MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[oldknight]

-----I was hoping we might one up our friends on the East Belt Line with pigs in a blanket at halftime ...........but no such luck.

Sac: sorry, it's not possible to one up Hudsonville Ice Cream with pigs in the blanket. Now, banket, that would have been a true test of one-upmanship.

[SKOT]

----They did a little work in DeVos over the summer, I'm not telling what it was.......lets see if anyone can guess?       hint:  Its not the painted safety lines on the steps.

They removed the ladder from the roof?

[sac]

Live Scoreboard from DeVos carrying both games today. 

http://www.hope.edu/pr/athletics/livestats/

Just in case anyone was interested in that Grace Bible/Madonna tilt.

[realist]

Hawkster/Bilk:  It is a really diffficult to compare Director's cup positions to MIAA Commissoner's Cup.  About the only conclusion one can draw is Hope does better on average (in conference performance) across all the sports offered in the MIAA, while Calvin seems to do better in those things it does well.   Hope should be applauded for it's Commissioner's cup record.  It shows consistancy across the spectrum in both men's and women's sports.  The thing that is interesting about Calvin's Director's Cup performance is the fact it is one of only 8 D3 schools to make the top 25 all the years the cup has been awarded.  Each of us has our own perference.  Some like the MIAA All Sports banners, while others favor the National Championship banners.     It never ends.

[bulldogalum]

Adrian trails Rochester 44-35 at the half.  Rochester went on a little run to end the half, from the sounds of it.  Here's hoping the Bulldogs can step up the defensive pressure in the second half.

[NW Hope Fan]

Each of us has our own preference.  Some like the MIAA All Sports banners, while others favor the National Championship banners.     It never ends.

I kind of think we ALL like National Championship banners (maybe even the actual championship better   ) but, for example how much recruiting does Kenyon College get out their swimming banners. Minus Swimming and Tennis, Kenyon sports 17 NCAC championships in 18 other sports in the last 20+ years. A nationally recognized sport does well for that sport's recruiting, but only can go so far for the rest of the program. (A beautiful field house on the other hand may go much further   )

The thing that Calvin should be more proud of is, take the runners away (185 current points, and more in the spring) and Calvin still has a nationally, regionally, and league respected athletic program. And so does Hope!

[Dark Knight]

Margin-of-victory-based Massey Ratings have come out for DIII schools. It's early and the season and these ratings will fluctuate for a while, but here are the current ratings for the MIAA:

	Ranking	Power
Hope	#14	11.14
Calvin	#58	4.74
Tri-State	#106	-2.34
Albion	#116	0.03
Kalamazoo	#172	-4.77
Adrian	#270	-9.86
Alma	#283	-10.81
Olivet	#292	-10.19

Subtract power ratings and add a 3-point home court advantage to get a prediction for a game. For example, Hope playing at Calvin would be a 3.4-point favorite, if both teams had average games. Standard deviation is 11.5 points, and about 68% of games fall within one standard deviation of the prediction.

The MIAA is ranked as the 15th-best DIII conference. Usually they are more like 7th, and a year or two ago they were flirting with 3rd-best.

Interestingly, the CCIW is the top conference this year according to Massey, with Carthage as the best team in the CCIW and the 9th-best team in the nation. The CCIW looks like this:

Carthage	#9
N Central	#15
Wheaton	#19
Ill Wes	#21
Augustana	#28
Elmhurst	#40
North Park	#119
Millikin	#182

[realist]

Gkarma:  My point exactly.  Both programs, and the MIAA have plenty to be proud about.    No doubt it may be easier to get a cross country runner to attend Calvin, or a tennis player to go to Kalamazoo than say to one of the other conference schools.  Yes, it maybe fair to say the national attention does draw a limited number of students in.  Yes, playing in nice facilities probably makes it a easier to tip the scales in the favor of a school now and then.   Some young men or women do attend Hope or Calvin et. al. to play a specific sport, but most student/athletes at most schools probably weigh much more into the decision making process.  Failing to properly weight the various aspects of getting an education is probably why we see transfers down from D1 or 2.
Based on an article this summer in the GR Press regarding GVSU's Director's Cups.  I drew the conclusion GVSU deliberately worked hard to get to this level, and intends to stay there.  They like being the big fish in the D2 pond, so don't bug them about going D1.   I don't sense that losing the MIAA All Sports banner would be the end of Hope's world.  Nor would failing to make the Director's cup race at some future time predict Calvin's athletic demise.  However, it might very well mean those things (or worse) to a poster here or there!

[hope1]

hope won today   85 to  72  over goshen   hope  looked  pretty  good today  with marcus  and tyler wokf leading them in scoring with 17 points 

[sac]

Hope 85 Goshen 72

Hope played a pretty good game today in the bright sunshine of DeVos.  Goshen brought their 3 point shooting shoes and pretty much kept themselves in the game with it.

