MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[sac]

Calvin's semi-final domination tied the second highest point difference in the tournaments history.

1992--Calvin beat Alb/Kzo by 11 and 43 for 54 points
2013--Calvin beat Adr/Hpe by 27 and 20 for 47 points
1994--Calvin beat Adr/Alb by 26 and 21 for 47 points
2004--Calvin beat Alb/Adr by 26 and 13 for 39 points

[Happy Calvin Guy]

A couple of links:

Nice article today on Colton Overway
http://www.mlive.com/smallcolleges/grandrapids/index.ssf/2013/02/hope_basketball_player_honored.html

Also, an unintentionally funny video of our next opponent watching the selection show.  At the 0:23 mark, one player says with a mix of confusion and disbelief "Calvin....College?" and then they sit in awkward stunned silence for about 20 seconds until they figure out that the "#" next to Rose-Hulman means that they are playing a home game, leading to some delayed whooping and hollering.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQ4p0GXiLJM

[Flying Dutch Fan]

A couple of links:

Nice article today on Colton Overway
http://www.mlive.com/smallcolleges/grandrapids/index.ssf/2013/02/hope_basketball_player_honored.html

HCG - Thanks for sharing that.  Nice to see Colton getting recognized for the work he does - truly a special kid!

[sac]

Fun w/efficiency

Based on defensive efficiency Calvin and Rose-Hulman are #2 and #8 in the 62 team field respectively.

Rose-Hulman is the slowest team in the field, you are basically playing Wisconsin.

Raw Efficiency has Calvin #3, Rose-Hulman #6, based on statistical performance this is a terrible mis-seeding, based on the NCAA's terrible criteria its probably still a mis-seed.  There are a lot of these in the Midwest, like most years.  The winner will get #18 UW Stevens Point or #47 Northwestern, MN

If you seeded based on efficiency using 1 v 64, 2 v 63, 3 v 62 and so on......Calvin should be hosting Ithaca,  Rose-Hulman should be hosting Plattsburgh St.


Other interesting bits

St. Thomas should be the favorite by a mile, they might have one of the highest efficiency numbers I've calculated in many years.   For ex.  Offensive efficiency  St. Thomas 125.91, Indiana 125.2  (no I'm not saying St. T is better than Indiana, but at the D3 level they are scoring at a higher efficency than Indiana is at the D1 level. Indiana happens to be #1  off eff. in D1)

Worst team in the field from a straight efficiency perspective is Ithaca who finished 2nd in their conference.  There were very few big upset winners in conference tournaments this year.

Biggest first round mis-matches are St.Thomas/Aurora and Rochester/Fitchburg St.

Based on schedule adjusted efficiency your Elite 8 in Salem should be St. Thomas, Catholic, Emory, St. Mary's,  Randolph-Macon, Hampden-Sydney, North Central, Rochester

[Pat Coleman]

IMHO..... If you(Jackson) average almost 36 minutes per game in league play vs 25 for Snikkers...I guess you will score more points.  Tom still out-rebounded him with only 25 min of PT.  Tom was 3x 1st team also....PLUS his team took 1st place this year.  He happens to be on a team that has a number of players that can score.  Whatever.... I think Tommy got snubbed.  Its not right.

The MVP voting doesn't take into factor previous seasons of a player.  Just the current season.

Well, a coach can be influenced by whatever he wants in order to fill out a ballot, right? Who's to say what each coach had on his mind?

[Gregory Sager]

My "Mendoza" line for FT shooting has always been 75%.

The free throw percentage in college basketball on the men's side has been right around 69% for over forty years. It's never topped 70%, and never dropped lower than 67%.

In other words, your Mendoza line is actually a Gwynn line.

[calvinite]

Fun w/efficiency

For ex.  Offensive efficiency  St. Thomas 125.91, Indiana 125.2  (no I'm not saying St. T is better than Indiana, but at the D3 level they are scoring at a higher efficency than Indiana is at the D1 level. Indiana happens to be #1  off eff. in D1)

How does Calvin's offensive efficiency rating compare to Minnesota's? JK -- I know, Minnesota's at home, etc.... Hey, they even have the same colors!

