D3 Datacast

We are always excited for a new season of Division III basketball but this is the show we do each preseason that really takes the anticipation to another level. As we have done in previous years, we’ve combed through schedules and compiled our list of the Top 50 games of the men’s basketball season taking place in the month of November. This season is sure to get off to a fast start with so many g...

It’s way too early to know who the conference champions will be during the 2025-2026 Division II basketball season but that won’t keep us from trying to guess! We’re back with year three of our conference champions draft contest with the usual suspects of Karl Barkley, Bob Quillman and Ryan Whitnable joining us to go through eight rounds of picks. Each conference can only be picked once so once so...

It’s a Calvin basketball double feature this week on The D3 Datacast as we follow up Monday’s episode with Bill Sall with a special Wednesday episode as we chat with Calvin head women’s basketball coach Mark Christner! Join us as we get Coach Christner’s thoughts on a difficult non-conference schedule, a 2025-2026 roster loaded with returning players, conference outlook and more as the Knights loo...

The D3 Datacast isn’t usually an interview show but we can pass up the chance to have an annual preseason chat with Calvin head men’s basketball coach Bill Sall! The Knights endured a tough non-conference schedule a year ago then ripped off an undefeated conference season on the way to securing the MIAA tournament championship and automatic bid to the NCAA Division III men’s basketball tournament....

It’s time to declare the Division III basketball offseason over and start looking at the season ahead! We fired up the D3 Datacast computer for another season of hoops and kick off the return of our weekly shows taking a look at preseason efficiency ratings. New and improved for this season, our men’s basketball preseason efficiency ratings are calculated with the computer having the added “knowle...

Our NPI summer series wraps up with Fact or Fiction! In this episode we feature five prompts about NPI and answer whether they are based on fact or fiction fueled by a misconception or misunderstanding. NPI doesn’t consider head-to-head? NPI doesn’t count every game? NPI gives everyone an at-large chance? The different non-conference multiplier in men’s basketball is a good idea? More teams still...

We have seen how NPI opens up tournament consideration to a wider set of Division III men’s basketball teams than the previous regional ranking/committee selection system - but does NPI actually give every team a chance at an at-large tournament berth? Observers of the previous system know that it seemed some teams with poor SOS numbers just couldn’t win enough to overcome it. With NPI we can run...

From time to time we see Division III basketball programs play games against non-D3 opponents. With NPI taking over as the way teams at-large teams are selected and the national tournament is seeded, are non-D3 games good or bad? As it seems with anything NPI-related the answer is: it depends! There are many considerations to be made when putting together a basketball schedule. In this entry into...

The first Division III men's basketball tournament with at-large teams selected by NPI is in the books. We got a great tournament but did NPI pick the right teams? Join us for this episode as we look at the results NPI produced for teams in and around the bubble and compare and contrast that to how some other rating and ranking systems might have picked the limited number of at-large bids to t...

We are back from Fort Wayne, Indiana and what a weekend it was! Congratulations to the Trinity (CT) Bantams for winning the 2024-2025 NCAA Division III Men’s Basketball Championship and to NYU, Wesleyan and WashU for a great Final Four weekend. This past weekend saw three great games played between four tremendous teams. Join us for this last show of the season for some final words on what took pl...

The second weekend of the 2025 NCAA Division III men’s basketball tournament saw favorites bounce-back after underdogs out-performed the D3 Datacast computer expectation in rounds one and two. The second weekend of the tournament saw a lot of chalk but that doesn’t mean we didn’t still get a bunch of great games. That’s two weekends down with just one weekend to go. The focus of the Division III m...

The first weekend of the 2025 NCAA Division III men’s basketball tournament is in the books and what a weekend it was! The first and second rounds saw a little bit of everything - favorites cruising, upsets, overtime, great plays and great games. We can expect more of that in the tournament’s second weekend and we’re back to break it all down. As we did going into the first round, we have another...

