WBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletics Association

[Flying Dutch Fan]

Hope women are hosting again!!

[Enginerd]

Told you Trine would win.
Don't think they are quite deep enough or dynamic enough to win it all - but they are a legit Final Four team.
...but once they get there...who knows?

[Roundball999]

Told you Trine would win.
Don't think they are quite deep enough or dynamic enough to win it all - but they are a legit Final Four team.
...but once they get there...who knows?

You didn't have to convince me.  As a Hope fan, I knew how tough they are.  They returned everyone who was on the team that beat IWU last year and to my eyes, they've improved by a fair bit since then.  It just didn't figure to me that they'd lose this year to IWU, even on their home court.  But IWU is a great team and on any given night....

The Thunder were dead even with Amherst entering the 4th quarter earlier this year so yeah, I think they can play with anyone.  At this point everyone is good and it often comes down to something simple, like the team that gets a hot hand.

Good luck to the Hope women too, their chance to avenge being knocked out by CNU last year.

[HOPEful]

Way to go Dutch and Thunder! The NCAA did Trine 0 favors by giving them the stretch of games against the #12, #14, #2, #6 teams in the country... just to reach the final four.

Hope, in contrast got an unranked, unranked, #18, #3, all at DeVos.

I do LOVE that the NCAA got them on opposite sides of the bracket. I never like seeing conference rivals meet early in the playoffs. Only way for the Hope and Trine to get a 4th meeting is in Rochester!

[Roundball999]

Way to go Dutch and Thunder! The NCAA did Trine 0 favors by giving them the stretch of games against the #12, #14, #2, #6 teams in the country... just to reach the final four.

Hope, in contrast got an unranked, unranked, #18, #3, all at DeVos.

I do LOVE that the NCAA got them on opposite sides of the bracket. I never like seeing conference rivals meet early in the playoffs. Only way for the Hope and Trine to get a 4th meeting is in Rochester!

Clearly there's not much difference between Trine and Hope.  The NCAA bracket does though graphically illustrate the value of Hope winning 2 of 3 and more importantly the conference tournament with AQ.  And I'm sure both teams are happy that they won't have to meet again unless they are fortunate enough to make it to Rochester.

[Dutchfan]

Way to go Dutch and Thunder! The NCAA did Trine 0 favors by giving them the stretch of games against the #12, #14, #2, #6 teams in the country... just to reach the final four.

Hope, in contrast got an unranked, unranked, #18, #3, all at DeVos.

I do LOVE that the NCAA got them on opposite sides of the bracket. I never like seeing conference rivals meet early in the playoffs. Only way for the Hope and Trine to get a 4th meeting is in Rochester!

Clearly there's not much difference between Trine and Hope.  The NCAA bracket does though graphically illustrate the value of Hope winning 2 of 3 and more importantly the conference tournament with AQ.  And I'm sure both teams are happy that they won't have to meet again unless they are fortunate enough to make it to Rochester.

In order for Hope and Trine to meet, Hope will likely have to knock off no.1 Amherst in the semi-finals.

[Swish3]

Way to go Dutch and Thunder! The NCAA did Trine 0 favors by giving them the stretch of games against the #12, #14, #2, #6 teams in the country... just to reach the final four.

Hope, in contrast got an unranked, unranked, #18, #3, all at DeVos.

I do LOVE that the NCAA got them on opposite sides of the bracket. I never like seeing conference rivals meet early in the playoffs. Only way for the Hope and Trine to get a 4th meeting is in Rochester!

Clearly there's not much difference between Trine and Hope.  The NCAA bracket does though graphically illustrate the value of Hope winning 2 of 3 and more importantly the conference tournament with AQ.  And I'm sure both teams are happy that they won't have to meet again unless they are fortunate enough to make it to Rochester.

In order for Hope and Trine to meet, Hope will likely have to knock off no.1 Amherst in the semi-finals.

...and hope that Hope doesn't get knocked off trying to get there.  The Flying Dutch will have home court advantage, but CNU and More are no slouches, particularly More.

