PAC

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Women's first regional rankings of the season are out: http://www.d3hoops.com/notables/2018/02/women-regional-rankings-first

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

New women's regional rankings: http://www.d3hoops.com/notables/2018/02/women-regional-rankings-second

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

The NCAA released the third set of women's basketball regional rankings with few changes from last week's version. This is the final set that we'll see before the Tournament bracket is released on Monday. Full list here: http://d3hoops.com/notables/2018/02/women-regional-rankings-third

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

The Road to Rochester and Salem are nearly complete. Only thing left is to actually hit the road and get the teams, media, fans, and others to their respective championships.

It was a thrilling and, maybe, shocking Sectionals Weekend in Division III. For the women, quite a few exciting games, but four of the top five teams in the country advanced to the Championship Weekend.

Not so much on the men's side. Only one ranked team is headed to Salem. Two weren't even receiving votes in the last Top 25 poll. And two have never been to the final four. Only one host got out of their own gym by cutting down their own nets. It was crazy.

On Sunday night's episode of Hoopsville, Dave and guests try and break down what happened this weekend and what we might be able to expect in Rochester and Salem. Who came up big, who had the bounces go their way, and more. Guests from four of the eight teams will also discuss their roads and initial thoughts on knowing they are two wins away from a national championship.

Hoopsville is presented by D3hoops.com and airs from the WBCA/NABC Studio. You can watch the show LIVE starting at 7:00 p.m. ET (did you set your clocks back?) right here: http://bit.ly/2p2BbqB

If you have questions, be sure to email them to hoopsville@d3hoops.com or interact with the show via the social media avenues below.

Guests include (in order of appearance):
- Pat Juckem, No. 24 UW-Oshkosh men's coach
- Ashley Shibles, No. 5 Bowdoin women's coach
- Jeff Hans, No. 3 Thomas More women's coach
- Dale Wellman, Nebraska Wesleyan men's coach
- Ryan Scott, D3hoops.com Around the Nation columnist
- Pat Cunningham, Trinity (Texas) men's coach (NABC All-Star Game)

If you enjoy the show via the podcasts instead, you can get access to them or subscribe one of the three following ways (click on the images when necessary):
SoundCloud: www.soundcloud.com/hoopsville



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[saratoga]

Seems like not too many tears have been shed with the announcement of Thomas More joining that bandit organization also known as the NAIA.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

If and when they join ... they are accepted and have already announced it wouldn't happen until at least 2019-20... giving them a final year to try and find a new home.

But the PAC wasn't shedding a tear when they left the conference LOL

[Enginerd]

#1 - Heard 3rd hand that the PAC kicked them out and allowed them to resign to save face - really not something the PAC wants to air out anyway - probably just ready to be done with it for many reasons. Time, money, ridiculous competitive disadvantage competing against an NAIA program LoL
#2 - Could it be that the NCAA came down so hard on them because the whole apartment/Moss thing was just what they could most easily prove?

[Pat Coleman]

Your No. 1 seems to be the understood-but-unofficial story of what happened.

2 is pure speculation. Who knows?

[Enginerd]

They are in a black hole, geographically-speaking. The NCAC and SAA see themselves as high-academic conferences, so not an option. Gotta believe that they tried the HCAC and OAC and must have been turned down-because we would have heard about it long ago otherwise. SLIAC already has an outlier in Spalding and no one would ever again play in the NCAA Tournament in any sport from the SLIAC if they let TMC in anyway, plus no football in the SLIAC. The USA-South already has 1.2 million member schools and, after the short trips to Berea and Maryville, the next closest schools are probably Brevard at 5.5 hours and Agnes Scott (can't wait for THAT WBB matchup!) at 6.

OAC and HCAC are literally their only options for remaining a D-III institution - and it's a real stretch to imagine either one giving it anything more than a chuckle.

Philosophically, doesn't D-II make more sense for TMC? They want to be seen as an elite school - and sports is the driving force behind trying to forge that identity. The NAIA has been bleeding schools for years. Hell, I'll bet 90% of all D-II schools were NAIA prior to 1988. The NAIA just whittled basketball down from two divisions to one and tried to spin it as a good thing. I've always thought of today's NAIA as being made up of basically three types of schools:
 - Church schools that want to avoid playing on Sundays and don't care if their athletes miss class to do so (take your pick)
 - Schools that cannot pass muster with the NCAA due to academic and/or financial reasons (Rust, Voorhees, Edward Waters, Florida Memorial)
 - Schools that are isolated either geographically (USC Beaufort) or have nowhere else to go (apparently Thomas More)

[Pat Coleman]

And the HCAC members have had their chance to include Thomas More in the past and have declined.

The financial outlay to participate in NCAA Division II is fairly significant, and they would need a D-II conference to sponsor them in order for them to apply for membership. One of the best possibilities just gave an open spot to Benedictine, instead.

Another question is what kind of candidate for D-II Thomas More would make while it's on probation in Division III.

[Pat Coleman]

The OAC should want Thomas More for competitiveness purposes, but of course, the OAC has 10 schools and an 11th would cause all sorts of problems in terms of scheduling.

Thomas More just has baggage that I can see would cause conferences to think twice.

[saratoga]

Enginerd:

Good points but I think Pat is correct...NCAA DII is still the NCAA and they will continue to make T. More's life uneasy for as long as they can.

In all honesty, Thomas More probably started their audition for NAIA membership about 8 years ago.

Schools in Kentucky sure have a thing for testing the NCAA & it never does quite work out for them.

[Enginerd]

Speaking of KY schools. It will be interesting to see how long it takes Berea to start winning big (and pissing everyone off) due to the fact that everyone goes there for free. I didn't pay much attention but I think they were probably the best team in the USA South this year by far but were ineligible. When a school goes D-III there is always a noticable drop-off in talent (see Covenant, Pfeiffer and Brevard) but you won't see that at Berea. They will win a national championship in SOMETHING sooner rather than later. I wouldn't be surprised to hear they tried the OAC and HCAC as well. That's a BRUTAL drive from Berea to Raleigh, NC.