MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[oldknight]

I thought Hope looked exhausted in the last few minutes.  Calvin got 17 more minutes out of their bench.

I'm glad you posted the numbers showing minutes played. After the game I remarked to a friend how it seemed that in the second half Calvin ran pretty much their regular substitution rotations and Hope hardly seemed to sub at all in the last 10 minutes. This was very surprising to me given the wealth of talent on Hope's bench. I don't remember if the same thing occured during the game won by the Knights at the Fieldhouse but if it did this might explain why Calvin came from behind in the game they won and why last night's contest was a near instant replay.

I agree with kcrest on Voison--Hope needs his consistent presence down low if the Dutch expect to win it all. Glenn should give Voison a tape of the game he played in the MIAA tourney final when he totally dominated the paint on both ends of the floor and make him watch it every day.

Despite my concerns over Hope's finishes in 2 close games against Calvin it wouldn't entirely surprise me if the Dutch came away with 2 relatively comfortable wins in sectional play. Four times this year Hope played a very worthy Calvin opponent in big rivalry games and won 3 of them--twice by comfortable margins. That's actually pretty impressive. You can't expect Hope to do a lot more in 4 games against a good team, especially one who knows you so well--and there isn't any team and coaching staff in the country that knows Hope as well as does Calvin's. They know Dutch tendencies, skill level and, most importantly, what you can and cannot do against Hope if you expect to be successful. If the other opponents in the sectional don't properly assess Hope's abilities at the beginning of games they will find themselves too far behind at half time to win.

[sac]

And also....the MIAA gets NO RESPECT from the NCAA

Well thats no totally true,  Albion hosted last year and the NCAA President is an Albion grad.  I think they're aware of the MIAA in Indianapolis.

Hope hosted a sectional in 98, the ladies hosted the whole shebang in 90.

Witt does seem to get the nod more often than not.

[knightmoves]

Hope,

Great run Hope, but I do seriously believe your season is over come Friday night. No, this is not sour grapes, but simply reality. The Hope team I saw in the final minutes Friday night showed me they will have a very difficult time going into Witt & winning. They do have a lot of heart, but Voison is going to get seriously dominated inside by Witt's 2 big men. If we outrebounded the Dutch, Witt will completely dominate the boards. Your boys better shoot 50% & turn the ball over less than 10 times for the half. If you don't, you will have done to you what you usually do to other teams. Also, everyone is talking about what a great game Immink had offensively, which I agree with. However, defensively, he kept getting juked out of his shorts by Caleb. I must admit that Immink had the last laugh though with his end of the game flop. Just curious, is he a theatrics major?

[oldknight]

Witt does seem to get the nod more often than not.

Here's something for you internet gurus to look up in your spare time. How often has Wittenberg played in a sectional, how many times have they played a sectional in the State of Ohio, and how many of those were in their own gym?

[kiltedbryan]

Personally, I expected it to be witt bc it is the central location...And the fact that Witt rolled into this round and Hope did not....mind you we played one of the better teams in all of DIII to get there.

And also....the MIAA gets NO RESPECT from the NCAA

Don't forget that Witt had to beat Baldwin-Wallace to make the Sweet 16...B-W was only ranked 7th in the most recent d3hooops poll, so I guess that would probably count as one of the better teams in all of DIII as well?  

[dothedew]

sorry, i meant they rolled into the round with big wins....

[sac]

From the Wittenberg website.........ooops

The Tigers, North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament champions for a second straight year, are ranked third in the nation by d3hoops.com with a 27-3 overall record. Hope, the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association regular season and tournament champions, are ranked second nationally with a 28-2 overall record.

[realist]

Good luck to Hope as they move on.  It would have been nice to have the next round in Holland.  However, if Hope can come in, and win at Knollcrest like they did a week ago there should be no doubt they can do the same down in Ohio.   Once again, good luck to the Dutch, enjoy the ride it can be lots of fun.

[kcrest]

From the Wittenberg website.........ooops

The Tigers, North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament champions for a second straight year, are ranked third in the nation by d3hoops.com with a 27-3 overall record. Hope, the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association regular season and tournament champions, are ranked second nationally with a 28-2 overall record.

Wow, history got re-written quick.  I'm sure someone from Hope will write Witt and tell them they properly need to credit a 13-1 Calvin season!   

