Does anyone know why Paris Madison is not in the rotation this evening?  She has played well recently and based on the box score was a strong contributor against Bethel.

Realist .....I was joking.  It was a good question and like you I did not have the info to make an informed judgement.  Just wanted to point out that in some circles lack of information would not stiffle a discussion - I am sure there are those that think it has not stopped me on occasion  .

Your height comment brought back a conversation I had in Kentucky a couple of years ago at sectionals.  On Saturday morning an Oglethorp parent approached us (it must have been the fashionable orange designer garments) and asked how Hope ended up with so many + 6 footers and where did a D3 school come up with a 6-3 (Snikkers) and 6-2 (Knox) starting post tandem.   I explained that many of the taller players were at least half Dutch ancestory.  He seemed incredulous that could possibly be a contributing factor.

Calvin and Hope's programs have been strengthened over the years by players that could very well have played at a "higher" level but chose those schools for reasons that go beyond basketball.

Realist I agree with you.....but if sports fans only participated in informed, well reasoned discussions what would happen to sports talk radio or most D1 boards.

Perhaps that is the primary redeeming feature of D3 sports.

I will say that although there is a very high concentration of D3 schools on the east coast, it looks like the talent is currently concentrated in the center of the country.

This statement will seem a little extreme to some, but the only stats that matter in the MIAA are those achieved in the Hope Calvin games.  The gaps between these two teams and the rest of the conference is so wide stats in other games should be given about the same weight as those achieved in scrimmages against community college teams.

The MVP will be determined in the conference championship game and it will be awarded to the team leader of the victor even if her counterpart has better stats.

Carrie has a huge impact on the game even when she is not racking up big point totals because she demands so much attention from the opponents defence.  The fact that she doesn't particulary care about her personal totals makes it even harder to defend her because she does not force bad shots.

However, I do recognize that she has the luxury of not forcing shots or creating plays because her supporting cast is almost always better than the opponents other starters. 

The all conference team will not really be representative of the ten best players.  Each team is limited to two players on the first team and two on the second team meaning one of Hope's starters will not make all conference.

If  this post does not bring out the fans of some of the other schools nothing will  and we will be back to discussing fashion trends.

It is now official.   The fashion community has discovered what Hope College fans have long known.  Orange is the color of choice for the sartorialist in the know.

Saturday's weekend Wall Street Journal reports, "In the Netherlands, orange is the official color of royalty.....Orange is also having a moment in the fashion zeitgeist....designers this spring have a particularyl high tolerance for orange's sweet-and-sour charms."

This may be the first time in my life that I have been cool enough to be ahead of a trend.

Hope's regional ranking is an issue every year and it has nothing to do with the quality of the program or the team's actual relative strength vs. other teams in the region.

It is primarily a strength of schedule issue based on the their opponents' winning percentage and, to some extent their opponents opponents winning percentage.  They play 19 games against conference opponents and most of the conference is consistently weak.  Excluding Hope and Calvin the combined conference record is 50  - 95 and against only non-conference teams it is 17 -41.  This year, St. Mary's is the only conference team (other than the Knights and Dutch) to have a winning record against non-conference opponents.  I am sure that it is hard for many of the players to get very excited about a mid-week road trip to Alma or Trine.

The D3 Hoops poll has consistently been more accurate than the regional rankings as a predictor of the Dutch post season performance but that is not going to change the reliance on a quantitative system that provides a consistently reasonalbe framework for evaluating teams that have few common opponents.

The Dutch and Knights are destined to play most first round tournament games on the road until the bottom five conference teams (and they are the same ones every year) become competitive outside the confernce.  And that is not going to happen anytime soon.

After the loss in Grand Rapids I was worried that this year's edition of the Dutch were not equal to those of the last three years.  I was worried that perhaps they were not physical enough, were perhaps not as quick or maybe too dependent on one player when things got tough.

It looks like the loss was a wake up call and Saturday's game helped answer most of my questions. 

On offense the Dutch were not bothered by the Knights aggressive perimeter ball defense because they dribbled less, passed more crisply and moved much better away from the ball.  This opened up both driving and inside passing lanes.  The good ball movement also created just a little bit more time to look at the basket before taking the outside shot.

I thought it was the best defensive effort I have seen in any type of BB game in a long time.  Someone sitting near me wondered if Hope has implemented a new scheme or were playing a match up zone.  It appeared to me they were playing their traditional agressive man to man, but that the help rotation was almost perfect..

After Saturday's victory I am looking forward to the post-season and may break my personal policy of looking to far ahead and book my room in Bloomington soon.

We seriously considered making the road trip to Ohio for last nights game, but in the end work obligations got in the way.  However, we were able to watch the live computer feed of the game.  Those that were there may be able to provide better insight, but I will start the conversation with a few observations.

It was a see-saw game and more of a defensive battle with both teams shooting percentages well below expectations.  The Dutch were painfully bad from three point range and Snikkkers had a difficult time getting even inside shots to fall.  I attribute the low scoring to tough defense on the part of both teams and the long layoff since the last game.  Hope has seemed to struggle in the first game after break so it was a break through to perform well against another tough team.

This was an important match against a tough opponent that will help prepare the Dutch both physically and psychologically for the post-season. 

