MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[monsoon]

Update on Hope opponents in the NAIA Tournament.

Aquinas won its first ever NAIA Tournament game this morning beating Dakota Wesleyan 91-66.  James Telman had 30, John Lierman 26, the Saints shot 15-22 from 3. 

They take on top seed Bellevue, Neb who only managed to win their first round game by 59 points.


Mt Vernon Nazarene, OH takes on Oregon Tech Thursday night in another first round game.

Did Cazenovia switch to NAIA??   

[Gregory Sager]

I have a friend that named their 2 boys Clark and Sheffield.  They named their girl Addison.  Now, they are threatening to name the 4th Waveland regardless of the sex...Stupid Cubs fans...

Bill Murray named his kid Homer Banks Murray, after his favorite baseball call by former Cubs broadcaster Jack Brickhouse, "Homer! Banks! Hey, hey!" When asked why his kid's name isn't Homer Banks Hey-Hey Murray, he replied, "My wife had to draw the line somewhere."

[Flying Dutch Fan]

Update on Hope opponents in the NAIA Tournament.

Aquinas won its first ever NAIA Tournament game this morning beating Dakota Wesleyan 91-66.  James Telman had 30, John Lierman 26, the Saints shot 15-22 from 3. 

They take on top seed Bellevue, Neb who only managed to win their first round game by 59 points.


Mt Vernon Nazarene, OH takes on Oregon Tech Thursday night in another first round game.

Mt. Vernon Nazarene lost in the first round to #11 Oregon Tech, 77-74

Aquinas finishes a great season with a loss in the second round to #1 Bellevue, 65-61. 

[realist]

Good luck to Hope tonight!!  Hope fans have gotten what they wanted, sectional games on their home floor.  It just doesn't get much better than that.  Have some fun. 8) 8)

[hope1]

yes i hope we have some fun tonight it would be great

[Civic Minded]

Good luck to Hope tonight!!  Hope fans have gotten what they wanted, sectional games on their home floor.  It just doesn't get much better than that.  Have some fun. 8) 8)

Thanks, realist!  And thanks for the reminder that we are fortunate enough to be in the sweet 16, and playing at home.  I'll try to remember to breathe, and to enjoy.  It would be a shame to be so tense that I missed out on what a sweet thing this is.  Thank you.

[Mr. Ypsi]

This is awfully late notice, but I only now noticed that Whitworth's second-best player is CALVIN Jurich - in case that affects anyone's rooting in the Wheaton-Whitworth game!

[chidutch]

Any word tonight on whether any more tickets have been made available for tomorrow night's game?  I want to drive in and cheer on the dutchmen, but a four hour drive is pretty far to come with no guarantees of a ticket.  Any assistance would be appreciated.  Thanks

[hope81]

The announcement about tickets was that the public sale starts at noon tomorrow.  I believe you can call the ticket office number on the website and order tickets over the phone as well.  This would ensure that you have tickets.

Otherwise, after 6:30pm tomorrow, any unclaimed reserved tickets will be sold.  If you are here then, you would likely get in.

[hope1]

what a nice win tonight 1 more saturday night  dvs played great he said he was ok  have to stop raymond saturday night

[sac]

Hope 71 OWU 63

Just a typical tough NCAA tournament game, the Bishops hung tough with a team tonight that refused to fall behind.  Hope lead for the entire game save for 2 minutes and 5 seconds.  1 lead change, 1 tie, I really found that hard to believe.  The Dutchmen came up with a lot of clutch offense tonight, and from several sources.  Really great to see. 

This game came down to defensive stops and Hope was able to get just a couple more in the final crucial minutes.  It was 59-56 with 5 minutes left.  Hope scored on its next four posessions while holding OWU to 1 FT on its four, and it was 67-57 from there Hope could controll the game and the clock, which despite a couple hicups they did pretty well.

Zach Osburn had the unsung hero game of the night for Hope, I think he made something happen at each end of the floor everytime he was in there.  Four big steals, 1 in those crucial 4 defensive stops I mentioned, a couple hard earned rebounds and just generally being in the middle of a lot of loose balls and physical play.

