Obligatory D3 Tourney Post

It's once again time for the college basketball tournament for true student-athletes, as the Division III tourney gets under way Thursday and Friday on small-college campuses around the country. D3hoops.com is the definitive source for information, as always.

Longtime Painted Area readers know that we have a soft spot for the D3 game, with the 2007 national championship won by the alma mater being a particular highlight.

Here's this year's bracket (pdf). The midwestern section of the bracket is brutal as usual, as it includes the top 5 teams in the country (no kidding) - no. 1 (and 27-0) St. Thomas (MN), defending-champion no. 2 Washington U. (MO), no. 3 Wheaton (IL), no. 4 WI-Stevens Point and no. 5 WI-Platteville.

The national championship will be held once again in Salem, Va., at 4 p.m. ET on Saturday, March 21. Last year's championship game was carried live on CSTV (now CBS College Sports).

In the D3hoops.com Pick 'Em bracket game, our overall philosophy remains similar:
1. Consult the computerized Massey Ratings religiously.
2. Pick alma mater to win all games which are reasonable and even some which are unreasonable (I think our string of three straight Final Fours is coming to an end, but that's not going to stop me from predicting it...).
3. When in doubt, pick the team from Wisconsin (Wisc. teams have won seven of the last 20 titles [past champions], and play in the toughest conferences in the country).

For my Final Four, I've got Amherst (alma mater of Ken "The White Shadow" Howard), Ithaca, John Carroll (alma mater of the late Tim Russert and new Denver Broncos coach Josh McDaniels) and UW-Stevens Point (alma mater of Terry Porter).

I'm taking Amherst over Ithaca, and UW-Stevens Point over John Carroll, and then I'm going with the Pointers to win their third title of the decade (they also won in 2004 and 2005). Who knows, maybe we'd see TP in Salem to support his Pointers - he's got some free time currently! Alright, enough. Let's get back to the League.

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Also see: Review of Seth Davis' new book When March Went Mad, about the Magic-Bird '79 NCAA Championship