WBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletics Association

[Calvinhoops]

It's great for freshmen to get to know some teammates and to keep returners in shape.  Other than that, some players are going to be jv players and most teams use split squads and that's why it looks sloppy.  I like that the girls have to play more read and react since most teams don't run plays.

[calvinhoops2012]

Great input everyone - keeps me from being worried about the upcoming year.   

[Flying Dutch Fan]

One thing I can say for sure - there is very, very little if any correlation between how a team performs in summer league versus how they perform in season. I've watched men's summer leagues for years, and several of Hopes best teams looked pretty bad in the summer.

[bballfan13]

One thing I can say for sure - there is very, very little if any correlation between how a team performs in summer league versus how they perform in season. I've watched men's summer leagues for years, and several of Hopes best teams looked pretty bad in the summer.

Agreed.  Also, another thing to remember is that some schools have multiple teams in a summer league in order to get more playing time for their players.  Because of this you never know who is going to be playing on a team in a given night, so there is not much from a consistency perspective.

[calvinhoops2012]

Starting to get excited about the upcoming season, a little early I know.  Looking at some past and present Calvin stats and.....

CV is on track to break alot of records this year.  She could be tops on list in about every category.  Good for her and she deserves it.  She truly is an MVP for her team, league and D3.

Irwin is also on track to get in top 2 or 3 for total 3s made.

It looks like Thomas ended her career in the top 5 in made 3s, including one of the most important ones in Calvin womens bball history (sorry Hope fans).  Good for her.

[Calvinhoops]

Yes, Calvin has a lot to look forward to this year...the four seniors that came in together; Verkaik, Hilbrands, Wolffis and Irwin have had a great run and will give it one more shot...they will be missed.  Hope cannot be overlooked with Kussmaul returning and will be as good or better than last year.

[calvinhoops2012]

I agree and it will be nice to see Kussmaul back. I know everyone felt pretty bad that she could not play the majority of the season.

And with Ellis, Kust, as seniors too, they will want to finish careers with a MIAA title and trip to tourney.

Take CV out of discussions cuz she is just extraordinary and Hope's seniors might be as good if not better than Calvin's.

[Roundball999]

No doubt that Calvin is the league favorite based on CV and other returning players. 

Call me crazy but I think Hope could give them a tougher battle for the league title than last year.  It probably depends on how strong Kussmaul comes back and on the continuing development of a couple of the young players.  Ellis and Kust are returning 1st team all league and will no doubt be excellent.  Sophomore Llorens had a very nice year in the post as a frosh last year, winning a tourney MVP and a league player of the week.  Kelly finished the year especially strong and should fill minutes nicely for departed senior Cerone.  A surprise could be sophomore Doell, a 6'1" all court player who had a great game in the win over Calvin and was coming on strong when she was lost for the season with a broken arm.  6'1" senior Bauman adds more size and had the benefit of starting most of the year after Kussmaul went down.  Junior Overway is a solid all court player.

Some pieces have to come together, but if they do this group could make a strong run at Calvin.

[Flying Dutch Fan]

No doubt that Calvin is the league favorite based on CV and other returning players. 

Call me crazy but I think Hope could give them a tougher battle for the league title than last year.  It probably depends on how strong Kussmaul comes back and on the continuing development of a couple of the young players.  Ellis and Kust are returning 1st team all league and will no doubt be excellent.  Sophomore Llorens had a very nice year in the post as a frosh last year, winning a tourney MVP and a league player of the week.  Kelly finished the year especially strong and should fill minutes nicely for departed senior Cerone.  A surprise could be sophomore Doell, a 6'1" all court player who had a great game in the win over Calvin and was coming on strong when she was lost for the season with a broken arm.  6'1" senior Bauman adds more size and had the benefit of starting most of the year after Kussmaul went down.  Junior Overway is a solid all court player.

Some pieces have to come together, but if they do this group could make a strong run at Calvin.

