{"id":1493,"date":"2011-12-09T11:00:16","date_gmt":"2011-12-09T17:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/?p=1493"},"modified":"2011-12-09T02:04:49","modified_gmt":"2011-12-09T08:04:49","slug":"d-iid-iii-semifinal-previews-and-an-naia-note","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/2011\/12\/09\/d-iid-iii-semifinal-previews-and-an-naia-note\/","title":{"rendered":"D-II\/D-III Semifinal Previews (and an NAIA note)."},"content":{"rendered":"

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.
\n
\nDIVISION II<\/strong><\/span>:<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"
\nWayne State (MI) (11-3) at Winston-Salem State (13-0)<\/strong><\/span>
\nAirs on ESPN GamePlan. Video available via ESPN3. Audio available via WTDK<\/a>. Live Stats available via NCAA<\/a>.
\nSeries: first meeting.<\/p>\n

My predictions from last week: Wayne State (MI) 27, Minnesota-Duluth 26; New Haven 37, Winston-Salem State 33
\nActual: Wayne State (MI) 31, Minnesota-Duluth 25; Winston-Salem State 27, New Haven 7<\/p>\n

I’ll take the first one there, gladly. The second? Wow, that’s easily the worst prediction I’ve made this entire playoff season. Winston-Salem just completely shut down New Haven’s potent passing offense, and they’re suddenly a very real threat to win the title. With the win, the Rams became the first HBCU to record a 13-win season.<\/p>\n

Jon’s Prediction<\/span>:
\nWayne State (MI) 27, Winston-Salem State 24. A threat, but not a sure thing. Taking into account competition and numbers, I simply can’t give the Rams the nod here this week. They made me look stupid last week, so I could be very wrong here, but there’s also the small detail of Wayne State feeling a little destiny-fueled.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"\"\"
\nDelta State (11-2) at Pittsburg State (12-1)<\/strong><\/span>
\nAirs on ESPN GamePlan. Video available via ESPN3. Audio available via Stretch Internet<\/a> and KKOW<\/a>. Live Stats available via NCAA<\/a>.
\nSeries: Delta State leads 1-0 (2005, 44-31 at Pittsburg)<\/p>\n

My predictions from last week: North Greenville 38, Delta State 33; Pittsburg State 38, Northwest Missouri State 35
\nActual: Delta State 28, North Greenville 23; Pittsburg State 41, Northwest Missouri State 16<\/p>\n

North Greenville almost won that game, at least. The defenses really showed up to play, explaining the drastic shortfall in total points. Pittsburg’s defense showed up, too, mostly in order to make a very cogent point to their arch-rivals: “Go home.”<\/p>\n

Jon’s Prediction<\/span>:
\nPittsburg State 37, Delta State 20. If nothing else, Pittsburg made a statement last week. Delta is a tough<\/em> team, and if this game stays close they’ve got a very real shot. But the Gorillas seem intent, and — taking schedule into account — they are the best team in Division II, and they just crushed the second<\/em>-best team in Division II by 25 points.<\/p>\n

\n

DIVISION III<\/strong><\/span>:
\n\"\"\"\"
\nWesley (DE) (12-1) at Mount Union (13-0)<\/strong><\/span>
\nAirs on ESPN GamePlan. Video available via ESPN3. Audio available via WDEL<\/a> and Stretch Internet<\/a>. Live Stats available via Presto Sports<\/a>.
\nSeries: Mount Union leads 1-0 (2009 playoffs, 24-7 at Mount Union)<\/p>\n

My predictions from last week: Mary Hardin-Baylor 32, Wesley (DE) 27; Mount Union 29, Wabash 14
\nActual: Wesley (DE) 27, Mary Hardin-Baylor 24; Mount Union 20, Wabash 8<\/p>\n

Hey, I got Wesley exactly right. UMHB had every opportunity to make it 31-27 late in the game and failed to follow through. Mount Union and Wabash were basically a touchdown each worse offensively (or better defensively) than expected.<\/p>\n

Jon’s Prediction<\/span>:
\nWesley (DE) 24, Mount Union 21. OOOOH, yeah, I’m going there. Mount Union has not been overly dominant against strong teams thus far. Wesley has pulled out some tight wins against what appeared to be superior teams. It’s entirely possible Mount Union still comes out on top here, but the important thing to take away from this is that they’re vulnerable.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"\"\"
\nSaint Thomas (MN) (13-0) at Wisconsin-Whitewater (13-0)<\/strong><\/span>
\nAirs on ESPN GamePlan. Video available via ESPN3. Audio available via WCCO<\/a> and WKCH<\/a>. Live Stats available via NCAA<\/a>.
\nSeries: Saint Thomas leads 1-0 (1990 playoffs, 24-23 at Whitewater)<\/p>\n

My predictions from last week: Saint Thomas (MN) 24, Saint John Fisher 14; Wisconsin-Whitewater 36, Salisbury 30
\nActual: Saint Thomas (MN) 45, Saint John Fisher 10; Wisconsin-Whitewater 34, Salisbury 14<\/p>\n

Fisher’s defense just wilted, and that’s really all I can say by way of excusing that prediction. As for Whitewater, apparently they can stop a triple option just fine, as they shut Salisbury down very effectively.<\/p>\n

Jon’s Prediction<\/span>:
\nWisconsin-Whitewater 24, Saint Thomas (MN) 20. Oh, this game is going to be something. If they were playing in Saint Paul, I would actually be predicting a Tommie win. The Tommies’ defense is awesome, but so is Levelle Coppage. If they can somehow stop him, they may have a shot at flipping that score. We could end up with neither of the Purple Powers in the Stagg Bowl, folks, and that’s not just some pie-in-the-sky hope. It’s a very real possibility.<\/p>\n

\n

NAIA<\/strong><\/span>:<\/p>\n

My predictions from last week: Marian 33, Saint Xavier 20; Carroll 21, Georgetown 17
\nActual: Saint Xavier 30, Marian 27; Carroll 35, Georgetown 3<\/p>\n

Well, last week, I didn’t know squat apparently. Marian did almost pull out the win, but it wasn’t even supposed to be close. Carroll just steamrolled Georgetown, whose offense was pretty much helpless.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8,10,12],"tags":[9,11,13],"class_list":["post-1493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-division-ii","category-division-iii","category-naia","tag-d2","tag-d3","tag-naia-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p185sV-o5","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1493"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1493\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1495,"href":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1493\/revisions\/1495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}