WBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletics Association

[Flying Dutch Fan]

Gone is the ability to run teams out of the gym through whole line changes and playing 10 players deep. It will be weird to see Hope players tired in the fourth quarter

So you are assuming that Coach Mo is going to change his style of play.    Given that since the 2000-2001 season there have been 128 players see the floor for Hope, and a grand total of 12 of them have ever averaged 25 min or more for a single season (including multiple AAs who never exceeded that number), I rather doubt it.  He recruits to fits his style of play, not adjusts his style to fit his players.  The 10 player rotation is so much about defense and intensity and scoring in transition that I just don't see him chnaging.  Recruits know that is what they are coming to, and they come to play in that. 

[HOPEful]

Gone is the ability to run teams out of the gym through whole line changes and playing 10 players deep. It will be weird to see Hope players tired in the fourth quarter

So you are assuming that Coach Mo is going to change his style of play.    Given that since the 2000-2001 season there have been 128 players see the floor for Hope, and a grand total of 12 of them have ever averaged 25 min or more for a single season (including multiple AAs who never exceeded that number), I rather doubt it.  He recruits to fits his style of play, not adjusts his style to fit his players.  The 10 player rotation is so much about defense and intensity and scoring in transition that I just don't see him chnaging.  Recruits know that is what they are coming to, and they come to play in that.

Agreed. Tired in the fourth was an over-reaction. But last year the difference between the starters and "chaos crew" was minimal. This year, I think the strategy around the rotation will have to be a lot more nuanced than just an all out line change.

[TUAngola]

Trine with exhibition game against Hillsdale College tonight.  Will report back with observations...maybe .

[TUAngola]

Trine with exhibition game against Hillsdale College tonight.  Will report back with observations...maybe .

Exhibition final:  Hillsdale 62 Trine 61.  Tied at end of 1st quarter, Trine up 3 at half, tied at end of 3rd quarter.  Some encouraging play from the ladies and some not so pretty.  Hillsdale with some really good shooters and a D1 transfer post player that is very physical and can finish.

Random observations;
Starters were Ardis, Argyle, Tate, K Sloneker, and Underhill.  Next 5 were Wagner, Hinds, Walters, S Sloneker and Sanner.
Tate is soph transfer and Walters and Sanner freshmen.  Other 7 who played were on the roster last year.
No individual scoring kept.  Wagner was easily the leading scorer, she was impressive.  Hinds was probably the most improved.
If tonight is any indication we won't have the 'platoon system' of years past, my guess is that 8 of the first 10 will get the most minutes.
Defense is still our calling card.  Offense will be a work in progress.
Injury bug is hitting us in preseason, couple girls sat out, one looked like it may be an extensive injury if not season ending.

[TUAngola]

Trine opens the new season with a dominanting win over Benedictine last night 77-34.  New team, same stifling defense.  I wish our men's team could play defense like the women. .  For the first game with some new starters and new rotations I was pleasantly surprised that we played this well.  I was expecting more from BenU, maybe they graduated most of their scorers from last year.  It was 41-11 at half and then we cruised from there.  It was a coming out party for soph Sierra Hinds who finished with 17 pts in 16 minutes off the bench.  She can shoot it and also has a good mid range game as well.  Our bench outscored our starters 43-34.  I thought point guard Makayla Ardis had a good floor game, she's pretty physical for 5'6.  But not as physical as Sydney Wagner, she snared a rebound and then went 'coast to coast' with a bucket at the rim with an 'and one' that was pretty sweet. 

The girls will now go on the road to play a very good ranked Baldwin Wallace squad on Friday.  It will be interesting to see how they handle adversity on the road against a NCAA tournament tough team.

[TUAngola]

Kelsey Taylor with 10 pts and 8 reb in her D1 debut with the Butler Bulldogs tonight.  Awesome KT!!

I checked North Dakota's box score the other night and doesn't look like Tara got into the game.

[HOPEful]

The girls will now go on the road to play a very good ranked Baldwin Wallace squad on Friday.  It will be interesting to see how they handle adversity on the road against a NCAA tournament tough team.

It will also be interesting to see how BW handles not having Lilly Edwards. I can't imagine BW's offense without her, as their entire offensive strategy last season was to feed Lilly. I personally predict the Thunder to win in a blowout, with the BW offense stagnant and unable to do anything against the Thunder's defense.

[Dutchfan]

The Hope women defeated Geneva 143-57. The 143 points eclipsed the 139 points the men put up in 2018-19 in a game against North Park U. to set the record for most points in a game by any Hope basketball team.

[Dutchfan]

The Hope women defeated Geneva 143-57. The 143 points eclipsed the 139 points the men put up in 2018-19 in a game against North Park U. to set the record for most points in a game by any Hope basketball team.

It is also a new Division 3 women's basketball record, breaking the previous record of 142 set by Huntington in 2019.

[Dutchfan]

Image being on the Trinity (TX) Women's Basketball team, your team scores 140 points and it's not even the highest score of the day.

[pointlem]

The Hope women defeated Geneva 143-57. The 143 points eclipsed the 139 points the men put up in 2018-19 in a game against North Park U. to set the record for most points in a game by any Hope basketball team.

And not like Hope was running up the score (with starters averaging but 12 minutes). In the first quarter, Hope's speed consistently broke through Geneva's ineffective full court press to yield easy, quick layups--and 43 first quarter points.

Hope's 2022-2023 team--sans its four star grads from last year--will get a much better test against IWU this afternoon.

[Flying Dutch Fan]

Couple of points/thoughts

- The Hope men did score 139 in 18-19 but that was against Greenville (played at North Park). The only reason I point that out is that Greenville is a "system" team (like Grinnell) and their philosophy is to get you to score 2pts quickly so they can hoist another 3. It's more complicated than that of course, but it's a system that leads to ridiculously high scores (Greenville scored 129 on Hope that game). While Geneva likes to push the pace and press, they are definitely not a system team. Last night was simply an offensive explosion by Hope all the way down the bench.

- At the end of the first Q I took a peak at the stats. Hope had scored 43 point on 17-20 FG and they had 3 offensive rebounds. So zero trips down the floor without scoring. Talk about offensive efficiency - just wow!!  Going to be interesting to calculate the Hope efficiency numbers for that game.

- Now on to IWU - a team that will certainly be a stiff challenge for Hope. They seem to play a similar game to Hope - relentless defensive pressure that fuels quick scoring opportunities. Looking forward to a good game.

[scottiedawg]

Sheesh this isn't competitive.  And I bet IWU is a top 30 team.

[pointlem]

Sheesh this isn't competitive.  And I bet IWU is a top 30 team.

Well, it was competitive--a 66 to 66 tie--for the last 3 quarters, which might suggest that if these two teams were to meet again it could be a close context. But as on Friday night, Hope had a blow-out first quarter, where their 26 point (33 to 7) margin was the final margin.

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:

• They still play the well-coordinated Morehouse fast-paced offense and intense defense, and with more bench depth than most of their competition.
• Savannah Feenstra, who was out with an ACL tear during last year's tournament run, appears to be recovering and with playing minutes likely to grow.
• 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)

All in all, a great start to what looks like another exciting season.

[Roundball999]

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.