Atlantic Region Men's Basketball '25-'26

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Interesting. Latest regional rankings gave Fayetteville a big boost for the conference tourney win (pushing them up to the 4 spot), and they have Union in and WCU out. And with both Union and WCU finished playing at this point, I find it hard to believe that a committee will flip them now based solely on what they saw last night.

In my mind the real battle for the last spot is between WCU & Charleston. Charleston will have an opportunity to do something about it tomorrow while WCU sits and waits.

Massey is a straight metric and doesn't take into account conference tournament titles. I agree with you ... just posting more for the curiosity of it.

[Ship69]

Interesting. Latest regional rankings gave Fayetteville a big boost for the conference tourney win (pushing them up to the 4 spot), and they have Union in and WCU out. And with both Union and WCU finished playing at this point, I find it hard to believe that a committee will flip them now based solely on what they saw last night.

In my mind the real battle for the last spot is between WCU & Charleston. Charleston will have an opportunity to do something about it tomorrow while WCU sits and waits.

The PSAC East this season was as weak as I've seen it in a long time. A friend and I attended the West Chester at Shippensburg game where the 14-15 Raiders took down West Chester. We thought West Chester had a couple of nice players, but they certainly didn't look like a team that could make much noise out of the league. Although Ship was a bad road team this season, the Raiders also beat East Stroudsburg at home, lost to Millersville by two, and blew a big lead to lose to Shepherd by three. There was no dominant team in the East, as evidenced by three teams tying at 15-6 in the final divisional standings. And those records were inflated by bad Kutztown, Bloomsburg, and Mansfield teams at the bottom of the standings.

[Scrub]

The PSAC East this season was as weak as I've seen it in a long time. A friend and I attended the West Chester at Shippensburg game where the 14-15 Raiders took down West Chester. We thought West Chester had a couple of nice players, but they certainly didn't look like a team that could make much noise out of the league. Although Ship was a bad road team this season, the Raiders also beat East Stroudsburg at home, lost to Millersville by two, and blew a big lead to lose to Shepherd by three. There was no dominant team in the East, as evidenced by three teams tying at 15-6 in the final divisional standings. And those records were inflated by bad Kutztown, Bloomsburg, and Mansfield teams at the bottom of the standings.

It actually got me thinking:

If Charleston takes care of business against Glenville and seemingly sews up that #8 slot (big IF, of course), when was the last time the Atlantic hosted a Regional without a member of the PSAC East in the field?

[IUPbigINDIANS]

The PSAC East this season was as weak as I've seen it in a long time. A friend and I attended the West Chester at Shippensburg game where the 14-15 Raiders took down West Chester. We thought West Chester had a couple of nice players, but they certainly didn't look like a team that could make much noise out of the league. Although Ship was a bad road team this season, the Raiders also beat East Stroudsburg at home, lost to Millersville by two, and blew a big lead to lose to Shepherd by three. There was no dominant team in the East, as evidenced by three teams tying at 15-6 in the final divisional standings. And those records were inflated by bad Kutztown, Bloomsburg, and Mansfield teams at the bottom of the standings.

It was really bad (uneven) on the women's side. Thankfully they made the switch this year so the actual four best teams could reach the weekend.

As for the men, I'd say it could balance out next year but who knows. Nobody knows what their roster will be like come November.

Portal Season is about to launch.

[IUPalum]

Funny enough I think there's a very solid chance it's a split regional for both men's and women's like 2024. Which means

Given regional rankings out today, for sure ESU, Millersville, WCU are done. Biggest risk right now is if Seton Hill goes nuts and upsets Cal (again) and Gannon. Seton Hill beat last years team once so if there's a PSAC bracket that scares me it's what remains.

Split regional will only happen if the Gannon Women win the PSAC title. If IUP wins it, then they'll host the women. Both teams need to win both games this weekend if they want to host, Plain and simple.

[Ship69]

It was really bad (uneven) on the women's side. Thankfully they made the switch this year so the actual four best teams could reach the weekend.

As for the men, I'd say it could balance out next year but who knows. Nobody knows what their roster will be like come November.

Portal Season is about to launch.

If this season's Ship women's team wasn't the worst in the history of the university, it certainly was close. They had a bunch of first-year players and two of the best players missed the entire year with injuries. Word is that help is on the way next year, and it is badly needed. Hard to believe the team was winning a regional playoff game with star Ariel Jones only a couple of years back.

[TheMadLibs]

Split regional will only happen if the Gannon Women win the PSAC title. If IUP wins it, then they'll host the women. Both teams need to win both games this weekend if they want to host, Plain and simple.

