I don't think there is any question that the players being discussed could play 32+ minutes -- it's just whether you want them to or not.  If your starter going at 75% effort is better than a bench player at 100% effort, then you should pace/play them accordingly.  However, I'm assuming most coaches would prefer the players giving 100% effort (or the grossly overused 110% effort) and needing to come out of a game for brief moments for a bench player who can give that same 100% effort, albeit slightly less skilled.

And if the football argument is because of academics, let's see it for what it is.  It's far less intrusive than basketball which is in-season during final exams and even plays games on school nights <gasp>.  Basketball also has the nerve to interfere with job applications, graduate program applications and spans more of an academic calendar year than football.  It's a definite smoke-screen.

Happy Friday all and enjoy the first non-MIAA men's basketball weekend in a while.

My initial comment on the MN vs. GVW recruiting was not to slight Neil's recruiting involvement during the GVW era.  Obviously Neil's presence at high school games and AAU tournaments was apparent while he was an assistant coach.  However, recruiting as the head coach is different than recruiting as an assistant.  I just think that if Hope is planning on staying as a perennial top-25 team, it's imperative that Neil gets a solid recruiting class.  I'm not saying he will, that he won't, that he can, that he can't, etc., just that he needs to.

Still stinging from this past weekend.  If you would have told me a Hope player would score 40 pts, I would have been quite certain they would win.  In looking at the bracket, it seems likely Hope would have hosted again this weekend with a decent shot of reaching the Final Four.  All of that is speculation at this point unfortunately.  It doesn't take away from a great year Hope had and really shows how slim the margin of error is when you get to the tournament. 

With the group Hope has coming back, I feel pretty good about next year.  It'll be the first time in a while where guard play is the question mark and the interior is not.  Overway should prove to be a solid starting PG but beyond that I have a lot of uncertainty with the backcourt.  I think this is a key recruiting year for Hope -- undefeated in conference, #1 ranking, #1 in attendance, some key open roster spots - and it will hopefully add up to a solid class.  Thus far, Neil has been playing with GVW's recruits for the most part so it'll be important for MN to restock. 

Hope is in for a battle vs. Adrian this weekend, but I expect the Dutchmen will be cutting down the nets in the DeVos.  They continue to get timely scoring and will have one of those spurts where they seemingly score 10 points in a minute off of turnovers and fast breaks that will put the game away. 

The fact that we're debating two players from the same team for conference MVP is a nice problem to have.  Edge to Krombeen for the points mentioned but I'm excited to see Snuggs be the main focal point of the offense next year (that next year talk can be put on hold for a few weeks I hope).

As for the Kruis vs. NVA debate, I would say Kruis has been more effective in the head-to-head matchups.  He's more polished at this point in their young careers.  He's also being asked to do more as well as he's more of a focus of the offense.  I think NVA meshes well with the current roster and has filled a void that the Hope team has had for the last few years and if that contributes to a 3-0 record, I'll take the less than stellar stat-line and getting the W.

A nice trip down memory lane, Sac.  That game was the one where ESPN was there to do coverage and was also the last Rivalry Game at the Civic Center.  The best moment was the "where's your banner" cheer to which someone in the Dew Crew held up a replica of Calvin's banner and began chanting back.  It was one of best games from a back-and-forth student section cheering that I can remember and obviously a great game (at least for the Hope fans).  It was a glimpse at what could have been that season with a largely underachieving squad that had been dealt a tough deck (albeit, some self-inflicted).

I would have to say that leading up to today this is the most confident I've been about Hope in rivalry game as I've been in years.  However, after waking up today, I'm now nervous that I haven't been nervous and have been missing something.

This rivalry will make you do funny things....

As a Hope fan, I'm not in on the inner workings of the Calvin program but the D3 level is far more than winning championships.  Yes, everyone wants to win and the comparison to U of M vs. that school in Ohio is justifiable.  However, at the D3 level, if KVS is doing a good job turning these kids into men, hasn't he succeeded?  I would hate to see something as enjoyable as D3 turn into a "win at all costs" scenario like D1 is.  If the kids hate playing for him, that's one thing, but a .500 record for a few years isn't enough to get rid of him in my opinion.

