Thanks for filling in - this is a daily read for me.

Game of the night recap
#22 Chapman 82, Whitworth 70

No last minute heroics needed this time around, as Chapman College stays undefeated in Northwest Conference play with a comfortable home win over the visitors from Whitworth.  Eight consecutive Chapman points beginning with seven and a half minutes remaining in the first half broke a tie and put Chapman on top to stay; it was the beginning of 21-9 run over the remainder of the opening stanza for the home team.  Whitworth was never able to make a sustained run over the second half, as the deficit got no closer than seven points after halftime.  Ernest Rothlisberger's 14 points and 10 rebounds led the way for Chapman, who had five players in double figures, while the starting backcourt of Brendan Daily and Earl Landrum put up 17 and 16 points respectively to pace Whitworth.

Game of the night
#17 CSU, Eastbay at #5 Colorado

A matchup between ranked Southern California Conference teams is our game of the night tonight (though #22 Newbury at #2 Rivier would also be a good choice as well--however, a GNE Conference matchup or two merits consideration almost every night).  Coach tedlukacs' squad from Hayward travel to Colorado Springs to take on a Colorado College team that coach bdpoor has managed to keep undefeated in conference play thus far.  Eastbay will try to avenge an 8-point loss from earlier this year, while bdpoor will be attempting to improve his overall 2-8 record in head-to-head matchups with tedlukacs.  Junior point guard Chris Pittman leads CSUEB, averaging 14.6 points and 3.6 assists per game, while Colorado is led by senior Derek Demery, who contributes 5 assists per game to go along with a 21.2 scoring average that is fourth in all of Division 3.

In other news, your regular recapper should return and reclaim his position as D3 narrator tomorrow.  I hope I've managed to keep the regular season a bit interesting for those other Rupp D3 coaches who read this thread.  I don't think I ever realized I had a dormant sportswriter of sorts within me, but I'm very happy to turn this thread back over to rednu.  Thanks for reading, everybody.

great stuff riddler. 

Game of the night recap
CSU, Eastbay 70, Colorado 67

In a SoCal battle, Terry Valentine knocked down a pair of insurance free throws with 5 seconds to play and David Demery's potential tying 3 pointer from the right wing drew only rim as Eastbay won a tight 70-67 road victory to hand Colorado its first league defeat of the season. Colorado took a one-point lead into the second half and stretched it out to as many as seven, but Eastbay caught up with 5:48 remaining and wasted little time in building a 9-point lead with less than 3 minutes to play. Colorado was able to draw within a point with 8 seconds remaining. Demery led all scorers with 19 points for Colorado. Valentine had 18 for victorious Eastbay. 

Game of the night
Well, I had to scroll a bit. The top four teams in the nation are favored by an average margin of 57 points tonight, so the top of the rankings won't be shuffling in all probability. There is this little tussle between #7 Johnson&Wales and #8 Emerson though, and I'll focus on that one as two two-loss teams from the GNE hit one another. Another interesting game, but not one involving two human coaches, is unranked Trinity CT (21-1) hitting Tufts (21-0) and coached by zmark. Tufts won a close one on the road and now must defend the home floor against a successful Sim. #23 Susquehanna (18-4) is at Elizabethtown (19-3) in another biggie tonight. 

Many, many thanks to riddler for keeping this going while I was on the road in Georgia for an unexpected work road trip. I should be back and will work to get caught up on what's going on around Rupp as my focus has been very myopic to my own teams these last eight days or so. 

Just saw our first feature in game of the night. Pretty awesome. Thanks for doing this.

Game of the night recap
Johnson & Wales 72, Emerson 65

JW forced 14 second-half turnovers to rally from nine points down at halftime to pick up a needed victory in the Great Northeast/Evil Empire showdown. Emerson shot the ball well, hitting half its shots in the game, but couldn't overcome the 22 turnovers forced by the JW defense. Elsewhere, Tufts stayed undefeated in it's matchup with Trinity and Susquehanna cruised on the road to a big win. 

