For these past two weeks the MIAA went 21-12, pretty good overall though a good chunk of those wins came against NAIA opponents and almost entirely bad ones. Difficult to find a highlight win, maybe Calvin over Cornerstone, Alma beating Baldwin-Wallace was a nice surprise. Otherwise it was a lot of winning games you probably should and losing games you probably should. The first weekend in December in-region record armageddon went better than expected at 3-4.
| Wk 1 | Wk 2/3 | Totals | |||
| OAC | 1 – 2 | 3 – 2 | 4 – 4 | ||
| NCAC | 1 – 1 | 1 – 0 | 2 – 1 | ||
| PAC | 0 – 1 | 0 – 0 | 0 – 1 | ||
| HCAC | 1 – 1 | 5 – 3 | 6 – 4 | ||
| CCIW | 1 – 2 | 2 – 5 | 3 – 7 | ||
| other D3 | 0 – 0 | 1 – 1 | 1 – 1 | ||
| NAIA | 0 – 0 | 9 – 1 | 9 – 1 | ||
| other | 2 – 0 | 0 – 0 | 2 – 0 | ||
| D1 | 0 – 1 | 0 – 0 | 0 – 1 | ||
| OVERALL | 6 – 8 | 21 – 12 | 27 – 20 | ||
| In-region | 4 – 6 | 12 – 8 | 16 – 14 |
I found a couple errors from week 1 that have been corrected. Once again not counting the Hope/College of Faith game. Take note of the in-region record, I believe this to be accurate, more on that later.
Adrian 7-0
Adrian 62 Siena Heights 40
Adrian 80 Marygrove 55
Adrian 67 UM-Dearborn 42
Adrian 63 Mt. Union 48
Adrian 62 Carnegie-Mellon 51
The most obvious thing standing out here is Adrian has been difficult to score against vs these opponents. I was at the Siena Heights game and filed this report. I also watched the first half of the Carnegie-Mellon game online where Adrian held them to 11 first half points, it was kind of impressive. None of these are quality opponents unfortunately and so far the only quality win is their win over Wooster. Wooster will remain high quality all season.
Adrian received some national praise with what I think is their first ever ranking in the D3hoops.com Top 25 where they came in at number 20. I'm pretty ok with that, I feel comfortable they're a top 25 defense and top 25 rebounding team. For the foreseeable future Adrian will stay ranked, as they should.
This week: no games
Next week: no games
Albion 3-3
Franklin 76 Albion 70
Albion 91 Purdue-North Central 80
Heidelberg 66 Albion 58
Albion 67 Elmhurst 59
This looks like pretty much every Albion non-conference season for the last half decade. The loss to Franklin hurt because it meant Albion missed out on an in-region game with DePauw, one they could have won. Elmhurst and Heidelberg are probably bottom half of their conference teams, the PNC win really means nothing.
Without Kolin Kazen and Chris Hutton the Britons probably continue to be a little tough to figure out. In the meantime they're getting minutes for their bench and when the MIAA rolls around should those guys return, they should be a better team than what they've been to this point.
This week: vs Kenyon
Next week: no games
Alma 2-4
Ohio Northern 99 Alma 71
Alma 69 Heidelberg 66
Defiance 76 Alma 60
Alma 75 Baldwin-Wallace 73
I'm still convinced Alma is playing a really difficult schedule for their talent level. So far they've done ok. Neither of these losses should be a surprise and they came up with a good win over Baldwin-Wallace. I've tabbed BW as a contender in the OAC, which is just a real confusing mess.
So far it looks like Alma might be a touch deeper than past Alma teams and are not quite as reliant on one or two players like the last couple years. I'm getting the sense these guys are going to end up a little better than anticipated.
This week: @ Oberlin
Next week: Spring Arbor
Calvin 6-2
Calvin 98 Anderson 56
Calvin 58 Aquinas 55
Calvin 70 Cornerstone 65
Calvin 87 Manchester 63
Wheaton 54 Calvin 37
Carthage 74 Calvin 63
Calvin got a good win at the GR Hall of Fame Classic against Cornerstone, and a lackluster win against the ever so confusing Aquinas program. A mid-week trouncing of Manchester set the stage for their MIAA/CCIW Challenge weekend where they'd announce their triumphant return to national prominence.....thud! Maybe a bit dramatic but it was surprising. Everybody has bad weekends and maybe Calvin did, it wouldn't be hard to think the Wheaton loss rattled them and they played poorly the next day. Wheaton is an awfully good team that's probably headed for a great season, the greater confusion of the weekend was their loss to a Carthage team that lost 2 players to injury the night before.
