OFFICIAL NCAA Men's Ice Hockey Tournament Bracket 2006

[Greenberg \'97]

And ESPN's coverage of the tournament shows "ESPN synd" for the 5:30 game on saturday, but it calls it a west regional semi, not a midwest.

Might take some time for all the networks to sort things out...

[Jeff Hopkins '82]

[quote marty]I predicted we could get sent out west, but for crying out loud:`(
why do we get shafted and no Hockey East squad has to travel???  Maine, UNH, BC and BU all stay east.  And furthermore they put the two best HE teams in the same bracket.

Maybe Cleary is kissing some a$$ so that we get sent out of town.[/quote]

Actually, the committee came up with exactly the bracket I doodled down last evening.  They went with 1-16, etc. from a 3/2/1 bonus using RPI as the tie-breaker.  The exception was having to swap out CC from playing UND in the first round.

You have to figure that since Maine and UNH travel pretty well, and Worcester will do OK with BU and BC, there was no attendance reason for them to put us east.  That way they can preserve "bracket integrity."

[jtwcornell91]

[quote Tub(a)]2nd straight year that CC gets some sort of favorable manipulation to stay west somewhere while Cornell gets nothing. The committee decided it was better to accomodate the 10th seeded CC than the 6th and 8th seeded Miami and Cornell.
[/quote]

Not sure what accomodation you expect.  They seeded 1-8 straight-up by the numbers.  They couldn't pair 10 with 7 in the first round because they're in the same conference.  Presumably preserving the bracket is more important at the top, so the most natural thing to do is swap 10 with 9 or 11.  Adam and I predicted 10<->11, but 9<->10 keeps BC in Worcester and boosts attendance.  And they no longer bother trying to prevent second-round matchups.  No conspiracy here.  We were #8 in the country, and ended up where we expected.

[Tub(a)]

[quote jtwcornell91][quote Tub(a)]2nd straight year that CC gets some sort of favorable manipulation to stay west somewhere while Cornell gets nothing. The committee decided it was better to accomodate the 10th seeded CC than the 6th and 8th seeded Miami and Cornell.
[/quote]

They couldn't pair 10 with 7 in the first round because they're in the same conference.[/quote]

Yeah, I initially didn't notice this. It makes more sense now.

[billhoward]

[quote Chris '03][quote dbilmes]Based upon ESPN's "expert," we have no shot at winning this game. Perhaps the team shouldn't even make the trip out there.[/quote]
Consider it a victory that Bob "chowdah head" Norton didn't name drop a bunch of Boston prep schools in explaining why BU is a lock for the F4.[/quote]
BN would be a good reason to defer getting HDTV. This guy's almost senior enough for Sixty Minutes.

Was it Norton, or another voice, who loved to roll off the names of every Western Canada junior team and their coaches and arenas? Must be a thrill if you're a follower of the Chilliwack Chiefs. They did give us Shane Palahicky.

[ebilmes]

Seems like Miami gets the "screwed team of the year award." They'll have to defeat two Boston teams in Worcester to get to the F4.

[Robin]

Indeed JTWhalen was right again.  (next time we're in the NCAAs, predict we go east, and maybe the powers that be will continue to listen :-)  j/k).  yes, we controlled our own destiny and didn't get it done.
all Hockey East teams stay east........hmmmph.

perhaps I need to move back to the midwest and then Cornell will come east again

[DeltaOne81]

That whole "will Miami get a #1" was the stupidest BS on that show. Pissed me off. We all knew they wouldn't, we all knew exactly where they would. 99% of the audience watching that show knew it was entirely silly. Exactly who do they think they're kidding?

[finchphil]

[quote DeltaOne81]That whole "will Miami get a #1" was the stupidest BS on that show. Pissed me off. We all knew they wouldn't, we all knew exactly where they would. 99% of the audience watching that show knew it was entirely silly. Exactly who do they think they're kidding?[/quote]

It was the same way they positioned that "defending champion Denver, waiting in the wings to see if they will be invited to this year's tournament to defend their title."

