MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[scottiedawg]

That's what I thought, but you mentioned Trine and I thought that was odd because they are way above that threshold. Hope is really close, so I understand that concern.

In the case of Trine it isn't a matter of losing the quality win bonus but wanting that quality win bonus to be worth as much as possible. The higher the win, the higher the bonus.

Yep, the effect of the QWB threshold is all linear, which is sweet. (so beating a team 0.05 above the QWB threshold vs a team 0.05 below has basically no effect) 

I think it also roughly means that the specific number the QWB threshold is set at doesn't matter tons---the multiplier DOES matter a whole lot. 0.6667 is a pretty "tame" multiplier.

[TUAngola]

Trine 89 Olivet 55.

Senior day victory for the Thunder.  Olivet came out on fire and led 30-22 before Trine went on a 15-2 run to lead 37-32 going in to the locker room at the break.  Second half was all Trine as the Thunder found better footing on defense turning the Coments over at a high rate which led to easy buckets and open 3's.  Trine ends the game on a 67 to 25 run.  Manny punctuated the end of his time on the court with a bank-in 3 which brought down the house.

8 seniors honored before the game: Cam Awls, who got the start and played very well with 4 pts and 5 asst, Drew Moore 24 pts, Aidan Smylie 12 pts 9 reb, Emmanuel Megnanglo 9 pts 4 blocks, Grant Pahl 2 pts, Cam Smith 6 pts, Max Greenamoyer 1 pt, and Trevor Montiel 1 reb.  Heart wrenching honor of Fred Garland as the Garland family participated in senior day.  Lots of tears.

[wiz]

Congratulations to the Calvin Knights for winning their third consecutive MIAA title in convincing style.

[sac]

Alma was eliminated from the tournament today.
Albion clinched a spot
Calvin locked in the 1 seed

Adrian just needs one win or a Kzoo loss

Kzoo needs to win both @Trine and @Adrian and have Adrian lose both @Alma and vs Kzoo  K probably wins that tiebreak with a win over Trine (this is not likely to happen) but I'm not sure if the MIAA has fixed the top/down or bottom/top tiebreaker issue.

Seedings can still swing a little, but could be decided Wed night



If things go chalk this week, the first round should be

Albion at Hope
Adrian at Olivet

[oldknight]

The inestimable Mrs. OldKnight thought it a curious and interesting decision by Kalamazoo to play a fast-paced, up-tempo style that inevitably leads to many possessions and a lot of shots. While the Hornets's double teams near the mid-court line led to a fair number of Calvin turnovers (19), when the Knights did break the pressure, that led to an open lane and countless layups or short shots close to the hoop. That is they type of game tailor-made for Uchenna Egekeze's skills-set, and he scored 26 on 10-16 from the floor. Parker Swartz was terrific, netting 20 points in only 21 minutes of PT. It's been a while since I have seen Calvin break 100 points, and do so very comfortably.

[pointlem]

Kudos to Calvin men's BB. Who among its fans expected, after their 1-6 start, that on February 16th they'd be 17-6, nationally ranked, and league champions--all without Jalen Overway. Even Mrs. OldKnight must be happily surprised.

[oldknight]

Kudos to Calvin men's BB. Who among its fans expected, after their 1-6 start, that on February 16th they'd be 17-6, nationally ranked, and league champions--all without Jalen Overway. Even Mrs. OldKnight must be happily surprised.

I assume you mean the inestimable Mrs. OldKnight. She was quite pleased about the way things have turned out, but expressed her expectation several weeks ago that the team would eventually rally their way to a championship. She is a women with much confidence, a quality that is occasionally (often?) misplaced (necessary?) when dealing with a challenging husband.

[Grutte Dirk]

For any Calvin fans wondering about a "rooting guide" as games play out down the stretch, here is what I have come up with.

Root for Calvin to win any game they play. Duh.

Root for all of Calvin's non-conference opponents to win. Again, kind of duh, but the higher up the ranks any opponent can go the better the wins will look and the less the hit taken for the losses.

In games not involving Calvin, it is probably to their benefit for Hope and Trine to not stumble again. Both teams are currently in range for the added "quality win bonus" so a loss by either would be more detrimental than a normal conference game where things "come out in the wash" with one team losing and one team winning.

