MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[Flying Dutch Fan]

Looking forward to the Hope - UW Platteville matchup on Saturday.  Third time these 2 will meet, and I'm certainly HOPEful for a different outcome than the previous two (which are both games firmly stuck in my memory).  UWP spanked Hope in the NCAA tourney in 2009 83-59 in a first round game at Wheaton.  Not a totally unexpected result - although the margin was hard to swallow.  The first meeting is the one many Hope fans recall.  1998 National Championship game, a UWP 13 point win to cap an undefeated season for the Bo Ryan squad. 

Hope (and the MIAA in general) don't have a great record against the UW teams.  Hope's current record is 5-9 against those teams with two of those wins just a few weeks back over UW LaCrosse and UWSP.  GVW lead teams won twice (1986 vs UW Parkside, and 1996 over UW Whitewater in the NCAA tourney sectional).  The other win goes back to a Russ DeVette lead Hope team that defeated UW Parkside in 1969. 

Looking for a 3rd win over a UW team for Coatch Mitchell and the Dutchmen tomorrow afternoon.  Be a great way to end the academic semester and send they guys off to their exams with confidence (not to mention some pay-back for an old dude who can't forget those painful losses).

Hope Plays, Hope Wins

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Massey Conference Ratings
1.  CCIW
2.  UAA
3.  MIAC
4.  MIAA
5.  WIAC


masseyratings.com now has the MIAA as the #4 conference in D3.  Not sure I buy that lofty rating, massey is calculating two exhibitions as real results but we'd still be in the top 10 even without those results.  At least for now the league appears to be flying with lofty company though even at just 24-22, some pretty strong schedules.

I've got a really difficult time believing that the WIAC is #5 this year.  As of right now, they're sitting at 33-25 (56.9%). Interestingly, everybody has at least 3 wins, which surprised me (I hadn't looked at the standings in a while) but everybody also has at least two losses.

Doesn't seem like that long ago when the conference was winning 80%+ of the non-conference games. And yet, it's in this era of MORE parity that the conference has won the last two, 4 of the last 6, and 6 of the last 12 national titles (maybe going back 12 years is a bit of a stretch).

It seems like there must be an inevitable changing of the guard that must occur, doesn't there?

There's probably a really long late night discussion that could be had over beverages discussing the recent rule changes and how they've affected the D3 conference most deeply rooted in the Bennett family coaching tree.  Seems like the conference that has most identified with low possession high quality defense might be having a tougher time adjusting to the new emphasis on less defensive friendly rules.


Or the league lost 12 of its top 19 scorers.  Either one.

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Albion 75 Spring Arbor 74 OT

Albion scores the last 5 points of the overtime and survives a running layup and a really good looking 3-pointer at the buzzer that hit the rim to win.

Corey Wheeler with 35

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UW-Platteville for Hope today.  Platteville is 5-3 with D3 losses to Dubuque and North Central.  That North Central game they lost by 30.   They lost to an excellent Davenport team by 12 and were within 6 with 5 to play in that one.    Best win was over Coe College who beat LaCrosse, who Hope beat to start the year.

They are pretty young and will play 6 Freshmen or Sophomores in their primary rotation of 8 or 9.    Lots of wing players of the 6-4 variety.  They'll start 6-2, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4, 6-9.  Off the bench they'll go 6-0, 6-5, 6-6 and 6-6.

Massey says they're a little better than Wheaton.


Couple other big games today:

Olivet has no chance at Indiana Wesleyan
Alma plays at Wheaton, would be a super nice win for the Scots
Trine plays Great Lakes Christian, if the Thunder have a 100 point game in them this would be the one.

[AppletonRocks]

Watching Alma abuse Wheaton.  Announcers bitching about the refs.  Alma has been up 12-15 for a long time.  Cry me a river, Wheaton. 

[oldknight]

Olivet has no chance at Indiana Wesleyan  Check
Alma plays at Wheaton, would be a super nice win for the Scots  Check
Trine plays Great Lakes Christian, if the Thunder have a 100 point game in them this would be the one.  No-Check

Alma with an impressive 79-65 road win at Wheaton tonight. It was Scots start to finish as Wheaton started slow (2 of first 15) and never recovered. The Thunder took 58 shots and 35 were from beyond the arc. That works if you're hitting them but they weren't, only sinking 11. Wheaton never seemed to know quite what to do with Alma's zone, which sometimes trapped and sometimes didn't. Samuelson, who couldn't miss at his two games in Holland was pretty much a nonfactor going 5-14.

