Hope 96 Aurora 85

Box Score

Hope started Overway, Seiler, Eidson, Byers, Benson for the second straight game.  Snuggerud, DeMaagd, Gardner and Wittenbach grabbed between 10-15 minutes each, Neil and VanArendonk  a little less.  Wittenbach played his most minutes since returning from his injury, his hair was perfect, and he played just fine, thanks.  This is exactly how I thought this team would look 10 weeks ago.  Unicorns are also real.

Game Recap:

Rocks from various Michigan beaches.

The pile of rocks you see sits on my desk, they've been collected gradually over the last maybe two years.  They come from various beaches along our coastlines from Pt. Betsie all the way to the Lake Superior shoreline.  I can't leave one of those beaches without taking a rock, its like a tangible little reminder of places I've been.  Plus the geologic nerd in me just thinks they're cool.

There's nothing particularly special about these rocks until you give them a chance to shine.

Purely coincidence my hand looks like the Upper Peninsula of Michigan

Alex Eidson is a rock.

I don't live in West Michigan anymore so the name Alex Eidson really didn't mean anything to me and when it was learned he would attend Hope I sought out opinions on what people thought of him.  They ranged from he'll be a star to he'll never play for Hope and everything in between.  So for me the usual sources of knowledge were not so helpful.

When I first saw Alex back in the November scrimmage I was kind of sort of convinced he could help the team, if they had room.  I really figured he'd be a JV guy and this is where you understand how terrible I am at evaluating individual talent.  Due to injuries and some ineffective play, Alex was given a chance and like my metaphor suggests, he's shined.

I certainly never thought he'd be starting this year or that by game 11 of his career he'd set the bar on his career high scoring at 26 points.  But here we are.  At halftime I probably looked up at the scoreboard and saw he had 11 and thought he was playing well.  Then he came out the second half and scored 11 more points in the first four minutes giving Hope its biggest second half lead at 11.  Its not going to be like that every night, but it was sure fun to watch last night.

That 11 point lead sort of dwindled as the half progressed eventually leading to only 1 point with a couple minutes to play.  Hope was able to  make a couple defensive stops, convert them into points and pull away to an 11 point victory in what I think was a really entertaining game.  It was a good win against a pretty good team that will probably make a strong push to win the NathCon and make the NCAA Tournament. 


Yep I really did write a game review using rocks.  Why?  Because I have no clue what to think about where this Hope team is right now or what to write about this game.


Attendance was 2,915.  That's about 2,800 more than any game I watched on video over this Christmas break.  Geez we have it good.  Hope fans are a well schooled basketball knowledgeable crowd but last night it was kind of quiet and uneasy in DeVos. I think Hope fans are being pretty patient with this group as they should be.  This might be one of those weird seasons where when its over you think it was the best roller coaster you've ever been on or you just never quite get what you thought you might.   The basketball cortex of my brain kind of tingles at that thought, but that might be nausea.  Either way, hang on!

The 2/3 guard.   Back in the first week of the season I told a former MIAA coach that I thought Hope's season would hinge on how well the 2/3 guard position developed and that it might be a problem all year.  The front-line was going to have to carry the team.   Pure comedy now.  Hope's frontline is in total flux, save for Brock Benson who would be my rock metaphor if not for Eidson.  So here we are on the doorstep of another MIAA season and Hope's front-line is now the bigger question mark.  I'm just not sure what Hope has going here.  This roller coaster has loopdy loops.

If you can remember the last time 2 Hope Freshmen led the team in scoring and set career highs on the same night, congratulations on not being dead.   I would actually be shocked if this had ever happened but I really have no idea.

Hope averted its first 4 game losing streak since 1979.   Whoah!


Scoring and Interesting Stats:

I don't think anything is more interesting than a team going 29-35 from the FT line 9 days after going 6-17.  More hair pulling, but thanks for making them last night.

3 Point shooting:  Funny but my inner thought process during the game was telling me Hope was having the better night shooting the 3 ball, when in-fact Aurora shot it better and Hope missed twice as many as they made.  7 for each was a wash.

Turnovers:  26 for Aurora, 20 for Hope.  Even with the high number of possessions probably a touch high for both teams.  Hope's scoring advantage off the turnovers was only 4.

