Selection Eve Musings

So, today is kind of crazy in how calm it’s going to be for me. This is historically the day I have the most traffic on the site. It’s the day with my Selection Eve open thread as I figure out who gets an at-large. With NPI, we know. A tradition has ended.

I wrote in a Match Day that Selection Day is really no more. It’s “Where You Going Day”. There shouldn’t be any team sitting watching the “selection” show wondering if they are in or not. I will miss those videos. Now, if we see a video where the team cheers, does it mean they are happy at who their opponent is? Entirely different context now.

So, I’m sure this has happened before and probably a lot but in the La Verne/CMS match last night, La Verne earned every single point of their 25-20 set two victory. All of their points were a kill, ace or block. CMS made no unforced errors. So, we had, in essence, a perfect set. It can’t be done unless the team on the short side of the score is perfect and the team on the good side of the score fights through it to earn all 25.

Back to website traffic and NPI has changed the game here at D3VbWest. Yesterday actually broke the record for most views in a day at nearly 4,000. Last month broke the monthly record and this month is going to crush that record. (We actually just broke the monthly record today with 13+ days left in the month.)

I can’t tell you how many coaches are telling me they hope they don’t go to Juniata.

The fallout from NPI will be interesting. I’m not a fan because a simple formula can’t capture the worth of teams. Sorry. I know it makes things easier for the NCAA and that has value but doing the right thing is often difficult.

Another fallout from NPI is scheduling. I am telling you; it will change scheduling for the worst unless something is done immediately to put in safeguards. More on this in the future.

I took a break from writing this to watch the matches. Holy cow! A comment by Ned during the MIT/Smith 5^th set was awesome. Depending on who wins this match, either Babson or Centre will be eliminated. In the end, the hit taken by MIT in the loss was more hurtful than the Smith win to the New England Region. The end result was the elimination of a New England team. The range of emotion for Centre had to be insane today. I much prefer them in than Babson simply because Centre tested themselves. If anything good comes of NPI, maybe it will be that New England teams that normally stay home will travel more.

I’ve seen the preliminary bracket from Ricky. I think he’ll publish later today and I’ll link to it with comments. Or he’ll send it to me to publish. The big unknown is where does Washington & Lee go if they didn’t put in a bid. With two Wisconsin Top 8 teams now, the answer is clearer. They stay within a drivable distance. The thinking is Ithaca. Other options would be Cortland and Gettysburg and a few other spots. Still, our thinking is Ithaca.

With only one New England Regional (probably), it means that the MIT Regional should be New England contained (no one flies in). There are a lot of teams that can drive to the two Wisconsin regionals so I’m assuming the Region X teams will mainly fly out to Emory. Then sprinkle a team here or there, as needed. I need to check flights to Emory, I guess.

Region X seeding should be ETBU (2), Trinity (2), Whitworth (3), La Verne (3) and CMS (4). I had thought CMS was also going to be a 3-seed and they are close. What that means is you probably won’t see Trinity and ETBU at the same regional and you probably don’t see Whitworth and La Verne at the same regional.

Trinity announcer Reed Rosales just commented that the #1 seed in the conference tournament won 27 times. The 2-seed, 12 times. The 3-seed, 3 times and the 4-seed, once. That 4-seed was St Benedict in the MIAC. He has 24 teams repeating as conference champions. Good stuff.

I want to give a special shoutout to St Thomas and their team. My (hot) wife and I were outside relaxing between matches at Austin College and the team came out to eat. A number of them started to read what I had written about the match. Until one player said, “You know the guy that wrote that is right here.” They are all very sweet, except for Noor Haydari. She likes to hurt floors with her face and after my (hot) wife did the same, I have to question her temperament. Best of luck with what is ahead for you. Come back strong next year and know that you don’t have to dive for a ball when the game is out of hand. Special shout out to granddaughters Kendall Howard and Laynee Beam. I really had mixed feelings watching your last match. I think I would have been okay with you beating my Pirates. Not happy. Just okay. Oh, Kendall! It really is a badge of honor to be hit in the face by a middle. Middles are awesome people who are never wrong and if they gift you a cosmetic change, you simply say, “thank you”. 😉

Travel plans. I am going to scope out if it’s possible to hit up a regional. I definitely want to make the Elite 8. A lot depends on my flight benefits and my (hot) wife’s doctor appointment on Tuesday. We shall see.

Update – It’s not going to happen, but it would be really cool if Centre and Smith ended up at the same regional. No Smith fan would have to buy a drink the entire weekend!