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| We stunk |
I stumbled across a post I made on d3hoops about an Albion/Hope game by accident last week.
There are times watching the game of basketball that you can just tell 2 minutes into a game who will win. Tonight was one of them.
Albion just simply out-hustled, out-defended and purely out-played the Dutchmen.
This was after the 2006 game and its pretty dead spot on for the 2014 version.
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On this night Albion was better than Hope at just about everything that relates to basketball. Hope struggled to find any kind of consistency on offense and settled for many contested shots, the few open shots they did get, they missed. Albion was really good on defense and was able to clog the middle and stay sound defensively on the perimeter. Hope spent much of the game bogged down offensively while Albion took the chances they were given and capitalized.
Midway through the first half the Britons really locked down the Dutchmen holding them scoreless for 5 minutes while turning a 1 point deficit into an 11 point lead. By the end of the half Hope had scored just 22 points and trailed by 13.
Needing a good start to the 2nd half Hope had that door slammed in their faces by an Albion team that seized the opportunity to bury their foe with an 8-2 run to start the half. Four minutes into the half and this one was over. When Hope was finally able to find some offensive consistency with Brock Benson it was far too little, far too late.
Bold Move:
Albion started Dakota Kazen in place of Ryan Watson, the first time this year Albion had strayed from their usual starting five. I saw no injury or perceived no illness that forced Coach May's hand, this looked purely like a 'gut' decision and the young man delivered. Dakotah was 5-7 from three on the day finishing with what I presume is a career high 17 points. His team seemed to feed off his confidence and each time the ball went in the Britons seems to gain a little more energy and belief.
Volitile Mix:
This game had a perfect storm of sorts, a young team coming off a big emotional win against a young team coming off a disappointing home loss. Those combinations can produce these results. In the long run I'm not sure its such a bad thing for Hope to be slapped in the face in such a way. We'll see.
Efficiency:
Estimated number of possessions: Hope 56 Albion 60
Slowest game of the year, but it really didn't feel slow until the second half when Hope went to a zone and Albion spent more time probing the defense.
Offensively Efficiency: 87.07
This is Hope's lowest performance of the season. A really awful 81 in the first half. The usual caveats about offensive ineptness playing a role apply but Albion was really good defensively
Defensive Efficiency: 112.42
Albion's had a couple of blistering games but for the most part have struggled a little on the offensive side of things. In this one they were very good, shot the ball well when given the open look. I didn't think Hope was necessarily bad on defense as much as I just didn't think they were good. Eventually it was just too many breakdowns that led to too many open looks that Albion buried.
Rebounding Efficiency:
Hope: 42.1% of available offensive rebounds
Albion: 43.3% of available offensive rebounds
2nd Chance points: Hope 12 Albion 17
This was a pretty fun battle, both I thought were really keen to rebound hard. For such a small team even by MIAA standards Albion played much bigger and were able to win this battle pretty convincingly when the score still mattered.
Albion grabbed 8 of their 16 missed shots in the first half, so Hope turned this around a bit. For the game the total rebounding was 38-37 Hope. That's a "win" you wouldn't be able to convince anyone of who saw the game live.
Other Interesting Stats:
There really aren't any. Albion won this by shooting the ball better. While 45% isn't exactly burning the nets, it was far better than the 36% they held the Ductchmen to and that's a credit to Albion's defense.
Hope 80 Olivet 72
box score
Not a game I was able to see. I can only add I think Olivet is better than their 3-11 record, but this score is still a little disappointing if only because it reminds me how poorly Hope's played in the trips to Olivet recently. This one was at home. If this is any indication that return trip will not be fun and its just another reminder that the usual gap between Hope/Calvin just isn't as great as its been in past seasons.
On a more positive note, its nice to get back in the win column and rebound from Wednesday's loss. After two weeks Hope is 3-1, tied with Calvin, Albion, Trine for first. This is whole lot better than being 3-1 or 2-2 and trailing Calvin.
Efficiency:
Estimated number of possessions: Hope 82 Olivet 82
Wow that's a lot of possessions. I think this might be the most in a regulation Hope game for quite a few years. This is even fast for Olivet.
Offensively Efficiency: 98.07
Hope's been pretty rough around the edges in the last few games on offense. Since the Thomas More game and even including the 3-point barrage at Calvin, Hope's logged just one game better than 102. This really has to improve in the next couple weeks.
Defensive Efficiency: 87.72
Maybe the real surprising thing about this years team is how well they've done in this category against teams not in the top 25, while not really looking like it. No one will mistake Olivet for a good offensive team, what makes them tough and pesky is the pace at which they play
Rebounding Efficiency:
Hope: 32.5% of available offensive rebounds
Olivet: 15% of available offensive rebounds
2nd Chance points: Hope 17 Olivet 8
Last year Olivet really abandoned any attempts to get offensive rebounds, I wasn't at this one but 15% is pretty bad and it certainly suggests they didn't try very hard. This is not surprising since Olivet is probably the shortest team in the league and the worst rebounding team. I'm actually not that impressed with Hope's 32.5, it seems like it should be more against this team, and yet the 17-8 2nd chance points win ends up being the difference.
Other Interesting Stats:
3-point shooting:
This is a combined stat for the week, Hope went 4-30 from beyond the arc. In golf, this is not validating your win, the money goes back into the pot. Halfway through the season now and it really doesn't look like Hope is going to be anything more than a well below average 3-point shooting team. We probably aren't going to see the 3-point guy hanging 3's on the wall much this year.
Fg%
Nine of Olivet's 14 opponents shot over 50% against them this year, only two were held under 40%. One of those being an Illinois Tech team that might be the worst small college basketball team in the Midwest. So Hope's 37% shooting is a concern against a team that hasn't done much to prove they're a very good defensive team. Except, Olivet held a good UW-Platteville team to just 38% shooting in the 2nd game of the year. Without seeing how this one played out its difficult to conclude anything but Hope's struggling a little on offense right now, but that Platteville game gives me pause to consider maybe this isn't so bad.
Going Forward:
Hope got ambushed Wednesday and rebounded with a nice, tough win Saturday. This league is going to be like this for everyone who doesn't have 9 forwards and 3 guards. In the grand scheme of the season being 3-1 tied for first is better than being 2-2 and trailing by two games. However, Wednesday was a missed opportunity to grab two big road wins, maybe your two toughest and have a lot of your remaining schedule in your favor. That is in the past now.
This week its a trip up to Alma a similar opponent to Olivet. If you don't play well, they can beat you. Saturday Hope will host a Kalamazoo team that I presume will be playing to stay in the chase as they have 3 losses already. We're a long way from the finish line yet but this next week seems like a pretty important one for the Dutchmen in what probably turns out to be a series of important weeks. Isn't league play great?
Me vs: looking to far into the past to find answers for the future.
Wednesday: @ Alma
Saturday: Kalamazoo at DeVos Fieldhouse
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