MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[sac]

Capital Ohio just a few years ago.

I can't remember if Wheaton was top 5 but they only had 4 losses.

According to the silly criteria and QOWI Hope is currently 13 of 18 teams without an AQ bid.

http://www.d3sports.com/post/index.php?topic=4232.285

Hoops Fan has a nice post about 1/4 of the way down.

[sac]

BogeyMan the two most important criteria are In-Region record and QOWI.  No one really knows the value either gets on the selection table.  But QOWI seems to weigh a little more heavily in some cases.........also reflected in regional rankings such as last week with Hope #5.

More info on the tournament that can answer all your questions can be found here

http://d3hoops.com/faq.php?category=NCAA%20Tournament

[GoKnights68]

bogeyman, this is what David Coolidge said a few days ago(sorry, it wasn't Pat Coleman, my mistake) regarding if Hope loses in the semis to Albion.

If that happens, Hope is in trouble.  They still might sneak in, but their QoWI is already a concern (47th nationally), and between now and then they have games with Tri-State (doesn't count), the 7th seed (which is an 8-point win, regardless of who it is), and Albion (presumably at Calvin, so probably 7 points if they lose).  That would leave them with a QoWI of about 9.5 and a regional win % of .8333, and that looks like serious bubble territory to me.  It'd be close.

[BogeyMan]

Who is on the selection committee? 

[sac]

Well I can't find it on the NCAA site.........but the Regional chair is the head coach from Westminster PA.  He's the one who takes the Regions Pool C candidates to the National committee.

I beleve Buck Riley from Adrian is on the commitee from the MIAA.

One thing I did learn was that Kevin VandeStreek is on the NCAA rules committee.........not just the D3 committee either........THE NCAA rules committee.

[sac]

One last reminder......I'm still hopeing to have it out tommorrow afternoon so we can discuss, but it may have to wait untill later.  I'm a little unmotivated at the moment.

Vote for your MVP,........First, Second and Third choice.
3 points for 1st, 2 for 2nd, 1 for third

Vote for your All-MIAA team........Select 8 players for your first team and 8 players for your second team

Coach of the the Year........Select a single coach of the year

Freshman of the Year........Same as MVP

Upset of the Year.......pick the MIAA upset game of the year

Game of the Year.......pick the MIAA game of the year.

Send your ballots to MIAAFanpoll@aol.com, I'll take them right up to the Monday before the MIAA tournament begins.

Use MIAA.org as reference.........and have fun with your picks.


......and thanks for the votes so far, looks like we'll be right around last years total of 20 I think.  Still need a handfull more to make it......including mine.

[Dark Knight]

New Massey ratings are out. Here are the MIAA figures, to which I've added Massey's predictions for the tournament first round:
                            Power        Offense       Defense     Home Ct       Sched
  4 + 2 Hope               15.62 (  3)  76.77 ( 57)  10.90 ( 8 )  4.62 (100)  -0.25 ( 42)
13 + 3 Calvin              9.66 ( 21)  77.10 ( 53)   4.60 ( 63)  1.38 (322)   1.41 ( 24)
35 + 2 Albion              7.12 ( 35)  73.11 (104)   6.06 ( 42)  7.16 (  9)  -0.42 ( 47)
132 +28 Kalamazoo          -1.92 (139)  65.35 (263)   4.77 ( 59)  1.45 (315)  -0.62 ( 54)
176 -20 Tri-State IN       -3.53 (165)  72.22 (120)  -3.70 (222)  3.70 (168)  -0.58 ( 51)
211 +15 Alma               -5.35 (196)  70.10 (168)  -3.40 (210)  2.96 (220)  -2.34 ( 98)
243 + 7 Adrian            -10.12 (269)  65.59 (258)  -3.66 (219)  3.54 (180)  -3.09 (110)
270 -12 Olivet MI          -8.88 (251)  61.91 (328)   1.26 (108)  0.03 (373)  -1.26 ( 73)

Calvin v. Olivet:  76.2 - 57.0
Hope v. Alma:      82.1 - 57.3
Albion v. Adrian:  79.4 - 56.9
Kzoo v. Tri-State: 70.3 - 66.2

A team's predicted score in a game is computed the team's offense number, minus the opponent's defense, +/- 1/2 of the home court advantage average for the two teams.

