MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[almcguirejr]

Alma 90
JCU   83

Final

[knightvision]

For anyone headed to Augie for the game tomorrow PLEASE TAKE NOTE:

Tickets will go on sale at 5 pm and all are general admission. Despite the defined NCAA requirements that the visiting team receive 1/3 of the tickets, Augie is selling all the tickets on a first come first served basis.  That's 5pm central time.

Tonight's game was a sellout/ oversell as there were many standing room only people there, including the teams from the first game who had no where to sit.

So.... How can they host if they don't follow NCAA Guidelines?  Has the NCAA Rep been made aware of this?  That would be a shame if people drove that far and couldn't get in to see the game. But it sounds like that may have already happened last night.... ONLY IN DIVISION III.....   

Rep is aware.  Not to worry though, I have complete confidence in all us fabulous Hope fans - we will just get there early and get our seats.

As far as the game itself, no doubt Augie is a significant favorite, but the pressure is all on them. Hope certainly has the ability to pull off the upset. Hope plays, Hope wins.

Congrats to Hope and Alma on opening game tourney wins.  This is always an exciting time of year for tourney teams and their fans .   Would love to see a couple more MIAA wins tonight...especially for Alma given the novelty of the experience for them.  Does anybody besides me get the feeling that Alma may just be the Cinderella story of the tourney? 

FDF, whether the exuberance evident in your post is of an Alan Greenspan nature we will soon find out, but your team is still alive and mine isn't, so enjoy the moment.  While I can understand your statement about all the pressure being on Augustana, I actually think Hope is feeling it more than Augustana right now.  Part of that is based on my sense that more than a few folks in the Hope basketball community have seen this team as having all the pieces to win it all this year.  GM's comments in an early season interview on Hoopsville seemed to confirm that perspective.  Without actually saying it, GM pretty clearly implied that Hope's goal for the year was a national championship.  Nothing wrong with that goal, obviously, but I remember talking with oldknight about his comments and we were both quite surprised by that kind of talk that early in the year.  Whether that proves to be a burden or a motivator remains to be seen, and in my experience it usually depends on the mental make-up of the players.  It's one of the many reasons that I believe that if Hope does in fact make a run, guys with a bit of a nasty streak like Eidson and Blackledge will sooner or late play a huge role in how far Hope advances.  Regardless, I expect this to be an outstanding game.  Sounds like it should be an electric atmosphere--just as tournament basketball should be!!

BTW, thanks to you, I lost a bet with a Calvin friend who predicted that HPHW would appear sometime this week in a post.  I insisted that it would wait until week 2 if Hope advanced that far, but alas, I was wrong.  Thanks a lot!    And if you ever feel the need to change your moniker, I think you found it...FHF   

Not sure the Cinderella slipper fits this Alma squad. They're a d@## good team as became apparent to MIAA observers during the conference season. Tonight they exploded for 51 second half points to beat favored John Carroll University 90-83, getting the Scots' ticket punched to the Sweet 16 round of games.

If one takes Cinderella story to mean as most might agree "one who unexpectedly achieves recognition or success after a period of  obscurity and neglect", I suspect you are focusing on your sense that their success is not unexpected while I was focused on the success being something that has come after a rather long period of waiting.  I was in no way suggesting that Alma is not good, even d@## good, as you suggest--plenty of Cinderella stories in the history of NCAA tourney hoops at all levels have been outstanding teams.  They have earned every bit of what they have accomplished and I would love to see them make a deep tourney run!

Hope has nothing to hang their heads about--Augustana would be a formidable foe on a neutral court, and at home being better rested than Hope made that a tall task for the Dutchmen.  Augustana's #1 ranking appeared well deserved and they will be tough to beat...

[almcguirejr]

qconline article about Augustana/Hope game:

http://www.qconline.com/sports/college_sports/experience-depth-carry-vikings-in-ncaa-d-tourney-victory/article_e5b7405d-f1df-5279-8059-10f9bb38ebba.html

Holland Sentinel article:

http://m.hollandsentinel.com/sports/20160305/flying-dutchmen-ousted-by-no-1-augustana

The Morning Sun article on Alma's win over JCU:

This sounds like it was a feisty game

http://www.themorningsun.com/sports/20160306/sweet-16-scots-prolong-banner-year-down-fifth-ranked-john-carroll-in-ncaa-tournament-second-round

[Titan Q]

An Augustana grad friend of mine sent me this pic from the anthem last night...

http://www.iwuhoops.com/AugieHope.JPG

He said Hope had a nice contingent of about 150 or so.  Hopefully the ticket situation discussed here ended up being no biggie.

