SID Blog

It's Monday evening...just moments before the teams take the court here in Branson. Should be a dandy...Bellevue extremely tough defensively...our three games prior to this one should have prepared us well for the defense we'll see this evening. The women's team gets to face Morningside one more time...judging by the past meetings, it will come down to the wire. Good luck to all the players, coaches and safe travel for the fans going to support the Red Raiders.

for those of you who care (there are a couple of other basketball geeks out there), I moved my "Bracketolology" blog to the basketball news section. This is where I keep track of the teams who have qualified for the Big Dance as well as up-to-date conference tournament results. Both should change quite a bit this afternoon as the NAIA will release it's final rankings today...the ranking in which the at-large teams will be determined. My men's one is done and I should have the women's up by the end of the day. Again, this is not official, rather, just an educated (or non-educated) guess at who is in and who is out.

The quarterfinal pairings are set in both the women's and men's GPAC postseason basketball tournaments as Doane defeated USF last night in women's play while the USF men rolled over Concordia. This will be the third meeting of the season between the Red Raider women's team and Doane with the last match-up just over a week ago on Feb. 16. It will also be the third time the Northwestern and USF men have played this season. In both cases, the Red Raiders are 2-0 against Thursday's opponent but as you often hear, it's never easy to beat a team three times in the same season. Should make for some incredible basketball in the Bultman Center Thursday night!

The wrestling team has a much deserved week off before the NAIA National Tournament in Sioux City on March 6-8. I believe the brackets will be released later this week by the NAIA so stay tuned for that. Enock Francois and Levi Price are coming off GPAC and regional championships and will join six other Red Raiders competing in Sioux City.

13 Red Raider track and field athletes will compete at the NAIA Indoor Championships in Johnson City, Tennessee on March 6-8. Laura Jacobson comes in seeded fourth in the 600m and seventh in the 1000m. Olivia Johnson is seeded seventh in the 800m and one mile, and 15th in the 1000m. Charity Miles is seeded third in the 5000m and sixth in the 3000m.

Our spring teams will be heading south and will finally get some games in. Both baseball and softball teams will head to the Sunshine State and play several games. Florida is absolutely wonderful this time of year, temps around 80 and actually not very humid, so they should (knock on wood) be able get their games in.

That's all for now...check back later!

It’s that time of year, time to start thinking about March Madness, NAIA style. Most of the conference tournaments will get underway later this week and obviously there is a lot of basketball to be played before the 32-team national tournament field will be made official. But, for a basketball junkie such as myself, it’s never too early to get a start on figuring out which teams are in which teams are out. Below is my first attempt to try to figure out the tournament field and it’s based on last week’s NAIA rating. The final rating will come out on Wednesday, Feb. 27, and probably change things a great deal. As the week progresses, I’ll update my list of automatic qualifiers and potential at-large berths. Again, this is just my best guess and NOT in any way, the official list.

As of Tuesday night, nine teams have automatically qualified for Branson:
            1. King College (Tenn.)-Appalachian Athletic Conf Regular Season Champ
            2. Menlo (Calif.)-California Pacific Conf Postseason Champ
            3. Eastern Oregon-Cascade Collegiate Conf. Regular Season Champ
            4. Morningside-GPAC Regular Season Champ
            5. MidAmerica Nazarene (Kan.)-HAAC Regular Season Champ
            6. Ottawa (Kan.)-KCAC Regular Season Champ (#1 seed)
            7. St. Joseph’s (Vermont)-Sunrise Athletic Conf Postseason Champ
            8. College of the Ozarks (Mo.)-Host Berth
           9. Walsh-AMC Regular Season Champion

Assuming that:
   1. no upsets will happen in conference tournaments (likely won’t happen)
   2. and the highest ranked team that did not already qualify b/c of the regular season, will win the conf. tournament (likely won’t                 happen)
 *here are the teams that are also in:
            9. Evangel-HAAC T’ment Champ
            10. Oregon Tech-Cascade T’ment Champ
            11. Bellevue-MCAC T’ment Champ
            12. Bethel-MCC T’ment Champ
            13. Northwestern-GPAC T’ment Champ
            14. William Penn-Midwest Collegiate T’ment Champ
            15. Northwood-Florida Sun T’ment Champ
            16. Jamestown-DAC T’ment Champ
            17. Aquinas-Wolverine-Hoosier T’ment Champ
            18. Mount Vernon Nazarene-Am. Mideast T’ment Champ
            19. Bluefield-Appalachian T’ment Champ
            20. Indiana University SE-Kentucky T’ment Champ
            21. Judson-Chicagoland T’ment Champ
            22. highest ranked independent team

*in this scenario, this leaves nine at-large berths left for the highest ranked teams that have not qualified (based on Feb. 20 ranking---will change Feb. 27)          31. Valley City State
            23. Embry-Riddle (#15)         27. Dordt (#22)                               32. Briar Cliff (rv)  
            24. Grace (#18)                       28. Oklahoma Wesleyan (#24)
            25. Dakota Wesleyan (#19) 29. Huntington (#25)
            26. Cedarville (#21)               30. Evergreen State (rv)   

