The Tigers will face a familiar opponent on Friday in Holland, Mich., for the first round of the NCAA Div. III tournament. DePauw takes on Hope College (26-2) and will face them on Hope's home court, DeVos Fieldhouse.
When Coach Kris Huffman watched her team draw Hope in the first round, her first thoughts weren't that the game would be tough or this would be a chance for redemption after last year's defeat in the tournament. Rather, she questioned why the Flying Dutch, who lost in their conference championship game, were going to play on their home court.
"They lost to Calvin and we thought and even probably the whole nation thought that the loss would put them on the road," said Huffman.
But there was another surprise. As the rest of the teams in the bracket were announced, four other top-10 ranked teams by d3hoops.com were in DePauw's bracket.
"It just reminds you that Div. III is a regional representation and it's not a seeded tournament," Huffman said. "It's a tough draw, but if we want to be playing three weeks from now we have to be able to beat everyone anyway."
Denison College (No. 10), Hope (No. 4), Thomas More College (No. 1), and Chicago University (No. 6) are the teams in the top 10 that DePauw (No. 8) will have to get through to win the national tournament. This happens because, as Huffman said, the brackets are decided by region, not by national ranking. Contrary to the popular Div. I NCAA tournament, where ranked teams spread the four brackets evenly.
Hope College (26-2) eliminated the Tigers in the second round of the tournament last year by a score of 68-54. In that game, then junior forward for the Flying Dutch, Carrie Snikkers, had a game-high 18 points and dominated DePauw's low-post players at 6'3". The Tigers struggled with their shooting from the perimeter, hitting just 29.2 percent from the field.
"Last year's game was a big motivation to work hard this summer and in the off-season," said senior guard Katie Mathews. "I was hoping to get to play them again in the tournament and it looks like my wishes came true."
Snikkers is again the centerpiece of the Flying Dutch offense. Averaging 14.2 points per game, Snikkers will draw some attention from the Tiger defense as Huffman will turn to speed and athleticism of her defense to guard the paint and whoever has the ball.
"You have to talk about her and prepare for her," Huffman said of Snikkers. "They have four good forwards, so we have to be aware of the paint. But what makes Hope so good is the guard court can light it up from three point range.
"We hope to give them a couple of different looks and our focus will be guarding the basketball wherever it may be."
The Flying Dutch are coming off a tough loss in their conference championship game last Saturday to Calvin College (24-4). The Knights of Calvin led by 20 points in the second half until Hope climbed back and took the lead with nine seconds left in the game with a score of 65-64. Calvin hit a desperation three-pointer as time expired stealing away the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association conference title.
In that game, Snikkers led her team with 22 points and another forward, sophomore Meredith Kussmaul, was second on the team with 14 points. While the Tigers cannot match the height of Snikkers, the Tigers can rely on junior and sophomore forwards Katie Aldrich and Ellie Pearson to turn in good performances both on defense and on offense.
"Our SCAC tournament really prepared us well especially the game against Trinity," Huffman said. "They played several different defenses whereas Hope will just get down and play man-to-man."
Listen to the game live today at 7:30 p.m. on WGRE.