MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[sac]

Pointlem, regions are no longer matched up against each other as they once were.  Its been that way for a couple years.

In fact if you look at last years tournament Calvin had to get through two Midwest Region teams (Aurora, Wheaton) then met a South Region team (Miss Coll) and finally met Albion.  The Britons did however get 3 Great Lakes teams in their draw.

Geography and travel considerations seem to pair teams together.  Remember Hope played Wisconsin schools two years in row.

This year is even a little different with 1st and 2nd round games to be played at one sight (a very poor idea in my opinion).  I'm not sure how geography will affect the pairings but it will be different.

MIAA scores from tonight

Alma 64, Manchester 55....Scots win the Rotary Classic and are now 5-3

Albion 74, University of Dallas 48 .....the admissions office in Hendrix was happy   

Elmhurst 64, Olivet 51....Comets went 1-2 this week winning the one game they should have.  Looks like they have some work to do.

[Picket Fence]

Maybe it's because Wooster beat Kalamazoo in 1998.  But then again, Alma beat Wooster in 1960.  So who knows?  Then again, maybe it's just an attempt to compare this year's teams.   

The question arises, because the pollsters appear to be going strictly off last year's results.  Why else would Albion be ahead of a Hope team that was the unanimous coaches choice to win the league (no suspensions yet this year)?

Because Wooster and Wittenberg won't play Hope and Calvin or vice versa (why would Wooster or Wittenberg want to give Hope or Calvin a chance at a quality regional win? But that's another topic), the best way we have to compare Ohio and Michigan would be history.  In the last 2 years in the NCAA's the MIAA is 3-1 vs Ohio schools, with the lone loss being when the MIAA sent it's third best team to John Carroll two years ago.

[NW Hope Fan]

Sorry 68... I was looking at the Hope site and it said 71. My bad
None the less my other points are correct.
And if you don't start counting till 2000, and it should be 2000-2001 (I assume to filter out Ed's recruits and have his "own" team), then you have to take away the 2 wins in the spring of 2000 and the National Championship... to be fair! So that would be 7-6 and the same number of championships as GVW,  about the historical record. I mean if the guy was 15-7 against us since he started, and won a championship with all his own recruits in that same time period... I'd call him a genius!
I'd call him a good coach that gets a lot out of his guys.

[KnightSlappy]

Just to be fair, here is the real Rivalry shakedown:

Head to head wins: Calvin
Head to head points: Calvin
National Championships: Calvin

[Flying Dutch Fan]

This is so reminiscent of the student sections at a Hope Calvin game.  The Calvin faithful eventually find themselves asking "Where's your banner?".  While those two banners are something to be very proud of - they won't get you a win over anyone this year.

Fortunately all this talk is just that - and the guys still get to decide who's better this year on the court.

[Briton Backer]

Picket Fence-

To be fair, Hope was the overwhelming favorite in the coach's preseason poll last year also.  We all know how that ended up.

Hope has made huge gains in the last few week's polls.  I'm not sure if there is a team that has climbed so far so fast this year.  There are other undefeated teams who aren't getting the respect that the dutch are-watch your whining, you don't want to end up looking like Prins.

[hopenum1]

As a Hope fan, I know that there are many that are looking forward to the 14th. We'll let the game do all the talking.

[Picket Fence]

Briton Backer, I was quick to point out the suspensions last year.  Albion lost DePree and Thomas and replaced them with nobody to get too excited about and they are still a top 10 team? That's basically why I believe Hope should be ahead of them at this point, but that wasn't where I wanted the point to be made.

I think the MIAA schools get screwed in the rankings every year. The Great Lakes region is dominated by the Ohio schools in the rankings every year, because they have two conferences that can easily play each other and talk about how great the other teams are.  They don't seem to give the MIAA schools any respect because they don't have the regional games to support their good records.  Meanwhile they won't play the MIAA schools so the MIAA can prove their records.  Because of this, I think that until the NCAC or OAC can prove they can beat quality MIAA schools (Albion already owns a win over Baldwin-Wallace) they should not be ranked ahead of them, because all we have to go on is last years results, in which the MIAA (Albion) dominated.