It would also be beneficial for Adrian to not lose either of their games against Alma or Kalamazoo. The Alma wins are currently excluded from Calvin's resume because they are beyond the minimum wins dial and adding in those additional wins would hurt Calvin's overall NPI. That means the Alma win the other night was bad news as Calvin saw no benefit while their win against Kalamazoo took a hit. Ideally now both the games against Alma AND Kalamazoo will fall off Calvin's resume while Adrian looks a little better.

preach

[Dark Knight]

For any Calvin fans wondering about a "rooting guide" as games play out down the stretch, here is what I have come up with.

Root for Calvin to win any game they play. Duh.

Root for all of Calvin's non-conference opponents to win. Again, kind of duh, but the higher up the ranks any opponent can go the better the wins will look and the less the hit taken for the losses.

In games not involving Calvin, it is probably to their benefit for Hope and Trine to not stumble again. Both teams are currently in range for the added "quality win bonus" so a loss by either would be more detrimental than a normal conference game where things "come out in the wash" with one team losing and one team winning.

It would also be beneficial for Adrian to not lose either of their games against Alma or Kalamazoo. The Alma wins are currently excluded from Calvin's resume because they are beyond the minimum wins dial and adding in those additional wins would hurt Calvin's overall NPI. That means the Alma win the other night was bad news as Calvin saw no benefit while their win against Kalamazoo took a hit. Ideally now both the games against Alma AND Kalamazoo will fall off Calvin's resume while Adrian looks a little better.

preach

So with a little experience of the NPI system under our belts, and with a little more awareness of its oddities, what lessons are there for coaches creating schedules for future years?

It used to be that you would look for games against teams that are likely to be regionally ranked, or games against mediocre teams with good records against a weak schedule.

What games should the canny coach be trying to schedule now?

[sac]

I don't see a lot of difference.  The dudes with the sliderulers can probably articulate it better than me.  IMO, playing strong teams is still going to help you more than hurt you.  Hope is a good example of how winning rather than losing those games is important.

Like the old system it would help if teams that had no realistic chance of gaining a Pool C played games they could win instead of playing the top teams in the nearby regions.

But, coaches are allowed to schedule how they want to make their teams better.

[KnightSlappy]

I think there are two big differences in NPI:

(1) Beating the #7 (last ranked spot) in a region vs. the #8 team in a region was a HUGE deal in the old system because you would get a "result versus regionally ranked opponent". Now both games are good; the "#7 team" gives you a very marginally higher Quality Win Bonus, but not much difference.

(2) Finding relatively mediocre teams with good records could help your SOS in the old system, but NPI is better tuned closer to team quality. For example, UW-Oshkosh (12-11 record) is one spot higher than Washington and Jefferson (18-6) in Monday's NPI run, and would be (very marginally) better for your NPI strength of schedule (just don't lose to them twice, probably  ).

To me, the scheduling takeaway remains: play good teams and beat good teams. And it's now probably more important that you actually win some of those really tough games than it was in the past. I would tell coaches to schedule teams that are near them in quality. It doesn't really help you to schedule a really tough game you can't win, and it doesn't really help you to beat up on a team you can easily beat.

Calvin, Trine, and Hope should be playing teams in the national mix with many of their non-conference games. The rest of the league should be mostly hunting wins for their non-conference schedule.

[sac]

I've noticed most of the teams that won a "big" matchup very early in the season have pretty much stayed near the top of your NPI calculations since December at least.

[wiz]

17 in a row!

[sac]

Olivet has made a nice transformation from the team that played in DeVos back in December.  Their 66-52 win is not deserving of their efforts, they were better all night and should have won by 25+ couldn't make any 3's until mid 2nd half finally got a couple to open a gap.


Hope turned the ball over on 30% of their possessions tonight.  Then shot 22% in the 2nd half.  They will not be in Grand Rapids next Friday with another Wednesday effort like that.




MIAA Tournament
1. Calvin
2. Trine
----
3. Hope
4. Olivet
5/6  Adrian/Albion


Was told tonight Hope would win the tiebreaker over Olivet.

Albion would win a tiebreaker over Adrian




General league observation, if you asked me to make an all-star team of Sr's/Jr's vs Soph/Fr I might be inclined to take the Soph/Fr team.   Every program has some really nice looking young players.

[sac]

Derek Sanders 6-5 G  Brooklyn Columbia Central will attend Hope