MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

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Congratulations to the 2007 MIAA Champion Hope Flying Dutchmen

Nice job men!

Hope 88 Alma 62

I don't really know where to start with this one..........Hope didn't start out great but not bad.  When the 2nd unit came on the floor it was goodnight Alma.  18-4 run in about 5 minutes  14-9 to 32-13, Hope built a nice lead of 41-16 and it looked like blowout city and then 3 guys decided to amend the rules of play for basketball for a few minutes.  Hope got 8 fouls in 3 1/2 minutes, a few defied the basic laws of physics where 2 masses come together............. thats a pace for 96 in a game.   Alma cut the lead to 45-29.

Ironic that Hope got their first 6 points to start the half from the stripe, more agressive to the hoop and Alma challenging more.  Certainly the story of the second half was Tyler Wolfe.............again the starters weren't able to really put the Scots away much like the Adrian game, in steps Wolfe and in :58 seconds  --bang!---bang!---bang!  3 threes and its a 21 point lead.......most of us in the stands missed that Tyler had 20 striaght points, much needed and again shows how difficult Hope can be to defend.  Hope only got 21 shots at the basket in the second half, a few turnovers and fouls kept that number down.

Some better passing tonight, some nice breakout baskets, great contributions from Klein and Jager (not noticed in the box score).  Alma came to play, they're just simply outmanned, Hope did a nice job on Smith, who found other ways to get guys involved but was pretty off from the floor, and ended up with 12 but he was really hounded by the Hope D.

Wolfe with 23, Cramer and very quiet 15, Klein 10, VanderHeide 10, Reimink 10.

Reimink was saddled with foul trouble the whole second half, so his minutes were limited.  When he was in there though he was pretty tough.

A pretty comfortable win as expected, as noted still looked a bit tired, esp the starting 5.  Second unit were outstanding in the first half. 

Way to go Hope!

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My thoughts tonight

------DVS needs to bag the 25 foot 3's untill he hits one from 20 again.

------Hope should come up with an alternate 3rd jersey to wear when they play Calvin, one that doesn't say "Hope" or have orange and blue.........clearly the Knights can't get motivated unless its Hope.  But, I do feel better about what I saw last Monday at Albion.  The Brits are playing better, I was tempted to pick them tonight but chickened out.

------So bizarre, in fact, that one of our regular and reviered posters who normally doesn't let such things affect him, was on his feet disputing more than one call.  It was that bizarre.

Yeah, I had to apologize to Grandma Cramer for my little outburst but lord, I've never been so mad during a Hope game.   I'm glad they left their names off the boxscore.  They were forgettable.   Not one of my finer moments as a Hope fan.

I've never seen Glenn laughing so hard by the end of the game.

------Saturday at Tri-State could be interesting, hopefully Hope can get motivated for a game that means little in the MIAA, but could mean oh so much to any slim Pool C hopes.

[GoKnights68]

Congratulations Hope on being league champs.  I believe this is the 3rd year in a row now that the pre-season pick for league champ by the coaches won't even have a share of the league title. I'm pretty sure hope was favored in the '04 season and also won it?

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civicminded forgot one of the best fan participations of the night..........during a Steve Cramer FT, someone yells out....."YouTube", got a good chuckle from those of us in the stands.

Sportcenter tonight had a thing on Jason McElwain from last year........still brings the goosebumps

http://youtube.com/watch?v=bXQay68MBZI&mode=related&search=


I'm a little creeped out that I made a post remebering a perfect night from a Hope player from 9 years ago...........then Tyler Wolfe goes perfect tonight 6-6 and 6-6 with 5-5 from 3. 

[Gregory Sager]

This is also why I think Calvin (although I know they wont be) should be considered for Pool C.......Throw out their preseason, look at who they are NOW!

Calvin's preseason is thrown out, hshoopster. Nothing that the Knights did prior to November 17 counts.

[Gregory Sager]

Hope also had a game scheduled the first weekend where the opponent dropped out, so Hope had to add Purdue North-Central at the last minute.  On top of that they are 1 game short of the 25 limit............no one finds that telling?

Its always a two-way street when it come to scheduling, yet no one seems willing to acknowledge that.

It's that stupid Lake's fault.  The darn glacier just dug too deep.

Don't badmouth our glorious inland sea, zigmeister. Without the lake, Chicago would just be Des Moines with funnier accents.

[Gregory Sager]

To the best of my knowledge, where the first-round games are played has no effect on whether or not they count against the 25-game limit.  The CCIW (as David pointed out) will be a special case (it doesn't begin until 2009) because they are still 'officially' a 4-team tourney, with 'play-in games' as still part of the regular conference schedule.

The play-in games will actually be considered non-conference games (even though they're in-house amongst the eight CCIW teams), and will not count towards the regular-season standings. IOW, the team that is atop the standings at the end of the 14-game double round-robin will still be crowned CCIW champion, same as always.

[hope1]

nice job hope on the miaa championship

[HopeConvert]

For an interview with Myles Brand concerning the Hope/Calvin game, listen to the following:

http://doubleazone.com/audio/20070212mwm.mp3

It'll make you feel awfully good about what we have here.

