NCAA Tournament Selection Fallout

Well, just got done watching the NCAA Tournament Selection Show and, while I'm happy that the MIAC got two teams in - UST and GAC - I'm deeply disappointed at how Bethel was left out of the Field of 64.  Not that I didn't anticipate it but, when I look at some of the teams that did get in over them, I can't help but shake my head a little.  For a review of the brackets, here's how things shaked out in the Field of 64 from D3Hoops.com:

http://www.d3hoops.com/playoffs/women/2017/wbb-bracket-2017.pdf'


I can't help but feel incredibly bad for the Bethel women's basketball team on this afternoon; particularly for seniors Kalli Zimmerman and Shanni Moorse who both played such a big role in helping the team achieve a 22-5 record this year.  Strictly from a won-loss perspective, there are several teams in the Field of 64 that have a similar or worse record.  If you take a close look at the brackets, you'll find several teams out east who got in with 19-8, 18-8, 18-7 and even 17-8 along with more with 20 or 21 wins.  But, looking a bit closer, the two teams that got selected ahead of Bethel, George Fox out of the Northwest Conference and Calvin out of the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association, is a little bit of a head-scratcher.  The Royals have a slightly better overall record than does George Fox (22-5 vs 21-5) and a better conference record as well (16-2 vs 13-3).  What likely gave the nod to the Bruins was that (1) They were rated ahead of Bethel in the West Region rankings and (2) they got a huge win over a regionally-ranked team in conference rival Whitman in the regular season finale although, ironically enough, they would lose to said Whitman team five days later in the NWC Tournament semifinals (at home no less).  Calvin has a similar overall record as Bethel but was only 12-4 in the MIAA.  But what likely catupulted the Knights over Bethel was its win over Hope in the MIAA semifinals.  It's just one of those things that ultimately caught up with the Royals.  And you wonder if Bethel had just been able to knock off UW-Oshkosh right before the first of the year over at Wisconsin Dells; would that have been enough?  Maybe. Maybe not.  In the final analysis, Bethel played a lot of quality opponents but they didn't get the wins against either UST, GAC or UW-Oshkosh that they needed to bolster their record.

My other issue is how it was decided that GAC would get shoved to the UW-Oshkosh pod to play a very good DePauw team (champions of the North Coast Athletic Conference) in a first-round contest on Friday night.  I know that the Gusties chances of hosting was likely slim at best but it seems hard to believe that the committee would have chosen to send GAC over to Wisconsin instead of, say, to Waverly, Iowa (home of Wartburg).  As it is, Wartburg got sent to the UST pod to play Chicago in the first round (which could easily result in a second-round rematch with UST).  Not that the Gusties aren't capable of rising to the occasion and making it to the second weekend of this thing, but it's going to take a great effort to beat a great team like DePauw in the first round and it's arguably one of the marquee match-ups of all the first round games.  FWIW, I posed this very question to Dave McHugh who replied that the committee was basically left with no choice as it was impossible to "get" teams to St. Peter; i.e., there were only a few teams that were within that magical 500-mile radius where schools are responsible for their own transportation to the assigned site.  Anything beyond that 500-mile radius, then the NCAA has to pay for their traveling expenses and obviously they (the NCAA) wants to keep that to a minimum for as long as possible.  I don't know.......I can buy into that argument up to a certain point and maybe the fact that Wartburg was ranked higher in the regional rankings anyway might have made this a moot point altogether (and Wartburg has to come up to the Twin Cities again even though they won the IIAC).  Still disappointing anyway.

Meanwhile, UST appears to have a clear path to the second round although you can bet that UW-Superior Head Coach Don Mulhern will have his Yellowjacket squad prepared in every phase for the Friday night showdown in Schoenecker Arena.  I just think that the Tommies will eventually wear UW-Superior down as the game goes on.  I think Wartburg beats Chicago in their first round match-up to set up a highly anticipated rematch of last year's Sweet Sixteen showdown in which the Knights won enroute to an appearance in the Final Four.  This Tommie team is so good in so many areas.  What's more, they're experienced and hungry to make up for last year's disappointment.  This just might be the year that things finally work out for them.

This is definitely an exciting time of the year and I can't wait for it to get started!  Fire away with thoughts.