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| The committee opted for Mount St. Mary over Marymount from the Atlantic Region. Mount St. Mary athletics photo |
Here's the 2019 NCAA Division III women's basketball tournament bracket as released by the NCAA this afternon.
Looking back on our mock projection, we missed on three at-large selections, as the committee took Smith, Mount St. Mary and Middlebury, while we had taken Marymount, Emory & Henry and Elizabethtown.
We debated Elizabethtown and Smith for the last spot, so we’re not stunned to see the Pioneers in the field. But Middlebury’s inclusion suggests that either the Panthers jumped Smith in the final regional rankings (which we advocated) or Smith went early enough in the process that it didn’t matter. Given the history of multiple Northeast region teams getting at-large bids, we probably should’ve known that the three we projected were too few. The region ended up with five.
We advocated for Marymount to jump Mount St. Mary in the final Atlantic Region rankings, and that didn’t happen. And so Mount St. Mary gives the Skyline a second bid and Marymount becomes a painful example why teams scramble to get in conferences with automatic qualifying bids.
We’re not sure what to make of Emory and Henry’s exclusion. Evidently their loss in the ODAC quarterfinal hurt them more than we expected because the Wasps didn’t get an at-large bid and Oglethorpe did.
And we’re glad that the Committee took UW-Whitewater, despite its nine losses. The Warhawks had a stellar strength of schedule and they got a suitably tough first round matchup at Washington U, but they’ll be in the Dance. At the other end of the spectrum, St. Joseph’s (Maine) also got an at-large bid because of its stellar winning percentage. But the Monks also get a tough second round matchup with Ithaca, presuming the Monks beat MIT first.
Looking at the bracketing, this was a rough year for the MIAA. Hope gets Wheaton (Ill.) and, if the Flying Dutch win there, they likely get Wartburg in Iowa. Before you feel too bad for Hope, look at what Trine got. The Thunder’s reward for sweeping three games from Hope was a second round matchup with Thomas More, which would be a good Elite 8 game.
Ouch.
There are lots of intriguing potential second round matchups west of Pennsylvania, which is usually the case – Oshkosh versus DePauw or Loras; St. Thomas versus Illinois Wesleyan; and the three-match of Texas-Dallas and Mary Hardin-Baylor all look very good.
The Committee found a way to split the three highly ranked NESCAC teams and we like how they did it. Amherst has more losses than the other two and should be the one that has to travel on Sectional weekend, assuming the Mammoths make it that far. Tufts would get to make yet another trip to Scranton where they should own time shares by now, if those exist. The Committee also set up a quadrant that allows Thomas More to potentially host.
As for interesting matchups, St. Vincent’s pairing with former PAC mate Thomas More is either ironic or coincidental, depending on the Committee’s sense of humor. Christopher Newport and Gettysburg is interesting because the teams have opposite momentum heading into that game. RIT and Baldwin Wallace is a promising matchup of teams that fell off the national radar but are still really good. And, as painful as the draw is for the schools, that Hope-Wheaton (Ill.) game should be a great one with All American Francesca Buchanan battling CCIW MVP Hannah Frazier.