Game of the night
CMHMS (17-5) at #7 Colorado (21-2)
Selvendar has a four game lead in his division, which virtually wraps up a banner for him this season. Tonight, he can throw the whole league into a complete state of upheaval if he can hang a W on the road against top-ten program Colorado. There's also a good tilt as Emerson's death march in the GNE continues against RIvier tonight, which should almost be illegal having played JW last night. 

Game of the night recap
Colorado 63, CMHMS 60

David Demery had 22 points as Colorado held off a dogged CMHMS crew at home last night. Colorado carried a 7-point lead into the second half and held it for the final 20 minutes, but was never able to put the contest away or even build upon that margin. As a result, CMHMS kept things nervously tight for much of the half before drawing within a point late. Colorado hit a pair of clutch foul shots late to send the margin back to three and and CMHMS shot from the right corner that would have tied the contest bounced harmlessly away to secure the win for Colorado and set up an even bigger game tonight against Whittier. 

Game of the night 
Connecticut (20-2) at #12 Tufts (23-0)

We head to the NESCAC for tonight's featured game. zmark's Tufts team faces what, barring disaster, would appear to be their last significant hurdle to an undefeated regular season as rwright's Connecticut team marches into town as a one-point dog. A big win by Tufts could send a statement to poll voters hat still isn't showing much love to Tufts. A victory of any kind would create a significant RPI lift from taking down a 20-win opponent. Tufts will also clinch no worse than a share of the regular season conference title with a victory. Tufts' final two games are against a pair of six-win schools. For Connecticut, the game is simple -- a win moves them into a tie for the conference lead. It could also crack Connecticut into the top 25. 

My nomination for game of the night is Martin Luther(23-1) vs Illinois Wesleyan(24-0).  Both very great teams in CCIW with national tournament implications on the line.

I'm sorry gang...got back home, promptly got sick amid all the Thanksgiving hustle and bustle. My apologies to those who had great games and got blown off. Here's the regular-season rundown of league champs. Hat's off to simmed Carleton, going from 0-27 to conference champs!

American Southwest — Howard Payne (aggiegeog) runs the table for a 26-0 regular season and a three-game margin of victory in a league whose champ historically is good for a long postseason run. Only three games have been decided by single digits. 

Capital — Catholic (24-2, 16-0) goes perfect for head coach bistiza. First conference titile in five seasons for Catholic, which got knocked out in the first round of last year’s NT. 

Centennial — Ursinus (barjaz) edges Dickinson and mfnmyers by a game, finishing a perfect 16-0 campaign. After a long NT run was snapped with a PIT championship last year, Urisinus looks to begin again. 

CUNY — Sim-coached Staten Island wins by a game with a 14-2 record. It’s a return to the top of the league after a three-year absense. 

CCIW — Illinois Wesleyan (unlikelyhero) completed a perfect regular season, winning the CCIA by two games over traditionally strong Martin Luther. Opponents are shooting less than 38 percent this season against IW. 

Coast — Wentworth Tech (chewchad) goes 16-0 in the league for a second consecutive year. Most of the league games weren’t even close as chad rolled. 

Commonwealth — Penn St. Altoona (frankgrimes1) manages to win them all and wins the conference by two games ahead of Elizabethtown and Susquehanna. That’s seven straight banners for frank. 

Empire — Vassar (theriddler) goes unbeaten to win by two games ahead of Union. The North division was weak sauce, being won with a 9-7 conference mark. It’s consecutive 16-win seasons for Vassar. 

Freedom — Scranton (artie40) wins by three games. After snapping a lengthy NT drought for Scranton last season, artie’s hoping to make it back-to-back visits as he celebrates his third straight banner. 

GNE — Rivier (jack_duck) finishes one game clear of Johnson&Wales and Newbury in what turned out to be a great chase through the season. That’s four stragiht banners for the Riv. 

Heartland — Defiance (carl3298) gets through the regular season unscathed at 26-0. The defending national champs haven’t lost a league game in 3+ seasons now. Mt. St. Joseph provided the chase at 15-1 but lost the head-to-head by 10 points. 

