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Salem

About the 2003 Division III
men's basketball tournament

2003 Tournament Preview

By Pat Coleman
Publisher, D3hoops.com

The road to Salem starts up once again this week, and the road will keep on keeping on through at least 2005, as the NCAA has extended Division III’s Titletown’s grasp on the Final Four.

Forty-eight teams start off. Some shouldn’t be here, but not as many as you might think. If we can all agree that every conference should have an automatic bid and a chance to dance, then there’s not a lot of room to quibble with who’s here.

Where they were placed? Well, that’s another story.

South Regional
No. 8 Mary Washington (24-4) at No. 10 Alvernia (20-8), winner plays at No. 1 Randolph-Macon (27-1)
No. 12 Milwaukee Engineering (12-16) at No. 5 UW-Oshkosh (22-6), winner plays at No. 4 Hope (23-4)
No. 9 Savannah Art & Design (20-5) at No. 6 Christopher Newport (24-4), winner plays at No. 3 Hampden-Sydney (25-2)
No. 11 Blackburn (15-9) at No. 7 Illinois Wesleyan (20-5), winner plays at No. 2 Washington U. (24-1)

We start off right at the top with the stacked regional — three of the top four teams in the D3hoops.com Top 25 come in and only one can possibly reach Salem. Newcomers to Division III look at this bracket and wonder how the NCAA can put three of the top teams in the country in the same bracket. We look at it and remember 2000, when Calvin survived a tough bracket and yet had two more tough games in Salem before winning the title.

First off – Mary Washington didn’t have its papers in order to host this first game, so they head to Alvernia. Their gym is small, but it’s hosted NCAA Tournament games before. The fact that they’re the higher seed precludes them in my mind from being labeled a Cinderella pick, though they should be capable of winning their first-round game, even though Alvernia has playoff experience and the home court.

Cinderella story: This has to be Savannah Art & Design. This team is road-tested and has 20 wins under its belt as an independent, playing games across the USA. They’ve already been to Christopher Newport once this season, and although they did lost by eight points on Dec. 20, they haven’t lost since. One thing working against them is, since they’re an independent, they haven’t played a game in 24 days. (You try scheduling games when everyone else is playing its conference schedule.)

Most likely to disappoint: Hope faces an incredible second-round draw in (likely) UW-Oshkosh. This presumes Oshkosh gets past 12-16 Milwaukee School of Engineering. We feel safe presuming that.

Who will win? This might be the toughest bracket, and it’s definitely the toughest choice. This one might depend most on the location of the game. Without knowing that, we’re taking Washington U. But even then, they have to survive Illinois Wesleyan right off the bat.

West Regional
No. 12 Illinois College (15-10) at No. 5 Buena Vista (25-3), winner at No. 2 Rockford (24-3)
No. 11 Aurora (23-5) at No. 6 Trinity (Texas) (21-7), winner at No. 2 Occidental (21-2)
No. 7 Whitworth (23-3) at No. 9 Gustavus Adolphus (21-6), winner at No. 4 UW-Stevens Point (24-3)
No. 10 Mississippi College (19-7) at No. 8 Maryville (Tenn.) (21-5), winner at No. 1 Hanover (26-1)

The square mileage in this bracket is pretty intense, from California to Washington to Mississippi to Indiana. If we had these kind of games in the regular season, we wouldn’t have nearly as much wondering about which conferences are better.

Sure, Occidental has run the table in the SCIAC, and nobody has ever done that before. For that they should be rewarded, and they have. Now it’s time to make good on that gaudy record and win some playoff games. Those close to the program realize that they are not on par with the powers of the Midwest, but that doesn’t mean that they can’t pull off a win at home. And imagine a scenario in which Whitworth, Occidental, Buena Vista and Mississippi College advance to the sectional – with everyone flying, Occidental would be a very real candidate to host.

But we get ahead of ourselves.

Cinderella story: There are a couple of interesting candidates, as none of the teams hosting in the first round are world-beaters. If it were Trinity on the road in the opener, we’d pick them, since they would make the same trip in the SCAC four times a year, but we don’t think Aurora can pull of the same back-to-back wins. Whitworth is a higher seed playing on the road in the first round, so that won’t work. We’re going to go way off the radar and take Mississippi College. We don’t even have a good reason – they’ve only won two in a row, they played nobody in non-conference games, and they lost at home in their first game last year after getting a bye. But they do play Maryville, which has appeared vulnerable this year, and Hanover would be next. Hanover is 27-1 but played one team with a winning record in non-conference play: Ohio Northern (14-13).

