MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[gohope]

Notes from the Hope game:

*  Wheeewwwww.  That was the collective sound from the Hope Faithful following the final buzzer of the game.  The beginning of the game seemed to go okay, but then came the turnovers for Hope, the fouls for Adrian and the POOR SHOOTING for everyone!!! For Hope there just wasn't energy or enthusiasm, it seemed liked they had used it all up on Wednesday.  After the game I heard a number of players commenting on their play and murmurring, "Where was SAC?"  "I Thought He was going to be there."  "We needed SAC."  Like popeye, spinach was the answer to his strength. For the Dutchmen, they need SAC!  

*  Then came the second half. Adrian came out to play. And the shooting wasn't going Hope's way, but THEY NEVER GAVE UP! There were some definite sparks such as Tyler Wolfe at 14:14 sacrificing his body for the team as he goes up for a lay-up and then splat against the basketball post, but after shaking it off, "swoosh" goes the free-throw.  Then at 3:48, "swoosh" a 3 by Ryan Klein. The battery is getting re-charged!  Then at 1:59 a 3 by Tyler Wolfe. More energy!! In the last two minutes some KLUTCH free-throws by Derek VanSolkema. In the closing two minutes, the Dutchmen NEVER GAVE UP!  

* It was an UGLY game, but still goes in the books as a "W."   Hope had a tough time defensively on the inside. The dogs seemed to be able to get inside with little stoppage by the Dutchmen, so then in the second half Hope played more zone which helped stop the guys in black and gold from getting to the basket from the inside so much.

*  Looking at the stats, the word "Ugly" fits here too as the shooting for Hope was at 38% -- I think that the players were getting good looks at the basket, but their shots just weren't falling. Liked stated before, Wheeewwwwwwwwww, that one is in the book!

*  Two side notes - Happy Birthday to the BEST SID in the whole world!!!  And for those of you who weren't at the game, the program stated that tomorrow's Detroit Free Press is scheduled to publish a feature story on Hope Basketball,written by Jeff Seidel. And if you are able to get an extra copy, I know that Stinger would appreciate having you save it for him!!  

*  602 wasn't pretty, but its still #602!

[bulldogalum]

Hope   74
Adrian 70

F

Actually, I thought the game was almost REALLY pretty.   

I was surprised to note the posts on here regarding a lack of intensity from the Dutchmen today.  Granted, I haven't seen them much this year, but at floor level, this felt like a big game, especially on the defensive ends for both teams.  That, no doubt, had a lot to do with lower shooting percentages, especially from three point range.  No shots were easy today for either team.

I was thrilled to see Adrian come out and play its best game in weeks.  Brett Asher really came in and gave the Bulldogs great minutes, the best game I've ever seen him play. 

For Hope, Klein was the difference in the game.  Vanderheide is Hope's best player, but I really thought Ian Weber matched up with him very well (the stats would back me up, too, Vanderheide had 15 pts, 11 boards, 3 steals, Weber had 13 points, 11 boards, 3 blocks, and 9 of Vanderheide's points came from the charity stripe). 

Actually, what was most impressive about the game is how both teams seemed to be deep enough on the bench to go to it without a noticeable dropoff.  Hope's top 8 are as good as anyone, and with Adrian bringing Gallus, Cardenas, and Asher off the bench, they too proved they could go a solid 8 deep.

In a game as tough and competitive as this one was, it's hard to see any team lose, especially when it's your team, but Adrian has a lot they can take from this game.  They now know that they can compete with a top 10 team in their building in front of a great crowd, and play well enough to win.  If they play like that the rest of the season, they won't lose many.  I'm really hoping they use the game as a springboard to the rest of the season.  Not often you can do this after a loss, but this might be a rare exception.

[oldknight]

There are two incontrovertable facts I take away from the Knights' 73-68 loss at the Fieldhouse tonight.

1) Albion played harder than did Calvin for most of the second half and earned the win based on that fact, and

2) Callistus Eziukwu thought the officiating was wretched.

KVS's postgame comments made for fascinating listening. He was about as blunt spoken as I have ever heard him on the air. Among other things he said (correctly) that Calvin simply needs to get tougher on the boards, that current officiating standards have simply turned basketball into wrestling matches (not his exact words, but close), and that his team handled the officiating better than he did. On that last point KVS was referring to the T he got at the 3:27 mark with the Brits leading by 3. Mocini made both throws and those two made FT's were huge down the stretch.