Alex Eidson 26 points.....in 27 minutes, Career high.

Brock Benson 17 points.......almost a perfect night 6-6 from the floor, 5-6 from the line.  Career high.

Steve Wittenbach 13 points.......looked good, most he's played so far.  Very encouraging.

Colton Overway 10 points, 6 assists.......kind of an off-night until the end, difficult defensive assignment, difficult defender on him........but came up with 6 important points in the games final plays.



Efficiency:

Estimated Number of Possessions:  Hope 82  Aurora 88

Yeah, it was a lot.  The difference here is in the FT's and is math related.  40 more trips up and down the floor than the IWU game.

Offensive Efficiency:  117.61

This is Hope's best non-College of Faith game performance of the season.  Hope did a nice job working the ball low, frequently rewarded with points or trips to the foul line.  For all my gripes about the defense lately its actually been the offense that's let them down in 4 of their losses.


Defensive Efficiency:  96.98

I really didn't expect something this low.  Aurora came into this game somewhere around 109 on offense.  It was just a little bit harder for Aurora to score and that ended up being the difference.   Also the constant jump shots vs fewer layups helped this number.


Rebounding Efficiency:

Hope:  51.6% of available offensive rebounds
Aurora:  41.2% of available offensive rebounds

Its a nice advantage that turned into a 23-13 points advantage to Hope.


Moments or Keys to the Game:

Hope jumped to an early 11-2 lead, nice to see after the tough losses in Florida.  I thought it set a nice tone for the night.

Alex Eidson scoring 11 points in the first 4 minutes of the second half gave Hope an 11 point lead.

With the game down to 1 point, Hope scored points on its final 6 trips on offense to pull away while forcing Aurora into a couple costly turnovers on defense and allowing only 1 FG.  12-2 game ending run.


My gameball goes to:

On any other night I probably would have given this to Caleb Byers who seemed to be hustling and fighting for rebounds and loose balls better than anyone.  Can't ignore a Fr. going for 26 though, Alex Eidson it is.

I feel like I've ignored Brock Benson's great night.

Standings
Overway - 3
Eidson - 2
Byers - 1
DeMaagd - 1   
VanArendonk - 1 
Seiler - 1 
Snuggerud - 1  


Going Forward:

Sometimes teams just need to have something positive happen for them in order to turn corners.  Maybe Hope did last night, maybe not.  But given the choice between entering conference play on a loss or a win, I'd take the win every time.

Hope opens with Alma next Thursday, in what will be a very similar style of game I imagine.  Probably good to assume the squad and minutes distribution from last night will be pretty close to what we'll see next week.  Steve Wittenbach's return was welcomed and his absence mattered and in a weird way it opened the door for Alex Eidson to step through.   Now he's battling Eidson for minutes, because of course he is.

The MIAA season should be an interesting one, we may even see something historical.  The real question as far as Hope is concerned is will we see Hope compete for the title.  Right now we're banking on the difficult schedule  (and it was a little crazy kind of difficult) paying dividends and this team finding itself in the middle of a conference title race.  Hard thing to do.


Up Next:   Me vs New Year's Day football watching, junk food induced coma.  Beat the Cocks!
Thursday Jan 3:  Alma at Hope

Illinois Wesleyan 68 Hope 67

Box Score

Hope started Overway, Seiler, Eidson, Byers, Benson.  Bench minutes fairly spread out among the team.   Ten games into a season its takes some guts to shake up  a starting five in a game probably most of the players and fans have had circled on the calender since last spring.  In a text I called it balls of steel but I won't go there.   This would be a bigger issue with other teams that have had strong consistent play, but Hope hasn't been that, they've been inconsistent in production all year.  Whether it was injury or production induced it was trying to give his team a kick in the pants and for 23 minutes Matt Neil got that.

I liked it, wondered myself at what point it would happen, and it did.   Ten different players have now started a game, I'd wager money that's more than probably 95% of D3.


Game Recap:

If you had a chance to follow the previous days two games in Orlando you probably weren't expecting much of a contest on Saturday.  When last I wrote the Dutchmen had lost a very disappointing game with a Mississippi College team I was at least willing to give some credit (or just praying) for being athletic and maybe a sleeper, underachieving team.  IWU put that to rest in 20 minutes on Friday when they led that same team 44-9 at halftime.

