WBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletics Association

Dark Knight · December 07, 2006, 09:38:00 AM

The knights only have two more non-MIAA games on the schedule: Puget Sound and Cal Lutheran. Puget Sound will be a challenge, though Calvin should be a slight favorite. Cal Lutheran should be less of a challenge.

I think the CCIW results suggest something close to parity between Calvin and Hope, at least for that weekend: although Hope went 2-0 to Calvin's 1-1, Calvin had a +19 total point differential to Hope's +16. Both MIAA teams did a little worse on Friday (after the long drive) than on Saturday.

Cowman · December 08, 2006, 04:09:45 PM

What do the Knight need to do to challenge this Dutch this season? I thought Calvin would come out stronger, now I doubt they can stay with Hope for 40 minutes.

WWWRHH · December 08, 2006, 09:18:39 PM

Dark Knight I think your analysis ignores the elephant in the room. Hope and Calvin have played two common opponents and while both beat Carthage, only Hope beat the stronger team Wheaton.

Point differentials are meaningless - especially when achieved at the expense of a much weaker team. Carthage is a decent team with three solid players, but not much depth. Hope played all 15 players and their minutes were much more broadly distributed than Calvin's vs. Carthage. On Saturday, Carthage played Calvin tough in the first half, but just ran out of steam in second. The Knights continued to play Winkle and Harris late in the game even after the outcome was a foregone conclusion and Carthage was playing the end of the bench. Was this strategy employed in an attempt to run up the score or because Calvin lacks depth in the post?

After last weekend I think it is obvious that Hope is much deeper than Calvin. Against Wheaton, Calvin played ten players, but two made only cameo appearances. Hope played 11 players vs. Wheaton and none played less than nine minutes (the box score mins are wrong due to an incorrect substitution in the play-by-play). Over the past couple of seasons Hope has won several games because they were stronger at the finish. Hope's depth at post is likely to wear on Harris and Winkle over the course of the game.

Calvin is a strong team and I am sure they will give Hope a tough challenge. But I have to give Hope the edge due their depth, three point shooting and proven ability to come through in the clutch and win close games.

hope1 · December 09, 2006, 05:22:39 PM

the hope girls won today 87 to 57 over tri state at tri state

Dark Knight · December 16, 2006, 09:57:16 PM

Calvin defeated Alma 75-50. I didn't see the game but the report is that Alma tried a tight 2-3 zone and double- and triple-teamed inside. That sounds like a good strategy against Calvin, who have a very strong front line and questionable outside shooting.

However, the knights responded with 54.5% shooting from 3-point range, including 7 of 11 for 64% in the second half. Freshman Allison Griswold was 4 for 7 from 3-point range and Kelly Trewhella was 3 for 5. The continued development of a perimeter game to go with the inside game bodes well for the rest of the season! The knights still had 20 turnovers, though.

hope1 · December 20, 2006, 09:54:23 PM

hope beat albion tonight 68 to 58

sac · December 20, 2006, 11:56:32 PM

Made it out to DeVos to see the ladies play Albion. Pretty good action tonight. A nice crowd of just over 1000......but pretty much a "how ya doing" social crowd.

Albion jumped all over Hope early hitting their first 4 shots before Hope got on the board, then made their fifth to lead 10-2. Within a couple minutes it was Hope 11 Albion 10. It was back and forth for a few minutes.......with the score tied at 20, Albion hits back-to-back threes to go up 26-20. There were more than a few murmurs around the crowd at that point.

Over the final four minutes of the 1st half Hope outscored Albion 14-2 to lead 34-28 I believe, maybe it was 36-28........forget.

So Albion needs to start the 2nd half strong right.......Hope gets the opening inbounds nails a 3, then converts a missed Albion shot into a quick deuce and with 30 seconds Hope has a nice 11 or 13 point lead. They ran off a run of 21-2 after trailing by 6 to take firm command of this one.

The lead stayed around 15-16 with Albion makeing a couple nice surgess to try and stay in it, those girls never quit. Albion got it down to 13 with some serious mo and then Philana Greene kind of took over a couple possesions scoreing 5 of 7 Hope points including a beauty of a pick pocket at midcourt..........lead back to 20.

