Preview: Alma

Wednesday Jan. 20
Alma @ Hope  6pm   <<<<< note starting time
DeVos Fieldhouse

Skips leg day

The three MIAA teams I seem to know the least about this year are Alma, Kalamazoo and Adrian.  That also happens to be Hope's next three games, but I'll trudge on.

Alma opened the year 2-9, 7 of those losses came to teams with wining records and at least 5 began the year with legit NCAA tournament hopes.  The Scots are now 4-12 and a healthy 4-3 since Dec 20 which includes wins over Ripon, Wittenberg, Albion and a 6 point loss @ Calvin.  If they don't have your attention yet, think back to here.  

Roster
Stats
Schedule

Probable Lineup:
G  Scott Nikodemski  6-1  Jr.
G  Chase Fairchild  6-0  Jr.
F  DJ Beckman  6-3  Jr.
F  Tyler Edwards  6-4  So.
F  Doug Bradfield  6-7  Fr.
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G  Jason Beckman  5-11  Fr.
F  Corey Hungerford  6-2  Jr.
C  Quinton Cook  6-5  So.
F  JR James  6-5  Fr.
G  Ethan Woelke  6-3  Jr.

In league play Alma has switched 3 guys in Tyler Edwards spot, either, Edwards, Corey Hungerford or Quinton Cook as the starter.  The other four spots are pretty set. 

The key for anyone playing the Scots is finding a way to keep DJ Beckman from going off for a huge game against you.  DJ is quietly having a very solid year averaging 14.8 points and shooting 45% from the floor including 47% from three.  He is the Scots number one option.   Following is Scott Nikodemski averaging 13.5pts and leading the league in assists at the moment.  Off the bench Jason Beckman gives them solid bench production and ball handling, I'm told he will drive the lane if given the chance.  Fairchild is mostly a perimeter player, 2nd on the team in 3-point attempts.  I don't know much about Ethan Woelke.

Doug Bradfield will remind Hope fans of Cody Stuive, a pretty thin 6-7 kid that can play outside.  Doug is pretty much 50-50 3pt shots to 2pt shots.  He's a very good shot blocker and a tremendous dunker, including ripping the rim off of one of Art Smith Arena's baskets earlier this year.  I don't know much about Cook or James.  Overall this is mostly a shooters/slasher team.

The Scots are shooting 45% from the floor and for the first time in awhile holding opponents to a lower percentage at 43%.  Alma loves the 3-point shot and are still averaging 20 attempts per game but in league play have chilled out a bit, only averaging 17.  But I'd still expect a lot.  As a team they are shooting a respectable 38% from 3,  DJ Beckman and his 47% avg is the biggest threat, the rest of the team avg's just 34%.  Alma opponents have taken an average of 23 per game and made just 35%.

Alma's an average rebounding team, they don't really get dominated here like they used too.  I think they'll hold their own but this should be a Hope advantage.  Alma will turn it over more than their opponents and don't generate a lot of turnovers themselves.  Defensively I'm told Alma plays a lot of zone and maybe even employs John Beilein's 1-3-1.  If that's the case expect the corner 3 to be a big shot in this game.

At 4-12 you wouldn't expect the Scots to have great efficiency numbers and they don't, just 102 on offense and a pretty high 110 on defense.  But since the Dec 20 Ripon game, their first win, the Scots are 4-3 with an offensive eff of 108 and defense of 108, but that defensive number includes their 3 best performances of the year.  Pace wise Alma is normal, but they've been up and down the ladder quite a bit winning and losing both high and slow paced games. 

Masseyratings.com loves the Scots schedule pegging their sos at #8, so they've played a lot of Hope type opponents.  Massey has Alma rated #196 and gives Hope a 93% chance of winning by 15 points, which is hilarious.  Expect less than 15 point margin and expect a long period of the game to not feel like a 93% chance of victory.

The Scots can shoot the ball and if they have any kind of a good night shooting this will be a close ball game to the end.  Hope hasn't been great on defense the last few games, hopefully they can step things up a notch or two on that end.

