MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[oldknight]

Anyone know which ref called the T? Just curious.

Kendall Smith.

[calvin_grad]

Kudos to Hope for a very good product streamed online.  My family watching at home did get a few chuckles on the commentary.  Especially when the Calvin faithful were chanting the inevitable and infamous Rasheed Wallace "ball don't lie" following a miss on the first free throw of the Dykstra tech - the play-by-play guy informed us they were saying "ball go high"!

He also mentioned that Hope needed to get their learner's permit again, because they have forgotten how to drive.

[wiz]

Hope's played two desperate teams playing desperate basketball this week and had a hard time responding to that kind of basketball.   I don't know that there's a great answer for that kind of play other than to be a desperate team yourself.

Agree completely.  MIAA tournament time is desperation time and should be for all teams regardless of record.  It is the only sure way into the NCAA tournament.  This is also what made prior year's tourneys so exciting,  when every school had a shot at it.  It allows every coach to work on improving his team to the point that they hit their peak when it matters most.

[KzooHornet]

Congratulations to Calvin for winning the MIAA Tournament and earning a bid to the NCAA Tournament!  This was their only way in and it sounds like they played like it. 

Here's hoping that the Dutchmen still get a bid.  Not because I am a huge fan of Hope College Basketball, but because I am a huge fan of the schedule that Coach Neil put together for this year.  After years of being advised to play more D3 opponents (in quantity and quality), it would be a crime to leave them out after their schedule this year.  Not only did they play ranked teams, they played them on the road.  Other than win a few more of those games (please note that UWW and UWSP both went undefeated at home this year), I am not sure there was much more they could have done this season.

[AndersDY]

The progress of the game seemed particularly surprising given the points at which I checked the score today. My 3 peeks for information showed Hope up 13-6 early, then Hope down 40-31 with 9+ min left, and then finally an eye-popping 74-47 with about 3 min left. Based on those 3 data points, it appears that Calvin put up 34 points in about 6 min of the second half where Hope put up 34 points over about a 30 min stretch. I'm guessing the serious butt-whipping must have been taking place somewhere within the middle of the second half the way it looked.

Hope was down 40-31 with 16 minutes to go.  The "hay in the barn" moment of the day was after a Calvin steal, Austin Parks dribbled the ball past about 3 Hope defenders for an uncontested lay up with 7 minutes to go.

Ah, that makes the progress of the score a bit less shocking. The late score check was shocking because of the deficit, but also because of how fast that change occurred. That all seems a bit more linear if the time on my livestats was not updated properly and should have said 16 min remaining in the game.

[AndersDY]

For any who hadn't seen it, the good folks at D3Hoops have Hope penciled into the bracket pretty strongly:

Championship: Saturday, March 1.
Automatic bid: Calvin
At-large implications: Hope leading at-large candidate in Great Lakes. Calvin win made this a two-bid league.

[hoopdreams]

Question- When Calvin made their run, one of two things occurred.  Please enlighten. Did Hope-
1. Fight, claw and scratch and nothing "went their way"
2. Collectively concede and play with little heart AKA- give up

From the posts already written (mainly from a Calvin perspective) It's mind boggling that this could occur in the most important game of the season, especially with the outcome of the first two contests. We can debate the whole " it's tough to beat a team 3 times" thing....tough to crush a team 3 times? Yes.  Tough to beat them 3 times? It's been done.  Were the adjustments KVS made so incredible that Hope couldn't adjust or didn't they adjust? 

Going off of comments from earlier posts- "thoroughly outplayed", "uncontested layups", "NVA needed help and got none", Calvin had "more energy", hope "lacked energy", etc....At Home??? With a championship on the line?? Really???

The telling game for me, pertaining to this young club, was not recent.  Rather it was at Albion and it was all I needed to know.  A "Champion" caliber program should never get blown out by 30,  regardless of the game just played, regardless of the history of Albion teams in their own gym.  This is an average Albion team, that everyone admits lacks the grit to make games ugly and keep them close in their favor.

