WBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletics Association

[sac]

Less than 2 minutes to go.  15 point lead, and finally we see Hope's subs?
What's with that?  Up till now only 10 deep. 

Only 10 deep ? ? ?


Ever notice that there seems to be an expectation that Hope teams should just quit playing when they get up by 15 or so...........

According to the live stats those were the numbers.
Calvin was 14 deep at that point in the game.

I don't expect Hope or any team to stop playing, but that is different than having your starters on the floor when the game was obviously over.

Calvin took its last starter off the floor at 1:57, Hope 26 seconds later........big freaking deal.

Putting your 2 Seniors on the floor so they can be acknowledged in front of their home fans in possibly their last Hope/Calvin game is such a horrible thing to do .

[Erm Schmigget]

Less than 2 minutes to go.  15 point lead, and finally we see Hope's subs?
What's with that?  Up till now only 10 deep. 

Only 10 deep ? ? ?


Ever notice that there seems to be an expectation that Hope teams should just quit playing when they get up by 15 or so...........

According to the live stats those were the numbers.
Calvin was 14 deep at that point in the game.

I don't expect Hope or any team to stop playing, but that is different than having your starters on the floor when the game was obviously over.

Calvin took its last starter off the floor at 1:57, Hope 26 seconds later........big freaking deal.

Putting your 2 Seniors on the floor so they can be acknowledged in front of their home fans in possibly their last Hope/Calvin game is such a horrible thing to do .

Not to mention, 2 of Calvin's "14 deep" just came in at the 3:41 mark.

Really sad that someone decided the best thing to comment on was late-game subbing decisions.   

I would like to point out the contribution from one particular freshman post player...Meredith Kussmaul.  Coming in off the bench, playing 22 min. in her first Rivalry game, she posted a team-best 14 points, game-best 8 rebounds (5 offensive), 2 steals, an assist, and no turnovers.  This young lady is sharp!  With pre-season AA Snikkers out, Kussmaul has really stepped up to take some very important minutes in the post.  She had been averaging 6.4 points and 4.6 rebounds in 15.5 minutes, but took control in the paint when she was in there.  Nice job by the freshman.

[GoKnights68]

Some highlights of Tuesday Night's Hope victory over Calvin are up on youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Epq2WAYpp8

[hope1]

the hope girls won tonight snikkers  is going to be back next week she was in the warm ups tonight

[wwjjdd]

Just returned from the Hope-Adrian women's game.  For those who are keeping track, at 1:31 to go in the game, the "C" squad was definitely playing and had been since the 10:31 mark.  Of course, coach Mo did pull the "C" squad about 4 minutes into their run for a brief "in-game" coaching session and replaced them for about a minute-and-a-half with the "B" squad.  I certainly hope this did not offend anyone's sensibilities. 

[Dark Knight]

Carissa Verkaik may have set the MIAA record for most blocks in a season last game. On the MIAA page, the record is 35 blocks in 12 games, and Carissa has 37 in 9 games so far.

However, that record is listed as "Most shots blocked average per game" and it's possible that there were some players who had more blocks in a 14- or 16-game season. At worst, Carissa needs 10 more blocks over the next 7 games to beat the league record.

Update: another MIAA page has records for most blocks in a 12-, 14-, or 16-game season. It looks as though Carissa will need 9 more blocks to hold the "most blocks in a season" mark and 10 more blocks to hold the "most blocks per game" record.

[Calvinhoops]

Do you think Calvin gets an at large bid to the NCAA's if they lose to Hope two more times?  Once at home and once in the conference tournament?  How about if they lose an additional game along the way like St. Mary's on Wednesday night?

[GoKnights68]

New top 25 is out.  Hope stays at #5 and Calvin drops back just one spot, from 9 to 10.



http://d3hoops.com/top25/

[Flying Dutch Fan]

Do you think Calvin gets an at large bid to the NCAA's if they lose to Hope two more times?  Once at home and once in the conference tournament?  How about if they lose an additional game along the way like St. Mary's on Wednesday night?

Scary questions - brings back memories of the Hope teams from 03-04 and 04-05.  Both of those teams finished 23-4 and did not make it to the tournament.

[WWWRHH]

Do you think Calvin gets an at large bid to the NCAA's if they lose to Hope two more times?  Once at home and once in the conference tournament?  How about if they lose an additional game along the way like St. Mary's on Wednesday night?

