2018 NCAA DIII Women's Tournament

[Russell Jaslow]

Re: 2018 NCAA DIII Women's Tournament

That's very close quarters if all three visiting teams are staying there. Hope there are no problems and everyone keeps their Snaps to themselves this time.

Whenever the men's championship is held at Lake Placid, all four teams are housed in the USOC training facility dorms (whatever they call it). There's never been a problem.

 

[spwood]

Re: 2018 NCAA DIII Women's Tournament

Not often seen, but the Cards have a lot of depth. It showed tonight!!

They were ripe for the picking last night with their injuries and suspensions. They also had a long stretch where they looked completely rattled: couldn't pass out of its own zone, ladies running into each other, fanning on shot attempts. Very uncharacteristic. What was characteristic is that they pushed through it and ended up with the W. I like their chances next week when they get their legs under them and their heads straighter. Only question is who do you play in goal? Abbott didn't play either of the Elmira games this year and Wolejko did play the conference championship game.... Nice problem to have!

 

[Scott_TG]

Re: 2018 NCAA DIII Women's Tournament

They were ripe for the picking last night with their injuries and suspensions. They also had a long stretch where they looked completely rattled: couldn't pass out of its own zone, ladies running into each other, fanning on shot attempts. Very uncharacteristic. What was characteristic is that they pushed through it and ended up with the W. I like their chances next week when they get their legs under them and their heads straighter. Only question is who do you play in goal? Abbott didn't play either of the Elmira games this year and Wolejko did play the conference championship game.... Nice problem to have!

I think it will be Wolejko on Friday. She's played Elmira twice and it's her turn. It would be consistent with how they've played them all season, taking turns every game no matter the opponent.

 

[joecct]

Whenever the men's championship is held at Lake Placid, all four teams are housed in the USOC training facility dorms (whatever they call it). There's never been a problem.

Wasn't there committee notes from a few years ago that the committee wanted the teams in a hotel rather than the USOC?

 

[Russell Jaslow]

Re: 2018 NCAA DIII Women's Tournament

Wasn't there committee notes from a few years ago that the committee wanted the teams in a hotel rather than the USOC?

I can't remember. What I do remember is the Oswego SID, Adele, telling us how "interesting" the experience was...

I also remember how the participants that I spoke to liked being at the USOC facility.

 

[shelfit]

It looks like three of Hamline's top five scorers are transfer students, two of them transferring from Lindenwood. The Hamline roster shows an assistant coach by the name of Jake Bobrowski. Is he the father of Lindenwood transfer Sarah Bobrowski? Seems like that would be borderline tampering wouldn't it, or certainly some sort of conflict of interest at the very least. Anybody know the deal here?

 

[Scott_TG]

Re: 2018 NCAA DIII Women's Tournament

That is his daughter, but Jake arrived in 2015 with Natalie and Scott Darwitz. Sarah transferred in this year. Bill Mandigo's daughter played 4 years at Middlebury with no issue.

Natalie Darwitz took over a 6-17-2 Hamline team and wanted to improve quickly. One of the easiest ways to do that is to bring in talent better than what you've inherited as transfers. Her accomplishments and name have clearly resonated with the players who were willing to play down from D1 and play in D3. Then St. Thomas decided to ban themselves from the postseason and 2 of their top 5 scorers from 16-17 decided they didn't sign up for missing a year of postseason contention and took a walk to Hamline.

D1 to D3 and D3 to D3 transfers are not regulated in the same way D1 to D1 is. It would be tough to prove she offered them anything other than an opportunity to play somewhere else than they currently were. Plattsburgh had 3 D1 transfers and a D3 transfer on their 2014 championship roster.

It's the nature of the beast of trying to contend.

 

[shelfit]

That is his daughter, but Jake arrived in 2015 with Natalie and Scott Darwitz. Sarah transferred in this year. Bill Mandigo's daughter played 4 years at Middlebury with no issue.

Natalie Darwitz took over a 6-17-2 Hamline team and wanted to improve quickly. One of the easiest ways to do that is to bring in talent better than what you've inherited as transfers. Her accomplishments and name have clearly resonated with the players who were willing to play down from D1 and play in D3. Then St. Thomas decided to ban themselves from the postseason and 2 of their top 5 scorers from 16-17 decided they didn't sign up for missing a year of postseason contention and took a walk to Hamline.

D1 to D3 and D3 to D3 transfers are not regulated in the same way D1 to D1 is. It would be tough to prove she offered them anything other than an opportunity to play somewhere else than they currently were.

Transferring from Lindenwood to D3 isn't a huge difference. His being at Hamline with a daughter at Lindenwood gave him a direct communication line into the Lindenwood program and now Hamline has two Lindenwood transfers. How coincidental. One would hope things were done above board in terms of the rules about communicating with student-athletes at another school.

Were the two St Thomas transfers involved in last year's NCAA infraction? If so why should they be eligible to play any more than the Plattsburgh players that had suspensions last weekend?

 

[Scott_TG]

Transferring from Lindenwood to D3 isn't a huge difference. His being at Hamline with a daughter at Lindenwood gave him a direct communication line into the Lindenwood program and now Hamline has two Lindenwood transfers. How coincidental. One would hope things were done above board in terms of the rules about communicating with student-athletes at another school.

