MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[Flying Dutch Fan]

My assumption (I know, I know) is that the new format will be that #1 and #2 will host games on Wednesday, and then the highest remaining seed would host on Saturday.  This keeps the teams in their normal MIAA routine including traveling, and we all know how much sports teams like to be in a routine. 

Maybe not a big advantage, just trying to make lemonade...

My assumption is the opposite, I think they'll play Friday-Saturday with 4 teams all at one site. (I think this is what the CCIW does but please correct me if I am wrong).  If you play on Wednesday you are more likely to have students missing games then if you play Friday.

Agree

This is what I originally thought too, but if one of the reasons is cost reduction, you'd want to play Wednesday/Saturday to eliminate the need for hotel rooms. Unless, say, Adrian wants to drive to a place like Holland on Friday night, then drive back across the state after the game, then drive back on Saturday.

My thoughts exactly.  Additionally, if you play Wed/ Sat, you only have 2 teams that have to travel on Wed and 1 on Sat, versus 3 on Friday and 1 on Sat.

I'm also not sure you save that much on missed classes, since 2 games on Friday means two traveling teams need to arrive for a 6pm game.

[ChicagoHopeNut]

My assumption (I know, I know) is that the new format will be that #1 and #2 will host games on Wednesday, and then the highest remaining seed would host on Saturday.  This keeps the teams in their normal MIAA routine including traveling, and we all know how much sports teams like to be in a routine. 

Maybe not a big advantage, just trying to make lemonade...

My assumption is the opposite, I think they'll play Friday-Saturday with 4 teams all at one site. (I think this is what the CCIW does but please correct me if I am wrong).  If you play on Wednesday you are more likely to have students missing games then if you play Friday.

Agree

This is what I originally thought too, but if one of the reasons is cost reduction, you'd want to play Wednesday/Saturday to eliminate the need for hotel rooms. Unless, say, Adrian wants to drive to a place like Holland on Friday night, then drive back across the state after the game, then drive back on Saturday.

My thoughts exactly.  Additionally, if you play Wed/ Sat, you only have 2 teams that have to travel on Wed and 1 on Sat, versus 3 on Friday and 1 on Sat.

I'm also not sure you save that much on missed classes, since 2 games on Friday means two traveling teams need to arrive for a 6pm game.

I thought about the hotel/driving back and forth issue as well but lean towards them doing Friday-Saturday. Honestly, if it's not Friday-Saturday then it won't have the feeling of a tournament at all but such is life.

As far as classes go, I would hazard a guess that very few players on any traveling team will have Friday afternoon classes they'd miss. There simply are far far fewer Friday afternoon classes than Wednesday afternoon classes so even though one more team would be traveling I bet most years fewer classes would be missed.

[Mr. Ypsi]

My experience as a lecturer tells me most college students (athletes or not) are allergic to Friday afternoon classes!  You are probably (almost certainly?) correct that Wednesday night games would cause more absenteeism (at least than otherwise would have existed anyway) than Friday night games.

[Dutchmen 4 Life]

My assumption (I know, I know) is that the new format will be that #1 and #2 will host games on Wednesday, and then the highest remaining seed would host on Saturday.  This keeps the teams in their normal MIAA routine including traveling, and we all know how much sports teams like to be in a routine. 

Maybe not a big advantage, just trying to make lemonade...

My assumption is the opposite, I think they'll play Friday-Saturday with 4 teams all at one site. (I think this is what the CCIW does but please correct me if I am wrong).  If you play on Wednesday you are more likely to have students missing games then if you play Friday.

Agree

This is what I originally thought too, but if one of the reasons is cost reduction, you'd want to play Wednesday/Saturday to eliminate the need for hotel rooms. Unless, say, Adrian wants to drive to a place like Holland on Friday night, then drive back across the state after the game, then drive back on Saturday.

My thoughts exactly.  Additionally, if you play Wed/ Sat, you only have 2 teams that have to travel on Wed and 1 on Sat, versus 3 on Friday and 1 on Sat.

I'm also not sure you save that much on missed classes, since 2 games on Friday means two traveling teams need to arrive for a 6pm game.

I thought about the hotel/driving back and forth issue as well but lean towards them doing Friday-Saturday. Honestly, if it's not Friday-Saturday then it won't have the feeling of a tournament at all but such is life.

As far as classes go, I would hazard a guess that very few players on any traveling team will have Friday afternoon classes they'd miss. There simply are far far fewer Friday afternoon classes than Wednesday afternoon classes so even though one more team would be traveling I bet most years fewer classes would be missed.

As a student that attends most of the games, I would think that most of the players try to schedule around having Wednesday afternoon classes knowing that they are going to have a game every Wednesday during the regular season.  This is the first that I have heard of the tournament change, so I have no insight on what nights the games will be played, just an observation I've had interacting with the student-athletes.

[Adrian Hoops Fan]

The #8 seed has never won an MIAA tournament game, but also remember we've only had a #8 seed for 8 of the tournaments.

The #7 seed has never won an MIAA tournament game, most wins were comfortable only 1 single digit game and that came last year with Hope/Trine

#6 seed
1997 Adrian beat Kzoo

#5 seed
1995 Albion beat Olivet
1997 Alma beat Albion
2001 Adrian beat Albion in OT
2003 Adrian beat Kzoo
2008 Adrian beat Trine

For the most part the MIAA tournament first round has gone true to form.  My guess is Adrian is probably really opposed to this.

