WBB: Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference

[Mr. Ypsi]

In the first 15 years of the HCAC women's bb board - 9 pages of posts.

In the 4 months since Jester1390 showed up - 9 pages of posts!

Recruiting Kahlan Jester may have been the best PR move RHIT ever made!   Hopefully it will work out just as well from a bb standpoint as well!

[Jester1390]

Lol yepper hopefully 4 years will be at defiance game tomorrow so will get another page up

[Enginerd]

Getting my teams mixed up your correct was thinking of defiance

Defiance is not bad at all - they played RHIT very tough last year and have some players that could well give the Engineers some trouble - especially their Freshmen. RHIT SHOULD win this game but Defiance does have players and are well-coached.

Anderson is an enigma. They have some really nice talent and appear to be well-coached as well - but just really struggle to win games.

Defiance is talented enough to finish anywhere from 3rd-5th in the HCAC this season, and the fact that Anderson played them that tough at home and basically lost on a last-possession shot - tells me that this might be the year Anderson starts to put it together and climb out of the cellar - because Defiance is always tough at home.

RHIT ought to win tomorrow, but will have to play well to do so.

Grizz, Franklin had some good, young players last season and looks to have kept them all in the fold over the off-season, and picked up a few new ones that could help. I'd expect Franklin to finish somewhere in the top-half of the league and would not be surprised at all to see them pick up a big win over Transy or Hanover, likely at home.

Bluffton is much improved and might give everyone trouble, especially at home, where they have only lost a handful of games over the last 5 years or so.

Everyone scares me for the Engineers this year. They just turn it over (often unprompted) way too much and will get literally everyone's best effort - never a good combination. They have the potential to finish anywhere from 1st-10th.

My sleeper pick for a high conference finish is Bluffton.

Manchester is better, but hard to tell how much. Very well-coached.

Earlham and MSJ might struggle against everyone.

I think it's a two-horse race between Hanover and Transy with a lot of potential for upset(s) in the conference tournament and a real dark-horse emerging and snagging the league's automatic NCAA Tournament bid.

[Baldini]

Tomorrows schedule of games.

Earlham @ Mt. St. Joseph
Transylvania @ Anderson
Defiance @ Rose-Hulman
Bluffton @ Franklin
Manchester @ Hanover

[FCGrizzliesGrad]

Grizz, Franklin had some good, young players last season and looks to have kept them all in the fold over the off-season, and picked up a few new ones that could help. I'd expect Franklin to finish somewhere in the top-half of the league and would not be surprised at all to see them pick up a big win over Transy or Hanover, likely at home.

It won't be Hanover at home since that was the opener. They kept it within reach most of the game but just couldn't get closer than a couple possessions. Far too many misses from close range. Hit some of those and they might have had a chance. Last year the Panthers won by 22 and 25 so it was much closer this year.

I think it's Transy's to lose this year. Hanover will end up a couple games behind them, Rose might struggle early but should make the conference tournament and be a tough out by then. Maybe someone steps up from the middle of the conference and becomes a solid 4th team. Last year there was a 5 game gap between 3rd place Hanover and 4th place MSJ at 9-9... but only 4 games separated 4th through 9th.

Tomorrows schedule of games.

Earlham @ Mt. St. Joseph
Transylvania @ Anderson
Defiance @ Rose-Hulman
Bluffton @ Franklin
Manchester @ Hanover

I'll take MSJ in a tight game, Transy will cruise, Rose gets a winning streak going, Bluffton in the best matchup of the day, and Hanover with a comfortable win.

[Baldini]

Grizz, Franklin had some good, young players last season and looks to have kept them all in the fold over the off-season, and picked up a few new ones that could help. I'd expect Franklin to finish somewhere in the top-half of the league and would not be surprised at all to see them pick up a big win over Transy or Hanover, likely at home.

It won't be Hanover at home since that was the opener. They kept it within reach most of the game but just couldn't get closer than a couple possessions. Far too many misses from close range. Hit some of those and they might have had a chance. Last year the Panthers won by 22 and 25 so it was much closer this year.

