Pool C Update #4 – Pre NESCAC

DAMN ASOUTH, BACK AT IT AGAIN WITH ANOTHER POOL C ARTICLE! I took the weekend off to spend some time with all the other people in the world that matter to me, so that is why you didn’t see me all too much over the weekend. Just because I wasn’t there doesn’t mean a lot didn’t happen though. I don’t claim to be the life of the DIII party – that’s reserved for the players.  With some great tennis across the nation from the Ojai all the way to wherever Bowdoin is located in Maine, the best of the best squared off to give us another stellar weekend of tennis.  While the upsets were not nearly as crazy as what happened the weekend prior, the whole NESCAC was basically in action while the UAA sat along and watched the NFL Draft. You pretty much know how this Pool C thing goes, but if you don’t, follow the never ending bread crumbs to Pool C #1… and on and on.

http://www.division3tennis.com/pool-c-update-3-well-sucks/

Let’s do another quick recap of the week:

Wesleyan def Bowdoin

Amherst def Williams

Middlebury def. Amherst

Bates def Bowdoin

D3NE Wrote a Wall of Text

Now that you know what happened this past weekend (you can also check the ticker up top), let’s get to your favorite part of the Pool C conversation. An Excel table.If you don’t know the teams by now you basically haven’t followed much all year, but that’s okay. We welcome your viewership. POOL C!

What Changed?

There are a few things that happened this past weekend that are reflected in the above table. If you look at current results, first of all, the big debate remains the same. Williams lost their matches that could have put them in the tournament and CMU is busy watching the Steelers draft or something. So, that debate remains fairly the same, it’s just that Williams now only has the NESCAC Tournament to provide a big resume booster that would put them in the tournament. However, I do have to tell you something! Bowdoin suffered a painful loss to Bates and followed that up with another loss to Wesleyan. As you can see, that shuffles some of the seeding around a bit and Bowdoin is now in the second to last Pool C spot. Luckily for Bowdoin, they beat both Amherst and Williams, otherwise they would be sweating it out come selection day, especially if they lost to Williams in the NESCAC Tournament.  Bowdoin is still currently safe by my standards, but their late season play is not the best. Just wanted to put that PSA out there. Anyways, what do we watch out for?

Upcoming

NESCAC Tournament 1st Round – Williams vs. Bowdoin – Last chance for the Ephs to make this conversation way more than moot.  If Williams wins, they are in the tournament.  The discussion would become Bowdoin vs. CMU and to me that really isn’t much of a conversation.  If Bowdoin wins, they are obviously in and Williams will have to sweat out what could be the most dramatic Selection MONDAY that we’ve ever had. I sound like Chris Harrison from the Bachelor.

The Debate

CMU and Williams should extend each other an offer to play at the end of the year. Winner goes to NCAAs. @D3Northeast

— d3AtlanticSouth (@d3AtlanticSouth) April 23, 2017

The argument for Williams remains the same, and it’s all about resume. Williams will continue have the best wins of the two teams, with wins over Redlands and Pomona. Pomona also beat Case Western twice, which doesn’t look good for CMU because those are their best wins. Even subjectively, if the bloggers rated every CMU and WIlliams win by power ranking, Williams would actually have the 3 best wins with Redlands, PP, and Tufts. But alas, the NCAA committee does not do that.

The latest ITA Rankings were very important for CMU. The reason being is that we wanted to see how far exactly Case Western would drop. Case dropped to #15, which is way better than the bloggers projected them at #19. Another big win for CMU was that Hopkins has jumped back into the top 20, coming in at #17 in the nation.  That gives CMU three top 20 wins, as many as Williams.  Either way, I don’t think that CMU has much claim to the resume argument, as I mentioned in Pool C Update #3.  Where I think CMU can make an argument now is that Williams really lacks any big wins (even though that is true for CMU). The reason why I am taking this stance for the Tartans is because Bates beat Bowdoin. Now, if a Bates team ranked #19 in the country can pull off that upset, how come Williams cannot with the same amount of matches against the NESCAC elite?  They would have had multiple chances to do this and it’s quite disappointing for them not to get ONE win. I’ve also outlined other potential reasons why (not 13 of them) in Pool C Update #3.

Lastly, I’d like to go through a very quick mathematics exercise. Take Williams 4 ranked wins (which is all they have) and average them. Boop boop boop. Okay, that’s 17.75. Take CMU’s best 4 ranked wins and average them.  Boop Boop Boop.  CMU’s average is also 17.75! This really is a true toss-up and neither team seems to have a strong “fugheddaboutit” argument. Can NEXT WEEK HAPPEN ALREADY?! Let’s hear some comments.

PSA: If you have not yet checked out the Recruiting Hub, please do so by clicking the Hub in the menu bar.  Anyways, go to town on this argument and keep checking back to this site for more NCAA Coverage as we wind down the regular season.ASouth, OUT!