Sunday, January 30, 2011

Why do the regional polls matter?


Today's post is written by Assistant Coach Marcus Moeller:

Last Wednesday the first regional polls were unveiled, and we debuted at 9th. At the same time, our Men's team here at Southern, debuted 1st. That being said, it has caused quite the excitement on campus and in the surrounding Joplin community. The other thing it has done is cause many people to ask me why the regional polls matter. So, here is your "Reader's Digest version" of how the postseason works for basketball at the NCAA Division 2 level.

The nation is split into 8 regions. Your regional assignment is dictated by the conference that you participate in. Our region, the South Central Region, is comprised of 3 conferences: The MIAA, Lonestar, and Heartland. Beginning the last week of January, there is a weekly regional poll that comes out that ranks the top 10 teams. At the end of the season, the 3 conference tournament winners receive an automatic bid to the Regional tournament, while the remaining 5 spots are dictated by the next 5 highest ranked teams in the final regional poll. Those 8 teams make up the field of the regional tournament. The regional tourney is hosted by the top seed in the region. At that point there are 64 teams left playing postseason basketball (8 teams in 8 regions), and that marks the beginning of the NCAA tourney.

From there, it is a "win or go home", single loss elimination tournament. Once the winner of each Region has been decided, the 8 surviving teams converge on a predesignated site and participate in the "The Elite Eight". The Elite Eight is Division's 2's version of "The Final Four" in that all of the games are played at the same site. This year's Elite Eight, like last year, will be held in St. Joseph, MO at the St. Joseph Civic Arena.

One thing that we always talk about as a team is to focus on what we CAN control. We CAN NOT control where we are ranked by the regional pollsters, but we CAN control each game that we play. Our focus is on each game that we play. There is no better preparation for postseason play, than the MIAA regular season. There are a 2 things that are always true about the teams that qualify for the NCAA tournament from the MIAA conference: 1.) they are battle tested, and 2.) they have earned their spot in the tournament. The most obvious example came just last year when the team that won the National Championship, Emporia State University, came from our conference, but was unable to win the regular season or conference tournament championship!

After a tough road loss at the Univ of Central Missouri on Wednesday, we were able to rebound with a good win at home over Southwest Baptist yesterday. we currently sit in 4th in the MIAA standings, just 2 games out of first place. Last night was a GREAT environment for our annual Pink Night and we are so thankful for all of the support we receive from the community. This week we have 2 very big road games against Lincoln Univ (Wednesday) and Missouri Western Univ (Saturday). If you've never listened to our games when we go on the road, you're missing out on one of the premier play-by-play commentators in college sports. Brash overstatement, you say? I challenge you to follow us on the road by clicking "LISTEN LIVE" at mssulions.com as Kevin Greim gives the sights and sounds of all of our games. You will not be disappointed.

Until next time...It's a GREAT day to be a LION!!

Marcus Moeller
Assistant Coach