MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[Pat Coleman]

  Still, if that is a premise, I can think of some tougher challenges perhaps than teams like Goshen.  Your thoughts?

Actually Goshen was one of the better teams in the tournament last year I don't mind them coming back at all,  we can all think of better teams but they have to want to come to Holland too.  Its a two way street not some oneway paradise where Pat thinks you can pick and chose who you put on your schedule.   Hope has a very long history with its NAIA neighbors and I don't think they should throw that away just because someone with a misguided formula thinks they should.    There are only 2 teams on the schedule that bother me, the rest are familiar and again teams Hope always plays due to relationships off the basketball court.

Sac,

I have never said that you can pick and choose who you put on your schedule. Let's not put words in my mouth, thanks.

Also, you're ascribing opinions to me based on a schedule I have not seen. Maybe you could provide the schedule instead of punditizing for me.

[sac]

Pat

Just going on past remarks you've made about the scheduling practices of NAIA opponents, I don't feel I'm putting words in your mouth, maybe I am, maybe I'm not.......but you have said things in the past that lead me to believe you don't think MIAA schools (Hope and Calvin in particular) are makeing a good enough effort to fulfill the In-Region games requirement.

When Hope fills its last two dates I'm sure they'll post it on their sight.  Right now the only two D3 teams on the sched for sure are  Carthage and Wheaton, with the possibility of meeting Calvin in Grand Rapids T-Day weekend.



Couple other notes

Tim Herman from Kzoo gets a mention in the Kzoo gazette about graduation and his future plans.

http://www.mlive.com/news/kzgazette/index.ssf?/base/news-18/1150021416229640.xml&coll=7

In fifth grade he wanted to be a lawyer, in fifth grade I wanted to be QB for Michigan...........


and a Homer baseball update.......

The mighty Trojans returned to their own Division and hosted the regional in Homer on Saturday.

Homer 10 Dansville 0
Homer 20 Pewamo-Westphalia 0

Couple quick games, since there is a 5 inning mercy rule of a 10 run lead............I think the second game was probably 4 innings because I think there is a second mercy rule for 15 run margins.  Sheesh, thats just ridiculous, they haven't allowed a single run in the state tournament yet.

They meet Beal City 29-6 in DeWitt, MI on Tuesday.

[Pat Coleman]

Calvin was rewarded just fine last year and this schedule looks to be potentially more favorable.  If you win your games you dont need to worry.

Luckily, yes, Calvin was not on the bubble. Ask 2004 Hope what that's like, 21-5 and staying home because you played only one non-conference regional game.

Hope figured it out and changed its schedule. Don't get caught in that situation.

I was on the record already on this. I don't paint with the broad brush where it's not warranted.

[sac]

formerd3db

Couple other points I'll make, with the expanded NCAA field the premium on fulfilling the NCAA's in-game region requirement is not as high as it was when there were only 5 at large's.  75% of your schedule seems about right and about average.

Personally I truely believe and have always felt that some of the NAIA teams Hope's played in the last few years have been better than a big majority of the D3 they could find.  I'd have given last season's Aquinas team a fair shot at makeing it as far or farther than Hope did in the NCAA tournament.   One of these day's I'll update my little spreadsheet and we'll see Hope's record vs D3 out of conference is far better than their record vs NAIA..........sure looks like those NAIA schools are better competition and I think their record proves that.

If Hope were playing nothing but NAIA chumps every year than I can see the argument for those kinds of teams not helping you get better...........but every year it seems they're plaing someone who ends up in Branson, Missouri playing for the NAIA Championship and on more than one occassion 2 or 3 teams.

Really I never have a problem with NAIA teams, I just don't like seeing schools like Andrews which did absolutely nothing for Hope.  I think when schools like do show up Hope's schedule it shows they're having trouble filling dates.  I could be wrong.

[sac]

Calvin was rewarded just fine last year and this schedule looks to be potentially more favorable.  If you win your games you dont need to worry.

Luckily, yes, Calvin was not on the bubble. Ask 2004 Hope what that's like, 21-5 and staying home because you played only one non-conference regional game.

Hope figured it out and changed its schedule. Don't get caught in that situation.

I was on the record already on this. I don't paint with the broad brush where it's not warranted.

Thats fantastic.

[Pat Coleman]

Great Lakes
1 Wooster 19-2 23-2 84%
2 Calvin 11-1 20-5 48%
3 Hope 15-2 23-2 68%
4 Wittenberg 17-3 22-3 80%
5 Baldwin-Wallace 19-4 21-4 92%
6 Carnegie Mellon 15-4 19-5 79%

I wouldn't say 75% is about average. This was the last published regional ranking, right before the conference tournaments, in which all of the above increased their percentage.

[Pat Coleman]

In fifth grade he wanted to be a lawyer, in fifth grade I wanted to be QB for Michigan...........

Ironicially, I wanted to be a point guard ... or shortstop ... for Michigan at that point.

[Mr. Ypsi]

sac,

I trust you are doing everything in your power to establish a pipeline from Homer to Holland in baseball!

[sac]

Great Lakes
1 Wooster 19-2 23-2 84%
2 Calvin 11-1 20-5 48%
3 Hope 15-2 23-2 68%
4 Wittenberg 17-3 22-3 80%
5 Baldwin-Wallace 19-4 21-4 92%
6 Carnegie Mellon 15-4 19-5 79%

I wouldn't say 75% is about average. This was the last published regional ranking, right before the conference tournaments, in which all of the above increased their percentage.