Our last show took a look at the first round favorites in the 2025 Division III men’s basketball tournament but what about beyond the first round? We’re back with another tournament preview show zooming out to look at the odds for each team to advance through the bracket. Who are the favorites to move on to the tournament’s second weekend? Who are the favorites to make a run to the Final Four and...

The 2025 Division III men’s basketball tournament bracket has been released so it’s time to break it down like only the D3 Datacast can! As we’ve done in past years we go game-by-game taking a look at how the D3 Datacast computer sees each game, talk about how the teams match up and use the computer ratings to compute win probabilities and computer lines for each matchup. Upsets are what make tour...

We had a blast tracking the 2025 NCAA Division III basketball tournament picture as the final games of the regular season played out on Sunday afternoon. All the games are now in the books so we take one more look at the final NPI rankings and talk about who is in, who is out and where everyone might be headed with a mock bracket. The official bracket will be released on Monday, March 3 at noon. S...

Conference tournament week is here for the 2024-2025 Division III basketball season and what happens this week will shape the landscape heading into the 2025 NCAA Tournament. Join us this week as we talk through all the conference tournament outlooks that have implications for the tournament bubble. Who is in good shape should they fail to win their conference tournament and who has at-large chanc...

The stretch run of this Division III basketball season is playing out a little differently with the change from the old regional ranking system to the new NPI. As this would have been the week we got the first set of fully ranked regional rankings, we take a look at how those regional rankings might have looked this week under the old criteria. How would those regional rankings have slotted teams...

After another terrific week of the 2024-2025 Division III men’s basketball season it’s time to check in on the developing picture as the NCAA Tournament draws nearer. It’s hard to believe just three weeks remain until the national tournament and there is a lot of important jockeying for position yet to play out. With the help of the D3 Datacast computer running simulations to play out the final we...

The calendar turning to February marks the start of the Division III basketball season stretch run. Teams are locked in to the conference races and doing all they can to secure an automatic qualifying bid to the 2025 NCAA Division III men’s basketball tournament but all but one team per conference will fall short of that goal. That leaves just 21 at-large bids up for grabs. Which teams are real co...

We are deep into the Division III men’s basketball season but if you think that means we’re gaining any clarity into the Top 25 picture, think again! This week we go deep into Matt’s Top 25 ballot then go a step further by taking a look at his next 25. Which teams are just off the ballot and do these next 25 teams have anything in common? We break it down and talk through it all. Top 25 considerat...

There is a lot of basketball to be played between now and when at-large selections to the 2025 NCAA Division III men’s basketball tournament are made but we can still get a picture of where those bids are likely to come from. With the help of the D3 Datacast computer we simulated the rest of the season 1,000 times and applied NPI to the results. That produced results ranging from a group of confer...

The Division III basketball landscape has changed in terms of how teams are selected and seeded for the national tournament. The regional ranking system is a thing of the past, replaced by a single national ranking system called the NCAA Power Index, or NPI. The old system, for better and worse, was familiar so moving to a new system can lead to questions and confusion. That’s where we can help. W...

The start of January marks the traditional start to conference play so we fire up the D3 Datacast computer to run 1,000 season simulations to see which conferences are shaping up to have the tightest races. Some conferences have already started conference play, giving some teams conference wins in the bank. How remaining games yet to be played end up turning projected odds into hard wins and losse...

The break in the Division III basketball schedule has given us the opportunity to pause and reflect on what we’ve seen so far and how it may have differed from our expectations heading into the season. With a fresh set of eyes we take a look back at some things we thought in the preseason that haven’t, at least not yet, turned out the way we thought they would. Yes, we were wrong about some things...

Now that most teams have played at least eight games the D3 Datacast computer is relying solely on in-season results for calculating efficiency ratings. That makes this week the perfect time to check in to see how the computer views the developing national picture - both in terms of teams that stand out as the Top 20 overall but also dive in a little deeper to see which teams are performing as the...