[TigerFan_1973]

From the Wittenberg website.........ooops

The Tigers, North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament champions for a second straight year, are ranked third in the nation by d3hoops.com with a 27-3 overall record. Hope, the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association regular season and tournament champions, are ranked second nationally with a 28-2 overall record.

Wow, history got re-written quick.  I'm sure someone from Hope will write Witt and tell them they properly need to credit a 13-1 Calvin season!   

I sent an email to Witt's SID.  I'm sure he will take care of it.

[hopefan22]

So were your large group of 9 year olds that were taunting the Knight Club the whole night about the scoreboard.

We are not 9 year olds we are 12.  I would think immature would be calling a player big bird.

[AndersDY]

Like the clean strip on Voisin on Hope's first possesion?  Oh wait, that was called a foul from the ref on the other side of the play.

Are you serious? If the defender on Voison hit all ball then someone in the arena got smacked in the face pretty hard at the same instant because I have never heard that noise from skin-on-leather (can anyone else back me up on the loud crack of Voison being slapped?). So the wrong ref called it, maybe he heard the same thing I assumed that everyone else in the crowd could hear (though I guess it wasn't everyone). As for the Carlson rebound, I wasn't right on top of it, but he slipped around Veldhouse and managed to poke the ball out. I couldn't see everything but sure didn't see anything he got away with.

As far as the next game, the word on Wittenberg is that they play a slow possession game and it is all about feeding the ball inside. Russ and Borchers are the names they will try to make us very familiar with. We need Voison to play the kind of defense he had in Hope-Calvin III when he seemed to control the paint, plus he will probably need all the help that Phillips, VanderHeide, Richardson, and Reimink can offer down low. D3hoops hasn't backed up the fact that we travel to Witt, but the Hope release sounds rather official, so time to make travel plans.

A final slightly grey lining for Calvin fans I realized, if there can be one to take away: if I'm incorrect and Caleb did not think there was any basis for the foul called on him yesterday, you now have a talented point guard who is going to play 6 or (likely) more games against Hope ticked off about that lost opportunity. No one in orange was looking forward to 3 more years of him to begin with, but hopefully he doesn't turn that finish into some career-making performances against us.

[dren]

No one in orange was looking forward to 3 more years of him to begin with, but hopefully he doesn't turn that finish into some career-making performances against us.

It is never too late to get him transfered down the east beltline 

[TigerFan_1973]

Witt doesn't draw as well as you'd think they would with their history, its been a mystery to me.  Obviously if Hope wins Friday, tickets for Saturday will be plentifull.

The students were on break this weekend.

[TigerFan_1973]

Witt does seem to get the nod more often than not.

Here's something for you internet gurus to look up in your spare time. How often has Wittenberg played in a sectional, how many times have they played a sectional in the State of Ohio, and how many of those were in their own gym?

Witt does seem to get the nod more often than not.

Here's something for you internet gurus to look up in your spare time. How often has Wittenberg played in a sectional, how many times have they played a sectional in the State of Ohio, and how many of those were in their own gym?

I'm not sure how many times Witt has hosted but I have personally been there for several regionals, and one elite 8 game. If I remember right, against the Milsaps Majors.

The major determination of where an event will be held in Division III is where will it have the best budget.  Wittenberg always sold out the regionals back in the day and knew how to run a first-class tournament.

At that game against Milsaps, I remember actually feeling sorry for them.  The game was at the old fieldhouse which is right next to Witt's HPER center.  The Majors came out to warm up and looked scared out of their wits.  There were about 2000 (whatever the gym held plus a few more) noisy Wittenberg fans with a huge student section on a stage behind one of the baskets.

The only Milsaps fans were on their bench.  They got blown out, got back on the bus, and took a very long ride home to Alabama or Mississippi (I'm not sure where, but I know it was a long way away) after that loss.

Anyway, here's what I could quickly find on Witt's Division III playoff history from their website. 

NCAA Division III regional or sectional champion eight times: 1975, 1976, 1977, 1980, 1983, 1985, 1987, 1994

I know that one regional in the seventies (I think 75) was at Ashland and 1987 was at Calvin.  I'm not sure about 1994, but I think the rest were at Wittenberg.