Because the basketball universe is a strange and confusing place sometimes it made perfect sense that Hope would lead a good Illinois Wesleyan team in the first half, most of it by double-digits.   Whatever spark Matt Neil was trying to generate his team certainly responded as Hope rode a wave of outstanding early shooting and good defense.

Early in the second half that lead hit 18 points and then the Dutchmen hit a wall.  That wall was likely clad in green playing better defense and for the remaining 17 minutes of the game scoring was difficult.  For the next 11 minutes Hope made one FG and that lead dwindled to a deficit of 1 before Caleb Byers scored the next FG to put Hope back up by 1 with 5:49 to play.  That was their last lead.

There are always two teams on a court and in about 15 stunning minutes IWU turned around an 18 point deficit to lead by 5.  When they needed a big shot to beat the shot clock in the last 2 minutes, they got it, when they needed a big defensive play on the games final play, they got it.  Its the difference between one team winning and losing.  Sometimes you make your own breaks.

So yeah, the dream match-up that didn't take place in Salem, Virginia in 1996 has taken place twice in 9 months.   Double overtime thriller and 1 point game decided on the final play.



Hope's played what is likely the CCIW's top 3 teams, they lost by 11, 4 and 1, none at home.  None with a healthy team.  If there's one thing you can say its that this Hope team has competed well with some very good teams.  Winning is better of course but sometimes taking your lumps isn't such a bad thing either.  Moral victories suck though.

I think so far the Hope season can be summed up best by saying they've played to the level of their competition in each game except Carthage.  Great when you're playing the Wheaton's and IWU's of the world not so good against the Mississippi and Spring Arbor's.   That of course isn't the best thing but its just what teams still trying to find themselves do.  I hate it as much as anyone that 10 games in that's still the case but when you have a team full of equals that aren't separating themselves from each other its kind of what you get.

Eventually you hope things calm down a little and they start finding roles and comfort levels that make them a better team.  The relevant time remaining in 'eventually' is getting shorter.



Scoring and Interesting Stats:

Sticking out like a sore thumb in this one was Illinois Wesleyan's 59% Fg shooting in the second half.  This is one of those grey areas that's difficult to know if it was good offense or bad defense without seeing it first hand.  Past history and all, yeah I'm probably playing that poor defense harp again.

Rebounding:   Illinois Wesleyan dominated the glass, especially in the second half.  Its one of those weird things because as you'll see in a minute it probably didn't matter that much.


Colton Overway  22 points and a really excellent day from behind the arc, 4-5

Caleb Byers  16 points, 5 rebounds........in the absence of  Nate Snuggerud, Caleb came up with big points.



Efficiency:

Estimated number of possessions:   Hope 68  IWU 64

About the pace I would have expected.  The difference of 4 is most likely splitting the difference between turnovers and offensive rebounds.  (possession math isn't that simple though)


Offensive Efficiency:   97.95

A tale of two halves really, Hope was scoring at a 115 rate in the first half (actually over 150 in the first 10 minutes), only 83 in the second.  The long, long stretch of made fg desert in the second killed what was really a pretty good performance against a good defensive team.


Defensive Efficiency:   105.67

A tale of two halves really, IWU was scoring at a rate of 85 in the first half, only 126 in the second.  Basically argh defensive inconsistency.  IWU came into this one kind of struggling at 99 on the season, so once again a team outperforms their season avg.


Rebounding Efficiency:
Hope:  22% of available offensive rebounds
IWU:  45% of available offensive rebounds

Hope pretty much was mauled on the boards.  Here's the kicker, Hope had more second chance points 14-6.   This is either terrible book-keeping or a blatant lie more seriously Hope's probably lucky IWU didn't cash in on this advantage more.  This is one area of the game that makes little sense.



Moments or Plays of the Game:

The defining moment of the game was the nearly 12 minutes of second half Hope went with just 1 FG made.  That turned the whole thing around

1:18 IWU's Dylan Overstreet hit what was described as a kind of prayer 3 as the shot-clock expired, that gave IWU a 5 point lead.  Given the final score, huge.

