Quote from: Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan) on April 17, 2025, 11:26:28 AMNeumann to the MAC in 26-27.  That puts the AEC down to 6.

https://d3sports.com/notables/2025/04/neumann-to-the-mac

Thing that is interesting to me but ultimately may not turn out to be interesting: no announcement of whether Neumann would be MAC Commonwealth or MAC Freedom. Just makes me wonder if their unique division model ends up going away in the next few years given the overall climate we're in - not to mention that I don't love the idea of their grandfathered-in status as a single conference able to sometimes operate as two conferences being maintained with conference shuffling.

Quote from: TUAngola on April 14, 2025, 05:06:49 PMWith Nate Tucker now entering the portal, here is an update for Trine (yikes!):
   
Team     Minutes    Points    Rebounds      Assists    Steals    
Trine     0.21   0.179   0.197    0.158   0.185   


Trine MBB in 2025-26 will basically be starting from scratch.  The only player with any significant playing time returning is Jayce Cusack.  3 others saw some time with the second string on occasion: Logan McKenzie, Logan Gard and Cade Brenner.  Last year's squad was mostly all upperclassmen.  So it stands to reason this next season was going to have a lot of new faces.  The Tucker portal announcement was awful news, but maybe he saw the writing on the wall and wanted to go to a stronger program or maybe up a level.  Who knows.  We'll just play with what we got.  I do know we've had strong JV squads the last 2 years so this may be a chance for some to earn time on the Varsity.  I'm hoping Coach Miller can pull in a few upperclass transfers.  If not we will easily be the most inexperienced team in the MIAA next year.

Buckle up...

Quote from: Bmo on March 18, 2025, 12:01:45 PMSo the most likely outcome at this point, barring something completely unforeseen.  Hendrix pulls back and rejoins the SAA.  TLU, Austin, and Centenary are forced to join the ASC as football affiliates.  Who knows what happens to Lyon.  SCAC is again non-football.  Everything resets back to 2022 in the ASC, and the SAA resets back to the old SCAC in core alignment.

It seems to me the balance of power has shifted and how confident are we that the ASC would be interested in taking this group as affiliate only at this point?

It is awfully silly if the endgame in all this shuffling is one football conference (ASC) and one non-football conference (SCAC) considering how it all started yet it almost seems like the only arrangement that would bring some semblance of stability. Otherwise the carousel will just keep turning.

Quote from: TLU05SA on March 18, 2025, 09:57:54 AM

Quote from: Mavchamp on March 18, 2025, 09:33:38 AMJust make it work.

No concern about how this came together? Is this another contemporary example of the ends justifying the means? So long as it "works", it is ok?

I want DIII athletics to thrive in Texas and I have not liked how things have been trending in recent years.  That said, paying schools to join your conference....Is that what we want DIII to be?

As many have said throughout this saga, if there were any easy or convenient solutions they would have happened long ago. It seems to me that any of the much-discussed paths forward for the remaining ASC four would have come with a significant financial impact of one form or another. This way at least the dollars flow to create a solution to let them be where they want to be. Hard to see this as anything other than a last-ditch effort that hopefully we don't see again in Division III because no one gets in such dire straights.

Quote from: Happy Calvin Guy on March 17, 2025, 03:30:12 PMCongrats to Uchenna Ugekeze who was selected to play one more game:
https://calvinknights.com/news/2025/3/17/mens-basketball-calvins-uchenna-egekeze-selected-to-play-in-nabc-division-iii-all-star-game.aspx

He will suit up as a teammate with two Calvin killers who bookended our season: Logan Pearson (UW-Platteville) and Ryan Broeckel (Wisc Lutheran).

I don't think this will be the only NABC honor for him this week...

Quote from: Ralph Turner on February 19, 2025, 07:28:35 PMHmmm.  What is the C2C item on the agenda?

I think we have an answer to this now that the report has been posted, assuming I am reading and understanding everything correctly...

First, from the meeting report:

QuoteRequest from the Coast-To-Coast Athletic Conference. The committee approved the request from the Coast-To-Coast Conference to waive the current application of Bylaw 20.9.1.2 (composition of conference) and apply the new legislated standard immediately.

One of the legislative items at the D3 Convention in January was to align the membership standards between multi-sport and single-sport conferences. Previously a multi-sport conference required a minimum of seven members while a single-sport conference required six. The legislative action item changed this to require six across the board.

With six core members for the 2024-2025 academic year I believe this would have been year one of the grace period for retaining the conference's automatic qualifier to national tournaments. It seems that is no longer the case with an approved waiver to apply the new standard immediately.

Now, the C2C will fall below six with Mount Mary departing for NAIA but my interpretation of the situation is that this waiver delaying the AQ grace period will be enough for the C2C to avoid any seasons without Pool A access between losing Mount Mary and Regent and JWU-Charlotte reaching Provisional Year 3 and counting toward the membership total required by the bylaws.

Lincoln Lockhart has de-committed from Trine

Quote from: Greek Tragedy on March 05, 2025, 08:47:59 AMOn the women's side, the WIAC got 5 teams in and two of them are in the same pod. Pretty disappointing.

