MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[Flying Dutch Fan]

You can't give up 20 offensive boards and expect to win. Granted, a lot of those were long rebounds over bad misses, but if you have fewer defensive rebounds than your opponent has offensive rebounds, it's game over.

I've said all along this is a pretty mediocre Hope team with limited depth. They've risen to the top of a weak league. I can't say Saturday's outcome surprised me, but it still makes me shake my head that these two programs are playing at this level.

Some days your pessimistic assessments of Hope's team just makes me chuckle.  Did they play a poor game on Saturday, you bet they did.  Are they mediocre - not even in the same time zone

While this is a very pessimistic way to look at things, I don't know if anything that HC said is incorrect per se. In the last 10 years this would probably rank as the 5th best team that Hope has had (would be 7th if we went last 12 years), so by Hope's standards could be classified as mediocre. (This is all based on feel, I didn't look up any numbers).

You can either look at the glass as half full or half empty, but either way you look at it, you are still correct.

Those rankings sound about right to me. The league is not good this year, so their record is better than it might otherwise be. It's not the weakest Hope squad I've seen, but it's far from the strongest. I don't take that judgment to be pessimism so much as realism. Does anyone, including FDF, expect Hope to make a run in the NCAA tourney this year? I'll bet a Twinburger we're not playing the second weekend.

I'll take that bet - with fries!!

Having watched Hope play nearly every game this year and against some of the other ranked teams (UWRF, Williams, JCU) I think they are deserving of that kind of confidence.  I actually think this years team could take last years team (just not sure how you could ever do that since you'd have guys guarding themselves) - I just think the team is better, even if the individual talent may or may not be.

[oldknight]

This one felt more flagrant to me...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0BAJBK7ni8&feature=youtu.be&t=124m53s

Beyond it being potentially an intentional foul call, it also appears it should have been 3 shots instead of 2. Ref clearly signals a shooting foul, and based on this image, Chad appears to have his feet behind the arc when fouled and shooting. Flat out, we actually have the technology now, why wasn't this reviewed? Other plays were reviewed throughout the game, both of these would appear to be triggers for a potential review with 6 seconds left in OT.

As you may know from my Saturday post, I watched the game from a Calvin/Hope party in Phoenix--an interesting and ultimately satisfying experience. Among those with me was my buddy who officiates mostly high school, but who does some local college games as well. He said you could easily justify calling Siegel for a flagrant foul which would have given Carlson two shots and also give Hope the ball. The replay plainly shows the foul occurred well before the shot attempt. I don't know if the official called two charity tosses for a shot attempt, or if Hope was in the double bonus, but I don't see how three shots could be awarded as the replay shows Carlson's knee was down (inside the arc) before the ball left his hands. Both my friend and I agreed given the
game situation, it would be really tough to expect a ref to have given the flagrant at that point. With 10 seconds left in regulation, Kronemeyer thought he should have gotten a call when his attempt was swatted out-of-bounds. I think both times the officials were correct in not making the call each team feeling aggrieved wanted to be made

Ironically, the one ticky-tack call made in Hope's favor worked against the the Flying Dutchmen. With the Knights up 63-62 and just 23 seconds left on the clock, Welch was whistled for a foul on Brushwyler who had just collared the rebound. There was barely any contact at all and a former Calvin great who attended the watch party wasn't happy about the call. Before Brushwyler took and missed the free shot I told him that I actually thought the call favored Calvin because Brushwyler is a poor free throw shooter and, in any case, Calvin would get the ball back with a chance to win on their last possession.

[HOPEful]

...Before Brushwyler took and missed the free shot I told him that I actually thought the call favored Calvin because Brushwyler is a poor free throw shooter and, in any case, Calvin would get the ball back with a chance to win on their last possession.

Right after the foul, my father in law turned to me and asked, "Is he an ok free throw shooter?"

With a look of disgust and dread, I responded, "No, he's awful." (Now 8-24 or 33.33%) The odds were in Welch's favor for it to be a great foul, whether he meant to or not.

[HopeConvert]

You can't give up 20 offensive boards and expect to win. Granted, a lot of those were long rebounds over bad misses, but if you have fewer defensive rebounds than your opponent has offensive rebounds, it's game over.

I've said all along this is a pretty mediocre Hope team with limited depth. They've risen to the top of a weak league. I can't say Saturday's outcome surprised me, but it still makes me shake my head that these two programs are playing at this level.