*below is a list of the conf. tournaments, the seeds and dates to be played

American Mideast Conf:
            Regular season champ game on Feb. 26: Malone vs Walsh-winner qualifies
    Post season tournament-6 teams…beginning on Feb. 28
            1. loser of championship game
            2. Notre Dame
            3. Point Park
            4. Cedarville
            5. Mt. Vernon Nazarene
            6. Ohio Dominican
Appalachian Athletic Conf T’ment:  Feb. 27-29, Mar. 1
            1. King     2.  Bluefield      3. Milligan      4. Montreat      5. Tenn. Wesleyan  
            6. Union   7. Virginia-Wise    8. Bryan    9. Virg. Intermont   10. Covenant
California Pac. Conference Tournament
            Menlo-Conf. T’ment Champion
Cascade Collegiate Conf T’ment: Feb. 27, March 1, March 4
      1. East. Oregon    2. O. Tech    3. Evergreen State    4. Warner Pacific 
      5. Concordia        6. Northwest    7. Albertson       8. NW Christian
Chicagoland Collegiate Conf. T’ment-Feb. 26, 28, Mar. 1
            1. Judson      2. Trinity Chr      3. Card. Stritch      4. Calumet-St. Joes
            5. Trinity Int.   6. Purdue Calumet       7. Purdue N. Central
DAC Tournament-Feb. 24, 27 Mar. 2
           #1 Jamestown def  #8 Dakota St, 84-55
          #2 Minot State  def.  #7 SD Tech, 76-73
          #3 Valley City St def. #6 Dickinson State, 85-67
          #5 BHSU def. #4. Mayville St, 84-82
Florida Sun Conf. Tournamnet-Feb. 26, 29 and Mar. 1
            1. Northwood     2. Embry-Riddle    3. Warner South   4. Savannah A&D
            5. Edward Waters     6. Florida Mem    7. Webber    8. St. Thomas
HAAC Conf. Tournament-Feb. 27, 29 March 3
            1. MidAmerica Naz.   2. Evangel    3. Central Methodist   4. W. Jewell
           5. Mo Valley     6. Benedictine    7. Lindenwood    8. Graceland
KCAC Conf. Tournament-Feb. 25, 28, Mar. 1, 3
            1. Ottawa   2. Friends    3.  Kansas Wes    4. Southwestern  5. Sterling
            6. McPherson    7. Tabor   8. Bethany    9. Bethel  10. St. Mary
Kentucky Intercollegiate-Feb. 28, 29, Mar. 1
            1. Ind. Southeast    2. Berea      3. Alice Lloyd   4. Asbury      5. St. Louis Pharmacy
MidCentral-Feb. 25, 27, 29, Mar. 2
            1. Bethel   2. Grace   3. Huntington   4. Indiana Wesleyan  5. Taylor
       6. Spring Arbor   7. Goshen   8. St. Francis
Midlands Collegiate-Feb. 29, Mar. 1
       1. Bellevue     2. Ozarks     3. Oklahoma Wes    4. Haskell
Midwest Collegiate-Feb. 25, 27, 29, Mar. 2
    1. W.Penn    2. Clarke    3. Iowa Wes    4. Grand View   5.Ashford
   6. St. Ambrose   7. Mount Mercy  8. Waldorf  9. Viterbo
Sunrise Athletic T’ment:
   St. Joseph’s T’ment Champion
Wolverine-Hoosier-Feb. 27, Mar.1 and Mar. 3
   1. Aquinas   2. Indiana Tech    3. Madonna   4. Cornerstone
  5. Concordia   6. Siena Heights   7. Davenport   8. Mich-Dearborn

The new year has come and gone...students are back for the second semester which means we're in the midst of the heart of the wrestling and basketball seasons. Hard to believe that track and field, softball and baseball will also get going this month and will have their first competition in a few weeks.

The Red Raider grappler's had an impressive showing this past weekend at the Dana Open in what is a very competitive meet. Jordan Keckler and Enock Francois were the top finishers, placing second, which earned Francois GPAC wrestling honors for the week. Last night, Coach Petty's squad lost just one actual match in a dual vs DWU but had several open weight classes and lost their GPAC debut.

Both basketball teams continue to roll as they are at or near the top of the league standings. Men's team has won seven straight coming into tonight's showdown with USF while the women's team trails just Morningside with a 4-0 mark. Debbie Remmerde earned GPAC Player-of-the-Week honors for the second time this season, the third time an NWC women's player has earned the honor (Amy Larson). Remmerde is closing in fast on the all-time NAIA D-II scoring record set by Brittany Smart (Cedarville), a player we faced two seasons ago in the Elite Eight (one of the best games ever in my opinion!). She needs just 65 points to break Smart's record.

In volleyball news, the NAIA visited Sioux City, Iowa, to check out the possibility of hosting the national volleyball tournament the next two years at the Tyson Events Center. Word on the street that California and Columbia, Mo. are also in the running...there could be others as well. If Sioux City would be awarded the host bid, that would be good news for Red Raider fans as many more fans could then support the team as opposed to a venue in California. More news on this as it comes available.

All I can say is...WOW!  The Red Raiders defeated seventh-ranked and top-seeded Dickinson State, 3-0, and will now receive a bye in the tie-break matches tomorrow. Northwestern will play the winner of Dordt/Dickinson State tomorrow morning at either 11:00 or 11:30 am. The tie break matches are just one game to 30 points, that's it...that's all, nothing else. The winner of the tie-break matches will advance to the regional final where the champion will advance to the NAIA National Tournament.

Once again, all I can say is wow and congrats to the volleyball team and the coaching staff...what a match!