I think it's Transy's to lose this year. Hanover will end up a couple games behind them, Rose might struggle early but should make the conference tournament and be a tough out by then. Maybe someone steps up from the middle of the conference and becomes a solid 4th team. Last year there was a 5 game gap between 3rd place Hanover and 4th place MSJ at 9-9... but only 4 games separated 4th through 9th.

Tomorrows schedule of games.

Earlham @ Mt. St. Joseph
Transylvania @ Anderson
Defiance @ Rose-Hulman
Bluffton @ Franklin
Manchester @ Hanover

I'll take MSJ in a tight game, Transy will cruise, Rose gets a winning streak going, Bluffton in the best matchup of the day, and Hanover with a comfortable win.

Our little mini pickems right here, I like it.

I'll take Earlham, Transylvania, Defiance, Franklin and Hanover. 

Come on Enginerd, Jester and anyone else we need your picks.

[Jester1390]

Ok please remember lol these are my predictions not my daughters so any comments should be directed at me lol


I'll take earl ham

Trany

My upset special Franklin

Hanover and finally defiance  errrrrr I mean RHIT yes defiantly RHIT

[Enginerd]

Earlham
I'll go off the rails and pick Anderson for my upset special.
RHIT - however I AM concerned about this match-up
Bluffton
Hanover (Although I think Manchester will pull off one big upset this year)

[Baldini]

Hanover is the unanimous pick, watch that be the upset.

[Enginerd]

Hanover is the unanimous pick, watch that be the upset.

Manchester WILL get somebody this year - but I think it will be at their place.

[Jester1390]

Well besides berea game that is the worse I have seen the team play. 2-12 from free throw.  They keep giving up baskets on last shots before end of quarter on 20 quarters now they have given up a basket in 17.  I couldn't believe how many ugly heaves went in but that's part of ball

Personal note I know people are consumed by offense but I'm going to give it up to my kid.  Held there leading scorer to 1 point and that was on a bs foul call.  Was never expecting them to win conference but this was a winnable game

[Baldini]

Todays results.

Earlham 60 Mt. St. Joseph 57
Transylvania 69 Anderson 56
Defiance 53 Rose-Hulman 43
Franklin 81 Bluffton 53
Hanover 72 Manchester 65

[Enginerd]

Todays results.

Earlham 60 Mt. St. Joseph 57
Transylvania 69 Anderson 56
Defiance 53 Rose-Hulman 43
Franklin 81 Bluffton 53
Hanover 72 Manchester 65

1 and 2 will almost certainly wind up being Hanover and Transy - but I'm going to predict that 3-8 are going to be an absolute train-wreck - with the final 2-3, or even 4 spots in the HCAC Tournament not wrapped-up until the last weekend, or two. I'm concerned RHIT might miss it's first conference tourney in 11 years.

[Jester1390]

So waiting for plane back to Minneapolis. Thought I would post a couple of thoughts after rewatching the game online. 

Engine I don't think there needs to be panic yet.  The main thing is the defense is pretty good as a whole even though I'm not thrilled all the times with some of our perimeter defense to far off the shooter. Even though I believe it comes more of a issue as the team gets tired.  They again missed 8 bunnies or high percentage shots.   They gave up 5 pts in last 45 seconds of first half to get behind including the last sec shot which was unreal my daughter actually blocked the shot from behind and she told me after it probably wouldn't have gone on if she hadn't redirected it   They were 2-12 from free throw line.  They were repeatedly hammered inside and no whistles

Most important swing they got it back to 6 and this hurts personally but my daughter had a drive and she would tell you she needs to make that shot. Then the senior right after has a 3 rim out. Those go in  whole different pressure on end of game.  I fully understand you can do the what if for everyone

I just want to point out that it was a game that easily could have gone the other way.  Have to give credit to defiance also. The interior defense made it hard on the posts.  Their one freshman off the bench killed them.

Positives turnovers were down. Negative defiance out rebounded them
And that shouldn't have happened.  Lastly. I know the girls are tired and worn out a lot of games in the last 2 weeks against really good teams.  They play hard and don't take it easy.  The week off comes at a good time for their bodies.  I look forward to visiting Bluffton on Saturday.

[Jester1390]

Well the youngest team in america is ranked by Massey 248th.  Time to move up a few spots Saturday