Greetings from the top of Division III
Monday, July 25th, 2005It’s hard to get too much further north in Division III than Duluth, Minn., although Pacific Lutheran and Puget Sound are a few miles further north in Washington. While on a family vacation here I took the opportunity to stop in at St. Scholastica.
The school is a member of both the NAIA and NCAA which is declaring for the NCAA playoffs this season for the first time in a while. So, predictably, there were questions about how the NCAA did some things, etc.
I think St. Scholastica has the makings of a schedule that can get it into the tournament in men’s basketball. They’ve gone out of their way to schedule West Region games, inviting only in-region teams to their tipoff tournament and getting into another tournament that has solely West Region opponents. They play UW-Stout, UW-Superior and UW-Eau Claire and Hamline in terms of “nearby” non-conference opponents and should end up with 12 or 13 regional games. That could get them in in a 60- to 61-team tournament.
At least we can be relatively sure the committee won’t look past a first-time competitor. The men’s committee put dual member St. Joseph’s (Maine) into the field in its first year declaring for the NCAA postseason.
Occasionally I make campus visits when I’m out of town in places where we don’t have as many contributors. (Last summer I stopped by Keene State.) As I do, I’ll write about them here.
