St. Norbert declared ineligible..................

It is not often that "The Roop" bestows his grace upon teams, especially ones he doesn't particularly like. So when "The Roop" says that St. Norbert has 6 winnable games ahead of them it was not a cue for them to lose back to back home games. This is most certainly non-compliance with The New Roop Order and therefore St. Norbert has been declared ineligible for this years post season.

Knox was compliant and now they are all but assured a spot in the MWC Tournament. Two more wins for them and I think it will be official. 9-7 looks like it will easily make the field and it would not surprise me if an 8-8, possibly two 8-8s make it this year.

Beloit is still there but their loss on Saturday was a real nail in the coffin. Too many teams ahead of them to fight past. Stranger things have happened though.

Monmouth is waiting in the wings should anyone stumble and trust me, Carroll is about to. Which brings me to Lake Forest. Hmmmm. They will need to repeat the run they had last year to make it and I'm not sure if they can.

Illinois College........ It's hard to comeback from an 0-5 start, usually because good teams don't start 0-5. They've had some nice wins but it is too little too late. They are officially a spoiler now.

Grinnell. I'm not exactly on the Grinnell band wagon but I don't dislike them either. It's rough to see a team go through a season like they are having. Every time the offensive numbers improve and they look like they are going to break out of it, they don't. It's unfortunate but their season is all about the EPSN game now.

Propane and propane accesories.

Thursdays will be a slow days for posts as FX has a King of the Hill Marathon every week. Some things just take priority.

Keep it National

There has been a notion amongst certain schools and conferences that perhaps Division III does not need a National Tournament at all. That Regional Tournaments would suffice. Time away from school due to all the traveling is a primary concern. That's understandable to a point but it's not like the entire field makes it to Salem.

If we borrow from the past then went to an Elite Eight format instead of a Final Four, the Tournament would be completed in two weeks and only 8 teams would have to travel more than once. To accomplish this we could hold Regionals as they were in the past, only that they would be 6 teams not 4 teams as it was years ago. Play Thursday, Friday and Saturday games and the field is down to 8. All Regional Champions would then to go Salem, or wherever the Finals are held in the future. Another weekend of Thursday, Friday and Saturday games and the tournament is complete and a National Champion is crowned. This would even be viable after the field is expanded in two years.

Another problem that can be eliminated or rendered less likely is the West Sectionals scenario of last year. Host team lost the first game and attendance for the championship game was not worth mentioning. Obviously the host team would have a bye the first round using this format. Therefore the NCAA is relatively assured of having 2 well attended days to help offset the cost of moving the teams. An empty house on the Saturday would not be as devastating if the host were knocked out early.

Seedings have improved in recent years but they will never be perfect. Selection criteria needs to improve because it's hardly fair the way it is. The biggest injustice however would be in not having a National Tournament at all.

Must win Weekend II

With Lawrence the only MWC contender to hold serve last weekend this weekends action should separate the men from the boys. I think.................

Won't the real St. Norbert please stand up, please stand up, please stand up. Sitting at 4-4 in the dog pile of possible contenders lies St. Norbert with as many confusing losses as quality wins. They might be in better shape than anyone gives them credit for despite their recent misfortune. They finish up the year with Lawrence and Ripon coming to town but prior to that there are 6 very winnable games, even though 4 are on the road. If they take care of business in those games they will have 10 wins and be in the MWC Tournament regardless of what happens on the last weekend.

Don't Knox it til you've tried it. The Prairie Fire needs to fuel the flames for this weekends road trip to St. Norbert and Beloit. The trip continues next week with a visit to Illinois College before returning home again. Facing three teams in must win situations on the road will likely determine their fate this year. It gets no easier for them the rest of the way and they need to win 2 out of the next 3 to stay alive.

Not sure what got into Ripon last weekend but their stay in the top 25 won't last long if they don't break out of it. Revenge will be a motive for Saturdays game vs. Lake Forest but if they look past Illinois College on Friday their only route to the NCAAs will be an automatic bid.

Carroll is another team that needs to find itself and find a way to get it done on the road. They are 4-4 but only 1-3 away from home. With 4 road games remaining they are suddenly looking like an 8-8 team.

Odds are I'll win the lottery first.

I will not have a weekend like I've had this past weekend ever again and it's still going. It simply isn't possible for these events to repeat. If it could go wrong it did and it's not over yet. Car #1 is still down for the count on the lot of a car dealer. Not any car dealer mind you but an uppity import dealer that only services imports. I did not choose to break down at all, let alone on their lot. A frozen fuel line would have thawed today so I'm guessing it is more along the lines of a fuel pump now.

If I'm lucky it is only severely flooded and will start for me later tonight when I return with a fully charged battery. At present it will be a 6 hour charge time as it is that worn down from starting attempts. Oh joy, that will be 10:00PM and I will freeze just as I did yesterday. If only it were New Years Eve I would simply get drunk and have it towed for free. Unfortunately they don't offer that service the other 364 days of the year. This is definitely a between a rock and a hard place kind of moment and it's getting old in a hurry.