Most likely to disappoint: Not Occidental, but Hanover, for reasons mentioned above.

Who will win? UW-Stevens Point. They were just too darn good in the WIAC this year.

Northeast Regional
No. 9 St. Joseph’s (Maine) (20-4) at No. 8 Salem State (22-5), winner at No. 1 Williams (26-1)
No. 12 Colby-Sawyer (21-6) at No. 5 Hamilton (21-5), winner at No. 4 St. John Fisher (21-4)
No. 11 Lasell (22-5) at No. 6 Southern Vermont (23-5), winner at No. 3 Amherst (22-4)
No. 10 Western Connecticut (19-8) at No. 7 Clark (21-6), winner at No. 2 Rochester (22-3)

This bracket could have used a little balancing, with just three Top 25 teams. But we’ll learn exactly how Maine NAIA ball compared to Division III, as St. Joseph’s (Maine) comes back to the NCAA after years in the NAIA tournament. We think they’re the only one capable of pulling off consecutive upsets on the road in this bracket. But with three teams in the Top 11, this is a very top-heavy bracket, and it would be hard to imagine anyone other than those three teams winning out.

Cinderella story: They’re not your normal GNAC champion. Southern Vermont played a very respectable non-conference schedule, including a win against Clark and a loss at Williams. They’re probably a cut above the rest of the conference because their roster’s geographic profile looks a little more like the UAA than the GNAC.

Most likely to disappoint: Everyone who compares this bracket to the South.

Who will win? The expectation is probably Williams/Amherst IV, but I think Rochester comes out of this bracket.

Mid-Atlantic Regional
No. 9 Buffalo State (19-8) at No. 8 Scranton (22-5), winner hosts No. 1 Ursinus (21-6)
No. 11 Pitt-Bradford (22-6) at No. 5 John Carroll (21-6), winner plays at No. 4 Wooster (26-2)
No. 12 CCNY (17-11) at No. 7 Kings Point (20-8), winner plays at No. 2 Ramapo (24-3)
No. 10 Elizabethtown (18-8) at No. 6 Montclair State (21-5), winner plays at No. 3 Catholic (24-4)

This bracket isn’t a whole lot deeper than the Northeast, with four Top 25 teams. But there are two NJAC teams, giving the conference a chance to regain some of its former glory, a recent national champion and last year’s runner-up, so at leas there’s something interesting beyond the top four seeds. And if both teams pull off a couple upsets and reach the Elite Eight, the Loftus twins could meet for one last time: Dan plays for Scranton and Brian for Elizabethtown. Dan’s team won the regular-season meeting back in December.

Cinderella story: Pitt-Bradford slipped significantly after posting an upset of D-II regionally ranked Clarion, but put it back together enough to make the tournament. Dominant center Matt Beacom can play with anyone in the nation.

Most likely to disappoint: Catholic. They haven’t played well since posting back-to-back blowouts on Feb. 19 and 20 and played itself out of a top seed by splitting its last four games.

Who will win? We’re going to try Wooster.

Final Four
It’s an interesting group: Washington U., UW-Stevens Point, Rochester and Wooster. Washington U’s seniors have been the focus of the team since the end of their freshman year, and with eight of them departing at the end of the season, they have to see it’s now or never. Rochester returns another year more experienced, and presumably healthy. Stevens Point carries the banner of its conference, which has struggled to get at-large teams into the tournament. And Wooster can make it back-to-back titles for Ohio.

Who will win? I’d prefer to see Wash U and Stevens Point in the finals, but alas, they meet in the semis. I see Wooster over Rochester and Wash U over Wooster in the finals.

The staff predicts
Tune in to the Final Four pregame shows to hear discussion of these picks, and a post-mortem of what happened to them.

Mark Simon
Final Four: Randolph-Macon, UW-Stevens Point, Williams, John Carroll
Championship: Randolph-Macon over John Carroll

Gordon Mann
Final Four: Randolph-Macon, UW-Stevens Point, Williams, Catholic
Championship: UW-Stevens Point over Williams

Dave McHugh
Final Four: Randolph-Macon, UW-Stevens Point, Rochester, Wooster
Championship: Randolph-Macon over Rochester

Jared Rosenbaum
Final Four: Randolph-Macon, Occidental, Rochester, Wooster
Championship: Randolph-Macon over Wooster

Pat Cummings
Final Four: Randolph-Macon, UW-Stevens Point, Rochester, Wooster
Championship: Wooster over Randolph-Macon

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