Despite loss, Detroit clinches MAAC two-seed

Detroit’s favorite Beatles song today? “A Little Help from my Friends.” Despite a loss to VMI (full breakdown coming Monday), they’ll be the No. 2 seed in the MAAC Tournament.

Thanks to Canisius’ upset over Marist – pay no mind to when I called that unlikely – the Titans are in a four-way tie for second place in the conference. Thanks to holding tiebreakers over all three of the other teams (17-12 over Canisius, 8-7 in OT over Marist, and 8-7 over Jacksonville), the Titans will be the No. 2 seed in the MAAC Tournament.

Thanks to the MAAC procedures, the remaining three teams have to go to the third tiebreaker to find separation. All had 1-1 records against the other two teams, and identical 0-2 records against the Siena/Detroit grouping, and 2-0 records against VMI/Manhattan.

That means they form a “mini-conference” and the team with the fewest goals allowed will earn the No. 3 seed, and the next best earns the No. 4. To the chart:

Jacksonville is eliminated by virtue of allowing the most goals. With the Dolphins out of the way, Canisius’s head-to-head win today gives them the nod at No. 3, while Marist drops to No. 4.

Ultimately, Detroit’s embarrassing loss to VMI doesn’t hurt them. In fact, by Canisius earning the No. 3 seed, the MAAC Tournament is made a little easier for the Titans. Despite today’s result, Marist is a better team than Canisius on the basis of the full-season résumé – and they have homfield advantage in the tournament. UDM takes on the easier opponent in round one, while Marist stands to better weaken Siena in the 1/4 game.

Assuming Detroit can get their act together (far from a guarantee, based on what we’ve seen in the second half of the year), their path to a potential MAAC Tournament championship got just a bit easier. If the Titans can be fully healthy – and with the services of their best players – next weekend, they stand the best chance in their four-year history as a program of making the Big Dance.