WBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Flying Dutch Fan]

IWU @ Hope comparison:

2 common opponents:

Calvin
IWU 1 - 0 (60-44)
Hope 3 - 0 (64 - 38, 74- 50, 78 - 46)

North Park
IWU 1 - 1 (82 - 51, 64 - 77)
Hope 1 - 0 (62 - 45)

Offense	% 2pt	% 3pt	% FT
IWU	47.2	33.9	65.1
Hope	49.8	29.8	67.9
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Defense	% 2pt	% 3pt
IWU	45.8	29.5
Hope	32.4	25.8
------
Rebounding	Team	Opp	Margin
IWU	39.7	38	1.7
Hope	41.9	31	10.9
------
Scoring	Team	Opp	Margin
IWU	74.6	64.8	9.8
Hope	75.8	41.3	34.5
------
3 point shooting	Made/game
IWU	6.9
Hope	6.4
------
Ball Control	Stl/game	TO/Game	OppTO/Game
IWU	11	16.1	20.4
Hope	15.7	14.4	25.8
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Ball Control	Asst/game	A/TO	Blks/game
IWU	16.4	1.02	4.1
Hope	15	1.04	4.3
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	vRRO	In-Div SOS	Massey Predicts
IWU	3- 6	0.582	56
Hope	6 - 0	0.557	75

[GoPerry]

Hope's Coach Morehouse on playing IWU:

"They play incredibly hard," Morehouse said. "They're a tough matchup because they play probably three point guards in their starting lineup, and they can all score it. I think in their league final, they had one kid with 26 (points) and one kid with 25. So they're very, very talented. The (Sosa) kid is one of the better players in the United States."

Kendall Sosa should receive plenty of AA consideration.  To me it's been somewhat amazing her emergence as a scorer this season which really came out of nowhere imho.  To wit:

2017-18:   13.0 mins/g; 55/144  38.2% FG;  23/59  38.9%   3FG; 40/45 89.1% FT;      6.0 pts/g
2018-17:   17.4 mins/g: 80/184  43.5% FG;  39/91  40.7%   3FG; 50/63 79.4% FT;      9.1 pts/g
2019-20:   31.5 mins/g: 206/447 46.1% FG: 71/183 38.8%  3FG: 102/120 85.0% FT:   20.9 pts/g *led the CCIW, unanimous First Team

Before the season began I'm not even sure green-eyed fans would've predicted this magnitude of production increase.  She was not on the All-Conference team last season but was a legit contender for MOP this season and you rarely see that.

It will be very interesting to see how HOPE handles IWU's pressure and pace. 

IWU'70

I've not seen Hope play much but a 28-0 team of their pedigree is just not going to have trouble breaking a press . . .

An X-factor tonight could be Sam Munroe who was very quiet vs Berea with only 4 pts on 6 shot attempts.  She didn't have to do much vs the Mountaineers but she is capable of much more offensive production.  -- ** a week ago @ Wheaton, 9-20 FG, 7-10 3FG, 26 pts

Save for Trine, Hope has not really been challenged much all year.

IWU'70

What???  Trine is good; a likely Sweet 16 team - and they beat them three times, home and away.  And three other  RR wins vs Ben U(crush by 46), Hanover(similar crush by 50), and North Park(not a crush but won handily by 17).

But you're right. Despite going undefeated with a .557 SOS and 6-0 vRRo, they haven't been challenged at all . . .

[pointlem]

Hope's Coach Morehouse on playing IWU:

"They play incredibly hard," Morehouse said. "They're a tough matchup because they play probably three point guards in their starting lineup, and they can all score it. I think in their league final, they had one kid with 26 (points) and one kid with 25. So they're very, very talented. The (Sosa) kid is one of the better players in the United States."

Kendall Sosa should receive plenty of AA consideration.  To me it's been somewhat amazing her emergence as a scorer this season which really came out of nowhere imho.  To wit:

2017-18:   13.0 mins/g; 55/144  38.2% FG;  23/59  38.9%   3FG; 40/45 89.1% FT;      6.0 pts/g
2018-17:   17.4 mins/g: 80/184  43.5% FG;  39/91  40.7%   3FG; 50/63 79.4% FT;      9.1 pts/g
2019-20:   31.5 mins/g: 206/447 46.1% FG: 71/183 38.8%  3FG: 102/120 85.0% FT:   20.9 pts/g *led the CCIW, unanimous First Team

Before the season began I'm not even sure green-eyed fans would've predicted this magnitude of production increase.  She was not on the All-Conference team last season but was a legit contender for MOP this season and you rarely see that.

Kendall Sosa sure looked like an all-American last night . . . very impressive player, inside and out.

[Gregory Sager]

Hope's Coach Morehouse on playing IWU:

"They play incredibly hard," Morehouse said. "They're a tough matchup because they play probably three point guards in their starting lineup, and they can all score it. I think in their league final, they had one kid with 26 (points) and one kid with 25. So they're very, very talented. The (Sosa) kid is one of the better players in the United States."

Kendall Sosa should receive plenty of AA consideration.  To me it's been somewhat amazing her emergence as a scorer this season which really came out of nowhere imho.  To wit:

2017-18:   13.0 mins/g; 55/144  38.2% FG;  23/59  38.9%   3FG; 40/45 89.1% FT;      6.0 pts/g
2018-17:   17.4 mins/g: 80/184  43.5% FG;  39/91  40.7%   3FG; 50/63 79.4% FT;      9.1 pts/g
2019-20:   31.5 mins/g: 206/447 46.1% FG: 71/183 38.8%  3FG: 102/120 85.0% FT:   20.9 pts/g *led the CCIW, unanimous First Team

Before the season began I'm not even sure green-eyed fans would've predicted this magnitude of production increase.  She was not on the All-Conference team last season but was a legit contender for MOP this season and you rarely see that.