It also appeared that the standard rotation was abandoned late in the game in favor or a strong defensive  / rebounding lineup.  Snikkers and Geers played big minutes (30 /28) and Kussmal  was in the lineup with Snikkers in the closing minutes.  So it looked like Morehouse managed this game more like a national tournament game and went with those players that provided the skill set needed to win this particular game.

I don't disagree.  Hope is usually able to field a second team at least as strong as most starting lineups they come up against.  However, teams with exceptional talent that are used to being on the floor for long stretches can disrupt the rotation.  I think there have been times Hope's outside shooters have had trouble getting into rythum against strong defenders.

Although it is hard to argue with consistent runs deep into the playoffs, it would seem that using some competitive games to stretch the top 7 or 8 players minutes out would be a good idea.

In recent years Hope has had several players that could have posted some gaudy stats if they had played for different teams / systems.  It is common for Hope starters to average 21 or 22 mins per game vs. 30 -35 mins or more for starters in weaker programs.  Some very good players have had to wait a couple of years before breaking into the rotation. and scoring also is more evenly distributed than most teams.

Morehouse has somehow managed to get very good players to join the program and buy into the team first concept.  I am sure it has not been an easy transition for all of the players, but the system is responsible for the programs sustained success.

Hoopdreams:  Was it the parent of women's player or men's player?

Flying Dutch Fan.....your stats don't lie and as you mention there is even more to the story.

Jenny and Philly are great examples of true student athletes.  Both are excellant sudents while at the same time putting in many long hours training, practicing and competing at a high level.  Only positive things can be said about the manner in which they have represented the school, their team and families.

Philly has had the confidence and respect of her team mates every since her freshman year.  Her gutsy performance on Saturday demonstrates that confidence was not misplaced.

Jenny has spent most of the basketball season student teaching all day, heading immediately to practice, then putting in extra time on her own to compensate for lost practice time and then preparing lesson plans.  Unless you are close to the situation, very few fans can fully appreciate that several recent Dutch players have graduated in four years, with their student teaching completed in multiple teaching certifications.  It is not uncommon for non-atheletes to now spend a full five years to complete a single teaching certification.

D3 players do not get any special financial aid or assistance with classwork.  In spite of this, the Dutch team maintains a very high grade point average even though many of the players have extremely challenging majors.

Perhaps many of us are spoiled by their success and lose site of the hard work and stress these young women experience to provide us with some great entertainment.   The negative comments made about specific players over the past couple of days are way out of bounds given the context of D3 sports and the character of the individuals.

A lot has been noted about Coach Morehouse's W-L record.  What may be a harder achievement is the cohesion he has been able to maintain within a group of hightly competitive athelets that compete intensely for playing time.  It is surprising, at least to me, how close the girls competing for the same role often become.

I had a conversation with a former player of recent vintage after the game on Saturday and her first concern was the disappointment that the seniors were going through.  She wanted nothing more than to see her friends experience the joy of victory that she had felt four years ago. 

I am disappointed about the outcome of Saturday's game.  It was exciting but, for a short time, heart breaking.  But I am proud of the team on and off the court

md241....to follow up on a previous comment you obviously were not at the same game as the rest of us last night.

I will go further and say you do not know much about basketball and your observation skills are poor.  Philly is not on the floor primarily for offense.  She usually draws the toughest defensive assignment, brings energy to the game and often is the one that comes up with the key rebound or steal.

She is the team's leader and a big part of its heart and soul of the team would be ripped out to make such a change.  I can state for a fact that she charges up the rest of the team and gives them confidence that a true defensive stopper has their back in close games.

She and Allie do not play the same position or fill the same role.  

What's more if you are really a Hope fan it is pretty stupid to make such a comment today.  

Since it was my understanding that Hope had sold out of tickets, I called IWU directly and they were able to set aside tickets at the will call window.

However, if you go this route be sure to take cash or checks with you to IWU as they are not able to accept credit or debit card payment either by phone or on site.

While I think last year's game at the Van Nord was a better played game and more exciting down the stretch, I was not disappointed that I made the trip to GR for this match up.

I thought that Ross did a great job of putting his team in position to win the game.  It seemed to me that he mixed his rotation up a little; often matching Verkaik and another starter against Hope's second rotation.  Usually there is not much difference in the productivity of Hope's bench and the starters.  But last night was the roughest overall performance I have ever seen from the bench.  A lot of this may have been the result of the matchups that the Knights were able to engineer.

Morehouse basically prefers to rotate his "lines" about every five minutes, with the starters perhaps getting a couple of extra minutes per game.  Hopefully last night was just an off night for some of the players, otherwise I believe Morehouse will have to think hard about the post-season rotation.

On the other hand, I don't know if I have seen the starters play as well as a unit since the 2006 championship run.

Last night proved the Dutch cannot take the Knights for granted when they meet for the MIAA tournament championship.

Regarding the traveling calls:  I agree with KnightSlappy that traveling rules are often mis understood.  A lot of refs watch the upper body rather than the feet and make ay too many calls.  VerKaik's step through move is maybe the best I've seen.  It is so effective because she pushes the rule to the limits and that makes it difficult to execute as well as defend.  I did think the ref called traveling improperly once, but I also think she got away with a couple.  But the groans from my fellow fans were usually misplaced.

On the other hand, I thought one of the foul calls against Carrie was pretty weak and the final one was bogus, but perhaps I also have orange colored galsses.