I'm sure we will hear about how young the team is and they are.  Maybe there was an illness ravaging the team ala 5-6 years ago right around this time.  Yesterday's game, from a distance, sure sounds like the MSU game I had the displeasure of watching.  A bunch of kids with a "meh" attitude and a lack of fight.  Here's "hoping" they get in.  I'm confident their approach will be different in THIS next important game.

[KnightSlappy]

I wouldn't say Hope lacked energy so much as the Calvin defense was swarming in a way we didn't see in the first two meetings. Hope also had a few open looks from range that simply didn't fall.

In the last meeting at the DeVos, Calvin seemed tentative on offense and allowed Hope's defense to set the tempo. Calvin flipped that script yesterday, attacking Hope right from the get-go. Jordan Brink in particular had a few drives in the first few minutes that turned into blocked shots for the Dutchmen, but the Knights didn't back down and were eventually able to convert their opportunities.

[KnightSlappy]

I'm guessing, based on seeding, that Calvin will have to travel and play the host team in the first round. Probably one of:

Illinois Wesleyan
UW-Whitewater
Wheaton (Ill.)
Wooster

Hope could play someone like Rose-Hulman, Carthage, or Augustana at one of the above sites.

We're all hoping we don't see this, but the seeding seems to work out that Calvin and Hope could be in the same pod. KVS is on the national committee though, so maybe he could help prevent that by laying some hints.

[KnightSlappy]

It's also not impossible that Hope could host a Thursday game with the winner traveling to UWSP on Saturday. I think Stevens Point looks good for a bye.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Not sure why Hope would get a Thursday game... I know we could ship the NWC and SCIAC winners to Texas... but they also could have them play on Thursday and ship them to say UWSP (or other). But... anything is certainly possible.

[KnightSlappy]

Not sure why Hope would get a Thursday game... I know we could ship the NWC and SCIAC winners to Texas... but they also could have them play on Thursday and ship them to say UWSP (or other). But... anything is certainly possible.

We could very well see the Thursday games go to Whitworth-Chapman and the Texas Schools, but it's not impossible that they either choose to (1) ship them all to Texas or (2) fly the west coast pair out to help balance brackets.

It's not likely that Hope gets a Thursday game, but they'd be potentially one of the teams in position for one if the NCAA went that route.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

I agree... and depends on who else gets in an such.

[sac]

If you seed pods 1, 2, 3, 4 I have Hope as right on the cut-off of  a 2/3.  I actually think Calvin could be a pretty solid 3.  If that's the case they should be in separate regionals.

Because of the shear volume of good teams in this part of the country, correct seeding usually gets thrown out the window.  See 2009  Platteville vs Hope.  So really anything is possible.


There's one team that I think will get to low of a seed for how good they might really be and that's Wilmington.  Whoever draws that team is drawing a difficult first round game.


If I had a preference for location for Hope it would be Washington-St. Louis or Wooster since we've not played those teams this year, not likely played any of the other participants likely to be there either.  Plus it would be something new.  (17 years since we played Wooster, just wrong!)

[sac]

Counting teams west of the Allegheny's:

I have 28 teams that are likely to have qualified, 29 if we assume Centre hosts with Emory going there to solve one of the geography problems.

I think we require 7 host sights, we would need 8 if we pull teams into our half of the country from NY/PA/VA as we have in the recent past or use the 3 team pods for geography.

I like these 5 to host
Stevens Point
Washington
Wooster
Whitewater
Ill. Wesleyan

Next two
St. Norbert and/or Wheaton

Last
St. Olaf or Hope/Calvin

I put Calvin here because of its facility and location (East)


We're a little heavy on teams to the left on the map, I think Hope/Calvin is in contention to host if they feel they need a more Eastern host.  If they go somewhere else like Rose-Hulman/Wilmington they would be breaking seeds rather dramatically.  Mind you I think this chance is fairly small and is assuming Hope makes the field at all.