MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[NW Hope Fan]

As it stands, the advice I got was to pause the live feed before leaving for the date with the Mrs.
Interestingly it worked... But only for the first half.   
It was a hard fought half and I wish I could have seen the 2nd.
Those guys from Alma can shoot!
Good win Hope!
Good night from the PNW!

[sac]

Alex Eidson pulled Sam Hargraves out of the handshake line and apologized to him personally.  No one was happy with the dunk.

[sac]

Hope 71  Alma 57

So much fun to watch two teams play so hard against each other.  To me this game was won with a lot of the little battles for rebounds and loose balls, Hope seemed to win most of them.  As hard as I've seen a Hope team battle for things like that in awhile.

I've been able to watch Alma 4 times now, tonight Hope made Alma chase the ball on defense more than anyone else has.  For the first time in those four games I saw some confusion from Alma on defense and it had a lot to do with Hope's excellent movement as individuals and with the ball.  But the key to beating any good zone is knocking down shots, Hope made their last four 3-pt attempts that finally provided the separation that neither team was able to grab for over 30 minutes, up until that point Alma had been really good on defense as well.  Hope maintained that separation and won the game, simple as that.

Defensively Hope was outstanding, that's the fewest points Alma has scored in over a year, a year where they went 21-5 and 14-1 against MIAA teams before tonight.  I can't stress enough how good Alma has been offensively this year. 

The truly beautiful thing to me is I really believe Hope can still play so much better.


Big thank you to the DeVos staff and a huge kudos to Hopetix for handling what was really an unprecedented game in terms of demand for a non-Hope/Calvin game.  The sellout before gameday and a set allocation of visitor tickets for a regular season game has simply not happened in Hope's DeVos Fieldhouse years. 

Great crowd, great atmosphere, exactly what makes driving halfway across a State and back so worth it.

[sac]

+1 for road win, -1 for home loss
Alma      9-1     +4
Hope     9-1     +3
Albion    6-4     +2
Trine      5-5     0
Adrian   5-5      -1
Calvin    4-6     -1
Olivet     2-8    -2
Kzoo      0-10    -5

Home teams are 25-15  (8 of those losses belong to Kzoo, Olivet)

Remaining games:
Adrian:    @Albion,@Hope---------@Calvin, Kzoo
Albion:     Adrian, Olivet------------Alma, @Trine
Alma:       Calvin, Trine--------------@Albion, @Olivet
Calvin:     @Alma, @Kzoo-----------Adrian, Hope
Hope:      @Trine, Adrian-----------@Kzoo, @Calvin
Kzoo:       @Olivet, Calvin-----------Hope, @Adrian
Olivet:      Kzoo, @Albion------------Trine, Alma
Trine:       Hope, @Alma-------------@Olivet, Albion


If everyone in the top 6 wins their remaining home games and beats both Kzoo and Olivet( any win on the road vs any of these 6 teams is a really big win.)

Alma      12-2
Hope     11-3
Albion     9-5
Trine       8-6
Calvin     7-7
Adrian     6-8

Tonight's results didn't change anything above.

Alma/Hope---despite the loss to Hope, they're really in the better position with two home games next week and the very winnable game at Olivet while Hope has 3 games on the road and Adrian at home.   Its really now down to which team, if either, will blink.

-----Calvin was helped by Trine losing but they still need to win 3 of their last 4 probably, 7 wins likely get you into some kind of tie-breaker.

-----Adrian got the win today to keep themselves in the conversation, getting to 7 wins will probably require winning one at Albion, at Calvin or at Hope

-----Albion now finds themselves in a great position with 3 consecutive home games, one win probably gets themselves a tie, just 2 might be enough and 3 would get them in the tournament for sure.

-----Trine is going to need to win at least 1 of its remaining home games with Hope and Albion.  They have a really difficult yet huge week of opportunity this upcoming week hosting Hope and traveling to Alma.

If  Calvin, Trine or Albion can get just one win against Alma, it could be enough to swing the standings in their favor or give them a tie-breaker edge.


Both Olivet and Kzoo are now eliminated, yet I feel like one or both might have a thing or to say about things remaining.



So many good games remaining.

[HOPEful]

Alma:       Calvin, Trine--------------@Albion, @Olivet
Hope:      @Trine, Adrian-----------@Kzoo, @Calvin

Alma/Hope---despite the loss to Hope, they're really in the better position with two home games next week and the very winnable game at Olivet while Hope has 3 games on the road and Adrian at home.   Its really now down to which team, if either, will blink.

Thanks for doing this sac! Fun perspective!

I would tend to disagree with the "better position" of Alma, simply because they still have to go to Albion. Even if they get Trine and Calvin and home, that game @Albion stands out to me and because of it, I don't think I'd trade Hope's remaining schedule for Alma's.

[northb]

The way it should be:

"In cases where two or more teams conclude MIAA play with identical league records, the ties would
be broken using the following criteria:
a. The holder of The Belt^TM
b. Head to Head
c. Combined record vs. the teams ahead of the tied teams in the standings.
d. Record against 1st place team, then 2nd place team, etc....all the way through the standings.
e. Total conference road wins
f. Individual road records against conference schools, starting with the 1st place team, then 2nd place
team, etc...all the way through the standings.
g. Record in second half of conference season (last 7 games).
h. In-Region win total.
I. Coin Flip.
In the case of a tie involving multiple teams, the same tie breaking criteria as above would be used
until one team can be placed in position. The remaining tied teams would then
use the above criteria
to establish the next position until no teams remain tied. In an unbreakable tie, the position will be
determined by a coin flip conducted by the Commissioner. (5/12)
3.Once teams have been put in positions 1-8, seeds will be established"

[sac]

Alma:       Calvin, Trine--------------@Albion, @Olivet
Hope:      @Trine, Adrian-----------@Kzoo, @Calvin

Alma/Hope---despite the loss to Hope, they're really in the better position with two home games next week and the very winnable game at Olivet while Hope has 3 games on the road and Adrian at home.   Its really now down to which team, if either, will blink.