The Scots has gone 3-1 against CCIW opponents, only losing to a quality Elmhurst club on the Bluejays' floor. Methinks the preseason MIAA prediction of a fourth place finish is too pessimistic. The Scots have a deep, well-balanced, smart and disciplined team that features a terrific transition game and a bevy of one-on-one scorers. Some (including me) thought there would be an early coronation in Holland during the conference season but I think Alma will sorely test the Flying Dutchmen this year.

The new rules may be an asset in Alma's quest for an unexpected title. Spreading the floor makes stopping the Scots' dribble penetration a more difficult task. By contrast, Wheaton needs a loosely called game. Berg, who is a good player, just can't stay on the floor. I've seen him play three games this year and he's fouled out of all three. Tonight he came back in with 11 minutes left, Alma smartly went straight inside to Gamble and Berg simply had to stay out of his way. One minute later Berg--who only played 14 minutes--committed his fifth foul.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Olivet has no chance at Indiana Wesleyan  Check
Alma plays at Wheaton, would be a super nice win for the Scots  Check
Trine plays Great Lakes Christian, if the Thunder have a 100 point game in them this would be the one.  No-Check

Alma with an impressive 79-65 road win at Wheaton tonight. It was Scots start to finish as Wheaton started slow (2 of first 15) and never recovered. The Thunder took 58 shots and 35 were from beyond the arc. That works if you're hitting them but they weren't, only sinking 11. Wheaton never seemed to know quite what to do with Alma's zone, which sometimes trapped and sometimes didn't. Samuelson, who couldn't miss at his two games in Holland was pretty much a nonfactor going 5-14.

The Scots has gone 3-1 against CCIW opponents, only losing to a quality Elmhurst club on the Bluejays' floor. Methinks the preseason MIAA prediction of a fourth place finish is too pessimistic. The Scots have a deep, well-balanced, smart and disciplined team that features a terrific transition game and a bevy of one-on-one scorers. Some (including me) thought there would be an early coronation in Holland during the conference season but I think Alma will sorely test the Flying Dutchmen this year.

The new rules may be an asset in Alma's quest for an unexpected title. Spreading the floor makes stopping the Scots' dribble penetration a more difficult task. By contrast, Wheaton needs a loosely called game. Berg, who is a good player, just can't stay on the floor. I've seen him play three games this year and he's fouled out of all three. Tonight he came back in with 11 minutes left, Alma smartly went straight inside to Gamble and Berg simply had to stay out of his way. One minute later Berg--who only played 14 minutes--committed his fifth foul.

As a CCIW guy (with MIAA as my #2 conference ), I agree.  I'm so used to Alma being a league doormat, it took a while to realize it, but the Scots are definitely for real.  At the time I assumed Elmhurst just had a terrible game; now I think it was a good win for them!  I'm glad IWU is not facing them this year, because right now the Titans are a mess and I don't know if I could handle losing to (OMG) ALMA!

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Hope 79  Platteville 69

Couple things from this one.


Platteville played their 6-6 barrel chested 235lb monster of a forward  Ethan Woodrow for the first time this year.  Even though he only logged 23 minutes off the bench he was efficient and frankly pretty outstanding going 7-10 from the floor and giving his young Pioneers team a chance to pull the upset.  Including scoring their last 9 points of the game.  I don't know if he'll be like that every game but he was good today.

Ethan is from Fountain HS in Indiana and according to this:  http://www.prephoopsindiana.com/prospects-2015-ethan-woodrow  was offered scholarships to D2 Indianapolis and Grand Valley State along with NAIA St. Francis.  That's good enough for me.  Platteville's a better team with him on the floor and I think they'll do well in the WIAC but their youth will surely catch up with them a few times as it did in this one today.


