Does any one else think that Calvin got a little screwed having to travel instead of host?  They are the highest ranked team of the four, but instead the lowest ranked team of the four is hosting.  OUt of the four the only places that I thought it could have been was Calvin and DePauw, with Calvin getting the edge because of regional ranking and because they have an airport.  From where I am sitting, there isn't much justification for having Emmanuel host because two teams have to fly either way.  I just think that it is a little odd that they aren't hosting, and if you think about last year, Hope didn't host either on their tournament run, given the guys hosted the first couple rounds, but that shouldn't have mattered after the first rounds.  They were the higher seed and were given a harder road.  They shouldn't have had to go to Capital and then DePauw last year and Calvin shouldn't be going to Emmanuel this year.  Just my thoughts, what do the rest think?

Looking at the calvin hope game from yesterday, I think my pregame assessment wasn't too far off.  Calvin tried to stop Hope in the post but still gave up 31 of hope's 58 points by wood, lange, and warsen.  These three combined to shoot 10 of 20 from the field and 11 of 15 from the free throw line.  The rest of the hope team shot 10 of 36 from the floor and 4 of 6 from the free throw line.  The other main post player, emily ohare, was 0-8 from the floor.  I think this shows calvin's defensive focus in the game, and what made a difference in the game.  Focusing on the posts and gambling a bit on the guards paid off and Calvin won the game. 

Looking at what Calvin attacked on the offensive end, I would say that Kristi Brummel was the game breaker.  Her outside shooting early in the game was what kept calvin in the game.  Then the rest of the calvin guards stepping up and hitting big outside shots, helped open up the inside a bit for Harris and Winkle.

One thing I would like to see Calvin do more against Hope the next time is go with the three post lineup of winkle, harris and willett.  The nice thing about this lineup is that harris is fast enough to guard on the perimeter, plus it forces one of hopes guards to guard a post player, usually harris.  This mismatch would be in Calvin's favor.  Calvin used this a couple of times yesterday, but only took full advantage once where Harris posted Boles up and scored. 

Overall it was a great, exciting game, and hopefully we will get at least one more match up between these two before the season is over.

to settle this attendance issue, yesterdays game attendance between calvin and hope was listed at 2234, much less than the 2900 for the first meeting this year.  From being at the game, this was definitely because of a count at half time and not from the end of the game.  By the end of the game there was probably more than 3000. 

A more interesting observation was that the guys game was credited with an attendance of 3300, but that had to have counted some of those in attendance at the women's game because the fieldhouse cleared out quite a bit after the women's game.  I bet the guys game had 2000, but not 3000 in attendance. 

Overall I think the way the NCAA counts attendance is flawed and the only way to have gotten an accurate count would have been to empty out the fieldhouse after the women's game and have different tickets for the mens game.  Time to put an end to this discussion.

I think saturday's game comes down to if calvin can take hope out of their rhythm like they did a couple weeks ago.  The biggest factor a couple of weeks ago is that hope had zero penitration by the guards and Calvin was able to hold hopes posts from creating too much damage.  If Calvin is able to do the same thing, (i.e. shut down Wood, Lange, Warsen) I think they win the game.  Hope I don't think has replaced Bria Ebels yet and that is the big difference between last year and this year.  Hope had a slashing guard that made teams work against the perimeter, which opened up the inside more.  This year, teams can gamble a little bit more with the perimeter players and concentrate more on the inside, and thus compete with Hope.  Both Hope losses attest to guard play as being the difference, just look at Boles shooting percentage against Albion. 
Any way you look at it, I think it is going to be a great game, in front of a great crowd (that could set the regular season women's D3 attendance record again).  It will be fun.  See you all there.

According to those that I have talked to at Calvin, they want to wait a while to cancel the game because it is a 730 start and a lot of the snow grand rapids is getting right now could be cleared up by mid afternoon.  There is still the possibility though if the snow doesn't let up at all that the game will still be cancelled.  I think this has to be tough on Adrian because they would have to be getting ready to leave in the next hour or two and then get half way to calvin and might have to turn around and drive back.  But lets just hope that doesn't happen and we can still see a good game tonight.

The Calvin St Mary's game has been cancelled do to the snow, just for everyones information.

Yes a John Ross coached team has beaten Hope.  It happened in the MIAA tournament in 2005.  Kristen McDonald scored 40 and the knights won by 6.  That was the most recent.  They also beat hope in his first year as coach by 12 in their second meeting during the regular season.  Overall though, Ross coached Calvin teams are 2-6 verse hope.
One thing to remember though is that in all of those meetings you have had Bria Ebels playing for hope, along with Linda Ebels and a lot of the other nucleas of last years championship team.  So going 2-6 against them in that time is actually not that bad.  It will be interesting to see what happens this year seeing that Hope's core of the past couple years has now graduated.  Sac's two differences that he sees in the hope team this year already is what I kind of thought might happen this year.  So I'm excited to see what happens.  Maybe by the end of this year Ross's record vs hope will be 5-6, but here is hoping (no pun intended).
Anyone else have any thoughts about the season at hand? Any predictions?