The most disappointing part of tonight's loss for the Knight faithful was the fact that they missed out on #238 for KVS.

[Pat Coleman]

Thanks to Olivet (and I'm guessing OC_SID), we know have a composite scoreboard to watch (with the live stats from all the games on one board)

http://www.olivetcollege.edu/athletics/miaa/mbb/0120.HTM

There is one for the womens games as well

http://www.olivetcollege.edu/athletics/miaa/wbb/0120.HTM

Does anyone know if this is just a today thing or if it will continue throughout the rest of the season?

Yes, I was the one that created the scoreboards.    I was sitting at home on a night when both Olivet teams were on the road. I wanted a way to watch the stats from both of our games, so I created a scoreboard viewer to show both teams' livestats. I translated that language into a MIAA men's board and a MIAA women's board. I have been testing and modifying the look for the last week, and was comfortable with the look this week to let Tom Renner know.

First, when you go to these pages, make sure that you have your pop-up blocker turned off. For those that have not figured it out, you can click on the name of the game (such as Olivet at Alma, 3 p.m.) and a new window will open with just the livestats for that game. Or you can click on any of the Quick stats, Individual, Team, etc., and a new window will open with that set of stats for that particular game. I will warn you that for Hope games, you will have to use the right scroll bar to view the stats when you click on the links for the stats in their viewer, so it might be best for you to just click on the top link to view the entire livestats. The page just pulls the topview.htm file from each school's livestats, so it uses the HTML language on that page, and I can not edit the links for the stats. I can only edit the link at the top to open that game's livestats page.

I hope that I did confuse anyone!   

I also have to say thanks to the other MIAA SIDs for their work to get the livestats to work. This scoreboard only works as well as them doing the stats at their particular game.

Finally, I plan to update the scoreboard for each Wednesday and Saturday during conference play.

It would be even better if schools could post these links on our scoreboard and share them with the rest of Division III fandom.

[OC_SID]

Notes from the Hope game:


*  Happy Birthday to the BEST SID in the whole world!!!

Thanks for the early Happy Birthday wish!   

I assume that Tom Renner was celebrating his birthday today. My birthday is in a month, Feb. 18.

[HopeConvert]

I have to agree with bulldogalum - I thought it was a very intense game, and I didn't see any lack of intensity from Hope. They looked to me as if they were exerting themselves, and they didn't shoot that well, but a lot of that had to do with Adrian, who I thought played a tough, gutty game. I was frankly quite impressed by the Bulldogs, and I don't think there was anything wrong with the Dutchmen today. Adrian played a whale of a ballgame. Klein clearly bailed Hope out.

I thought it was a good move by GVW to move to a zone with about 15 left in the second half, but that good move was more than negated by his shortening the bench when the game got tight. I don't understand this. When the bench was in the first half, they increased the lead (even with some off shooting by Tanis), and could clearly hold their own with Adrian. Hope will almost always benefit from a war of attrition, and the fact that GVW made no substitutions until the 11 minute mark of the second half, and then only left them in for a couple of minutes before bringing the starters back for the rest of the game, makes no sense to me.

I enjoyed the game today. I thought both teams played pretty well - maybe Hope can play a better than they did but, again, I think a lot of the credit for that goes to Adrian. They played tough defense, made the extra pass, hit some big shots, and played with great passion. They did a good job in the second half adjusting to Hope's defense, going over the top of the double-team that had given them such fits in the first half and getting some easy baskets as a result. Good coaching. As the game progressed, you could feel the tension in the fieldhouse. I think this is a good win for Hope: beating a worthy opponent who has thrown their biggest haymaker at you.

[MWKnight]

for the past four or five years, the Knights have struggled early and then put together a nice run once Feb/March rolls around.  While this is nice, it is also puzzling at the same time.  What makes them struggle during the first half and then thrive the last couple of weeks???  KVS always has something up his sleeve for the boys to learn.  tonight was no exception.  a "well timed" technical sends a message much greater than losing one game to a solid team in Albion...it is preparing the boys for the future...teaching them to play with passion and desire.  i recently read an article on espn.com about rick majerus and would recommend it to all; very well written and i can see some of the same qualities in KVS that Majerus has...the ornery almost pissed off attitude all the time, striving for perfection, always teaching, always competing.  the knights are definitely on the verge...how many times will griffin score 2 points???  how many times will our depth be matched...very few.  Time to step it up for good and be men, take it to the opponent, either Hope or Alma.  we lack that punch, that attitude, when we find that though, we can be scary good, nationally competing good (sorry Hopesters, you don't have the depth we do). 

the year goes on

[arena]

Nice game Albion.  Beat Calvin by playing a bullying defense in the first 10 minutes of the second half. 

