The 2012 Season

Way back at the end of the 2011 season, Matt Neil had completed his first season at the helm of the Flying Dutchmen. His first team only went out and won an MIAA Championship, followed that up by winning the MIAA Tournament, a fourth year in a row for the school. Then finished off the season by advancing to the 2^nd round of the NCAA tournament where they nearly pulled off an upset of highly regarded and highly ranked Augustana.

Graduating were league MVP Will Bowser, Ty Tanis, Adam Dickerson and Andy Venema. So the 2012 Dutchmen returned a good chunk of their core and with the potential return of Peter Bunn to the roster the expectations were probably another season of challenging for the MIAA Championship, maybe even as the favorite.

Then late in the summer, Nate Van Arendonk 'announced' his intention to enroll at Hope after 1  season in Mt. Pleasant. In a flash it seemed expectations around Holland went from the above to possibly winning a National Championship. That's just the way expectations happen in Holland, fair or not. To top it off around the same time it was announced Hope would be playing at Western Michigan. It was hard not to feel some excitement.

The Non-conference

After a debut win against  Rochester my first look at Hope came at Spring Arbor, a game I had little intention of attending, but I was giddy from a Michigan football win over Nebraska that afternoon. So after dropping my brother off in Lansing I checked my watch and determined I could make it just in time for tip-off. By the end of the night I had become pretty convinced Hope was going to be a really good basketball team.

Hope won its next two in closer than expected fashion vs Aquinas and Cornerstone at the G.R. Hall of Fame Classic. The following Wednesday Hope traveled to Kalamazoo for a much anticipated game against Western Michigan, the first time the two would meet in over 60 years. Hope held their own, though never seriously threatened the Broncos who made sure to give a quality effort to get their first win. It was a great experience, and a game that many players would point at as a kind of turning point in how they needed to play to win.

Hope averted a mini-disaster in their next game against Wheaton when they surrendered a 12 point lead with 9 minutes to play, only to steal the game away at the end on a brilliant steal and pass by David Krombeen that led to the game winning FT's by Coltan Overway. I was pretty convinced that day, and still that Wheaton was the best D3 team Hope faced in 2012. The next day Hope trounced Carthage by 30, their first really dominating performance of the year.

The Holland Sentinel Community tournament saw Hope win over NAIA's Marian and Mt. Vernon Nazerene by double digits. After Christmas Hope hosted Marietta at the Russ DeVette Tournament and won by 11 against the injury riddled Pioneers. The much anticipated, and unfortunately rare in-region win was key. The next night Hope won a tight game with Indiana Wesleyan 70-66 and the Dutchmen finished off the non-conference portion of the schedule a very impressive 10-1. By now most of the D3 world was starting to recognize Hope was probably pretty good.

The MIAA

Hope's conference season started off with an easy win at Alma before a real grinder of a win at home vs. Adrian. The next 7 games saw Hope cruise to double-digit wins some easy, some not. Included in that string was a 12 point come back against Calvin to win by 16. Just your average 28 point turn-around, and it was really at that point that maybe Hope served notice it was not going to be easy to keep this team from winning their inevitable Championship.

The only real hiccup on the MIAA slate was a messy finish at Albion where Hope needed a long in-bounds and FT's to hold off the pesky Britons. After that game Hope held an insurmountable 4 game lead in the standings and would end up being ranked #1 in the d3hoops.com poll. By the end Hope had won all 14 league games for the second time in school history and for only the 3^rd time in league history. The regular season finished 24-1 the best since 1995. Hope had won the MIAA by an incredible 5 games with 12 wins by double-digits.

The Post-Season

 

Tournament play was tighter as it should be, the MIAA's new semi-final only format saw Calvin make the mid-week trip over to Holland. Calvin played their guts out that night right to the bitter end, despite trailing by double-digits most of the way Calvin fought their way to a 7 point loss in what probably should have been a 15 point Hope win. But the effort was worthy of the final.

Both Hope and Adrian were missing key guys for the Saturday Championship but the on-court effort from both teams was tremendous. The MIAA was treated to one of its best Championship games in the 20 years of the tournament a 65-62 OT Hope win. For the 5^th straight year Hope's captains were presented with the MIAA Championship trophy.

The NCAA's saw Hope host a first and second round regional with UW-Stevens Point, Illinois Wesleyan and Westminster(Mo.). Hope beat a very game Westminster squad by 14 after trailing most of the first half before remembering Nate Snuggerud was a Dutchmen. He finished with 37 points.

The next night Hope lost a double-overtime thrill a minute game against Illinois Wesleyan that left everyone stunned, bewildered and probably in awe of what they had witnessed. Nate Snuggerud nearly carried Hope on his back with 40 points, 77 for the weekend.

Hope finished 27-2, MIAA regular season and tournament champions and ranked #6 in the final D3hoops.com poll.

The postmortem

The expectations for Hope's 2012 team went through the roof once Nate Van Arendonk suited up whether that's fair or not I'll leave up to others. They finished the regular season with just one loss, to a D1 team. They won their 2^nd straight MIAA Championship in a fashion history will say was easy, won a 5^th straight MIAA Tournament Championship, swept all 3 games from Calvin including the bonus of ending their season for a ridiculous 7^th straight year. There's only one thing missing from that resume, a deep NCAA run.

The Illinois Wesleyan game can only be described as epic beyond belief. The atmosphere, the players, coaches, the history of the programs all combined in a 2+ hour hurricane of pure basketball heaven. Its been two months and I've tried hard to think of any game I personally witnessed that could compare to what I witnessed that night. None even come close, not even some of the classic Hope/Calvin games. I've never seen a crowd stand every possession the last 15 minutes of that game willing its team to get a stop like I did that night. It was just simply awesome to be there.

Losses like that hurt, and will probably hurt for a long time. But the truth is that loss would be no more or less painful or significant if it had happened a week later at the Sectionals or 2 weeks later in Virginia. All year it felt like it would take something amazing and special to beat that Hope team and that is exactly what happened and yeah it hurts.

I imagine I'll always remember the 2012 season if for nothing else the IWU game alone. The horrible feeling of the loss conflicting with the overwhelming feeling I had just witnessed something special, something I may never see again. Its terrible to be on the losing end of something like that, but some times you just have to be.  It's still hard to even be mad.

For me it was such a bitter-sweet end to a great season, one I made special efforts to witness as much as I could in person. I really don't think I'll ever forget this one.