Were the two St Thomas transfers involved in last year's NCAA infraction? If so why should they be eligible to play any more than the Plattsburgh players that had suspensions last weekend?

St. Thomas wasn't an NCAA-imposed sanction. It was imposed by the school alone. So it wouldn't apply if they were no longer students.

 

[shelfit]

St. Thomas wasn't an NCAA-imposed sanction. It was imposed by the school alone. So it wouldn't apply if they were no longer students.

I see. Thanks for clearing that up.

 

[MND3Dad]

Re: 2018 NCAA DIII Women's Tournament

Even odder for Hamline is that they started with two MORE D1 transfers, neither of which is on the roster now.

Not sure what’s up with that.

And although there’s NOBODY in the MIAC rooting for them outside their team, I think they have a real shot in the finals.

 

[spwood]

Re: 2018 NCAA DIII Women's Tournament

St. Thomas wasn't an NCAA-imposed sanction. It was imposed by the school alone. So it wouldn't apply if they were no longer students.

Isn't it kind of a low-class move to cause the problem resulting in the self-imposed sanction and then transfer out to a rival to avoid the punishment?

 

[Russell Jaslow]

Re: 2018 NCAA DIII Women's Tournament

Isn't it kind of a low-class move to cause the problem resulting in the self-imposed sanction and then transfer out to a rival to avoid the punishment?

I guess that falls under the "character" attribute of a player...

 

[Scott_TG]

Re: 2018 NCAA DIII Women's Tournament

Isn't it kind of a low-class move to cause the problem resulting in the self-imposed sanction and then transfer out to a rival to avoid the punishment?

I guess that falls under the "character" attribute of a player...

Do we know for sure it was the players who transferred were involved in whatever incident that caused the school to self-impose a ban? I don't think it's fair to case aspersions on their character just because they transferred. Maybe they transferred because they weren't involved and didn't think collective self-imposed punishment was fair, especially since it sounds like it was over an incident a lot of teams would not have instituted a postseason ban for.

 

[shelfit]

Even odder for Hamline is that they started with two MORE D1 transfers, neither of which is on the roster now.

Not sure what’s up with that.

And although there’s NOBODY in the MIAC rooting for them outside their team, I think they have a real shot in the finals.

Did a little online digging and found the 2 other D1 transfers you referred to. They were Juniors at Lindenwood in 16-17. Dodds transferred to Hamline for 16-17 and the other 3 transferred in for this year including the assistant coach's daughter. That's quite a direct pipeline, or should I say Piperline. I do wonder why two D1 transfers only played 10 games and then either quit or something. Lang had 8 assists in 10 games but Davidson only had 1 goal in 10 games. Maybe as Seniors they were tired of the big commitment to hockey and simply wanted to focus on their academics and enjoy being regular students and all that entails socially. Maybe they just didn't like their new coach and decided they didn't want to put up with the B.S. anymore.

 

[shelfit]

Do we know for sure it was the players who transferred were involved in whatever incident that caused the school to self-impose a ban? I don't think it's fair to case aspersions on their character just because they transferred. Maybe they transferred because they weren't involved and didn't think collective self-imposed punishment was fair, especially since it sounds like it was over an incident a lot of teams would not have instituted a postseason ban for.

If they weren't involved I have no problem with them transferring but if they were involved then it's a low class move. However I find it hard to believe that they wouldn't have been involved. When I played we always had those types of "activities" together as a team. Maybe they are destined to become lawyers and this is the first of many loopholes they will find and exploit in life.

 

[Russell Jaslow]

Re: 2018 NCAA DIII Women's Tournament

Do we know for sure it was the players who transferred were involved in whatever incident that caused the school to self-impose a ban? I don't think it's fair to case aspersions on their character just because they transferred. Maybe they transferred because they weren't involved and didn't think collective self-imposed punishment was fair, especially since it sounds like it was over an incident a lot of teams would not have instituted a postseason ban for.

Good point and you're absolutely correct.

 

[Leather helmet]

Re: 2018 NCAA DIII Women's Tournament

I have no inside scoop on whether or not any rules were bent in the flurry of transfers into Hamline, but I have a keyboard and an internet connection, which makes me as qualified as anyone else to comment on this thread.

Hamline's administration took a look at their second-tier MIAC status and recruited a local icon (and, as a package deal, the icon's father) to boost their program. In the second year, it is clear that the program has been boosted. Assuming no rules were broken (and I have seen no evidence of that, only speculation), Hamline got exactly what they were looking for. Nobody who has been around Minnesota hockey for more than 10 minutes would hire a Darwitz without expecting them to pull every lever.

 

[Scott_TG]

Re: 2018 NCAA DIII Women's Tournament

Question to anyone with more knowledge of midwestern higher ed than I: where would you rank Lindenwood, Hamline and St. Thomas academically? Would going from Lindenwood to Hamline or St. Thomas to Hamline be considered an upgrade, downgrade, push?

 

[NUProf]

Re: 2018 NCAA DIII Women's Tournament

Question to anyone with more knowledge of midwestern higher ed than I: where would you rank Lindenwood, Hamline and St. Thomas academically? Would going from Lindenwood to Hamline or St. Thomas to Hamline be considered an upgrade, downgrade, push?

The Minnesota liberal arts schools as a whole have a good academic reputation. I have never heard of Lindenwood in any academic context. That being said this is the perception of a retired math prof from New England, so your mileage may vary.