[Titan Q]

I thought Hope competed hard last night, but Augustana is just so tough -- physically and mentally.  With this Augie group, when you go player by player they really don't knock your socks off -- but you put all of the pieces together, including how well coached they are, and they are just very, very hard to knock off.

The Vikings are beatable in this tournament, but some team is going to have to complete the grind of all grinds for 40 minutes to do so...because this Augie team just doesn't give you anything. 

[almcguirejr]

An Augustana grad friend of mine sent me this pic from the anthem last night...

http://www.iwuhoops.com/AugieHope.JPG

He said Hope had a nice contingent of about 150 or so.  Hopefully the ticket situation discussed here ended up being no biggie.

I am surprised to see empty seats in the end zone.  Thanks for the picture.

[gbpuckfan]

Appears the SNC/Alma game will be at Illinois Benedictine College in Lisle, IL

[Pat Coleman]

They dropped the "Illinois" from their name sometime around the late 90s, for what it's worth. Benedictine University.

[sac]

Game stuff:

--It really helps to see Augustana up close to gauge their size, physicality and just really excellent ball movement and energy.  Very impressive looking team.  One of the best I think Hope's gone up against since at least their run of 2008.   (sidenote 2012 Illinois Wesleyan vs this Augustana team would something)

--Hope needed to have a better night shooting 3's, more like 8-15 or 9-17 than the high volume low makes night they ended up having. (part of that certainly induced by the large early 2nd half deficit)  Some really tough in and outs in the first half could have been crucial shots had they gone down.  I counted 2 in and out 3's, and 2 point blank layup misses that were killers in the first half.

--Benson and Blackledge couldn't stay out of foul trouble and that was critical to Hope's potential success.  That was a year long thing, and the final numbers of how much better Hope was with those two on the floor vs both off or one off are probably staggeringly in favor of them both being on the floor.  The score was 17-15 when Brock picked up his 2nd foul, Augie by 6 when Harrison got his 2nd.  The end of the first half hurt when the two were going in and out with foul trouble.  It hurt more offensively than defensively as Hope had just 3 FG's after the foul trouble popped up the final 10 minutes.

--Watching warmups I picked out all of Augies main players and the guy who surprised the most was Griffin Pils, much bigger in person than on video and as it turned out that was one position Augie had a real physical advantage and it resulted in a really good 24 point night.

--The beginning of the 2nd half really hurt, down 12 you're still in a fight, down 22 the outcome is probably inevitable.  Hope had 2 misses and a turnover on its first 3 possessions while Augie went 2,3,2,3 and  it was 52-30.  That's a really tough ask for any team on the road in that environment.

--I commend Hope for their immediate fight back after getting hit with that lightning bolt.  I'm sure the narrative will be Hope ran out of gas but I didn't see it that way, when the game got close at 5 points, Augustana picked up their game and aggression and took control of the game back, simple as that.  They were just better than Hope and are probably better than everyone else left in the field.  You expect really good teams to do that.

[pointlem]

Reflections on Hope's season . . .

1)   NCAA tournaments mean that every team but one ends its season with a disappointing loss and a crushed dream . . . and with 400+ teams a national championship is unlikeliest for a DIII team. It's saying the obvious, but for Hope a 24-4 record, a league championship, and two victories over its arch-rival will nevertheless define, given some distance on the loss, a good season.

2)   Hope's record was built on some breathtaking, gutsy comeback victories, and going from 22 points down last night to but 5 points down evoked a hopeful déjà vu. Alas, it's harder to complete that task against an Augustana than a Wheaton or Hanover.

3)   Kudos to Hope's seniors who demonstrated great heart and athleticism, and were class act people on the court and off . . . men who seemingly are going to do well in life. (I look for the little things—not whining to refs, helping an opposing player off the court, being supportive of teammates without strutting arrogance—and they displayed that sort of character.)

4)   Although the seniors will be missed, the returning talent—plus the prospect of some outstanding j-v players and new recruits (news anyone?)—bode well.

5)   Among the bright spots are the emergence this season of Dante Hawkins (34 points the last two games) and Chad Carlson (28 points), both of whom, along with Blackledge and Stuive, look to be key contributors next year.