I was gonna say that Concordia hosted a pod because Point was in that pod and I remember going down there, just couldn't remember the year, but Wiz saved me from searching!  I believe they got to host because Stevens Point's women were hosting that weekend.

That Calvin game will depend on who wills their pace on the other team. Calvin grinds out games. WLC seems like to run.

Disappointed WLC or Carthage couldn't host (one of them probably would have had they won their conference tournament).

Platteville and La Crosse are too far for me. Chicago is actually closer, but still 2 1/2 hours away.

The difference in tempo is only about two possessions per game and likely not enough of a difference to really make the game feel all the different either way.

To put this in more familiar conference terms, this is a tempo matchup similar to WLC taking on Edgewood or Aurora and Calvin facing Kalamzaoo. I will defer to the NACC posters as to whether or not those matchups feel like a battle in contrasting tempos but from the Calvin side I don't think it does.

Upsets are part of the fun of tournament time but that an understanding of who the favorites are and how much they might be favored by. Our big first round preview episode of The D3 Datacast is out now and we go through all the matchups and take a look at our computer ratings-based projections for win probabilities and point spreads.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnLmHtEVjNU

Stay tuned for another tournament preview episode dropping Wednesday morning as we take a zoomed out look at overall bracket odds for each team to advance through each round.

Quote from: Greek Tragedy on March 03, 2025, 02:19:44 PM

Quote from: Tigerfan on March 03, 2025, 01:30:02 PMUMW played a tough schedule.  I noticed that the D3 Datacast efficiency ratings were always rather high for their record, so the computers liked them.  Throughout the year I thought they were better than their record, so I'm glad they got a reward for competing hard. 

NPI had them at 88 and as a Pool C 61/62. GAC had an NPI ranking 38 and Pool C 22. But hey, MW competed hard for 2 games and won the C2C conference tournament and got the AQ.

For all the gripes people may have about the C2C the conference tournament is basically the one big thing they have in common with everyone else. GAC had the same opportunity to win their conference tournament as members of the C2C did, though I suppose it is at that fundamental level that the disconnect happens, making it a discussion as to whether the C2C deserves an automatic bid to be fought over. There are no new points to be made in that argument, however.

Technically seeding won't even be a mystery as we will know how all 64 teams rank compared to each other as soon as final NPI numbers are run. What will remain to be seen is how the committee creates the bracket based on that seeding. The messaging seems pretty clear their intention is to be true to seeding but obviously there are constraints in place like limiting flights and who may or may not have submitted bids to host.

Much of the intrigue of the in/out and jockeying for top eight protected seeds or top 16 for potential hosting opportunities will play out as the final game results roll in. We will be going live on the D3 Datacast YouTube channel that day with fresh NPI runs as each game concludes. Stream page is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gyocTtk_Bg

Following Hampden-Sydney's early exit from the ODAC Tournament tonight, Tufts has moved into the NPI top eight to be in position for one of the protected seeds. Now we'll see if they can keep it to give the NESCAC three of the top eight.

https://d3datacast.com/npi/

Quote from: ChickenHoops on February 26, 2025, 12:28:04 PM

Quote from: Pat Coleman on February 25, 2025, 03:43:51 PMStevens Point went from 59.676 to 59.836. If they can get one more win -- I know, a tough ask -- they can drop Olivet from their calculation and that would make a big difference.

So if you schedule some weaker opponents but play enough games, they fall out?  Seems like a flaw in the system but I raise chickens for a (good) living.

It is very much a feature, not a bug, on the premise that you shouldn't be hurt by winning. A minimum wins threshold is in place to ensure a reasonable portion of a team's schedule is included but once that threshold is reached any additional win that would lower your NPI when counted can be excluded. This is in contrast to the previous regional ranking system where there could be a phenomenon where a team got a win over a really bad team and somehow looked worse in the criteria because the SOS hit was larger than the WP gain.

Quote from: nescac1 on February 25, 2025, 11:12:47 AMWPI has to be on the short list for "best overall D3 program never to make a Final Four."  Tufts, Whitworth, Hamilton, St. John's (MN), Maryville, Emory, and Johns Hopkins are some other that come to mind (and many of these schools have a shot at it this year!), but I think WPI has to be the most consistently strong program to have fallen JUST short. 

Best D3 program never to have won a title would also be an interesting list, of course ... maybe Hampden-Sydney, F&M, Augustana, Wooster or Hope? 

Over the offseason we took a look at the "Top ten D3 programs of all-time" list inspired by a point-based system used by CBSsports.com a few years ago to make a D1 program ranking.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rj0aCV_uEZM

F&M was tops in the list among programs without a championship, followed by Augustana, Wooster and Hope.

Two wins over Stout are actually the lowest wins counting on UWSP's resume right now (then Olivet). The additional win over Whitewater knocked Lakeland below the point at which additional wins would hurt the Pointers and thereby is dropped from the calculation. The small increase in overall NPI is due to the incremental nature of that win replacing another in the resume.