The wild twist and turns this game took ended with a one-on-one play for the win.  Colton Overway's last shot to win was blocked and IWU took the win.


My gameball goes to:

I deferred to someone in attendance at the game.  "Colton Overway, hands down".  So there you go.

Standings
Overway - 3
Byers - 1
DeMaagd - 1   
VanArendonk - 1 
Seiler - 1 
Snuggerud - 1  
Eidson - 1


Going Forward:

Hope's off until next Saturday when they host Aurora then its a headlong dive right into the MIAA season.  Right now Aurora's probably a better team than Hope so they'll have their hands full again.

Obviously those who care to will probably focus on the health of Hope's Nate Snuggerud and my answer is I have no answer.  I know probably as much as everyone else, at some point Coach Neil will have to speak about it or he may not at all.  You can only play the cards you're dealt, right now I bet Hope wished they'd quit shuffling the deck before every game.  

At this point Hope's 3-6 not counting the Faith game, in that are 4 losses to really good teams that will likely be playing or in the hunt for post-season basketball.  Two other losses to teams they probably should have beaten and 3 wins against Aquinas, Covenant and Carthage.  It is what it is and really you can only hope playing such a challenging schedule pays dividends at some point latter down the road.  That's a road quickly approaching.


Up Next:   Fat man in red suit vs gun toting Americans
Saturday Dec 29:  vs Aurora at DeVos Fieldhouse......the colder less sunny playground. 

Mississippi College 83 Hope 72

Box Score

Hope started Overway, Seiler, DeMaagd, Snuggerud, Van Arendonk.  Alex Eidson and Brock Benson grabbed the majority of the bench minutes.  Chris Ray logged the next most from a group of 7 others that felt like a grab bag of substitutions, once again my theory is grasping for defense.  Grant Neil and Steven Whittenbach both played their first minutes returning from injuries. 

Game Recap:

I didn't do a preview of this weekend because until very early Thursday afternoon the idea of the Mayan Calender thingy being real and ending life on Earth was preferable to having to deal with another day or two of a severe cold.  Writing anything just wasn't going to happen.  Had I done a preview I would have written something about how  I didn't really know what to think of Mississippi College because they are transitioning to D2,  have 20 some players on their roster who've spent time at other College's or Junior Colleges, yet despite that were just 4-4 on the season against a pretty 'meh' schedule.

I've had two previous experiences with Miss. College, both in the NCAA Tournament.  Both times they showed some good athleticism and quickness and it would have been right to assume the same would apply to this years Miss. College team.   Those two other times bigger, stronger, more physical mid-western teams were able to counter that advantage by playing good tough defense.  To this point Hope has not really shown they can be that kind of defensive team and thus my main worry would have been having a difficult time stopping the Choctaws.

I hate not being able to see these games and truthfully hate even more the idea of trying to recap a game almost completely in the blind.  But, for tonight, when the radio guy keeps saying athletic, people texting you saying athletic and you keep seeing 'layup good' in the livestats you start to kind of put it together that Hope was having difficulty with a more athletic team.

The first half of this thing was pretty brutal for Hope and if weren't for Alex Eidson's 13 points and 4 three's off the bench this one could have been pretty ugly.  The starting 5 was nearly absent from the stat sheet and its a small miracle Hope was within 4 at the break.  Early in the second, Hope turned it around somewhat and grabbed a brief 5 point lead.  It was tight for a few minutes before the Choctaws rolled off 15 points in a row to seize the game.   The last 6 minutes played out as set of desperate attempts to get back into a game that wasn't going to happen.

These games are tough to figure out, for all I know Mississippi College is the best team Hope's played this year, but there's little evidence to support that.  We'll see how their match-up with Illinois Wesleyan goes and maybe they'll put together a good streak of wins and challenge for their conference.  But this was a program that went 9-16 last year, was just 4-4 this year and was picked 3rd in their conference division or 5th overall in a 14 team league.


Small World:  A conversation with my neighbor a couple weeks ago revealed she was born and raised in Mississippi and a Choctaw Indian.  I didn't get into the whole D3 basketball angle on this but needless to say I was bit thrown by that revelation.


