2023 NCAA Tournament

[hopefan]

I missed something that someone probably knows... where is Maryville (Tn) bid... FAQ says USAC gets auto bid???

NC Wesleyan won the USAC title. Maryville is in the newly formed CCS and they don't have a pool A bid for 2 years.

Darn... I see... thanks

[Inkblot]

My annual tournament map: https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1lJtz1Rx1LAGOUsOqywHVqPlFy1ic9zg&usp=sharing

[deiscanton]

The 2023 NCAA DIII Men's Basketball Selection Show from earlier today is now up on Youtube on the official NCAA Championships Channel.

If you had trouble getting through watching the show on ncaa.com, like I did in the middle because the wifi on my computer went down for a few minutes, and as a result, I had to start watching the show all over again from the beginning at 2:30 PM Eastern with no way to fast forward past the first 20 minutes, you can rewatch the show tonight or tomorrow on Youtube-- but I am going to watch the Hoopsville show tonight, first.

[nescac1]

I do think the top four teams across each bracket are fairly close in quality.  But looking deeper the bracket of death this year is pretty clearly the bottom right: two first round match-ups between two top 25 teams.  Plus a very tough HSC-Emory matchup.  The bracket features the #2, 4, 9, 14, 15, 17, 20, 21, and 25th ranked teams.  CNU and St Joe's are definitely teams in the very top group of contenders to win it all and there are 4-5 very strong teams behind them. 

[deiscanton]

Short sleeve and long sleeve jerseys showing the field for the 2023 DIII Men's Basketball first and second rounds are now available to order at event1teamstore.com

Prices range from $32 to $35 for short sleeve jerseys and $40 for long sleeve jerseys.   Sizes are available up to 2xl.

There is no charge for shipping.

A limited number of these shirts should be available for sale this weekend by Event1 at each first/second round site, but ordering these shirts on-line will guarantee that you will get one.  If you order these jerseys on-line, allow 4 weeks for Event1 to custom-make and ship these jerseys to you.

BTW, I ordered a 2xl men's short sleeve jersey last night from the Event1 team store as a keepsake.  (I want to remember the Rochester men's team making the field, even if Nichols beats them on Friday....)

[ziggy]

For those interested in some nitty-gritty for every first round matchup, we went game-by-game using efficiency ratings and put win probabilities and a computer line on every first round game in this week's episode of the D3 Datacast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kS5vGq_YPGM

[HOPEful]

The 2023 NCAA DIII Men's Basketball Selection Show from earlier today is now up on Youtube on the official NCAA Championships Channel.

If you had trouble getting through watching the show on ncaa.com, like I did in the middle because the wifi on my computer went down for a few minutes, and as a result, I had to start watching the show all over again from the beginning at 2:30 PM Eastern with no way to fast forward past the first 20 minutes, you can rewatch the show tonight or tomorrow on Youtube-- but I am going to watch the Hoopsville show tonight, first.

Why does the NCAA do this. Would love the option to get to LIVE if I log on 5 minutes late...

[WUPHF]

Short sleeve and long sleeve jerseys showing the field for the 2023 DIII Men's Basketball first and second rounds are now available to order at event1teamstore.com

Prices range from $32 to $35 for short sleeve jerseys and $40 for long sleeve jerseys.   Sizes are available up to 2xl.

There is no charge for shipping.

Thanks @deiscanton! I have resisted all these years, but I like the design and free shipping so I am going to follow your lead and order.

[Inkblot]

The 2023 NCAA DIII Men's Basketball Selection Show from earlier today is now up on Youtube on the official NCAA Championships Channel.

If you had trouble getting through watching the show on ncaa.com, like I did in the middle because the wifi on my computer went down for a few minutes, and as a result, I had to start watching the show all over again from the beginning at 2:30 PM Eastern with no way to fast forward past the first 20 minutes, you can rewatch the show tonight or tomorrow on Youtube-- but I am going to watch the Hoopsville show tonight, first.

Why does the NCAA do this. Would love the option to get to LIVE if I log on 5 minutes late...

There are ways to fast-forward but they don't make it easy because then you could just skip ahead and see the brackets...

[thebear]

For those interested in some nitty-gritty for every first round matchup, we went game-by-game using efficiency ratings and put win probabilities and a computer line on every first round game in this week's episode of the D3 Datacast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kS5vGq_YPGM

Thanks for doing this.  I did something similar, using win % and SOS, and it tracked pretty closely

Outliers

Christopher Newport had the women's priority, which we all knew about, and are not far from home at Hampden-Sydney, they would have been a top three team to host otherwise.

Williams had a strong enough record and SOS to host a pod; perhaps the committee wants to see how St. Joseph's CT does against the powers in D3.

Not quite sure when MHB got to host over St. Thomas TX, unless the committee went for a slightly bigger facility or there was a conflict.

I suspect Oswego is another school with a strong win %, but a weak SOS, and the committee wanted to make sure they were for real. John Carroll was ranked below them and can bus to Oswego, and could be a great test on the second day.

Emory's 8 losses probably hurt them as far as hosting, plus they are on the south edge of the teams in the tournament; Wash U gives the UAA two of the 16 hosts, and solves a geographic problem for the committee as Sewanee & Coe can both get there fairly easily

St. Joe's is probably hosting the toughest pod, as Williams and Pomona-Pitzer are both good teams.

UW-Oshkosh likely has the weakest pod, with Fontbonne likely the #64 seed at .571 WP% and a .452 SOS, again likely a function of geography and I think Fontbonne had to travel as they had already played Wash U [& Bethany Lutheran] during the season, so wouldn't have been paired in the first round.

Just my humble observations.

[TheOsprey]

Good stuff. +k

[Gregory Sager]

Not quite sure when MHB got to host over St. Thomas TX, unless the committee went for a slightly bigger facility or there was a conflict.

Bigger facility. National committee chair Sara Quatrocky came right out and said it on Hoopsville today. She even said that it was a unanimous decision among all ten committee members.

[Greek Tragedy]

We had a discussion on Twitter about this. St. Thomas' gym holds like 800.

[ziggy]

Not quite sure when MHB got to host over St. Thomas TX, unless the committee went for a slightly bigger facility or there was a conflict.

Bigger facility. National committee chair Sara Quatrocky came right out and said it on Hoopsville today. She even said that it was a unanimous decision among all ten committee members.

Part of me wonders if this was also a bit of a convenient excuse given St. Thomas is new to Division III and this is the first year they were even eligible to participate in the national tournament. I can see that they may prefer St. Thomas gets some experience just playing in the tournament before hosting it, even if they don't want to come out and say it that clearly.

[thebear]

We had a discussion on Twitter about this. St. Thomas' gym holds like 800.

Yeah there's a picture on their website, Maybe you could get 1,000 with standing room, but only about 13 rows on one side.