[sac]

Some very late night reading......

http://www.d3sports.com/notables/2013/02/regional-realignment-coming

The Great Lakes would go from 41 teams to 58 with the addition of the Heartland(10) and AMCC(7, 3 are already in the GL).  This will give the region 9 positions to be ranked in the polls which is a great improvement and puts this region much more in line with other regions in terms of number of schools and number of ranking positions.

As far as in-region opponents for the MIAA this adds only the 7 AMCC schools that weren't previously in the region.  Hilbert, LaRoche, Mt. Aloysius, Medaille, Pitt-Bradford, PSU-Altoona, D'Youville (Franciscan, PSU-Behrend, Pitt-Greensburg were already in the GL) .  Heartland schools were already in-region because of the administrative region rule.  The AMCC is generally Western Pa, Western NY,  these are 6-10 hour drives for everyone and hardly any of these schools have ever played an MIAA team in the past that I can recall.

The big winner here is the AMCC which adds between 30 and 38 schools that weren't considered in-region for them before and all the schools that used to be in-region remain so because of the administrative region rule (except for Franciscan they're all in a different administrative region).  AMCC schools will have no trouble finding in-region opponents.  They already play a number of PAC schools.

As I mentioned moving the Heartland over doesn't add any teams to the possible in-region list for the MIAA.  Truthfully I think the Heartland is the big loser here because now they lose all of those Mid-West Region schools and only keep the ones that are 200-miles in distance.  Not many actually fall in that category.  The ones they add from the AMCC and PAC are just as far or farther than for MIAA schools.  The MIAA, OAC and NCAC were already in-region and they were already playing quite a few of those opponents anyway.

Our region has a big hole in it that goes from roughly Toledo down through the middle of Ohio West to the Indiana border, within this hole is only about 3 or 4 schools, East lies most of the OAC, NCAC, PAC and now AMCC.  West lies the MIAA and HCAC.  What should happen is the MIAA and HCAC scheduling each other more often.  The HCAC now has less incentive or reason to play SLIAC, NathCon, Midwest or CCIW schools.

Should be interesting how this plays out.  In general I think its positive though I wish it helped the MIAA's in-region game problem better.

Meet our new neighbors
http://www.amcconf.org/mbb.htm
http://www.heartlandconf.org/sports/mbkb/index

PS......this also moves the WIAC in to the MidWest newly named Central Region with the CCIW.  Talk about a power region.

[sac]

Mileages from Holland

For reference
Des Moines, IA      467 miles
St. Louis, MO         418 miles
Minneapolis, MN    560 miles

Medaille, Buffalo, NY            410 miles
D'Youville, Buffalo, NY          410 miles
LaRoche, Pittsburgh, PA      426 miles
Hilbert, Hamburg, NY           491 miles
Mt. Aloysius, Cresson, PA    502 miles
Pitt-Bradford, Bradford, PA  520 miles
PSU-Altoona, Altoona, PA    520 miles

[almcguirejr]

Some very late night reading......

http://www.d3sports.com/notables/2013/02/regional-realignment-coming

The Great Lakes would go from 41 teams to 58 with the addition of the Heartland(10) and AMCC(7, 3 are already in the GL).  This will give the region 9 positions to be ranked in the polls which is a great improvement and puts this region much more in line with other regions in terms of number of schools and number of ranking positions.

As far as in-region opponents for the MIAA this adds only the 7 AMCC schools that weren't previously in the region.  Hilbert, LaRoche, Mt. Aloysius, Medaille, Pitt-Bradford, PSU-Altoona, D'Youville (Franciscan, PSU-Behrend, Pitt-Greensburg were already in the GL) .  Heartland schools were already in-region because of the administrative region rule.  The AMCC is generally Western Pa, Western NY,  these are 6-10 hour drives for everyone and hardly any of these schools have ever played an MIAA team in the past that I can recall.

