MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[GreatScot!?]

Anyone have any reasoning as to how St. Norbert starts at #4? Maybe Alma was a bad matchup last year, but their conference isn't that special which seems to contribute to them racking up wins every year.

[gordonmann]

St. Norbert brings back a lot which will make more voters feel comfortable putting them higher on their ballot. That may be a case of aggregation (lots of voters have them on their ballots which gives them more votes than other teams).

That's the one that jumped off the page as odd to me. The MWC hasn't produced one of the four best teams in the country, in a long, long time.

[sac]

Not sure I feel totally comfortable with either Hope or Alma in the top 25.  If you asked me today to pick Hope/Alma or the field to win the MIAA I might take the field.

One of those two can certainly emerge as the MIAA Champion and most likely ranked team by years end.  But so many questions for both.  Both have challenging schedules that will be difficult to stay in the top 25 Alma's more than Hope by a smidge.  Or I suppose that could provide validation I guess.

[oldknight]

Not sure I feel totally comfortable with either Hope or Alma in the top 25.  If you asked me today to pick Hope/Alma or the field to win the MIAA I might take the field.

One of those two can certainly emerge as the MIAA Champion and most likely ranked team by years end.  But so many questions for both.  Both have challenging schedules that will be difficult to stay in the top 25 Alma's more than Hope by a smidge.  Or I suppose that could provide validation I guess.

I couldn't agree more. Most seasons I think I have a pretty good feel for the most likely outcome(s) in the MIAA race, but not this year. Maybe after the pre-conference season's slate of games, but not now. There's just too much turnover from last year and no way I can determine which newcomers or role players from last season will step up to help make their squad a champion.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Anyone have any reasoning as to how St. Norbert starts at #4? Maybe Alma was a bad matchup last year, but their conference isn't that special which seems to contribute to them racking up wins every year.

Yeah, they return all five starters.  St. Norbert, in the last three-four years, have proven an ability to reload at a national-calibre level even when they lose a lot of scoring.  They're going to get a ton of love when they bring everyone back.  You figure Alma, losing as much as they did, is still way too high, it makes more sense where the SNC team that brings everyone back is located.

[Gregory Sager]

St. Norbert brings back a lot which will make more voters feel comfortable putting them higher on their ballot. That may be a case of aggregation (lots of voters have them on their ballots which gives them more votes than other teams).

That's the one that jumped off the page as odd to me. The MWC hasn't produced one of the four best teams in the country, in a long, long time. ever.

Fixed it for you, Gordo.

The MWC is a perennially lower-level league, and that goes all the way back to the founding of D3 men's basketball in the mid-'70s, of which the MWC was a charter member. That's a top-to-bottom observation, of course, but even in terms of the league's upper echelon it's true. The MWC has never produced a Final Four team.

Moreover, there's only been four occasions in which an MWC team has made it out of the first weekend of the tournament; the Lawrence teams in the middle of the last decade, led by superstar Chris Braier, set the high-water mark for the league by reaching the Elite Eight before losing in overtime by one to eventual national champ UWSP in 2004, and then reached the Sweet Sixteen two years later. Carroll upset Augustana and St. Thomas in 2007 before the Pioneers dropped their Sweet Sixteen game to Hope, and then of course last season St. Norbert vanquished Northwestern and St. Olaf before succumbing to Alma in the sectional semifinals in west suburban Lisle.

The Green Knights are obviously getting a lot of love from the pollsters because they have everybody coming back from a Sweet Sixteen team, and probably as well because their very narrow loss to Alma -- the Scots were only up by a point until Alma's Trevor Gernaat hit a trey with thirteen seconds left in the game -- demonstrated that the Knights could hang with a powerhouse. Also, I suspect that Benedictine's run to the title game last March might have some voters re-thinking the idea that a good team from a subpar league can't overcome a lack of stiff competition in January and February once March rolls around.

Be that as it may, GreatScot's point is worth noting. The Green Knights have won 56 straight MWC regular-season games and eight straight MWC tourney games, which speaks as much to the anemic competition that they face in league play as it does to the prowess of SNC. And Carroll, which was the only other really solid team that the league offered last season -- the Pios finished 20-5 and were the only MWC opponent that gave the Green Knights two good runs for their money -- has defected from the league and joined the CCIW. In other words, I'm not sanguine about SNC's chances of getting solid competition from anybody in that circuit this coming season.

[maroonandgold]

Not sure I feel totally comfortable with either Hope or Alma in the top 25.  If you asked me today to pick Hope/Alma or the field to win the MIAA I might take the field.

