WBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletics Association

[HOPEful]

After last night's game, Calvin is now 37-12 over the last two seasons. Of those 12 losses, 5 are to Hope and 3 are to Trine. Or... they are an incredible 37-4 against teams not from Holland or Angola. Last season, they went 19-2 against teams that didn't make the final four (0-6 against Whitewater, Hope, and Trine).

That's all my long-winded lead-in to saying that this is a very good, well coached Calvin team.

[Roundball999]

After last night's game, Calvin is now 37-12 over the last two seasons. Of those 12 losses, 5 are to Hope and 3 are to Trine. Or... they are an incredible 37-4 against teams not from Holland or Angola. Last season, they went 19-2 against teams that didn't make the final four (0-6 against Whitewater, Hope, and Trine).

That's all my long-winded lead-in to saying that this is a very good, well coached Calvin team.

Agreed.  MIAA is certainly much more interesting than 5+ years ago when it was Calvin and Hope, or Hope and Calvin, then everyone else.  Trine seems to be a fixture now near the top of the league and for several years Albion has given those top 3 some real challenges as well.

[pointlem]

A well-played (by both teams) Hope-Calvin game last evening. I love Hope's offense—with Meg Morehouse always ripping up court, pushing the ball up to a racing wing, even at the risk of a turnover . . . and then players frequently driving the lane—risking a turnover, a missed layup, or a blocked shot, but also making baskets, drawing fouls, and distributing the ball to an open 3-point shooter (and why not, given their nation-leading 39% 3-point percentage, not to mention their overall nation-leading shooting percentage).
3-pt stats: https://www.ncaa.com/stats/basketball-women/d3/current/team/118 
overall shooting stats: https://www.ncaa.com/stats/basketball-women/d3/current/team/114

Even with the graduation of most of last year's national championship starters, including a dominant, shot-blocking/altering center, this year's team—led by last year's bench—is achieving its potential. Moreover, they always look like they're having great fun. Kudos to the coaches and players.

[jspiii]

At one point in the 3rd quarter, Hope had a rotation of one senior (Morehouse), one sophomore (Garner) and 3 freshman (Sietsma, Karlblom & Kaiser). Sietsma did get schooled a few times by Gaby Timmer though. Learning under pressure. Loved it!

[HOPEful]

Sietsma did get schooled a few times by Gaby Timmer though. Learning under pressure. Loved it!

I mean... if Gabby isn't taking advantage of the freshman, Calvin's not doing it right

I thought after last season, there was no way this year's team would come anywhere close to that level of play. And they've surpassed my expectations. I'm not sure if any of the seniors intend to return for a 5th year, but assuming not, losing Meg, Claire, Kate, Ella, and Savannah would elicit the same response. But if Garner, Sietsema, Karlblom, Kaiser, and Jemison want to prove me wrong once again, I'll be ok with it.

[Flying Dutch Fan]

First regional rankings are out (at least on the NCAA website):

https://www.ncaa.com/rankings/basketball-women/d3/regional-rankings-0

The first one is just in alphabetical order.  Hope, Trine, and Calvin are all ranked in region 7.  I did a quick check of schedules to get to a vRRO (versus Regionaly Ranked Opponent) record for each - since that comes into play in the next rankings which will be "seeded".  Here is what I found

Record vRRO
Hope 4-1
Trine 3-4
Calvin 1-3

The Trine @ Calvin game on Saturday has significant implications - not only only the MIAA race & tournament seeding, but also relative to vRRO.  Ultimately who gets inot the NCAA tournament may come down to vRRO results.

[sac]

After last night's game, Calvin is now 37-12 over the last two seasons. Of those 12 losses, 5 are to Hope and 3 are to Trine. Or... they are an incredible 37-4 against teams not from Holland or Angola. Last season, they went 19-2 against teams that didn't make the final four (0-6 against Whitewater, Hope, and Trine).

That's all my long-winded lead-in to saying that this is a very good, well coached Calvin team.

Agreed.  MIAA is certainly much more interesting than 5+ years ago when it was Calvin and Hope, or Hope and Calvin, then everyone else.  Trine seems to be a fixture now near the top of the league and for several years Albion has given those top 3 some real challenges as well.

This is easily the most interesting women's title race in at least Mo's time at Hope, possibly in the leagues history.  Four NCAA quality teams

Hope was 2 full games back of Trine on Jan 14, they've all but clinched a share of the championship in less than a month with 3 games remaining against teams they've beaten by 57, 46 and 56.  Quite a turnaround.


All four teams seem capable of wining the league tournament and making a run at a 2nd weekend in the NCAA.