[albinomascot19]

I was going off topic with one of my posts, in regards to who everyone thinks should be NCAA DIII Player of the year, and I was all about the nation's leading scorer, Lincoln University's Kyle Myrick.  Tonight he played in his last regular season game, in which he scored a career high 62 points, guiding his team to its school record 21st win, as they end up finishing the season 21-4.  Before the game, his average was 31.5 points per game, and it will definitely be a bit higher after tonight's amazing performance.  

[Shareef23]

MVP 1. Brandon Crawford, Albion 2. Stephen Cramer, Hope 3. Caleb Veldhouse, Calvin

Freshman of the Year 1. Caleb Veldhouse, Calvin 2. Tony Benford, Tri State 3. Dustin Smith, Calvin

All-MIAA team
First Team
Brandon Crawford, Albion
Zak Silas, Albion
Stephen Cramer, Hope
Kyle Trewhella, Calvin
Caleb Veldhouse, Calvin
Andy Phillips, Hope
Marcus Vanderheide, Hope
Josh Meckes, Calvin

Second Team
Greg Immink, Hope
Mike Bailey, Albion
Mike Murphy, Alma
Eric Voisin, Hope
Kyle Konwinski, Kalamazoo
Kyle Snoeyink, Calvin
Mo Brookins, Tri State
Andy Draayer, Calvin


Coach of the the Year Kevin Vande Streek, Calvin

Game of the Year Calvin over Hope

Upset of the Year Tri State over Albion

[Shareef23]

I think if you asked most Hope fans, deep down I think we know Greg Immink is the team MVP.

Sac, despite our recent differences I agree whole heartly with this statment. There is no doubt in my mind that he is the teams MVP. He is the sole reason for there struggles last year. My reasoning for this is that he plays with a talented team and understands his role on it something I think other players on Hope fail to understand. But Greg is a great guy too, there's not a selfish bone in the kid's body. I did vote for Cramer number on my MVP balloting however. I don't think that being your teams MVP is the same as being MIAA MVP. For example, see the Seattle Seahawks, Hassleback team MVP without a doubt Alezander NFL MVP. I love Cramer's game and honestly it seems as if he's the team most consistent threat on the offensive end and I won't being looking foward to seeing him again next year.

I agree with albionfan. Hope is the most talented team in the country. Every game they play in is there's to win. That doesn't make them the best team, but you can never overlook that kind of talent. I disagree, however with mjteenwolf. I don't think heart is the problem depending on how you define it. I havn't witness a player not playing hard this year. However, unlike you I have not been to every game. I would see IMO that's it's a me first thing. It just appears to me when you throw all these players from all over together that that type of thing is bound to happean. Having so much talent sometimes is almost a curse. There's only one shot each time down the floor for the most part. Sometimes it's better just to have two guys who can put up 20 instead of 5 guys looking to get there. Basically, look at the difference between the talent on Calvin and Hope. I think it's obvious that Hope is more talented and I don't think that anyone can say that either team play harder than the other. I just see defined roles on one team and the other is just kind of all over the place as far as who is supposed to do what. But what do you expect when you bring in guys who were stars in High School and played D1 or 2 and add them to an established team with 4 seniors and starting junior. Not saying it can't work, because it can no doubt. Hope could very well win the National Title. But I will take the tema that plays like it over the team with talent anyday. Oh geez, I sound like Larry Brown.

[ziggy]

Wednesday just can't come soon enough...

[KnightSlappy]

I hope this year's tournament provides some exciting games.  Im just glad that it is in my backyard.

