WBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletics Association

[gottaluvhoops]

Early predictions for the final four?  Hope should be there!!

[sac]

Livestats and broadcast for tonight's games at www.miaa.org

Hope at Calvin at 6pm.

[WWWRHH]

Early predictions for the final four?  Hope should be there!!

I wish I could participate, but there is not enough information to work with.

I Hope that the Dutch will be there as much as anyone and have already purchased reserved seats.  However, I think it is almost impossible to make final four predictions in D3 since we do not see any teams from other regions play,  there aren no televised games and few common opponents among the top teams.

For instance, the #2 ranked team, Wisconsin - Whitewater, is no more than a five hour drive and in a neighboring state, but shares no common opponents with Hope.  I did not know anything about Howard Payne so I checked their site and found they are a successful program with size and it looks like they could match up well with Hope.

When the field is down to 16 there may be enough common opponents to make some reasonable guesses.

I am more concerned about tonight's game with Calvin.  On paper, it is an easy victory, but I doubt Calvin will roll over on their home court.

So whille I suspect Hope has a great chance, I wish they had a tougher schedule to prepare for the off season.

[sac]

Past NCAA pairings have also put Hope in regions that would include UW Whitewater and were in DePauw's region the past 2 seasons.

[oldknight]

In a game dominated by defense, Hope won 56-39. The Lady Knights shot miserably (13 of 56) but that was exclusively due to Hope's defensive pressure which was suffocating all night. Calvin needed a big game from Harris and from one perimeter player but Hope's bigs hounded Marcia into a 3 for 16 night. Calvin went 3 for 15 from the arc and I don't think any one of those trey attempts could be considered an open look. Hope's defense reacted so spontaneously to every offensive move, that Calvin's offense never was comfortable.

I actually think the Lady Knights did well to keep this a competitive game until about the 5 minute mark. Calvin stayed in the game with pretty good defense of their own and made life pretty miserable for Greene who had a lousy game, getting twice as many turnovers as points (8 to 4). If the much smaller Lady Knights could have kept Hope off the boards (Hope had 15 second chances) Calvin would have kept this game closer. Calvin should be credited with giving Hope its poorest offensive showing of the season. Hope opened up a double digit lead in the first half largely on the strength of Snikkers' outside shooting. Carrie had a double/double with 15 points and 12 boards in a game high 22 minutes of play.

This is the third time I've seen Hope's women play this year and the more I watch them the more I'm convinced that Cowen is--by far--the best athlete on the team. She has all the attributes necessary to be a star. She's quick, fast and has outstanding lateral movement. Combined with her tenacity she can make life miserable for anyone she's guarding. She is also a good ball handler and has nice form on her jumper. When there's a loose ball on the floor she typically comes away with it. She reminds me a little bit of a Steve Cramer from the distaff side.

[sac]

15pts and 12rbs in 22 minutes...............


....and I agree about Cowen.  8)

[hope1]

way to go girls keep it rolling now olivet saturday  good job on beating calvin wed night

[oldknight]

Calvin loses to Adrian 61-54. Adrian finished the game on a 31-13 run over the last 12 minutes. Calvin's shooting woes continue hitting only 30% for the game and 21% in the second half. Adrian grabbed 14 offensive boards. Harris had a double/double with 18 and 10 and Zimmerman added 10 points. On the positive side Brummel saw 20 minutes of action and scored six. Looks like a tough year for the Lady Knights.

The Hope freight train keeps rolling with a 65-48 win over Olivet. A quick look at the live stats shows that Snikkers was a DNP. I know she has tendinitis in one ankle and--despite her double/double against Calvin Wednesday--she was visibly limping that night. Apparently it's gotten worse.