Thanks for doing this sac! Fun perspective!

I would tend to disagree with the "better position" of Alma, simply because they still have to go to Albion. Even if they get Trine and Calvin and home, that game @Albion stands out to me and because of it, I don't think I'd trade Hope's remaining schedule for Alma's.

As much as I admire the tough games and typically tough atmosphere at Kresge when Hope plays there, its just not like that for anyone else.  Believe me I'm all for Albion College going all out to make that a great atmosphere, but Wed night's are usually a tougher draw for fans there.    I think Hope will face a tougher test at Calvin and Trine.

I think I'll defer to massey:

Alma:
Calvin       87%
Trine         81%
@ Albion  71%
@ Olivet   96%

Hope:
@ Trine    68%
Adrian      81%
@ Kzoo    98%
@ Calvin   79%

There are better mathematicians than me who can figure out Massey's probability these two teams win all 4 remaining games.  But it looks to me like Alma has the slight advantage at this point in massey's eyes.   If Hope gets by Trine Wed. night, the advantage probably flips to Hope.



If the "favorties" to massey win out, the final standings would be:

Alma      13-1
Hope      13-1
Albion    8-6
Trine      7-7
Adrian    7-7
Calvin     5-9
Olivet     3-11
Kzoo      0-14

The two 'swing' games that would greatly impact the middle of the standings both involve Adrian.     Adrian at Albion 53% to Albion,  Adrian at Calvin 53% to Adrian.

[sac]

The view from up North:
http://www.themorningsun.com/sports/20160207/two-way-tie-atop-miaa-standings-as-hope-hands-alma-first-loss

First couple paragraphs focus on 'that one play' and this whole article is really spot on excellent.

[KnightSlappy]

I think I'll defer to massey:

Alma:
Calvin       87%
Trine         81%
@ Albion  71%
@ Olivet   96%

Hope:
@ Trine    68%
Adrian      81%
@ Kzoo    98%
@ Calvin   79%

There are better mathematicians than me who can figure out Massey's probability these two teams win all 4 remaining games.  But it looks to me like Alma has the slight advantage at this point in massey's eyes.   If Hope gets by Trine Wed. night, the advantage probably flips to Hope.

Multiply the percentages, so Alma has a 48% chance of winning out. Hope has a 42% chance.

[hopefan]

"It is going to be the most stressful game my wife and I go to," Dave said about the impending matchup. "It's stressful because we have so many connections at Hope and we're the outsiders now. There are people who didn't like our decision to go to Alma and it's very difficult. I told my wife jokingly, 'I wish I didn't even have a ticket to the game.' It makes it very difficult for us to go in there and root against them with all the people we know."

I would assume/expect Hope fans would respect their decision and not make it difficult.

Dave Beckman... absolutely my favorite Hope basketball player of the 80's... many great memories, and one awful one that goes down as my worst, and Dave would probably agree... Heidleberg...

[oldknight]

It's not out of the realm of possibility that there will be three, fourth place league finishers with losing records at 6-8. If Calvin goes 2-2 with wins over Adrian and Kalamazoo, and Adrian and Trine both go 1-3 (a very real possibility given each team's tough remaining games) we will be greatly testing the tie breaker formula. I leave it to others to try and figure out whether we will be left with a coin toss to determine who gets to play in the conference tournament.

[HopeConvert]

Nice win by Hope, 71-57. Especially in the second half the Flying Dutchmen looked like a team more used to playing in a big game than did Alma. Hope's ability to get the ball inside on Alma's zone the final 20 minutes really put pressure on the Scots and gave the home team better quality shots than the visitors. On a computer screen it looked like Alma was chasing the ball the entire second half. Thought Hope's defense on DJ Beckman was outstanding, not allowing him to breathe and limiting him to 7 floor shots. Jason Beckman has had a hot hand all year but not tonight, as he went 0-4 from the arc and 3-10 overall. Eidson's second half shooting (15 for the game) really opened things up for Hope though his last second dunk wasn't very classy. Bet he wishes he had a do over on that. Mitchell certainly does, of that I can assure you.

Evidence thereof:

http://youtu.be/upWg6pB32gY

[gohope]

Congrats to Ben Gardner of Hope College!!

http://athletics.hope.edu/sports/mbkb/2015-16/releases/20160209egt2yb

[monsoon]

Congrats to Ben Gardner of Hope College!!

http://athletics.hope.edu/sports/mbkb/2015-16/releases/20160209egt2yb

And congrats to the Hope program for having a player named to the Allstate Good Works Team for the 3rd time in 4 years. That's no small thing.

[GreatScot!?]

Lot of great match-ups today in the MIAA! Can Kalamazoo get their first conference win? Can Trine beat Hope at home and shake up the top of the standings? Big game at Kresge for 2 teams hoping to get into the tournament! And then we have that Alma team that might be playing with some vengeance after losing to Hope and a Calvin team that needs to steal some road games to make the tournament! Should be a very eventful evening and it'll be interesting to see how the conference standings look tomorrow morning. Find out tonight at MIAA.org!