The story of this one to me at least was the play of Hope's 2nd unit, Jager, Partridge, Klein, Kratz, Wolfe and Osburn.  The combination of these guys on the floor expanded Hope's slim margin everytime they were on the floor to a more comfortable high teens margin.  Thats not to say the first group played poorly but the 2nd unit played a much more agressive kind of defense and seemed to really scrape and claw a little harder.  Collectively as a group these 6 guys shot 14-20 for 70% for 34 points........nice bench play.

Tyler Wolfe had an outstanding 17 points, without a 3 which I garuntee is the last time he does that.  He was much more willing to take the dribble drive and take the 5-6 footers.  Brett Jager also played a solid game at the point, a much improved and confident players from a year ago, he's played well thus far.

Scott Richardson showed some good flashes underneath today and was a big part of Hope's dominating the boards 40-30, also named MVP.  Marcus was also outstanding in the 2nd half, where I think the bulk of his points came.

VanderHeide 17, Wolfe 17, Cramer 14, Richardson 10

Goshen does a nice job of creating open 3's and Hope struggled some with covering the open 3's.  Goshen made 6 more 3's than Hope for a change of 18 points, which is the difference between  Hope winning by 12 and winning by 30.  David Haire was 6-10 and Brice Hartman 3-7 were the bulk of Goshen's 3 point points.

Things got a little tighter late in the game when Goshen cut the marginn to 9 with 6 or so minutes to go, but Hope managed to do enough in the final minutes to salt it away.............basically fasten your seat belts Hope fans when the clock hits 6 minutes to go.

Overall Hope accomplished what they wanted this weekend, played well for the most part in both games, got lots of minutes for their bench and most importantly move into exam week with a number of guys feeling confindent about their game.   Winning two games is a whole lot beter than losing 2.  Next weekend its over to Aquinas and probably the toughest test remaining untill the MIAA campaign kicks in.

[sac]

Couple notes

-----I'm not one to criticise, but this Hope fan left mystified that Ryan Klein didn't see the floor in the 2nd half.  He's been really good this year and the pairing of he and Kratz is a tough matchup for any team. ? ? ? ?

-----Tim Partridge seems to have recovered nicely from his ankle injury, having him on the floor last weekend may have been enough to get Hope a couple more victories.  Word is Dan Holt will be practicing next week and will hopefully see the floor at the Russ DeVette Tournament.


------Its always nice to see Duane Bosma shaking the hand of a recruit..........and have to look up.

-----Lastly, the Hope men's golf team was honored before the game.........I couldn't help but wonder if some of the guys I played with would have even made this years Hope team.  I doubt I would have.

........in the jealous alumnus departed, the men's golf team will be takeing a "mission" trip to Scotland this summer to help those poor under privaleged Scotsmen.

When I was on the team we got to go to Ohio........in April.

[bulldogalum]

A mission trip to Scotland.  That sounds rough.  Perhaps next year they can do a weekend mission to Augusta or something

[MIdoubleA]

Goshen does a nice job of creating open 3's and Hope struggled some with covering the open 3's.  Goshen made 6 more 3's than Hope for a change of 18 points, which is the difference between  Hope winning by 12 and winning by 30.  David Haire was 6-10 and Brice Hartman 3-7 were the bulk of Goshen's 3 point points.

It should be noted that Goshen hits the 3 better when it's hurried than when it's set up. Wide-open attempts looked the worst for the men in purple.

Tyler Wolfe had an outstanding 17 points, without a 3 which I garuntee is the last time he does that.  He was much more willing to take the dribble drive and take the 5-6 footers. 

Personally my pick for the MVP. Wolfe carried the team when they struggled and for a few times in each half it was Goshen vs. Tyler Wolfe. You'll also note that the Dew Crew has a new favorite call to replace "VEEEEEE" from last year.

Things got a little tighter late in the game when Goshen cut the marginn to 9 with 6 or so minutes to go, but Hope managed to do enough in the final minutes to salt it away.............basically fasten your seat belts Hope fans when the clock hits 6 minutes to go.

As a fan of basketball, this doesn't bother me. As a fan of watching Hope College win, yikes.

--------

A few of my own notes, inspired by Sac.

*  The transfers from last year seem to have found their niche's in Hope's program. They all look comfortable and significanly improved from last year.

*  GVW seems hesitant to leave certain players out on the floor for too long, Osburn and Partridge in particular. I hope we get to see more of them, I think they have some stuff we haven't seen yet.

*  Tonight was the first night I saw someone run by Cramer like he was standing still. Hats of to you, #3, for being one of the quickest guys I've seen.

[Roughrider]

Big score from yesterday:  #1 Wooster 68--#6 Wittenberg 65, at Witt.

Much talk on the NCAC board about physical play, and players stepping up in a big game.  Makes interesting reading.

Also much talk about poor officiating both ways.  We wouldn't talk that way about the MIAA now, would we.      

[Roughrider]

Through yesterday, December 9, the MIAA has an uncharacteristically shaky collective W-L record of 16-28.   

The "Big Three" of Albion, Calvin, and Hope, all accustomed to appearing in the national rankings in recent years, are an unimpressive collective 10-8.   

I sure didn't see this coming.  The coaching staffs have many "teachable moments" about which to teach.