BIG MOUNTAIN SKY Blog Challenge

Blog Conference Affiliation W L Win %
Mountain West Connection Mountain West 6 1 0.857
Big Sky Basketball Big Sky 15 0.167
Big West Confidential Big West 4 4 0.500

Box Scores week 11/13-11/20:
11/14 Fresno State 39, UCR 30
11/15 Cal Poly 64, Northern Colorado 53
11/16 Fullerton 77, Nevada 80
Pacific 61, Fresno State 66
11/17 Fullerton 112, Southern Utah 69
11/18 Northern Arizona 85, UC Davis 82
Southern Utah 61, Nevada 79



Monday, April 23, 2012

Big West Women's Water Polo Tournament: Analysis and Breakdown

Good morning all!

Since I know next to nothing about water polo, except that the Big West is fairly good at it, I asked for help in breaking down the conference tournament this weekend and our chances at the NCAA tournament.  Jeremy Mauss from The Skip Shot gave this awesome in-depth analysis for your enjoyable reading.  Once again, if you haven't done so, you should check out The Skip Shot at some point as well as his other blog (which I write for occasionally), Mountain West Connection where he and others provide an excellent source of MWC info and analysis.  So for your entertainment, here's Jeremy:

The 2012 Big West women's conference tournament is set for April 27 - 29 on the campus of UC Davis. The top seed in the tournament is UC Irvine who finished with a perfect 5-0 in league play and they are looking to secure the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. Currently Irvine is ranked No. 6 in the latest top 25 poll and they are the highest ranked non-MPSF team.

Based on record Irvine is the favorite to win the Big West tournament, but their path will not be easy. First off, the tournament is played at home of No. 2 seeded UC Davis where Davis has gone 9-0 at home included upset wins over four ranked teams including Maryland and San Jose State who have been ranked in the top-10 this season. Currently Davis is ranked No. 11 but that should change since their win over San Jose State was this past Saturday and they were ranked No. 8.

Irvine and Davis have played only once this year and Irvine easily won 10-4, but that was at Irvine, and If the final matchup is between Davis and Irvine home pool advantage could be the equalizer.

First, Irvine needs to get to the finals. By winning the regular season title they and Davis earn a bye to the semifinals and will play the winner between of Long Beach State or Cal State Northridge. Neither of those games will be easy since Irvine only defeated Cal State Northridge 11-10 and Long Beach State they played twice and won 9-4 and 8-5, so the path to the title game will not be easy. As for Davis, they are in the same scenario as they beat Pacific twice but the two games are a 8-7 and 11-9 victories and a 9-8 win over Santa Barbara.

Really every team has a shot to make it to the NCAA championship since the bracket is set up with tough matchups for the top two seeds. However, look for the final to be between Davis and Irvine, and as for a predicted winner gotta go with Irvine based off of the recent 10-4 over Davis.

As for the NCAA tournament projections, look for Irvine to be the No. 4 or No. 5 seed behind all of the MPSF teams who qualify and possibly Loyola Marymount who Irvine split the two games this year. If Davis is to win they more than likely will be the No. 5 seed with a small chance to be the No. 6 seed, it just depends how well Michigan does at the CWPA Eastern championships.

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I linked to it in last Friday's links, but in case you missed it: here's his story link and information about the upcoming tournament this weekend.

Once again, thanks to Jeremy for all his help.

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