The big winner here is the AMCC which adds between 30 and 38 schools that weren't considered in-region for them before and all the schools that used to be in-region remain so because of the administrative region rule (except for Franciscan they're all in a different administrative region).  AMCC schools will have no trouble finding in-region opponents.  They already play a number of PAC schools.

As I mentioned moving the Heartland over doesn't add any teams to the possible in-region list for the MIAA.  Truthfully I think the Heartland is the big loser here because now they lose all of those Mid-West Region schools and only keep the ones that are 200-miles in distance.  Not many actually fall in that category.  The ones they add from the AMCC and PAC are just as far or farther than for MIAA schools.  The MIAA, OAC and NCAC were already in-region and they were already playing quite a few of those opponents anyway.

Our region has a big hole in it that goes from roughly Toledo down through the middle of Ohio West to the Indiana border, within this hole is only about 3 or 4 schools, East lies most of the OAC, NCAC, PAC and now AMCC.  West lies the MIAA and HCAC.  What should happen is the MIAA and HCAC scheduling each other more often.  The HCAC now has less incentive or reason to play SLIAC, NathCon, Midwest or CCIW schools.

Should be interesting how this plays out.  In general I think its positive though I wish it helped the MIAA's in-region game problem better.

Meet our new neighbors
http://www.amcconf.org/mbb.htm
http://www.heartlandconf.org/sports/mbkb/index

PS......this also moves the WIAC in to the MidWest newly named Central Region with the CCIW.  Talk about a power region.

Addressing the 200 mile rule would do more for the MIAA.

[Titan Q]

Some very late night reading......

http://www.d3sports.com/notables/2013/02/regional-realignment-coming

The Great Lakes would go from 41 teams to 58 with the addition of the Heartland(10) and AMCC(7, 3 are already in the GL).  This will give the region 9 positions to be ranked in the polls which is a great improvement and puts this region much more in line with other regions in terms of number of schools and number of ranking positions.

As far as in-region opponents for the MIAA this adds only the 7 AMCC schools that weren't previously in the region.  Hilbert, LaRoche, Mt. Aloysius, Medaille, Pitt-Bradford, PSU-Altoona, D'Youville (Franciscan, PSU-Behrend, Pitt-Greensburg were already in the GL) .  Heartland schools were already in-region because of the administrative region rule.  The AMCC is generally Western Pa, Western NY,  these are 6-10 hour drives for everyone and hardly any of these schools have ever played an MIAA team in the past that I can recall.

The big winner here is the AMCC which adds between 30 and 38 schools that weren't considered in-region for them before and all the schools that used to be in-region remain so because of the administrative region rule (except for Franciscan they're all in a different administrative region).  AMCC schools will have no trouble finding in-region opponents.  They already play a number of PAC schools.

As I mentioned moving the Heartland over doesn't add any teams to the possible in-region list for the MIAA.  Truthfully I think the Heartland is the big loser here because now they lose all of those Mid-West Region schools and only keep the ones that are 200-miles in distance.  Not many actually fall in that category.  The ones they add from the AMCC and PAC are just as far or farther than for MIAA schools.  The MIAA, OAC and NCAC were already in-region and they were already playing quite a few of those opponents anyway.

Our region has a big hole in it that goes from roughly Toledo down through the middle of Ohio West to the Indiana border, within this hole is only about 3 or 4 schools, East lies most of the OAC, NCAC, PAC and now AMCC.  West lies the MIAA and HCAC.  What should happen is the MIAA and HCAC scheduling each other more often.  The HCAC now has less incentive or reason to play SLIAC, NathCon, Midwest or CCIW schools.

Should be interesting how this plays out.  In general I think its positive though I wish it helped the MIAA's in-region game problem better.

Meet our new neighbors
http://www.amcconf.org/mbb.htm
http://www.heartlandconf.org/sports/mbkb/index

PS......this also moves the WIAC in to the MidWest newly named Central Region with the CCIW.  Talk about a power region.

