WBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletics Association

[ronk]

 He also said he enjoys coaching his daughter, so possibly when she graduates he'll be open to the offers.

[HOPEful]

I'd earlier suggested that, given Hope's graduation losses, I've expected them to be a good team but not a #1 ranked team. That's likely still true. But after watching their first two games, my optimism is trending upward...

... I had not anticipated the promising contributions of new players. For example, my bingo card did not include CMU D1 transfer Carlee Crabtree and 6' 1" home school alum, Kendall Sietsma (who scored 21 points this weekend, while displaying a nice shooting touch and agility) ...

I was quite outspoken about the fact that I didn't believe Hope deserved the #1 spot and that I'd slot them somewhere in the 6-10 range. Although I still think CNU, NYU, and UWW are a little more polished at this point in the season, I too was not anticipating the immediate impact of Crabtree, Sietsema, and Garner. Kate and Meg both played 27 minutes against IWU, and the starters were pulled with 7 minutes left in the game. So, it definitely feels like a more traditional lineup with the starters getting the occasional break rather than the entire line change strategy that Hope was able to employ last season. But the unexpected contributions from Crabtree and Sietsema have certainly elevated my expectations for this team.

[sac]

Nice interview with Coach Morehouse on Hoopsville last night.  I was a little surprised to hear Mo say, in answer to a question from Dave, that he doesn't get many calls from other schools looking to with coaching openings.  With his record of sustained success, I would think that he'd be receiving lots of calls.  Perhaps they think he is entrenched at Hope; great for the Dutch!  On the other hand I was a little worried to hear Coach say he wouldn't rule out a move, though surely can't blame him at all.  Wish nothing but the best for him.

I don't know Morehouse personally but really could only see him being interested in a couple of the D2 schools in Michigan if at all.  State schools are a different animal, great facilities or not and I'm not sure there are more than 3 or 4 that have something comparable or better than Hope and probably none that have better support.  Now, he could go build that somewhere but it would be a lot harder than it is at Hope.

But....NIL has really changed everything.

[scottiedawg]

But the unexpected contributions from Crabtree and Sietsema have certainly elevated my expectations for this team.

Hard same.

[HOPEful]

But the unexpected contributions from Crabtree and Sietsema have certainly elevated my expectations for this team.

Hard same.

With all respect to Raven and Courtney, one of the biggest fears going into this season had to be "What happens when Savanah Feenstra isn't on the court?" Olivia was just such a dominant presence the last four years, especially on defense. The one two punches of Savanah and Olivia was just incredible, to the point where for a time Morehouse experimented with using Savanah in the "Starting 5" and Olivia on the "Chaos Crew". Sietsema isn't Olivia (to be fair, no one is) but I feel confident in the 6'1" freshman's ability to provide quality minutes in the paint. At some point this season, that depth is going to be crucial... as soon as Wednesday against Gabby Timmer.

[Flying Dutch Fan]

But the unexpected contributions from Crabtree and Sietsema have certainly elevated my expectations for this team.

Hard same.

With all respect to Raven and Courtney, one of the biggest fears going into this season had to be "What happens when Savanah Feenstra isn't on the court?" Olivia was just such a dominant presence the last four years, especially on defense. The one two punches of Savanah and Olivia was just incredible, to the point where for a time Morehouse experimented with using Savanah in the "Starting 5" and Olivia on the "Chaos Crew". Sietsema isn't Olivia (to be fair, no one is) but I feel confident in the 6'1" transfers ability to provide quality minutes in the paint. At some point this season, that depth is going to be crucial... as soon as Wednesday against Gabby Timmer.

Yes, Sietsema is going to be key in providing an inside presence off the bench.  I've been impressed with her so far, but she also makes some Freshman mistakes (as expected).  Her continued growth and improvement will be key. 

Crabtree has really been special off the bench.  Averaging 8 pts, 2 reb, 1 steal in 16 minutes per game.  She is shooting .667 from the field (14-21), .714 from 3 (10-14), and .750 from the line (3-4). 