FDF -- I'll give you the fatigue argument (even fans are drained after that week) but I have to respectfully disagree with the routine argument.  The routine promptly gets shattered the next week in the NCAA's however so it may not be all bad for teams to get accustumed to the back-to-back games that currently exist in the MIAA tournament.

While reducing to a 4-team tournament does hurt the in-region record it does help the strength of schedule.  I know it's grasping at straws, but at least there's one positive there when looking at the NCAA tournament.

Excellent, excellent win for Hope yesterday!  Two completely different halves of basketball.  In the first half, Hope struggled matching up with the shooters on defense and appeared like they were waiting for Will to score 46 again on offense.  Luckily he was (somewhat) up to the task and kept the team in it.  In the second half, it was Calvin's defense that struggled.  On a few of Krombeen's jumpers, it seemed like there wasn't a Calvin defender within 10 feet of him.  I like having CO and DK out there together.  Never hurts to have two solid ball handlers out there in an intense rivalry game.

All in all, a good game that both teams can learn a lot from.  While I think Hope is the better team, Calvin definitely presents some unique problems for Hope that make a conference tournament matchup scary.

I would have to agree with the assessment that it is more severe than a wrist injury.  However, there must be some reason it is remaining undisclosed, whether it be from the family/school.  I wouldn't exactly consider Hope to be like NFL teams and provide misleading injury information, so I guess we'll have to accept it as is.

Big weekend for Hope/Calvin.  I'll be following from the friendly confines of my home as opposed to taking the long trek to Carthage.  For those going, safe travels!!

Just to play devil's advocate to this argument today, if a shooter is a 40% shooter and makes 5 straight threes, the shooting percentage would also go up.  So, now the shooter is a 43% shooter (let's say, obviously dependent on the total number of shots) so the probability of making the next shot would be slightly higher (43% vs. 40%).  The argument then becomes whether the shooter is truly a 40% shooter or a 43% shooter?

I think the phrase "60% of all statistics are made up" might apply to my argument above but I tend to believe that hot streaks are random sampling (contrary to my argument).  Just because you flip a coin and it comes up heads three times in a row doesn't increase your chances of the next flip being heads.

If only shooting a basketball was as simple as flipping a coin....

A truly rough day for baseball.  Gallaraga pitches a gem and unfortuntely gets screwed out of a perfect game by a horrendous call.  A baseball analyst on ESPN said that it could be the worst call in the history of regular season baseball.   Can we get some instant replay now, Mr. Selig?  I understand the human element of baseball, but the human element ruining something that has only happened 20 times in the history of baseball is unfortunate.  Treat it like football.  Give coaches two challenges a game and it can't ever be balls and strikes.  It wouldn't slow the game down that much, especially when you consider all of the typical slow trots out to the base umpire, kick a little dirt, ask him how his mother is doing and then returning to the dugout.

In other sad baseball news, Ken Griffey Jr. retired.  A phenomenal athlete that brought baseball relevance to the Northwest U.S.  If only injuries hadn't slowed him down we could probably get rid of that Bonds guy.

If I could give out karma, I would give props to KnightinIraq.  This whole hiring thing has gotten everyone agitated on the board.  Calvin fans trying to spark a fire and Hope fans retaliating back adding more fuel to it.

While it seems like a long time to hire, I'm glad the committe is putting the time and effort into it.  A bad hire can set the program back a long time whereas a late hire (though it's not even that late IMO) sets the program back maybe a year..  It's not like Hope had an amazing recruiting class coming in anyway and given the depth on the roster returning, I'm sure the 2010-2011 season will be just fine. 

I realize there isn't much to talk about with it being the summer but can we switch to World Cup soccer or baseball or something to ease our minds?