Scoring and Interesting Stats

Turnovers:   This was one of the few things Hope did well on the night, just 12 in a high possession game.

Free-throw shooting:  Terrible!  Team FT shooting is always a product of who gets to the line but for a college team to not even stay above 50% is just pretty pathetic.  Miss College is a 66% FT team and shot 65% for the game, Hope is a 66% FT team and went 6-19, shoot the avg and that's 6 more points.  Six points is the difference between being down 9 with 4 minutes to play and being down 3 with 4 minutes.  Its huge.  Unfortunately this just isn't going to get better.

I did have to chuckle somewhat when the Choctaws were themselves just 8-17 on the day and proceeded to nail 11 of 12 in the critical last few minutes.  Kind of how it goes when you lose games.


Alex Eidson  18 points........the good story continues.  Kept Hope in touch at the break.

Billy Seiler  15 points, 3 rebounds, 3 steals......I believe he had a double-digit second half.

Coltan Overway  10 points, 9 assists, 5 rebounds.......take it every day of the week. 

You may notice a complete lack of big-men, I'm sure Coach Neil notices as well.

Efficiency:  

 

Estimated Number of Possessions:   Hope 77  Miss. College 77 

High possession game, it was noted numerous times on the radio call that Miss pushed the ball quickly up the floor.  This is not usually a pace that bothers Hope teams but Hope got almost nothing in transition themselves.

Offensive Efficiency:   93.48

This is Hope's second lowest offensive number of the season, a good chunk of this is from the last desperate few minutes and a better chunk is from the first 4 or 5 minutes of the game.  However most of the negative impact came from a 5 minute stretch late in the game with 9 straight missed shots.   Rust from the layoff, lack of transition points, lack of interior play.  Take your pick.

Defensive Efficiency:  108.11

Nearly identical to the SAU game, and also nearly identical is that's higher than Miss. College's season performance to date.  Four out of Hope's 5 losses their opponent has scored better than their season average and truthfully Covenant and Aquinas probably did as well.   Hope's doing a nice job making teams look good.  The first half was a pretty poor 127.69.

 
Rebounding Efficiency: 
Hope:  37.8% of available offensive rebounds
Miss. Coll:  48.1% of available offensive rebounds

On their own board that's around average, obviously it could have been a little better at the other end.  A similar average for the Choctaws would have been just 3 less offensive rebounds though.  The second chance points difference was +7 to Miss. College.  Between this and FT shooting you're probably allowed to tear your hair out.

Moments or Plays of the Game:

Early in the second half just moments after Hope had taken their first lead Miss. College called timeout and came back with the next 6 points of the game.  It was one of the moments that stopped some momentum and maybe prevented a big Hope run.

about 11 minutes to 6 minutes to play Hope missed 9 straight shots while Mississippi rolled off 15 straight points to seize control of the game.  Amazingly seven different guys missed shots. Ultimately this was the deciding stretch.

My game ball goes to: 

Alex Eidson's first half performance was enough to keep Hope in touch otherwise this one could have turned really ugly. 

Standings
Overway - 2
Byers - 1
DeMaagd - 1   
VanArendonk - 1 
Seiler - 1 
Snuggerud - 1  
Eidson - 1

Going Forward :

This one feels a lot like the Spring Arbor loss only this one hurts more because of the in-region aspect.  Hope's now 1-3 in-region with one more non-conference in-region game to go.  The margin for error was slim and got slimmer.  This probably isn't a team that's getting in the NCAA's without the auto-bid and the NCAA's should be the furthest thing from Hope's mind. 

These games with teams from far off lands are just hard to digest.  There's no comparison, no previous knowledge to go on.  You can say things like athletic, quick etc. but in the end 5-4 is sometimes just 5-4 and Hope lost to one of those.  Miss. College might go on and have a great season or they might just muddle around at .500 either way its a loss.  The light might not shine on this one until much latter in the year.  

Friday's match-up with MC/IWU might be a nice comparison and certainly Hope fans will keep an eye on it.  But, Saturday will be a much different type of game.  More physical, probably slower and one where the front-line needs to step up and perform.  IWU in the sights coming off a game where the front-line was mostly m.i.a is not a good place to be.  This is a precarious place the Dutchmen have put themselves, they'll need a big effort Saturday.

