2014 D3 Season: National Perspective

Started by PaulNewman, August 24, 2014, 02:13:42 PM

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Flying Weasel

#1110
But this is an even year.  Men's team have priority to host in the 1st/2nd Rounds when both teams are in the tournament and deserving of hosting.  Next weekend the women have priority for hosting Sectionals.  So the Trinity men shouldn't have been prevented from hosted for that reason, but who knows. 

I can see that the committee was in a bind geographically (travel cost and time) and taking Texas-Dallas helped solve that problem, but don't see why Trinity men wouldn't have hosted.  And if it is because they couldn't make the women's brackets work without the Trinity women hosting, then why not give Trinity men one the byes so they only have the single game on Sunday which isn't a problem with the women hosting.  In that case they still needed a filler team like Texas-Dallas, but Hardin-Simmons could have hosted them in the midweek first round game with the winner travelling to Trinity on Sunday.  And Pomona-Pitzer would be flown to Wheaton instead of Texas as Wheaton wouldn't have the bye if it was awarded to Trinity.  But I now see that Wheaton like Messiah has the women hosting a 4-team pod and the men getting a bye and only hosting a single game on Sunday, so there'd be problems there. 

It would be interesting to know if something else was behind the Trinity men not hosting as was suggested earlier.

Mr.Right

Hmm I have no idea. Maybe the committee overlooked the bye aspect and then the school decided to have their own coin flip because you are right they only have one  turf field and the men would normally host. Does seem almost more odd than UT Dallas getting a Pool C

D3soccerwatcher

Can someone explain to me how a team with 3 losses (Wheaton, IL) gets one of only three byes in the tourney?  The other two teams with byes were undefeated and there are numerous teams between undefeated and 3 losses.

Flying Weasel

Quote from: Ron Boerger on November 11, 2014, 05:28:07 PM
Interesting ... the Texas sub-bracket originally had Trinity-UTD and HSU-Pomona in the first round; per a tweet from Trinity (and confirmed at the UT-D athletics site) that has been changed to UTD-Pomona (first game, 5:00pm Saturday) and Trinity-HSU (7:30 Sat) with the winners meeting Sunday at 5:00pm.

The announcement show and the initial printable bracket both had Texas-Dallas v Pomona-Pitzer and Trinty v Hardin-Simmons.  It is odd that two different team would have made the same error.

PaulNewman

The OWU at Calvin match-up would feature two likely 1st team All-Americans at forward.

Flying Weasel

Quote from: Mr.Right on November 11, 2014, 07:59:48 PM
Hmm I have no idea. Maybe the committee overlooked the bye aspect and then the school decided to have their own coin flip because you are right they only have one  turf field and the men would normally host. Does seem almost more odd than UT Dallas getting a Pool C

Well, if they overlooked the bye option, that's some serious incompetence on their part.  The three byes are major "tools" they have to make the whole bracket work while accomplishing their goal of minimizing travel time and costs (unfortunately, I can't figure out how they could have solved the travel issues completely without taking a somewhat undeserving team like Texas-Dallas).  And the whole reason for predetermined men's or women's hosting priority was to take the decision out of the hands of the schools so they didn't have to deal with the pressures and tensions of having to choose one team over the other.  So if they'd ever throw the decision back to the school it would be in direct conflict with the basis for the policy in the first place.  I'm still leaning towards something else being at work here.

PaulNewman

Quote from: D3soccerwatcher on November 11, 2014, 08:04:25 PM
Can someone explain to me how a team with 3 losses (Wheaton, IL) gets one of only three byes in the tourney?  The other two teams with byes were undefeated and there are numerous teams between undefeated and 3 losses.

I can't attempt a full answer, but maybe these were factors...

They needed to move Wheaton to add some balance to the quads as the the other one already was top-heavy.

Maybe the bye was to smooth over moving them.

Informally, there are some, including me, who consider Wheaton the second best team in the country (at least talent-wise).

They couldn't give it Trinity for reasons that have been hinted but not clarified.

Loras lost a claim to it when they did not win IIAC tournament.

All I can think of.

D3soccerwatcher

NCAC New England - thanks for the reply on Wheaton getting a first round bye - good points.  Still a bit perplexing to me.

Agree that Wheaton (IL) has numerous talented players, but not sure they have a top 2 team.

PaulNewman

Quote from: D3soccerwatcher on November 11, 2014, 08:45:18 PM
NCAC New England - thanks for the reply on Wheaton getting a first round bye - good points.  Still a bit perplexing to me.

Agree that Wheaton (IL) has numerous talented players, but not sure they have a top 2 team.

I think they can be beaten and obviously are far more vulnerable than Messiah, but they are one of the only teams that can match (or come close) to Messiah on size, speed, skill, number of players who either did play D1 or could have, etc, etc.  And like Messiah, OWU, etc they have a very proud tradition and I assume a beloved coach who is coaching in his final NCAA tournament.  They have some early tests -- probably UWW and Wartburg -- but if they reach the Elite 8 I think they would win that game.

D3soccerwatcher

Quote from: NCAC New England on November 11, 2014, 08:53:49 PM
Quote from: D3soccerwatcher on November 11, 2014, 08:45:18 PM
NCAC New England - thanks for the reply on Wheaton getting a first round bye - good points.  Still a bit perplexing to me.

Agree that Wheaton (IL) has numerous talented players, but not sure they have a top 2 team.

I think they can be beaten and obviously are far more vulnerable than Messiah, but they are one of the only teams that can match (or come close) to Messiah on size, speed, skill, number of players who either did play D1 or could have, etc, etc.  And like Messiah, OWU, etc they have a very proud tradition and I assume a beloved coach who is coaching in his final NCAA tournament.  They have some early tests -- probably UWW and Wartburg -- but if they reach the Elite 8 I think they would win that game.

Agree on size, speed, skill, D1 prospects, etc, Wheaton (IL) seems to come close to Messiah.  The biggest difference is style of play - these two teams are very different in that regard.

PaulNewman

#1120
I wonder if that has something to do with that terrible high-speed, 1980s style artificial turf.

FYI, OWU probably is closest to Messiah style-wise, and while they are certainly not small, they are small compared to Messiah and probably don't match what Messiah can do in terms of all 10 players on the field.  Bloecher, though, is a stud.  If you to the OWU website you can watch his great goal against Kenyon about 20 times from several different angles.  That was a tremendously athletic play and finish that few players in the country could have managed.

KnightFalcon

Quote from: NCAC New England on November 11, 2014, 09:19:21 PM
I wonder if that has something to do with that terrible high-speed, 1980s style artificial turf.


If you are referring to Wheaton's field, they actually have a brand new Field Turf surface. A very nice venue with its own unique character. Hosted the Final 4 in 1999 I believe

PaulNewman

Quote from: KnightFalcon on November 11, 2014, 10:18:53 PM
Quote from: NCAC New England on November 11, 2014, 09:19:21 PM
I wonder if that has something to do with that terrible high-speed, 1980s style artificial turf.


If you are referring to Wheaton's field, they actually have a brand new Field Turf surface. A very nice venue with its own unique character. Hosted the Final 4 in 1999 I believe

Brand new as in this year?

D3soccerwatcher

Wheaton's current artificial turf is brand new this year.  More like grass than their previous turf...but still turf unfortunately.

PaulNewman

Quote from: D3soccerwatcher on November 11, 2014, 10:33:26 PM
Wheaton's current artificial turf is brand new this year.  More like grass than their previous turf...but still turf unfortunately.

OK, that's good.  Glad to hear they addressed what was a blemish on an otherwise great venue.

Now, if only Calvin...