This will be the 6th time in the last 7 years that Hope will have finished 3rd or worse in the conference.  A lot has to do with Trine's emergence, but it's still been a disappointing run in Hope's history.  Timely wins in conference tournaments and wins against Calvin over the years have lessened the blow. 

It was pretty surprising and discouraging to see the lack of Hope support at the game tonight, even with the current disappointing season.  The least amount of Hope fans in Van Noord that I can ever remember. 

Quote from: Dutchman17 on February 01, 2025, 06:51:29 PMThis will be the 6th time in the last 7 years that Hope will have finished 3rd or worse in the conference.  A lot has to do with Trine's emergence, but it's still been a disappointing run in Hope's history.  Timely wins in conference tournaments and wins against Calvin over the years have lessened the blow. 

It was pretty surprising and discouraging to see the lack of Hope support at the game tonight, even with the current disappointing season.  The least amount of Hope fans in Van Noord that I can ever remember.

Maybe it was like this last year too and I just didn't notice, but where was the Dew Crew today?

Quote from: Dutchman17 on February 01, 2025, 06:51:29 PMIt was pretty surprising and discouraging to see the lack of Hope support at the game tonight, even with the current disappointing season.  The least amount of Hope fans in Van Noord that I can ever remember. 

My wife noticed too and made the same remark about the absence of the usual Hope faithful. I know its been a tough few-game stretch for the Flying Dutchmen, but it was still surprising to see.

As for the game, it seemed from the play on that floor that this was one the Knights could have won more convincingly. But the Rivalry has a way of forcing things closer than sometimes it seems it should, doesn't it? At least a part of the reason for that is the fact that Hope is an excellent offensive rebounding team, grabbing 14 second chances for themselves, which helped keep the game closer than the home crowd would have wished. Forcing 16 Knight turnovers didn't hurt the Flying Dutchmen either, as did Owen Varnado's poor play the entirety of the game, something not often seen. Quillen injured his lower leg in the first half and was clearly less than 100% the rest of the way. Credit to the GRCC product for gutting his way through the balance of the game. Trevin Winkle landed on a Hope player's ankle, and though he came back in, he was ineffective and Coach Sall was forced to take the McBain Christian HS hoopster out the final minutes of the contest. I'm guessing Trevin is likely to miss the Alma game Wednesday. We knew these two weeks could be decisive in conference play, and it's clearly now a two team race for the regular season championship. If Egekeze's play the last two critical games doesn't garner him another Player of the Week honor, there's something wrong in Mudville.

Quote from: wiz on January 29, 2025, 10:03:32 PM

Quote from: pointlem on January 29, 2025, 09:55:02 PMAlbion 76, Hope 74, with the win on a last second basket. Can't fault Hope's effort, with only 10 turnovers and outrebounding Albion by 13. But once again dismal 3 point shooting (22% on 6 of 27, to Albion's 64%) was the difference. To upset Calvin on Saturday, Hope will need to combine its hard play with better shooting...which is possible.

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Alas, Hope's hard play and rebounding advantage was offset by yet another poor shooting (33%) game. So Wiz's skepticism about my optimism for Hope proved prescient.

Quote from: GoKnights68 on February 01, 2025, 07:50:47 PM

Quote from: Dutchman17 on February 01, 2025, 06:51:29 PMThis will be the 6th time in the last 7 years that Hope will have finished 3rd or worse in the conference.  A lot has to do with Trine's emergence, but it's still been a disappointing run in Hope's history.  Timely wins in conference tournaments and wins against Calvin over the years have lessened the blow. 

It was pretty surprising and discouraging to see the lack of Hope support at the game tonight, even with the current disappointing season.  The least amount of Hope fans in Van Noord that I can ever remember.

Maybe it was like this last year too and I just didn't notice, but where was the Dew Crew today?

I'm not sure.  A Saturday game at Calvin used to mean hundreds of Hope students would pack their section of the bleachers, but the enthusiasm isn't there.  The program needs to figure out a way to turn things around quickly.

Hope's league play 3-point shooting is 29.2% it ranks 5th because the league overall is pretty far under the bar for good 3-point shooting in D3.  Median D3 is like 32%

----Hope gets a lot of wide open 3's, but I'd love to see a breakdown on how many of their 3 pt attempts come very late in the shot clock, or just shot attempts overall.  I'd bet a good chunk of attempts and misses are coming there.   Sidenote on tempo, yes Hope games have the fewest possession in the league according the d3datacast dudes, but only just slightly under Trine and Calvin.

Their league play FT shooting is an atrocious 59.8%, it would be even worse if they counted missing the front end of 1 for 1's as 2 misses like they should.  I've always asserted FT's is a concentration issue.



One positive this last week or so has been the play of  Fr. Charles Howell, he's stepped in admirably in the absence of Eli Schoonveld and Josh Decker.
 

Sometimes it looks/feels like Hope is simply uncomfortable on offense - much like you see in early season games.  I attribute that to a real lack of continuity in who is available to play on a given day.  As an example, Calvin has 9 guys who have played in all 19 games this season.  Hope has 2 and 2 who have played in 18 games.  Even looking at MIAA games, Hope has 6 who have played in all 8 games thus far while both Calvin and Trine have 9.  I get the next man up philosophy, but this non-stop injury bug has simply made that really difficult for Hope.   

