While Div. I's Selection Sunday is 11 days away, the madness begins a little sooner for Div. III programs.
The 2007 NCAA Div. III Men's Basketball tournament tips off tomorrow, with the nation's top 59 teams vying for this year's national championship trophy.
The tournament is compiled of teams selected from three different pools. The 37 teams that make up Pool A are the automatic qualifiers, consisting of teams that won their respective conference tournaments. Pool B bids are awarded to the top four teams not in conferences with automatic bids, while Pool C bids are at-large bids reserved for 18 teams who, despite not winning their conference tournament, had successful enough seasons to punch their tickets to the NCAA dance.
The first and second round games will take place at 16 different sites, four from each of the four regions. Since there are only 59 teams competing in the NCAA Div. III tournament field, five teams receive first-round byes.
Despite losing to Williams in the NESCAC championship game on Sunday, Amherst was awarded an at-large bid and a first-round bye in the Northeast Regional. After winning their first 23 games of the season, the Lord Jeffs have shown signs of vulnerability in the past three weekends, falling in the last game of the regular season to Trinity, 62-59, and losing to Williams 70-69 two weeks later.
"I didn't get any sleep after the Williams game," Amherst coach Dave Hixon said. "But when you see your team's name in an NCAA tournament bracket, you start to realize that you have an opportunity to do something special. This is the most exciting time of the year. Our guys are down about the loss [to Williams], but they will bounce back."
Amherst will meet the winner of tomorrow's Widener-Kings College first-round game. A game with Kings College could be an interesting match-up for the Lord Jeffs, who will be hosting a second-round game for the sixth-straight season. The Monarchs won the Freedom Conference last weekend by holding off Desales University 67-64.
"[Kings] has a lot of good athletes on their team," Hixon said. "Offensively they only have one interior player, but he is very tough to guard. They also shoot the three-ball very well."
At the other end of the Northeast bracket, four teams that all missed last year's tournament cut will be battling it out in Providence, R.I. in a regional hosted by Rhode Island College. The Anchormen earned the right to host after posting a 24-3 record this season and winning the Little East Conference. Coach Bob Walsh's squad has posed problems for teams across New England all winter, and the program looks forward to hosting an NCAA tournament weekend for the first time in school history.
"We are going to enjoy it," Walsh said. "We have prepared for big games like this all year. We played Amherst here when they were undefeated and [No. 1] in the country, and our gym was packed. Our guys can't wait."
RIC's first big game will come against a familiar opponent, when the Anchormen square-off against Coast Guard Academy, who won the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference this past weekend despite entering the NEWMAC tournament as the No. 7 seed.
"We have played them three times in the last two years, so both teams know plenty about each other," Walsh said. "I'm not surprised they won their league, I'm surprised they didn't play as well during the regular season. They are playing great basketball right now."
In a Dec. 12 contest, RIC overcame a 19-point second-half deficit to defeat Coast Guard 76-71 in New London, Conn.
The winner of the dual between the Anchormen and the Bears will face either NESCAC contender Trinity or the Brandeis Judges. Both teams were recipients of Pool C at-large bids and are considered by many coaches to be two of the most dangerous teams in the region.
"I haven't seen them play live, but I watched them on film, and both are excellent basketball teams," Walsh said. "You don't play any bad teams in the NCAA tournament, so you have to be prepared to play your best every game."
"I couldn't believe [Trinity and Brandeis] got paired against each other in the first round," Hixon said. "That's a game you would expect to watch in the Sweet 16."
Elsewhere around the nation, national powers Wisconsin-Stevens Point, Virginia Wesleyan, and St. John Fisher are all favorites to come out of their brackets and make the Final Four, which takes place in Salem, Va. each year. Fresh off its shocking upset over Amherst in the NESCAC championship, Williams College will travel to upstate New York to meet a quick SUNY-Brockport team in the first round.