Doesn't the 70% rule (coming next year) make the in-region games part of this not that big of a deal?  Maybe I'm looking at this wrong, but it seems pretty easy for all schools to play 70% of their games in-region...and then once they do that, all games vs D3 teams "count."

[ziggy]

The biggest deal is getting nine teams in the great lakes regional rankings. Had there been nine this year it is quite possible that Adrian would have been in the first set of regional rankings with Hope breaking in at some point. Add a 5-1 versus regionally ranked opponents to Calvin's resume and they may have challenged for the top spot in the region and be hosting this weekend.

I'm guessing this is the angle sac is taking (in general, not with Calvin) as he has discussed access to regionally ranked games elsewhere on the d3boards.

[oldknight]

The biggest deal is getting nine teams in the great lakes regional rankings. Had there been nine this year it is quite possible that Adrian would have been in the first set of regional rankings with Hope breaking in at some point. Add a 5-1 versus regionally ranked opponents to Calvin's resume and they may have challenged for the top spot in the region and be hosting this weekend.

I'm guessing this is the angle sac is taking (in general, not with Calvin) as he has discussed access to regionally ranked games elsewhere on the d3boards.

That's really good analysis. The value of going from six to nine regionally ranked teams in the Great Lakes Region is an impact I had not considered.

[Flying Dutch Fan]

The biggest deal is getting nine teams in the great lakes regional rankings. Had there been nine this year it is quite possible that Adrian would have been in the first set of regional rankings with Hope breaking in at some point. Add a 5-1 versus regionally ranked opponents to Calvin's resume and they may have challenged for the top spot in the region and be hosting this weekend.

I'm guessing this is the angle sac is taking (in general, not with Calvin) as he has discussed access to regionally ranked games elsewhere on the d3boards.

That's really good analysis. The value of going from six to nine regionally ranked teams in the Great Lakes Region is an impact I had not considered.

Shoulda, woulda, coulda, but that would have completely changed things this year...

Had that been the situation this year, and Adrian had made the regional rankings, I think Hope would have been a very strong Pool C candidate.  Sac posted this earlier:

This got in the tournament Randolph  15-6 (.714)/.520/4-5
This did not ....................... Hope         15-6 (.714)/.550/1-4 (2-4 if Aurora made the final "secret" ranking)

If we have 9 ranked teams in the GL (Randolph is in a region with 10 ranked), and Adrian gets ranked one time, Hope's line now looks like this:

Hope  15-6 (.714) / .550 / 3-4 (4-4 see Aurora comment above)

[KnightSlappy]

As far as in-region opponents for the MIAA this adds only the 7 AMCC schools that weren't previously in the region.  Hilbert, LaRoche, Mt. Aloysius, Medaille, Pitt-Bradford, PSU-Altoona, D'Youville (Franciscan, PSU-Behrend, Pitt-Greensburg were already in the GL) .  Heartland schools were already in-region because of the administrative region rule.  The AMCC is generally Western Pa, Western NY,  these are 6-10 hour drives for everyone and hardly any of these schools have ever played an MIAA team in the past that I can recall.

D'Youville came to the Calvin Tip-off tournament last season, but didn't meet up with Calvin. They lost to Willammette in the opening round then got hammered by Grace Bible in the consolation game.

Here's a line from the opening paragraph of the game recap on the Calvin page:

With the [Grace Bible] Tigers' starting lineup averaging just under 6'4", Grace Bible held an average two inch advantage over the [D'Youville] Spartans.

According to Massey D'Youville was the 10th worst fully active D3 team this season (and they weren't even the worst in the AMCC). The AMCC is rated as the fifth worst conference.

The good news is that, while the AMCC is horrible and the MIAA will almost never play them, we get the credit for the extra schools in the region. Even if the HCAC -- perhaps Transylvania and Rose-Hulman this year -- would have taken up two of the extra three spots, but that still would have left one extra for Hope and/or Adrian to fight for.