Sunday, March 16, 2008

It's Official: Mount is headed to Dayton

Mount St. Mary's will play Coppin State in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament on Tuesday night at Dayton Arena in Dayton Ohio. The winner will play a #1 seed to be announced during the 6 o'clock hour.

The two schools are seperated by only about 48 miles, but by my recollection haven't played since they were both Division II schools in the late 1980's. Both teams ended the seasons on hot streaks, Coppin won 12 of 13 to rebound from a 4-19 start. The Mount won 8 of its last 9 to win the NEC berth.

The committee chose to place the Mount in the play-in game despite an RPI ranking of 157 compared to Mississippi Valley 243. The Delta Devils are 15-15, the Mount is 18-14. MVSU's schedule was ranked 315, the Mount's 204.

Other possibilities for the play-in game would have been Texas-Arlington, which finished 7th in the Southland Conference before winning the conference tournament and had an RPI of 144.

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous5:48 PM

    We got hosed. Plain and simple. We got hosed because the NCAA wanted to avoid a race controversy. It's flat out terrible and the NCAA ought to be ashamed of itself. The opening round game is supposed to match the 65th and 64th rated teams in the tournament against one another, and no one can make a rational argument that it isn't Coppin and Mississippi Valley State.

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  2. What a freakin joke that was. There is no way the Mount should be in the play-in game!!!!!!! I hope you guys do well & can prove them wrong. Good luck & I will be rooting for the Mount!!!

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