Iowa — Buena Vista (westcoast22) has done me proud as I jumped on his bandwagon early and produced still another 26-0 regular season in Rupp this year. Nobody has played BV within single digits this season and the average margin has been 31+ points per win. 

Little East — UMass, Dartmouth (docwooden) and E. Connecticut St (cjones4mvp) share league honors with 15-1 records. It’s the first time in seven seasons they’re hanging a banner at Dartmouth and the 25-1 record is quite a turnaround from doc’s 9-19 mark a season ago. 

Michigan — Calvin (prc56) wins by two games with a 15-1 league mark. This is six straight banners for Calvin. 

Midwest — Rose-Holman (nachopuzzle) wins by three games for his sixth straight banner. Only simmed Beloit blemished the RHIT record in league play this year. 

Minnesota — Carleton and St. Scholastica tie with 14-2 marks, but Carleton won the cross-division battle, so we’ll focus on them. This is simply an amazing turnaround for a program that was 0-27 last season. Also, the first league title since Season 44 for the program. 

NESCAC — Tufts (zmark513) is another undefeated regular season program. It’s banner No. 6 in a row for Tufts, which was only played within single digits once during the regular season. 

New Jersey — Montclair St. wins by a game over Kean. first banner in five seasons for the sim-coached team. 

N. Atlantic — Johnson St. (mrtickles) and simmed Castleton St split regular season meetings to split the title. first banner in four years for Castleton. 

NCAC — Wooster (pseudochamp) holds off Ohio Wesleyan and Denison to win the league by a game.  That’s back-to-back banners for the Fightin’ Scots. 

Northwest — Chapman (redsoxrootr1) ran the table and finished three games clear of the field. While redsox had managed 20+ wins in each of his three seasons coaching Chapman, this is the first conference banner he’s posted during his tenure. 

Ohio — John Carroll (whit6r) goes 16-0 to finished two games in front of Capital. Whit6r’s been at JC since season 51, but this is the first time he’s been able to celebrate a 16-0 conference campaign. 

ODAC — Lynchburg (barney1974) and Emory & Henry (meme4574) split in the conference season to tie with 15-1 league marks. That’s six banners in a row for Lynchburg while it’s the first title in six years for EH. 

Penn — Babson goes 15-1 as a sim to win the Penn by a game ahead of also-simmed Cabrini. First banner in three years for Babson. 

Skyline — US Merchant Marines (lynchmob1414) runs the table to finish a game clear of Mount St. Mary. That’s seven straight banners for the Skyline’s flagship program. 

SoCal — Colorado (bdpoor) finishes a game clear of Whittier to capture the title. It’s the first banner in 11 years for Colorado. 

St. Louis — Simmed Dominican wins the league by a game with a 14-2 record. This is the first league title celebration in nine seasons for Dominican. 

SUNY — Simmed Brockport goes 16-0 to sweep the league and finish four games clear of the field. First conference title in three seasons for Brockport.

University — Louisiana (discodave) wins by two games over Millsaps, but doesn’t have the ranking that Millsaps has. That’s nine consecutive banners for Louisiana. 

Upstate — New York U. (dominick324) wins by a game over Washington(MO) and Brandeis. That’s three straight league titles under three different head coaches for NYU. 

USA South — North Carolina Wesleyan (nastynick60) goes 16-0 to edge Greensboro by a game in the league standings. It’s the first league title since Season 54 for NCW and continues a good run for nick, who steered a 14-17 program to a CT title last year. 

Wisconsin — Eau Claire and Superior both finish 15-1 overall. Eau Claire won the head-to-head and the simmed program raises its first title since Season 48. 

Here's the list of conference championship games. The numbers in front of schools are their Top 25 ranking as of this morning. Numbers after the records in parenthesis are current projection report positions). Four schools -- Howard Payne, Illinois Wesleyan, Defiance and Buena Vista -- looking to keep the dream of unbeaten seasons alive.