Add the potential of Berry being back - her three point shooting as a Fr for the 10-11 season was impressive. 

[Roundball999]

No doubt that Calvin is the league favorite based on CV and other returning players. 

Call me crazy but I think Hope could give them a tougher battle for the league title than last year.  It probably depends on how strong Kussmaul comes back and on the continuing development of a couple of the young players.  Ellis and Kust are returning 1st team all league and will no doubt be excellent.  Sophomore Llorens had a very nice year in the post as a frosh last year, winning a tourney MVP and a league player of the week.  Kelly finished the year especially strong and should fill minutes nicely for departed senior Cerone.  A surprise could be sophomore Doell, a 6'1" all court player who had a great game in the win over Calvin and was coming on strong when she was lost for the season with a broken arm.  6'1" senior Bauman adds more size and had the benefit of starting most of the year after Kussmaul went down.  Junior Overway is a solid all court player.

Some pieces have to come together, but if they do this group could make a strong run at Calvin.

Add the potential of Berry being back - her three point shooting as a Fr for the 10-11 season was impressive. 

Good point; I hear that she is a very good shooter.

[Calvinhoops]

Ellis could be te best three point shooter in the conference too.....Hope will split the season series with Calvin and it will come down to the conference tourney again!  Calvin has a very challenging schedule that could bite them and they might NEED to win the conference tourney to get into the NCAAs.

[Roundball999]

Ellis could be te best three point shooter in the conference too.....Hope will split the season series with Calvin and it will come down to the conference tourney again!  Calvin has a very challenging schedule that could bite them and they might NEED to win the conference tourney to get into the NCAAs.

I think I'd give that to Irwin right now, but I wouldn't leave either of them open

Hope has a tough nonconference schedule too, including last year's #2 George Fox.  It would be a shame to think that one of these two fine teams would be left out of the tourney if they didn't win the league championship but it happened to Hope last year, top 20 all year but didn't make the 64 team tourney.  Very little margin for a slip given the way NCAA selects teams for the tourney...

[Flying Dutch Fan]

Shapping up to be another two team race - probably.  Anyone have any thoughts on the rest of the league?  Even if Hope & Calvin are the top, one of the other teams always seems to surprise one of the top teams.  Hope missed the NCAAs last year due to an inexplicable loss to Trine - IMHO.

[Roundball999]

Shapping up to be another two team race - probably.  Anyone have any thoughts on the rest of the league?  Even if Hope & Calvin are the top, one of the other teams always seems to surprise one of the top teams.  Hope missed the NCAAs last year due to an inexplicable loss to Trine - IMHO.

Agree that the Trine loss doomed Hope for NCAA.  Hope had a few MIAA squeakers and also a loss to Albion, while Calvin pretty much crushed everyone.

I do think it will be a two team race again; it was last year and both Calvin and Hope pretty much have more of their teams returning than anyone else. 

We don't really know anything about anyone's recruits, so an impact frosh somewhere could shake things up.  Of the rest of the league, I'm thinking Olivet could make a run for the top of the 2nd tier based on having everyone back and some "good losses" to tough teams last year.  Trine might also be there, they had a hot start last year and have a veteran team returning and new coach Steve Mix.  Adrian lost leading scorer Ross but have lots of balance returning.  Albion will be tough but may slip based on huge graduation losses of Rewa and Dennis.  St. Mary's was tough last year but graduated their top four scorers.  I'm less familiar with some of the others but if I had to pick now I'd say:

Calvin
Hope

Olivet
Adrian
Trine
Albion

[oldtimer1937]

Seems like Adrian will be a good test for both teams this upcoming season.

Both teams barely won last year when playing at Adrian.  Hope won with an late Ellis three and Calvin won with a late Thomas steal.

Alot of the Adrian scoring and impact plays seemed to come from other players besides senior Ross.

It would be nice to see a third team in the mix.