Some days your pessimistic assessments of Hope's team just makes me chuckle.  Did they play a poor game on Saturday, you bet they did.  Are they mediocre - not even in the same time zone

While this is a very pessimistic way to look at things, I don't know if anything that HC said is incorrect per se. In the last 10 years this would probably rank as the 5th best team that Hope has had (would be 7th if we went last 12 years), so by Hope's standards could be classified as mediocre. (This is all based on feel, I didn't look up any numbers).

You can either look at the glass as half full or half empty, but either way you look at it, you are still correct.

Those rankings sound about right to me. The league is not good this year, so their record is better than it might otherwise be. It's not the weakest Hope squad I've seen, but it's far from the strongest. I don't take that judgment to be pessimism so much as realism. Does anyone, including FDF, expect Hope to make a run in the NCAA tourney this year? I'll bet a Twinburger we're not playing the second weekend.

I'll take that bet - with fries!!

Having watched Hope play nearly every game this year and against some of the other ranked teams (UWRF, Williams, JCU) I think they are deserving of that kind of confidence.  I actually think this years team could take last years team (just not sure how you could ever do that since you'd have guys guarding themselves) - I just think the team is better, even if the individual talent may or may not be.

Done!

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

You can't give up 20 offensive boards and expect to win. Granted, a lot of those were long rebounds over bad misses, but if you have fewer defensive rebounds than your opponent has offensive rebounds, it's game over.

I've said all along this is a pretty mediocre Hope team with limited depth. They've risen to the top of a weak league. I can't say Saturday's outcome surprised me, but it still makes me shake my head that these two programs are playing at this level.

Some days your pessimistic assessments of Hope's team just makes me chuckle.  Did they play a poor game on Saturday, you bet they did.  Are they mediocre - not even in the same time zone

While this is a very pessimistic way to look at things, I don't know if anything that HC said is incorrect per se. In the last 10 years this would probably rank as the 5th best team that Hope has had (would be 7th if we went last 12 years), so by Hope's standards could be classified as mediocre. (This is all based on feel, I didn't look up any numbers).

You can either look at the glass as half full or half empty, but either way you look at it, you are still correct.

There's a difference between a team that is mediocre by Hope and Calvin standards and a team that is mediocre by Division III basketball standards.

Both Hope and Calvin are above average -- D3 wide -- this season (Hope much more so than Calvin).

Fair enough, and a lot of this is relative as well. This feels like a down year overall this year in D3, just talent wise and top end team wise, so relative to its field, this team is probably closer to elite than many of its predecessors that I feel were a bit better. (last year and 2011 for example)

I think this has been one of the more exciting seasons in D3... and the last few seasons have. We don't need teams dominating so much that they walk away with regular seasons, conference titles, and deep runs in the tournament to make it exciting. There are a LOT of teams who can compete with the top ranked teams in the country. I think D3 has improved, it just may be hard to realize that when (a) your own team is now surrounded by others you thought weren't good who have improved and (b) there are so many teams to talk about. Talent is more spread out now and that has made it more fun.

Per replay - not everything can be replayed during most of a game. Granted a foot on or off a line is review able at any time, but most video review can't be done until the final two minutes of a game. Just sharing that info for those wondering.

[Gregory Sager]

You can't give up 20 offensive boards and expect to win. Granted, a lot of those were long rebounds over bad misses, but if you have fewer defensive rebounds than your opponent has offensive rebounds, it's game over.

I've said all along this is a pretty mediocre Hope team with limited depth. They've risen to the top of a weak league. I can't say Saturday's outcome surprised me, but it still makes me shake my head that these two programs are playing at this level.

Some days your pessimistic assessments of Hope's team just makes me chuckle.  Did they play a poor game on Saturday, you bet they did.  Are they mediocre - not even in the same time zone

While this is a very pessimistic way to look at things, I don't know if anything that HC said is incorrect per se. In the last 10 years this would probably rank as the 5th best team that Hope has had (would be 7th if we went last 12 years), so by Hope's standards could be classified as mediocre. (This is all based on feel, I didn't look up any numbers).

You can either look at the glass as half full or half empty, but either way you look at it, you are still correct.

There's a difference between a team that is mediocre by Hope and Calvin standards and a team that is mediocre by Division III basketball standards.

Both Hope and Calvin are above average -- D3 wide -- this season (Hope much more so than Calvin).

Fair enough, and a lot of this is relative as well. This feels like a down year overall this year in D3, just talent wise and top end team wise, so relative to its field, this team is probably closer to elite than many of its predecessors that I feel were a bit better. (last year and 2011 for example)

I think this has been one of the more exciting seasons in D3... and the last few seasons have. We don't need teams dominating so much that they walk away with regular seasons, conference titles, and deep runs in the tournament to make it exciting. There are a LOT of teams who can compete with the top ranked teams in the country. I think D3 has improved, it just may be hard to realize that when (a) your own team is now surrounded by others you thought weren't good who have improved and (b) there are so many teams to talk about. Talent is more spread out now and that has made it more fun.

