Throwback Thursday: The 2015 Hoops HD NCAA Selection Process

Posted on February 18, 2016 by John Stalica

Click here for today’s News and Notes in college basketball courtesy of David Griggs

Click here for Chad Sherwood’s Under The Radar Game of the Day between NJIT and North Florida

Finally, click here for this week’s can’t-miss Under The Radar Podcast

Last week, various members of the media that cover college basketball convened in New York to meet with the NCAA Men’s Basketball Committee (colloquially known as the Selection Committee – click here to view the 10 members of the Committee) to go over the selection process for the 2016 NCAA Tournament. They got to simulate the deliberations and wade through pages of reports on teams that the Selection Committee goes through every March in Indianapolis. At the end of the week, the media came up with a mock bracket based on simulated results if the season were to end last week. They took into account what would happen if a team like Monmouth were to lose in the MAAC Tournament; there were also scenarios that involved Valparaiso and Chattanooga losing their conference tournaments as well. St. Bonaventure was selected as a team that would crash the party on Selection Sunday; based on their game against La Salle last night, their only way into the NCAA Tournament is via the golden ticket that the A-10 Tournament provides.

The cast and crew of Hoops HD have also simulated the selection process for over 10 years running (some colleagues longer than others); this also goes back to the days of other websites like CrimsonCast and Draft Express. The selection process actually begins on Wednesday during Championship Week; each committee member will submit a list of up to 36 teams that each person feels would make the NCAA Tournament no matter what happens during Championship Week. Committee members would also submit a list of other teams to be considered as well; these are your “bubble” teams. Since the NCAA Tournament consists of 68 teams, 32 spots are reserved for automatic bid winners (31 tournament champions plus the Ivy League regular season champion) and 36 at-large teams. Teams that have already won their conference tournaments up to that point are excluded from the first ballot; as an example last year, Gonzaga and Northern Iowa would not be on those lists since they already earned automatic bids to the NCAA Tournament. For a team to be considered a “first ballot” team in the NCAA Tournament, they must receive at least 8 out of 10 votes from the Selection Committee. Any other teams that receive at least 3 votes from Selection Committee members is placed on the “Under Consideration” board; this has also been referred to as the Cross-Country board by the Committee.

If you click here, scroll down to the attachment that shows the Under Consideration Board (which was what we had last season). On the left-hand side is a list of teams that had already won their conference tournaments up to that point. The second section includes the AT-LARGE field; teams that were listed 1-26 on the board all made it onto the board as part of the first ballot.

When our committee met for the first time on Thursday night, our first order of business was to add 10 more teams to the at-large board to get to a total of 36 at-large teams. If you look at the 3rd column labeled Under Consideration, this is the pool of teams from which the final at-large selections will be made. The Under Consideration board also includes teams who won their respective conferences in the regular season but failed to win their conference tournaments. Teams like Iona and St. Francis-Brooklyn were voted off the board because the committee felt their accomplishments didn’t merit at-large consideration; Murray State was a team that would remain under consideration during the selection process but would ultimately not get an NCAA Tournament bid. Each committee member would select the top 8 teams on the Under Consideration board; the top 8 vote-getters were debated among the committee. Committee members would not be allowed to vote on their own teams or teams from their own conference, but could supply information on said teams and conferences to the Committee for their consideration.

After the first wave of debates has taken place, each committee member (unless excluded otherwise) would rank those 8 teams in order of 1-8; the top 4 vote-getters would be added to the AT-LARGE field. This process took place on 3 occasions; we wound up adding 12 at-large teams to the board on Thursday night. However, since there were only 10 spots available, why did we vote for 12 teams? If you click here, you will see 2 spots in the AT-LARGE field marked “Big 12 +1” and “ACC +2“. This meant that as of Thursday night, the only teams remaining in the Big 12 and ACC Conference Tournaments were already on the AT-LARGE field. Since the conference champions would move from the AT-LARGE field to the AUTOMATIC BIDS side of the board, this opened up 2 additional spots in the field for Indiana and Purdue. Since the Big East also had its teams in the conference tournament already in the AT-LARGE field, this also opened up one more at-large spot that was not filled on Thursday night.