I'm not sure Calvin gets another quality test between now and Adrian on Jan 3. Maybe Ripon or Wabash but I just really don't think either of those teams is as good as Adrian. They're still in good position to have a good in-region record, its just that their MIAA title credentials may have taken a little hit.
This week: @ Finlandia
Next week: no game
Hope 2-3
Cornertone 87 Hope 80
Hope 63 Aquinas 60
Hope 82 Carthage 70
Wheaton 79 Hope 75
Game recaps available on the blog
Hope took two tough losses to good teams, the Cornerstone game was probably closer than the final score and the Wheaton game involved a big comeback from 15 down. It was nice to get a win against Carthage, bottom line is I think we saw some improvement in Hope this week and no one's played a tougher set of opponents in the MIAA than Hope right now.
This week: vs Covenant, vs Spring Arbor or Grace Bible
Next week: no games
Kalamazoo 2-3
Manchester 95 Kalamazoo 83 2OT
Kalamazoo 68 Earlham 56
Kalamazoo 55 Oberlin 53
Chicago 76 Kalamazoo 73
North Central 72 Kalamazoo 57
Nothing like a double-overtime thriller in your first game as head coach. Kzoo rebounded to win its next two over teams that frankly they should beat and wins that should impress no one. On Saturday Kzoo had Chicago down most of the day and lost it at the end. The records probably what it should be although it would have been nice to get that Manchester win.
Mark Ghafari has been off to a good start and is looking like the go to guy early on.
This week: @ Bluffton, vs Case Western
Next week: @ Defiance
Olivet 2-3
Olivet 83 Union, Ky 80
Olivet 69 Purdue-Calumet 60
Olivet picked up its first two wins of the seasons by beating two lowly NAIA outfits. There isn't much to be excited about here and the roster is already changing. Up next is a couple more games they can win but I think the long term prospects are pretty grim.
The bright spot has been Garner Small who has been one the leagues top scorers.
This week: @ Spring Arbor, @ Illinois Tech
Next week: Lawrence Tech
Trine 3-2
Trine 88 Earlham 61
Trine 78 Manchester 61
North Central 64 Trine 47
Trine won the two I'd expect them to win. Ian Jackson is kind of carrying this team right now. So far they've used 3 or 4 different starting fives and the latest two Fr. Nick Tatu and Jared Holmquist started.
Their schedule should allow them to get on a little run heading into the MIAA schedule, unfortunately I think this schedule is going to come up one or two good opponents short of really testing them. The upcoming Wabash game might be a nice comparison to Albion.
This week: Wabash, @ North Park
Next week: Mt. Vernon Nazarene
As we hit exam weeks things really slow down. Just 15 games with only 4 of those played next week. There are seven of those really important in-region games and it would be great to win 5 of those. I think the two most important are Albion/Kenyon and Trine/Wabash.
With just over half the non-conference season finished the league's looking in really good shape to finish over .500. Right now that requires winning 18 of the remaining 41 games which seems more than doable. The schedule really isn't that imposing and most of the league's really difficult games particularly against the CCIW are behind them
In-Region Analysis
I have the league 16-14 in-region to this point which is pretty good. It would be great for everyone, especially the one or two teams that will be an at-large NCAA candidate to keep that record over .500.
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
Wabash @ Trine
Kalamazoo @ Bluffton
Covenant @ Hope
Calvin @ Finlandia
Trine @ North Park
Alma @ Oberlin
Kenyon @ Albion
Case Western @ Kalamazoo
Kalamazoo @ Defiance
Olivet @ Bethany
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
Chicago vs Alma
Mt. Union vs Adrian
Albion vs Case Western
Aurora @ Hope
Adrian vs Defiance or Finlandia
I count 54 in-region games total with the possibility of 56 with tournament results. To reach over .500 the league has to win, let's say 29 just to be safe. I conservatively count 6 the league should be a solid favorite to win and 12 toss-up games, win half of the toss-ups and we reach 28 wins. It's probably going to be close and should come down to all those 50/50 games in the last week of December. I'm actually pretty optimistic this can be accomplished.
