Bracket Predictions

[abmarks]

[quote Scersk '97]Brackets, at least how I see them, assuming Duluth, Notre Dame, and BU go on to win:

NE   1 BU
     8 North Dakota
    10 UNH
    15 Ohio State

MW   2 Notre Dame
     7 Minnesota-Duluth
    11 Cornell
    16 Bemidji State

W    3 Denver
     6 Northeastern
    12 Princeton
    13 Miami

E    4 Michigan
     5 Yale
     9 Vermont
    14 Air Force

Ah, the only thing that will get Red Berenson to go East:  the NCAA.

Shuffling is required for two inter-conference #1-#4 games, and kudos to Air Force for not being one of the two bottom seeds.  Quite the reward.

The "logjam" in the #2/#3 seeds looks to work out logically, if not happily.  Hosts at home really screwed everybody (including us) this year.
[/quote]

I got this bracket exactly also.  Got to disagree wit hScersk though. If we manage to beat Duluth, Notre Dame is going to tear us a new one.  THey'll be relatively rested from playing Bemidgi for one.  Also, I watched the Michigan ND game tonight and ND looks as hot as UMD.  ND has a good offense and actually managed to clog up *Michigan's* breakouts.

If they can put the clamp on Michigans offense I figure we are due for -2 goals.

[Scersk '97]

[quote abmarks]
I got this bracket exactly also.  Got to disagree with Scersk though. If we manage to beat Duluth, Notre Dame is going to tear us a new one.[/quote]

Well, I didn't say that we will be able to slow down Notre Dame, I said that we can.  Honestly, whether or not you can play a clogging game depends a lot on the refs.

Part of the reason that Jackson's Lake State teams were so effective was that refs did not call all the rampant holding that went on.  We used to be like that—I'm thinking of 1997.  I wonder if we can still play that kind of game.

[DeltaOne81]

[quote abmarks][quote Scersk '97]Brackets, at least how I see them, assuming Duluth, Notre Dame, and BU go on to win:

NE   1 BU
     8 North Dakota
    10 UNH
    15 Ohio State

MW   2 Notre Dame
     7 Minnesota-Duluth
    11 Cornell
    16 Bemidji State

W    3 Denver
     6 Northeastern
    12 Princeton
    13 Miami

E    4 Michigan
     5 Yale
     9 Vermont
    14 Air Force

Ah, the only thing that will get Red Berenson to go East:  the NCAA.

Shuffling is required for two inter-conference #1-#4 games, and kudos to Air Force for not being one of the two bottom seeds.  Quite the reward.

The "logjam" in the #2/#3 seeds looks to work out logically, if not happily.  Hosts at home really screwed everybody (including us) this year.
[/quote]

I got this bracket exactly also.[/quote]

Me three.

[Scersk '97]

As an addendum to my earlier post, if you look at the rankings with KRACH in mind (a far better method for determining the relative strengths of teams), a few things come to mind (using my seeding):

(1)  BU will actually receive something of a tough draw; however, I doubt they will be unable to handle it.

(2)  All of the possible games between #1 and the best of the #2/#3 seeds work out in a serpentine order following KRACH.  (Vermont, a #3 seed that is 6th in KRACH, ends up the likely second-round opponent of Michigan, 3rd in KRACH.  Northeastern, according to KRACH, would be the effective #1 seed in the west regional.)

(3)  The only "#3" seed that did well is Vermont, but if you consider Yale the effective #3, each #3 seed has an equally difficult path.  See #2 above.

(4)  Arguably, Princeton and Cornell, by avoiding eastern seeds, have ended up in the least "high-powered" regionals, though I see an upset of Notre Dame by Bemidji as highly unlikely.

Just looking for some lemonade in the lemons.

PS:  Minnesota's Pride on the Links!  Never a bad thing.

[Jeff Hopkins '82]

When I did it, I put us in Grand Rapids against UMD and Princeton in Minneapolis against NU, but in retrospect, I think the rest of you are right and I was wishful thinking.

[KeithK]

Everyone is getting the same East and Northeast regionals.  I'll be surprised if it doesn't play out like this.  Same for the 1 vs. 4 games at the other two sites.  Where there is some uncertainty is in the western 2 vs. 3 matchups.  We could end up at either site playing either UMD or Northeastern.  Neither matchup would violate any of the committee's "rules".  We'll see.

My biggest fear in all of this is that committee decides that there just isn't enough excitement and surprise in the selection process anymore(NCAA officials have made comments to this effect on the selection show in the past) and decide to pull something new out of their asses to give us a surprise.  I'm not expecting it, just afraid that one year some jackass will do something.  (I can just see them pulling some shenanigans to get the Gophers in.)

[ugarte]

[quote Scersk '97]
Just looking for some lemonade in the lemons.

PS:  Minnesota's Pride on the Links!  Never a bad thing.[/quote]
There's your lemonade!

[DeltaOne81]

[quote Jeff Hopkins '82]When I did it, I put us in Grand Rapids against UMD and Princeton in Minneapolis against NU, but in retrospect, I think the rest of you are right and I was wishful thinking.[/quote]

Not sure what you're referring to, most of us have that too. It makes the most sense...