[Flying Dutch Fan]

Way to go Dutch and Thunder! The NCAA did Trine 0 favors by giving them the stretch of games against the #12, #14, #2, #6 teams in the country... just to reach the final four.

Hope, in contrast got an unranked, unranked, #18, #3, all at DeVos.

I do LOVE that the NCAA got them on opposite sides of the bracket. I never like seeing conference rivals meet early in the playoffs. Only way for the Hope and Trine to get a 4th meeting is in Rochester!

Reminiscent of Hope's national championship run in 2006, although they did get to start with an unranked team (but also played all 6 games on the road).  That year in the NCAAs Hope defeated:

Denison (unranked)
Capital #10
Wash U #3
DePauw #4
Scranton #2
Southern Maine #1

[pointlem]

Way to go Dutch and Thunder! The NCAA did Trine 0 favors by giving them the stretch of games against the #12, #14, #2, #6 teams in the country... just to reach the final four.

Hope, in contrast got an unranked, unranked, #18, #3, all at DeVos.

I do LOVE that the NCAA got them on opposite sides of the bracket. I never like seeing conference rivals meet early in the playoffs. Only way for the Hope and Trine to get a 4th meeting is in Rochester!

Clearly there's not much difference between Trine and Hope.  The NCAA bracket does though graphically illustrate the value of Hope winning 2 of 3 and more importantly the conference tournament with AQ.  And I'm sure both teams are happy that they won't have to meet again unless they are fortunate enough to make it to Rochester.

In order for Hope and Trine to meet, Hope will likely have to knock off no.1 Amherst in the semi-finals.

...and hope that Hope doesn't get knocked off trying to get there.  The Flying Dutch will have home court advantage, but CNU and More are no slouches, particularly More.

Indeed, I see that CNU not only beat Hope in the tournament last year en route to the Final Four, but also graduated no one with significant playing minutes from that team. And Thomas More is #3 ranked team, ahead of Hope.

[Flying Dutch Fan]

Way to go Dutch and Thunder! The NCAA did Trine 0 favors by giving them the stretch of games against the #12, #14, #2, #6 teams in the country... just to reach the final four.

Hope, in contrast got an unranked, unranked, #18, #3, all at DeVos.

I do LOVE that the NCAA got them on opposite sides of the bracket. I never like seeing conference rivals meet early in the playoffs. Only way for the Hope and Trine to get a 4th meeting is in Rochester!

Clearly there's not much difference between Trine and Hope.  The NCAA bracket does though graphically illustrate the value of Hope winning 2 of 3 and more importantly the conference tournament with AQ.  And I'm sure both teams are happy that they won't have to meet again unless they are fortunate enough to make it to Rochester.

In order for Hope and Trine to meet, Hope will likely have to knock off no.1 Amherst in the semi-finals.

...and hope that Hope doesn't get knocked off trying to get there.  The Flying Dutch will have home court advantage, but CNU and More are no slouches, particularly More.

Indeed, I see that CNU not only beat Hope in the tournament last year en route to the Final Four, but also graduated no one with significant playing minutes from that team. And Thomas More is #3 ranked team, ahead of Hope.

And Thomas More was "upset" by Hope in the tournament last year

[Swish3]

Way to go Dutch and Thunder! The NCAA did Trine 0 favors by giving them the stretch of games against the #12, #14, #2, #6 teams in the country... just to reach the final four.

Hope, in contrast got an unranked, unranked, #18, #3, all at DeVos.

I do LOVE that the NCAA got them on opposite sides of the bracket. I never like seeing conference rivals meet early in the playoffs. Only way for the Hope and Trine to get a 4th meeting is in Rochester!

Clearly there's not much difference between Trine and Hope.  The NCAA bracket does though graphically illustrate the value of Hope winning 2 of 3 and more importantly the conference tournament with AQ.  And I'm sure both teams are happy that they won't have to meet again unless they are fortunate enough to make it to Rochester.

In order for Hope and Trine to meet, Hope will likely have to knock off no.1 Amherst in the semi-finals.

