D3hoops.com Daily Dose

The second men’s and women’s regional rankings of the 2009-10 season have been released.

Remember there are three ways a game can be classified as in region.

Through games of Sunday, Feb. 7, 2010.

Men’s regional rankings
Atlantic Region In-Region Record Overall Record
1. William Paterson 20-1 21-1
2. Merchant Marine 17-4 18-4
3. Ramapo 15-5 16-6
4. Rutgers-Newark 13-5 17-6
5. Richard Stockton 15-5 15-6

East Region In-Region Record Overall Record
1. St. John Fisher 17-4 18-4
2. Stevens 16-4 16-4
3. Medaille 19-2 20-2
4. Oneonta State 15-5 16-5
5. New York University 13-6 14-6
6. Nazareth 14-6 15-7

Great Lakes Region In-Region Record Overall Record
1. Wooster 17-3 17-4
2. Hope 10-2 15-6
3. John Carroll 13-5 15-5
4. Thomas More 16-5 16-5
5. Wilmington 14-5 15-6
6. Calvin 9-3 13-8

Middle Atlantic Region In-Region Record Overall Record
1. Albright 14-3 16-4
2. Franklin & Marshall 17-3 17-3
3. Lycoming 13-4 17-4
4. Cabrini 18-2 18-2
5. St. Mary’s (Md.) 14-3 17-3
6. Elizabethtown 14-6 14-6
7. York (Pa.) 15-4 16-4
8. Alvernia 12-4 14-6
9. DeSales 15-4 16-5

Midwest Region In-Region Record Overall Record
1. Washington U. 15-2 18-2
2. Carthage 12-3 16-5
3. Illinois Wesleyan 16-4 17-4
4. Anderson 16-2 18-2
5. St. Norbert 17-2 18-2
6. Wheaton (Ill.) 13-7 14-7
7. Augustana 14-6 14-7
8. Defiance 15-5 17-5

Northeast Region In-Region Record Overall Record
1. Williams 19-0 21-1
2. MIT 18-1 19-2
3. Middlebury 15-2 19-2
4. Bridgewater State 14-3 15-5
5. Colby 14-3 16-4
6. Brandeis 15-4 15-4
7. Western Connecticut 15-4 16-4
8. Mass.-Dartmouth 15-6 15-6
9. Albertus Magnus 17-3 17-4
10. Gordon 16-3 17-3
11. WPI 14-5 15-5

South Region In-Region Record Overall Record
1. Guilford 19-1 19-1
2. Virginia Wesleyan 16-2 18-2
3. Texas-Dallas 16-3 17-4
4. Eastern Mennonite 12-2 16-3
5. Austin 16-5 16-5
6. Mary Hardin-Baylor 15-5 15-6
7. Randolph-Macon 10-4 16-4
8. Maryville (Tenn.) 12-3 17-4

West Region In-Region Record Overall Record
1. UW-Whitewater 17-4 17-4
2. UW-Stevens Point 17-3 18-3
3. St. Thomas 16-2 19-2
4. Whitworth 17-2 19-2
5. Central 16-2 18-4
6. Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 12-3 16-4
7. Chapman 16-1 20-2
8. Hamline 15-7 15-7
9. Augsburg 14-6 15-6

Women’s regional rankings
Records listed are in-region record, followed by overall record.
Atlantic Region Record Overall Record
1. Kean 20-0 21-1
2. Mary Washington 15-2 16-3
3. William Paterson 21-1 21-1
4. Farmingdale State 18-0 18-0
5. Marymount 17-1 20-1
6. Mount Saint Mary 15-4 16-4

Central Region Record Overall Record
1. Illinois Wesleyan 17-1 20-1
2. Carthage 15-2 18-3
3. Washington U. 15-2 18-2
4. UW-Stevens Point 15-4 17-4
5. UW-Whitewater 14-5 15-6
6. Chicago 15-5 15-5

East Region Record Overall Record
1. Ithaca 17-2 17-4
2. Skidmore 16-2 17-3
3. Medaille 19-1 20-2
4. Rochester 13-5 15-5
5. Cortland State 16-3 17-3
6. Utica 14-4 15-4

Great Lakes Region Record Overall Record
1. Hope 17-0 20-1
2. Thomas More 19-1 19-2
3. DePauw 15-2 18-3
4. Washington and Jefferson 17-2 18-3
5. Calvin 13-2 18-3
6. Capital 14-4 15-6

Mid-Atlantic
Region Record Overall Record
1. Moravian 17-2 18-2
2. Lebanon Valley 19-1 19-2
3. Messiah 16-1 18-2
4. Muhlenberg 16-3 16-3
5. Scranton 15-3 17-3
6. Gettysburg 19-2 19-2

