WBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletics Association

[NW Hope Fan]

Anyone know if any of the guys from the men's team made the trip to support the women?  Just wondering...

[AndersDY]

Fifield has a short memory.

http://d3hoops.com/danbury/00/washuwins.html

Washington U. 79, Southern Maine 33
Washington U. 64, Scranton 30
Washington U. 86, Baldwin-Wallace 71
Washington U. 81, UW-Eau Claire 63
Washington U. 67, UW-Oshkosh 46

Granted this was the only time WashU hosted a sectional in the last decade at least, but Eau Claire was #2 and Baldwin-Wallaces was #3.

I had heard the USM coach having this conversation with some Hope fans after the game and in comparing with Washington, he did specifically mention the years '99 and '00. Not sure what that means about how he might compare this year's USM and Scranton to those teams six years ago, but that was the opinion he gave. I have not seen any Washington teams personally, including this year, and I doubt any of these Hope fans are intimately knowlegable about those teams 5-8 years ago so all we know is what was suggested by one coach. If you're so concerned with his "intellectual honesty," I'm sure you can find Coach Fifield's email online and make your corrections directly to the source. None of us have seen as many of these teams up close as Fifield has, so we can simply report what we heard. Even if he was overstating things, I doubt he's going to ruin the reputation of a 4-time national champion with one man's opinion.

And I don't know where any video of the halftime ceremony with the 25-year team might be, but it just didn't quite seem to have that same excitement. Go back and find the article D3hoops wrote about the team's accomplishments, read that list over a loudspeaker, and picture those 6 women standing at mid-court in power suits. That was about as exciting as it got I'm sorry to report. 

[tniem]

Bottom: All-American Bria Ebels clutches the Walnut and Bronze.

The caption is wrong, that should say Hope Center Linda Ebels clutches the Walnut and Bronze.  Oh well!


And, aren't you glad you gave into Hope fans and added the women in your preview as one of the teams that could make it to the Final Four.  Apparently it was our women's tournament to lose and not our men's.   

[Pat Coleman]

Bottom: All-American Bria Ebels clutches the Walnut and Bronze.

The caption is wrong, that should say Hope Center Linda Ebels clutches the Walnut and Bronze.  Oh well!


And, aren't you glad you gave into Hope fans and added the women in your preview as one of the teams that could make it to the Final Four.  Apparently it was our women's tournament to lose and not our men's.   

Thanks for the smarm.

And yes, there's your banner.

[tniem]

Bottom: All-American Bria Ebels clutches the Walnut and Bronze.

The caption is wrong, that should say Hope Center Linda Ebels clutches the Walnut and Bronze.  Oh well!


And, aren't you glad you gave into Hope fans and added the women in your preview as one of the teams that could make it to the Final Four.  Apparently it was our women's tournament to lose and not our men's.   

Thanks for the smarm.

And yes, there's your banner.

Thanks Pat, hope you knew I was joking...  You guys do a great job.  The coverage this weekend was fantastic and you were right about the quality of the Final Four video.  Wow.   

To all that made the trip, hope you had tons of fun.  I am sorry I could not make it.  Eight hours was just going to be too much on the car without someone coming with me.  I will always regret it but will be happy to see another banner at DeVos when I make the trip home.

[AndersDY]

Pat, I also have to poke at D3hoops and point out you guys missed your chance when you had posed the question of what team entering both men and women into the brackets had the best shot at dual national titles. You listed all the teams who had both men and women berths and said that while Hope was a tempting pick, you ultimately gave Baldwin Wallace the best chance. I'm glad the Flying Dutch proved that choice 1/2 (or is it 1/4?) wrong. It's still too bad that the Dutchman couldn't make the double-up and also prove you right on your men's prediction, but one banner is better than none.

So next year do we have to point out that Hope is equal opportunity and rebut the "where's your banner?" chant with "title nine, title nine" cheers?

[usmhoops1]

Wanted to send along a big congratulations to Hope.  I am  a big supporter of USM but I thought the best team won on Saturday. Your entire community should be ecstatic.

For those who missed the weekend in Springfield, I feel badly for you.  What an incredible atmosphere.  Great basketball, fans, etc.Springfield did an excellent job.

Kudos to all the fans that attended.  The Hope fans were great.  Some great cheers. Loved the stretching routine!!

Again congrats.  You are an outstanding team

[AndersDY]

Thanks USM, and it certainly was quite an atmosphere all weekend long. We felt our team was ready for whoever they came up against, but Myles and Marble were both incredible. That has to be a huge blow for USM to see both of them go out that way, though apparently Marble has a potential decision to get one more year of eligibility. USM seems to show up regularly in the late rounds of the tourney so if Morehouse can parlay this title into the recruitment of continued national championship talent, perhaps we will be seeing the Huskies again before too long.

