MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[sac]

Hope 71 Stevens Point 57  F

Feels odd to say, but Hope pretty much had its way with the Pointers this afternoon, building a 21 point halftime lead and sort of sloppily finishing out the 2nd half from there.  SP was only able to score 5 points the final 10:30 of the first half which doomed them to a long 2nd half of playing somewhat better but not really getting anywhere.

Between the two teams Hope did the much better job of moving the ball and getting to the basket for the easy ones.  Outside 5 feet both of these teams really struggled to hit anything.  Point just settled for a few more of those, and missed.  Defensively Hope was good and got a few to many transition buckets off defense that this particular SP team can't stay with.  TJ McKenzie maybe single handedly kept this from ever getting back under double digits with a couple nice backcourt pick pockets off Hope's press.

Not much more needs to be said about Hope's 3-point shooting but I will...., woof, woof, woof and woof again.  5-32.  This would have been a 30 point blowout with just their poor season avg of 29.5%, which surely is lower now.  Its not even a quality of shot issue, they're missing the wide open in rhythm ones.   Maybe it will be break at some point, maybe it won't, if it does Hope can challenge the better teams remaining on their schedule, if not tough to see them winning some of those matchups. 

Far different looking Stevens Point teams than recent ones, its like the Pointers haven't been able to recruit off campus for something they did or something... 
SP is at Trine Monday afternoon.

Hope:  Thomas 16, George 16, Bikus 12, Dykhouse 9
Point:  No one reached double figures and their bench outscored their starting 5 by 1 if that says anything.



I forgot to ask, but Josh Lilja started over Tanner Wiegerink today, I mentally filed that away as a match-up issue as Point is not particularly tall maybe?  I think Hope's best 9 matches its minutes.  Dykhouse, Thomas, George are going to see maximum league minutes,  with Wiegerink, Bikus in the post interchangable with Halbert.  Noah Hedrick will see a lot of utility minutes in a few different areas, he's very useful as a defender or 3point option, most of his minutes will come from spelling a guard or two and then match-up minutes against certain teams I figure.  TJ McKenzie will see some time too, his quick hands and great anticipation were assets today.   Beyond those I think its bit minutes for rest or foul issues.  I think Hope would love to get their younger guys some more minutes but this schedule will make that difficult.    Eli Schoonveld rejoined the roster from last year, since he's wearing #10 I assume Harris Hawkins is done for the year, which is a real shame.  Hope has a chance to be good, they do a lot of good things at both ends, but man that 3-point shooting is a 10 ton anchor right now.

Little break into the Holiday and then off to Florida to face North Central and Central(Ia), I figure toss-up with NCC maybe and a favorite over Central.  Would be really nice to come home with a couple wins before diving into the deep end of the MIAA pool with Trine, Olivet, Calvin and Albion in the first two weeks, which could very well be your MIAA semi-final.

Nice to see a real Hope game again.

[Flying Dutch Fan]

2022 Pick 'Em contest is on!!  Here is a direct link to that board (located in Multi-Regional Topics >Pick-ems, fantasy leasgues, etc.>MIAA pick'em)

http://www.d3boards.com/index.php?topic=5915.new#new

Rules are posted there - should be a fun year to prognositcate!!

[oldknight]

Calvin survives with a 76-74 overtime win against Texas Lutheran in this afternoon's contest in San Antonio. The Knights trailed 36-28 at the break, but closed the gap the first 5 minutes of the second half. From there it was a dogfight, with the two teams within 4 points of each other the rest of the way. The teams traded baskets the final 10 seconds of regulation to send the contest into an extra session. Calvin mostly led the OT but never by more than 3 points. Luke Morrison missed two free throws with 1.7 seconds left, giving TL a last second desperation opportunity that never came to fruition.

Morrison with 27, followed by Warners (16), Egekeze (15), and Shymanski (14). Katje came off the bench to snare 15 boards in 33 minutes of PT. Both Warners and Fruin fouled out, with Fruin having a tough game today, scoring no points in 22 minutes of floor time. Knights shot OK (49%), and won the battle of the boards 43-26, but made 19 turnovers. I imagine Coach Sall might have said something about that to his team.

