MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[section7]

In the NCAA tourney, a win is a win is a win, the goal is survive and advance..............

with that said, Hope will need to play their best game of the year tomorrow night to eliminate IWU.

Snuggs will not have 37 pts tomorrow, I guarantee #32 for IWU (Davis) will make sure of it.

NVA and LN need to be involved tomorrow night for a Hope plays, Hope wins game

[section7]

It appears NCAA 1st round Non-survivors from the d3hoops.com Top 25

#10 - Mary Hardin-Baylor
#11 - Claremont-Mudd-Scripps
#12 - William Paterson
#13 - Birmingham-Southern
#17 - UW-River Falls
#20 - Bethany
#25 - Christopher Newport

Tough night for teams with "-"'s in their name

PS. #18 Transylvania down 9 at Halftime

[MObball41]

If anyone is going to whine about the refs, it should be the unranked blue jays, not the #1 ranked hope. From what I hear, a few calls went Hope's way, including an apparent flagrant as verdis lee went up for a lay up. Way to play Westminster! They never gave up.

[AlwaysHope]

Hope basically won the game from 5:48 in the first half, when they trailed by 5, to :59 in the first half, just under five minutes, when they got the lead to 9; this 14 point differential was the game, with a final score of 79 - 65.  During this time they again played "small ball", with both big Nate and Josh sitting on the bench.  Colton just seems to electrify the team.

As previously reported, Nate S. had 37 points and 14 rebounds.   Even more remarkable is that he only had four points at the 4:48 mark of the first half, and scored 33 points in the last 25 minutes of the game, including 25 in the second half.

For us to advance after Sat., we will need more from Big Nate, Josh, and Logan than a combined 2 points and 3 rebounds.  Davs mentioned that in the post-game show.

But I did like the 23-10 ratio of assists to turnovers.  Seiler led the team with six assists.

Chris Ray, who celebrated his 21st birthday today on crutches, must have been grinding his teeth.  He is missed.

Nice meeting you today, Hope Convert.

Now, on to Saturday...

[section7]

If anyone is going to whine about the refs, it should be the unranked blue jays, not the #1 ranked hope. From what I hear, a few calls went Hope's way, including an apparent flagrant as verdis lee went up for a lay up. Way to play Westminster! They never gave up.

Not going whine about the refs, just going say (I was there), sounds like "you just heard", it was a physical foul, but not a flagrant foul and the refs did discuss it before ruling a 2 shot foul only, no flagrant.

However, how a "T" was not called on Lee for his reaction and antics after the play was surprising.

Now.......if we want to talk about a flagrant foul, we will have to ask David Krombeen how he went flying from one side of half court to the other side of half court early in the game, thanks to #22 Skylar Tolson.

[MObball41]

Wah

[hoopdreams]

Shame on anyone speaking negatively about the play of the Dutchmen! It's always-lack of competition, deferring authority on the floor, winter break, a head cold, etc...

Hope was exposed again by players with the ability to put the ball on the floor and get into the paint (the youngster made many a defender look really bad with his multiple lay-up attempts, thanfully he missed on 2 big ones).  They (Hope) have tendencies to allow really easy shots, even with their athletes and size advantage inside the post.  When the game got away, was about the same time the Jays settled and took quick jumpers ( this attributed to a loss of focus and solid perimeter d)

Hope really looked the extend the floor when playing zone and I lost count of how many times a"weak" pass 20-25 feet away from the hoop, especially when doubled in the corners, almost/should have picked off. 

Snuggs was fantastic...again.  My only concern is that there always seems to be some extra drama after many of his shots.  Maybe its just Nate protecting himself but so often there always seems to be an innocent shove, an extended forearm, inadvertant elbow to someones face.  In years past, this would have gotten him T'd up ( which had occurred multiple times).  I hope he doesn't get lit up during a crucial moment.

I thought guard play was merely average for several portions of the game but this was probably due to the sole focus of riding Nate.  As many have eluded to, this team does a great job of taking what's given to them.  Ft's and 3pt shooting still concerns and the BJ's basically conceeded every rebound as to not get beaten in transition, so that difference is misleading. 

Hope must play better than tonight but they will. Hope plays, Hope wins!!!!  Guessing their opponent will try to neutralize the high-low game?  Maybe that made the scouting report?

Merely an observation but one cannot question a players reaction or antics towards a play......ever.......if they've been a Hope basketball supporter for the past 25 years or so, minus the past two. 

[section7]

It appears NCAA 1st round Non-survivors from the d3hoops.com Top 25

#10 - Mary Hardin-Baylor
#11 - Claremont-Mudd-Scripps
#12 - William Paterson
#13 - Birmingham-Southern
#17 - UW-River Falls
#20 - Bethany
#25 - Christopher Newport

Tough night for teams with "-"'s in their name

PS. #18 Transylvania down 9 at Halftime

Final       Carroll (WI)     84   
       #18 Transylvania   74

[sac]

secton7 said it best, the NCAA tournament is all about winning and advancing, doesn't matter how.  The prize for looking pretty and winning by 30 is the same as winning by 1 on a full court heave.


I don't think that anyone made any outright outlandish predictions of Hope winning by big numbers but I sort of cringed at that thought.  Earlier this year Westminster played what I think is a very, very good Wheaton team.  Wheaton won 64-49 and trailed by 2 at the half..

http://cciw.org/custompages/CCIW_Links/MBasketball/Stats/1112/mb55.htm

So tonights comparison score probably shouldn't be too surprising.