A Calvin-Hope final... THE Fieldhouse would be nuts.

[Gregory Sager]

The lakeland/hope game was over chirstmas break.  isnt there some crazy rule that you can count a game as "in region" if its over a break in school for longer than 5 days or something?

No, that rule was proposed at the D3 convention, tabled, and then dropped.

[Gregory Sager]

.......and by the way I don't think anyone can put Hope down for their pre-conference schedule, Wheaton, Carthage  didn't live up to expectations and really neither did Elmhurst.  John Carroll was a tournament team a year ago and probably would be right up there if Brandon Mimes their stud forward had played this year.   Whats Hope QOWI if these teams live up to their expectations.

I think you've overestimated what was expected of the two CCIW participants in the CCIW/MIAA Challenge. Wheaton was expected by everyone on this side of the lake to struggle this year, and that includes their head coach. They lost four of last year's five starters to graduation, lost their fifth starter (and best player) prior to the season because he said God didn't want him to play college basketball anymore, and lost three other expected contributors who either transferred out or decided to stick to being a mere student. They've actually performed above expectations to reach their current 10-14, 6-7 mark.

Carthage? Last year they had lots of talent, and none of the pieces fit together. This year promised to be more of the same, which is why most everyone who follows the CCIW projected them to finish fifth in the league. If they beat Wheaton on Wednesday in the CCIW regular-season finale, that's exactly where Carthage will finish: Fifth. They're right on the mark in terms of expectations.

You're right about John Carroll having an unexpected off-year, and the loss of Mimes was exacerbated by an injury to their point guard, leading scorer, and team leader Pete Moran.

Elmhurst ended up right about where I figured they'd end up. I saw them play three times before Christmas, and based upon what I saw I didn't think that they had what it took to win the CCIW -- but I knew that they'd nevertheless be a very good team. An 18-7, 9-5 record with a CCIW tourney berth is right on the money for where the Bluejays ought to be.

In a normal year these games would make for an outstanding non-con slate for Hope. But, realistically, only Elmhurst and John Carroll should've been expected to be big QOWI games for the Dutch this year.

We've gone round and round on Hope's and Calvin's scheduling in the past. Every time that I inquire as to why it's necessary to play Aquinas or Cornerstone a couple of times in a season, or why Grace Bible or Andrews needs to appear on anybody's schedule at all, somebody makes an excuse. Well, Hope and Calvin are certainly within their rights to schedule anybody they choose. But there is a price to be paid for that -- the fewer in-region games you play, the narrower your margin when it comes to a possible Pool C bid. You can't stack up as many wins in regional play, thus leaving you more vulnerable in the regional W-L pct. criterion, and each loss is magnified in QOWI terms because there are fewer other games to offset them.

If you ask my opinion -- and I don't expect KVS or GVW to ring my phone off the hook anytime soon  -- Calvin and Hope should each be making at least one trip to Chicago every year apart from the CCIW/MIAA Challenge. There are all sorts of in-region games available over there for either team: Chicago, North Park, Dominican, CURF, Elmhurst (Benedictine might be another one, depending upon how the Grand Rapids to Lisle mileage shakes out in the Microsoft Streets & Trips software). Why not play two of those five every year? We all know that MIAA teams suffer in D3's current geographically-based setup from being located on a peninsula. But there is a rich pool of available in-region games for Hope and Calvin in the Windy City.

(Incidentally, if you're looking for two other teams that could possibly suffer this year because of a dearth of in-region games, look at North Central (14-5) and Illinois Wesleyan (14-5). Each only scheduled five of a possible eleven non-conference games against regional foes. They could've both used at least a couple more regional wins heading into Selection Monday, should either need a Pool C berth -- and neither one has the we're-marooned-on-the-mitten excuse that Calvin and Hope have.)

[Gregory Sager]

I think Calvin and Hope both did a fine job with preseason schedules. 

Ahem. Non-conference, not preseason.

I should put that on my answering machine at home.