NCAA tourney thoughts.

Here is are couple of things that I thought were important and need to be analyzed. The playoff bracket have been announced and the Sioux are not going to Colorado Springs to play the Tigers. I think most Sioux fans are cool with that.

Joel Maturi, the chair of the men's ice hockey committee and the athletic director at Minnesota, confirmed that the thought process behind Michigan's move to Albany was to "protect" the top seeds.

Could someone please tell me what the Red Hawks have done to secure a 2nd over all bid? The RedHawks have played a very weak schedule (the 24th ranked schedule over all). I mean seriously folks, and the committee is going to protect a team that has shamelessly feasted on cup cakes all season long raking up wins against a less than impressive list of teams. In fact if you look at the RedHawks schedule you will see they have beat very few teams that are considered good. Let’s break this down; the RedHawks have beaten SCSU (once in a holiday tourney), Notre Dame two times (they played three games and are 2-1 once in the CCHA tourney minus their top forward) and MSU twice. Against the top team in the CCHA the Michigan Wolverines the RedHawks are an impressive 0-2-1. Lets break this down further; Miami is 9-3-1 against teams under consideration for the NCAA tourney. That means they have played just 12 teams that are a team under consideration for being in the NCAA tourney. If you want to take this further; in comparison UND is 21-10-4 against teams that are a TUC, that means out of their 40 games UND has played 35 games against teams that were a TUC. I have no problem with awarding Michigan with the opportunity to beat up on a cup cake in its first game, they have earned that right...

The other joke is the Wisconsin Badgers making the tourney with a losing record and failing to make the conference tourney but still was able to leap frog Minnesota State University Mankato who had a winning record. I can see how Maverick fans might be a little ticked at this decision. Want to bet this rule is changed in the near future?

Let the complaining begin

Here is the Fighting Sioux's Bracket is in Madison, Wisconsin; it looks pretty fair enough to me. You either win or you go home. According to the Lets Go DU hockey blog some seem to think that DU was screwed by the NCAA committee. I am not sure how they are the 2 seed. Did they want to play in Colorado Springs? Also it appears that College Hockey News thinks DU got the short end of the stick as well. Personally I think it is poetic justice; DU got a win they may not deserved as the result of a bad call by an on ice official. Mike Eaves could use this as a way to fire up his troops in the game against the Pioneers. Personally I think DU gets a nice draw in playing the Wisconsin Badgers and they should have no trouble dispatching of the Wisconsin Badgers.
Madison (Midwest)
No. 1 North Dakota vs. No. 4 Princeton
No. 2 Denver vs. No. 3 Wisconsin