A Look At MIAA Schedules

If there is one thing about the summer I enjoy when it comes to D3 basketball its the anticipation and search for the next years schedules.  Every time one becomes available its like moving one step closer to the next season and putting the past one behind you.

In this section I just want to focus on the non-conference portion of the schedule for each MIAA team.   What you'll see is the schedule by dates, within those you'll see ' * ' which denote in-region games.  I'll point out the best and worst opponents and why.  At the end you'll see each schedule will get a 'score', a number on a 1-100 scale with 100 being the highest or toughest possible.  The difference in highest and lowest possible scores is just taking into account tournaments where the opponents are not yet set.

I could explain the math but I'll take the Paul Ryan approach and say it would take too long to explain.  Its actually fairly simple, probably not all that accurate and open to quite a bit of fluctuation given that its trying to guess how good an opponent will be this season based off last.  In other words just take it with a grain of salt and realize I was just kind of looking for a general idea.

Adrian

Nov. 16  vs Otterbein* @ Wooster
Nov. 17  @  Wooster* or vs Carnegie-Mellon*
Nov. 20  @  Sienna Heights
Nov. 24  @  Marygrove
Nov. 26  Michigan-Dearborn
Nov. 28  Mt. Union*
Dec.  1   @ Carnegie-Mellon*
Dec. 17  Northwestern Ohio
Dec. 22  @ Lawrence Tech
Dec. 29  vs Mt. Union* @ Defiance
Dec. 30  @ Defiance* or vs Finlandia*
* denotes in-region games

Best opponents and why:  @ Wooster, the Fighting Scots figure to be one of, if not the favorite in the NCAC and will once again be among the strongest programs within the Great Lakes Region.   If that game doesn't take place its probably @ Defiance.  I have Defiance in a group of teams right in the middle of the HCAC fighting for playoff spots, and if that game doesn't take place it would be Mt. Union, a middle of the OAC team.  Its a pretty big step down from Wooster to the next toughest.

Worst opponent and why:  Lawrence Tech is resurrecting its basketball program after nearly 40 years on the shelf.  The Southfield, MI school will be a very young and inexperienced squad.

Adrian has the added bonus of potentially playing Cargenie-Mellon and Mt. Union twice each.  This is never ideal but at least these games are in-region.


Overall impression:  For a team with some designs on winning an MIAA Championship this is a very weak schedule.  None of the D3 squads on the schedule will be challenging for their league's respective titles other than Wooster.  In fact I think its more likely than not that Otterbein and Carnegie will be at or near the bottom of their leagues and Finlandia will be Finlandia, not very good.  Three of their 4 NAIA opponents finished at the bottom of the WHAC and Lawrence Tech is in its first year and will most likely finish at the bottom of the WHAC.

The biggest positive is Adrian landing 6 in-region games and more importantly not just 6 games but potentially 5 winnable in-region games.  This will benefit not only Adrian but also the MIAA reps come NCAA time.

On my scale of 100, the best possible schedule score is 48.1, lowest 41.8
Last year by comparison:  58

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Long Time No Bloggy

So you may have noticed I haven't had much to write about in quite some time.  Back when I got this grand idea and laid down my ground rules I mentioned the possibility of an iceberg getting in the way, or a 'lifeberg' maybe.  Well it turns out that iceberg is really about 1,000 little ones instead of one big one like I was expecting, although I'm still wary of the big one.  Just sitting down to find something to write was pretty difficult for awhile and as the calender slowly drifted further and further away from last March my focus turned to other things.  I've been pretty deep into baseball this summer for the first time in awhile I guess, combine that with my usual fall dance with football and its just been hard to think of a reason to write about basketball.  Without getting to philosophical I suppose its good to close that book and set it on the shelf for awhile.

Grand Designs

 

I'm sure I had much bigger ideas and plans for this than what the reality is going to be.  Its easy to think of great things to do, much less easy to find the time to do them.   First of all, I'm a pure amateur at this blogging thing.  I had intended to spend a little time this summer getting to know this format and prettying up the place but like basketball it took a back seat to my desire to enjoy  summer. 

The reality is I've scaled back my expectations for what I'm going to be able to do with this, and you probably should as well.  That is if you had any expectations at all.  I'm already pretty certain its going to be difficult to see many games this year.  Last year I kind of went out of my way to see some games I probably shouldn't have and it will be doubly hard to get away this year.  First hand observations might be few and far between.

Those Thousand Icebergs, or getting personal

 

I'm one worn out dude.   Between a back injury that refuses to heal, a sleep disorder that continues to be disorderly, a brother's divorce, his desire to not take care of himself and a mother who I am sadly watching slowly fade from her former self, its been a pretty rough five years.   To say these things don't contribute to my mood and desires to do this blog would be a flat out lie.  Its been stressful,  exhausting and sometimes exasperating.  Believe it when I say the thought of just completely walking away from watching Hope basketball this year has crossed my mind more than once.  But, I know myself better than that and I really think that's something I couldn't do, especially as the season drew closer.  I think I probably need this escape.

(Without getting too personal if you are so inclined to pray for my brother he could use it, he's lived a much, much harder life than I have and is going through a hell I really can't even describe)

Between now and tip-off

Basketballs started hitting the hardwood this week which is either great or an eerie reminder of just how close we are to winter.  We have approximately 4 weeks until the games get real.  Over the next few days rosters will start filtering out and while it would be nice to take a comprehensive look at those I probably will not do that or will reserve my thoughts to the d3hoops message boards.  I would though like to take a closer look at the schedules.  When that happens or how in-depth I'll choose to get is still up in the air.

Holding On for now.