It will be very interesting to see how HOPE handles IWU's pressure and pace. 

IWU'70

I've not seen Hope play much but a 28-0 team of their pedigree is just not going to have trouble breaking a press . . .

An X-factor tonight could be Sam Munroe who was very quiet vs Berea with only 4 pts on 6 shot attempts.  She didn't have to do much vs the Mountaineers but she is capable of much more offensive production.  -- ** a week ago @ Wheaton, 9-20 FG, 7-10 3FG, 26 pts

Save for Trine, Hope has not really been challenged much all year.

IWU'70

What???  Trine is good; a likely Sweet 16 team - and they beat them three times, home and away.  And three other  RR wins vs Ben U(crush by 46), Hanover(similar crush by 50), and North Park(not a crush but won handily by 17).

But you're right. Despite going undefeated with a .557 SOS and 6-0 vRRo, they haven't been challenged at all . . .

Massey has Hope's SoS as 23rd in the nation.

"Hope has not really been challenged much all year," indeed.

[Gregory Sager]

What???  Trine is good; a likely Sweet 16 team - and they beat them three times, home and away.  And three other  RR wins vs Ben U(crush by 46), Hanover(similar crush by 50), and North Park(not a crush but won handily by 17).

I remember being disappointed that NPU only scored 45 points in that loss on December 18. Little did I know that Hope would on average end up holding its opponents to almost three fewer points this season than the Vikings scored against them -- and that, at the other end of the floor, North Park would hold the Dutch to what ended up being almost 14 points below their season average.

[Roundball999]

With Hope this year, it's all about the defense; even the offense is about the defense.  Just looking at the offense, sometimes it's not that polished and they don't shoot for a particularly high percentage.  But they still shoot it 12% better than opponents on average.  On top of that, due to offensive rebounding and large positive turnover margin they've gotten 30% more shots (!) than opponents on average.  Makes up for a lot of sins on offense.

[Dutchfan]

You've got to be good to be 25-2. Sure, you might play an easy schedule, and in a good conference you might be something like 20-7 or, dare I say.... 19-8. But you still have to be good to be 25-2 in any conference.

Hope just decimated a 25-2 team by 51 points.

In fact, only once in the last four be tournaments has a team held their opponent to less than 20 points. Two years ago Amherst opened the tournament with a 61-12 victory over Becker.

[GoPerry]

With Hope this year, it's all about the defense; even the offense is about the defense.  Just looking at the offense, sometimes it's not that polished and they don't shoot for a particularly high percentage.  But they still shoot it 12% better than opponents on average.  On top of that, due to offensive rebounding and large positive turnover margin they've gotten 30% more shots (!) than opponents on average.  Makes up for a lot of sins on offense.

Hmm . . so maybe IWU should be worried about succumbing to the Flying Dutch pressure. . .

I'm looking forward to seeing how Hope defends the screen/roll which IWU runs quite frequently and very well.  Expecting a pretty close game - closer than the Massey 19 pt spread.

[Roundball999]

With Hope this year, it's all about the defense; even the offense is about the defense.  Just looking at the offense, sometimes it's not that polished and they don't shoot for a particularly high percentage.  But they still shoot it 12% better than opponents on average.  On top of that, due to offensive rebounding and large positive turnover margin they've gotten 30% more shots (!) than opponents on average.  Makes up for a lot of sins on offense.

Hmm . . so maybe IWU should be worried about succumbing to the Flying Dutch pressure. . .

I'm looking forward to seeing how Hope defends the screen/roll which IWU runs quite frequently and very well.  Expecting a pretty close game - closer than the Massey 19 pt spread.

Both teams play pressure defense very well, Hope is just mostly out of it's set half court defense.  They're both well coached so while a few more turnovers than normal might be expected, they'll probably both adjust.  I agree, I think it'll be much closer than Massey predicts.  Not sure Massey takes into account when a teams appears to be peaking like IWU.

In any case, good luck to all the young ladies.  I hope they can look back on their seasons with pride even though one team will end with a loss.

[RogK]

Roundball999, your last two sentences express kind-hearted sediments!

[Enginerd]

Hope is ridiculously talented - even without one of their best players whom I believe they lost for the remainder of the season back in January. IWU is very talented as well and I honestly feel like they are a threat to win 2-3 games in the tournament every year.

Hope ought to be embarrassed that they can put that much talent on an NCAA Division III floor. I'll bet every kid on their bench and virtually all their JV players would be starters on most good D-III teams - and their kids that actually play would be contributors for any D-II program (and some of them, D-I's) in the Midwest. Having a Hall of Fame coach doesn't hurt, either.

Having said that, though, you still have to play 40 (or more) minutes, and if anyone in this quadrant has any hope (no pun intended) of taking them out, you could do a lot worse than picking the Titans tonight.

[Roundball999]

Roundball999, your last two sentences express kind-hearted sediments!

I tend to be sedimentary

Seriously, as rabid and competitive as the players and we fans can be, they are our daughters and friends and I hate to see any of them upset.  The good news is they tend to recover quickly.

[Dutchfan]

Well, we're about to get a definitive conclusion to the debate about Hope and Illinois Wesleyan.

[Mr. Ypsi]

After 1 Q, IWU 18, Hope 16.  Sosa already has 10 pts!!

[iwu70]

Go TITANS.  Keep the pace up, rebound the ball!   '70