Northeast
Region Record Overall Record
1. Amherst 21-0 21-0
2. Tufts 16-2 19-3
3. Colby 15-3 18-3
4. Williams 17-4 17-5
5. Emmanuel 14-4 16-4
6. Western Connecticut 17-3 18-3
7. Bowdoin 13-5 16-5
8. Eastern Connecticut 15-6 15-6
9. Salem State 12-6 15-6
10. Babson 18-3 18-3

South Region Record Overall Record
1. Christopher Newport 19-0 20-0
2. Roanoke 16-2 18-2
3. Louisiana College 14-2 17-2
4. Mary Hardin-Baylor 16-4 17-4
5. Hendrix 13-4 15-4
6. Howard Payne 16-4 17-4

West Region Record Overall Record
1. George Fox 13-1 19-2
2. Puget Sound 13-2 18-3
3. Cal Lutheran 17-3 17-4
4. Simpson 15-2 20-3
5. Gustavus Adolphus 17-3 17-4
6. Concordia-Moorhead 15-5 15-6

The first Regional Rankings for men’s basketball have been released, through games of Sunday, Jan. 31. The first record indicates the in-region record, followed by the overall record.

Atlantic Region
1. William Paterson 19-1 20-1
2. Merchant Marine 15-4 16-4
3. Ramapo 14-4 15-5
4. York (N.Y.) 13-5 16-5
5. Richard Stockton 14-5 14-6

East Region
1. St. John Fisher 15-4 16-4
2. Stevens 15-4 15-4
3. New York University 12-5 13-5
4. Medaille 18-1 19-1
5. Rochester 9-5 13-5
6. Nazareth 12-6 13-7

Great Lakes Region
1. Wooster 15-3 15-4
2. Wilmington (Ohio) 13-4 14-5
3. Hope 8-2 13-6
4. Calvin 8-2 12-7
5. Penn State-Behrend 13-3 13-4
6. Thomas More 14-5 14-5

Middle Atlantic Region
1. Albright 14-1 16-2
2. Lycoming 12-3 16-3
3. Cabrini 16-2 16-2
4. Franklin and Marshall 16-3 16-3
5. St. Mary’s (Md.) 13-3 16-3
6. Elizabethtown 13-5 13-5
7. York (Pa.) 14-4 15-4
8. Alvernia 11-4 13-6
9. Catholic 13-4 15-5

Midwest Region
1. Washington U. 13-2 16-2
2. Carthage 11-2 15-4
3. St. Norbert 15-1 16-1
4. Illinois Wesleyan 14-4 15-4
5. Anderson 15-2 17-2
6. Wheaton (Ill.) 12-6 13-6
7. Augustana 12-6 12-7
8. Westminster (Mo.) 12-1 15-4

Northeast Region
1. Williams 17-0 19-1
2. MIT 17-1 18-2
3. Colby 13-1 15-2
4. Middlebury 13-2 17-2
5. Brandeis 14-3 14-3
6. Bridgewater State 12-3 13-5
7. Gordon 14-3 15-3
8. Western Connecticut 12-4 13-4
9. Mass-Dartmouth 13-6 13-6
10. Rhode Island College 13-6 13-6
11. Eastern Connecticut 13-6 13-6

South Region
1. Guilford 18-1 18-1
2. Virginia Wesleyan 15-2 17-2
3. Texas-Dallas 15-2 16-3
4. Eastern Mennonite 11-2 15-3
5. Maryville (Tenn.) 11-3 16-4
6. Austin 14-5 14-5
7. Mary Hardin-Baylor 14-4 14-5
8. Mississippi College 11-3 15-3

West Region
1. UW-Whitewater 16-3 16-3
2. UW-Stevens Point 17-2 18-2
3. St. Thomas 14-2 17-2
4. Whitworth 15-2 17-2
5. UW-La Crosse 13-5 14-6
6. Gustavus Adolphus 12-4 12-6
7. Chapman 15-1 18-2
8. Central 14-2 16-4
9. Augsburg 12-5 13-5

The first Regional Rankings from the NCAA have been released… the first record indicates the in-region record… followed by the overall record.