And speaking of the FT line - YIKES!!!!  The Flying Dutch were an abysmal 6-19 last night (.315) dropping their season average to .612

[HOPEful]

Yes, Sietsema is going to be key in providing an inside presence off the bench.  I've been impressed with her so far, but she also makes some Freshman mistakes (as expected).  Her continued growth and improvement will be key...

I agree. I was more thinking long down the road come playoffs. If the Dutch matchup again with a team like UWW, Aleah Grundahl played 38 minutes against Hope in Pittsburg last season and finished the game with 1 foul. Olivia finished the game with 4. Jenny Walker at Tufts and Maggie Russel at NYU would spark similar fears. I think Savannah is good enough to go toe-to-toe with those ladies but having a player like Sietsema provide meaningful minutes could end up being essential at some point. I agree with your take on Crabtree, but so far it's Sietsma that's filled in in terms of Hope's biggest need going into this season.

[TUAngola]

So...just wanted to see if any of you Hope followers are thinking what I've been thinking of your WBB team so far this...that dare I say they may be better than they were last year...or at least have the potential to be better?  Of the games I've seen online it appears that offensively you may have more weapons this year than last year and certainly have a far better shooting percentage.  As a Trine fan I was hoping for a little bit of a 'down year' for Hope, but I'm afraid that won't be the case.   Contrastly Trine is struggling mightily shooting the ball so far this year.  You can't keep shooting in the mid to high 30 percent range and expect to win consistently, at least not against the upper echelon teams.  I thought we had maybe one good half over the two games this past weekend against Edgewood and Otterbein.  We played well against Edgewood the second half, but against Otterbein the whole game was a stinker.  If it wasn't for stellar free throw shooting we probably should have lost.

[Dutchfan]

So...just wanted to see if any of you Hope followers are thinking what I've been thinking of your WBB team so far this...that dare I say they may be better than they were last year...or at least have the potential to be better?  Of the games I've seen online it appears that offensively you may have more weapons this year than last year and certainly have a far better shooting percentage.  As a Trine fan I was hoping for a little bit of a 'down year' for Hope, but I'm afraid that won't be the case.   Contrastly Trine is struggling mightily shooting the ball so far this year.  You can't keep shooting in the mid to high 30 percent range and expect to win consistently, at least not against the upper echelon teams.  I thought we had maybe one good half over the two games this past weekend against Edgewood and Otterbein.  We played well against Edgewood the second half, but against Otterbein the whole game was a stinker.  If it wasn't for stellar free throw shooting we probably should have lost.

I've actually been thinking the same thing about this team since we laid down 143 points on Geneva. Though it is hard to believe it of a National Championship team that includes the unanimous D3 MVP (Schoonveld), a second All-American (Voskul), the NCAA tournament  MVP (Muller), but this year's team seems more dynamic and seems to just flow in a way that they didn't last year. That may be in part due to more traditional substituting rather than platooning like last year.

People have talked about Sietsema and Crabtree, but I've been very impressed with Jada Garner as well.I felt that her guard players been very impressive this year.

[Roundball999]

So...just wanted to see if any of you Hope followers are thinking what I've been thinking of your WBB team so far this...that dare I say they may be better than they were last year...or at least have the potential to be better?  Of the games I've seen online it appears that offensively you may have more weapons this year than last year and certainly have a far better shooting percentage.  As a Trine fan I was hoping for a little bit of a 'down year' for Hope, but I'm afraid that won't be the case.   Contrastly Trine is struggling mightily shooting the ball so far this year.  You can't keep shooting in the mid to high 30 percent range and expect to win consistently, at least not against the upper echelon teams.  I thought we had maybe one good half over the two games this past weekend against Edgewood and Otterbein.  We played well against Edgewood the second half, but against Otterbein the whole game was a stinker.  If it wasn't for stellar free throw shooting we probably should have lost.

