No surprise as D3hoops #21 Plattsburgh State is chosen to host a first round pod of 4 teams in the NCAA tournament. The Cardinals will play D3hoops #22 Nichols State, from Dudley Massachusetts, winner of the Commonwealth Coast Conference 's automatic bid. Nichols was 25-3 this year and is a repeat entry into the NCAA as they were in the tournament last year. They beat a favored Neumann team in the first round and then lost to conference foe, Endicott, who they were playing for the 4th time, (twice in the regular season, once in the conference playoffs and then in the 2nd round of the NCAA tournament.)
Nichols has a big time scorer on their team, Marcos Echevarria and 4 other guys that all average double figures. They average over 91 ppg and give up 76 ppg. There should be plenty of points scored in this matchup.
The big surprise of the day and a pleasant one, was Brockport State getting an at large bid into the tournament and the Hobart Statesmen getting left at home. Apparently the national committee that awards the at large bids thought that Brockport had enough things in its favor to put them over Hobart. Brockport had a slightly higher SOS that Hobart, .529 to .524, and Hobart also had a 1-2 record against regionally ranked opponents, while the Golden Eagles were 3-3 in that category. I'm sure they also felt the head to head win of Brockport over Hobart had considerable merit.
Happy to see two YAC teams dancing. Didn't anticipate that happening after Oneonta Bulled its way into the championship game. (And yes that was a play on words there.

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Glad to see the Golden Eagles get another chance and I think they can win that first round game against MIT. The Brockport website will now have to redo their last write-up... This was the headline: "SPECTACULAR SEASON ENDS WITH SEMI-FINAL LOSS" (to Oneonta).
Plattsburgh State's Tom Curle is in his 15th season as the Cardinals' head coach and this is his 8th trip to the NCAA tournament in that time. That's the best record in the East Region of any current coach. It's his 5th SUNYAC title in that time as well.