6)   Hope was outrebounded 37 to 24 last evening, and part of the challenge for next year will be finding rebounding strength.

Kudos and best wishes to Alma, a team whose success is not built on brute strength and size, but rather on quickness, precision, and team execution . . . and thus a pleasure to watch . . . when they aren't one's opposition.

Finally, thanks to all the posters who make reading this board a pleasure.  Keep on.

[wiz]

There you have it, almcquirejr.

[Winifred Durfee]

Alex Eidson went into last night's game just 3 points shy of reaching 1000. He went 0-4 from 3. We tried to will a few of those shots in from the baseline, obviously to no avail. That has to be tough, but hopefully people will remember him more for games like his fantastic shooting performance at Calvin two years ago. This senior class will be missed as much as any, as they were not only one of the most talented Hope has ever seen, but some of the most genuine men you'll meet, as well. Eddy, Ben, Whit, Ottomatic, and Brock: it's been fun.

While Hope loses some talent, they've got plenty coming back and coming in. I suppose it's a similar scenario for Alma. I look forward to next year's MIAA match ups. Until then, good luck to the Scots from here on out!

[almcguirejr]

Alex Eidson went into last night's game just 3 points shy of reaching 1000. He went 0-4 from 3. We tried to will a few of those shots in from the baseline, obviously to no avail. That has to be tough, but hopefully people will remember him more for games like his fantastic shooting performance at Calvin two years ago. This senior class will be missed as much as any, as they were not only one of the most talented Hope has ever seen, but some of the most genuine men you'll meet, as well. Eddy, Ben, Whit, Ottomatic, and Brock: it's been fun.

While Hope loses some talent, they've got plenty coming back and coming in. I suppose it's a similar scenario for Alma. I look forward to next year's MIAA match ups. Until then, good luck to the Scots from here on out!

I agree they were one of the most talented teams.  As a basketball fan I was always left with the feeling they never quite achieved an elite level of play.

[GreatScot!?]

Sweet 16 baby!!! It's crazy to think at the beginning of the year I was hoping for this team to be competing for 2nd/3rd in the MIAA and pull some magic in the MIAA tourney, and now we're looking at a sweet 16 game against a team the Scots have proven they can beat. Haven't posted in a while due to a crazy week/weekend but here's my take on the weekend for the Scots.

Not sure how Denison upset OWU, but they didn't have enough to stick it to the Scots. Speelman their D2 transfer big man needed 14 shots to score 15 points and the 2-3 made their offense pretty ineffective from the floor. 5 Scots scored in double figures and were in control for much of the game and they would've won by 20+ had they finished the game better.

Watching JCU take on St. Vincent I had a feeling that the game for Scots was going to come down to taking care of the ball and getting back on defense and boy did they do just that! Alma shot 45%, but it could've easily been 60% had they made the shots they normally make. Beckman, Fairchild, and Gernaat were a combined 5-19 from 3pt on pretty standard looks for them. They're just such a well balanced offensive team that they don't have to rely on good shooting nights from their shooters like they used to have too. JCU 2-2-1 seemed pretty breakable as the Scots got a feasting of good looks against it and when the Scots got a stop there were multiple times that the Scots got fast break layups due to JCU not getting back. Just so proud of how poised the team played last night.

Speaking of feisty, there was a moment in the game where there was a lose ball and Jason Beckman leaped on to a JCU player to force a jump ball, which lead to a little scuffle and Coach Hargraves getting off the bench and yelling at the JCU player for attempting to hit J Beckman in the head. This lead a technical on the JCU player and the Scots getting all sorts of miscellaneous insults thrown their way the rest of the game. The Scots didn't get rattled and silenced the crowd as they were up by double digits for most of the 2nd half.

Seems pretty inconvenient for teams like Hope and Alma to have to play top 5 teams in the 2nd round of the NCAA tournament because of location. It seems like the majority of the top teams reside in the great lakes/midwest region, which allows weaker teams to advance in the tournament farther than they should and forces really tough match-ups in the 2nd round for midwest teams, just my two cents, but proud to be a Scot!