ASC — #3 Howard Payne (28-0, 2) vs. Hardin-Simmons (19-9, 23)
Capital — #10 Catholic (26-2, 16) vs. York (PA) (25-3, 40)
Centennial — #18 Ursinus (25-3, 24) vs. Dickinson (20-8, 41)
CUNY — Staten Island (23-5, 115) vs. York (NY) (14-14, 216)
CCIW — #15 Illinois Wesleyan (28-0, 33) vs. Martin Luther (26-2, 43)
Coast — Wentworth (24-4, 31) vs Colby-Sawyer (22-6, 81)
Commonwealth — #11 Penn St. Altoona (25-3, 13) vs. #19 Susquehanna (24-4, 17)
Empire — #9 Vassar (26-2, 12) vs. Union (22-6, 28)
Freedom — Scranton (20-8, 84) vs. Drew (21-7, 116)
GNE — #2 Rivier (26-2, 1) vs. #6 Johnson & Wales (26-2, 4)
Heartland — #4 Defiance (28-0, 8) vs. Mt. St. Joseph (23-5, 30)
Iowa — #1 Buena Vista (28-0, 3) vs. Cornell (19-10, 58)
Little East — UMass, Dartmouth (27-1, 48) vs. E. Connecticut St. (24-4, 50)
Michigan — Calvin (23-5, 37) vs. Eureka (22-6, 54)
Midwest — Rose-Hulman (26-2, 65) vs. Knox (19-10, 157)
Minnesota — St. Scholastica (23-5, 78) vs. Augsburg (18-11, 127)
NESCAC — Connecticut (25-3, 42) vs. Bates (20-8, 69)
New Jersey — Rutgers at Newark (20-8, 122) vs. Rutgers at Camden (19-9, 133)
N. Atlantic — Castleton St (25-3, 99) vs. Johnson St. (21-7, 132)
NCAC — Ohio Wesleyan (21-7, 52) vs. Wittenberg (23-6, 57)
Northwest — #17 Chapman (26-2, 21) vs. E. Oregon (20-8, 55)
Ohio — #5 John Carroll (26-2, 6) vs. Capital (22-6, 27)
ODAC — #24 Lynchburg (23-5, 22) vs. Emory & Henry (26-2, 32)
Penn — Babson (26-2, 76) vs. Cabrini (25-3, 79)
Skyline — #12 US Merchant Marines (24-4, 10) vs. #23 Mount St. Mary (23-5, 26)
So. Cal. — #7 Colorado (26-2, 7) vs. #22 Whittier (21-7, 20)
St. Louis — Dominican (24-4, 38) vs. Webster (19-9, 88)
SUNY — US Coast Guard (15-13, 223) vs. SUNY-Oneonta (14-15, 250)
University — Southwestern (20-9, 25) vs. Sewanee (20-9, 34)
Upstate — Brandeis (19-10, 53) vs. Rensselaer Poly (19-9, 111)
USA South — #8 N. Carolina Wesleyan (26-2, 9) vs. #14 Greensboro (25-3, 14)
Wisconsin — Wisconsin, Eau Claire (25-3, 73) vs. Wisconsin, Oshkosh (19-10, 150)

I am projecting a "last in" break line somewhere between 47 and 53 after tonight's games. Teams ranked 54th or higher following tonight's projection report  appear as though they'll have to win their way in. Those 46 and above should be in the field regardless. Good luck everyone!

Great job, Rednu.

My predictions: a Christian named school wins the CCIW, there will be a lot of cheese hats at the Wisconsin championship game, and Rutgers makes it into the tournament from the NJ conference.

Posted by sublightd on 11/27/2012 5:23:00 PM (view original):
Great job, Rednu.

My predictions: a Christian named school wins the CCIW, there will be a lot of cheese hats at the Wisconsin championship game, and Rutgers makes it into the tournament from the NJ conference.

More predictions: the loser of the CUNY conference championship game will not get a postseason bid; a team from Virginia will win the ODAC tourney crown; water will be found to be wet; and, against the odds, the sun will once again rise in the east.