[sac]

Olivet 91 Hanover 87 F

Good game down in Olivet today.  Olivet led for a lot of it, and seemed to be well on their way to winning it rather comfortably before Hanover made a pretty furious comeback and were 2 points down with :16 seconds left, had already knocked the ball out once on an inbounds, pinned Olivet in the corner for the next and then this happened    https://twitter.com/IWUhoopscom/status/1473408118436544516

OC hit a pair of FT's and hung on for the much deserved win.

You see some weird things watching enough basketball, today I watched Olivet hit 3 straight 3's forcing a timeout and Hanover coming out of said timeout and went to a 3-2 zone that promptly gave up another 3, but they stuck with it for the most part erased a double digit deficit and found themselves with a chance to tie late.




Olivet had a great day behind the arc, well above its average and Hanover had a bad day, well below their average (they came in top 5 in D3)  This was in a large way the story of the game.

[oldknight]

Calvin loses to a deep and talented Trinity-Texas quintet, 88-71, a game that was never really competitive. The host team led at half, 48-30, a score that seems remarkable considering that Trinity outshot Calvin 68%--37% the opening 20 minutes, and also outboarded the Knights, 19-9, so it could have been worse. Trinity then started the 2nd half with 3 straight layups to open up a 24 point lead, the first two minutes of the second frame, thus increasing the Tigers' shooting percentage to 71%. Calvin never got closer than 13 points thereafter. Morrison scored 12 to lead his team's scoring, but half his points came on two meaningless second half threes. There really wasn't a good performance by any Knight player, and the team looked tired on the video I saw.

[tartanpride2016]

Calvin loses to a deep and talented Trinity-Texas quintet, 88-71, a game that was never really competitive. The host team led at half, 48-30, a score that seems remarkable considering that Trinity outshot Calvin 68%--37% the opening 20 minutes, and also outboarded the Knights, 19-9, so it could have been worse. Trinity then started the 2nd half with 3 straight layups to open up a 24 point lead, the first two minutes of the second frame, thus increasing the Tigers' shooting percentage to 71%. Calvin never got closer than 13 points thereafter. Morrison scored 12 to lead his team's scoring, but half his points came on two meaningless second half threes. There really wasn't a good performance by any Knight player, and the team looked tired on the video I saw.

I watched the Trinity and Alma game last night, and I just think Trinity is that good. They have an uncanny ability to hit shots at a high clip. They have scored over 90 eight times in 12 games. I don't think Calvin (nor Alma) should be discouraged from losing a game to this Trinity team. I expect to see them in the NCAA Tournament, and I sure as heck would not want to run into them, regardless of who I am.

[HOPEful]

Well... Hope seems to have at least in Florida settled pretty firmly on a starting 5 of Dykhouse, George, Thomas, Bikus, and Wiegerink.

Against North Central, Hope seemed to forget they were a poor 3 point shooting team for the first quarter of the game. They were up 23-9 after going 7 for 11 from behind the arc. I told my wife, "we won't keep this up... watch that lead disappear..."

Sure enough, Hope was down 44-43 three minutes into the second half. They ended up 14 for 40 from three. Woof. They outrebounded and turned the ball over half as many times as North Central and eeked out the win in OT.  Shea Cupples had a couple missed free throws to seal the deal in regulation and Hope took the opportunity and tied the game with 13 seconds left.

They were just a better team than Central.

This is going to be an interesting team to watch throughout MIAA play. There will be games they look like they could beat anyone when shots are falling... and there will be games they look like they can lose to anyone when they aren't. Not sure why a team that's shooting 28.9% from 3 on the year is jacking up 40 attempts in a game where they're winning the TO and rebound battle...

[pointlem]

Not sure why a team that's shooting 28.9% from 3 on the year is jacking up 40 attempts in a game where they're winning the TO and rebound battle...

