D3Playbook: The Terrific Twelve

written by STEVE ULRICH
your must-read briefing on what's driving the day in NCAA Division III

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TOP STORY

1. The Terrific Twelve

20230216 - MH at Framingham

The NCAA Division III Men’s Ice Hockey Committee announced the field of 12 teams for the 2023 NCAA Division III Men’s Ice Hockey Championship. Nine conferences have been awarded an automatic qualification.

The remaining three teams were selected at-large by the committee.

The championship playoff format involves four first-round games, March 11 and four quarterfinal games, March 18 that are played on the campuses of the participating institutions. All games in the championship are single elimination. The host for the championship semifinals and final will be confirmed Saturday night, March 18 after the conclusion of the quarterfinal games.

First Round - March 11
(9) U. of New England (19-6-2) at (7) Plymouth State (23-3-1), 7:00
(18) Augsburg (16-9-2) at (8) UW-Stevens Point (19-5-4), 8:00
(10) Norwich (19-6-2) at (6) Plattsburgh State (20-5-2), 7:00
(33) Bowdoin (14-9-3) at (5) Curry (21-5-1), 7:00

Quarterfinals - March 18
Plymouth State/UNE winner at (1) Utica (25-2-1)
UW-Stevens Point/Augsburg winner at (4) Adrian (23-4-2)
Plattsburgh/Norwich winner at (2) Endicott (23-2-2)
Curry/Bowdoin winner at (3) Hobart (26-2)

(#) Pairwise ranking

>> Nattys: UW-Stevens Point 6 (1989-90-91-93-2016-19), Norwich 4 (2000-03-10-17), Plattsburgh State 2 (1992-2001), Adrian (2022)

>> Complete Bracket

A MESSAGE FROM CHI ALPHA SIGMA

Chi Alpha Sigma is the only national scholar-athlete society that celebrates four-year collegiate student-athletes who have excelled in both the classroom and in athletic competition.

Founded in 1996 and with 320 active chapters nationwide, Chi Alpha Sigma recognizes undergraduate college student-athletes who participate in a sport at the varsity intercollegiate level, achieve junior academic standing or higher after their fifth full time semester, and earn a 3.4 or higher cumulative grade point average.

To apply for your chapter today contact Executive Director, Kellen Wells-Mangold, at kellen@ncahs.org or visit chialphasigma.org.

FOOTBALL

2. Timing Rules Changes Proposed

by Greg Johnson, NCAA

"The NCAA Football Rules Committee has proposed several timing rules changes intended to continue the effort to control the flow of the game and encourage more consistent game management.

The committee anticipates the adjustments, which were finalized Friday in Indianapolis, would modestly reduce the number of plays in the game, something the committee will study closely during the 2023 season.

If approved by the NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel on April 20, the game clock will continue to run when a first down is gained. Currently, the game clock stops when a first down is gained, and the clock restarts when the offense is awarded a first down. The game clock will continue to be stopped when a first down is gained during the last two minutes of either half."

>> Worth Noting: The committee is also recommending the following:

Teams would be prohibited from calling consecutive team timeouts.
Penalties at the end of the first and third quarter would carry over and be enforced on the first play of the next quarter.
In the area of technology, the committee approved the optional use of instant replay in games that do not have an instant replay booth official.

>> Be Smart: The average length of a FBS game in 2022 was 3:27 and had 135 plays. In DIII, the average length of a game was 2:52 and had 132 plays.

>> Read More

FEATURE

3. Why Swarthmore Practices Free Throws From 14 1/2 Feet

Men's Basketball - Swarthmore College Athletics
by Mike Jensen, Philadelphia Inquirer

"Allen Schneider, longtime Swarthmore College psychology and neuroscience professor, is a basketball fan, but he wasn’t actively looking for ways to help out Swarthmore’s men’s basketball team. He’d just watched Garnet coach Landry Kosmalski enough to think the coach might be receptive to this theory in Schneider’s own field.

The emailed article was titled, “Want to learn a new skill faster? Change your practice session.”

Could this be done for Swarthmore’s foul-shooting drills?"

>> Court Awareness: "A passage in the article practically demanded it: “The key to learning a new skill (like playing the guitar or shooting those hoops for example) isn’t only in the hours you put into practice, but also how those hours are spent. Scientists have found that by adding slight variations in the practice routine, you can keep your brain more active and facilitate the learning process.”

>> The Big Picture: "The paper had used a basketball example of trying a slightly heavier ball, but Swarthmore came up with its own experiment. What if they practiced sometimes shooting free throws from 14½ feet … and other times from 15½ feet? That’s what they now do, in addition to the standard 15 feet."

>> The Key Stat(s): The Garnet's free throw percentages increased each year from 2019-22: 71.3% to 73.6% to 76.5%. This season, Swarthmore is shooting 74.9 percent from the charity stripe.

>> What They're Saying: "What goes through a Swarthmore player’s head when his coach brings something like this to him? “I think you absolutely roll with it,” said Swarthmore senior guard George Visconti. “But I think we do a lot of things different.”

>> Keep Reading

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LACROSSE

4. Tigers and Panthers, Oh My

Kyle Howard
photo by David Sinclair

RIT and Middlebury remain atop their respective lacrosse polls. The Tiger men received 18 of 19 first-place ballots to easily outpoint Christopher Newport, while the Panther women garnered 28 of 30 first-place votes to outdistance NESCAC rival Tufts.

Men

RIT (18), 4-0
Christopher Newport (1), 4-0
Gettysburg, 3-0
Tufts, 1-0
Union, 3-0
Salisbury, 4-1
Washington and Lee, 4-0
Dickinson, 4-0
Lynchburg, 3-1
York, 1-2

>> Tickling The Twine: Hendrix midfielder Max LaMendola leads DIII with 27 goals, while Wabash first-year Quinn Fitzgerald - who had a 13-goal performance against Concordia-Chicago - is next at 25 tallies.

>> At The X: Kenyon soph Thomas Nelson leads the nation in face-off percentage, winning 63 of 65 draws for a 96.9 win percentage.

>> Complete Poll

Women

Middlebury (28), 1-0
Tufts (1), 1-0
TCNJ, 2-0
Washington and Lee (1), 5-0
Salisbury, 4-1
Franklin & Marshall, 2-1
Colby, 0-2
William Smith, 2-0
Gettysburg, 2-2
Wesleyan, 1-0

>> Games We're Watching This Week: #5 Salisbury vs. #9 Gettysburg (Sat.); #6 F&M vs. #10 Wesleyan (Sat.).

>> Complete Poll

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NEWS

5. Lightning Round

Baseball

Lebanon Valley's Shane Stossel and Malachi Duka combined on a no-hitter as the Flying Dutchmen blanked Heidelberg, 3-0. Stossel walked one and fanned 11 in six innings of work. Duka picked up the save, striking out a pair.

News

The NCAA Division III Membership Committee reviewed and approved exploratory year applications from Penn State Brandywine and Carlow. The committee denied a sports sponsorship waiver request from Penn State University, Abington. The university sought a waiver to allow cheerleading - a non-NCAA sport - to be used to meet the minimum sports sponsorship requirement for the 2022-23 academic year.
The NCAA Division III Interpretations and Legislation Committee recommended that Management Council approve noncontroversial legislation removing the prohibition on participating in collegiate all-star contests and applying the same standards as any outside competition opportunity.