On Friday, there are two things that have to take place – more at-large teams need to be added to the field as spots from the SEC, Big 10 and Pac-12 conferences were not going to have a bid stolen in their respective conference tournaments. But more importantly, the seeding process begins for teams on the AUTOMATIC BID and AT-LARGE ledgers. Each committee member would submit their top 8 teams to the committee and then the top 8 teams would be ranked 1-8 after debating the merits of each individual team within the committee. The top 4 vote-getters would be added to the SEED LIST; click here to see the SEED LIST on the right-hand side of the board. The bottom 4 vote-getters would carry over and then each committee member would submit their next top 8 teams to the committee. The top 4 vote-getters were added to the previous 4 teams that carried over from the last step, each committee member would take the top 8 teams, debate them and rank them 1-8 as before. This process was repeated until we had the top 32 teams seeded in the field. Under this scenario, even a team like Xavier who was not on the first ballot last season could still get a higher seed as Championship Week unfolded; this was because of notable wins against Butler and Georgetown that strengthened what had been a bubblish resume. As it is, teams are rarely voted off of the board, but motions can be made to reconsider teams that don’t look as good and vote them off the AT-LARGE board and back to the UNDER CONSIDERATION board. Ole Miss and Texas were also promoted from the UNDER CONSIDERATION board to the AT-LARGE board on Friday night as well after the results of the day’s competition were complete.

On Saturday, as you can see by clicking here, the final AT-LARGE bids are added once it became apparent that the Atlantic 10 was also assured of not having a bid thief win the conference. Our committee also begins to plan for contingencies – one such scenario involved UConn winning the automatic bid out of the American conference (since they would not have earned an at-large bid); another scenario involved SMU winning the conference – Temple would have been our last at-large bid selected. This was just a coincidence; they would have ranked above Colorado State, UConn, Georgia and Illinois according to our committee. (UCLA was the 8th team out according to our committee, but that is another story.) The second contingency involved the Sun Belt championship; as of Saturday night, either Georgia State or Georgia Southern would earn the automatic bid since neither team could advance as an at-large selection. Therefore, we included UConn, Georgia State and Georgia Southern on our seed list deliberations. Throughout the day, the at-large list would begin to be “scrubbed” or adjusted as more results from the day’s games and further deliberations took place.

On Selection Sunday, further scrubbing of the seed list took place as results from the ACC, Atlantic 10 and Sun Belt championships went final. Once the seed list was finalized, two contingency brackets were prepared by the Committee. The first one here was the final bracket if UConn were to beat SMU and win the American; the second bracket here was our actual final bracket since SMU did defeat UConn instead. Our committee did not do an additional contingency for the Big 10 since we felt at the time that Virginia merited a 1-seed over Wisconsin, even if the Badgers were to win the Big 10 Championship that day.

That is a rough outline of what the real Selection Committee would go through during Championship Week; we look forward to meeting again in a couple of weeks via Skype/Google Hangouts in our own Hoops HD Universe. In the meantime, click here for a sampling of our Championship Week podcasts that will begin to air on February 29.

#MAACachusetts Forever!

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News, Notes, and Highlighted Games: Thursday, Feb 18th

Posted on February 18, 2016 by David Griggs

NEWS AND NOTES

-For our latest Under the Radar Video Podcast, where we discuss what was a bad week for a lot of teams that were on the bubble – CLICK HERE

-For Chad Sherwood’s Under the Radar Game of the Day between NJIT and North Florida, which has first place implications in the Atlantic Sun – CLICK HERE

-Duke v North Carolina always seems to be an exciting game, and yesterday was no exception.  North Carolina appeared to be the better team, and they were playing at home.  They pretty much led for the entire game, but Duke was always within arms reach.  The Blue Devils finally got the lead in the final minute, and held on to win when UNC missed what would have been a game winning shot.  It is clearly the biggest win of the season for Duke, both on and off paper, and for a team that looked like they may be heading toward the bubble just a few weeks ago is once again looking like and playing like a protected seed.

-I’ve been making the case as to how great I think Oklahoma is all season long.  I still like them.  I still think that they ultimately end up as a #1 seed.  But, they’ve lost three of their last four with the most recent being at Texas Tech last night, who may be a tournament team (and likely is), but hasn’t exactly looked like a protected seed.  It was a huge win for Texas Tech, who has had quite a week these past couple days with wins at Baylor (decisively) and now against Oklahoma.  Their profile is suddenly looking amazing.

-Iowa is another team that has been on my #1 line for over a month now.  They lost at Penn State.  I still like the Hawkeyes and still think they have some amazing wins on their profile, but they’re certainly not invincible.