The Hope men made 38% of their 3-point attempts last year, with Clayton Dykhouse, Evan Thomas, and Tyler George all shooting near or above 40%--but this season each around 30% or below. Given how well the whole team is otherwise playing, a return to last year's shooting could make for a contending MIAA team, especially with the emergence of McKenzie and Schoonveld as solid contributors.

[Flying Dutch Fan]

Not sure why a team that's shooting 28.9% from 3 on the year is jacking up 40 attempts in a game where they're winning the TO and rebound battle...

The Hope men made 38% of their 3-point attempts last year, with Clayton Dykhouse, Evan Thomas, and Tyler George all shooting near or above 40%--but this season each around 30% or below. Given how well the whole team is otherwise playing, a return to last year's shooting could make for a contending MIAA team, especially with the emergence of McKenzie and Schoonveld as solid contributors.

I agree - and with the offense the team is running this year, we should expect a higher number of 3s attempted per game. I also really love the energy and hustle from TJ and Eli.  I recall one trip last night where Hope missed two shots, Eli rebounded one, and then just extended full effort to tip the other to a teammate, which lead to a made 3pt by Ty George.  Also drew a charge (could have been two - the other was called a blacking foul).  He does a lot of things that don't always show in the stats, but the infusion of energy is critical to the team.   

[sac]

Hope's averaging 26 3-point attempts per game, that's not outrageous yet, probably top 50 in D3, but its 30 per game since thanksgiving, that probably puts them in the top 25 or so. 


I think maybe North Central was willing to give Hope the open 3's a little more than some other opponents. 

[sac]

Not sure why a team that's shooting 28.9% from 3 on the year is jacking up 40 attempts in a game where they're winning the TO and rebound battle...

The Hope men made 38% of their 3-point attempts last year, with Clayton Dykhouse, Evan Thomas, and Tyler George all shooting near or above 40%--but this season each around 30% or below. Given how well the whole team is otherwise playing, a return to last year's shooting could make for a contending MIAA team, especially with the emergence of McKenzie and Schoonveld as solid contributors.

I agree - and with the offense the team is running this year, we should expect a higher number of 3s attempted per game. I also really love the energy and hustle from TJ and Eli.  I recall one trip last night where Hope missed two shots, Eli rebounded one, and then just extended full effort to tip the other to a teammate, which lead to a made 3pt by Ty George.  Also drew a charge (could have been two - the other was called a blacking foul).  He does a lot of things that don't always show in the stats, but the infusion of energy is critical to the team.

Good point

Hope's running a lot of 4 and 5 out offense, you tend to get a lot of 3 point looks (Oshkosh used to run this a lot, and probably still do, so does Hanover/Platteville etc, think Kzoo is doing this too)   If you remember back to the last couple teams, Hope had two guys on the floor a lot that weren't 3-point threats and the ball would feel "stuck" on the perimeter, now they seem to have 5 on the floor at all times that are capable 3-point shooters.

It would just be nice to make more.

[Flying Dutch Fan]

Make more - great mantra for this offense.  Be great if we could get one or two guys hot for a while!

[Gregory Sager]

They were just a better team than Central.

If by "Central" you mean "North Central," then I disagree with your statement. The Cardinals and the Flying Dutchmen are very different teams with regard to their constituent parts and their methods, but they're also very evenly-matched in terms of their relative effectiveness at either end of the floor. It was not an accident that the two teams went into overtime.

Once Hope cooled off from its red-hot start behind the arc, the game became very much a seesaw affair, as there were 14 ties and 12 lead changes over the course of the game. In fact, if anybody held an advantage in crunch time, as you yourself pointed out, it was North Central. The game went to overtime because NCC proved unable to maintain the four-point lead it held with 47 seconds remaining in regulation. Shea Cupples had two free throws with 27 seconds remaining and the Cardinals up 73-72 and he missed the second one, enabling Hope to send the game to an extra session with a mere two-pointer rather than a trey. That missed FT was huge, not only because a deuce is easier to get than a trey, but because it was inevitable that if the NCC lead was 75-72 rather than 74-72 the Cardinals would've fouled Hope immediately upon the Dutchmen inbounding the ball in order to get Hope into the bonus. That, in turn would've set up a possible situation in which the Cardinals could force the Dutch to shoot free throws rather than a potential overtime-causing trey attempt if enough time wound down during Hope's final possession (say, fifteen seconds or so) without a successful Hope trey.