[usmhoops1]

Marble will play next year.  After playing Volleyball at The university in Orono,  she transferred.  Still has one more year.  The frontcourt needs to get better though.  She plays well but is undersized when coming up against the size she saw this past weekend.

An interesting post from the frontpage on thoughts about Springfield.  Someone thought there was great motivation about Hope getting snubbed to some extent in relation to the ranking and all americans.

Any list of that magnitude with 400 plus schools is educated guesswork sometimes.  No one person can possibly evaluate that many girls.  You know how that goes.  Pick these 15 and someone gets thier nose bent.  Certainly, winning the title puts Hope to the front and would probably get  more thoughts in relation to rankings etc.

Because teams dont cross over and play until the tourney, there could probably be 4 polls, kind of like what the NCAA regional polls represent.  Not perfect either way.  Think of it this way.  You got the big trophy.  I think that is the ultimate prize!!

[Pat Coleman]

I talked to our guys Friday night after the semifinals and before making the final call on All-Americans and they told me Ebels had to be on there. (She was on the bubble with two other guards coming into the weekend.) Our crew announced the All-Americans at halftime but the decision did not involve the title game.

The only thing we held out for the results of the title game was Morehouse as coach of the year.

[Civic Minded]

Marble will play next year.  After playing Volleyball at The university in Orono,  she transferred.  Still has one more year.  The frontcourt needs to get better though.  She plays well but is undersized when coming up against the size she saw this past weekend.

An interesting post from the frontpage on thoughts about Springfield.  Someone thought there was great motivation about Hope getting snubbed to some extent in relation to the ranking and all americans.

... Not perfect either way.  Think of it this way.  You got the big trophy.  I think that is the ultimate prize!!

Marble is one of those players (and this is a compliment) who is very hard to like from the opposing bleachers.  She's everywhere, doing amazing stuff, and (seemingly) getting away with stuff that others don't (why does a slide 8 feet across the floor with the ball never count as a travel for her???).   

FDF did overhear her after the game commenting to a friend that the size of our girls was something else.

As to being snubbed -- don't waste too much time thinking that our women or coach cared.  Seems our women often fly under the radar, and Coach Mo has mentioned on more than one occasion that that's just fine with him.  I didn't get the feeling in any way that they were playing with a chip on their shoulder.  I would call it more of a calm, cool, confident team attitude of "its okay, they'll see in the end."

All in all, it was a great weekend in Mass.  Can't believe we drove all the way out and back, but man, I wouldn't have missed it for the world.  So glad we were able to be there, and watch as the girls on the bench realized that they had the game locked.  Awesome memories, just awesome.

[sac]

Civic this little piece of your post says it all.........."Seems our women often fly under the radar".

I think this was very true here in Holland this year.......all the talk was about the men and their shot at a title.  But quietly behind the scenes the ladies were putting together an amazing season.

As the season wore on I think more and more people started to understand how good they were.........capped off by the 1500 who showed up for the MIAA Championship game.  Heck we didn't even get to see an NCAA game in Holland, likely because the men hosted instead.  So without the benefit of the Orange clad legion of fans who are more than happy to hop on a bandwagon........the ladies went about thier business......quietly.  Even the men's trip to Springfield got more attention.

The ladies have always kind of been in the shadows of the men's program.  Despite the National Title in 1990 the Hope women really haven't had a great history untill Coach Mo's arrival.  Hope's in the middle of a 7 year run of 6 MIAA Championships.......prior to 2000 Hope had 2 overall in 21 years of MIAA play.  In fact the ladies still have a losing overall record against Alma and Calvin.

The fact that the ladies played on campus at the un-fan friendly Dow Center while the men played in front of sold out Civic Center crowds just added to the distance between the two programs.

DeVos has changed that in that now fans have a nice place and a proper place to watch the ladies.  The double-headers with the men's teams drew great crowds......and I think many snowy evenings when the men were away the ladies got a nice boost in attendance.

Coach Mo has elevated a "sleeping giant" to national prominance............I have a feeling if Coach Mo sticks around a long time this won't be the last National Championship banner his woman's teams will put up in the rafters of DeVos.

Perhaps we should have been paying attention all along.

[sac]

P.S.  Bria Ebels was the best overall and most complete player I saw this year..........men and women.  Her ability to turn a game in her teams favor with amazing defensive plays and clutch offensive shooting was stunning.

.........and heck I only saw them play 4 times.


........and I'm envious of her boundless energy. 

[hope1]

yeah mo dose a great job with the girl   team     they could be pretty good next year to

[dren]

WTG dutch.  Congrats on a great season!

Also to Monsoon and SAC for winning the pick'em

Final Women's Leaders
1   monsoon   142 * champ via tiebreaker
1   Sac   142