WBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletics Association

[Flying Dutch Fan]

The Dutch I believe are in for a battle tonight.  Definitely their biggest test of the season, against a quality opponent on the road (thanks NCAA).  The half I saw BW play last night the looked pretty good, and are as deep as Hope.  The thing they don;t have is the overabundance of size that Hope has.  That being said, it will be Hope's D that decides this game.  Last season, these two teams met in the second game of the year at DeVos, and Hope won by 2 on a runner by Henderson.  It could easily be that close tonight as well.

Go HOPE

[Erm Schmigget]

Just found out we have a (quite thin) connection to Howard-Payne University.  veragrace is a screen printer and occasionally prints vinyl for the pads you see on the basketball posts like the ones at DeVos (yes, she printed those).  Rummaging through some files today, we discovered that she also printed Howard-Payne's pads.  She sometimes jokes that she should print a little "Go Hope" on the back (inside) of the pads before printing the image that's supposed to go on the front.  Did she do it with HPU's pads?    

There is another fieldhouse going up, a little closer to home.  The manufacturer of the hoop supports at Hope is in Grand Rapids.  I wonder if we'll be seeing an order for some maroon pads with gold images on them?  Hmmm...  Might present an opportunity too good to pass up.    

Way too good to pass up - and at the very least, it might cause a good number of maroon and gold supporters to try to unwrap the supports, just to check 

The visual of a bunch of Calvin faithful madly tearing apart their shiny, spankin' new basketball pads looking for something that might or might not be printed on the inside makes me laugh.    Kind of a comical version of the last lines of One Tin Soldier.

[dothedew]

Any updates from the Women's game would be great....they only have live stats for the men and radio for both....I'm listening to men's

[dothedew]

I just got my answer...the Women are rollin'

Up 34-12 or something like that.

GIDDYUP

[HopeConvert]

Last I heard it was 55-30. They should be able to coast from there.

[HopeConvert]

64-40

[ChicagoHopeNut]

Sounds like a great road win for the women and not its not entirely impossible that Hope can host the next four rounds of the NCAA tourney. Although I believe that would require a Thomas More loss.

[Erm Schmigget]

Sounds like a great road win for the women and not its not entirely impossible that Hope can host the next four rounds of the NCAA tourney. Although I believe that would require a Thomas More loss.

I think you mean Howard Payne.  The only way Hope would benefit from a Thomas More loss is, they would have to face them in the championship game.

[hope1]

what a great  game tonight for the hope girls    keep it rolling along

[SKOT]

Food for thought...Howard Payne is is like 175 miles from the nearest airport.  Hope is like 30.  That might make a difference as to who gets to host if it is between those two...

[Erm Schmigget]

Sounds like a great road win for the women and not its not entirely impossible that Hope can host the next four rounds of the NCAA tourney. Although I believe that would require a Thomas More loss.

I think you mean Howard Payne.     The only way Hope would benefit from a Thomas More loss is, they would have to face them in the championship game.

So..........  Oglethorpe beats Thomas More tonight.  Looks like no teams will be traveling to Crestview Hills, KY, next weekend.

[pointlem]

Food for thought...Howard Payne is is like 175 miles from the nearest airport.  Hope is like 30.  That might make a difference as to who gets to host if it is between those two...

Good point, SKOT.  Austin and Dallas/Fort Worth Airports both look to be 3 hour drives away . . . which does suggest that the NCAA may put the women in Holland (seeding notwithstanding). . . and the men at Wheaton in Chicago?  (I don't want the Hope men to face Wheaton again, and certainly not on their home floor, but the women have certainly earned the right to some home court opportunity at the regional/sectional level.)

[WWWRHH]

The Dutch I believe are in for a battle tonight.  Definitely their biggest test of the season, against a quality opponent on the road (thanks NCAA).  The half I saw BW play last night the looked pretty good, and are as deep as Hope.  The thing they don;t have is the overabundance of size that Hope has.  That being said, it will be Hope's D that decides this game.  Last season, these two teams met in the second game of the year at DeVos, and Hope won by 2 on a runner by Henderson.  It could easily be that close tonight as well.

Go HOPE

B-W is a good team, but last night they were playing D'Youville which was possilbly the slowest team I have ever seen.  They had a 6-4 center that was no where near as athletic as the Dutch posts.  I talked with some B-W parents and they seemed very confident based on the their teams performance against D'Youville.  In the end the Dutch played a very good offensive game, but the defensive ball pressure of Hope was not comparable to what B-W faced last night.

The Dutch size was also a big factor.  Snikkers and Knox played much more tonight.  Carrie had 15 pts, 10 rbs. and Knox had 10 pts / 7 rbs.  Lange had an injury to her shooting hand but still scored six and played great defense as always. As a team Hope dominated on the boards and with Boles both driving and putting up long range threes B-W never could find a rhythm.

Julie Henderson did a great job running the offense and controlling the tempo of the game and her defense was constantly disruptive.  However, the team did miss Kopke.

Since the big players were effective last night I wonder if they played limited minutes because that was all they were needed, to avoid injury or to make it more difficcult for B-W to scout tonight's game plan.  Whatever the reason, the "secret" is out.

After watching this weekend's games I am more convinced that Albion should have received a bid.  This season Alma took B-W to two overtimes and Clavin lost to B-W by 6.  I think both Juniata and D'Youville would be in the lower half of the MIAA.  Perhaps we should give our own conference more respect.  I hope the NCAA does in the future.

[House]

Howard Payne wins. McMurry came back in the 2nd half and had it down to 6 points, but couldn't get closer. (listened to the McMurry broadcast)

At the end of the Hope game, the radio broadcaster was saying that the Hope Women will almost certainly travel to Howard Payne next weekend assuming HP wins. The funny thing was, at the end of the Howard Payne game, the McMurry anouncer said that everyone there told them Howard Payne should just go ahead and pack their bags for Holland Michigan. They speculated that HP might not get 45 Free Throws   playing on the road and would have a tougher time without the big (2613) home crowd.

I'm guessing the Hope Women will be flying to Texas next weekend. HP should have hosted a sectional last year, but travel restrictions forced them on the road. This year it looks like the NCAA set the bracket up so that every school would need to fly to the sectional no mater who hosted. Looks like they want to be able to justify having HP host.
Personally I would rather see the Women host and the Men on the road in what appears to be a weaker sectional. However, the Women proved they can beat top teams on the road in 2006, and again tonight.

[Flying Dutch Fan]

Looking over the teams (for both the men and women) I gotta believe the men will be hosting - although I wish they both could.  The women (IMHO) will most likely be going to Howard Payne in Texas.  The reason I think this happens is two-fold.  HPU is the top ranked team, and all four teams are at least 700+ miles from each other, meaning 3 teams are flying somewhere, so it makes sense for the top team to host.  If the women aren't hosting, then the men have to be chosen based on their ranking.