MBB: NESCAC

[D3BBALL]

Bates hanging in against Tufts. Down 6 at half. Pouye needs to come alive in 2nd half, pretty much a non factor in first half.

[deiscanton]

Does the Northeast region seem down this year?

Per NPI - UAA (1) and NESCAC (2) are the top conferences.

Looks like the following are the only non-NESCAC teams in the at-large conversation:

Endicott - I think they are in even if they don't win the CNE tournament; beat Tufts early in the season and lost to Colby

WPI - trending in the right direction for an at-large regardless of the NEWMAC tournament results; lost to Tufts and beat Middlebury; beat Babson twice

Babson - Also in the NEWMAC and just behind WPI per the NPI rankings; beat Tufts and lost to Trinity; beat Brandeis

Brandeis - I likely see them playing themselves out of the at-large conversation; they still have a tough UAA stretch of Emory, Chicago, Wash U and NYU; beat Bowdoin and lost to Conn

NEHoops-- As of February 15, 2026, your prediction of Brandeis playing themselves out of the at-large conversation seems very spot on right now.  Not only because of your tough stretch predicted, but also because Brandeis got grinded up alive by the last 4 consecutive UAA road games that they just played.  Brandeis needed to go at least 2-2 or 3-1 in the last 4 UAA games just concluded to remain realistically in the playoff conversation-- however, Brandeis has just lost the last 2 Sunday road games at CWRU and at Rochester-- one of which based on previous seasons the Judges should have won.  Brandeis was favored at both CWRU and at Rochester, but got upset in both games.  CWRU and Rochester had no realistic shot of making the tournament and were only playing the role of spoilers to cut down the number of at-large bids that the UAA was going to get.

With Friday's road loss at Emory, Brandeis went 1-3 in the UAA in the past 2 weeks, and is now on their longest losing streak of the season at 3 games lost in a row.  Given the UAA, it wouldn't be too surprising if Brandeis lost out the remainder of the season like they did last year when the Judges also lost the last 3 games of the regular season as well.  If that situation repeats itself, Brandeis would end the season on a 6 game losing streak. 

As of this evening's projections, D3Datacast has the UAA only getting 3.33 at-large bids, with Brandeis only getting an at-large bid in 345 of the 1,000 end of season computer simulations.  Brandeis, according to D3Datacast is now at NPI rank position #40 with an unofficial NPI value of 60.631-- among the first 4 out teams right now.

http://d3datacast.com/conference-ratings/UAA

The same D3Datacast run also has NESCAC getting 3.96 at-large bids.  Trinity (CT), Tufts, Wesleyan, and Amherst are safely in, with Bates getting an at-large bid in 865 of the 1,000 computer simulations in which Bates lost in next week's NESCAC quarterfinals.  Should Bates win next Saturday, Bates gets an at-large bid in all computer simulations right now.  Bates is currently at NPI rank #16 with an NPI value of 62.134, according to D3Datacast--

http://d3datacast.com/conference-ratings/nescac

See also, for current D3Datacast DIII men's basketball unofficial tournament projections--

http://d3datacast.com/NPI/mbb-projections