Defensively this is feeling a lot like the 2011 squad, it was about 3 games into the MIAA season before that team finally started turning the defensive screws.  I'd prefer this team doesn't wait that long.


Up Next:   All of Us  vs The Mayan Calender
Saturday:  Hope vs Illinois Wesleyan, 3pm  Orlando, Florida

  

Weeks in Review: Week 4 and 5

 MIAA

It was a lite couple of weeks as schools waded through exam season.  For these two weeks the MIAA went 9-7 overall and an even 5-5 in those important in-region games.  No real marquee wins or even match-ups but the two weeks gave us a nice three-way scores comparison between Olivet/Hope/Alma vs Spring Arbor.

Spring Arbor 71 Olivet 69
Spring Arbor 77 Hope 73 OT
Alma 74 Spring Arbor 69 OT

What it means, I don't know as Spring Arbor is an odd animal playing a mostly 4 guard offense.  As we move closer to January though its becoming clearer to me that playing on the road in the league this year could be very tricky.

 

	Wk 1		Wk 2/3		Wk 4/5		Totals
OAC	1 – 2		3 – 2		0 – 0		4 – 4
NCAC	1 – 1		1 – 0		2 – 1		4 – 2
PAC	0 – 1		0 – 0		0 – 1		0 – 2
HCAC	1 – 1		5 – 3		0 – 2		6 – 6
CCIW	1 – 2		2 – 5		1 – 0		4 – 7
other D3	0 – 0		1 – 1		2 – 1		3 – 2
NAIA	0 – 0		9 – 1		4 – 2		13 – 3
other	2 – 0		0 – 0		0 – 0		2 – 0
D1	0 – 1		0 – 0		0 – 0		0 – 1
OVERALL	6 – 8		21 – 12		9 – 7		36 – 27
In-region	4 – 6		12 – 8		5 – 5		21 – 19

Still not counting Hope/College of Faith.  With a little over 20 games to complete the non-conference portion of the season the league only needs 8 more wins to clinch a .500 record.  I don't want to say its in the bag because its not but I feel good we'll get there..  The question is still the in-region record with some very key games coming in the near future, I was confident this finishes above .500 but its not a guarantee anymore.


Adrian  7-0

The most significant thing Adrian did over these two weeks was move up to #14 in the D3hoops.com poll.  It will take losses from the teams above them but it seems like there's a small chance they could crack the top 10 by the open of MIAA play.  The most serious threat coming is probably 5-5 Defiance which won't help them in the polls.

This Week:  vs Northwestern Ohio, @ Lawrence Tech
Next Week:  vs Mt. Union at Defiance, vs Finlandia or Defiance at Defiance


Albion  3-4

Kenyon 70 Albion 65

This was really the only disappointing result of the two weeks in the in-region game category.  Kenyon seems like they're going to have a middle of the NCAC or better kind of year, this would have been a nice win to have.  I considered this one a toss-up and it looks like it was.

Albion's roster changed over the weekend, they get Chris Hutton back but lose 3 others.  Not good, this certainly changes my outlook for Albion, a lot.    This isn't going to be the easiest stretch of games for this team.

This Week:  vs North Park, @ Spring Arbor
Next Week:  vs Chicago and vs Case Western @ Case Western


Alma  4-4

Alma 71  Oberlin 57
Alma 74  Spring Arbor 69 OT

Alma's won two now on the season I didn't think they'd win.   In the pre-season schedule review I said if they reached 6 wins we should take notice.  Just two more to go.  I've watched Alma twice on video now and they look like they're going to be a little tricky, most likely at home.

The next two weeks Alma has what looks to me like 3 challenging games for them.  So far they've looked a little improved over last year which is really not what most of us were probably expecting. 

This Week:  @  Cornerstone
Next Week:  vs Case Western and vs Chicago  @ Case Western


Calvin  7-2

Calvin 103  Finlandia 62

If you're going to make a 10 hour drive in December to Hancock, MI you might as well win by 41.  (Bonus Trivia, US-41 runs through Hancock...also Miami)  Calvin did what they had to do in what is mostly a meaningless game, except for the in-region stuff which now puts Calvin at 3-0 and in pretty good shape to be considered an at-large provided they don't mess up the MIAA.