I agree 100% with D-Mac.

[KnightSlappy]

Hope has the yips from in close the last few games.  Wasn't disappointed in the effort only its execution.  Hope played really tough d the last 1/4 of the game and OT, had many stops they just didn't get rewarded for.

Season finish now looks a lot more like 2014 than 2012 or better.  Up to the Dutchmen to figure out how badly they want it.


Trine vs Calvin in semi #1
Alma vs Hope in semi #2

Right now, Trine's walking away with it from what I've watched the last two weeks.  A couple teams can change that.

What is the deal on tickets?   Are a certain number available to each school in the tournament, or are they just available at the door?

In the past it's always been something like 1/2 of the tickets go to the host, and 1/6 each to the other 4 teams.  Each school should have their own allotment of tickets.

Calvin is saying they won't have tickets available for the Semifinals through their box office. All orders have to go through Hope's box office starting tomorrow at 9 am.

Calvin ticket update: Calvin will have an allotment of tickets available at the Calvin box office tomorrow beginning at 10 am

[oldknight]

Hope has the yips from in close the last few games.  Wasn't disappointed in the effort only its execution.  Hope played really tough d the last 1/4 of the game and OT, had many stops they just didn't get rewarded for.

Season finish now looks a lot more like 2014 than 2012 or better.  Up to the Dutchmen to figure out how badly they want it.


Trine vs Calvin in semi #1
Alma vs Hope in semi #2

Right now, Trine's walking away with it from what I've watched the last two weeks.  A couple teams can change that.

What is the deal on tickets?   Are a certain number available to each school in the tournament, or are they just available at the door?

In the past it's always been something like 1/2 of the tickets go to the host, and 1/6 each to the other 4 teams.  Each school should have their own allotment of tickets.

Calvin is saying they won't have tickets available for the Semifinals through their box office. All orders have to go through Hope's box office starting tomorrow at 9 am.

Things have changed on the ticket front since KnightSlappy's post of this morning.

"Tickets for MIAA men's semi-final games on Friday at Hope College WILL be sold at the Calvin Covenant Fine Arts Center box office beginning at 10am on Tuesday, Feb 21 through 5pm on Thursday, Feb 23. Walk-up and phone sales only - 616-526-6282."

Also, kudos to KS for transforming Abraham Zapruder's last name into a verb.

[wiz]

This one felt more flagrant to me...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0BAJBK7ni8&feature=youtu.be&t=124m53s

I have watched this several times now and I honestly don't think Blackledge was intending to be flagrant when he decked Kronemeyer.

[sac]

Saturday's Hope/Calvin game efficiency:

Hope  .819 points per poss
Calvin  .865  points per poss

I have 5 years of Hope in game efficiency data, this was Hope's lowest offensive output since 2013 when Hope's Fr got run off the VanNoord floor in the MIAA Championship game.  It was Hope's least efficient offensive performance of the season by a substantial margin.

At least on my data, this was the first time Hope's lost a game giving up less than .90 ppp, thats about 140 games of data

[HupHolland]

Preston Granger, 6'6" Forward from Lansing Christian will attend Hope College

[sac]

Frankly I don't know why it took Preston so long....
http://www.hope.edu/offices/president/board-of-trustees.html

Lansing Christian is one of the few high schools that provide reliable stats to MaxPreps anymore:
http://www.maxpreps.com/athlete/preston-granger/RrtBsYOwEeOzMAAmVebBJg/gendersport/basketball-stats.htm

[Grutte Dirk]

Does Hope get an at-large bid?

[Smitty Oom]

Does Hope get an at-large bid?

They are a lock. Stong WP (.791 should they lose semifinal) and solid SOS (over .520) with solid wins over RRO such as UW River Falls and John Carroll and #2 in GL as of last week.

[GreatScot!?]

Saturday's Hope/Calvin game efficiency:

Hope  .819 points per poss
Calvin  .865  points per poss

I have 5 years of Hope in game efficiency data, this was Hope's lowest offensive output since 2013 when Hope's Fr got run off the VanNoord floor in the MIAA Championship game.  It was Hope's least efficient offensive performance of the season by a substantial margin.

At least on my data, this was the first time Hope's lost a game giving up less than .90 ppp, thats about 140 games of data

Any chance you have the data on the other MIAA teams? And is that in conference or overall? Also, is it too much to ask if you have the points per poss on defensive also? Sorry for all the questions!