MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[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!

Definitely made it hard to do my MIAA pick 'em selections!

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Regional Rankings: http://www.d3blogs.com/d3hoops/2016/02/10/first-2016-regional-rankings-released-today/

[HopeConvert]

So someone interpret these regional rankings. My sense is that neither Alma nor Hope can afford to lose a game prior to the conference tourney championship game. Is that a fair assessment?

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

First off remember that some of the most important criteria isn't even factored in right now: Results Versus Regionally Ranked Opponents (vRRO). That will shake things up next week when that becomes a player in the criteria.

Secondly, there are number of games still to be played including the conference tournaments. This list is pretty much guarunteed to have a number of losses in it by the time we get to the end, so thus a lot of changes.

I think Hope and Alma are in good spots and may even move up next week. The Great Lakes has good numbers and we predicted on the Hoopsville Marathon last week there is a chance a team(s) who don't appear on the actual rankings could easily get selected on Selection Sunday.

[sac]

Free admission at Alma tonight if you donate a case of water for Flint Public Schools

http://goalmascots.com/general/2015-16/TWISA002082016

[sac]

First off remember that some of the most important criteria isn't even factored in right now: Results Versus Regionally Ranked Opponents (vRRO). That will shake things up next week when that becomes a player in the criteria.

Secondly, there are number of games still to be played including the conference tournaments. This list is pretty much guarunteed to have a number of losses in it by the time we get to the end, so thus a lot of changes.

I think Hope and Alma are in good spots and may even move up next week. The Great Lakes has good numbers and we predicted on the Hoopsville Marathon last week there is a chance a team(s) who don't appear on the actual rankings could easily get selected on Selection Sunday.

Not sure that's the case

PSU-Behrend, Mt. St. Joseph, St. Vincent, Hilbert are only unranked teams with win% that can get above .700 and all have SOS below .485 and those won't get much better.  Everyone else you might consider has 8 losses or more.  Looks like its only 9 deep this year.

PSU-B is it for me, and their SOS is currently .418

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Few factors at play:

- the rankings will change when vRRO enters the equation.
- a number of the teams ranked, even if it isn't the favorites, will win the AQ lowering this list dramatically.
- there will be a good chunk of below .500 SOS teams at the table near the end is my gut feeling, meaning everyone will be in play.
- we were shooting a little from the hip, but I could still see it possibly lining up in such a manner.

[sac]

Few factors at play:

- the rankings will change when vRRO enters the equation.
- a number of the teams ranked, even if it isn't the favorites, will win the AQ lowering this list dramatically.
- there will be a good chunk of below .500 SOS teams at the table near the end is my gut feeling, meaning everyone will be in play.
- we were shooting a little from the hip, but I could still see it possibly lining up in such a manner.

I laid it out yesterday on the Pool C board, I don't think its going as deep as you think it will.    If we did it today, Mt. Union is on the outside looking in.

[HopeConvert]

Quite the defensive battle in Angola tonight. Gardner with a very nice job defending Dixon. Hope was held well below their season low. 

As OK has said, the Trine broadcasters are very good. But a 14 year old with a cell phone and forty bucks in his pocket can get graphics on the screen. Get it done!

[TUAngola]

Hope over Trine tonight at Hershey Hall

Defensive play on both sides was very good.  I thought Hope has a much better defensive team than when I saw them play last year.  Easily the player of the game tonight was Gardner.  Not for his offense but for his ability to get in Dixon's jock and not let him get open looks.  Dixon had an early 3 but that was it.  Everything else was contested.  Benson with some big offensive boards down the stretch was key too when Hope was running clock.  Trine needs to play Kreglow more, and I think Coach Miller realizes that as Syroka's minutes have gone down big time since last year.  Syroka is an offensive liability and it's easy for opposing defenses to look good when only 3 of the 5 Trine starters look to score.  Cummings I think will get there, but for now his baskets are mainly offensive rebound put backs.  We just struggle on the offensive end so much this year, it's always run the clock and let Jared go 1 on 1 to get a basket.  Gotta find some slashers who can penetrate and finish or dish to an open guy, and we just don't have that.   

Congrats to Hope, hope their fans have a safe trip home as another 3-4" of snow fell during the game, at least it was light powder and not the heavy snow.

[wiz]

Understatement: Calvin can't shoot.

[sac]

Hope 57  Trine  50

TUAngola states it pretty perfectly.  Really good, maybe even great defensive game tonight. 

Hope had another one of those great effort moments late in the game, this was with Hope up 5, Hope had just run almost 30 seconds off the clock and missed a 3, Trine came down and ran 20 seconds off the clock before a travel on Cummings.