Wabash is the next opponent and will give us a nice comparison with Trine and Albion.

This Week:  No Games
Next Week:  vs Wabash and vs Ripon or Elmhurst @ Elmhurst


Hope  3-4

Hope 87  Covenant 73
Spring Arbor 77  Hope 73  OT

Well that weekend certainly provided lots of evidence Hope's still very much a work in progress.  The key was getting the in-region win against Covenant which puts Hope at 1-2, this is still salvageable provided they win vs Miss College and Aurora, but honestly NCAA bids should be the last thing Hope worries about right now.

Hope heads to Orlando this week for what should be two challenging games, times running out for Hope to get it together for the MIAA run.

This Week:  vs Mississippi College and vs Illinois Wesleyan in Orlando, FL
Next Week:  vs Aurora


Kalamazoo  2-6

Bluffton 73  Kalamazoo 65
Case Western 82  Kalamazoo 53
Defiance 72  Kalamazoo 64

The Hornets have dropped 5 in a row now after a promising 2-1 start.  They've been in every game but two so far.  Mark Ghafari has been putting up All-MIAA type numbers as a bright spot for the Hornets.

This is looking like a pretty tough year in Kalamazoo.

This Week:  @  DePauw,  vs York, Pa. and vs Knox or Rhodes  @ Rhodes
Next Week:  No games


Olivet  4-5

Spring Arbor 71 Olivet 69
Olivet 95  Illinois Tech 47
Olivet 73  Lawrence Tech 57
Bethany 63  Olivet 59

Olivet could should have won all 4 of these games.   Suspicious schedule strength or not the Comets have looked much better than it looked like they might after last spring.  They'll still have an awful lot of trouble with the bigger more athletic teams in the league but I don't think they'll fold too often.

Garner Small continues to impress and his mere presence has made them a team you have to pay attention to on defense.

This Week:  @  Baldwin-Wallace
Next Week:  vs Marygrove at The Palace


Trine  6-2

Trine 77  Wabash 69
Trine 70  North Park 57
Trine 82  Mt. Vernon Nazarene 65

The team no one's talking about but maybe should.  Trine hasn't played the toughest schedule but they've performed well.  Lots of evidence this is a good offensive team if a bit dependent on Ian Jackson.  But so far Jackson is living up to his MVP credentials averaging over 26 points and shooting a stellar 53% from the floor.

Trine just doesn't turn the ball over, this may be the only team I've ever seen with 1/2 the total turnovers of their opponents. 

This Week:  @  Franklin
Next Week:  vs Penn State-Behrend and vs MSOE or Otterbein @  Otterbein


Some key games ahead with Hope's two games down in Florida certainly a highlight, but if I picked a couple that are really going to impact the w/l's and in-region records its Alma and Albion's trip to Cleveland to play Chicago and Case Western.  Chicago isn't in-region for Alma but 3 of those games that weekend are, a bad weekend here could spell doom for over .500 in-region record push.  I kind of see those games as 50/50's or maybe even underdogs for the MIAA schools.   I also like Trine's trip to Franklin this week, these two schools have played close games in the recent past.

In something that goes against most years, should Cornerstone beat Alma this week it would double the number of wins for the WHAC over the MIAA to two.  Right now the MIAA leads 7-1 and it should get to 10.  I attribute this mostly to good scheduling (or bad) as most of these wins are coming against the bottom 3 or 4 teams from the WHAC. 


In-Region Analysis
Boy this is going to be close, I count 13 in-region games remaining with the possibility of two more from tournaments.  I have most of these games tabbed at 50/50's, the league probably has to win 4 of those.  At 21-19 we need to see 6 or 7 wins to assure an above .500 record which would make it much easier to get two teams in the NCAA's.  Figuring very conservatively I have 3 or 4 the league should win meaning we need to find 4 more.  Albion's roster changes really throw a monkey wrench into things, I don't know how this is going to finish.

