March 7, 2023: Following up on Trinity (TX), Tufts, and the sectional hosting conversation
Good morning! Coming back on this Tuesday morning as the anticipation grows for these upcoming Sweet 16 matchups on Friday! Lots to look forward to and I’ll be talking more and more about the weekend’s matchups as we move through the week.
But I first want to clear up something, or maybe just add to what I had originally written Sunday. If you watched Hoopsville last night, I thought Dave McHugh explained the situation with Trinity TX, Tufts, and the controversy of the top right quadrant’s sectional host, very well. In short, if you somehow have not heard, Tufts was given the opportunity to host the sectional even when a strong case could have been made for Trinity TX to host. They needed to use three flights either way to get the four teams to one place.
But here’s what I probably didn’t emphasize enough. The decision for Tufts to host was based on seeding. If you look at the bracket, Tufts is seeded as the #2, Trinity TX as the #3. So in that respect, the committee was only following the seeding that was initially lined out when this bracket was constructed, initially appearing so that Christopher Newport could host a sectional if the men’s team at CNU did not advance to the second weekend. But CNU’s men did, and we ended up with three of the four sectionals being played in Massachusetts.
Now, having three sectionals in Massachusetts doesn’t hold any significance here in the decision and that’s what I wanted to make clear: just because there is that “critical mass” as Pat Coleman appropriately titled his piece on Sunday, it’s not part of the committee’s criteria to evenly distribute hosts across the country. But there are plenty of other factors that could’ve flipped the host site. To my understanding, that is something they have the ability to do. One thing is the facility size. Another is the simple fact that we have not had a Texas sectional host since 2008 (back when it was a 48-team tournament) and a Region 10 sectional host since Whitman in 2014. Texas was certainly due, and had a legitimate resume that the committee could’ve awarded a sectional host to, with a 28-1 record and 6-1 record vs regionally-ranked opponents. For that whole discussion, check out yesterday’s post. All the numbers are there. But I just wanted to be clear about the fact that seeding was what was followed here, and in this case, Tufts’ 9-5 record v/RROs and its .657 SOS made up for Trinity’s 184 points of winning percentage. I still don’t like it though!
Great quote from Pat’s article:
“This is a miss, and only adds fuel to the fire from the American Southwest Conference, Northwest Conference, Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference and Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference when they ask Division III leadership why they get snubbed on a regular basis.”
Full article here: https://d3hoops.com/notables/2023/03/sectional-hosts-announced
But look at it this way. now you’ve got Trinity fired up, going to Tufts, and playing the Jumbos Friday. You’d best believe there is some serious emotion and maybe even some momentum that this recent case has given the Tigers, even though, if we’re being honest, we could’ve called this a week ago when brackets came out. Tufts was set up to host here if CNU didn’t get the opportunity to do so.
Ok, moving onto some additional D3 news…
Coaching carousel (per Whoopdirt.com)
A few head coaching jobs came available with this last week:
Northland College (UMAC)
Blackburn (SLIAC)
Defiance (HCAC)
UWRF (WIAC)
Elmhurst (CCIW)
Wilkes (MACF)
Finlandia announced this past Thursday that it will be closing its doors. Unfortunately, it does not appear this will be the last D-III university/college to do so in the next several years. There was also something cool with the remoteness of Finlandia and you had to respect those coaches and student-athletes who played up there. Similar to Sul Ross State here in Texas, it was a small community in Michigan’s upper peninsula, and you also had the Finnish history that went along with Finlandia. Greg Thomas of D3football.com had written a great feature on the football program this past fall. The coaches there had an uphill battle and yet had found ways to win. The women’s basketball team had picked up a D-I transfer in Omaha’s Natalie Bartle this past season, and actually defeated Salisbury in the C2C Tournamrnt a couple weeks ago.
I plan to take a look at the two sectionals on the left side of the bracket tomorrow, then the two on the right side on Thursday. So stay tuned for those. In the meantime, go check out last night’s episode of Hoopsville if you haven’t already! Some great interviews on there.