Since RPICH historically has been a good predictor if the NC$$ Tournament picks/seedings in the past, I thought it might be fun to look at the current seeds (as extracted from this week's posting) heading into the play-offs: EAST WEST ------------------------------------------ Boston Univ. 1 Michigan New Hampshire 2 Minnesota Harvard 3 Wisconsin Maine 4 Lake State UM-Lowell 5 W. Michigan N'Eastern 6 N. Michigan RPI 7 Michigan State Clarkson 8 Colorado College Some comments/observations: * Maine is obviously the Wild Card in the East (with ripple effects into the West as well). If the Committee does indeed select the Black Bears, it makes it that much more difficult for N'Eastern, CC, MSU and NMU who have much lower RPICH numbers .... * The ECAC is likely to get only two spots: Harvard and either RPI/Clarkson. An Engineer victory on Friday would just about lock up a spot, as they'd then have a 3-0 head-head record vs. the Golden Knights. A Clarkson victory, however, may not itself be enough to displace RPI unless they can go on to win the ECAC Title outright .... * UNH currently holds a 3-1 head-head advantage over UM-Lowell, so a victory Friday would solidify their grip on a 2-4 East seed, their actual seed dependent on what the Crimson do in Lake Placid. Given the head-head advantage, UML might also have to win the HE Title outright to slip ahead of the Wildcats for a higher East seed .... * It appears N'Eastern will have to at least split this weekend to ensure themselves a spot, and even that might not be enough dependent on the Maine Factor and the outcome of games at the Joe. There's no way five HE teams will be selected, and they'll be outside looking in if Maine is the 4th HE team chosen .... * N. Michigan had best not stumble against Jamie Ram and MTU as Colorado did, since they'll likely need every opportunity to get some victories against quality opponents in the Tournament to boost their RPICH Nos .... * The four bottom-most West seeds listed above would appear to be jockeying for 2 spots, with W. Michigan having an edge (I think) vs. MSU in head- head this year. Record against the higher seeded teams is a factor also; how do MSU and WMU fare against LSSU and Michigan (well we KNOW the Spartans have the Wolverines number :-) Unless MSU advances deep into the Tournament, they could end up like Georgia Tech in the round- ball Tournament (3 wins vs. Duke/NC wasn't enough to get them in). * The top 8 seeds (well, there's the Maine Factor again) appear to be looking to improve their positions in the NC$$ Tournament based on their relative success in their respective conference tournaments. No one wants to face Lacher/LSSU early on, so the better one does to avoid the Lakers until deep into the Tournament, the better :-) Better/more informed comments than mine certainly welcome; try to be civil if you flame .... Good Luck to all the Tournament participants this weekend !! Cheers from Maryland - Jim