Week in Review: Albion, Olivet

Wither Britannia
Hope 80  Albion 55
Box
Recap

Sometimes its just about catching a team at the right time, or in this case for Albion maybe the wrong time.  After a non-conference run of 7-3 with good wins and 3 very tough losses to Augustana, Ferris State and Mt. St. Joeseph the Britons began their MIAA campaign falling flat on their faces losing to Alma for the 6th straight time.  The theory was they'd walk into DeVos very upset and fight tooth and nail to get that loss back, instead they turned in whatever that was Wednesday night.

It was a game that was supposed to be more dangerous for Hope, 0-2 in the league coming off a loss to Calvin and a pretty pathetic final 10 minutes in that one.  For the first 20 minutes Wednesday it made you wonder where this team was heading as it seemed to teeter on the edge of a third league loss and a full collapse.  At halftime it was 27-25 Hope, the Dutchmen were 0-8 from three and couldn't seem to make even the simplest of layups.

Then the 2nd half happened.  Hope began the half with a renewed emphasis on both ends of the court, they scored on 5 of their first 6 2nd half possessions and held Albion to one FG in the halves first 6 minutes.  When Dante Hawkins and Chad Carlson sank back-to-back threes breaking a string of 0-11 Hope was up by double-digits with all the momentum and pulling away.  Albion just couldn't stop Hope from scoring and the rest of the half played out as a comfortable double-digit lead that never wavered much and finally ballooned to a 25 point win.



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Preview: Olivet

(I hate not finishing things I start, so I'll continue these through the rest of the season but I think I'll combine a weeks worth  of reviews into one post like I did last season.)


Up Next:  
at Olivet  (2-12, 0-3)  Saturday at Cutler Events Center 3pm

Olivet is .....not very good.  The Comets played a pretty tough schedule and have had to deal with a couple big injuries to starters Blake Krum, TJ Vondette and lost their best recruit to ineligibility.  Its been a pretty rough year.

Olivet's two wins come over Manchester and Pitt-Greensburg.  Manchester has two wins over Wright State-Lake and 0-fer everything Earlham.  Hope beat Pitt-Greensburg 121-73.  Olivet also lost to Wheaton by 27 and Mt. Union by 14 and 29.  Hope beat both Wheaton by 11 and Mt. Union by 8.    They've done ok through 3 MIAA games with two losses by 6 points to Adrian and Alma and a 12 pointer to Kzoo.   Downside......those were probably three of their best chances at league wins.

Roster
Stats
Schedule
Probable Lineup


**Olivet has used 18 different players as starters this year so this is listed by minutes played**
F  Shaun McKinney  6-4  So.   --only player to play in every game
G  Jordan Union  6-0  Sr.
F  R. J. Haas  6-5  So.
G  Zach Walker  6-0  So.
G  Kevin Woodson  6-4  So.
G  DeOndre Callahan  6-0  Sr.
F  Anthony Easter  6-4  Jr.
F  Eric Ewing  6-4  Jr.
G  Blake Krum  6-2  Sr.
F  TJ  Vondette  6-2  Jr.
F  Jake Zielinski  6-3  Fr.
F  Devinn LoVette  6-4  Fr.

Calvin 88 Hope 64

I Got Nothing

Calvin 88  Hope  64
Box
Recap

I've been really fortunate to have been able to see  these games going back to about 2005.  That's around 30 contests +/- the various post-season games.  I cannot think of too many I was so disappointed in an outcome as this one.  Hope's a much better team at this point than last year, Hope's better than they showed Saturday.  So I got nothing.

My analysis and thoughts on this one won't be very in-depth, deep, or frankly very good.  Probably not worth reading which is kind of the point because its really not worth reviewing this game and more important to just move on.

To be truthful this probably qualifies as the highlight

Trine 65 Hope 62

Famous Last Words

Trine 65  Hope 62
Box
Recap---from Trine


"If I had one thing to worry about its Hope's turnover rate.  If this is a low possession game turnovers could be key and Hope might just turn it over twice as much and that could be a problem."

Those were the last words on my preview a couple days ago and its the primary reason Hope walks out of Hershey Hall with its first loss to Trine since they joined D3 and the MIAA.  The difference in turnover margin, taking away Hope's offensive rebounding advantage in this game of 3, allowed Trine about 11 more shots at the basket.  In a close game like this, those are almost free points.

