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Every Division I tournament. Every team. College Crosse has it all on lockdown. Please send cookies and naptime. Today we're slashing to bits the ECAC Tournament.
The ECAC was a bit of a caste system in 2012: Those with favor sat with society's elite with a combined 39-15 record; those pulling beets from the fields were a combined 15-36. Without the kind of upward mobility inherent in some leagues due to the chaos concomitant in a free market, all those with lineage advanced out to Denver for the league's postseason, which is great if you prefer your money old and likely from rum-running.
Fancy infographics and detailed team profiles will follow, but for now, here's an overview of the 2012 ECAC Tournament that you can study non-stop until your eyes bleed. Everything gets moving with the sort-of Eastern colleges conference starting on May 2, 2012.
CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT: ECAC
Denver, the tournament's four-seed, is the party's host this week, sporting an undervalued offense and a supporter group that is as strong and fervent as any of the Eastern elite. Loyola enters the tournament with an unblemished conference record, although the Greyhounds are coming off their first loss of the season -- a 10-9 overtime defeat at the hands of Johns Hopkins. Fairfield and Ohio State round out the field and will face each other in consecutive games. (On Saturday, Ohio State trounced Fairfield, 8-3.) It's a relatively balanced ECAC field, with Loyola serving as the favorite but there is a motivational carrot hanging for its three competitors: Without the tournament's fancy postseason trophy and the automatic NCAA Tournament invitation that it carries, there is a strong possibility that those three teams could see their seasons end out in the Rocky Mountain way depending on what exactly shakes out this week and weekend.
Here's how each team stacks up in some legacy metrics:
SEED | TEAM | PACE | RANK | AOE | RANK | ADE | RANK | AEM | RANK |
1. | Loyola | 68.34 | 15 | 33.71 | 14 | 23.35 | 6 | 10.37 | 5 |
2. | Ohio State | 64.87 | 36 | 28.84 | 38 | 21.78 | 4 | 7.06 | 14 |
3. | Fairfield | 62.20 | 49 | 30.51 | 26 | 28.95 | 28 | 1.56 | 30 |
4. | Denver | 63.55 | 43 | 37.18 | 2 | 26.92 | 19 | 10.26 | 6 |
AOE = Adjusted offensive efficiency (goals for per 100 offensive possessions).
ADE = Adjusted defensive efficiency (goals against per 100 defensive possessions).
AEM = Adjusted efficiency margin (AOE less ADE).
This is probably Loyola's tournament to lose, but the Greyhounds are far from decided favorites. This is good for America and even better for your eyeballs.
Here's the shakedown on the big offensive weapons taking the field this weekend:
TEAM | NAME | T.O.V. | RANK | TEAM | NAME | T.O.V. | RANK | ||
Denver | M. Matthews | 12.3937 | 8 | Loyola | M. Sawyer | 10.6692 | 20 | ||
Denver | A. Demopoulos | 9.1199 | 48 | Loyola | E. Lusby | 9.3889 | 43 | ||
Denver | E. Law | 8.6522 | 59 | Loyola | J. Ward | 5.9747 | 157 | ||
Denver | J. Noble | 6.5476 | 133 | Loyola | D. Butts | 5.7614 | 147 | ||
Denver | W. Berg | 6.0799 | 151 | ||||||
Fairfield | S. Snow | 8.1636 | 72 | ||||||
Ohio State | L. Schuss | 12.3927 | 9 | Fairfield | B. Adams | 7.5191 | 91 | ||
Fairfield | J. Snellman | 6.6597 | 129 | ||||||
Fairfield | E. Warden | 4.7263 | 197 |
T.O.V. = Total Offensive Value (individual points per 100 offensive possessions). This is updated through all games played by April 29, 2012.
Rank = National T.O.V. rank. This is updated through all games played by April 29, 2012.
So, that's your overview. Who are you taking to take home top honors?