I don't think it's a guarantee that happens based on what the regional rankings did this week. If iup is considered stronger and thus would pull the 1 seed, that Cal and Gannon combo loss wouldn't have dropped them below Gannon yesterday. That Cal loss hurt their SOS in region substantially. Gannon's losses are all to postseason. They have a far weaker in region SOS and two losses to below .500 teams who didn't make the tourney. Until Carey starts getting IUP into better tournaments beyond the PSAC CIAA and home and aways, it'll hurt them come tourney time. I mean even the touted Ashland win was against a below 20 win Ashland not top 10 team.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

I don't think it's a guarantee that happens based on what the regional rankings did this week. If iup is considered stronger and thus would pull the 1 seed, that Cal and Gannon combo loss wouldn't have dropped them below Gannon yesterday. That Cal loss hurt their SOS in region substantially. Gannon's losses are all to postseason. They have a far weaker in region SOS and two losses to below .500 teams who didn't make the tourney. Until Carey starts getting IUP into better tournaments beyond the PSAC CIAA and home and aways, it'll hurt them come tourney time. I mean even the touted Ashland win was against a below 20 win Ashland not top 10 team.

They can both worry about winning Saturday. The rest is hyperbole at this point.

Carey scheduled Virginia State, Fairmont State and Ashland. Were they all not picked to win their leagues? He can't predict the future.

I 100% agree whomever wins the PSAC Tournament will host the Regional.


edit: I meant to say if it comes down to IUP/GU, I believe the winner will host. Obviously if SH or Boro wins, they won't be hosting.

[IUPalum]

I don't think it's a guarantee that happens based on what the regional rankings did this week. If iup is considered stronger and thus would pull the 1 seed, that Cal and Gannon combo loss wouldn't have dropped them below Gannon yesterday. That Cal loss hurt their SOS in region substantially. Gannon's losses are all to postseason. They have a far weaker in region SOS and two losses to below .500 teams who didn't make the tourney. Until Carey starts getting IUP into better tournaments beyond the PSAC CIAA and home and aways, it'll hurt them come tourney time. I mean even the touted Ashland win was against a below 20 win Ashland not top 10 team.

So you don't think IUP hops Gannon even if IUP beats them a second time. I'm afraid I've got some bad news for you!

[TheMadLibs]

So you don't think IUP hops Gannon even if IUP beats them a second time. I'm afraid I've got some bad news for you!

I'm basing it on pass precedence. A few years ago Gannon was ranked behind Glenville, won psac while Glenville lost. Everyone assumed Gannon would hop and did not. The prior regional ranking indicated the SOS. Not just head to head.

And agreed, Saturday is more critical. We'll see what happens. I don't feel confident, but I do think the regional rankings wouldn't have changed if it didn't have bearing.

[Scrub]

Well, that #8 spot is going to be a total coin flip. None of the teams in the running for it--Charleston, Ville, WCU--was able to take care of business in their conference tourney opener.

[EastStroud13]

I wonder if WCU ends up taking it on merit of having the "best loss". Both Ville and Charleston lost to playoff outsiders, meanwhile WCU lost to a playoff team in IUP by just one point.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

I wonder if WCU ends up taking it on merit of having the "best loss". Both Ville and Charleston lost to playoff outsiders, meanwhile WCU lost to a playoff team in IUP by just one point.

In theory West Chester has been eliminated about 4 times ... yet just won't go away.

If I was betting, it's the Rams. As you said they had the best loss of the bunch.

And, just as WC is packing, Seton Hill will win the weekend and crash the party. That would make sense lol.

[Scrub]

In theory West Chester has been eliminated about 4 times ... yet just won't go away.

If I was betting, it's the Rams. As you said they had the best loss of the bunch.

And, just as WC is packing, Seton Hill will win the weekend and crash the party. That would make sense lol.

Heck, Glenville's & Concord's chances of playing party-crasher might even be better than Seton Hill's. Neither Fairmont nor WLU looked very comfortable in their first games in Wesbanco Arena.

Truthfully, teams often say it's a really hard building to shoot in (and WLU has historically performed below par there), so it's also possible that Fairmont & WLU will figure it out the more they play there as the weekend goes on.

But WCU has to be a huge Fairmont/WLU cheerleader tonight.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Heck, Glenville's & Concord's chances of playing party-crasher might even be better than Seton Hill's. Neither Fairmont nor WLU looked very comfortable in their first games in Wesbanco Arena.

Truthfully, teams often say it's a really hard building to shoot in (and WLU has historically performed below par there), so it's also possible that Fairmont & WLU will figure it out the more they play there as the weekend goes on.

But WCU has to be a huge Fairmont/WLU cheerleader tonight.

Anything can happen in the PSAC Tournament but logic clearly favors Cal vs Gannon tomorrow (with GU winning).

You never know. The pressure is on the home team. The rest are just playing with house money.

Gannon is due for a bad day. Problem is their bad day will still probably beat most teams (by 15 or more).