-Xavier knocked off Providence rather convincingly, although Providence did make a late run to make the score respectable.  Xavier, along with Villanova, are squarely in the picture for a #1 seed.

-Dayton went down at Saint Joseph’s, which was a big win for Joe’s.  It shouldn’t be too damaging for the Flyers considering they were the road team, and that they were ultimately shorthanded.  I still like this Dayton team and although I don’t think they’ll end up as a protected seed, the opportunity is still there for them.

-24 hours ago I was beginning to think that I really liked Saint Bonaventure, and would make a case to put them on the bubble, or maybe even in my field when I did my next bracket this afternoon.  Then, they lost on the road to La Salle.  That’s not good for a bubble team.  That’s really not good for any team

-Alabama got a HUGE win at LSU last night.  They have been playing amazingly well lately, and one has to admire the job Avery Johnson has done with this team, especially when you consider that they lost a key player for the season earlier in the year.  I think they’ll end up making the field based on how well they’ve been playing.

-Florida State keeps shooting themselves in the foot.  Losing at home to non-tournament teams is not what they need to be doing, yet they fell at home to Georgia Tech last night, who is an awful road team, BTW.

-I don’t know if you want to call this a collapse by Colorado, or a great comeback by USC.  It was probably a little bit of both, but USC came back to beat a Colorado team that led them for most of the game.

 

HIGHLIGHTED GAMES

-TENNESSEE AT KENTUCKY (SEC).  Kentucky is coming off one of their most impressive wins of the year, and has looked very strong at home all season long.  If they keep going like they have been they should end up as a protected seed.

-UNC WILMINGTON AT WILLIAM & MARY (Colonial).  It will take some proper aligning from the stars, but if Wilmington wins out they should be in the discussion for an at-large.  This is one of their tougher remaining games, but judging by how well they’ve been playing it’s entirely possible that they’ll run the table through the rest of the regular season.

-MISSOURI STATE AT WICHITA STATE (Missouri Valley).  Wichita is another team that I think needs to win out through the regular season, and perhaps avoid a loss in the quarterfinals of their conference tournament.  If they do all that then they should be okay.

-LITTLE ROCK AT GEORGIA STATE (Sun Belt).  This is one of Little Rock’s tougher remaining games.  I’d like to think they’ll be safe if they win out through the regular season, but you can’t say for certain.  At the very least they should get a very serious look.

-SMU AT UCONN (American).  UConn is on the bubble, and like any bubble team they need to pick up notable wins, and avoid bad losses.  This would fall into the former category.

-MARYLAND AT MINNESOTA (Big Ten).  There aren’t many easy road games in the Big Ten, but this is probably one of them.  Minney’s next conference win will be their first.

-CINCINNATI AT TULSA (American).  Bubblelicious!!! Both these teams are right on the bubble.  And like any bubble team, they need notable wins, and they need to avoid bad losses.  Winning this game would really help, and losing it would really hurt.

-WISCONSIN AT MICHIGAN STATE (Big Ten).  Wiscy has been playing great and just picked up a huge road win at Maryland which does a ton to help out their profile.  If they pick this one up they may shoot so far into the bubble that they’re looking like  team that will be wearing white in the round of 64.

-UMKC AT GRAND CANYON (WAC).  The Team of the People!!! Grand Canyon is right on the cusp of being the first transitional team ever (at least that we know of) to finish in the top 100 of the RPI.  And, we still haven’t given up hope!!  #LopesWaiver

-PACIFIC AT GONZAGA (West Coast).  I think the Zags will be okay for a bid if they win out, despite not having any really big wins on their profile yet.

-SAINT MARY’S AT PORTLAND (West Coast).  For the life of me I can’t figure out why people are still looking at Saint Mary’s, but they are.  Winning this game won’t help them.  Or, at least, it shouldn’t, but virtually nothing they’ve done suggests they are a tournament caliber team.

-HAWAII AT CAL STATE NORTHRIDGE (Big West).  I don’t think the committee would take Hawaii even if they win out, but if they do they should at least get a look.

-UTAH AT UCLA (Pac Twelve).  Utah has a fairly healthy profile and can add another road win to it tonight.

-CALIFORNIA AT WASHINGTON (Pac Twelve).  Most people like Cal, but the one thing they’re really lacking is wins away from home.  Picking up a road win against a Washington team that’s on the bubble will help them out a ton because if the year ends and their only road win was at Wyoming, I don’t think that’s enough even though they’ve had several big home wins.