We knew days ago that Denver was done.  Do they think casual fans watch this stuff at 11:00 in the morning on a Sunday?  It's like, "Oh, I am bored with Meet the Press.  Maybe I'll switch over to ESPN2 and pay attention to college hockey for the first time in my life."

I'm sure the entire campus at Denver was up early, hoping and praying that they'd be invited.  No knock on Denver in this, just the lackeys on ESPN2 who act like we are all morons.

[Brian]

[quote Chris '03][quote dbilmes]Based upon ESPN's "expert," we have no shot at winning this game. Perhaps the team shouldn't even make the trip out there.[/quote]

Consider it a victory that Bob "chowdah head" Norton didn't name drop a bunch of Boston prep schools in explaining why BU is a lock for the F4.[/quote]

Totally agree!  Bob Norton favored sucks in the ECAC tournament a few years ago when we ended up winning the title and going to the frozen four.  He had nothing good to say about Cornell and new nothing about Cornell hockey.  Why didn't they have Adam on this year?  Bob, I wish upon you lots and lots of porn spam!

[Steve M]

[quote bigred06]screwed again[/quote]

We were screwed last year by the complete lack of subjectivity in the PWR system that places no more importance on a conference championship result than a consolation game, and the mindless insistence of the committee on matching 1-8, 2-7, 3-6,& 4-5 in the second round. This year, however, we got exactly what we deserved after a relatively mediocre season and a blow out loss in the ECAC championship.  In fact if you consider KRACH a better system than PWR, we're fortunate to be invited NCAAs at all this year.

[Facetimer]

[quote Brian][quote Chris '03][quote dbilmes]Based upon ESPN's "expert," we have no shot at winning this game. Perhaps the team shouldn't even make the trip out there.[/quote]

Consider it a victory that Bob "chowdah head" Norton didn't name drop a bunch of Boston prep schools in explaining why BU is a lock for the F4.[/quote]

Totally agree!  Bob Norton favored sucks in the ECAC tournament a few years ago when we ended up winning the title and going to the frozen four.  He had nothing good to say about Cornell and new nothing about Cornell hockey.  Why didn't they have Adam on this year?  Bob, I wish upon you lots and lots of porn spam![/quote]

You don't even know what you are talking about.  Bob Norton had nothing but good things to say about Cornell a few years back.  He wouldn't shut up about Sam Paolini and his dad.  He is an old school college hockey guy -- loves the ECAC, loves the Ivies, loves the history of these teams, etc.

[ebilmes]

[quote Facetimer]
You don't even know what you are talking about.  Bob Norton had nothing but good things to say about Cornell a few years back.  He wouldn't shut up about Sam Paolini and his dad.  He is an old school college hockey guy -- loves the ECAC, loves the Ivies, loves the history of these teams, etc.[/quote]

Well, this year he didn't have anything to say about Cornell, good or bad. Although, his assumption that it would be CC vs. Wisco in the regional final could certainly be viewed as anti-Cornell.

[nr53]

Well considering that most other nc$$ tourny's are based on smoke filled rooms, they were probably trying to go for the same mystique. I think we should all realize there are few fans as hard-core as we are and may not realize what the pair wise ranking is on any given day (or even what the pwr is). Then it makes sense that tv people would try to go for the same thing.

[billhoward]

[quote ebilmes][quote Facetimer]
You don't even know what you are talking about.  Bob Norton had nothing but good things to say about Cornell a few years back.  He wouldn't shut up about Sam Paolini and his dad.  He is an old school college hockey guy -- loves the ECAC, loves the Ivies, loves the history of these teams, etc.[/quote]

Well, this year he didn't have anything to say about Cornell, good or bad. Although, his assumption that it would be CC vs. Wisco in the regional final could certainly be viewed as anti-Cornell.[/quote]
BN had 15 seconds to say who he thought would be the top seed's biggest impediment to advancing. He said CC. Anyone disagre? The morning after a team gives up 5 PPGs and has to yank its Hobey Finalist Fallen on Hard Times goalie ... one could see how the prognosticator could be looking to CC. He wasn't asked for 15 seconds of pros and cons on three other teams in the regional.

Beating CC isn't out of the realm of possibility.