MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[Happy Calvin Guy]

Calvin vs Rose-Hulman will feature two of the country's top defenses.  Massey gives Calvin a 54% chance of winning the opening round matchup on the road at Rose-Hulman, and a 2.6% chance of winning three straight road games at Rose-Hulman/UW-Stevens Point/St. Thomas.

[sac]

So all Calvin would have to (probably) do to get to Salem, VA and the Elite Eight is win

at Rose-Hulman
at UW-Stevens Point
at St. Thomas

Highlighting the importance of regional criteria and regional play.

[ziggy]

So all Calvin would have to (probably) do to get to Salem, VA and the Elite Eight is win

at Rose-Hulman
at UW-Stevens Point
at St. Thomas

Highlighting the importance of regional criteria and regional play.

All that for the team with the second-best in-region WP in D3 this year. The tough draw is one thing, it's not getting to host a first round game that is the gut punch to me.

[sac]

The bottom left portion of the bracket is one of the weakest I can ever recall.

[kiltedbryan]

So all Calvin would have to (probably) do to get to Salem, VA and the Elite Eight is win

at Rose-Hulman
at UW-Stevens Point
at St. Thomas

Pretty safe to say they didn't move up in the never-to-be-seen final regional rankings.

Based on the matchups I think it went:
1. Wooster (still)
2. Ohio Wesleyan
3. St. Vincent
4. Calvin

Yes, this is also my sense based on the positioning of the GL teams in the bracket. If the Wooster-OWU matchup happened in the Sweet Sixteen, it seems likely it would be in Wooster. However, I could see the Scots going to Hampden-Sydney if those were the two Sweet Sixteen teams left in their pod.

Tough draw for Calvin, very very tough.

[ziggy]

RHIT already has their video stream link up: http://client.stretchinternet.com/client/rhit.portal#

They have also identified Tom Smikkers as the leader of Calvin's balanced offensive attack: http://www.rose-hulman.edu/athletics/basketball-mens/mens-basketball-news/mens-basketball-to-host-calvin-on-saturday-at-7.aspx

[calvinite]

I'm aware of the difficulty of the bracket and of beating St. Thomas, but why not dream? Beating St. Thomas would be sweet revenge for the National Volleyball finals match-up.

[sac]

This got in the tournament Randolph  15-6 (.714)/.520/4-5
This did not ....................... Hope         15-6 (.714)/.550/1-2

The only difference is the 9 RRO games, which all came from their conference play.......playing in the MIAA in the Great Lakes Region we would never have a chance to get 9 RRO games from our conference play.


I never thought Hope had a shot based on the fact the GL Region seemed to love Thomas More so much.  There's little doubt Hope was ranked behind Thomas More.  But this just highlights one of my frustrations with the criteria.  To match that Hope would have to schedule 6 non-conference games of regionally ranked opponents, in the Great Lakes this year that would have meant all of the teams that ended up getting ranked  Wooster, Ohio Wesleyan, St. Vincent, Thomas More, Marietta and Capital.

This would require prescience in the off-season to know these teams would get ranked.

[calvinite]

This would require prescience in the off-season to know these teams would get ranked.

Not to mention (1) the ability to schedule such teams (open/available dates) (2) and the willingness of said teams to desire to schedule Hope (3) the Coach Neil's willingness to probably spend many(more) weekends in Dec. on long road trips and possibly jeopardizing existing match-ups with Wheaton/Carthage/ etc.

[Flying Dutch Fan]

Isn't Hope vs RRO 1-5 or 2-5 (depending on if Aurora got ranked or not)?

[arena]

This would require prescience in the off-season to know these teams would get ranked.

Not to mention (1) the ability to schedule such teams (open/available dates) (2) and the willingness of said teams to desire to schedule Hope (3) the Coach Neil's willingness to probably spend many(more) weekends in Dec. on long road trips and possibly jeopardizing existing match-ups with Wheaton/Carthage/ etc.

May be time to end the MIAA/CCIW match up for and OAC of NCAA match up.

[sac]

Isn't Hope vs RRO 1-5 or 2-5 (depending on if Aurora got ranked or not)?

2-4 if Aurora was ranked, but the point was the difference in RRO games within a conference, Randolph got all 9 of its RRO games from being in the ODAC, they didn't have to schedule anyone in the non-conference. 

In the MIAA, in most years only 1 or 2 teams(1 of them being yourself) is getting ranked, so you would have to make up for this by stacking your non-conference with RRO teams, and in the Great Lakes that would have required all the teams that ended up being ranked.  (ignoring the 200 mile and other regional stuff)  Either way you have to find 6 RRO games, without knowing which 6 will be ranked.

So what you're basically telling people is we're sorry your criteria didn't stack up but you needed to schedule more non-conference RRO games.  Excuse us while we take this team that played zero RRO games in the non-conference.

its a very frustrating criteria to me.

[Happy Calvin Guy]

The only difference is the 9 RRO games, which all came from their conference play.......playing in the MIAA in the Great Lakes Region we would never have a chance to get 9 RRO games from our conference play.

...unless the MIAA actually had better teams from top to bottom.  Also, this year the regional rankings probably came one week too late to include Adrian.  Releasing rankings a bit earlier and including Adrian would have added an additional 2-0 vs RRO for Hope and 3-0 vs RRO for Calvin. 

It just goes to show how important depth within the conference is.  Frankly, the MIAA has not had much depth beyond the traditional Hope/Calvin show in recent years.  The one school that has traditionally provided more MIAA depth is Albion, and they were a train wreck this year.  Trine/Adrian have started to show a little bit of competitiveness recently but not quite enough to crack the regional rankings at any point.  We would also benefit from some of the lower-tier teams being more mediocre than terrible, perhaps picking up a few non-conference wins here and there. 

It would still be tough if not impossible to expect to get 9 games vs RRO within the league, but at least a few more would help the cause for future MIAA Pool C candidates.

[ziggy]

If Calvin makes it to the championship game, will they play on a Sunday or will the NCAA change the date?

They will change the date.  The NCAA is very respectful of the religious beliefs, and practices of it's member insititutions.  Back in 2010 the women's volleyball championship game was moved from Sunday to Monday when Calvin advanced that far.  This rule is also uniform for D2, and D1, but has been used only a handful of times that I recall.

I wonder when they would change it to.  Remember, it's not the normal title game in Salem, but part of the Final Four weekend extravaganza...I don't suppose they could move it to midday Monday the day of the D1 championship game.

Could get problematic considering the Atlanta Hawks have a game at Philips Arena at 7:30. Would probably have to be a 1 p.m. game. This issue would also come into play if Wheaton makes a run, not sure who else off the top of my head.

Could easily turn this into a conspiracy theory now that we've seen the brackets...

In truth, the writing was on the wall considering the regional rankings along the way.

[sac]

Calvin to St. Thomas is a flight, so you've got that going for you.  Lot's of daily non-stops to the twin cities out of Ford.