WBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletics Association

[almcguirejr]

Dave McHugh had Brian Morehouse on last night.  Morehouse spends some time talking about his own team and quite a bit of time talking about Calvin's team also. Morehouse comes on at 41:45.

http://www.d3hoops.com/hoopsville/archives/2014-15/mar8

[Pat Coleman]

Just announced that Calvin is hosting next weekend.

Looks like Montclair St. is hosting too.  The other two sites not yet identified on the bracket.

These are good things to follow D3hoops.com on Twitter, or read the front page of the site to learn.

[bballforever]

Thanks for the link.  Great Morehouse interview.  You had to laugh (or cry) about his comments about losing to Calvin three times.  Very honest and heartful hurt.  Probably the same emotions Ross would have if in the same position.

[Flying Dutch Fan]

Great piece done by TV 8 on Brittany Berry - very inspiring!

http://woodtv.com/2015/03/09/overcoming-obstacles-for-record-setting-career/

Pat - might be worthy of some "front page" press

[almcguirejr]

Great piece done by TV 8 on Brittany Berry - very inspiring!

http://woodtv.com/2015/03/09/overcoming-obstacles-for-record-setting-career/

Pat - might be worthy of some "front page" press

Thanks for the link, great story.

[Roundball999]

With strong results both teams gained a little Massey power. Here are the remaining games for Calvin (assuming faves win, all games are at home):

DePauw (84%)
George Fox (51%)
Montclair St (85%)
St Thomas (63%)

That gives Calvin a 43% chance of the final four, 23% chance of national championship.

Hope would face

St Thomas (35%)
Thomas More (35%)
Tufts (46%)
George Fox (24%)

Now Massey says there is a 12% chance of getting to the final four and 1.3% chance of a national championship--quite a jump.

The chance for Hope-Calvin IV in the national finals is up to 2%. 

[Edit: Hope numbers corrected: see comment below. Not quite as impressive a jump for Hope.]

Looks like Massey entered some new data, Hope has jumped to #7 in their ratings and probabilities have changed.  It's now:

St Thomas (42%)
Thomas More (36%)
Tufts (53%)
George Fox (27%)

meaning Hope at 15% for Final Four and 2.2% for championship.  Splitting hairs but going in the right direction

Massey has St. Thomas as a 3 point favorite over Hope Friday and Calvin now as a 10 point favorite with an 84% win probability over DePauw.

[almcguirejr]

John Ross interview with a Depauw radio station:

http://www.parkerschwartz.com/?page_id=25

[Flying Dutch Fan]

Hope v St Thomas statistical comparison

Offense	% 2pt	% 3pt	% FT
Hope	43.2	33.1	64.5
St Thomas	53.9	34.6	74
Defense	% 2pt	% 3pt
Hope	35.8	28.5
St Thomas	37.3	27.7
Rebounding	Team	Opp	Margin
Hope	43.2	41.6	1.6
St Thomas	38.7	27.6	11.1
Scoring	Team	Opp	Margin
Hope	70.9	55.3	15.6
St Thomas	69.9	47.7	22.2
3 point shooting	Attempts	Made	Made/game
Hope	580	192	6.6
St Thomas	530	173	6
Blocks	Total	per game
Hope	131	4.5
St Thomas	102	3.5
Steals	Total	per game
Hope	361	12.4
St Thomas	234	8.1
Turnovers	Total	per game
Hope	466	16.1
St Thomas	406	14
Assists	Total	per game
Hope	470	16.2
St Thomas	456	15.7
Assist/Turnover
Hope	1.01
St Thomas	1.12

[northb]

With strong results both teams gained a little Massey power. Here are the remaining games for Calvin (assuming faves win, all games are at home):

DePauw (84%)
George Fox (51%)
Montclair St (85%)
St Thomas (63%)

That gives Calvin a 43% chance of the final four, 23% chance of national championship.

Hope would face

St Thomas (35%)
Thomas More (35%)
Tufts (46%)
George Fox (24%)

Now Massey says there is a 12% chance of getting to the final four and 1.3% chance of a national championship--quite a jump.

The chance for Hope-Calvin IV in the national finals is up to 2%.

[Edit: Hope numbers corrected: see comment below. Not quite as impressive a jump for Hope.]

Looks like Massey entered some new data, Hope has jumped to #7 in their ratings and probabilities have changed.  It's now:

St Thomas (42%)
Thomas More (36%)
Tufts (53%)
George Fox (27%)

meaning Hope at 15% for Final Four and 2.2% for championship.  Splitting hairs but going in the right direction

Massey has St. Thomas as a 3 point favorite over Hope Friday and Calvin now as a 10 point favorite with an 84% win probability over DePauw.

Chances of Hope Calvin IV drop to 0.00% as Hope loses to St. Thomas 47-55.

[almcguirejr]

Greencastle Banner-Graphic article:

http://www.bannergraphic.com/story/2175541.html

[Dark Knight]

With no major upsets so far, all the top 8 seeds of the tournament are in still there for this round. Now it gets really interesting. Two meetings of unbeaten teams and a total of 5 losses among the 8 remaining teams.

Apparently, Calvin and George Fox play a similar style of basketball, although GFU seems to steal the ball during half-court defense more than Calvin does. GFU's turnover margin is 2 better than Calvin's, but Calvin shoots three pointers slightly better, at 34.9% compared to 32.7%. Calvin's overall field goal percentage is also slightly higher, at 45.4 vs. 43.7. Calvin passes more, with 21.1 assists per game to GFU's 13.9.

George Fox has 8 players averaging 10+ minutes per game, with the starters averaging 23.8. Calvin has 9 players averaging 10+ minutes, with the starter averaging 22.0. Last night GFU's starters averaged 25.8 minutes to Calvins' 29.6.