Ryan Klein of course came up big against OWU's big horse Dustin Rudegeair, holding him to just 3 points.  Quite an effort while struggling on offense, Ryan came up with 10 big rebounds despite being out matched in the muscle department, but he held his own and then some.

OWU turned on the defense near the end of the first half, with the score Hope 30 OWU 18, the Bishops really kind of controlled the game outscoring Hope 45-41 over the final 25 minutes.  Which makes Hope's late game run a bit more impressive.  In the middle part of the game it was 38-29 OWU.


Hope will have its hands full with an improved Wheaton team.  Thats a team playing with alot of confidence and belief.  Just like OWU, those are tough teams to beat in the tournament. 

http://www.miaa.org/mbb/stats/0708/0314ohio.htm

[sac]

Just to give you an idea of what kind of defensive effort Ryan Klein had Friday night, here's what Dustin Rudegeair had done in his last 6 games a stretch where OWU went  6-0 and won by an average of 16.5 points per game.

v Allegheny 25 points
v Hiram 17 points
v Allegheny 8 points
v Wabash 29 points
v Heidelberg 32 points
v Centre 17 points

vs Hope 3 points

[Erm Schmigget]

Just to give you an idea of what kind of defensive effort Ryan Klein had Friday night, here's what Dustin Rudegeair had done in his last 6 games a stretch where OWU went  6-0 and won by an average of 16.5 points per game.

v Allegheny 25 points
v Hiram 17 points
v Allegheny 8 points
v Wabash 29 points
v Heidelberg 32 points
v Centre 17 points

vs Hope 3 points

veragrace just asked me if we could give Ryan and Zach +k.   

DVS and MVH had some big stats, and Reimink with 12pts, 7rebs on a day when he's sick, are the kind of thing you'll read about in most articles, but the defensive efforts of Klein and Osburn were, imho, the difference for Hope last night.  That just reaffirms what I love about this year's team: you never know who is going to come up big in scoring, and they have a knack for shutting down their opponent's biggest gun(s).

Let's HOPE they can do their stuff against Raymond and Wiele tonight.

[sac]

Just saw the Forest Hills Northern last second shot, amazing.  Even more amazing the zebras blew it.


Here's the video, you'll have to endure a commercial, amazing shot.


http://video.woodtv.com/?video_id=11027


PS.....look closely and its pretty clear WOOD has some Calvin grad working the graphics. 

[Erm Schmigget]

Reasons why I think Hope has a better chance of winning tonight:

Home crowd.  Last night, the crowd participation was AWESOME!!!  Only one old lady turned around early and told my brother-in-law she thought he was kind of loud.  She quickly learned that she was in the minority, and kept her thoughts to herself the rest of the night.  And hats off to the OWU crowd for bringing a spirited fanbase as well.  They were just over powered by us Hope fans.

Scoring balance.  Limit Raymond, and you only have 2 others that might pose a scoring threat.  Klein's defense lately has been covered, so 'nuff said.  Wiele had a clear advantage in size and height last night, but only scored 7 points on 2-7 shooting.  MVH only gives up 1" and 0# to him, and has outplayed plenty of other opponents' low posts.   But who does Wheaton focus on?  Hope's last 4 games have been led by 4 different starters, with at leats 24pts each time.  And the 5th (Klein) has led with >20pt efforts of his own twice this season.

Defense.  I mentioned it above.  Klein has shut down Hope's opponents' biggest guns in this post season run, and MVH is doing his part in the post.  With only 2-3 real scoring threats any given night, Hope's defense will be too much for Wheaton to handle.  With the ball, Hope has been challenged by some tough defenses this year as well.  But they got the job done last night, and if Wheaton plays like "nice boys" again tonight, they may see the game slipping away early.

Team.  The Hope team that we see this year has that something extra that will earn them a trip to Salem.  Like the Hope ladies, this team is about the team.  There is no single superstar carrying the team on his shoulders.  They pull together and use their abilities collectively to produce a win...then move on to the next project.  Together.  They have faced teams featuring superstars like Nate Stahl, and exposed their weaknesses.  That's what they will do tonight.

I'll be the first to admit that I am a fan, so my view is a bit slanted.  But I've seen them win so many different kinds of games this season, in many different ways, I feel confident that my observations are pretty close to the mark.

Go HOPE!!