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Under the Radar Game of the Day – Thursday, February 18: NJIT at North Florida

Posted on February 18, 2016 by Chad

Under the Radar Game of the Day: NJIT at North Florida, 7:00 PM Eastern, espn3

For our latest Under the Radar video podcast, featuring our very own FLOOR CAM, CLICK HERE.

Tonight is one of those nights when selecting the UTR Game of the Day was not easy, with key matchups in several conferences on the slate.  However, when our adopted “Team of the People” from last season here at HOOPS HD, the NJIT Highlanders, are scheduled to play arguably the most important regular season game in school history, the choice ended up being an obvious one.  Tonight in Jacksonville, Florida, NJIT will be taking their shot at moving towards the Atlantic Sun regular season championship and the #1 seed in the upcoming conference tournament.

NJIT enters play tonight with a record of 7-4 in conference play and 16-11 overall.  They are currently sitting in a three-way tie for first place with North Florida and Jacksonville.  After we had spent the non-conference portion of the season discussing how we believed this league would be a battle between NJIT and UNF this season, the Highlanders got out to a rough 2-4 start to league play, including home losses to South Carolina Upstate, Lipscomb and North Florida.  Things have been a lot different since the end of January though as Damon Lyn, Tim Coleman, Ky Howard and company have won five straight games, including a solid win this past weekend at home over Florida Gulf Coast, to move into a first place tie.  The Highlanders play at UNF tonight and at Jacksonville on Saturday.  If they can find a way to sweep these two tough road contests, then only a game next week at Upstate will stand between them and the outright regular season title.

North Florida’s story this season has been almost the exact opposite of NJIT’s.  The Ospreys started out Atlantic Sun play looking like the dominant team in the league, winning their first 7 games and doing so by fairly comfortable score margins.  Then came February 1.  In what we thought at the time was just one of the crazy inexplicable losses that teams sometimes suffer, the Ospreys fell at home to Stetson.  The only problem was they have yet to recover from that loss, dropping their next three since then and not even looking good in any of those losses.  UNF now sits at 7-4 in conference play and 18-10 overall.  The only good news is that they certainly have time to right the ship, with NJIT coming in tonight and a game at Jacksonville next week to end the regular season.  However, if they continue to play the same way they have played these past four games, Dallas Moore, Beau Beech, Chris Davenport and their teammates may not even end up with a quarterfinal-round home game in the conference tournament.

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Under the Radar: February 17th

Posted on February 17, 2016 by David Griggs

Chad is joined by David and John for this week’s show.  They start out in the Atlantic Sun, where there are five teams separated by just one game, so it should be exciting as they head in to the final week of the season.  From there they run through the other 23 UTR conferences and discuss how Chattanooga, Valparaiso, Akron, and Little Rock were among the teams that suffered damaging losses this past week.  They also preview the big upcoming games, and reveal this week’s UTR Top Ten.

 

And for all you radio lovers, below is an mp3 version of the show.

 

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News, Notes, and Highlighted Games: Wednesday, Feb 17th

Posted on February 17, 2016 by David Griggs

NEWS, NOTES, AND RANTS

-For Chad Sherwood’s Under the Radar Game of the Day between Stony Brook and Albany, who are likely the two best teams in the America East – CLICK HERE

-It’s “Rivalry Week!!”  What does that mean??  It means that Duke is playing North Carolina the first of their two games!!  It also means that any game that’s being played this week between any two teams is deemed a rivalry by ESPN whether it actually is or not.  It also means that we will constantly be reminded that Duke and North Carolina are eight miles apart, and that they have never met in the NCAA Tournament.  I have uncles, parents, and grandparents that tell the same stories over and over and over again when we’re together over the holidays.  The thing is that I actually enjoy hearing most of them even though I’ve heard them before.  I really don’t when it comes to Duke v North Carolina.  I know they’re eight miles apart.  I know they’ve never met in the Tournament.  And…SO DOES EVERYONE ELSE THAT CARES!!  We don’t need to be reminded of it over and over and over again.

