline conference also-ran.

[SpringSt7]

In D1 basketball, all but 1 of the national champions since 2002 have had a combined KenPom adjusted offensive and adjusted defensive efficiency that adds up to less than 50, i.e, the 1st ranked offense and the 48th ranked defense, or the 24th ranked offense and the 25th ranked defense.

I took Matt Snyder's rankings and applied the same thing to this year's field---offense is listed first, followed by defense, and then sorted by the total:

1. Oswego St. 3-6-9
2. Randolph Macon 8-2-10
3. St. Joseph's CT 13-1-14
4. Christopher Newport 4-18-22
5. Keene St. 18-11-29
6. Hampden-Sydney 10-21-31
7. Johns Hopkins 32-3-35
8. Williams 16-20-36
9. Swarthmore 7-42-49
10. UW Oshkosh 37-12-49
11. Mount Union 17-33-50

Note: Guilford (45-4-49) would have met the criteria if they made the tournament.

Checking in on this: 9 of the 11 teams listed advanced to the Sweet 16, which is the maximum number as Christopher Newport and Hampden-Sydney played against each other and so too did Williams and St. Joe's.

[thebear]

Former D-3 player [Wesleyan] and head coach [Clarkson, Hamilton] Tobin Anderson advances to the NCAA tournament with his FDU squad.  His team lost at Merrimack by a point, but Merrimack is in the process of moving up from D2 to D1 so FDU got the auto-bid, [and probably will be in a 16 seed play-in game].

Former D3 player [Potsdam] Tim Welsh was the color analyst on the game.

[Greek Tragedy]

If my Lakeland math is correct, there are 38 teams in this year's field that weren't in the tournament last year.

[hopefan]

8 games for the round of 16... 4 starting in the 4:00 Eastern Hour, 4 in the 7:00 hour

Sitting at my computer, if I had to pick one game to watch in each time slot, I'd go with Wheaton - St Joe's early, Randy - Oswego late

However, I guarantee I'll be switching around to all 4 in each slot as long as the games remain close in score!!!

[SpringSt7]

The early start seems like it makes a lot less sense for the second weekend than it does for the first weekend. Having 4 Sweet 16 games going off right now just seems counterproductive. I would have done two

[Greek Tragedy]

Wow. Whitewater extends the game just enough to force OT. JHU makes a FT with 3 seconds to go, Whitewater tosses a long ball in, nearly going out of bounds, but a Whitewater player saves it and throws it to near the top of the 3-point line and Devin Barnstable is fouled with .3 seconds left...makes both FTs to tie the game and send it into OT.

[Gregory Sager]

Wow. Whitewater extends the game just enough to force OT. JHU makes a FT with 3 seconds to go, Whitewater tosses a long ball in, nearly going out of bounds, but a Whitewater player saves it and throws it to near the top of the 3-point line and Devin Barnstable is fouled with .3 seconds left...makes both FTs to tie the game and send it into OT.

JHU missed six -- count 'em, six -- free throws in the last 41 seconds of regulation and blew a six-point lead in that short span. Can't do that in the Sweet Sixteen and expect to advance.

[thebear]

Bit of a surprise - Halftime at Ashland VA, Oswego 38, RMC 26.  Soph Akhee Anderson leads the Lakers with 16 first half points.

[stlawus]

Doesn't look like RMC is used to getting beat off the dribble as much as they have been this game. 

[SpringSt7]

Apologies as I have only seen this year's RMC in small spurts, but is there offense always this, um, static?

[thebear]

Oswego is very athletic defensively, Sparks, Anderson, Green are all tough matchups, with their length and quickness.

Nice win for the Lakers.  Congrats to Coach Leone and his charges.  Toughest possible environment and they came away with the W and ended a 63 game home court win streak.

[Greek Tragedy]

Wow. Whitewater extends the game just enough to force OT. JHU makes a FT with 3 seconds to go, Whitewater tosses a long ball in, nearly going out of bounds, but a Whitewater player saves it and throws it to near the top of the 3-point line and Devin Barnstable is fouled with .3 seconds left...makes both FTs to tie the game and send it into OT.

JHU missed six -- count 'em, six -- free throws in the last 41 seconds of regulation and blew a six-point lead in that short span. Can't do that in the Sweet Sixteen and expect to advance.

True. But the two fouls at the end of regulation and OT that gave Whitewater FTs were a bit generous, in my opinion.

[ronk]

Nugget from the RMC PBP guy during the Whitewater/JHU game: JHU's Jayden Dixon played on Virginia's national championship team a few years ago; may be 1st to go from D1 champion to D3.