WBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletics Association

[oldknight]

Tons to be thankful for this Thanksgiving Day but let me offer an admittedly small reason to fans of MIAA women's hoops. It is an extraordinary privilege to have two of the finest post players in all of D3 women's hoops in our conference--last season's Player of the Year (Carrie Snikkers) and last season's Freshmen of the Year (Carissa Verkaik). If you get a chance to see these two fine young ladies play, take it. What they have done so far in this short season is quite noteworthy.

After three games Verkaik is averging 21.3 pts and 10.7 rebounds. She has also blocked 10 shots already. Meanwhile, in four games, Snikkers is averaging 19.5 points, 7.3 rebounds and has also blocked 10 shots. But what is most jawdropping about Snikkers stats is her shooting. She has gone 27-38 from the floor (including 7-12 from the arc) and has scored an amazing 76 points in only 78 minutes--nearly a point a minute.

If--as I did--you saw these ladies play against each other in high school, you knew they were both destined to be impact players in college, but what they are doing is really quite rare and worthy of mention. Watch them play at least one or twice this year. You might want to see them go head to head when the conference season begins.

[realist]

Good to see J H back on the floor.  Her presence is going to make a big difference going forward.  Hard to beat 11 rebounds, and 8 points in your first game back.  Nice to see 34 points from the bench, and the 10 rebound advantage. 

[jspiii]

A nice article on Hope's basketball coach Brian Morehouse.

http://www.mlive.com/smallcolleges/grandrapids/index.ssf/2010/11/profile_hope_womens_basketball.html

[Dark Knight]

Early Massey ratings are out. Here's how the MIAA stacks up:

Hope       #3     21.7
Calvin     #36    12.2
St Mary's  #66     4.2
Alma       #204   -8.5
Albion     #230   -7.4
Adrian     #238   -9.3
Olivet     #249   -12.4
Trine      #274   -13.7
Kzoo       #288   -16.3

Quite a wide spread. I don't think this conference would rate very high in parity.

[realist]

Now that each of them have played a few games I thought it would be interesting to do a comparison of C.S's numbers with C. V.

                                  C.V.  7 games, and C.S. 6.
point/game                 21.4                         16.2
minutes / game           27.6                         19.8
rebounds/ game           8.4                           6.2
blocks/ game                4                               2
steals / game                1.7                           2.3
shooting %                 .556 (60-106)           .660  (35-53)
f.t. %                          .853  (29-34)             .700  (21-30)


     

[wwjjdd]

Now that each of them have played a few games I thought it would be interesting to do a comparison of C.S's numbers with C. V.

                                  C.V.  7 games, and C.S. 6.
point/game                 21.4                         16.2
minutes / game           27.6                         19.8
rebounds/ game           8.4                           6.2
blocks/ game                4                               2
steals / game                1.7                           2.3
shooting %                 .556 (60-106)           .660  (35-53)
f.t. %                          .853  (29-34)             .700  (21-30)


     

If my math skills have not deteriorated with age these stats break down per minute played to:

p/m ver-.775 snik-.818
r/m ver-.304 snik-.313
b/m ver-.145 snik-.101
s/m ver-.062 snik-.116

for what it's worth...

[wwjjdd]

I attended the Flying Dutch game yesterday at Alma and was impressed with the new Art Smith Arena.  There are folding  seats on one side of the floor and bleacher seating on the other (non-bench) side with horse-shoe seating on one end.  Very nice color scheme.  One of the nicest, clearest scoreboard color video screens I have seen.  At halftime they ran a nice promo video on the Alma teacher education program.  The scoreboard has a wonderful horn signal rather than a jarring buzzer. A particular plus for one my age are the waterless urinals in the mensroom (far more pleasant than the urinals at De Vos which after a few uses become absolutely disgusting.)  I do think the PA system needs some tweeking. It was muffled, hard to understand (the audio piped into the men's room, however, was crystal clear.)  Perhaps it is because of the accoustics in the arena, the PA announcer's voice and delivery, or my ears, but I had trouble understanding what was announced.  The only other problem I had was that I tripped over a catsup packet that had fallen to the floor.  Otherwise, my condiments to the planners and executors of the new facility.

[Dark Knight]

WI Whitewater, the team that defeated Calvin by 6 points, jumped up to #2 in the Massey rating, after big wins against WI Lacrosse and WI Stout. WI Lacrosse is rated #4 by Massey.