Here are the remaining in-region games: bold = wins, italic = 50/50, normal is either a loss or a game I'm just not sure about

Trine @ Franklin
Olivet @ Baldwin-Wallace
North Park @ Albion
Kalamazoo @ DePauw
Miss. College vs Hope
Kalamazoo @ Rhodes    * If its played
PSU-Behrend vs Trine
Albion vs Chicago
Alma @ Case Western
Calvin vs Wabash
Trine @ Otterbein  *If its played
Mt. Union vs Adrian
Albion vs Case Western
Aurora @ Hope
Adrian vs Defiance or Finlandia

The Neighbors

Ohio Athletic Conference 

The OAC played only 3 non-conference games these last two weeks going a perfect 3-0.  The highlight being Otterbein beating Wittenberg 3 days after Witt had been clobbered by Wooster.  The wins take the league to 25-28 with 15 more non-conference games to play, a quick glance shows the match-ups might be a little more in the OAC's favor.

	Wk 1		Wk 2/3		Wk 4/5		Totals
NCAC	0 – 2		1 – 8		2 – 0		3 – 10
PAC	2 – 4		1 – 3		0 – 0		3 – 7
MIAA	2 – 1		2 – 3		0 – 0		4 – 4
Overall	10 – 9		12 – 19		3 – 0		25 – 28
In-region	5 – 8		10 – 16		3 – 0		18 – 24

League play is well under way now and Capital probably took an early seat at the wheel with two key wins over John Carroll and Baldwin-Wallace.  Both of those teams already have two losses so its an uphill climb for them already.  Marietta won its first three games and its looking they and Capital could probably have at least a two game lead when they meet on Jan. 16.  

Early Standings
Capital       4-0
Marietta     3-0
Mt. Union  3-1
Ohio No.    2-1 

North Coast Athletic Conference

The NCAC went 6-5 over these two weeks with Wittenberg losing to Otterbein probably the highlight  (lowlight?).  Given a couple of other wins by Oberlin and Allegheny the league probably came out ahead.  With a little over 20 non-conference games remaining it would take a mini-disaster for the league to fall under .500 and their in-region record looks solid.

	Wk 1		Wk 2/3		Wk 4/5		Totals
OAC	2 – 0		8 – 1		0 – 2		10 – 3
PAC	1 – 1		2 – 0		3 – 0		6 – 1
MIAA	1 – 1		0 – 1		1 – 2		2 – 4
Overall	12 – 7		14 – 10		6 – 5		32 – 22
In-region	8 – 6		13 – 8		5 – 4		26 – 18

League play is also underway and a lot like the OAC it might already be shaping into a two horse race with everyone but Wooster and Ohio Wesleyan taking a loss.  There are a lot of near .500 teams in this league and it will sort itself out over the course of the league season but right now Wooster and OWU are head and shoulders the best two in this league.  They meet Jan 19., by then there could also be a two game gap back to the next group of teams.

Early Standings
Wooster       4-0
Ohio Wes.   3-0
Oberlin        3-1
Wittenberg   1-1  


Presidents Athletic Conference

Like everyone else there wasn't much going on these last two weeks with the league logging a 3-5 record out of conference.  This puts this league at an even 23-23 on the year.  Looking ahead a bit, they might take some lumps the next couple weeks but overall it looks like they have a real chance to finish over .500.

	Wk 1		Wk 2/3		Wk 4/5		Totals
OAC	4 – 2		3 – 1		0 – 0		7 – 3
NCAC	1 – 1		0 – 2		0 – 3		1 – 6
MIAA	1 – 0		0 – 0		1 – 0		2 – 0
Overall	10 – 10		10 – 8		3 – 5		23 – 13
In-region	8 – 8		8 – 6		3 – 4		19 – 18

Another two rounds of league play took place with Bethany knocking off Thiel a convincing 64-43.  Thomas More took an early loss to Washington and Jefferson while St. Vincent rolled off a couple more league wins.

Early Standings
Bethany            4-0
St. Vincent        3-0
Thiel                 3-1
Thomas More     2-1  

Regional Ranking

Well nothing really happened since the last time I attempted this so it stays the same.  All 5 of these won every game they played.

1.  Adrian
2.  Wooster
3.  Ohio Wesleyan
4.  Calvin
5.  Bethany

For five more to watch I'm only picking four this week and going with Marietta, St. Vincent, Thomas More, and Trine.