MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[flash96]

I understand this is a basketball web site, but I need to relay this information from the teaching realm.  A local teacher was arrested this past week as it was discovered that the teacher and her husband were operating a Meth lab out of their basement!  I realize that teaching isn't the most lucrative of jobs, but it certainly beats prison.  I'm assuming that the teacher was in charge of distribution and the husband was the 'cook'.  Lets hope that these two didn't have any children.

Go Hope

[HopeConvert]

Regarding letting the air out too soon . . .

I agree that turnovers and fouls mean that, in reality, the team ahead won't average 30 second possessions.  But some turnovers will likely afflict both teams, including the one that's pressing.  And while fouls will give the trailing team more possessions, those fouls also give the team ahead easy opportunities to score.  Even if their scoring drops to half its normal rate---say a mere 10 points in those last 9 minutes---it means the team that was 20 points behind needs to score 30 points.   Thirty points in 9 minutes is a 130 point a game rate.  Moreover, that's made all the harder by their having fewer minutes of possession because of the slow-down strategy.  Thirty points in 9 minutes of race horse basketball is do-able, but it becomes improbable in a slow-down game.

Ergo, with that big a lead---with the 20 point lead that Hope had with 9 minutes left---a slow-down strategy would seem to make victory exceedingly likely.  But, in agreement with HopeConvert, that doesn't necessarily commend the strategy if, say, there's a 10 point lead with 9 minutes to go.

Is this the sort of analysis that underlie's the coaching decision?  I haven't a clue.  But after thinking about it, I understand their strategy.

Hope's possessions last night from the nine minute mark in, in seconds: 14, 34, 16, 6, 3, 20, 30, 11, 16, 20, 31, 31 - at which point Carroll began fouling. This is an average of 19 second per possession, with a median of 20. Carroll's possessions averaged 11.5 seconds. Apart from the consideration that perhaps Hope didn't slow it down enough, are these two observations: 1) Hope made its free throws, and this clearly made a huge difference; and, 2) from what I heard on the radio broadcast, they seemed to back off defensively, giving Carroll some quick and easy baskets. The slowdown strategy works best if you maintain a high level of defensive intensity, but here the strategy may backfire, for removing the aggressive play on one end of the floor tends to bleed on to the other as well. All that said, northb is dead on: they won.

[HopeConvert]

OK - it's getting near tipoff. My envy of all the people who are there watching the game is mitigated by my pride at watching the job my daughter did today. I don't know enough about WU to opine about what the keys of the game are, except that handling Ruths is obviously going to be a big one. Aside from that, Hope has to maintain its intensity on the boards and on defense (hopefully a straight man), and shoot better than it did last night.

So - now what do I do with all this nervous energy I have?

[gohope]

Finally to a computer!

What a night!  First of all congrats to the Flying Dutchmen on a great victory. Ugly at times and "pull up your bootstraps" at other times!  And another congrats to the Ladies from Calvin. Good luck in your quest to Springfield.

A couple of notes from last night:

*  I know I just read the last 47 (okay, a bit of an exageration) pages, but I don't think anyone commented on what happened at 15:19 left in the first half. If they did, I apologize, but one of the guys wearing the stripes jogs past the Carroll bench, stops, looks at the Carroll coach and gives him a "T".  That I felt was a momentum stopper for Carroll.

*  Kudos to those who were a part of the Dew Crew.  Thanks for making the trip. I realize that the Dance Marathon is this weekend and many of the students are involved with this event, so thanks Dew Crew.  I also appreciated one of your first half cheers to Carroll's #25 player, with "Pull your socks up!"  All I can say is that I haven't seen tube socks THAT long in a LONG time!!  

*  Another sweet play was an inbound pass direct to Stephen Cramer under the Hope basket.  Cramer moves into the paint and next thing you know, the ball is caught and "Nutin' but Net!"

* Old School - it was good to meet you too last night, but since you forgot that memorable moment, I guess that your penitence shall be cheering for those in the Blue and Orange tonight!

[HopeConvert]

An hour to go. Go Dutchmen!

[HopeConvert]

Here we go...

News update?!?

[NW Hope Fan]

Slow and sloppy start for both teams...

[NW Hope Fan]

Balls are not falling yet, but we're up 2x rebounds...

[HopeConvert]

Don't want to see this kind of shooting, though. Gotta believe they'll start dropping at some point.

3-15. Oy.

[HopeConvert]

3-17. 7 TOs. Not good.

[NW Hope Fan]

O fer 3's...

They HAVE to drop at some point. Hopefully we can keep the score close until then!  

[HopeConvert]

It's Cramer time.

[NW Hope Fan]

Boom!  There we go!

[dothedew]

Their guy has 3 three's...14-6

WE ARE FLAT....grrrrrrrrr

[NW Hope Fan]

LETS GO HOPE..... LETS GO HOPE....LETS GO HOPE....LETS GO HOPE....LETS GO HOPE....LETS GO HOPE....