Sunday, March 12, 2006

Is UNO Toast?

In the aftermath of this weekend's sweep by Northern Michigan, many Mav fans are thinking that the season is over.

In the immortal words of Yogi Berra:
It ain't over till it's over.
UNO fell to 14th in the Pairwise ratings. And USCHO's latest Bracketology has them the last team out. But look a little closer: Who is the last team in? New Hampshire, a team UNO beat 5-3 in October. Also, note that USCHO has given an automatic berth to Dartmouth, who still must win the ECAC tournament this weekend. If #5 Cornell or #8 Harvard wins the ECAC, then they get the automatic bid and UNO could move from "last team out" to "last team in".

Another game of interest include Denver vs. Minnesota-Duluth tonight. Denver is lurking just under UNO in the Pairwise, so the sooner they are eliminated, the better.

Those PairWise ratings also do not take into consideration the NCAA's bonuses for "good wins"; when applying some suggested bonus values (.003/.002/.001) to the Pairwise, they move to a tie with New Hampshire.

Bottom line: UNO is on the NCAA bubble. Much like Creighton basketball, they need some things to work out in their favor to get in the tournament.

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