George Fox has a post player averaging 12 points and 11 rebounds per game. Might that be a problem for the knights, who don't have as much height in the post? On the other hand, she played 38 minutes last night and could be tired.

Massey now has Calvin as a 1.6 point favorite, with a 56% chance of winning.

Its essentially a tossup. Should be quite a game!

[oldknight]

It's pretty special to have Calvin host Round of 16 and quarterfinal games, giving us the opportunity to see good teams from around the country we don't normally see. The UTD vs George Fox matchup was an interesting warmup with each team having opportunities to come away with a win. In the end George Fox's superior depth and ball pressure forced key turnovers down the stretch and that was the difference maker. I was impressed with UTD's fan support as the team from Texas turned out a very nice fan base to add some energy to the arena. It was nice of UTD to bring along sunshine and warm weather to Michigan.

The nightcap was the type of game I expected. DePauw has a solid, well-disciplined club that learned—over the course of 40 minutes of play—how to be patient and attack how Calvin defends. As the game progressed the visitors from the Hoosier state began to take advantage of defensive breakdowns and overplays by Lady Knights defenders. Douglas and Trees are terrific perimeter players who really know how to take on a one-on-one defender with dribble penetration, and down the stretch scored several big baskets late in the shot clock. As a team, the Tigers made only one second half turnover and that's amazing given Calvin's constant ball pressure.

However, the value of playing a 94 foot game isn't entirely premised on generating turnovers. On most possessions DePauw was simply unable to set up their offense until they only had 15 seconds left on the shot clock meaning that any failure of execution in the half court left the visitors with a poor scoring opportunity late in the shot clock and that, as much as anything explains DePauw's poor shooting (34%). Calvin simply shot the ball better, especially from the arc, and that was the biggest difference in the two teams. DePauw was playing from behind pretty much the whole game, and I thought some fatigue showed in the final minutes when they came up empty on several critical possessions after cutting the Calvin lead to six points. Every DePauw starter logged at least 31 minutes while John Ross, as usual, ran in waves of defenders throughout.

Tonight's final presents an interesting challenge for the Lady Knights. Like Calvin, George Fox tends to pressure the ball a lot, in both the full court and the half court, and to force the ball handler to pick up her dribble by utilizing double teams. I've never seen the Bruins play before and knew nothing about them coming in but I had that sneaking suspicion last night that they underperformed in the game against UTD. That concerns me going into tonight. Like Calvin, GF plays a lot of players but they aren't as big as expected and got seriously outboarded by UTD who often beat George Fox to the ball. Calvin's inside game may have an opportunity here and may have to play well in order to advance. Other game notes:

--DePauw did a terrific job on Breanna Verkaik who had few good opportunities to score. But the senior from Holland showed her mettle by never appearing frustrated and contributed in other ways, particularly by distributing the ball. She was credited with 4 assists, a number that seems low to me.

--A second straight All-Star performance by point guard Kayla Englehard who had an impressive double/double with 23 points and a game high 11 rebounds. It's hard to overstate her contribution to last night's win and her physical strength was something DePauw simply couldn't match.

--Frosh Bre Luurtsma is easily overlooked since she doesn't score much. I saw her play several times in high school and she's an extremely hard working young lady who is very athletic and runs the floor well. Her ability to guard multiple positions is very valuable and if she's assigned to you, you're going to get a workout.

[calvin_grad]

George Fox's quickness, offensive rebounding, and ability to take Calvin out of anything they wanted to do offensively just too much to overcome tonight.  78-63 George Fox

[oldknight]

Like Calvin, GF plays a lot of players but they aren't as big as expected and got seriously outboarded by UTD who often beat George Fox to the ball. Calvin's inside game may have an opportunity here and may have to play well in order to advance.

Well; that's the last time I take George Fox to task for their poor rebounding. The Bruins simply annihilated Calvin on the boards, 41-27, including 14 huge offensive rebounds, and that was the biggest difference between the two teams. Calvin did miss a lot of shots that were almost in the basket but the visitors are an excellent defensive team. I can see why GF only gave up 70 points twice this season as they are extremely good at cutting off passing lanes, rotate well and contest everything. Certainly a worthy Final Four participant. I'm just curious if they will stay in Grand Rapids this week. I don't see much point in having them fly to Portland Sunday and then fly back mid-week. Other game notes:

--Like Jordan Brink on the men's side, Breanna Verkaik ended her brilliant career with a loss and a less than satisfying final game performance. The senior never had an open look all night going 2-6 from the floor and scoring just 6 points. George Fox was well prepared to defend Verkaik's 3 point shooting ability and John Ross eventualy had to move Breanna to the post just to try and get her some looks at the basket. She was never in sync but that shouldn't overshadow a terrific career.

--Jami Morris was named MOP and was worthy of it, but to me Justine Benner was the key player for GF. She's an extremely capable player who knows how to play the post, and plays bigger than her listed size. 27 points and 8 boards is hard to overlook and Calvin couldn't guard her.

--Kayla Engelhard had a tough start to the game and certainly didn't play as well as she did her last two games, but her second half was excellent, scoring 14 points after the intermission and she played a better floor game. Her bulldog tenacity will be missed.

--Frosh Ali Spayde seems to be the person destined to take over at point next season for the Lady Knights. Based on what I've seen from her the last two weeks, she's ready for that role.

[gordonmann]

Jami Morris was named MOP...

I didn't know that there was a Most Outstanding Player named for each sectional. Is that new or has it always happened?

Congrats to the Knights on a great run. If anyone still plans on taking in the games this weekend, stop by and say hello. I'll be the bald, pale, goateed guy in a suit. I'm not expecting many of those.