[TUAngola]

After last night's game, Calvin is now 37-12 over the last two seasons. Of those 12 losses, 5 are to Hope and 3 are to Trine. Or... they are an incredible 37-4 against teams not from Holland or Angola. Last season, they went 19-2 against teams that didn't make the final four (0-6 against Whitewater, Hope, and Trine).

That's all my long-winded lead-in to saying that this is a very good, well coached Calvin team.

Agreed.  MIAA is certainly much more interesting than 5+ years ago when it was Calvin and Hope, or Hope and Calvin, then everyone else.  Trine seems to be a fixture now near the top of the league and for several years Albion has given those top 3 some real challenges as well.

This is easily the most interesting women's title race in at least Mo's time at Hope, possibly in the leagues history.  Four NCAA quality teams

Hope was 2 full games back of Trine on Jan 14, they've all but clinched a share of the championship in less than a month with 3 games remaining against teams they've beaten by 57, 46 and 56.  Quite a turnaround.


All four teams seem capable of wining the league tournament and making a run at a 2nd weekend in the NCAA.

Trine's been in the mix for at least 7+ years, going back to the end of 2016 is when they started realizing they can play with the Hope's and Calvin's.  Getting a gal of Brandi Dawson's caliber to come to Trine was huge, and it has snowballed from there.  Also the coaching has been very good since that time too, first with Ryan Gould (terminated/let go) and now Andy Rang (who was on Ryan's staff).

Losing Sam Underhill to a season ending knee surgery in late December was devastating for Trine.  We just don't have the inside presence that we had before, especially defense and rebounding.  With Sam in the lineup we don't lose that second game with Albion. 

I am heading up to Grand Rapids Saturday to watch the Trine/Calvin twinbill, WBB & MBB.  Both have MIAA seeding implications, and maybe even whether Trine gets into the Dance if they don't win the MIAA post season tournament.  Do I feel good about either game?  Honestly no, the Calvin ladies are due for a win against us, and they've been knocking on the door the last few meetings.  6'3 Timmer against 5'10 Sloneker is not ideal, we do have 6'2 Sanner rotating in at center, it will be interesting to see if she ends up getting the most minutes against Timmer, provided she can stay out of foul trouble.

[HOPEful]

Losing Sam Underhill to a season ending knee surgery in late December was devastating for Trine.  It can't be understated enough.  We just don't have the inside presence that we had before, especially defense and rebounding.  With Sam in the lineup we don't lose that second game with Albion. 

I completely agree. Trine is a completely different team without Sam. Hope's men's team is a completely different team without Evan (or with a hobbled, ineffective Evan). It's sad when a team that has so much promise when healthy doesn't meet that potential due to injury. It's a part of the game, but it's still a bummer.

[scottiedawg]

First regional rankings are out (at least on the NCAA website):

https://www.ncaa.com/rankings/basketball-women/d3/regional-rankings-0

The first one is just in alphabetical order.  Hope, Trine, and Calvin are all ranked in region 7.  I did a quick check of schedules to get to a vRRO (versus Regionaly Ranked Opponent) record for each - since that comes into play in the next rankings which will be "seeded".  Here is what I found

Record vRRO
Hope 4-1
Trine 3-4
Calvin 1-3

The Trine @ Calvin game on Saturday has significant implications - not only only the MIAA race & tournament seeding, but also relative to vRRO.  Ultimately who gets inot the NCAA tournament may come down to vRRO results.

I've got Calvin at 2-4 FDF.  Wins over Colorado Col and Whitewater.  Losses to Hope x2, Trine, Loras.

[scottiedawg]

Here's what I think the situation is in Region 7

1 - Hope
2 - Ohio Northern
3 - Baldwin Wallace
GAP
4 - Marietta
5 - Calvin
6 - Washington & Jefferson
7 - Trine
GAP
8 - Wittenberg
9 - Case Western
10 - Albion

I think it will be hard for 4-7 to fall out of the top 7, even with > 1 more loss. Maaaaybe W&J cause they have the lowest SOS.

The Calvin Trine game is indeed massive.

Any loss by Marietta or Calvin likely moves them down a spot.

I am assuming W&J gets the PAC Pool A, but we'll have to wait to find out for sure.

It would be very nice for the MIAA team who is 2nd highest in this region (whether it's Calvin or Trine), to be the 2nd team to the Pool C table (after whoever doesn't get the OAC Pool A).

Marietta losing to Wilmington, Capital, or Heidelberg would help a lot in that department.

The winner of Calvin-Trine puts themselves in a really nice spot.

I don't think Marietta winning the OAC Pool A would be a bid thief.

Albion winning the MIAA Pool A would.

Any team other than W&J winning the PAC would.