[Erm Schmigget]

Calvin loses to Adrian 61-54. Adrian finished the game on a 31-13 run over the last 12 minutes. Calvin's shooting woes continue hitting only 30% for the game and 21% in the second half. Adrian grabbed 14 offensive boards. Harris had a double/double with 18 and 10 and Zimmerman added 10 points. On the positive side Brummel saw 20 minutes of action and scored six. Looks like a tough year for the Lady Knights.

The Hope freight train keeps rolling with a 65-48 win over Olivet. A quick look at the live stats shows that Snikkers was a DNP. I know she has tendinitis in one ankle and--despite her double/double against Calvin Wednesday--she was visibly limping that night. Apparently it's gotten worse.

My sister was at the women's game, sitting near at least one of the jayvees.  She heard that Carrie has a stress fracture in her foot, and is in a walking cast.  I HOPE she has a speedy recovery.

[WWWRHH]

The score makes Hope's victory seem more decisive than it felt watching the game.  The Dutch's lead was single digits most of the second half, Olivet narrowed the lead to 7 points on more than one occasion and was trailing by only nine points with three mins. left.

Hope's offense seems to be out of sync since the break with many missed layups and relatively few three pointers - but they continue to win by comfortable margins.  Everyone continues to play tough defense and they are winning games by limiting their opponents opportunities.

Warsen played, but obviously continues to be hobbled by the ankle injury and as previously mentioned Snikkers DNP due to a foot injury.  I heard that while it is possibly a stress fracture she does not yet have a definitive diagnosis.  Hope did not have any scoring from the forward position this afternoon except for late in the game when centers Knox (picking up Snikkers' minutes) and Lange were in the game together and by default one had to play the 4 position.

There were some bright spots.  The Dutch dominated inside.  Together Knox (13) and Lange (12) scored 25.  Both were able to consitently post up inside. However, they missed a total of 16 shots, most of which they normally would have easily made.  The poor shooting was partially offset by each going to the line eight times and making 11 of the 16.  Looking at the stats it appears Knox made 5 of 6 down the stretch. 

Green. as always, played great defense and shot 5 for 8.

Henderson, who unselfishly seems to be defense and assit focused this year, took matters in her own hands and took the ball to the basket when things were tight and Hope needed a score.  She scored only one fieldgoal, but made 6 of 7 from the line.

The Dutch have proved they can win when one part of their game is not working.  The injury to Snikkers is unfortunate, but Hope has the luxury of giving her time to recover without rushing her back into service.  How many teams have the depth at post to play without the services of players the caliber of Snikkers and Warsen* and to have the "third string" center lead the team in scoring and rebounds.

I am sure the team will be firing on all cylinders soon.  Perhaps having to work through some tough games will help them prepare for the post-season.

*Edited from original which said "Snikkers and Lange."  Lange played (as noted earlier in the post) and was effective on both offense and defense.  Warsen put in her minutes, but it appeared the ankle limited her offensively. 

[sac]

Reason #1 teams shouldn't be penciled into a final four in December.---Injuries.

[AlwaysHope]

Coach Morehouse said tonight that he hoped that Snickers would be out only four weeks, just in time for the second Calvin game.

[NW Hope Fan]

You know... This is all due to Pat's "looking like" optimism. 

[sac]

You know... This is all due to Pat's "looking like" optimism. 

Listening to hoopsville the other night I kind of got the feeling they might think Hope is the #1 team in the country.  They didn't seem very definitive in their opinoin. 

[sac]

I've heard some talk away from the boards that while Hope's women's team is very good, the perception is they've played a very weak schedule.

According to massey's ratings for schedule strength,

Olivet #8
Calvin #28
Albion #37
St. Mary's #46
Hope #47
Adrian #70
Tri-State #94
Kalamazoo #171
Alma #200

#47 is much better than what I would have thought listening to others complain about their lack of competition.  In fact its downright impressive that 7 of 9 are in the top 100 and all 9 are in the top half for schedule strength.

Overall the league ranks #10 which I believe is pretty good on a historical basis for the league.  I think 7 of the 9 are in the top half of D3.