The Neighbors
OAC
The last two weeks this league went 12-19 including being trounced by their Northcoast friends, logging a 1-8 record. There just isn't much to be impressed about, the leagues best win is probably Baldwin-Wallace over Bethany still. Three weeks into the season and everyone has at least 2 losses.In the last update I mentioned the league had several chances for perception redeeming wins against Wooster, Wittenberg, Ohio Wesleyan and Washington U. They lost every one of these games, most by double-digits. The league has only about a dozen non-conference games left and it looks nearly impossible to recover their overall or in-region records from below the .500 mark. This league is just down right now.
| Wk 1 | Wk 2/3 | Totals | |||||||||
| NCAC | 0 – 2 | 1 – 8 | 1 – 10 | ||||||||
| PAC | 2 – 4 | 1 – 3 | 3 – 7 | ||||||||
| MIAA | 2 – 1 | 2 – 3 | 4 – 4 | ||||||||
| Overall | 10 – 9 | 12 – 19 | 22 – 28 | ||||||||
| In-region | 5 – 8 | 10 – 16 | 15 – 24 |
The OAC started league play this last weekend and will continue over the next couple weeks including two key games for Capital with John Carroll and Baldwin-Wallace.
NCAC
The league went 14-10 for these two weeks which included obliterating the OAC 8-1. I'm not sure there are any Earth shattering wins or anything to take notice other than trouncing the OAC which was a top to bottom destruction. There aren't many significant in-region games left, the NCAC shouldn't have much trouble staying above .500 in both overall and in-region records.| Wk 1 | Wk 2/3 | Totals | |||
| OAC | 2 – 0 | 8 – 1 | 10 – 1 | ||
| PAC | 1 – 1 | 2 – 0 | 3 – 1 | ||
| MIAA | 1 – 1 | 0 – 1 | 1 – 2 | ||
| Overall | 12 – 7 | 14 – 10 | 26 – 17 | ||
| In-region | 8 – 6 | 13 – 8 | 21 – 14 |
League play started and was marked by Wooster beating Wittenberg in the first of many showdowns this season. League play continues this weekend with a handful of in-region games with the PAC. Probably the most prominent non-league games are Kenyon/Albion, Wabash/Trine.
PAC
10-8 overall record including 3-1 vs the OAC, still though not much to get excited about. The PAC began league play last week and already its looking like the same 3 team race as last year with Thiel, Bethany and Thomas More. This league has a decent shot at .500 although the post-Christmas schedule has a couple tougher games and they have an equal shot at maintaining .500 in the in-region category.| Wk 1 | Wk 2/3 | Totals | |||
| OAC | 4 – 2 | 3 – 1 | 7 – 3 | ||
| NCAC | 1 – 1 | 0 – 2 | 1 – 3 | ||
| MIAA | 1 – 0 | 0 – 0 | 1 – 0 | ||
| Overall | 10 – 10 | 10 – 8 | 20 – 18 | ||
| In-region | 8 – 8 | 8 – 6 | 16 – 14 |
Regional Ranking
Its several weeks before they do this for real, I'll just do five for this week.
1. Adrian
2. Wooster
3. Ohio Wesleyan
4. Calvin
5. Bethany
Adrian has the best win over Wooster, Wooster has next best over Wittenberg, Ohio Wesleyan next best over Capital and Marietta. After that you're really picking between teams that really haven't beaten a top program. I'm still confident Calvin's a good team. There just isn't an OAC squad that's done anything worthy of ranking.
Five more to watch: Wittenberg, DePauw, Thomas More, PSU-Behrend and Marietta.
From a Hope perspective its really going to take a streak of wins and maybe even include an early MIAA season win over Adrian to get back in this discussion, depending on what other teams do. They just don't have the wins, certainly the talent. With the OAC so down its hard to call this region strong, maybe average to below average.
Over on his Calvin blog, Matt Snyder is calculating his regional rankings for all of D3 which comes really close to predicting the NCAA field. Regional Rankings.
He also is trying to calculate RPI for D3. D3 RPI. Its worth a look just to get a feel for what's happening around the nation and for what the NCAA is looking for in tournament selection.
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