Atlantic Region
1. Kean 19-0 20-1
2. William Paterson 20-1 20-1
3. Mary Washington 12-2 14-3
4. Marymount 16-1 19-1
5. Farmingdale State 18-0 18-0
6. Mount Saint Mary 13-4 14-4

Central Region
1. Illinois Wesleyan 15-1 18-1
2. Carthage 13-2 16-3
3. Washington U. 13-2 16-2
4. UW-Stevens Point 15-3 17-3
5. UW-Whitewater 13-4 14-5
6. Chicago 13-5 13-5

East Region
1. Ithaca 15-2 15-4
2. Skidmore 13-2 14-3
3. Rochester 13-3 15-3
4. Medaille 17-1 18-2
5. Utica 14-3 15-3
6. Cortland State 14-3 15-3

Great Lakes Region
1. Hope 15-0 18-1
2. Washington and Jefferson 16-1 17-2
3. Thomas More 17-1 17-2
4. Calvin 13-1 18-2
5. DePauw 14-2 17-3
6. Baldwin-Wallace 13-3 15-4

Mid-Atlantic Region
1. Moravian 17-2 18-2
2. Lebanon Valley 18-0 18-1
3. Messiah 13-1 16-2
4. Scranton 15-3 17-3
5. Muhlenberg 14-3 14-3
6. Gettysburg 16-2 16-2

Northeast Region
1. Amherst 19-0 19-0
2. Tufts 15-1 18-2
3. Williams 16-3 16-4
4. Emmanuel 12-4 14-4
5. Bowdoin 12-4 15-4
6. Colby 12-3 15-3
7. Western Connecticut 16-3 17-3
8. Eastern Connecticut 13-5 13-5
9. Keene State 13-5 13-6
10. University of New England 14-4 15-4

South Region
1. Christopher Newport 17-0 18-0
2. Hendrix 12-3 14-3
3. Roanoke 14-2 16-2
4. Trinity (Texas) 12-4 14-5
5. Louisiana College 12-2 15-2
6. Randolph-Macon 13-4 13-4

West Region
1. George Fox 11-1 17-2
2. Puget Sound 11-2 16-3
3. Cal Lutheran 14-3 14-4
4. Gustavus Adolphus 15-2 15-3
5. Simpson 13-2 18-3
6. Concordia-Moorhead 13-4 13-5

Justin Riley, forward for No. 13 Chapman, has been blogging for us throughout the Panthers season. This week he discusses the scheduling difficulties of being an island on an island. The only Division III conference within driving distance is the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) of which Chapman isn’t a member.

Chapman…Chapman…Chapman…

What comes to mind when you hear about this school? Location…academics…enrollment size…women…athletics?

Location…maybe.

Academics…maybe.

Enrollment size…maybe.

Women…strong maybe.

Athletics…of course not.

Why would you think about athletics when thinking of Chapman? Why would ANY athlete choose a school that is not affiliated with a conference? In fact, why do athletes even go to Chapman when they know the chances of making the post-season aren’t very high?

These questions were the exact ones that circled my mind when deciding to attend Chapman, yet I still decided to come here.

Did the location of the school influence my decision? Yes.

Did academics influence my decision? Yes.

Did enrollment size influence my decision? Yes.

Did the women influence my decision? Yes.

Did choosing a school that had a basketball program that never made a post-season appearance influence my decision? Yes.

I decided to come to Chapman on all these accords, but there was nothing more important to me than having the opportunity to be part of a team that had the chance to make school history and earn the first ever post-season bid for the men’s basketball program. Upon my arrival, I quickly learned that earning a post-season bid wasn’t very easy to come by. After a 20-7 campaign my freshman year, we were left sitting on the couch reading who was doing what. Honestly, I didn’t feel that we truly deserved a bid due to key losses against La Verne and Redlands. I accepted it and moved on.

Sophomore year, we wanted to shake off another boring March and improve upon our record. With a starting group of three juniors and two sophomores, we finished the season 24-3, yet we still found ourselves sitting on the couch again. I couldn’t quite wrap my head around why we didn’t get the bid, so I decided to do some research to find out why we weren’t “good” enough to make the post-season. After reading through various board postings, blogs and other articles, I found out how important the strength of schedule is in the selection process. After finding this information out, I looked up our strength of schedule numbers based upon our opponents winning percentage (OWP) and opponents opponents winning percentage (OOWP) and found Chapman had the third easiest schedule in Division III. Frustrated about this statistic, I threw my hands up and accepted that with such an easy schedule and three in-region losses to Whitman, Whitworth, and UDallas, we probably weren’t the most deserving team of a Pool B bid.

But then I started to think: why was our strength of schedule so weak? There wasn’t much difference in the teams we played from the year before to now, so why was there such a disparity?

Answer: It’s simple—Chapman is left with very slim pickings of teams who are willing to play them once conference play starts. Since there are only two other Division III opponents in California that aren’t in the SCIAC, we are forced to play UC Santa Cruz and La Sierra multiple times. Unfortunately, UC Santa Cruz and La Sierra haven’t had the most successful seasons over the past years, which has lead to a decrease in our strength of schedule numbers.

