Re: SCSU Season Thread 2-Do We Hate Everybody as Much as They Hate Us?
I've got the next-to-last Husky Bracketology up at DaHuskies. Here's a quick breakdown.
SCSU will finish either 4th, 5th, or 6th in the Pairwise as far as I can tell. We couldn't find a way to get them higher than 4th before yesterday, and I can't get them lower than 6th today.
So here's my call on where the Huskies might be going.
Ft. Wayne - Not possible at this point. Miami will finish either 1st or 2nd in the Pairwise and will be the #1 seed at the Midwest Regional, the only way, thus, that SCSU could be sent to Ft. Wayne is as 7th or 8th in the Pairwise, and that won't happen.
Albany - Becoming very unlikely but not impossible. The East Regional is almost certainly going to have a WCHA team as the #1 seed, and that is likely to be Denver (since they have to fly no matter where they're going), who will be 1st or 2nd overall and thus, the same rules apply as to Ft. Wayne and Miami. There's a very slight chance that they could end up in Albany as the #1 seed, but I don't think that's overly likely.
St. Paul - If SCSU wins tonight and can snag a #1 seed (rooting for Maine and RIT to help that), the Huskies will almost certainly need North Dakota or Wisconsin to finish #5 overall in the Pairwise to get placed in the West Regional over whichever of those teams doesn't get 3rd overall (which can happen as long as Maine and RIT both win). If they finish 5th in the Pairwise, they need Wisconsin or North Dakota to be 4th. If they finish 6th in the Pairwise, they need Wisconsin or North Dakota to be 3rd.
Worcester - This is now the primary fallback for SCSU if they don't end up in St. Paul. Essentially, it rests around being placed in a bracket with Boston College, either as 4th in the Pairwise with BC 5th, or being a #2 seed with BC as a #1 seed (either 3rd or 4th, putting SCSU 6th or 5th). This is why I find Albany to be an unlikely destination - because they'll almost certainly be paired with either UND or BC whether they're a #1 or a #2 seed (possibly UW as a #2 seed as well), and whichever of those teams they're paired with will probably dictate their destination. If it's BC either way, they go to the Northeast Regional.
Bottom line? Things are looking halfway decent for another jaunt east on I-94 next week, but it's by no means a sure thing. SCSU is definitely rooting for Maine and RIT, no ifs, ands, or buts about it, and probably rooting for Denver in the consolation game this afternoon as a bit of a hedge to give UND a boost after the hoped for loss in the Broadmoor game. That game is very hard to pick as we don't want to potentially end up in a three-way tie with UND and UW. That wouldn't end well (SCSU would be a #2 seed even if they won tonight), but it would probably at least guarantee a trip to St. Paul. RIT would have to lose for that three-way tie to become a possibility.
Worthwhile to root for Brown and Union in the ECAC games tonight, too. They're past non-conference opponents, and their wins would produce slight RPI gains - probably not overly meaningful, but even with a win over UND, the RPI difference will be very close in that comparison, and every little bit helps.
By the way, SCSU fans should probably root for Northern Michigan tonight. Not that it has anything to do with the Pairwise, but Michigan, if they win, becomes a very likely opponent for the Huskies if they win almost no matter where SCSU ends up, and the Wolverines are one of the hottest teams in the country right now.
! The next best thing would be for the play-in game to go into six ot's. with the "fighting" flickertails winning then getting pummled by the Pios Friday night and pounded by bucky in the 3rd place game.
) I really do not want to play Michigan.