[Flying Dutch Fan]

(sorry Hopesters, you don't have the depth we do). 

Interesting comment.  Not sure that anyone who watched the MIAA/CCIW challenge this year would agree with that.

[hope1]

i thought it was big when vandersteek   got a t in the last couple of minutes  that hurt calvin i thought

[northb]

for the past four or five years, the Knights have struggled early and then put together a nice run once Feb/March rolls around.  While this is nice, it is also puzzling at the same time.  What makes them struggle during the first half and then thrive the last couple of weeks???  KVS always has something up his sleeve for the boys to learn.  tonight was no exception.  a "well timed" technical sends a message much greater than losing one game to a solid team in Albion...it is preparing the boys for the future...teaching them to play with passion and desire.  i recently read an article on espn.com about rick majerus and would recommend it to all; very well written and i can see some of the same qualities in KVS that Majerus has...the ornery almost pissed off attitude all the time, striving for perfection, always teaching, always competing.  the knights are definitely on the verge...how many times will griffin score 2 points???  how many times will our depth be matched...very few.  Time to step it up for good and be men, take it to the opponent, either Hope or Alma.  we lack that punch, that attitude, when we find that though, we can be scary good, nationally competing good (sorry Hopesters, you don't have the depth we do). 

the year goes on

Unfortunately for us Calvin fans, they have more than we do!

[pointlem]

Lovely Detroit Free Press article on Hope and DIII BB by Jeff Seidel, who once covered Hope sports for the GR Press:
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008801200510

[scottiedawg]

For all the talk about the Dutchmen free-throw shooting, here are some facts

Top 25 Free-Throw Shooting Percentages
Emlhurst 81%
UW Oshkosh 80%
Guilford 77%
Wooster 75%
Hope 73%
Augustana 73%
UW Whitewater 73%
Randolph Macon 72%
Amherst 72%
Wheaton 72%
Williams 72%
UW Stevens Point 71%
Centre 71%
Virginia Wesleyan 71%
Puget Sound 70%
Capital 70%
Brandeis 68%
Mass Dartmouth 67%
Plattsburgh St 65%
WashU 65%
MHB 64%
Milsaps 63%
Carnegie Mellon 63%
Rochester 63%
Stevens 57%

Hope ranks T5th.  And first in the MIAA. 

p.s. a virtually intact WashU club that made 21/22 against Hope last year is shooting 65% this year. 

[ChicagoHopeNut]

for the past four or five years, the Knights have struggled early and then put together a nice run once Feb/March rolls around.  While this is nice, it is also puzzling at the same time.  What makes them struggle during the first half and then thrive the last couple of weeks???  KVS always has something up his sleeve for the boys to learn.  tonight was no exception.  a "well timed" technical sends a message much greater than losing one game to a solid team in Albion...it is preparing the boys for the future...teaching them to play with passion and desire.  i recently read an article on espn.com about rick majerus and would recommend it to all; very well written and i can see some of the same qualities in KVS that Majerus has...the ornery almost pissed off attitude all the time, striving for perfection, always teaching, always competing.  the knights are definitely on the verge...how many times will griffin score 2 points???  how many times will our depth be matched...very few.  Time to step it up for good and be men, take it to the opponent, either Hope or Alma.  we lack that punch, that attitude, when we find that though, we can be scary good, nationally competing good (sorry Hopesters, you don't have the depth we do). 

the year goes on

While I agree that at times a technical and close loss can help a team as much as a win I certainly doubt that was KVS approach yesterday

Despite Calvin"s struggles yesterday was only their second regional loss! Yes! Thanks to the NCAA"s regional system Hope and Calvin were actually tied in the loss column up until yesterday. So while its unlikely its not totally impossible that Calvin could get a pool C bid. I think its unlikely because despite just 2 losses Calvin still lacks the quality in-region wins that Hope has.

All that to say that I rarely think a tough in-region loss is good.

[HopeConvert]

I thought a key moment in the game yesterday was the intentional foul called on Adrian's Brett Asher, and I have to say I simply don't like that rule. (For those who missed it, Reimink head faked and Asher came down on top of him). Asher played a tough game, and he instinctively went for a fake and tried to protect himself on the way down. It just isn't an intentional foul.