Now we are left with the ultimate question: Why not stop scheduling La Sierra and UC Santa Cruz so much, and play better west region teams?

Answer: WE WANT TO!

Problem: Once conference play starts, we are left with those two teams and other meaningless, in terms of a post-season bid, games against NAIA and NCCAA opponents. Of course we would like to play all the SCIAC schools twice a year, but the reality is, they don’t want to play us. Can you blame them? If I were a coach, why would I play a non-conference game during the midst of conference play to help out another team? What if a player gets injured? What if we lose? Will our team morale be affected? Yes, playing us will increase their strength of schedule and give them another west region game, but at the same time, focusing a team’s energy on a non-conference opponent during conference play might not be the best idea. Some may agree with this statement while others will disagree, but the reality is come conference time, teams do not want to play us, PERIOD.

So what is the solution? I wish I had the magic potion to sprinkle on the heads of the SCIAC to let us in or to at least schedule us during conference play, but the truth is, I don’t. Knowing these statistics, should we fill up our November and December schedule with tougher opponents? Maybe. Should we try and compete in tournaments that feature these opponents? Maybe. Should we stop complaining when year after year we find ourselves not playing in March? Maybe. There are many questions that are left unanswered, but one thing I am confident about is that Chapman is a strong force in not only the West, but in all of Division III. Our schedule may not match up with other top teams in America, but once again, I am confident that we have the talent to compete with any team. I only have one more year of eligibility after this season, but I promise I will not be satisfied until we get the opportunity to shine in March.

To everyone who mocks our schedule, doubts our abilities, or just downright doesn’t like us…thank you!

The more you doubt, the more motivated we become!

Holly Harvey, a guard for the No. 1 Illinois Wesleyan Titans, has been blogging for D3hoops throughout the season. Here is her latest entry.

At a typical pre-game practice you can find our head coach, Mia Smith, wearing our next opponent’s school colors. At every game you can find our assistant coach / former player Tasha Gaston-Bell also wearing the opponent’s school colors. Some who notice may call this weird but we just call it a little bit of healthy superstition. The IWU Women’s Basketball Team is one of the most superstitious teams I have been a part of, but it is very fitting because I am probably the top contender for most superstitious player on the team. As I mentioned earlier, our superstitious ways begin at pre-game practices. Prior to practice we watch film and everyone sits in the same seat each time. Every pre-game practice I have to wear a green Nike headband the says “unstoppable”, I’ve heard a number of jokes about it but deep down I think everyone has grown quite fond of unstoppable as it’s called. We start practice with the same focus lay-up and shooting drill and end it with a walk through prep of the next opponent and team free throws. Our huddle before we leave always ends with the same cheer.

Game days produce a whole other set of superstitions. Although I own a number of IWU Women’s Basketball hoodies, I wear the same gray one every game day along with my travel green suit, the same pair of sneakers ,and of course unstoppable. I own even more Wesleyan t-shirts however there are only a select few that make the game day rotation. I also have a green and white scarf that teammate Nikki Preston’s mom made that I wear to every game. I love Orange G2 Gatorade and have to drink one before every game. When it is time for our pre-game prayer, some people will jump across the locker room to get to the person they always hold hands with. After prayer we can’t leave the locker room until we hear Coach Smith’s famous, enthusiastic “Game On, Here we go girlies, Have a day” cheer. For warm-ups we line up in the same order every game. One of our freshmen firmly believes that we play better when she misses her first left hand lay-up in warm-ups, so she has begun to intentionally miss every game. Towards the end of warm-ups our 2 seniors make a prediction about something crazy that could happen in the game, they both shoot a 3 pointer on it and if both make it they believe the prediction will come true. We stand in the same ordered line for the Star Spangled Banner (the claws really come out if someone tries to mess up that order, we take that one seriously).

What if our coaches were to forget to wear the other teams’ colors or if unstoppable were to go missing for a day? Do we think we are destined to perform poorly? The answer is no. Although we don’t stray from our superstitions we know they are nothing but routines. They put us in our comfort zone and get us game ready. They help us associate with the focus and intensity that we have brought to every game before.

It seems that our little routines have served us well this year. We are almost half way through our conference season and stand at 17-0 and hold the #1 ranking. As Coach Smith would say “It’s too late to lose now”. We had an exciting game at Elmhurst College last week. We did not shoot the 3 like we usually do and weren’t making the smartest decisions. We found ourselves down by 1 with about 8 minutes left in the second half, but we persevered and outscored them 20-9 to close the game and win by 10. I think our conference success can be attributed to our deep bench. We continually bring in fresh legs and I have noticed that we really wear our opponents down. We are committed to using our depth the rest of the way and not letting up, which I hope will make us unstoppable.