Nothing like this can ever happen on payday, or shortly thereafter, it's always a week before payday when you never have enough money to pay attention let alone take care of an unexpected repair. I've been told that appliances have ears, meaning that as soon as you think you are getting ahead, they will decide to break down so you will have to buy new ones. Cars apparently have ears too.

Insult to injury indeed........... To make all of this worse I can see the car from my kitchen window. It is literally a stones throw away. It might as well be 100 miles away at the moment as I am powerless to do a thing about it right now. Times like this make me wish I had never given up my Jedi training because I would be able to use the force and levitate the car back to my parking lot. Two minutes of pushing would normally do the trick but the dealership expanded last year and built a fence. Which means my apartment building no longer shares a driveway with the dealership.

Yes, the car is that close to home. In fact I can actually walk to it faster than I can drive to it in the other car. By walking I can cut across the yard and not have to drive halfway around the block to get there. Although it's not a budgeted item for this Fridays payday I will buy some lottery tickets because I am more likely to win than have this weekend happen to me again.

Start bailing Beloit

After two losses in what were very winnable road games this weekend I think the Buccaneer ship is officially sinking. Depth has been a serious issue for them this year and the stats from every game prove this out. They certainly don't have the best starting five in the conference but their line up is good enough to compete with most everyone. Provided there is not a big defensive lapse when starters go out I think bench scoring is a bit overrated but from memory the most their bench has put up this year is 13 points. That simply won't get it done.

I'm not sure what his scoring average is this year but it is sad that Josh Hinz, who is likely to become the schools all time scoring leader, may never play a post season game in his career. On the bright side he is only a junior and has one more year for help to arrive. Is the help going to come from current team members who can step it up next year or will it be from the incoming class. Freshmen typically don't contribute much so the only hope is that the other underclassmen can improve.

At the moment the MWC is the Ripon and Lawrence show. The only question now is whether Ripon goes in the tank as they have a history of doing. I don't like Ripon, so this is hard for me to say, but I hope they keep rolling and go into the MWC Tournament as the #1 or #2 seed. Should they falter that opens the possibility of two, maybe even three, also-rans to get into the tournament. Once in the tournament anything can happen; as this season has proven repeatedly this year.

Nothing against Lawrences accomplishments last year but they benefitted from a favorable seeding in the NCAAs. Should an also-ran win the MWC Tournament they are likely to be rewarded with a first round game at Stevens Point or Illinois Wesleyan. Such a match up will certainly be a one and done for the MWC and that will erase a great deal of respect that the conference has earned in recent years.

The MWC has some wins against those conferences this year but against the top teams in those conferences it has not been pretty. I'm not sure if Stevens Point could beat Utah but Ripon played Utah closer than they played Stevens Point. There are plenty of games left and Beloit is only two back of a spot in the tournament so I will still consider them as a contender until they are mathematically eliminated. Having said that they lost to Illinois Wesleyan by 40 in Beloit. When you lose by 40 to anyone you probably could not win if you were playing 5 on 4.

Next season will prove whether or not Beloits decision to hire a full time Athletic Director was a publicity move or a true commitment to winning. She has the pedigree to make it work and I think Youngblood can win in Beloit if he is allowed to. The question is, will the current administration allow him to. It will never be as good as the Miller Upton or Roger Hull days but even Martha Peterson knew a good thing when she saw it and got out of the way, more or less, and allowed the athletics programs to succeed. The glorious academic standards of Beloit did not suffer just because the basketball team was one of the top programs in the country.

Let the second half begin.

Due to a county wide bake sale this weekend at Sam Drucker Arena. All LNCUTMV games were played midweek. We are just over the halfway point in the season and the standings are as follows:

Team-------Record-----(Last 10)
Southern NAIA Tech - Hooterville 11-4 (9-1)
Daisy Moses Medical College 9-6 (7-3)
Bugtussle State 8-7 (6-4)
Southern NAIA Tech 8-7 (5-5)
Mount Pilot Central State 8-7 (4-6)
Bodine Military Academy 7-8 (3-7)
Alaska - Adak 6-9 (2-8)
Pigs Knuckle Hollow - Creekside 4-11 (4-6)

Alaska-Adak has really stumbled of late. Plummeting from second place to off the map in a matter of weeks. They weren't the only early season surprise however. Pigs Knuckle Hollow - Creekside was expected to contend this year but has not been able to overcome an 0-5 start which was due to academic issues. It seems players were skipping practice in order to attend classes. The principles of the Lower North Central Upper Tennessee Middle Valley Conference and D4 philosophies have been reiterated to those individuals concerned and their focus has been regained. For the moment they are on life support but not completely out of it with 12 games remaining.

"System" originator Mount Pilot Central State is not surprising anyone this year, despite having three 7th year seniors. Their bid for a championship may have ended in the off season however as an 8th year of eligibility was not granted in one case. The player in question apparently had accumulated enough credits to graduate. The staff in their compliance office has been given notice that there will be changes for next year.

Say it like you mean it................

Welcome to the New Roop Order. Membership is free and the only rule is that you say what's on your mind, sugar coating is not allowed. MWC Basketball is the primary theme but other conferences, real or imagined, may also be discussed. In fact, any topic is open for debate here. You can't say that about some other websites.