Albion still didn't quit and got it back to 9 before Hope finally put it away. Hope really tried to keep up a high pace in this one and had several break out baskets in the 2nd stanza. Albion kind of ran out of gas at the end, as they aren't as deep as Hope.....but who is?. A nice solid win that extends the Hope win streak to 38 games.

I saw some great post entry passes tonight from both teams and some overall pretty good teamwork.......alot of "extra" passes on the blocks.

Hope won't be happy with the way they played, they were very sloppy with the ball at times, and one of Albion's 6 or 8 points runs in the second was the result of 4 straight posessions with bad passes. They didn't shoot well overall and were a horrid 12-25 from the stripe. Its a little scary to think how easily Hope could have won with some better execution. But surely Albion is to be credited some for their defensive effort. This is still a developing Hope squad, at one point it was Fr, Fr, So, Jr, Fr on the floor and they extended the lead.

The Hope win streak gets put to a serious test next week when they meet Division II U of Missouri-St. Louis (2-4) down in Hanover, In.

roaring0506 · December 21, 2006, 08:22:30 AM

I don't think that Hope's win streak will be tested down in Hanover if Hope is as good as everyone thinks. I've seen the UM-St. Louis team play, and they aren't that good of a team. They have size, and they're Div. II, but really that's all I can say for them. There strength is there inside game, and one good three point shooter. There starters log the majority of their minutes, so Hope's deep bench should wear them down.

Merry Christmas MIAA!

Dark Knight · December 22, 2006, 07:34:21 AM

Some interesting league stats.

Calvin leads the league in FG%, 3FG%, and defense in the same categories. But Calvin is last place in FT% --

I didn't expect to see Calvin in first place in 3FG% since that was a weakness last year. Looks like they've corrected it -- for the most part. Season average is .370, but in their loss to Wheaton they shot 2 for 15, for .133.

Calvin also leads the league in assists, turnover margin, steals, and assist/turnover ratio. I didn't necessarily expect that for turnover margin. I guess it results from their stingy defense and high number of steals, since they're tied for last place in turnovers per game!

Calvin also leads the league in scoring margin, which is always nice. But one that surprises me is that Calvin is 5th place in rebound margin and last place in offensive rebounds, despite having the league's top rebounder in Lisa Winkle. Calvin gets 11.3 offensive rebounds per game to league-leading Hope's 17.5. Any theories on why that might be?

sac · December 22, 2006, 08:14:03 AM

Your answer might be in your first sentence.

Quote from: Dark Knight on December 22, 2006, 07:34:21 AM

Calvin leads the league in FG%, 3FG%,

hope7 · December 24, 2006, 09:21:19 AM

merry x mas

Dark Knight · December 24, 2006, 12:18:23 PM

Quote from: sac on December 22, 2006, 08:14:03 AM
Your answer might be in your first sentence.
Quote from: Dark Knight on December 22, 2006, 07:34:21 AM
Calvin leads the league in FG%, 3FG%,

Good point. However, I don't think that can be the whole answer -- Calvin and Hope's shooting percentages are fairly close at .469 and .453, while offensive rebounding averages are 17.5 and 11.3.

hope1 · December 29, 2006, 11:09:07 PM

hope won tonight 82 to 74 over missouri-st louis

hope1 · December 30, 2006, 06:06:27 PM

hope girls won today 78 to 38 ill colledge to go to 9-0

Dark Knight · January 04, 2007, 09:29:19 PM

Nice win for the knights today over a pretty solid Albion team, 84-60. Before tonight Albion's record was 6 and 6, but one of those losses was to #11 Wilmington by 1 point, one to #2 Hope by 8 points, and one to [#26] Puget Sound, by 3.

The knights looked very sharp. There were only about 12 turnovers before garbage time, 24 assists, and 11 of 21 three point attempts. The defense was very tough at times, but there were a few lax stretches.

Compared to last year, the knights have almost of the key pieces plus a number of nice additions who are getting signficant playing time (or starting, in the case of Zimmerman). Should be fun MIAA race!