[sac]

Team and Season stuff:

--For teams out of the MIAA there are really two tournament paths, one goes through Ohio, the other goes West. The odds of making it to Salem going through Ohio are much greater than going through the West.  Going West its inevitable you run into one of the D3's best teams or tournament favorites from the CCIW or WIAC or an excellent UAA team.  If you're lucky that match-up takes place in a Sectional round, if you're unlucky you get Augustana on their home court in round 2.  That's just really tough and pretty unfair I think, but that's what a largely geographical based tournament will unfortunately create.  I'm sure Elmhurst isn't real happy they had to play St. Thomas in round 2 either.

Had Hope won the MIAA Tournament they were likely in line to host, certainly would have had a more favorable 2nd round opponent and could possibly still be playing next week.  That's just the razors edge all D3 teams exist on at the end of the season.  One result really changes a lot.


---D3 went to this pools thing around 2002, Hope's made the tournament 11 times since that year.  They've been sent into a bracket of Midwest/West teams in the first/second rounds 9 times.  They've only advanced into sectionals twice in that time, both times their 2nd round opponent was Calvin.  Hope's final loss in those 11 tournaments has been to a Midwest/West team 9 times.  About half of those match-ups you would like to have seen take place in the Sectional round.


---Coach Mitch's early talk about National Championship was fine to me.  I don't know coach enough to know if that was hyperbole, coach speak or just simply repeating and embracing the goals his team set for themselves.  I think Hope was a really good D3 team, one of  a dozen or more that can call themselves really good.  On any given night Hope was good enough to beat just about anyone.  Any coach would want a team hard to beat and I think Hope was.  How this season is viewed could have been different had they lost to Wheaton, Hanover or any of the half dozen really close MIAA games just as it would be viewed different had Hope received a better NCAA draw and ended up in the Sectionals.   I would have liked Hope to get a shot against any of the myriad of teams ranked around them like JCU, OWU, Marietta, Elmhurst, North Central but instead they got the best of all of those Augustana.

I like efficiency calculations and mine had Hope right on the edge of the kind of team you'd expect in the sectional round.



---I like this team a lot, probably for reasons different than most think.  They had to fight harder than I think most Hope teams have had to get the record they did.  This wasn't a team that was going to blow people out and hop on the bus having barely broken a sweat like some other teams.   They had one or two obvious holes to me.  One being little front-line depth, that one should have been obvious and it was always kind of a battle to work around that when foul trouble presented itself.  Keith Brushwyler gave some excellent minutes at times this year but against some of Hope's better opponents he really struggled.  Hope had no other options after Keith.  When Hope did go to just 1 big man, it meant often times having 4 guards on the floor.  They became a very short team, which meant tougher rebounding, tougher defensive assignments.

The second obvious hole was being short one maybe even two really good 3-point shooters.  As a team Hope finished up the year 35%, for D3 that is just slightly above the average but trailing the best teams by quite a lot.  Hope had just one elite 3-point shooter in Chad Carlson. (Chad would be top 15 in D3 but he falls short in the makes per game requirement), Otto was above average as well at 38%. 

That brings me to Otto.  I expected Sam to be a bigger part of this years team, I don't have an answer for why he wasn't.  The only thing I noticed was he was one of several of Hope players that kind of went into a funk after the Thanksgiving tournaments and just never really came out of it.   <insert shoulder shrug here>



----Defensively, man this was the wrong year for basketball to change its defensive rules.  Hope really struggled sometimes to stay in front of their man.  Other times they were really good and all year long recorded some very solid defensive efficiency numbers.  But, in the last 3 games Hope just couldn't stop Trine, MSJ or Augustana from driving right at them and getting quality looks in the paint.  My honest basketball fan assessment I can't believe everyone didn't do that all year long and I'm grateful they didn't.



---speaking of that, as a fan of basketball nothing was tougher to watch this year than defenders beating offensive players to a spot on the floor and being called for the foul, particularly post defenders.  I don't think that's what coaches had in mind last spring when they talked about freeing up movement.  On the perimeter I think those calls are fine, but man post defenders have to be allowed to protect the basket.  I really hope when they get together this spring and talk about changes to the game, post defense is brought up.

We could dump another time-out or two.  Basketball is better without timeouts.



MIAA stuff


--Alma is where they are because of the hard work that team put in this past off-season.  I heard bits and pieces, nuggets of things all summer and I think I'm right to say they outworked everybody in the league.  It showed in their improved physiques and excellent teamwork.



--The MIAA is going to be fun here for a couple years.  If you don't think so, make a list of this years best Freshmen then notice the two schools with no one on that list.  New era.