This game will do Hope a lot of good and it was nice to see them execute well enough down the stretch of a tight game to pull this one out.   Not perfect, but well enough to never quite give up the lead, never let Platteville have two bites at the apple in crunch time and after struggling from the line all day ice things away by making 11 of their 12 charity tosses.  Good minutes from Brushwyler and Eidson off the bench as well.


This was Hope's third straight slow start at home.  Hope's going through that phase where they have to learn that everyone is gunning for them and everyone is excited to get their shot at them and will play them tough.  Its just the way its going to be this year.  Hard lesson for some teams to learn but I think this one will figure it out.   Its good to have things to work on and things to improve upon even in wins.

Well earned 8 days off before Hanover and the Bible Tigers come to DeVos the following Monday and Tuesday.

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Alma hasn't won a lot on the road the last couple years, thrice last year and twice the year before.  Four of those very late in the year MIAA games with not a lot on the line.  Beating Wheaton at Wheaton is pretty similar to their beating Ripon at Ripon last year but certainly more convincing.

They go on the road to San Antonio the following week to play Mary Hardin-Baylor and Tex. Lutheran in neutral games before finishing their non-conference at UW-River Falls where they might get a shot at St. Norbert.

Another good step for the Scots program. 

[Mr. Ypsi]

My apologies to Alma.  I just checked the past records and realize it has been 4-5 years since the Scots could be considered 'a doormat'.  Good luck to the Scots - I hope you give a really good run for the title (and maybe even win it!).

(And time to confess: when I saw GOALMASCOTS, it took me a year or two before I started breaking it apart the right way - I wondered what the heck 'goal mascots' was supposed to mean! )

[HopeConvert]

A decent, but unconvincing, win for the Dutchmen yesterday. For a team with the aspirations they have, there are some problems, interior depth being foremost. I'm not overly impressed with Hope's interior defense, especially if Benson is on the bench. The backups got abused pretty well by Plattville's big men. I think rebounding is an issue for Hope as well.

Also, if they are going to make a run this year, they are going to have to shoot better from the FT line. I've watched them three times so far this year, and I don't see them dominating the league the way it was discussed at the beginning of the year. They had a lot of bad offensive possessions yesterday where they couldn't seem to get open looks. There are posters on this board who know a lot mor bat basketball than I do, but I couldn't figure out what the team was running offensively, so I'm open to being informed.

I dunno.

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Platteville did come into yesterdays game being in the top 15% of defensive teams in D3 (per massey) and giving up less than 1 point per possession.  They didn't hurt that rating much yesterday.

Ft's are weird, this same group of players shooting pretty much the same ratio of FT's set a school record last year shooting 80% from the FT line.

[pointlem]

Hope has had games

• where the post players were unstoppable (e.g., 40 points against Cornerstone while the guards were cold),
• where the perimeter scoring carried the day when post players were injured, in foul trouble, or less dominant (e.g., yesterday), and
• games where it all came together (e.g., Aquinas).

Against the best of DIII competition they'll need to be firing on all cylinders, and hitting FT's as they did last year.  But that's entirely possible.

Meanwhile, kudos to Alma, which looks like it could a challenge for all the other MIAA schools. . . and also to their SID for the extensive and exemplary write-up of their games:
http://goalmascots.com/sports/mbkb/2015-16/releases/20151212xvoxm7

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North Central 77 Albion  63 --- I suspect North Central might be a little underrated.  If they're getting votes, shouldn't Alma?

Defiance 88  Kalamazoo 70




Hope's best win, Stevens Point,  took its 4th loss in a 56-38 loss to St. Thomas.  The Pointers have lost to 4 NCAA quality teams and 3 teams in the current top 5.  It will be really hard for Hope to have a good strength of schedule this year, they need the Pointers to do really well.

[HOPEful]

...I suspect North Central might be a little underrated.  If they're getting votes, shouldn't Alma?

That loss at Ohio Northern is a pretty ugly blemish.

And although UWSP has 4 losses, 3 of them are to top 5 teams (Hope, Auggie, St. Thomas)

North Central's win against UWSP is boosting them more than it probably should for the time being. And I agree, every team that's beaten the Pointers so far this year should really be hoping they run the table in the WIAC and don't lose to anyone else other than Whitewater.