I'm surprised with the rankings also, but I thought that people would look at the Calvin/ Hope matchup to be closer than what they have ranked it if not give Calvin the advantage.  Here is why.  Hope lost a lot of talent and leadership when the lost both Ebels at last years end.  Bria is the biggest loss seeing that Hope has a lot of talent at the post position, but I don't think Hope has a fill in for Bria, just like Calvin didn't have a fill in for Kristen McDonald after she left.  Calvin though is returning three starters- one being the all-american Lisa Winkle.  Combine her with a much improved Marcia Harris and a more experienced back court, the knights are quite threatening.  Plus with the GVSU transfers, one who will up the experience and bring a much needed quality sub in the post, and a guard who brings the shooting ability that haunted the knights last year.  I think this is the biggest key to the new Knights.  Last year teams could sit back and play a zone, which shuts down the paint and forces the outside shot, because the knights didn't have the shooters to shoot them out of the zone.  This year though, with the transfer and more experience in those freshmen from last year, it won't be as easy to just play zone against the knights.  I think that if the knights can gel as a team, you could see them filling hopes national champions shoes this year.  At least this is my take on the situation. 

In regards to Charis Larson, from what I have heard she just didn't work hard enough in the off season to keep her spot.  She has plenty of competition this year for that spot, and with her lack of effort to improve, got past over for someone who is working to improve and is showing that they want to play.  I heard it was a tough situation, but Coach Ross knew that he had to cut some people from last years team to improve the teams talent and how well they play as a team.  Charis was just one of the players that didn't pan out as planned.  And if you look back to last season and how much she produced, it wasn't very much.  And if you compare her sophemore season to her freshmen season, with the obvious understanding that with experience comes improvement, she actually declined in production.  Also, her defense, which was something that gained her time in her freshmen year, declined last year, which doesn't help matters.  So that is why from what I've heard Charis is no longer on the team.

But heres to another fun season, and I look forward to seeing how it pans out.  GO KNIGHTS!

I'm a little upset with you FDF and Hopefan.  Now I am a Calvin Knight fan so I might be a little biased, but I know that no matter what the situation, when it comes to the NCAA tournament, the only time I will cheer against an MIAA team is if they are playing Calvin.  No matter if it is hope, albion, or any of the rest.  The MIAA has enough problems earning the respect of all division 3 schools and the NCAA tournament committee every year, when it is one of the toughest conferences in D3 hoops.  So if I had my choice sitting in a city and my only option was to go and watch an MIAA team play in the NCAA tourney, I'm sure I would end up going to that game and cheering the MIAA on.
That said... I think Calvin has a good chance to come out of St. Louis still in the tourney.  Hope has a tough road in their regional, but I hope they make it through.  Here's to all the MIAA teams, both men and women, lets hope someone from our league makes it to the final four, and continues to earn our league some much due respect.

found out sventicas just decided not to play this year.  She is still at albion, just not playing.  In my evaluation of their team, they don't have  much other than guard jaime fornetti, and she isn't a huge threat.  I think Alma will be tougher than Albion this year, but I think it is going to come down to Hope v Calvin once again.  Maybe its too early for that prediction, but I just think thats how its going to be.

FDF- do you know where she went, or what happened to her?  I was told that if anyone would know other than the albion faithful that it would be the hope faithful, because everyone I talk to over here doesn't have a clue.

I am just courious if anyone can tell me what happened to Ruth Sventickas from albion.  i've been looking at their roster online and she isn't there.  It's kind of interesting if they loss one of their first team miaa players after her sophemore year. 
Calvin is looking good.  I'm excited for another year.  Should be close at the top.  Here's to a good season.

WOW!!! what a game on Saturday.  I made it down for the calvin womens game in Greencastle IN v DePauw.  The knights started the game with a 13-0 run and we up that amount at half.  To no ones surprise im sure though depauw made a great come back but seemed to run out of gas with about 3 minutes to go.  Calvin went on a 12-0 run to end the game.  And now the lady knights get to host the sectionals.  An amazing season continues, but can the knights beat albion four times in one season??  We'll find out. GO KNIGHTS

wiz- I think it would be better to say 2 good teams and two lousy officials with one good one.  The female official at least called a consistant, following the rules game.  She had only one questionable call on mcdonald, the guys though were terrible.  The white haired guy was all over the place.  but oh well, a W is a W.

An interesting game at the fieldhouse tonight.  I thought the knights could have played better than they did and it hurt to have lisa winkle out for a majority of the first half with foul trouble.  But calvin was able to pull away in the end.  Kudos to Lisa winkle on a strong game.  Kristen mcdonald played well again.  But I thought the game ball should go to Lisa Nanninga.  She played great all game on some tough posts inside and then added 10 points and had 10 rebounds to go with it.  Also props have to go out to Rita Owinga for her great defense on Lindsey Roberson.  Roberson has to be one of the best pure shooters in D3 women's basketball.  I'll compare her to Andy Draayer from the calvin guys team.  She still scored 20 points but I think we played good defense on her.

Bring on Depauw!!!  Go Knights!!