Roundup: Basketball season in full swing

I hope everyone had an enjoyable Thanksgiving. The annual stuff-your-face-with-food holiday was again good to Hat Trick, full of lots of turkey, but sadly no mashed potatoes (a crime, in my opinion).

It’s been a solid two weeks since my last post (my bad…), so there’s a lot to catch up on. First let’s take a look at the football playoff picture. Read more

Football bracket set

Ithaca is in, Alfred is out. If you’ve read any of my football posts over the past month or so, you know that I had the Saxons pegged as my dark horse National Championship contender. Oops. Three straight losses to finish the season will usually be enough to keep you out of the playoffs.

Surprisingly enough, the committee selected three teams from the Empire 8, something I thought was a virtually impossibility. But Hartwick got in by virtue of the automatic bid for winning the Empire 8. St. John Fisher got in based on their impressive season (9-1 overall) and Ithaca got in based on their spectacular six-game winning streak that helped them finish 8-2 overall.

Hartwick faces undefeated Curry, Fisher hosts 8-2 Hobart and the Bombers get the unenviable task of traveling to Ohio to face two-time defending champion Mount Union. Elsewhere in the playoff field, there weren’t too many surprises. The top four seeds in the four brackets are Mount Union, Central, Washington and Jefferson, and UW-Whitewater.

After I take some time to look over the bracket, I’ll make some predictions and post them here. Feel free to leave comments on who is your early favorite.

More playoff action

So I figured that since I updated the women’s soccer playoff picture earlier today, I should mention the D-III field hockey playoffs. Today marked the start and completion of the first round, and didn’t really produce any upsets to note. A quick look at the bracket shows that every home team won, and advanced to the second round of the tournament, which will be played this weekend. Keep an eye on defending National Champion Ursinus, who had a bye in the first round. They play Juniata, who defeated Johns Hopkins in the opening round.

And while I’m at it, here is the scoreboard and updated bracket for the men’s soccer playoffs. Three-time defending Champion Messiah received a bye in the opening round of the tourney, and faces Greensboro this weekend.

Women’s soccer tournament underway

There’s been some buzz on the South Hill about the Ithaca women’s soccer team, who faces Bowdoin in the first round of the NCAA tournament on Friday. The first round actually began today, with a number of games on the slate. Wheaton, last year’s champion, will be looking to repeat this year.

The Bombers haven’t won since they collected back-to-back National Chamionships in 1990 and 1991. Take a look at the full bracket and make some predictions. It’s playoff time.