WBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletics Association

[pointlem]

Is there solice in losing to the National Champion in the quarterfinals two years in a row.

Yes, Sac, some solace . . . though also some pain knowing that the NCAA bracket pairings both years precluded what could have been such a packed, rock concert-like season grand finale.

Nevertheless, George Fox is a very worthy national champion . . . and it's good to see a sister liberal arts college win it all.  I also tip my hat to the Hope team and coaches for a terrific season, with play and spirit that made them a joy to watch.  And given who's returning, I'm expecting next season will be more of the same.

[wwjjdd]

Does anyone know the attendance figures for the men's tournament in Salem?  According to the Holland Sentinel (fwiw), Friday's women's session at De Vos was attended by 1,587, with 1,830 attending on Saturday for the Final.  This makes a total of 3,417 for the two sessions.  Last year the women outdrew the men and I'm wondering what the situation was this year.  I am having trouble finding box-scores of the men's games to find out the attendance.

[gordonmann]

Here are the attendance numbers on a game-by-game basis per the box scores posted on different schools' websites.

Wash U-Guilford attendance: 2,223
Richard Stockton - F&M attendance: 2,266
F&M - Guilford attendance: 1,893
Wash U-Richard Stockton attendance: 2,263
TOTAL - 8,645


Amherst - Wash U attendance: 1,569
TCNJ - George Fox attendance: 1,587
Amherst - TCNJ attendance: 1,758
Wash U - George Fox attendance: 1,830
TOTAL - 6,744

[oldknight]

http://www.wbca.org/Releases/SFCAATDIII09.html

Carrie Snikkers was named a Division III All-American by the National Association of Women's Basketball Coaches on Thursday night. 

Congratulations to Carrie. It's a tremendous honor to get All-American status from the WBCA--an organization that only names 10 players to its team. Including the 31 Honorable Mentions, Snikkers is one of only 5 sophomores to be named among the 41 players listed, and the award she rightly earned couldn't go to a finer person. If Carrie was a selfish, ego-driven athlete her personal statistics would garner more general notice, but the coaches who voted obviously know her value on the court. She has always been an excellent teammate and well liked for her genuine humility.

[hopefan]

Gordon Mann  -  I don't think same day attendances at same venue are meant to be additive...  

[gordonmann]

Hopefan:

Perhaps not.  But I was trying to provide an estimate that is better than the one referenced in WWJD's post while providing a point of comparison between the Men's and Women's Final Four. 

WWJD's post refers to 1,587 for the Friday session and 1,830 for the Saturday sessions for a total count of 3,417.  Those aren't session numbers, they are attendance from the later two games in each session.  Unless you assume every person who attended the second session attended the first one too, that's not a good measure of attendance. 

My point was that you get a better comparison from taking total attendance at all four games for the women and doing the same for men.  Are you double counting the same people twice?  Absolutely.  But it's better than ignoring attendance figures for half the games played.

[hope81]

The GR Press announced their dream team today.  As mentioned earlier on here, Verkaik is heading for Calvin.  Hope apparently is getting the excellent point guard from East Grand Rapids, Ellis.  She is EGR's all time leading scorer, averaging about 14 per game.

I know Morehouse is high on her.  Could be an interesting year if she lives up to potential.

[oldknight]

The GR Press announced their dream team today.  As mentioned earlier on here, Verkaik is heading for Calvin.  Hope apparently is getting the excellent point guard from East Grand Rapids, Ellis.  She is EGR's all time leading scorer, averaging about 14 per game.

I know Morehouse is high on her.  Could be an interesting year if she lives up to potential.

I saw Hope's main weakness for next year's team coming from an unsettled backcourt situation. This is a good pickup for Hope who needed a quality guard. I think Ellis will play and contribute valuable minutes right away.

Verkaik's coming to Calvin is an even bigger pickup. She doesn't have the natural athleticism or elegant shooting style of Carrie Snikkers, but Carissa is an excellent defender and the best shot blocker I've ever seen at the high school level other than MSU's Allyssa DeHaan.

[sac]

The GR Press announced their dream team today.  As mentioned earlier on here, Verkaik is heading for Calvin.  Hope apparently is getting the excellent point guard from East Grand Rapids, Ellis.  She is EGR's all time leading scorer, averaging about 14 per game.

I know Morehouse is high on her.  Could be an interesting year if she lives up to potential.

I saw Hope's main weakness for next year's team coming from an unsettled backcourt situation. This is a good pickup for Hope who needed a quality guard. I think Ellis will play and contribute valuable minutes right away.

Verkaik's coming to Calvin is an even bigger pickup. She doesn't have the natural athleticism or elegant shooting style of Carrie Snikkers, but Carissa is an excellent defender and the best shot blocker I've ever seen at the high school level other than MSU's Allyssa DeHaan.

Is it really that hard to be an excellent shot blocker when you're 6-8?

There was a hilarious video of MSU's celebration over Duke last night on TV-10, with Alyssa in the middle towering over everyone around her.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Every photo I've seen of DeHaan blocking a shot, her feet were flat on the floor - not even tiptoes, much less jumping.  That amount of height differential just ain't fair!

I get this image of Yao Ming playing church-league ball.

[OC_SID]

Every photo I've seen of DeHaan blocking a shot, her feet were flat on the floor - not even tiptoes, much less jumping.  That amount of height differential just ain't fair!

I get this image of Yao Ming playing church-league ball.

I saw DeHaan in person on Sunday in the first round and last night in the second round ... I agree that almost every shot that she takes or every shot she blocks happens when she is flat-footed ...

I helped put together the post-game notes package, so I was at press row ... I have never seen a women's basketball game with such great emotion from the players and fans ... It was awesome!!!

There was a hilarious video of MSU's celebration over Duke last night on TV-10, with Alyssa in the middle towering over everyone around her.

Yeah, I had a great view of that, and it was a neat thing to see ... Funny thing was also Merchant and McCallie immediately went over by the ESPN crew to do a live post-game interview ... They did Merchant and then went back by the locker rooms to interview McCallie ... When I was leaving McCallie was leaving, and she was very nice and thanked all of the MSU staff for doing a great job running the tournament.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Tonite's results: ISU - 3 blocks; MSU players not named DeHaan - 3 blocks; DeHaan - 5 blocks!  Alas, and despite her also scoring 24 points, it was not quite enough: ISU scored the last 8 points of the game to win 69-68.  MSU led 68-61 with only 1:24 to go.

If only Alyssa could have gotten one more block!

[sac]

Hope's women's schedule

http://www.hope.edu/pr/athletics/wbb/

[oldknight]

NCAA official attendance figures for women's hoops have been released at:

http://www.ncaa.org/wps/wcm/connect/8ac0d7804e543548a108f3ae91fec9bb/Awide_wbkb+att+list.pdf?MOD=AJPERES&CACHEID=8ac0d7804e543548a108f3ae91fec9bb

Hope finished first in D3 with a home average of 1269 while Calvin was third at 1053 per game--just two spectators per game behind second place UW-Eau Claire. Calvin's athletic office also reports the NCAA confirmed that Calvin did set a single game attendance record with 4395 fans at the opener of Van Noord Arena on January 7, besting the previous single game record set by Howard Payne for a 2007 tournament game against Chapman.

[gohope]

News regarding an MIAA coach:

http://www.alma.edu/athletics/wbb/archives/2009/06/04/goffnettretirement