Winston-Salem, last year’s Super Region I champions and national semifinalists, are the runaway pick to capture the conference title. They’ve got seven of the 25 spots on the pre-season all-conference team, and they’re going to be tough to beat. That said, the field does appear to be poised to reel them in somewhat. Quick team capsules after the jump.
It’s a whole new world for the Big Sky, as four new teams enter the fold; all of the former Great West teams save South Dakota have joined the party. That’s Cal-Davis, Cal Poly, North Dakota, and Southern Utah if you weren’t paying attention. The conference how has thirteen members; each team will play an eight-game conference schedule, and a complex new tie-breaking procedure is in place for the league’s autobid.
Montana State is the clear team to beat, having ruled the roost all year last year right up until they ran into arch-rival Montana. This year, Montana’s not as much of a threat (more on this in a bit) and the only other credible danger comes from Eastern Washington, a team that’s hard to put a finger on after last year’s injury-plagued debacle.
Quick notes on each team after the jump.
Aug 21
This is just a quick hello, and a welcome back for our third year here at TOG.
As I said back in February, things are going to be changing here; I won’t be doing a weekly recap for each division. This will be more of a “hey, pay attention to this” rather than “hey, pay attention to everything” format. However, one thing that will be happening over the next couple of weeks as we lead into the commencement of hostilities is that I’ll be making posts previewing each conference. Each day, expect one conference from each division (three D-III conferences per day, otherwise I wouldn’t get the previews done until mid-September).
Just to get you on the right path for today’s initial previews, the pre-season top 25 for each division:
Feb 2
Yes, I blew off the championship games again. I know, I’m sorry. So, congratulations to Saint Xavier, and to Whitewater (again), and to my mom’s alma mater Pittsburg State (Gorillas!), and of course to North Dakota State.
First, the bombshell: I am ditching the format of this blog altogether. Really, when it came down to it, I was not writing. I was regurgitating data, and wrapping it up in words. From this point forward (and that includes, hopefully, some observations on basketball this season), things are going to be more free-form and off-the-cuff. No more weekly infodumps; it’s my feeling that it was too much data for readers to handle anyway.
Really, if you want in-depth coverage of everything, there are already places to go for that.
Speaking of piles of data: I’ve been working on the Wiki, and so far since the start of the year I’ve completed the Big 12 and Southwest Conference sections (including the WIUFA and the MVIAA/Big 6/Big 7/Big 8). Working on the Big East now.
More importantly, however, I completed the NAIA Men’s Basketball District Regionals (1951-1993), because it turns out there was actually someone else researching them as well, and he’s now plunged into the wikiproject too (and doing a bang-up job both of working on the stuff he focuses on, and fixing my little errors that my single pair of eyes wasn’t up to). If you’ve got an urge to do research, more help is always welcome.
It’s finally here: the end of the 2011 season in three divisions is upon us. Brief recaps of the D-II and D-III semifinals, and previews of the D-II, D-III, and NAIA Championship Games follow.
Dec 15
Brief recaps of the quarterfinal games and previews of the semifinals after the jump.
I’m not providing actual recaps this week, because… well, because this week has been hell. Previews, team capsules, and predictions for the semifinal D-II and D-III playoff games this week follow. No NAIA game this week, as they take a week off between their semifinal and championship weeks.
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I’m not providing actual recaps this week, because… well, because this week has been hell. Previews, team capsules, and predictions for the quarterfinal FCS playoff games this week follow.
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Two unbeaten teams faced two one-loss teams in the semifinals… and now nobody’s unbeaten anymore. Scores, SID recaps, updated standings, and this week’s schedule after the jump.
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Another #1 seed fell this week, but it was to a #2 seed so not a huge upset. That leaves a pair of 1v2 games for the semifinals, and we’ll find out whether we get Game Seven between Mount Union and Whitewater on Saturday. Scores, SID recaps, updated standings, and this week’s schedule after the jump. The actual text is getting sparse, so apologies for the fact that for the next three weeks this is mostly just updated standings.