One of those two can certainly emerge as the MIAA Champion and most likely ranked team by years end.  But so many questions for both.  Both have challenging schedules that will be difficult to stay in the top 25 Alma's more than Hope by a smidge.  Or I suppose that could provide validation I guess.

I couldn't agree more. Most seasons I think I have a pretty good feel for the most likely outcome(s) in the MIAA race, but not this year. Maybe after the pre-conference season's slate of games, but not now. There's just too much turnover from last year and no way I can determine which newcomers or role players from last season will step up to help make their squad a champion.

Old Knight really hit the nail on the head, as far as I can tell.  With the top teams all suffering major turnovers of players the league is extremely difficult to predict at this point.  Once we see which new players on which teams rise to the top we will have a much better idea.  Who will even be the starters is quite wide open at this point.

[GreatScot!?]

Not sure I feel totally comfortable with either Hope or Alma in the top 25.  If you asked me today to pick Hope/Alma or the field to win the MIAA I might take the field.

One of those two can certainly emerge as the MIAA Champion and most likely ranked team by years end.  But so many questions for both.  Both have challenging schedules that will be difficult to stay in the top 25 Alma's more than Hope by a smidge.  Or I suppose that could provide validation I guess.

I couldn't agree more. Most seasons I think I have a pretty good feel for the most likely outcome(s) in the MIAA race, but not this year. Maybe after the pre-conference season's slate of games, but not now. There's just too much turnover from last year and no way I can determine which newcomers or role players from last season will step up to help make their squad a champion.

Old Knight really hit the nail on the head, as far as I can tell.  With the top teams all suffering major turnovers of players the league is extremely difficult to predict at this point.  Once we see which new players on which teams rise to the top we will have a much better idea.  Who will even be the starters is quite wide open at this point.

My guess that it is still going to be a two horse race like last year between the Dutch and the Scots. Every team has seemed to lost significant contributors, but I do agree that it should be a competitive league this year so it'll be interesting who makes the playoff and who comes out on top.

[shknowsbest]

Good luck to Hope tonight, what a great experience for the team  The big 10 network is showing the game on wednesday at 3:30pm.

[jspiii]

Article from Indiana.
http://www.insidethehall.com/2016/11/01/what-to-watch-for-in-indianas-exhibition-opener-2/

[Dutchfan]

Overall, very happy with what I've seen from Hope in the first half. We have not been overwhelmed by the Hoosiers and have hanged tough with them.

[Dutchfan]

A couple of stats that stand out from the first half...

Hope has been out rebounded by just seven (21-28) by a much bigger Hoosiers team.

Hope is out rebounding the Hoosiers on the offensive glass 11-5

While hope is getting out shot by a large margin (25%-50%), we are controlling the ball much better and have 6 steals to Indiana's 4, and have just 5 turnovers to Indiana's 11.

[pointlem]

A surprisingly energetic and respectworthy performance by Hope tonight. They came out showing no intimidation . . . moving the ball well, helping on defense, and committing only 12 turnovers to IU's 18 (with Dante, who was a confident ball handler, having four steals). IU was, of course, bigger and had a big rebounding edge . . . and also a 3-point shooting edge, with both teams having lots of open looks but Hope hitting only 25%.

Moreover, with their two NBA prospects playing till near the end, this was not a game against the end of IU's bench.

All in all, a game that left Hope fans feeling upbeat. IU will likely beat some DI teams by more.

[almcguirejr]

Tom Crean had some very nice comments about Hope last night.

http://iuhoosiers.com/watch/?Archive=4404

[maroonandgold]

A surprisingly energetic and respectworthy performance by Hope tonight. They came out showing no intimidation . . . moving the ball well, helping on defense, and committing only 12 turnovers to IU's 18 (with Dante, who was a confident ball handler, having four steals). IU was, of course, bigger and had a big rebounding edge . . . and also a 3-point shooting edge, with both teams having lots of open looks but Hope hitting only 25%.

Moreover, with their two NBA prospects playing till near the end, this was not a game against the end of IU's bench.

All in all, a game that left Hope fans feeling upbeat. IU will likely beat some DI teams by more.

I was able to catch the last part of the first half and most of the second half of the game on Big 10 TV yesterday afternoon and was impressed by the job Hope did, especially on defense and the floor game.  Is there a box score available?  It appeared that Blackledge, Stuive, Carlson, and Hawkins were probably starters and getting heavy minutes.  If that is correct, who else started and who else played much of the time?   It was noticeable that the announcers were Indiana students and all about Indiana.  They said some good things about Hope players, but it appeared to me they knew and said a  lot more about Indiana.