Photo by Ryan Coleman, D3sports.com Amherst players celebrate their title.

By Pat Coleman
D3hoops.com

SALEM – Congratulations to Amherst, which got the monkey off its back en route to a national title.

Because everyone knew the story behind the Lord Jeffs' previous Salem trips entering the weekend, it didn't seem necessary for D3hoops.com to keep repeating it. I didn't raise the topic in our podcast interview with coach Dave Hixon at the beginning of the week.

However, many others did, and when we sat down with Hixon to record a pregame interview for the semifinal game, he said, in essence, you're not going to ask about being winless in Salem, are you?

So we turned it around on him: “What are you hoping to do here this year that you haven't done the last couple of times?”

His response: “Well, we'd like to get to the national final. We'd like to win the national championship, but we have to get to the final to do that. We haven't done that in the last two years.”

Well spun. And not only did they win one, they won them both.

Chalk up another piece of evidence for considering the NESCAC a power conference. While the league is not strong up and down the standings the way that the WIAC, CCIW and OAC are, it has two teams with Walnut and Bronze now and three appearances in the title game in five seasons.

Remember, before 1994 league rules prohibited the NESCAC from participating in the NCAA Tournament. Since then, four NESCAC teams have reached the Final Four.

But I think it would be reaching to apply a newfound respect for the Northeast Region as a whole. In the time since the NESCAC has been in the field, just one non-NESCAC team has made the Final Four from the region and none has made the title game. Whether you're inclined to view the Little East, NEWMAC or MASCAC as the No. 2 league in the region, it's a far distant second.

Photo by Ryan Coleman, D3sports.com Andrew Olson elevated his game this season and continues to make smarter decisions.

NASH-TY PERFORMANCE: The comparisons keep piling in for Amherst point guard Andrew Olson, many of whom compare him to Steve Nash.

And it's not just the hair.

I really try to ignore the NBA at all costs, but of course, in my day job we cover all pro sports, whether or not they resemble the pure version of the competition. But having watched Olson play after last year's Final Four and six times over the course of this season, the comparisons are worthy.

I've seen Olson throw up some deep shots that have fallen. I've seen him miss a last-second shot that would have tied the game. I've seen some deep shots that have missed. But he's made smarter decisions in every game of his I've seen, and I can only recall one unwise pass and no shots from the weekend.

He's just a junior this season. He's got Kevin Hopkins back as the finisher on the fast break next season. Brian Baskauskas returns as one of the three wing types. Hixon said after the game that Steven Wheeler is even a better shooter than graduating older brother Dan. Fletcher Walters would be in line for more playing time. Tim McLaughlin graduates after an incredible Final Four, but Adolphe Coulibaly and Matt Goldsmith should be back after missing time this season.

There's a lot of talk about Wash U as next year's preseason No. 1. I might cast my lot with Amherst when next October rolls around.

WHO'S GOT THE POWER? Three power conferences were named above -- there's consensus on those. The UAA has to be in the conversation after recent years. The NESCAC should be considered.

But so should the ODAC. The league was a strong contender for two playoff bids all season, ending up with three when Hampden-Sydney pulled off the upset in the conference tournament. Virginia Wesleyan's loss in the national title game was the only one the league suffered to a non-ODAC team, as Virginia Wesleyan eliminated both Guilford and Hampden-Sydney and also beat Averett, Mississippi College and Washington U. Guilford recorded wins against Manhattanville, Johns Hopkins and Lincoln, while H-SC beat Hood.

It would be a stretch to put any of the three leagues mentioned above in the same class as the OAC, CCIW or WIAC, but if there's a list of the big six conferences in Division III as there is in Division I, the UAA, NESCAC and ODAC would probably round that list out.

POSTGAME REACTIONS: It's never easy to lose in Salem, and it can be particularly painful to lose the third-place game to go home with two losses. The reactions of the two teams that lost Saturday may say it all.

Photo by Ryan Coleman, D3sports.com The faces of dejection for Virginia Wesleyan.

Wooster lost the third-place game to Wash U 92-84, winning the coveted fourth-place trophy. And they really wanted nothing to do with that piece of hardware (“like it was the plague,” one Wooster supporter put it). In fact, the Scots left the trophy on the floor -- Tim Vandervaart came out of the locker room to collect it.

Vandervaart's selection to the All-Tournament team was richly deserved.

But the Scots' snub of their own trophy paled somewhat in comparison to Virginia Wesleyan's snub of the postgame handshake. I'm not going to judge the emotion of running all season to defend their national title only to lose it on the final day, and I know that in a title game situation, the winning team is not going to be ready to shake hands right away.

However, when the time comes, stand up and shake hands. Don't make the winning team come over and shake hands with you while you're sitting on the bench. Not enough stood up for some people's tastes.

We'll never be able to eliminate someone losing the title game, but the third-place game might go away someday. I heard some interesting proposals for events to replace this game and I hope one of them comes to fruition.

Photo by Ryan Coleman, D3sports.com Wash U fans cheered long and as hard as possible. It was a long trip from St. Louis and the school had teams in both Final Fours.

STANDING ON CEREMONY: But kudos to those who did stand, and stood long after the game was over. In this instance, I'm referring to the fans from Wash U. Bears fans were still in the Civic Center when we left after the semifinals on Friday night, applauding the players as they came out one by one.

Seriously, fans who are still there when we're leaving are dedicated. And these fans had witnessed a heartbreak of an ending, probably not knowing that a review of the video confirmed the call on the floor was correct. The Wash U fans were not great in number, but they were loyal.

STILL HERE: The people you meet in the airport on the way in or out of Salem are a pretty wide cross-section of Division III.

My stay in Division III's championship city was extended by about 24 hours thanks to the double whammy of mechanical failure on my first flight out of Roanoke on Sunday morning and the backed-up passengers trying to get into the Northeast from the snow earlier in the weekend. My second flight out was delayed and subsequently cancelled when the flight crew timed out.

So I spent a lot of time in the Roanoke airport on Sunday. The Wash U team came and left – a familiar situation, these guys waiting in an airport terminal, and they were a well-oiled machine.

Relatives of an Amherst senior were seated probably 10 feet away from me for three or four hours, looking through photos on their digital camera, watching a video clip they had recorded on their cellphone of the closing seconds of the game.

A Washington and Lee men's team flew back home Saturday night. Wasn't sure which one.

And on my third attempt to get out, Monday morning, I was stuck behind the Georgia Tech softball team in the security line.

More than one referee was in the terminal as well – I ended up speaking with one several times over the course of Sunday. While the conversation was off the record, I will say the disappointing lack of a courtside monitor for the semifinal games was a topic of discussion.

This needs to be fixed for next year. While the crew working that game absolutely got the call right, the national semifinals merits the safety net that a video replay can provide. And the game doesn't have to be broadcast on television for a system to be available, from all I've been told. There just needs to be a monitor at the scorer's table with a VCR to record the feed from the film crew. And with the new three-sided shot clocks, part of the extensive renovation of the Salem Civic Center, it would be much easier to determine whether a shot beat the buzzer.

Let's not wait until it costs us a game.