02:26       -    Turnover by CUMMINGS,ELLIS
02:03    HAWKINS,DANTE missed layup    -    
02:03    BENSON,BROCK offensive rebound    -    
01:31    HAWKINS,DANTE missed layup    -    
01:31       -    CUMMINGS,ELLIS defensive rebound
01:29       -    Turnover by CUMMINGS,ELLIS
01:28    Steal by HAWKINS,DANTE    -    
01:01    Turnover by HAWKINS,DANTE

This was all one long Hope possession which included one huge rebound by Benson in traffic and a poke away by Hawkins on the second miss.  Neither of Hawkins shots were truly layups, they both last ditch drives down the lane with the clock running out and putting something up on the rim.  Hope finally turned it over on a shot clock violation but it was nearly a full 1 1/2 minutes of really great efforts by both teams, Hope just made the two plays.  Instead of getting 2 or 3 more chances to cut into the 5 point deficit, Trine only got one more.  They just kind of ran out of possessions to close the gap.

Gardner had Dixon every moment the two were on the floor together.   Dixon's one basket was with Ben on the bench.  Otherwise everything else was contested or forced.  Holmquist hit a number of super tough shots he's become very good at hitting.  For me I thought Ellis Cummings played the best game I've seen him play.  His help defense caused a number of Hope misses in the first half, Hope was better about staying out of those situations in the 2nd but Cummings's minutes on the floor were pretty big.

[sac]

+1 for road win, -1 for home loss
Alma      10-1     +4
Hope     10-1     +4
Albion    7-4     +2
Trine      5-6     -1
Adrian   5-6      -1
Calvin    4-7     -1
Olivet     2-9    -3
Kzoo      1-10    -4

Home teams are 27-17  (9 of those losses belong to Kzoo, Olivet)

Remaining games:
Adrian:    @Hope-------------@Calvin, Kzoo
Albion:     Olivet---------------Alma, @Trine
Alma:       Trine----------------@Albion, @Olivet
Calvin:     @Kzoo--------------Adrian, Hope
Hope:      Adrian--------------@Kzoo, @Calvin
Kzoo:       Calvin--------------Hope, @Adrian
Olivet:      @Albion------------Trine, Alma
Trine:       @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     12-2
Albion     9-5
Trine       7-7
Calvin     7-7
Adrian     6-8



Alma/Hope---Neither blinked tonight, still some tough games left for both

------Albion hasn't clinched anything but they really have, I don't see how two of Trine, Adrian or Calvin are going to catch them without some serious silliness happening.  If Albion wins Saturday and gets help from Hope and Alma, the Britons are in as the #3 seed, even if they just win and get no help they still look good for a slot in the semi-finals.

-----Trine, looks to me like that game at Albion on the last day is going to be the big one, although they pushed Alma hard the first time to OT so Saturday would also be a really huge win for them

-----Calvin is still in a better position than Adrian even though they're one game behind, that's provided they win their home games which isn't a guarantee.  Must beat Adrian for sure to have a chance on the last day

-----Adrian's left with having to win at least one at Hope or Calvin just to stay alive

At this moment the two games on the final day Trine @ Albion, Hope @ Calvin look like they'll be really important.

No gimme's at this point in the year, everyone's pretty good now.

[oldknight]

Alma wins 91-79. Calvin has struggled all year getting consistent scoring from their backcourt, but tonight was even tougher than usual. The six guards who played combined to shoot 7-34 and when you get that kind of production from your backcourt it puts tremendous pressure on the rest of your team. Overall the three point shooting was about as miserable as it gets. Parks went 3-9 from the arc while the rest of the team shot 1-24 from three point land. After a rough Saturday night in Holland, Alma returned to form, hitting 54% for the game. Truth of the matter is though that Calvin's defense wasn't very good as it left shooters open much of the night, both close to the basket and far, and open shots aren't all that difficult to make. Given all that, it's a small miracle the Knights were within 8 points with 2 minutes left, a miracle fueled by ferocious rebounding, particularly on the offensive side as Calvin got 22 second chance attempts--and sometimes third and fourth chances--and outrebounded the Scots 52-31, leading to an amazing 81 shots taken by the Knights.

--Don't be surprised if Jordan Daley is in street clothes Saturday. Late in tonight's game Bradfield came out of nowhere to swat away a Daley three point effort. The block was totally clean but as he passed by Jordan after the block Bradfield's elbow caught Daley's eye and he went down in a heap in front of the Calvin bench. Daley was down on the floor a very long time and he needed help just to take a seat 3 feet away and was obviously quite woozy. If he gets diagnosed with a concussion the protocols will take too long to allow him to participate against Kalamazoo. Jordan still needed to be seated during the post game handshake and every Alma player, plus Coach Hargraves, took time to check on Daley and wish him well. Hargraves in particular took a lot of time with Daley and I thought the Alma folk showed excellent sportsmanship there.

--The only thing that separates Cam Denney from the rest of the league's top big guys is the 3-6 unforced errors he commits each game. Denney is a really skilled big man for the D3 level but simple mistakes hurt his effectiveness.

[HOPEful]

(original quote has been altered to reflect changes)

Alma:       Trine--------------@Albion, @Olivet
Hope:      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.

I think I'll defer to massey:

Alma:
Trine         82%
@ Albion  71%
@ Olivet   96%

Hope:
Adrian      82%
@ Kzoo    98%
@ Calvin   80%

If Hope gets by Trine Wed. night, the advantage probably flips to Hope.

I'm still sticking with what I said about the Albion game