Hope won the game because, as is frequently the case in overtimes, a team that is able to jump out to a two-possession lead within the first two minutes can put extra mental pressure upon an opponent that is already drained by forty minutes of stalemate. Tanner Wiegerink and Clayton Dykhouse made a pair of money treys, while in response Matt Helwig and Blaise Meredith took pretty ill-advised shots and Ethan Helwig committed a dumb foul on a rebound he simply should've conceded. It was two minutes of good basketball by Hope and two minutes of bad basketball by North Central, and it proved decisive. But two minutes out of 45 that were otherwise evenly-balanced doesn't make Hope a better team than North Central. I'd wager that if they played each other ten times it'd come out 6-4, 5-5, or 4-6.

Hope's averaging 26 3-point attempts per game, that's not outrageous yet, probably top 50 in D3, but its 30 per game since thanksgiving, that probably puts them in the top 25 or so. 


I think maybe North Central was willing to give Hope the open 3's a little more than some other opponents. 

I agree, although FDF is also correct to say that the Hope offense is designed to spotlight the trey; the Dutchmen have attempted 10% more shots from behind the arc this season than have their opponents (roughly 42% to 32%). It can work against Hope, because a team like North Central has a more diverse offense, and, thus, more scoring options. Two-thirds of the points the Cardinals scored yesterday came on cuts, drives, interior passes, and midrange shots. (None came on back-to-the-basket layups, though, because NCC lacks forwards with size and doesn't post up its bigger guards; the Cardinals could certainly use a Jeff Bikus, who brings a much-needed extra dimension to Hope's offense, although I'm always a bit surprised that Todd Raridon doesn't ask any of his good-sized guard corps to take their men down low and back them in.) In fact, I thought that NCC shot too many trey attempts yesterday and got burned for it; the Cards were averaging less than one trey attempt out of every three FG attempts coming into the game, and yet they shot nearly half of their attempts from behind the arc yesterday in Gallatin. I can see the Helwig brothers getting a little carried away from downtown, because they're both pretty good trey shooters, but a guy like Blaise Meredith is doing North Central's opponents a favor when he's attempting nine shots from beyond the arc.

Some coaches are happy enough with the "live by the three, die by the three" adage that they adopt it as a philosophy. Some live with it by necessity, and they probably don't sleep well at night. I'm interested in reading whether Hope fans feel that Greg Mitchell falls into the former category or the latter.

[maroonandgold]

Calvin just completed an extremely unusual 2 games in Wisconsin.  Yesterday they start with a hot-shooting first half against highly rated U of  W-Oshkosh and led at halftime 37 to 35.  In the second half they went cold and fell by 22 points.  Today they fell behind by about 15 points in the first half and came back strong in the second half to defeat a good U of W-Stout team that was 10 and 2 coming into the game.  The final score resulted in a 9 point victory after taking the lead in the final 10 minutes.  What was even more surprising is the their leading scorer was a sub, Marcus Bult, with 25 points that  included 6 of 7 three point shot made.The second high scorer was Uchenna Egekeze with 22 points.  As a team Calvin hit 61.1%  on three point shots and 50% overall.  They out rebounded Stout 35 to 31.

[Flying Dutch Fan]

They were just a better team than Central.

If by "Central" you mean "North Central," then I disagree with your statement.

I'm about 1000000% certain that was a reference to the 2nd win for the Flying Dutchmen in Florida which was versus the Central College Dutch.

On additional thought about the number of 3s Hope hoisted vs NCC. Would love a higher percentage of makes for sure, but we should keep this in mind:

14-40 .350 from 3 is effectively equivalent to shooting 21-40 .525 from 2.