2013 Season Review: Albion

2013:  6-19, 2-12  8th place
2012:  11-15, 7-7  5th place

Win that made you raise an eyebrow:  Trine 73-68 OT
Loss that made you raise an eyebrow:  @ Olivet 81-54

Seniors:  Anthony Wash, Chris Hutton, Mike Smith, Leonard Wernette-leff

I sounded the warnings on Albion's 2013 season sometime last spring when I wrote their review, here.  Sometime between then and November I became hilariously optimistic about Albion basketball and actually picked them to finish 4th in the MIAA.  There was what I thought was sound reasoning behind that pick and many things I couldn't have predicted happened that resulted in Albion having one of its most disappointing seasons in their history.  Fewest wins since 1970-71 which is 3 years before Mike Turner coached his first game at Albion.  It broke a string of 37 consecutive years of double-digit wins, which is actually quite impressive.

A lot of things went into Albion's bad season starting with the suspension of all-league returning Sr. Kolin Kazen.  This suspension was reportedly only for 8 games but he never suited up for the Britons this season.  About the time Kazen was supposed to return 3 more Britons received the ban-hammer, Lawrence Ridgell, Adam Zavadil and Alex Harville.  Three potential starters and a solid bench guy gone.  This is where Albion's season trajectory took a steep turn south.  A mid-season 10 game losing streak foretold bad things to come, Olivet thrashed them by 27 to start the MIAA season, solid performances against Hope and Calvin at home raised hopes.   A series of close losses wasn't much to be excited about and Albion finished the first half of the MIAA winless and in last place.  By the time the Britons rolled into Holland they looked beaten up and worn out and were a far cry from the competitive teams against Hope and Calvin earlier in January.  Tough close losses to Kzoo and Alma meant the Brits were heading for 8th place in the league.  I'll be honest and say I'd never thought I'd see this.

Statistics Corner

Defensively Albion wasn't a very good team this year and that bares itself in them being ranked in the bottom half of every defensive stat category the NCAA keeps.  For a program that has always seemed to pride themselves on defensive effort that has to hurt a little.  Offensively they end up being the 4th best offense in the league, I'm not sure that's saying much.

Thing they did better than anyone in the league:  3pt shooting %
Thing they did worse than anyone in the league:  turnover margin

One of the things I've admired about Jody May coached teams is how well they move the ball around and end up with wide open three's.  Despite not having the fire power they thought they'd have the Britons still led the league in 3 point percentage.  Offensively this team proved to be competent and on nights when they were able to play competently on defense they were able to compete with the best teams in the league.  Albion was very young and young teams do things like turn the ball over a lot and give inconsistent efforts on defense and thus you lose close games.  Probably pegs this Briton team pretty well. 

Efficiency:

Offense: 99.57   Defense: 106.63    Total Eff Rating: 192.94

Team rank out of the last 10 years:  #10
League rank out of the last 10 years:   #58

So if you felt like you were watching one of the worst Albion teams in awhile here's the statistical or at least efficiency proof that yes it was.  The number to focus on here is the defensive rating.  In the last 10 years this is Albion's lowest rating(or worst), the next lowest for them was last year.  Until this number starts to go down significantly its going to be hard for Albion to crack the top 4 again in this league.

2013-2014

Key returnees:  Jordan Herron, Eric Evans, Zach Hurth, Ryan Watson, Carter Elliot, Justin Beal

Jordan Herron

At least one of the players who were suspended mid-season can return next year and that would certainly help.  However, the Britons lose almost half the minutes of a team that turned out to be not very good.  For the first time in a couple decades Albion failed to have a first-team All-MIAA player and its probably been even longer since they hadn't had a 2nd team player.  Albion ended up being pretty close to the youngest team in the league if not the youngest with 8 Fr. and 3 So. on the end of season roster.

For the second year in a row the most positive thing to take from Albion's season is they had the chance to play a lot of young players and gain valuable experience.  There were times in the final weeks of the season when Albion's best lineups consisted of mostly Fr.   At some point that experience has to start paying dividends but that may not come for a year or two.  One thing to notice is that when the season ended two of their three leading scorers were Freshmen in Herron and Evans.  Herron certainly impressed me and I think he'll be a good interior player down the line if he isn't already.  Evans and Watson look like capable scorers.  Not much help will be coming from the junior varsity because by mid-December the junior varsity was on the varsity.  So what you saw from Albion is what will be returning in 2014.

There's pretty clear evidence Albion is in a downswing period, it remains to be seen if 2013 was a bottom or if there's more pain to come.  Even with a good Freshmen class that leaves Albion with a team still mostly full of Fr. and So's. 

Range of finish:  The MIAA's pretty tightly packed from 5 to 8, it wouldn't take a lot for Albion to compete for a league tournament spot as early as next season.  Five of this years league losses were by less than 5 points, turning those around is 7 wins.  That's right in the thick of a top 4 finish.  But I'm erring on the side of caution here, a 6th, 7th or 8th place seems more likely.