112/149 =  .752

[sac]

sac,

I trust you are doing everything in your power to establish a pipeline from Homer to Holland in baseball!

I'm confident I can count the number of Homer kids who have gone to Hope without any fingers or toes.

SS Thurston is headed to Albion

Their best player is going to Central Michigan
Their second best is going to GRCC, after a year he'll go to a scholarship school or the pros
A third player is headed to Evansville.

The pro's stayed away which I have to say was somewhat of a surprise, just like the bigger D1 schools they seem to have gotten cold feet on these small school players.

[Pat Coleman]

112/149 =  .752

Thanks to Hope and Calvin dragging down the average.

[hope1]

sac

i was looking at the hope schedule    that i sent you it looks pretty weak  i think   

[Titan Q]

formerd3db

Couple other points I'll make, with the expanded NCAA field the premium on fulfilling the NCAA's in-game region requirement is not as high as it was when there were only 5 at large's.  75% of your schedule seems about right and about average.

Personally I truely believe and have always felt that some of the NAIA teams Hope's played in the last few years have been better than a big majority of the D3 they could find.  I'd have given last season's Aquinas team a fair shot at makeing it as far or farther than Hope did in the NCAA tournament.   One of these day's I'll update my little spreadsheet and we'll see Hope's record vs D3 out of conference is far better than their record vs NAIA..........sure looks like those NAIA schools are better competition and I think their record proves that.

If Hope were playing nothing but NAIA chumps every year than I can see the argument for those kinds of teams not helping you get better...........but every year it seems they're plaing someone who ends up in Branson, Missouri playing for the NAIA Championship and on more than one occassion 2 or 3 teams.

Really I never have a problem with NAIA teams, I just don't like seeing schools like Andrews which did absolutely nothing for Hope.  I think when schools like do show up Hope's schedule it shows they're having trouble filling dates.  I could be wrong.

Even though it no longer "counts" for anything, I like the fact that Illinois Wesleyan plays NAIA Olivet Nazarene every year.  ONU is a perennial NAIA D1 tournament team and it is just a good fit in a lot of ways.  ONU is usually at the caliber of a CCIW contender, so it provides a nice non-conference test.  Last year IWU added NAIA D1 St. Xaver to its schedule and will play the Cougars again this season.  This is another non-conference matchup I really like -- SXU is also a regular CCAC contender and tourney team. 

Since the adoption of the regional emphasis in Division III, I have struggled with the thought of IWU eliminating Olivet Nazarene (and now St. Xavier) from its schedule and replacing these games with in-region D3 contests for a couple of reasons -- 1) there is a very good chance the in-region D3 will not be as good as ONU or SXU, and 2) ONU is just 90 miles from Bloomington, IL and SXU just 120.  Those are convenient trips for players and fans.  This season IWU will travel 5 hours to southern Indiana to play an in-region D3 game vs Hanover.  IWU's games vs the NAIA's next season may actually fit the spirit of the D3 regional emphasis philosophy more than the game vs Hanover will.  (Playing MWC power Lawrence would be the same -- about a 5 hr drive.)

I think IWU's games vs Olivet Nazarene and St. Xavier are very similar to the games Hope and Calvin play vs the Michigan NAIA's, like Cornerstone and Aquinas, so I feel like I understand the situation a little bit.  The big difference is, IWU still has a chance to play 7 in-region D3 games next season before the CCIW schedule:

Clarke (n)
@ UW-Whitewater
vs Illinois College
@ DePauw
vs Wash U
vs Chicago
@ Hanover

With the geography what it is, can Hope and Calvin put together a similar schedule, where they face a number of good, solid in-region D3's without traveling too much?  (Most of those IWU non-conference opponents listed above are within a 3 hour drive of Bloomington.)  I've never looked at it closely enough to know.

[NW Hope Fan]

Great Lakes
1 Wooster 19-2 23-2 84%
2 Calvin 11-1 20-5 48%
3 Hope 15-2 23-2 68%
4 Wittenberg 17-3 22-3 80%
5 Baldwin-Wallace 19-4 21-4 92%
6 Carnegie Mellon 15-4 19-5 79%

I wouldn't say 75% is about average. This was the last published regional ranking, right before the conference tournaments, in which all of the above increased their percentage.

It helps a bit to be in a league with 10 teams for in region records... Outside the conference records, Woo played 5 IRG's, Witt- 4, Hope- 4, BW- 5, CM- 6, and sadly yes Calvin with 0!!! So Hope only "brought down the average" by playing in a league with only 12 possible IRG's at that point. Calvin... no excuse!

On the other hand, as I looked at the schedules, and thought about the league rich schedules for a few of the teams, I took the average of all the pre-league/ non-league games played and that looks more like:

Woo: 55.5% of games played were IRG's
Witt: 44.4%
Hope: 36.3%
BW: 71.4%
CM: 54.5%
and Calvin... 0% 

[Mr. Ypsi]

Hope does have one huge advantage over Calvin - the Chicagoland d3s are in-region (Calvin misses by veritable inches).  While there are probably numerous teams that Calvin COULD play in-region, are any of them actually closer than the Chicago schools?  Is the d3 philophy really served by making them go 5-7 hours to Ohio rather than 3 hours to Chicagoland?  What ARE Calvin's in-region options?  (I imagine that Wabash and DePauw would meet the 200-mile-rule, but any others.)

And don't even get me started about poor Alma - where are they supposed to find in-region games outside their conference?