Scary questions - brings back memories of the Hope teams from 03-04 and 04-05.  Both of those teams finished 23-4 and did not make it to the tournament.

If Calvin losses two more times to Hope, but wins the rest of their MIAA games, I think they would receive an at large bid.  In that case their only losses would be against two other (likely) tornament teams.

However, if the Knights lose to another MIAA team and do not win the MIAA tournament they weaken their chances of receiving a bid. 

The D3 selection process places a lot of emphais on strength of schecule and opponents opponents strenthgh of schedule.  The relative weakness of the rest of MIAA in non-conference play, and with most of the league being under 500 in conference play, it is very difficult for second place teams to play in the post season.  A bad night or two can be very difficult to overcome due to the selection process.

This is not nessarily fair.  I think both Albions 2008 team and last year's St. Mary's team were better than the  opening round opponent Hope face thos years, but the quantitaive approach taken for filling the brackets works against tour conference.  Since it is difficult for the selection committee to really see most of the bubble teams play, the process  as designed is probably the best way to fill in the tournament overall, but it is tough on strong non-automatic qualifiers in weak conferences.  Calvin and Hope would be well seved if two or three other conference opponents could put together very strong non-conference records.

Disclaimer:  I do not think it is a given that Calvin falls to Hope  in the remaining contesst.  Hope did a great job of shutting down the inside in the first half of last game.  The Knights learned from that experience and made adjustments in the second half.  Based on last years  game at Calvin, the Knights are a tough team to face at home.  The w-l record of the last four years does not reflect how tough some of these games have  been.

[realist]

A key thing to remember is the NCAA really only takes into consideration the "in_region" games.   On the D3 SOS page it is showing Hope as 13-0 and Calvin is 10-1.  Carthage is not a factor for either team as it is not "in-region".
If Calvin were to lose it's next 2 games to Hope, but win all the others they could finish "in-region" at 18-3 for a .857 regional percentage.  We will know more next week once the regional rankings come out. 
For Calvin to beat Hope (even on their own floor) they need to play just about the perfect game.  Minimize turnovers.  Hope has a great team, excellent coach and players.  What Calvin's players need to realize is they only need to beat the 5 Hope players on the floor.  I know that is a tall order, but Calvin needs to forget the Hope "mystic", and play the best game they can.    

[sac]

New top 25 is out.  Hope stays at #5 and Calvin drops back just one spot, from 9 to 10.



http://d3hoops.com/top25/

Pleasantly surprised, well done by the voters.

[WWWRHH]

Realist you are right about in region and Carthage (that lake really messes with the logical application of in region).

The SOS number for Calvin is a relatively weak .490.  This number becomes very important for non-automatic conference qualifiers (usually the winner of the conference tournament).  Since all remaining games are within the MIAA it is more likely this number will go down than up.

Out of 430 teams, Hope has an SOS place of 106 and Calvin's is 294.  Bowdin is 13-3 in region, but has the highest SOS #.  Teams like that will have first shot for the B bids.

Since I do not expect the Knights to lose to any other conference opponents (other than Hope  ) I think their in region record and reputation will result in a tournament bid.  However, a loss to another MIAA team combined with two additional losses to Hope could place them in an uncomfortable bubble situation.

Of course, the same could be said for the Dutch in the event they lost three more games.

A recent example is 2007 when Hope had two season losses to Calvin plus a loss to Albion.  We will never know for sure, but the Dutch staff believed they had to win the (now infamous) MIAA tournament title game on the Knights home floor to make the NCAAs even though they had won the national championship the previous year. 

The selection process is complicated by the fact that most of spots are filled by automatic qualifiers.  A few upsets in the conferences with generally high SOS rankings can hurt very good teams that end up with low SOS numbers due to the conference schedule and difficulty of scheduling strong in region opponents.  Hope and Calvin contend with this situation every year.

With all that said, I think both teams will represent the MIAA in the post season.

[wwjjdd]

Carrie Snikkers did not start tonight's game against Trine, but get in a few short stints during the game.  She seemed to be running well; she did not get very involved in the offense, but her presense was immediately evident on defense.  It was just good to see her back in action.  She, of course, is the unknown factor in the next Hope-Calvin game, since she did not play in the win at De Vos.

[realist]

I saw her name in the box score.  Calvin could not win with her in street clothes, and if she is even at 50 or 75% not sure even with a perfect game they can get it done.