...and hope that Hope doesn't get knocked off trying to get there.  The Flying Dutch will have home court advantage, but CNU and More are no slouches, particularly More.

Indeed, I see that CNU not only beat Hope in the tournament last year en route to the Final Four, but also graduated no one with significant playing minutes from that team. And Thomas More is #3 ranked team, ahead of Hope.

Yes, CNU made a very nice run last year and returned virtually everyone...unfortunately, though, I think they underperformed in a couple of big games this season.  They actually played More on a neutral court before Christmas, and were handled easily...I'm sure More is better than CNU, but not 30 points better.  They also blew a 5 point lead w/50 seconds to go at Marymount, which was for the conference tournament championship...of course, prior to that game, they lost at home on senior night w/a chance at hosting the conference tourney on the line.  So, they've had a few hiccups along the way, given such high expectations...we'll see if they can redeem themselves a bit this weekend...it will be tough, but they're capable.   

[gordonmann]

Looking forward to getting off the east coast of the Division III landscape and covering the games at Wartburg's sectional this weekend. If there are any fans from Trine who want to stop by and say hello, please do.

[Flying Dutch Fan]

Looking forward to getting off the east coast of the Division III landscape and covering the games at Wartburg's sectional this weekend. If there are any fans from Trine who want to stop by and say hello, please do.

Anyone from "The Mothership of D3" coming to Holland this weekend?

[Roundball999]

Way to go Dutch and Thunder! The NCAA did Trine 0 favors by giving them the stretch of games against the #12, #14, #2, #6 teams in the country... just to reach the final four.

Hope, in contrast got an unranked, unranked, #18, #3, all at DeVos.

I do LOVE that the NCAA got them on opposite sides of the bracket. I never like seeing conference rivals meet early in the playoffs. Only way for the Hope and Trine to get a 4th meeting is in Rochester!

Clearly there's not much difference between Trine and Hope.  The NCAA bracket does though graphically illustrate the value of Hope winning 2 of 3 and more importantly the conference tournament with AQ.  And I'm sure both teams are happy that they won't have to meet again unless they are fortunate enough to make it to Rochester.

In order for Hope and Trine to meet, Hope will likely have to knock off no.1 Amherst in the semi-finals.

...and hope that Hope doesn't get knocked off trying to get there.  The Flying Dutch will have home court advantage, but CNU and More are no slouches, particularly More.

At this level of the tournament, I think any team can lose on a given night.  Hope knocked off undefeated More last year on More's home court.  In the next round Hope lost to CNU on a neutral court; this year they'll have home court advantage at Devos.  But I'm not predicting Hope wins by any stretch, just that they've shown they are capable of winning these games. 

[TUAngola]

Trine vs. Wartburg in the postseason...AGAIN!  (Trine lost to Wartburg in the D3 football playoffs this past fall...they are our nemesis!! )

Obviously Wartburg is an outstanding team, you have to be special to go thru the grind of a season undefeated.  Ranked #2 in the nation.  Other than that I don't know much about their team so I went to their athletics page and read all I could on them.  Play in the IIAC, western region team (to me Iowa isn't west but to D3 it is).  Starting lineup appears to be very senior dominated.  Katie Sommer was player of the year in the IIAC and has scored over 1400 pts in her career at Wartburg.  Their schedule didn't appear to be too challenging, however they did play UW Whitewater and won.  They are a pretty good offensive team, average 78 ppg, can shoot it well, get to the FT line way more than their opponents, outrebound, create more turnovers, really do everything very well.  They had around 3 or 4 close games, but other than that won all pretty handily. 

They completely demolished their opponents in the tournament so far, 86-45 over Webster and 82-58 over #12 George Fox.  Looks like the key for Trine is to not let Wartburg get off to a fast start.  If we can stay with them the 1st quarter we might have a shot to be there at the end.  Dawson needs to stay out of foul trouble and we'll need big contributions from other gals besides Dawson and Haley Martin like we did against IWU.   

If anyone has seen Wartburg play this year please feel free to give us a scouting report.  Doesn't sound like they have any weaknesses at all.