The seeds hold true in the 2010 men's basketball MCC tournament as second-seeded Bethel will travel to top-seeded Indiana Wesleyan for the championship on Tuesday.

Bethel advanced by way of a 32-point win in the first round over Marian and an eight point win over Spring Arbor in the semifinals. Indiana Wesleyan went through Huntington, 83-65, and Saint Francis, 87-76.

The matchup between the Pilots and the Wildcats will be the seventh postseason meeting between the two schools. Bethel has come out on top in each of the previous six meetings ('94, '97, '98, '99, '00, '09). Only twice have the two teams met in the championship game - 1994 and 2009.

Bethel is going for its third consecutive tournament championship, seventh overall, while Indiana Wesleyan is looking for its first postseason crown.

 

 

   

 

With just one game remaining in the regular season conference schedule, here's a look at the tournament scenarios based on possible outcomes of Saturday's games.

Per the MCC Procedures Manual the following tiebreaker procedure will be used to seed teams in the tournament: (1) Head-to-head record between schools involved in the tie. (2) Start at the top of the conference standings and compare their records with the teams in order of final conference standings. (3) Coin toss between teams to be administered by the men's basketball sport chair.

In the event of a three-way tie, the above steps will be followed in order until one team is broken from the tie. At that point, the process will repeat beginning at step 1 (head-to-head record between schools involved in the tie) with the remaining two teams engaged in the deadlock and will proceed through each step until the tie is broken.

The coin toss will only be used if the other alternatives are completely exhausted.

The scenarios for each team are:

Indiana Wesleyan...

... with a win over Taylor or a loss to Taylor and a Bethel loss to Saint Francis will clinch the regular season conference championship outright and the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament.

... with a loss to Taylor and a Bethel win over Saint Francis will share the conference crown with the Pilots but lose the tiebreaker based on its record against Goshen and will be seeded second in the tournament.

Bethel...

... with a win over USF and an IWU win over Taylor will finish second in the conference.

... with a win over USF and an IWU loss at Taylor will share the conference title with IWU and win the tiebreaker via its 2-0 record vs. Goshen.

... with a loss to Saint Francis will lose the second place tiebreaker via the Cougars' season sweep of the Pilots. (Should Spring Arbor defeat Goshen as well, see below for the three-way tiebreaker.)

Saint Francis...

... with a win over Bethel will win the second place tiebreaker via their 2-0 season sweep of the Pilots. (Should Spring Arbor defeat Goshen as well, see below for the three-way tiebreaker.)

... with a loss to Bethel will take the fourth seed in the tournament regardless of Spring Arbor's outcome vs. Goshen because SAU holds the head-to-head tiebreaker against USF.

Spring Arbor...

... with a win over Goshen will take the third seed if Bethel defeats Saint Francis.

... with a win over Goshen and a Bethel loss to USF will take the fourth seed based on the three-way tiebreaker (see next paragraph).

... with a loss to Goshen will need USF to lose to Bethel to finish third in the league, otherwise they will take the fourth spot.

In the event that Spring Arbor defeates Goshen and Saint Francis defeats Bethel...

... SAU, USF and BC will be in a three-way tie for second with an 11-5 record and the tiebreaker will move as follows:

- SAU will be 2-0 vs. USF, USF will be 2-0 vs. BC and BC will be 2-0 vs. SAU so the tiebreaker will move to record against the top of the conference in order of conference finish. - So, SAU will finish fourth because of its 0-2 record vs. Indiana Wesleyan, leaving USF and BC in a tie for second. At this point the tiebreaker procedure returns to head-to-head records between USF and Bethel in which USF will hold the advantage.

In summary, in the event of a three-way tie for second, USF will take the No. 2 seed, Bethel will take the No. 3 seed, and SAU will take the No. 4 seed.

Goshen will finish fifth regardless of Saturday's outcomes.

Grace will finish sixth regardless of Saturday's outcomes.

Huntington...

.... can finish seventh at best with a win over Marian because Grace holds the head-to-head tiebreaker against the Foresters.

... with a loss at Marian will finish tied for seventh with the Knights and will need Saint Francis to finish ahead of Bethel and Spring Arbor to win the tiebreaker.

Marian...

... with a win over Huntington will finish tied for seventh with the Foresters and will need Bethel to finish ahead of Saint Francis and Spring Arbor to win the tiebreaker.

... will finish eighth with a loss to Huntington.

Taylor was eliminated from possible playoff qualification with its loss at Bethel on Tuesday.