Second Regional Rankings Announced On Wednesday 2-13

Am late getting this in again (hopefully it'll be different this week as I'm on vacation (a MUCH NEEDED vacation) but want to bring everyone up to date on what things look like with the latest round of rankings released for the all-important West Region from this last Wednesday.


1.  UST                                                                  24-1   18-0
2.  Wartburg                                                           22-3   15-1
3.  George Fox                                                       22-3   15-1
4.  Loras                                                                 21-4   14-2
5.  Augsburg                                                          21-4   16-2
6.  UW-Superior                                                    23-2   15-1
7.  Claremont-Mudd-Scripps                                23-2   15-1
8.  Whitman                                                          19-6   13-3


No surprises, really, at the top two spots where UST and Wartburg are shoo-ins regardless of what happens this next week in the conference tournaments but obviously both want to finish strong with conference titles in order to host first- and second-round pods at their facilities.  George Fox won the NWC regular season title and it seems conceivable that they'll come out on top in the NWC Playoffs this next week.  While I expected Augsburg to fall a bit after they lost at UST the previous weekend, I DIDN'T expect Loras out of the ARC (formerly IIAC) to leapfrog from the seventh spot all the way up to the fourth spot and I'm not exactly sure what prompted the committee to do so.  Okay, the Duhawks beat both Simpson and Coe the previous weekend - neither of which are ARC powers at the moment.  So this one I'm just not understanding at the moment.  But the Auggies SHOULD be fine as long as they make the MIAC Championship Game but they'd have to sweat it out should they lose in the semifinals.  UW-Superior continues to impress as they won the UMAC regular season title this weekend and its difficult to envision a scenario where they get tripped up in the UMAC Playoffs this next week.  Claremont-Mudd-Scripps has been rolling over opponents in the SCIAC and I don't see that trend changing this coming week.  It'll be interesting to see what happens to Whitman this coming week as they came away with a split this last weekend in the final week of regular season play in the NWC. 

Fire away with thoughts....