Although we still have some good rivalries, more than half of the great ones we had ten years ago are gone.  There is no Border War.  There is no Backyard Brawl.  Texas v Texas A&M no longer play.  Syracuse v Georgetown is no longer a conference game.  BYU v Utah is no longer a conference game, and as we learned earlier this year it’s no longer a game period.  Creighton v Wichita State, which I know was somewhat under the radar but still very heated, no longer play.  So, it’s hard for me to get excited about “Rivalry Week” anymore.  If anything, it’s kind of depressing.  Most great rivalries are gone.  We have Duke v North Carolina, and a bunch of regular conference games with a few actual rivalries smattered in there.  Anyway…

-Ohio State v Michigan are rivals and they did play last night.  But, because ESPN had the great idea to have the camera man sit on the floor and broadcast the entire game that way, it wasn’t really enjoyable to watch.  Michigan ended up losing, and since Ohio State isn’t a tournament team, Michigan may take a slight step back, but it shouldn’t hurt them too badly because they were the road team.

-Pitt needed two overtimes to beat Wake Forest.  A loss would have been somewhat disastrous for a Pitt team that appears to be going backwards.

-South Carolina lost their second straight game when they fell to Missouri yesterday.  Losing to Kentucky isn’t too bad.  Losing to Missouri is very bad.  Their profile is once again looking very much like a team in the 7-10 seed range despite having a very bloated record.

-Baylor and Iowa State played another thriller.  I’ll be shocked if this game is ever not a thriller.  Baylor got a big win in overtime, which pulls them out of a small tailspin that they were in.

-Butler needed a win against Creighton, or to put it more accurately they needed to avoid a loss to Creighton, and got it in rather impressive fashion to even out their conference record and keep them on the right side of the bubble (for now).

-Texas A&M picked up a win against Ole Miss, which in and of itself isn’t noteworthy, but since they had lost five of their last six they needed some sort of a win to pull themselves out of that.

 

HIGLIGHTED GAMES

-DAYTON AT SAINT JOSEPH’S (Atlantic Ten).  This is a really interesting game between a Saint Joe’s team that’s trying to land inside the bubble, and a Dayton team that’s trying to land a protected seed.  A win in this game would really help both teams’ causes.

-IOWA AT PENN STATE (Big Ten).  There aren’t many road games in the Big Ten that are easy to win, but this is perhaps one of them.  Then again, Indiana failed to do it, but Indiana wasn’t gunning for the #1 line either.

-VILLANOVA AT TEMPLE (Big Five).  I love this rivalry.  These two schools have a history of stepping on each other’s toes, which makes it even more fun.  On paper, Nova is gunning for the #1 line, and Temple is trying to play their way inside the bubble.  Winning this game helps both team’s causes out.  Add that on top of the winner earning Big Five bragging rights, and we’ve got a fun game on our hands!

-SYRACUSE AT LOUISVILLE (ACC).  Syracuse’s profile is healthy enough, but they could really improve upon it with a strong finish this year.

-BOSTON COLLEGE AT CLEMSON (ACC).  Clemson is outside the bubble right now.  In order to land on the right side of it, they need more quality wins, more road wins, and they need to avoid bad losses.  This game falls into the latter category.

-PROVIDENCE AT XAVIER (Big East).  Xavier still has a shot at a #1 seed, but they’ll have to finish strong against what really is a tough schedule.  The Muskies won the first meeting between these two, but Providence has been schizophrenic all season, and it wouldn’t shock me to see them…well…shock me.  Based on the kind of year they’ve had, it’s not too outrageous to think they can pull off the road win here.  They won at Nova.  They lost to DePaul.  Their range of play is quite large.

-GEORGE WASHINGTON AT DUQUESNE (Atlantic Ten).  GW’s margin for error is razor thin.  I believe they are already outside the bubble and a loss in a game like this could kill them.

-SAINT BONAVENTURE AT LA SALLE (Atlantic Ten).  Not too many people are that big on the Bonnies, but they are kind of laying in the weeds here and if they finish strong they can end up playing their way inside the bubble and into the field.

-NEBRASKA AT INDIANA (Big Ten).  I still don’t think of the Hoosiers as the top fifteen team I thought they were going to be prior to the start of the season, but I am starting to like them more and more and more.  They can improve to an impressive 11-3 in Big Ten play with a win tonight.

-ALABAMA AT LSU (SEC).  Bubblicious!!!!  This is an extremely pivotal game between two teams that are right on the bubble and could really use some notable wins.  The atmosphere surrounding the football game is generally huge because of the national title implications that come with it.  Well, this game isn’t quite like that, but there are pretty big bubble implications that come with tonight’s game.