Turnovers were really everything in this game.

Trine's trio of  Dixon, Good and Holmquist were really good.  On offense they combined for 19-44, the rest of the team were just 3-8 and the bench took one FG attempt, a breakaway layup.   Defensively it was Good who took Gardner and I'm pretty sure Will Dixon was on Eidson.  Combined Hope's guard duo were just 4-15 with almost no shots inside of 15 feet.  Trine won the defensive battle in slowing down the other teams guys, Hope didn't.

Foul trouble bit Hope again with Brock Benson picking up 2 really tough fouls early in the game and then a 3rd midway through the 2nd that put him on the bench a few more minutes.  This game might be on the extreme end of this but it was 34-20 with Brock on the floor, 23-45 with him on the bench.  Trine had Holmquist get in foul trouble themselves but he was able to stay on the floor for 31 minutes compared to Brock's 19.  If  Hope has one regret it might be maybe leaving Brock out there a couple minutes more and trying to protect him with a zone, it worked at the end of the first half but they didn't try that in the 2nd, unless I missed it.

This was a little eye opening for me, before tonight I had seen Albion, Hope and Calvin all in person and I thought all 3 were pretty close.  I think Trine is right with those 3 and it should produce a really tough grind between those four teams.  Win at home, steal a couple on the road if you can and for goodness sakes don't lose to Adrian, Alma, Kzoo or Olivet or you're dead.

Trine deserved this win and its been a long time coming, Hope's escaped from Angola at least a couple times I attended and 1 or 2 others I didn't.  Big win for Coach Miller and the Thunder.

Hope 87 Ohio Wesleyan 61

Hope 87  Ohio Wesleyan  61
Box
Recap

This was sort of a weird game.  OWU started out making 5 3's in the games first 10 minutes which led to the Bishops holding a 24-13 lead.  From that point on OWU would make only 4 more and Hope would roll 74-37, only they didn't really roll because with 9 minutes to play it was a 3 point game and very much in doubt.  Then 2 minutes and 8 seconds later it wasn't a close game anymore and Hope would coast to a win that looks much more dominant than it was, yet it was pretty dominant.  Make sense?

Wesleyan plays a really tough bunch of offensive sets that are difficult to defend.  Its either 4 out and 1 in or all 5 out, get you to commit a second man on one and then find the open man, or get a mismatch and drive the lane.  Early on their offense had a terrific rhythm which seemed to leave Hope scrambling to find the ball and resulted in a lot of easy layups or wide open threes.  Hope seemed to adjust better as the game wore on and the difficulty of shot Hope allowed seemed to get tougher.  For awhile OWU was almost standing in place and chucking shots at the rim.

This game became close because OWU went to a 2-3 zone in the second half and seemed happy to let Hope have all the 3-point shots the wanted.  From OWU's perspective it worked until the wrong Hope guy got hot at the wrong time when Alex Eidson lit up 5 second half threes including 3 straight during the decisive run while they struggled to score themselves.  For Hope it was a combination of great offense, great defense at the right time and ballooned a close margin game into this 26 point win.

Wooster Mose Hole Review

Hope 77  Spalding  58
Box
Recap

I wasn't able to watch as much of this one as I'd like, which was a total of about 6 minutes of game action.  By then it was pretty apparent Hope was going to have little trouble and I could enjoy my prime rib sandwich and company without having to refresh my phone too often.  Hope did what it needed to do by holding Spalding's two leading scorers Brandon Goeing and Brandon Gabriel to just 17 points on 7-30 shooting, and 7 of those points came after the margin had crossed 30.  With their two leading scorers struggling Spalding was pretty punchless and Hope was able to grab a 23 point lead at halftime, expand that to 30 in the 2nd and rest its starters and key bench players. 

The next night I was able to watch Spalding/UW-LaCrosse and I was sort of impressed Hope was able to make such light work of the Golden Eagles.  Spalding trailed by as many as 15 but fought back in the 2nd half to make a game of it and forced LaCrosse to have to win it at the FT line.  They at least showed they could compete against better teams something I wasn't really sure about going into this tournament.

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