Hardest Regionals?

[Jeff Waegelin]

Originally Posted by nobrakes8

The midwest also used to have some loaded regionals but just reading this post and some other posts, it seems like their top 2-3 regionals are loseing teams to newer places as well.

That is very true. 4 or 5 years ago, I would have said the 2 hardest regionals were Great Lakes and Midwest, bar none. They were the only two regionals in the area, so all the powerhouse teams of the Midwest were there. I'd have also probably given the nod to GLR, because at that time, there were nearly 70 teams competing. 70 teams + all the midwest "elites" = the hardest regional in the country.

Now, with a new regional being added every year since 2001 (West Michigan, Buckeye, Pittsburgh, Detroit, and Boilermaker, in that order), the field has been diluted a bit. Not that it's a terrible thing, because more teams get to play, and more teams get to win, but it does lower the level of competition slightly. For this year, I would say the Boilermaker Regional had the toughest field of teams, which is fairly typical of the trend I've seen since 2001. The new regional always attracts a lot of big teams in its first year, because people want to go to the new event. Then, after a year, it generally tends to even out with the others.

So, which one will be the hardest next year? Wherever they add an 8th (!) regional in the Midwest Barring that, I'd have to go with my perennial favorite, Great Lakes.

[Conor Ryan]

From experince, I can say that New Jersey was a tougher competition than Buckeye. But from what I've heard and the teams that i've seen that went there, GLR is where the competition is. I also have a feeling the the Boilermaker will eventually be a tough regional. But who cares whats the hardest? Atlanta is where you prove it.

[Justin]

I think that UTC and BAE are still the regionals to beat. UTC was rougher than anything else I have seen this season. That includes the Boilermaker and Mid-west regionals. Add to this the fact that the NE is FIRST and we remember what it was like to play games that involved this little concept called DEFENSE!

I'll just say that it has been at least a good 4 years since any of the mid-west stalwarts 111, 71, 16, 47, 45 (and others I'm forgetting)...have ventured east.



Justin

[nobrakes8]

Originally Posted by Justin

I think that UTC and BAE are still the regionals to beat. UTC was rougher than anything else I have seen this season. That includes the Boilermaker and Mid-west regionals. Add to this the fact that the NE is FIRST and we remember what it was like to play games that involved this little concept called DEFENSE!

AMEN to that.. I'm surprised this post hasn't gotten out of hand, this is like compareing the weak ACC to the powerful Big East conference in college basketball

[Will Hanashiro]

Here's my OPINION:

GLR... "grand-daddy of all the regionals" is the hardest one there is. just look at the regional winners and finalists from the past five years at this regional, and see how they did at the nats... lets see we've got several national champs in that group, several more national finalists, and you cant even count the divisional finalists that we have in this group on one hand.

ya know what, i'm not even going to list the team numbers, we all know who they are!