[Flying Dutch Fan]

First regional rankings are out (at least on the NCAA website):

https://www.ncaa.com/rankings/basketball-women/d3/regional-rankings-0

The first one is just in alphabetical order.  Hope, Trine, and Calvin are all ranked in region 7.  I did a quick check of schedules to get to a vRRO (versus Regionaly Ranked Opponent) record for each - since that comes into play in the next rankings which will be "seeded".  Here is what I found

Record vRRO
Hope 4-1
Trine 3-4
Calvin 1-3

The Trine @ Calvin game on Saturday has significant implications - not only only the MIAA race & tournament seeding, but also relative to vRRO.  Ultimately who gets inot the NCAA tournament may come down to vRRO results.

I've got Calvin at 2-4 FDF.  Wins over Colorado Col and Whitewater.  Losses to Hope x2, Trine, Loras.

You are correct, I missed Col Col

[TUAngola]

First regional rankings are out.  Top 7 dominated by the OAC and MIAA, with W&J from the PAC in 7th.  Surprised Hope isn't at least 2nd, and I was thinking Trine would be 4th.  OAC must have better strength of schedule?  The 2 losses Calvin had last week weren't all that detrimental as they were to Hope and Trine.  Out of Trine's 5 losses 4 of them are to reginally ranked teams (Ohio Northern, Baldwin Wallace, Hope and UW-Eau Claire), Trine does have 4 wins against regionally ranked teams (Calvin 2x, Hope, and Wartburg).
           
   Region 7       
1    Ohio Northern     20-3   20-3
2    Baldwin Wallace   20-3   20-3
3    Hope                   20-2   21-2
4    Marietta              17-6   17-6
5    Trine                   18-5   18-5
6    Calvin                 17-5    18-5
7    Washington & Jefferson   21-2   21-2

[gordonmann]

Yeah, you can find our SOS calculations here, with the caveat that these calculations update every day and the NCAA's don't include results from games this week.

16 Marietta
24 Ohio Northern
35 Baldwin Wallace
80 Trine
93 Hope
122 Calvin
236 W&J

Otterbein (49), Mount Union (82) and Muskingum (97) are also in the Top 100.

At a glance, it looks like the next highest MIAA team after the three above is Alma at 212. Albion is close behind at 215.

[scottiedawg]

First regional rankings are out.  Top 7 dominated by the OAC and MIAA, with W&J from the PAC in 7th.  Surprised Hope isn't at least 2nd, and I was thinking Trine would be 4th.  OAC must have better strength of schedule?  The 2 losses Calvin had last week weren't all that detrimental as they were to Hope and Trine.  Out of Trine's 5 losses 4 of them are to reginally ranked teams (Ohio Northern, Baldwin Wallace, Hope and UW-Eau Claire), Trine does have 4 wins against regionally ranked teams (Calvin 2x, Hope, and Wartburg).
           
   Region 7       
1    Ohio Northern     20-3   20-3
2    Baldwin Wallace   20-3   20-3
3    Hope                   20-2   21-2
4    Marietta              17-6   17-6
5    Trine                   18-5   18-5
6    Calvin                 17-5    18-5
7    Washington & Jefferson   21-2   21-2

For the life of me I can't get BW above Hope. Probably won't be after their loss to John Carroll. Probably doesn't matter for hosting though--I think Hope's geography makes them an opening weekend lock to host. (right now)

The committee looks to be giving nice bumps for SOS above 550-570, so I can see how Marietta's SOS gap more than made up for the WP gap. It's a big deal though, if both need a Pool C, for Marietta to be at the table ahead of Trine.

As far as I know, I don't think the committees are evaluating "the goodness/badness" of specific losses, since that's already incorporated into the WP and SOS.

Here's how I see the region, through yesterday:


   
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       

Team	Winning %	NCAA SOS	W vRRO
Ohio Northern	0.875	0.570	4.000
Hope	0.913	0.539	4.000
Baldwin Wallace	0.833	0.571	4.000
Marietta	0.750	0.600	3.000
Trine	0.792	0.537	4.000
Washington & Jefferson	0.917	0.491	1.000
Calvin	0.783	0.518	2.000
Wittenberg	0.818	0.485	1.000
Case Western	0.636	0.553	2.000
DePauw	0.708	0.534	0.000
Otterbein	0.625	0.560	0.000
St. Vincent	0.810	0.480	0.000
Albion	0.682	0.499	2.000
La Roche	0.700	0.493	0.000
Carnegie Mellon	0.500	0.598	0.000
Penn State-Behrend	0.783	0.449	0.000
Oberlin	0.609	0.487	0.000
Grove City	0.609	0.487	0.000
Ohio Wesleyan	0.583	0.526	1.000
John Carroll	0.542	0.557	1.000

Marietta is also 3-3 against Common Opponents.  Trine is 1-2