[Flying Dutch Fan]

Some thoughts on last nights Hope @ Alma game.

- MIAA Championships are great!!!!!!!!

- I know it's already been said, but Tyler Wolfe was absolutely amazing - 6-6 from the floor (including 5-5 from 3), 6-6 from the line, 2 rebounds and an assist in 18 minutes.  At 13:28 in second half its 57-38 Hope.  At 5:26 it's 79-54 Hope, and Wolfe was the only Hope player to score - 4 threes, a 2 and 6 FTs.  As I'm watching this I couldn't help but think of Vinny Johnson

- I loved the 3 Alma students running the sidelines supporting their team.  The "youtube" chant was funny.  I also liked that they had their chests painted to spell ALMA, but since there were only 3, the "A" guy had to run from the front of the word to the back to complete the spelling.  All in all I thought it was a good turnout by the Alma crowd (more folks than normal)

- In the first half the second 5 defnitely increased the intensity of the game - like we just hit another gear when they came in.  IT felt to me like the starters struggled a bit, but looking at the stats who can complain:

    Starting 5  16-31 for .516
    Second  5  12-19 for .632

- The defense I think was very good and improving over the last 2 games- just not the unbelievable stuff we saw for a stretch earlier in the season.  I agree with others that this is most likely due to this being the second time around for teams, and they are ready for it.  

- The officiating:

(first a rant)- I heard that the officials names were left of the box score at their request to protect them - but I know that can't be true - those guys couldn't possibly be intelligent enough to have that thought.  

I can really sum it all up without addressing specific calls, but by relating two comments I heard from the officials.  Both were directed at GVW when he questioned calls.

Comment #1 - "I didn't really see what happened first, all I saw was..." - great they are admitting they aren't seeing what's going on

Comment #2 - "I made that call because I thought it was the best alternative" - I guess I didn't really think there were alternatives, or at least shouldn't be in the officials mind.

[Flying Dutch Fan]

I just raised that same point on the NCAC board.  IMO the QOWI gap is not nearly large enough to outweigh 2 or 3 more in-region losses.

IMO, 0.4 is a gigantic gap in QOWI and I would also remind you that not only does JCU have two more regional losses, it has three more regional wins.

Don't get caught fixating on the loss column. It's not the only component of a regional ranking.

Having just come from the NCAC board when I posted that, I was just thinking in terms of Woo and Witt (though I realize that wasn't very polite here on my 'home' Michigan board!) - they each have 15 in-region wins, just like JCU.

I suppose I probably discount QOWI more than I should because of its obvious defects.  Is the change to including opponent's opponents records starting next year?

Mr. Yipsi, I agree with you. I guess I have a better idea now of why JCU jumped but I just don't buy into the QoWI as that reliable of a measure of a team. I certainly don't see how JCU jumps 4 spots this past week.

Hope should be 12-2 not 12-3 so JCU has 3 more regional losses to go with their 3 more regional wins (wow, a whopping .500)

[realist]

Good win last night for Hope.     Congrats. on the championship.  A job very well done.  Sounds like the officiating was really bad or are some of you Hope posters testing some material should you need it later? 8)
Also a very good win for Albion.  I had a bad feeling about last nights game since the Hope game last week.   The first indication my worst fears might come true was Calvin reverting to form, and finding it "interesting" to spot the opponent some points early on.  Now I find myself in the position of having to pull for Hope to handle Tri State on Sat.  Which they should unless they take a page from Calvin's master plan and self destruct.   However, at this point it may only mean delaying an eventual meeting with Hope one night. I figured Calvin would win one game on Hope's floor this season.  I just don't think doing it two times in a row is realistic should that match up even come to pass.

[dumezrules]

This is also why I think Calvin (although I know they wont be) should be considered for Pool C.......Throw out their preseason, look at who they are NOW!

Calvin's preseason is thrown out, hshoopster. Nothing that the Knights did prior to November 17 counts.

FUNNY!!!   Someone does actually read my posts, even when I say stupid things.....
I guess I was wrong about Calvin...I really thought they would win out.

Anyone else think that if the MIAA teams started the preseason all over again, many of them would win a few more games?  It seems as if every team is VASTLY improved since December (except maybe Hope).  When I first saw Calvin, they were just horrible, same for Albion.  I know every team improves over the year but this year seems different to me, thats all.

[ChicagoHopeNut]

Hope should be 12-2 not 12-3 so JCU has 3 more regional losses to go with their 3 more regional wins (wow, a whopping .500)

Agreed and Agreed! I just don't understand this QoWI when a team jumps 3 spots when only one of the teams ahead lost. I realize this is a subjective view on my part and that QoWI has some value. I just believe that value is overstated, particularly in D3 where the committee members can't watch all the teams they are considering on a regular basis. Unlike D1 where the RPI plays a role you still know the committee members have the opportunity to watch most of the teams they are considering multiple times on ESPN or CBS over the course of the season.

I also wonder what happened with Hope's Carthage loss.
Pat, Did the NCAA determine it was in-region? Or was this problem ever brought up to the committee?

[realist]

At this point forget about the QOWI.  Concentrate on winning.  It is still the best way for a team to control their own fate.