The Obvious, yet often ignored "Pool Recipe"
The Obvious, yet often ignored "Pool Recipe"
For every team in the ECAC West and MASCAC, their NCAA Tournament Selection process for the 2011 tournament begins NOW. Of course, nobody knows who will be good in 2011, but there should be a pretty good idea of which teams have the potential to have a successful season.
The traditional “powers” having recent success in the East are Plattsburgh, Oswego, Norwich, Middlebury, Elmira, Manhattanville, & Amherst to name a few. Looking at the rosters of these programs, many of them should continue that success well into next year. Knowing this, any team in the ECAC West and MASCAC would foolish to not load-up their out-of-conference schedule with as many games as possible against these teams next year if they want a chance at getting the Pool B bid, or one of the at-large Pool C bids.
I do not know how far along any team’s 2011 schedules are at this point in time, but a team desiring a non-AQ bid simply cannot schedule games against the Sisters of St. Mary our Mother of Mercy and expect to be considered for one of these bids. There is no AQ, there is no “win and you’re in”, the final 2-3 games do not dictate your destiny when it comes to the NCAA Tournament. Next year’s NCAA selection begins today for every ECAC West and MASCAC team.
Remember this in March 2011, and for these ECAC West and MASCAC teams, remember this simple fact every single day, because EVERY SINGLE FLIPPIN’ GAME is an NCAA Tournament game. It’s just that simple, and at the same time, just that difficult.