**I didn't like how Hope attacked Westminster early, its one thing to shoot a few 3's when you are wide open, but its another to miss those and continue shooting them even though you have a decided height advantage.  The flip side of this is if Hope is able to drop a couple of those early 3's in they might have been off and running to the score some might have expected.  But overall I thought Hope dug its own hole.

**  If I'm not mistaken Nate Snuggerud had 2 FG's attempted through the first 15 minutes of the game.  That's just a wow moment from several angles.   That is just way too few with that kind of a matchup advantage and oh my lord what a final 25 minutes Nate had.


**Westminster is just one of those opponents whose lineup is so much smaller that even having your big guys on the floor was kind of pointless.  I thought Hope's best minutes were when they went small with pretty much 4 guards and Snuggerud.  They defended better and the offense was better.  It will be totally different Saturday night but I thought it was a really good move to go small by the Hope staff.

**Westminster was a much better team than I was expecting, they were smart, well versed in their offense, and really passed the ball very well.  Those skip passes were some of the best I've seen in a while.  On top of that, they played really hard, with passion, determination, took shots and attacked the basket without fear.  Well done.

This is the 3rd straight game I've watched an opponent walk out on the floor after the game looking happy with their effort despite the loss against Hope.  And they should have been.


**  Billy Seiler really stepped in and was tough when Hope needed someone to be.  He had a number of just really good hustle plays.  I've really grown to appreciate what he brings to this Hope team.  He'll get yet another tough defensive assignment tomorrow I'm sure.



** I'm really looking forward to this Hope/IWU game, I think it will be a good one.

[ac slater]

Westminster was undersized but it didn't matter. They  seemed to play well against a great crowd but hope fans called in the wahmbulace and that seemed to seal the deal.

[hope52]

good game last night 

i wish it was  700  tonight now   go hope

[hopefan]

AC and MoBall are decidedly Westmin fans and I can understand their emotions... I, on the other hand, being a SLIAC fan, couldn't be happier with what I was able to see of the game on the internet as I attended the 2 games at Wash U.... these David vs Goliath  games usually go one of two ways... it's a slaughter from the beginning, or, the underdog team can come in full of adrenaline and play their best game, eventually falling to the onslaught of superior talent and numbers offerred up by the opponent....  I'm so pleased the latter occurred last night.. it was good for Hope to get the IWU prep with a good game, and it obviously was the great experience I hoped for for Westminster.

Hope fans.. imagine a conference with 4 or 5 or 6 Westminsters... that's what we had this year in the SLIAC, virtually every game, particularly in the last two weeks, going down to the wire... that's why I love this conference and seriously, it's what the MIAA misses with it's normally top heavy ((NORMALLY  )) twosome and everybody else lineup of basketball programs... that feel of equal big game matchups more than a couple times a year.  Well, I'm rooting for a Hope win over IWU and a Wash U win over North Central. and the old hopefan will take a trip to Holland next week!!!!

[Flying Dutch Fan]

So with the win last night, Hope got their 1500th all-time win in men's basketball.  Wasn't easy, and won't get easier, but they got the job done.

Absolutely monster game by Snuggs, and kudos to his teammates for finding him time and again in a good position to score.  With the surge of the last few games, Nate now has 964 career points.  Duplicate last night today and he'd be at 1001.  Not sure if Hope has ever had 3 players get to the 1000 point mark in a single season - Snuggs would join Krombeen and Bunn.

Would be cool for him to do that - but the focus is not on that - its on IWU and a tough test this Hope team will face.  IMHO - Hope matches up with IWU much better than they did with Westminster.  Add to that the fact that as a team these Hope guys know they didn't bring their best effort last night (with the exception of Snuggs), and I see Hope coming out, exerting their will, and getting the win - provided they avoid early foul trouble as a team.

[knightvision]

Shame on anyone speaking negatively about the play of the Dutchmen! It's always-lack of competition, deferring authority on the floor, winter break, a head cold, etc...

Hope was exposed again by players with the ability to put the ball on the floor and get into the paint (the youngster made many a defender look really bad with his multiple lay-up attempts, thanfully he missed on 2 big ones).  They (Hope) have tendencies to allow really easy shots, even with their athletes and size advantage inside the post.  When the game got away, was about the same time the Jays settled and took quick jumpers ( this attributed to a loss of focus and solid perimeter d)

Hope really looked the extend the floor when playing zone and I lost count of how many times a"weak" pass 20-25 feet away from the hoop, especially when doubled in the corners, almost/should have picked off. 

Snuggs was fantastic...again.  My only concern is that there always seems to be some extra drama after many of his shots.  Maybe its just Nate protecting himself but so often there always seems to be an innocent shove, an extended forearm, inadvertant elbow to someones face.  In years past, this would have gotten him T'd up ( which had occurred multiple times).  I hope he doesn't get lit up during a crucial moment.

I thought guard play was merely average for several portions of the game but this was probably due to the sole focus of riding Nate.  As many have eluded to, this team does a great job of taking what's given to them.  Ft's and 3pt shooting still concerns and the BJ's basically conceeded every rebound as to not get beaten in transition, so that difference is misleading. 

Hope must play better than tonight but they will. Hope plays, Hope wins!!!!  Guessing their opponent will try to neutralize the high-low game?  Maybe that made the scouting report?

Merely an observation but one cannot question a players reaction or antics towards a play......ever.......if they've been a Hope basketball supporter for the past 25 years or so, minus the past two.

Help! I need a translation of this last observation.  What connection are you making between your current and prior coach and whether one can question their players reaction to a play? 

[TitanPride]

Can anybody tell me about the status for tickets for tonight's game?  All they already sold out? If not, how early should one arrive to just get into the arena?  Thanks!