I also look for Albion to have a much more difficult time in scheduling Ohio schools as Albion continues the success their program is having.

[sac]

It took Albion a last second set of FT's and a 28 ft prayer 3 to beat the two Ohio schools in last years tournament.

The top teams from these 3 conferences are always very comparable.  Witt and Woo had a lot more returning players.  Albion was rated a bit high to start the year but since that early loss to UM-D, Albion's looked pretty tough, they're a good program with good players.    They didn't drop that first poll because so many others lost early games around them.  Also don't forget that the D3hoops poll completely missed the Britons a year ago.....they weren't going to underestimate them again.

Hope had way to many questions to be rated in the pre=season top 25, I have no problem with where they started.  I also think that Hope was picked to win the MIAA after the initial D3hoops poll.   Don't forget the coaches in the MIAA have a better idea who these 4 transfers were for Hope and their capabilities, I'm pretty sure the D3hoops voters knew/know very little about these guys.

It will all sort itself out in about a month or so......if Hope deserves to be rated higher than Albion than they'll earn it on the court.  But they probably won't ever get in a position to pass Witt/Woo since those teams only play each other a possible 2 times......no one in the NCAC is going to beat those teams.

[MIAAFAN3002]

Does anyone know why Brandon Crawford didnt start the last 2 games.  He still scored 30 though the other night?

[oldknight]

And to think I once praised the MIAA Board as the best in all of D3 Hoops.  All this whining talk must make Sager want to return that honorary MIAA Board status I awarded to him.

[Flying Dutch Fan]

For what it's worth - Someone posted on MLive that A.J. Jones has been suspended from Northwood - I really wish he would have stayed at Alma - they could have had quite a good team this year. 

I also noticed in the stats from Northwood's game on Saturday that Peter Overbeek is playing for the Timberwolves.

[sac]

MIAAfan3002---the last two Albion boxscores just have the the players listed in numerical order.   I'm pretty sure Crawford started those games.......the guys having an amazing season.

Albion's played eight games, Crawford has EIGHT double-double's. 

[ScotsFan]

I think the MIAA schools get screwed in the rankings every year. The Great Lakes region is dominated by the Ohio schools in the rankings every year, because they have two conferences that can easily play each other and talk about how great the other teams are.  They don't seem to give the MIAA schools any respect because they don't have the regional games to support their good records.  Meanwhile they won't play the MIAA schools so the MIAA can prove their records.  Because of this, I think that until the NCAC or OAC can prove they can beat quality MIAA schools (Albion already owns a win over Baldwin-Wallace) they should not be ranked ahead of them, because all we have to go on is last years results, in which the MIAA (Albion) dominated.

I also look for Albion to have a much more difficult time in scheduling Ohio schools as Albion continues the success their program is having.

You say this as if you have some inside information that leads you to believe that NCAC and OAC teams are the ones not scheduling the MIAA elites.  How do you know its not the other way around?  And to say that Albion "dominated" Wooster and JCU is a bit of an exagerration IMO as Sac already pointed out.  I really don't know what you are whining about.  Hope wasn't even ranked in the polls to start the season and now they are 7th!  Albion is still 6th with the loss of 2 All-MIAA'ers from last year's team.  Witt and Wooster had a ton coming back from 2 very good basketball teams last year.  That is why they are ranked where they are at.  Who cares anyway.  Its not like the rankings have some bearing on anything come tournament time.  Last year Wooster and Wittenberg were ranked ahead of Albion in the D3hoops poll, but the NCAA Regional rankings had  Albion #1 in the GL Region which resulted in them hosting the sectional.  Those are the rankings you should be concerned about. 

[AndersDY]

Perhaps any OH school over MI school bias is owed all the way back to Baldwin-Wallace in 1995. Ugh.