-OKLAHOMA AT TEXAS TECH (Big Twelve).  Oklahoma is coming off a home loss to Kansas, but they can still end up on the #1 line, and perhaps even as the overall #1 seed, if they’re able to finish strong.  I guess that pretty much means winning out.  Texas Tech is inside a lot of people’s bubbles, and although I don’t agree with it, I can at least understand why after last week.  Still, they are currently 5-7 in Big Twelve play, and it is extremely rare for a team to make the field when they are more than two games below 500, so they still have a ton of work to do.  Winning tonight would certainly help their cause, but that’s much easier said than done.

-VIRGINIA TECH AT MIAMI FL (ACC).  Miami can wrap up a protected seed if they hold serve the rest of the way, and pick up a few more quality wins.

-DUKE AT NORTH CAROLINA (ACC).  North Carolina looks to be a protected seed who could end up as a #1 seed if they finish strong, but they still have work to do.  Duke is safely in the field, and has played better these past few weeks after hitting a bit of a skid.  If they can pick up a win in a game like this, then their profile would start to look like a protected seed’s profile again.  And, there’s the whole rivalry thing to this game, so there’s that too.  By the way…these schools are just eight miles apart, and they’ve never met in the NCAA Tournament!!

-GEORGIA TECH AT FLORIDA STATE (ACC).  Florida State’s margin for error is shrinking.  The last thing they need is a home loss to a non-tournament team.

-ARIZONA STATE AT ARIZONA (Pac Twelve).  Arizona won the first meeting, and has been playing well since then.  This is a rivalry game, but it’s a bit of a mismatched rivalry at the moment.

-SETON HALL AT GEORGETOWN (Big East).  Seton Hall is one of the many teams that’s on the bubble right now, so every game has a pivotal feel to it, including this one against a Georgetown team that isn’t going anywhere without the automatic bid.

-COLORADO AT USC (Pac Twelve).  Both are solid tournament teams who are looking to improve their profiles with another quality win.

 

FUN FACT!!

-In closing, I just thought I’d share this fun piece of trivia with everyone.  Most of you probably know that North Carolina and Duke are big rivals.  But, did you realize that the two schools are just eight miles apart!!??  Not only that, they have NEVER met in the NCAA Tournament!!

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Under the Radar Game of the Day – Wednesday, February 17 – Stony Brook at Albany

Posted on February 17, 2016 by Chad

Under the Radar Game of the Day: Stony Brook at Albany, 7:00 PM Eastern, espn3

If you missed our latest HOOPS HD Report with special guest Jerry Palm, CLICK HERE.

18 wins in a row.  13-0 in conference play.  22-4 overall.  The Stony Brook Seawolves just seem to find a way to keep winning games, and now sit only three games away from finishing the regular season perfect against America East competition.  Tonight, however, they face their toughest AEC challenge of the season as they head up the New York State Thruway to Albany to battle the Great Danes.  With a win tonight not only will they be just 2 games away from the perfect 16-0 regular season, but the Seawolves will also clinch first place and home court advantage throughout the conference tournament.

Stony Brook is coming off of a hard-fought home win this past Sunday (in what was also our UTR Game of the Day) over New Hampshire.  They were able to pull that game out by one point, 59-58, thanks to a huge block by their star player, Jameel Warney, in the final seconds of the game.  Warney also came up huge earlier this year in Stony Brook’s 69-63 home win over UAlbany, with 17 points, 5 rebounds and 3 blocks.  Carson Puriefoy added 20 points in that win, while both Rayshaun McGrew and Ahmad Walker had double-doubles.  If the Seawolves can get that kind of team effort again tonight, they will likely be celebrating a conference regular season championship at the conclusion of the game.

UAlbany enters tonight’s game at 21-7 overall and 10-3 in conference play.  The Great Danes are coming off a dominating home win this past weekend over Maine — a win notable mostly because they had suffered a somewhat inexplicable loss at Maine earlier this season.  Ray Sanders led the way this weekend with 22 points, while Peter Hooley, Evan Singletary and reserve Dallas Ennema all scored in double figures.  The trio of Sanders, Hooley and Singletary continue to make UAlbany a legitimate threat to win the game every time they step on the court.  Even if they cannot get it done tonight, this team certainly has the talent and experience to win games once the conference tournament rolls around — meaning that even if the Seawolves finish 16-0, they better find a way to win three more games beyond that if they want to be in the Big Dance.

 

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