Quote from: Flying Dutch Fan on February 03, 2025, 10:09:39 AMI attribute that to a real lack of continuity in who is available to play on a given day.  As an example, Calvin has 9 guys who have played in all 19 games this season.  Hope has 2 and 2 who have played in 18 games.  Even looking at MIAA games, Hope has 6 who have played in all 8 games thus far while both Calvin and Trine have 9.

I agree to a very limited extent but there is a lot of nuance.  Every player is of such different value, especially with team chemistry and dynamics on and off the court (e.g. more of a focal point on offense or a role player, defensive specialist, etc.) and substitutes can tend to streaky-ness or are more liable to consistency issues,  even though they have certain strengths.  Also, practice time and various scrimmage teams incorporate different rotations and give experience playing together.  Finally, there are consistent aspects of play (e.g. rebounding) that do not seem to be impacted by the varied rotations.

There are systemic issues with persistent poor shooting percentage (missing many decent, open shots), principles of offense in the half-court set (regardless of who is on the court) and working together as five players to get to the spots/opportunities that maximize the strengths of the five people on the court.

I am not willing to give up on this team because they have good players and potential.  We just need shots to fall at a higher percentage, regardless of who is in or out any given day!

Quote from: BigBallBoy on February 03, 2025, 09:45:09 PMI am not willing to give up on this team because they have good players and potential.  We just need shots to fall at a higher percentage, regardless of who is in or out any given day!

You expressed my sentiments, BigBallBoy. Hope did last year end the season on an upswing, winning the league tournament, including defeating the eventual national champs on their home court. So we're not without hope.

Timely tweet on this topic I just saw from a former MIAA coach (Tom Crean):

https://x.com/tomcrean/status/1886822241767182672?s=46&t=3k4VwSQUMH4rE2ZU-lJn8w

After a miserable first half with Calvin shooting 22%, committing 12 turnovers, and trailing 32-23, the Knights turn on the jets the last 20 minutes and win at Alma, 74-52. Varnado led with 26 and Egekeze added 16. Given Hope's surprisingly comfortable 79-71 win over Trine in Holland, Calvin is now the clear favorite to win the regular season title and host the conference tournament.

Really nice win for Hope over Trine, that boxscore is a thing of beauty.  Parker Hovey was an animal with 21 pts, 11 rbs and at least a half dozen tumbles to the floor fighting for loose balls.

Trine played without Drew Moore, no boot but not dressed.  Thunder finished the game on a 10-1 run after the benches emptied, Hope was well in control the last 15 or so of this one.

Needed.

Quote from: oldknight on February 05, 2025, 09:30:30 PMAfter a miserable first half with Calvin shooting 22%, committing 12 turnovers, and trailing 32-23, the Knights turn on the jets the last 20 minutes and win at Alma, 74-52. Varnado led with 26 and Egekeze added 16. Given Hope's surprisingly comfortable 79-71 win over Trine in Holland, Calvin is now the clear favorite to win the regular season title and host the conference tournament.

Not to be mean but leading the league leaders by 9 was probably the high water mark of Alma's season thus far.

Quote from: oldknight on February 05, 2025, 09:30:30 PMAfter a miserable first half with Calvin shooting 22%, committing 12 turnovers, and trailing 32-23, the Knights turn on the jets the last 20 minutes and win at Alma, 74-52. Varnado led with 26 and Egekeze added 16. Given Hope's surprisingly comfortable 79-71 win over Trine in Holland, Calvin is now the clear favorite to win the regular season title and host the conference tournament.

Trevin Winkle and Daane Harvey both sat out for Calvin after tweaking ankles in game vs. Hope on Saturday. Hopefully both are able to return soon. In the meantime, Parker Swartz stepped into the starting lineup, Trip Riemersma saw his minutes return, and Mike Morris entered the playing rotation.

Quote from: BigBallBoy on February 03, 2025, 09:45:09 PMI am not willing to give up on this team because they have good players and potential.  We just need shots to fall at a higher percentage, regardless of who is in or out any given day!

Hope fans who have sustained a belief in their team's potential were rewarded last evening, as Hope reversed their earlier 23 point loss at Trine with a more decisive victory than the final score indicates (a 17 point lead with under 2 minutes to go). Hope's first half was restrained by 9 turnovers—many just throwing the ball away. But that problem was remedied in the second half and offset by a 38 to 23 rebounding advantage, which was assisted by Emanuel Megnanglo's foul trouble, restricting him to 21 minutes.

As Sac implied, the game ball goes to Parker Hovey for his 21 points, 10 rebounds, 3 assists, with but one turnover.

To my eye the difference from this an previous games was Hovey and Wourman more aggressively dribble penetrating to the basket, getting closer shots and drawing fouls. That's seemingly a strategy that can be replicated . . . though the return of Drew Moore and a complete game from Megnanglo would make last night's dominance hard to replicate.