2023 Tournament Preview (Week 1) – Updated

Update – I guess I just got so excited by the Trinity Tournament that I failed to page down on my Excel spreadsheet that would have uncovered the UC Santa Cruz Tournament. Article has been updated.

My musing article must have got me working a bit because here is the Tournament Preview article for the first weekend that covers all of the teams in Region X. I’ll come out with another (maybe) that covers week 2 and week 3 (combined). I like doing these because it allows me to spread my insults around and not just on the Region X teams.

As a reminder, we have 37 teams in Region X this season but we find that 3 of them will not be playing in a tournament. I always hate that but not as much as the coaches. St Thomas and LeTourneau will be playing each other twice that first weekend as the St Thomas tournament did not make this year. Quite sad to see that. Redlands is the third team not playing in a tournament. They will play Providence Christian (non-DIII) that weekend. We need to get the Bulldogs into the Pacific Coast Classic but I’m assuming they will need to perform better on the court for that to happen. I am confident that will happen in the near future. That’s 3 teams down and 34 more to go. Here are the tournaments where a Region X team will play.

Austin/Dallas Tournament (Host Austin College and Dallas)

Arlington Baptist, Austin College, Champion Baptist, Dallas, Lyon, Paul Quinn and Sul Ross State

This tournament needs a cool name as it seems to be happening every year now. Remember, the D3VbWest Classic is available. We’ve got two host schools from the SCAC and one visiting school from the ASC. The rest are non-DIII schools. I’m not high on playing non-DIII schools but I understand it can be difficult to finding DIII opponents. (That will only get more difficult next year with Sul Ross State leaving DIII.) It would have been great if LETU and St Thomas could have found a way to supplant some of these non-DIII teams but for the tournament to make sense, you’d need one more DIII (but not a SCAC) school.

Caltech Tournament (Host Caltech)

Antelope Valley, Caltech, Life Pacific and Providence Christian

Caltech usually plays non-DIII schools to start the year off prior to playing in conference. Not the path I’d choose but Caltech has been improving the last few years so what do I know. This tournament gives Caltech three non-DIII programs so more of the same for the Beavers.

Country Cajun Classic (Host Centenary)

Belhaven, Centenary, Howard Payne, McMurry, Millsaps and Rhodes

Now we’re talking tournament names although I’m sure this will be offensive to someone. Can we label people “country”? What about “Cajun”? I joke, of course, but I’m sure in 100 years this will be a problem. As far as the teams, a nice mix of programs that are all trying to take that next step. I can’t remember when Centenary has hosted so that is cool although it’s probably one reason the St Thomas tournament didn’t make. McMurry is probably the top team here but any team that goes undefeated here might be the early surprise team of the season.

Eastern Nazarene Tournament (Host Eastern Nazarene)

Eastern Nazarene, Linfield, Western New England and William Smith

We’ve got a New England Tournament! Eastern Nazarene is in Quincy, Massachusetts and will draw William Smith out of New York and Western New England out of Springfield. Really good tournament for Linfield as all of these teams had winning records last year with Eastern Nazarene winning their now defunct conference. I’d really like to see Linfield come out of this with 3-wins. It won’t help in the NCAA Tournament chase but we need to exhibit some Region X dominance whenever possible.

Jenny McDowell Invite (Host Emory)

Centre, Covenant, Emory, ETBU and Greenville

Okay. I see how it is. You get a tournament named after you if you coach a powerhouse program and win a championship. Kind of discriminatory but I’m not going to be hurt by it. Emory always puts on a nice tournament to start the year. I originally had Franklin & Marshall here instead of Covenant but either I was wrong (doubtful) or there was a late change. I will just say that this would not happen at the D3VBWest Classic. Still, some great challenges here for ETBU with none better than Emory. ETBU really needs to take at least 3 of these and if you are going to do that then just take down Emory, too. Easier said then done as each will be a difficult opponent.

Mary Hardin-Baylor Invite (Host UMHB)

Concordia (MN), Concordia (TX), Schreiner, Simpson and UMHB

It’s an “Invite” but I’m going to assume that will not include me. UMHB should dominate this group of schools. Concordia (TX) should also do well. Simpson went 13-12 while Concordia (MN) was below 0.500  last season. Really the school that would interest me here is Schreiner. Good opportunity to enhance their rep.

NPU Invite (Host North Park)

North Park, Pacific, St Norbert, UW-River Falls and Westminster (Mo)

North Park had a great season last year and made the NCAA Tournament. River Falls had 22 wins, Westminster 19 and Norbert 17 so a tough group here for Pacific. Love to see it and really some teams that Pacific should do well against. As always, when playing out of region (and this even goes for Trinity), let’s win them all.