Massey looked favorably upon Whitewater's increase, along with Calvin's big wins against St Mary's and Adrian, and Calvin jumped 15 places to #20 in D3. Hope moved down 1 to #3, and St Mary's is next after Calvin, at #68.

Massey's latest ratings have Hope about 7 points stronger than Calvin and Calvin about 12 points stronger than St Mary's. Massey now gives Calvin a 34% chance of beating Hope at home -- much better odds than last year.

Update: huge game for Calvin tomorrow night against unbeaten Carthage, ranked fifth in the d3hoops.com poll. However, Massey ranks Carthage at #12 and Calvin at #20 and gives them both about the same power.

[calvinite]

Calvin knocks off #5 ranked and undefeated Carthage 69-59 in a game that was never really close. Great job Knights!

[gohope]

Congrats to the Flying Dutch on another victory as Hope defeats Kalamazoo College this evening 98-41.  All Hope players got into the record book, both with minutes and with points. Another great team victory. Congrats Ladies!

[sac]

Congrats to the Flying Dutch on another victory as Hope defeats Kalamazoo College this evening 98-41.  All Hope players got into the record book, both with minutes and with points. Another great team victory. Congrats Ladies!

Hope's starting 5 played 38% of the available minutes.

[Dark Knight]

Calvin knocks off #5 ranked and undefeated Carthage 69-59 in a game that was never really close. Great job Knights!

Great win for Calvin last night. Carthage's game plan was to take away Calvin's inside game, and they did a good job of it, especially during the first half. They kept Verkaik scoreless for the first 18 minutes. However, Calvin's outside shooters responded to the challenge, hitting 13 of 26 three-pointers.  Calvin also out-rebounded the Lady Reds, 38-29.

Some of that best-in-the-nation blocking of the volleyball team must have rubbed off onto the hoops team as Calvin blocked a season-best 13 of Carthage's 58 shots, or more than 20%, helping to keep Carthage's shooting percentage down to 35%. In fact, Carthage normally shoots 46%, and with 13 of those shots blocked, 35% is about exactly what you'd expect. Julia Hilbrands, who is also on the volleyball team, blocked five off the bench, and Verkaik had six.

Isn't Carthage the only team to have defeated Hope last year during the regular season?

[oldknight]

Calvin knocks off #5 ranked and undefeated Carthage 69-59 in a game that was never really close. Great job Knights!

Great win for Calvin last night. Carthage's game plan was to take away Calvin's inside game, and they did a good job of it, especially during the first half. However, Calvin's outside shooters responded to the challenge, hitting 13 of 26 three-pointers.  Calvin also out-rebounded the Lady Reds, 38-29.

Some of that best-in-the-nation blocking of the volleyball team must have rubbed off onto the hoops team as Calvin blocked a season-best 13 of Carthage's 58 shots, or more than 20%, helping to keep Carthage's shooting percentage down to .333. Julia Hilbrands, who is also on the volleyball team, blocked five off the bench, and Verkaik had six.

Isn't Carthage the only team to have defeated Hope last year during the regular season?

You are correct. Carthage beat Hope by 4 in Atlanta at Oglethorpe during a holiday tournament last year. It was the first of several games Carrie Snikkers missed due to injury, a stretch that lasted until late January. I'm sorry I missed last night's big game but church duty called. I see that Heather DeKleine came off the bench to throw three straight daggers from the arc at the Lady Reds in the second half after the visitors closed the gap to single digits. The assembled faithful at Van Noord must have gotten out of their seats when those went in.

[Erm Schmigget]

Hope's starting 5 played 38% of the available minutes.

... and none of them together on the same rotation during the second half.  Coach Mo mixed up the lineup and platooned 5, 5, and 5 with starters on each rotation.  They still looked good.

Interesting side note:  The K coach, Sharri Brumfield, was sick and did not travel to Holland.  No worries, though, her assistant was aided by a rather capable stand-in: Rob Passage.

[jspiii]

<<Hope's starting 5 played 38% of the available minutes.>>

Hope had the usual 1st, 2nd & 3rd rotations in the 1st half, but in the 2nd half Coach Mo blended parts of each unit into each rotation. Example: Starting 5 in 2nd half: Snikkers, DeKuiper (1st); Kust(2nd), Allore, Bauman (3rd) all played together. There wasn't much fall-off between any of the other two blended rotations either. It was fun to see how all these players interacted with each other.
The showdown against last year's D-3 champion Washington, Mo. in the Ohio Wesleyan Tournament on December 29 is fast approaching.