How long has it been since the GNE only had ONE #1 seed?  Talk about a down season :)

yeah, I gotta take the field this year vs. GNE....  Obviously Rivier and J&W will likely make deep runs. I don't think the Majors from Millsaps will scare anyone this season and I just hope to get thru a few rounds to earn $10 in credit.  The UAA continues to run 2nd to GNE in conference RPI but I think we are gaining with the quality of coaches we have.  The GNE suffered this year from bad non-conference scheduling it looks like for the lower teams (since it's so hard to get wins in conference)

Don't have time this morning to do my normal full breakdown and I'll be partying too hard this evening celebrating my crazy-mad Powerball victory, so you get the abbreviated version:

Midwest Region
This looks like a solid group. Rivier will do unmentionable things to Oneonta in round 1, but there's strength mixed in with a 27-2 team as the 14-seed and a potentially dangerous 6-11 meeting between Ursinus and Texas Lutheran. The three teams that pop out at me are all high on the bracket though in Rivier, Vassar and CSU, Eastbay. Rivier will obviously get the focus and has a possible meeting with regular-season unbeaten Tufts in round 2. Vassar owns a regular-season win over Rivier, so that could be interesting if things play out and we actually arrive at a 1 vs. 2 regional final. To win that game though, Vassar needed a 62-point second half to rally from double digits back at halftime. The feeling here is that sort of lightning won't strike twice, and I'll go with Rivier to be representing the Midwest in the Final Four.

East Region
Defending national champion Defiance sits as a No. 3 seed in the East .Way-too-early Final Four selection Colorado holds a No. 1 seed. Millsaps, which defeated Colorado in the regular season, is a No. 2. No. 4 US Merchant Marine looks good on paper and has defeated Millsaps on the road, but also has a disturbing tendency to go completely AWOL in the games they've lost. Then there's unbeaten Illinois Wesleyan way down there at No. 8. I've gone back and forth on this one a lot in my mind, and in the end I think I'll take the defending national champs to represent.

South Region
In my book, this is the most top-heavy region of the tournament this year. My preseason darling Buena Vista did me proud by grabbing a No. 1 seed, but now look at what they have to contend with! Greensboro, the preseason No. 1 team in the land, is a 4 seed. Newbury, another Way-Too-Early Final Four selection is a No. 3. John Carroll is a rock-solid squad at No. 2 for whit6r. It gets rougher with Hardin-Simmons, Susquehanna and Calvin at 5, 6 and 8, respectively. Clear down at 14 is ever-scary Rose Hulman. Better bring your A game every step of the way down south! I still love Buena Vista, and with 11 upperclassmen they'll be an incredibly tough out to get, but I think John Carroll is in the most advantageous position to get through this Murderer's Row and still be dancing come the Final Four.

West Region
On the flipside of the coin, my nominees for National Coach of the Year are lurking in the West, as there are some teams that appear to have been coached above and beyond their ratings levels this year. It starts right there in the No. 1 seed as aggiegeog had Howard Payne undefeated into the CT finals. I didn't even have HP winning its conference when I wrote the preseason. If that's not your NCOY right there, then how about nastynick60 at 3-seed North Carolina Wesleyan? Another program I didn't pick to win its conference (but at least mentioned in the preseason as being most likely to knock off Greensboro...I get partial credit here!). Redsoxrootr1 at Chapman (5 seed) is also national-honor worthy in my opinion for his performance this year. That's all great, but when it comes to players on the floor, this region is all about Johnson & Wales, the No. 2 seed, and I think they'll advance with relative ease compared to the road others will have to walk to the Final Four.

Final Four
Rivier will deny Defiance's dream of a repeat championship. Johnson & Wales will be pushed hard by John Carroll, but will survive in the end. In a down year for the Evil Empire (seriously guys, only the second-most number of teams in the national tournament? For shame...), they still manage to close out the national championship game. Once there, it's hard to argue that Rivier, which already owns two double-digit wins over JW this season, won't step through and deliver on the deed one more time. Ship the hardware to jack_duck. That's the prediction -- good luck everybody!!