Pacific Coast Classic (Hosts CMS, La Verne and Pomona-Pitzer)

Alfred, Carthage, Chapman, CMS, Illinois Tech, La Verne, Lewis & Clark, Nebraska Wesleyan, Occidental, Pomona-Pitzer, Southwestern, St Catherine, St John Fisher, UW-Eau Claire and Whittier

Consistently one of the best (and biggest) tournaments to start the year off and they have another good group of teams here. Maybe missing one more out-of-region elite top talent but Carthage and UW-Eau Claire are typically in that class. I like how this tournament does its scheduling as they really tailor the opponents to the specific team. You want to play 3 of the best then you need to be one of the best. Without getting into specifics for each team (that’s what the schedule analysis does), there are good tests for everyone in the PCC. Throw in Southwestern to the mix and it will be tough for me to bypass this tournament.

Pikes Peak Challenge (Host Colorado College)

Augustana, Colorado College, Hardin-Simmons, UW-Platteville and Wartburg

I’ve documented how difficult it has been (after COVID) to get teams to travel, which has really hurt the Colorado College tournaments. The Tigers were able to get this one off the ground and they have some nice teams here. Platteville got rooked out of a Tournament bid last season and Wartburg was outstanding two years ago. Augustana had 17 wins last year and always seems to beat someone you don’t expect each year. This will be extremely challenging for HSU and a good test for Colorado College. For Colorado College, these all really become must wins when you are looking for an NCAA bid. I’ll be very interested in how Platteville and Wartburg start the season, too. Just some good storylines here.

Puget Sound Premier Tournament (Hosts Puget Sound and Pacific Lutheran)

Adrian, Eastern, Pacific Lutheran, Puget Sound and St Benedict

Found memories of this tournament as this is where Southwestern started their Final Four run in 2016. Some good teams here and this is a really good smaller tournament to start the year. I’ll say it again, I’m not sure why the SoCal teams don’t return the favor of the NWC teams always heading down south by coming up here for this tournament or the Oregon Trail Classic the following week. I guess the answer is they don’t have to but it just seems wrong. Saint Ben and Eastern are always teams that are pushing for tournament bids each year and Adrian had 13-wins last year so good matches in this one. I will say there is an excellent Japanese restaurant somewhere south of the campus if you can find it. Of course, that’s all the information I can remember on it. Good luck.

Trinity Invitational (Host Trinity)

Birmingham-Southern, Texas Lutheran, Trinity, UT-Dallas, UW-Oshkosh and Whitworth

The PCC and this one are the only tournaments with three of the four Region X conferences represented. These tournaments become really important for the regional rankings down the road. Trinity has really become the new Colorado College with respect to the tournaments. Colorado College use to be able to get three done up there and now Trinity seems to be the team that can get a tournament whenever they want. It helps them that they’ve been extra good the last few years and that there are good teams in driving distance (something CC doesn’t have). No telling how good BSC will be after their financial troubles. A lot will depend on what players decided to stay and not transfer. Oshkosh had a great year last season (making the tournament) and is really an important opponent for the Region X teams. Oshkosh plays in the tough WIAC and getting a common opponent advantage against anyone in that conference will play hugely come at-large bid time. Back to Region X and this tournament could feature the winners in three of our conferences.

Overall, we’ve got a lot of different levels in these tournaments. I like the Centenary tournament because it brings similar programs together. The PCC is really on a different level and always good. The Colorado College tournament has some of the more interesting teams (to me) in it. Same could be said for the Puget Sound Tournament. The Trinity Tournament is very unique in that they probably have the three favorites in three different Region X conferences at the same location. Of course, I just love it when a school flies out-of-region so props to Linfield, ETBU and Pacific. The entire region should be pulling for you week one!

* Update *

UC Slug Slam (Host UC Santa Cruz)

Cal Lutheran, George Fox, Gustavus Adolphus, Hamline, UC Santa Cruz, Waynesburg, Whitman and Willamette

Maybe this tournament should have been called, “The Tournament that shall not be named.”

A really good tournament to miss on my first go-around. Whoops. The Slugs don’t normally host but they put together a pretty good one here. We’ve got NWC teams and all of them were around 0.500 last year. Each has the ability to surprise someone here. Cal Lutheran and Gustavus Adolphus were both regionally ranked last year and that doesn’t include the host who were also ranked. This tournament would be better without Hamline and Waynesburg but that would be rude to write down. Seriously, this tournament has three regionally ranked teams tying them with the Trinity Tournament. The PCC has four with a lot more teams playing so these are probably the best three tournament containing Region X teams in week one.