I've been pleasantly surprised by how strong this team looks - and I think they will get better - but I'm not willing to go there yet.  As Dutchfan mentioned three incredible players have moved on; each made countless big plays in their careers when it counted most.  Not saying the current crew won't or in some cases hasn't already done the same, but the body of work is not there yet.  Last year's team was deeper and there were quite a few games against tough opponents that were close for three quarters only to see the Dutch pull away in the fourth.  Agree that his team has been shooting lights out, but it's only been five games and I always worry what happens on the night when the shooting just isn't there.  So that brings me to the main difference I see - defense.  Feenstra is a great player but Voskuil was unique, she completely changed the game plan for opponents on both offense and defense.  Dutch turnovers are up only slightly this year and turnover margin is less than half what it was last year.  This is a typical great Morehouse defense but I don't think of the same caliber (yet) as last year and you know what they say about defense....

So I hope you are right and I think the potential is there but I'm going to need more convincing.

[pointlem]

So...just wanted to see if any of you Hope followers are thinking what I've been thinking of your WBB team so far this...that dare I say they may be better than they were last year...or at least have the potential to be better?  Of the games I've seen online it appears that offensively you may have more weapons this year than last year and certainly have a far better shooting percentage.  As a Trine fan I was hoping for a little bit of a 'down year' for Hope, but I'm afraid that won't be the case.   Contrastly Trine is struggling mightily shooting the ball so far this year.  You can't keep shooting in the mid to high 30 percent range and expect to win consistently, at least not against the upper echelon teams.  I thought we had maybe one good half over the two games this past weekend against Edgewood and Otterbein.  We played well against Edgewood the second half, but against Otterbein the whole game was a stinker.  If it wasn't for stellar free throw shooting we probably should have lost.

I've been pleasantly surprised by how strong this team looks - and I think they will get better - but I'm not willing to go there yet.  As Dutchfan mentioned three incredible players have moved on; each made countless big plays in their careers when it counted most.  Not saying the current crew won't or in some cases hasn't already done the same, but the body of work is not there yet.  Last year's team was deeper and there were quite a few games against tough opponents that were close for three quarters only to see the Dutch pull away in the fourth.  Agree that his team has been shooting lights out, but it's only been five games and I always worry what happens on the night when the shooting just isn't there.  So that brings me to the main difference I see - defense.  Feenstra is a great player but Voskuil was unique, she completely changed the game plan for opponents on both offense and defense.  Dutch turnovers are up only slightly this year and turnover margin is less than half what it was last year.  This is a typical great Morehouse defense but I don't think of the same caliber (yet) as last year and you know what they say about defense....

So I hope you are right and I think the potential is there but I'm going to need more convincing.

I second what Roundball said: Might this year's Hope WBB team be better than the team that lost one game over the last 3 years? With the loss of Schoonveld, Muller, and, especially, the defense and rebounding of agile 6' 3" Voskuil, it seems unlikely.

That said, this year's group is off to a great start. Their intense hustle and great team spirit make them a joy to watch.

[TUAngola]

Trine loses to Ohio Northern this afternoon 53-50.  Thanksgiving break didn't help our shooting woes, we only hit 32% for the game.  I mentioned in a previous post we aren't going to win games against good teams shooting in the 30's and I was right today.  Lone bright spot was little used Freshman Addison Hutson who came off the bench and hit 5 three pointers on her way to 17 pts.  She shot 6-8, the rest of team 10-41.  We shot 32 three pointers today, we aren't a good enough shooting team from behind the arc to be throwing up that many.  But credit to Ohio Northern, they took away about everything else in our offensive sets.  They were pretty good, have a couple of nice post players and a real good point guard in Serbin.  ONU hit some big shots in the 4th quarter and we just couldn't answer down the stretch.

Calvin with a huge win at #4 UW-Whitewater today.  It appears Calvin could be the main threat to Hope this year in the MIAA.  Conference games start next week.  Most teams will play 4 conference games in December then break away for a couple of weeks over the holidays to finish up their non-conference schedule before getting back to conference play in January.   

[HOPEful]

...dare I say they may be better than they were last year...or at least have the potential to be better? 

