By Pat Coleman
Publisher, D3hoops.com

You’d think it happens all the time, but it really doesn’t.    

The preseason pick to win the Ohio Athletic Conference did so, and gave the conference its third Final Four team in four seasons. But since the last two teams to reach Salem were picked fifth and sixth in the conference preseason poll, you’d think this year’s team heading south would be Baldwin-Wallace or Mount Union, not John Carroll.

“It’s really a rarity,” said John Carroll coach Mike Moran. “I know last year we won the conference, we were picked fourth and reached the Round of 32. This year we’ve carried the banner pretty well.”

The OAC was a dogfight all season, with five teams within two games of first place as of early February.

“It’s just the parity from top to bottom,” said Moran. “The cap would be like Otterbein this year, losing to Heidelberg who finished ninth. You have some very good coaches, too, guys renowned nationally like Jim Burson at Muskingum and Dick Reynolds at Otterbein. It’s kind of a coach’s nightmare. There’s no peace of mind.”

It’s all power conferences this year, in both Final Fours. The NESCAC has three of the eight teams. The OAC has two, the WIAC two and the UAA women one. Yet these conferences, with the best teams, have trouble getting more than one team into the field. Just ask the CCIW.

It wouldn’t be the first time a team has gone to the Final Four despite having no chance to get into the field as an at-large team. Or having a tough draw.

“It’s the second year in a row we’ve won our conference and won our tournament and had to play on the first night (of the tournament), then on the road on Saturday. That’s a huge disadvantage for any team. I truly feel that Division III has to do something.

“They don’t deserve to be placed in that type of position, playing Thursday then going on the road right away.”

The Ohio Athletic Conference knows as well as the rest of the power conferences the pain of the postseason snub. Moran saw it on the regional committee for three years. “The reality is that if you don’t win the (conference) tournament you’re not going to get in. The great example is 2002 when Otterbein won the national championship and Capital lost only three games in region, all to Otterbein and by a total of eight points. They could’ve been the second-best team in the country and didn’t get into the tournament.”

Each of these conferences has a recent bright spot to it. The WIAC had two teams in the Elite Eight in 2000. The CCIW actually got three teams into the field in 2001, and put them all in the Sweet 16. The OAC has been in the Final Four three times in four seasons, with three different teams, and the NESCAC has two teams in the Final Four this year, the first time that’s ever happened with conference rivals.

Mark Simon wrote about John Carroll and the rest of the OAC in Around the Nation earlier this season – the Blue Streaks rotate a fresh five players into the game every seven to eight possessions, enabling the team to keep the defensive pressure high at all times. The club goes 13 deep.

There is one benefit to being the sole conference team in the tournament, however. Less-familiar opponents are less likely to figure you out.

Moran agrees, laughing. “Absolutely, we don't want to run into any of those teams in the NCAA Tournament!