Correction:
In '01 Adrian as a 6 seed beat Albion (#3) in OT.  Two days later at Calvin, Adrian also beat #2 seed Hope in overtime only to lose to Calvin in the final.  That same year, I think Olivet as a 5 seed beat Kazoo.

I think this is an absolute mistake to lose the full conference tounament.  By the teory of the 7 and 8 being winless, does this mean the D-1 should get rid of the 16 seed since they have never beat a 1 seed.  These are all private schools that these student athletes and their families are paying A LOT of money for their kids educations and it is a joke to say that these schools need to make more.  March Madness is exactly that , let all 8 have a chance and the let the strongest survive.  It only makes the winner stronger and more tested for the NCAA touney.  This is a pathetic excuse for an improvement and whoever decided on this should be ashamed of themselves.  D3 is like the last of the true amateur athletes with the corruption in higher levels and now the nations oldest NCAA conference is now selling out because they aren't making enough money on ticket sales on Wed nite tourney games.  And the class excuse is a joke too.  How much class time does  a basketball player miss truely  (I played and practice vs class always meant going to class. and through the whole season us players did not miss more then 5 days worth of class  (1 or 2 days for each preseason tournament and Friday of of tournament week for the semi-finals) ).  Baseball players miss more then that over a 3 week period of their season.  This is a complete disservice to the student athletes of the MIAA.

[sac]

For the most part the MIAA tournament first round has gone true to form.  My guess is Adrian is probably really opposed to this.

I think I was right. 

[sac]

I think I'll wait for an official announcement before railing on this one way or the other.  I'm sure there are good reasons for and against, I just hope we get a good thorough explanation from the powers that be.


I do find it somewhat interesting that 20 years ago the thinking was that Hope and Calvin didn't want the tournament, at the time probably an accurate line of thinking.  Now 20 years later we get a change and the thinking is that its Hope and Calvin making the push.....not sure if that's true but its another interesting twist in the league's seemingly endless list of dramas.


My one sole wish would be to keep the Friday night double-header semi-finals.  Its just a great day, something I look forward to every year.

[Adrian Hoops Fan]

For the most part the MIAA tournament first round has gone true to form.  My guess is Adrian is probably really opposed to this.

I think I was right.  

Opposed is an understatement.  I just think the tournament is the best time of the season.  It would be like taking away districts in HS basketball.  Because, does the 0-20 team really have a chance to win the state title?  Or for that fact, why not just pick 16 teams per class to play for the title, cuz the rest of the teams are just wasting our time and money oh and they may miss a class or two.  Hell, Green Bay should not have won the super bowl because they weren't int the top 4 so they didn't deserve it either.  Due to injures, youth and other factors some teams just don't get it all clicking on all cylinders till late in the year and maybe at that time the 5th or 6th place team just may be better at that time then the teams in front of them.  This is a HUGE step backwards for the MIAA.

[AlwaysHope]

Back to this year's tournament!  Maybe someone can help me out.

An article in the Grand Rapids Press on Sunday indicated that if the Hope and Calvin women's BB team both end their MIAA season with one loss (which seems very likely), then a coin flip would determine who would host the games after the first round.  Let's assume that Hope wins the coin toss.

IF that happens, and the Hope men win the MIAA (which also seems very likely), who would host the men's tournament?  I assume that Hope could not host both the men and women.  Is there a precedent for this?

[Hopetix]

Hope would in fact host them both. There would be a game on Tuesday (women) Wed (men) Thursday (women) Friday (2 men's games) Saturday 3PM (women I believe) 7:00/30 (men) or maybe that's flipped but both played on Saturday. It's a long week of basketball, but really fun, and has happened before.

[sac]

Hope hosted both the men's and women's Championship games in 2008, everything went well.

[Civic Minded]

Silence for nearly 24 hours.  When's the last time that happened during the season? 

<CM goes back to holding breath w/ the rest of the posters>

[Mr. Ypsi]

And if you had held your breath for just 8 minutes and 50 seconds longer, it could have been exactly 24 hours!

Killjoy!

[sflzman]

Hope would in fact host them both. There would be a game on Tuesday (women) Wed (men) Thursday (women) Friday (2 men's games) Saturday 3PM (women I believe) 7:00/30 (men) or maybe that's flipped but both played on Saturday. It's a long week of basketball, but really fun, and has happened before.

Whether there is the same team as the #1 seed or not, it is like that every year. Women play Tue, Thur. Men play Wed, Fri. Then as Hopetix said, the men's championship is at 7:30 and the women's championship is at 3:00.

There's really no difference to if Hope was the 2 (except they wouldn't host the championship obliviously) in both brackets, you couldn't have an opening round game at the same time, that's why the MIAA does "zig-zag" dates for the tourney...

[Adrian Hoops Fan]

 Bottom line, if you don't like the contacted tournament, you need to make sure to let your schools president know about why this is a mistake.  I personally contacted Adrian's president about this and fully intend to communicate with many of Adrian's basketball alumni about this urging them to do the same to preserve the tournament and keep the MIAA's own march madness.  However, more presidents will need to push for the tournament as w know it, because the vote is in the hands of the presidents.