Hope's philosophy last season was relentless and suffocating defense that had zero let up over four quarters. You could make a strong argument that this philosophy stunted Hope's offensive potential. Kenedy, the D3 player of the year, averaged 20 minutes per game. If Morehouse was trying to maximize the team's offensive production, surely, he would have found more minutes for his best offensive player. It's nearly impossible to judge any team in comparison to last year's team, because who knows what the results would have looked like had Hope taken a more traditional approach with Kenedy, Olivia, and Sydney averaging 30+ minutes/game. Morehouse doesn't have the luxury this season of having a "Chaos Crew" on the bench that would arguably have been a Top25 team on their own. No one does, and no one may ever again. I don't think it can be overstated just how incredible what Hope was able to do in the fourth quarters last season because they got 3 fifth year seniors plus 7 women all very much capable of being starters on very good teams to whole heartedly buy-in to an unconventional line-change approach. Against LaRoche in the playoffs, Hope was up 1 point with 4.5 minutes left in the 3rd. They went the rest of the game on a 44-13 run and everyone could see LaRoche was visibly gassed. Like, extreme CrossFit workout gassed.

This season, Kate played 34 minutes against Eau Claire and Ella played 31 (the one time Hope's been somewhat challenged this season). This team can score buckets and is very very exciting to watch. But asking if they are or could be better than last year is forgetting just how dominant that team, that defense, and that approach was for 3 years.

[Flying Dutch Fan]

...dare I say they may be better than they were last year...or at least have the potential to be better? 

Hope's philosophy last season was relentless and suffocating defense that had zero let up over four quarters. You could make a strong argument that this philosophy stunted Hope's offensive potential. Kenedy, the D3 player of the year, averaged 20 minutes per game. If Morehouse was trying to maximize the team's offensive production, surely, he would have found more minutes for his best offensive player. It's nearly impossible to judge any team in comparison to last year's team, because who knows what the results would have looked like had Hope taken a more traditional approach with Kenedy, Olivia, and Sydney averaging 30+ minutes/game. Morehouse doesn't have the luxury this season of having a "Chaos Crew" on the bench that would arguably have been a Top25 team on their own. No one does, and no one may ever again. I don't think it can be overstated just how incredible what Hope was able to do in the fourth quarters last season because they got 3 fifth year seniors plus 7 women all very much capable of being starters on very good teams to whole heartedly buy-in to an unconventional line-change approach. Against LaRoche in the playoffs, Hope was up 1 point with 4.5 minutes left in the 3rd. They went the rest of the game on a 44-13 run and everyone could see LaRoche was visibly gassed. Like, extreme CrossFit workout gassed.

This season, Kate played 34 minutes against Eau Claire and Ella played 31 (the one time Hope's been somewhat challenged this season). This team can score buckets and is very very exciting to watch. But asking if they are or could be better than last year is forgetting just how dominant that team, that defense, and that approach was for 3 years.

Yes - totally this!!! +k   Comparing teams is natural, but to me (so far) this years team has a loooong way to go to be as good as last year. 

Just consider this - Last season (33 games) Hope allowed 2 teams to score 70 or more points.  Trine had 70 (in Hope's only defeat of the year) and Millikin had 77 in the round of 32.  This season, Hope has already given up 73 to IWU and 77 to EWUC.  Also last seasson, Hope held 16 of their 33 opponents under 50 points!  This year they have done that once thus far.  Lots of work to do on the defensive side of the ball.

While the Geneva game (a 143-57 win by Hope) had some jaw dropping offense, it certainly isn't the norm (scoring 32 or more points in every Q, shooting over 60% from the field), nor should we expect that.  In the 4 games since that blow-out, Hope is averaging 91 points per game (last year the team avg was 85 for the full season). 

With all that said, I think the ceiling for this team is extremely high (like repeat the Natty high) - lots of room to grow and develop and adjust to their roles, since literally everyone not named Kate Majerus has a new role, and I would argue even her role is different. 

[sac]

I'm not sure its fair to compare any team to what amounts to a once a generation team that will probably never happen again.