Assume Notre Dame gets the Midwest as the overall #2, and DU gets the West as the overall #3, then the 'correct' matchups for the second seats are UMD (7) in the MW and NE (6) in the W.

For the 3 seeds then, NH having to be in the NE and Yale being unable to play us or Princeton messes with it. Of the only two places we and Princeton can go (MW, W), the best matchups are 7-11 and 6-12, which are UMD-Cornell & NE-Princeton, putting us in the MW & Princeton in the W.

I suppose you could try to reward NE for the higher seed by being 'closer' to home and flipping that pairing, but I don't think the committee has ever given a darn about that (pairings come first), and, from Boston, Grand Rapids vs. Denver seems to most certainly be in the 'a flight is a flight' category.


The big 'screw job' this year seems to be NE. Its no one's fault, but they were real good for the first time in a long time, end up a number 2 after a very good season, and get shipped all the way to Denver to presumably face DU in the second round in their backyard.

[ugarte]

[quote DeltaOne81]
The big 'screw job' this year seems to be NE. Its no one's fault, but they were real good for the first time in a long time, end up a number 2 after a very good season, and get shipped all the way to Denver to presumably face DU in the second round in their backyard.[/quote]
So you're saying Northeastern got Cornelled?

[Rita]

[quote ugarte][quote DeltaOne81]
The big 'screw job' this year seems to be NE. Its no one's fault, but they were real good for the first time in a long time, end up a number 2 after a very good season, and get shipped all the way to Denver to presumably face DU in the second round in their backyard.[/quote]
So you're saying Northeastern got Cornelled?[/quote]


The west regional is in Minnesota, so, Northeastern would be sent to Minneapolis to play in Denver's bracket  in front of a bunch of disappointed goofer fans.

I think I will wait until noon to see who got "Cornelled". It is possible (and within the rules of keeping the "seed bands" intact), that UMD-Cornell, or Northeastern-Cornell could be a match-up in Minneapolis.

Should we end up in the Twin Cities, we indeed would be "Cornelled", yet again.

[DeltaOne81]

[quote ugarte][quote DeltaOne81]
The big 'screw job' this year seems to be NE. Its no one's fault, but they were real good for the first time in a long time, end up a number 2 after a very good season, and get shipped all the way to Denver to presumably face DU in the second round in their backyard.[/quote]
So you're saying Northeastern got Cornelled?[/quote]

'zactly.

[Dpperk29]

How is that cornell getting screwed? Cornell was terrible down the stretch, and lost it's conference championship 5-0. Had cornell won last night you might be able to say cornell getting shipped out west is a screw job, but right now cornell ought to be happy they are even in the tourney.

[DeltaOne81]

[quote Dpperk29]How is that cornell getting screwed? Cornell was terrible down the stretch, and lost it's conference championship 5-0. Had cornell won last night you might be able to say cornell getting shipped out west is a screw job, but right now cornell ought to be happy they are even in the tourney.[/quote]

Agreed. Ugarte was referring to our historical 'tradition' at this point of being sent to Minnesota to play Minnesota, Wisconsin to play Wisconsin, and that kinda junk (all justifiable at the time, just annoying).

He was using it as a verb that is referencing years past, not this year. Shown by the very fact that we are saying NE is the one getting 'Cornelled' this year.

[andyw2100]

[quote Dpperk29]How is that cornell getting screwed? Cornell was terrible down the stretch, and lost it's conference championship 5-0. Had cornell won last night you might be able to say cornell getting shipped out west is a screw job, but right now cornell ought to be happy they are even in the tourney.[/quote]

They are obviously talking about past tournaments, not this year's.

[Rita]

[quote Dpperk29]How is that cornell getting screwed? Cornell was terrible down the stretch, and lost it's conference championship 5-0. Had cornell won last night you might be able to say cornell getting shipped out west is a screw job, but right now cornell ought to be happy they are even in the tourney.[/quote]

Dpperk,

Yes, this year Cornell is lucky to be in and with last night's lost, should be expecting to be sent west, though, if the seedings (w/ caveats due to the Yale-Vermont matchup), hold form, only to Grand Rapids.

As you well know, there are many of us who feel that "the committee" spends its days and nights trying to figure out how to send Cornell to play regional games in "unfair" confines, so my worry (this year) is that the committee will move the umd-cornell match up to Minneapolis. The committee says it doesn't worry about attendance, but........

In 2003, some people thought the Cornell-Minnesota State Mavericks match-up was "disrespectful" (and I think we were ticked that we were put in Providence with BC rather than in Worcester).

2005, Minneapolis, big ice, playing the goofers

2006 (though, like this year, that is what we "played ourselves into" but losing the ECAC finals game) playing the badgers in Wisconsin.

This year NU had a very good year and probably thought they might be kept east. However due to both eastern hosts making the tourney and "sancrosant" rules of the committee, they will be sent west. But then again, it could be argued, well if they had taken care of business (i.e. not lost in the HE semis).

But hey, we need something to gripe about (even in the hypothetical) for the next 48 minutes. :-P.

(::deadhorse: