Well, first PWR of this season is out, and things do not look promising.
Maine is now at a 15th place tie...even Lowell is ahead of them !

Maine will in my opinion really have problems if it were going for an
at-large bid: its record when it comes to the intangibles the Committee
gives to "good wins", especially neutral site and road wins.  Other than
Vermont (ahead of them also), and Lowell (barely snatched victory from the
jaws of a tie) Maine on the road this year has been a disaster.  The fans
travel well, but the team ?

This season might come down to having to post at least one win at each of
the two-game away series at New Hampshire and Boston College, and win all
else, for the Black Bears to be in any contention for an at-large invite to
the Tournament.  Quite the change this season, that Maine seemingly HAS to
win in Boston to have the best shot to control its' post-season fate.

Even were they to win the HE auto-bid at not-to-be-the-Bank of America
Center, Maine might be so low in the seedings so that they are prime fodder
to be posted other than to Amherst or Worcester, and sent west.  Even more
scary, that the CHA (most likely a #16) auto-bid could be kept in the East
given Maine is the "bigger" school and might be thought to be more flexible
with regards to traveling.

At least the Red Sox won the World Series....

Dan

Deron Treadwell wrote:

>I recently wrote that Maine might only be able to lose 2-3 games in order
>to realistically have a shot at an at-large berth to the NCAA Tournament.
>While we are still waiting for the Pairwise Rankings to debut (as of
>Monday night), but if they are anything like the below there is much work
>to do.
>