MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[sac]

I was checking MIAA websites one final time before we kick this off for real tommorrow and I came across this update on Alma's web page. 

http://www.alma.edu/news/releases/archives/2008/11/14/health       Weird huh!

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About the Scots, their final roster contains 14 names,
http://www.alma.edu/athletics/mens/basketball/roster

10 of the 14 are underclassmen with 7 being Freshman.

Alma graduated just 2 SR's last year, but almost amazingly they've lost 12 of 16 members from last years squad.  I guess only time will tell if this is an improvement in talent or not.......I tend to think it might be.  Alma listed 7 gaurds last season, this season only 5, and have reversed their Forward/Gaurd ratio by listing 7 forwards this season.  On first blush at least the Scots would appear to be a little taller.

I have to think theirs a JV'er or two that might slide into the varsity from night to night.  Carrying only 14 seems odd.

[sac]

Davecollinge over on the NCAC board stated that Michael Staley transferred from Hiram to Adrian this fall.

Indeed Staley is on the Bulldogs final roster, he averaged 16.7 pts,  and appears to be a top notch 3 point chucker with 44% behind last years stripe.  He's also solid at the FT line at 80%.

Seems like a nice pickup for Adrian, I imagine he'll play the point and could be a nice compliment to Desmond Young.

The rest of Adrian's roster http://adrianbulldogs.cstv.com/sports/m-baskbl/mtt/adri-m-baskbl-mtt.html

Another team with just 4 upperclassmen,  8 Sophs and 4 Fr.  Two transfers that I know of,  Staley and O'Conner.  Adrian has also lost a number of kids, 6 I count............most notable Lamar Cardenas, but Adrian played much of the MIAA season a year ago without him anyway.  All together just 5 players return from last seasons MIAA tournament roster.

Adrian lists 10 players as gaurds or equivalent........including one from England.


Brian O'Conner is kind of interesting.........I have him on a Widener College roster from 2 years ago.  Erik Sklar is beginning his first season as an Adrian assistant.........guess where he's from.......yep, Widener.

[KnightSlappy]

Erik Sklar is beginning his first season as an Adrian assistant

I'm not sure how Erik is at coaching, but as far as comedy is concerned he is no Randy and Jason.

[sac]

We're working out of alphabetical order here but........here's Albion's final roster. http://www.albion.edu/sports/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2728&Itemid=1153

Weird that the Brits have easily the most returning players with 11 of 15, loaded with upperclassmen, 7 Seniors and 5 Juniors..............then they change coaches on us.

Albion returns every player who could, with the only departures being Seniors, Mocini, Cash, Raven and Reule.  Of the newcomers I'm fairly confident JC Cruse will be the most prominent in Albion's rotation.  Speaking of rotation I don't see Albion changing much from last year, just plug 'em in and play 'em.  Even with the departure of Mocini it seems like they have a solid backcourt returning.

This is a team that was right in the MIAA chase to the end last winter, are the coaches voting on auto-pilot?  This team seems overlooked to me.

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Calvin  http://www.calvin.edu/sports/mens/basketball/roster.htm
only 13 on the varsity.

Maybe the team that was supposed to return the most, I count 5 players who could return that did not, 6 with the graduation of Griffin.  Calvin added to their depth with the transfers of Trent Salo and Brian Schnyders.  This is a team that was supposed to be Sr. laden with almost 2 full years of experience together, however it looks as if they've added a nice bit of youthfull energy with 5 Sophs, at least 2 look to be heavy contributers.

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Hope's roster hasn't changed (with the exception of Jorin Scott)
http://www.hope.edu/pr/athletics/mbb/mbbrost.html

8 New faces this year but whats really staggering is the lack of returning minutes played.  2391 out of 6425.......but over 850 of those belong to Jesse Reimink

What an odd roster 3 Sr's, 4 Jr's but none of those Jr's were on the varsity a year ago yet each was enrolled at Hope.  6 Sophs and 2 Frosh.

Hope goes from Final Four quality to ?, thats the big question with these guys.  Lots of nice pieces, but a really complicated puzzle to put together.

.......I'll trine finish up the 'vet and 'zoo tommorrow

[calvin_grad]

For those who think Calvin and Hope shouldn't schedule Grace Bible (insert dead horse here), Grace Bible is travelling down to South Carolina to play Div. I Citadel on Friday.    

Citadel 81, Grace Bible 72 - Obviously Citadel isn't a DI power, but Grace Bible certainly hung in there.

[Flying Dutch Fan]

Enjoyed watching the Dutchmen scrimmage the Berghorst all-stars (including Wolfe, Van Solkema, and Bosma) tonight.  Hope started the game with Bunn, Tanis, Bowser, Reimink, and Osburn.  Mulitple combinations of all players followed the rest of the evening, and I think Reimink and Osburn started the 2nd half, but with 3 different guys.  Hope won 88-77 or something close to that.  Biggest impressions on me were:

- Boswer has taken his game to a new level.  Great rebounding, good defense, had several tip in baskets, shot it well, and played an all-around good game.

- Tanis shot very well (I think he was 4-6 from 3)


- Osburn continues his great D, causing many turnovers, as well as rebounding well

- The Point - I see it as a real struggle to see who gets playing time.  Bunn is very smoooth, even under pressure.  He drives, draws the D, and dishes extremely well.  Also has a really nice shot.  Carter pushes the tempo well and sees the floor well.  Krombeen was the most impressive to me tonight, and really had the offense running full throttle

Going to be a fun year

Go HOPE

[hope#1]

I agree with the Flying Dutch Fan's assessment on tonights scrimmage.  The team will be fun to watch once they get acclimated to each other and GVW's schemes.  The challenge for this team will be on the boards.  They've got good athletes but will need to rely on good old fashion boxing out or they will struggle. 

I was impressed with both the freshman's play.  King didn't play a lot but he showed some game in the first half and Krombeen looked like a veteran out there and should only get better.  Osburn, Bunn, Bowser and Carter were all solid.  This team has a lot of different looks it can throw at the opponent so they will be tough to play against.  Go Hope!   

[sac]

I know this is a D3 site but I'll put a plug in for small college basketball.

If your jonesin' for some hoops head on over to Cornerstone's fine facility Saturday  afternoon 1 & 3pm.

Spring Arbor 5-1 vs Aquinas #22 0-1

Indiana Wesleyan 5-0 #8 vs Cornerstone 5-0
(# = NAIA II pre-season ranking.)

On Friday IWU beat AQ 61-49 while C'stone beat SAU 93-91.

All four of these teams I believe have games vs MIAA teams in the coming weeks.


Plus, I don't know how many remember Andy Sierminski(Olivet) but he's now on the Spring Arbor basketball team.

[oldknight]

For those who think Calvin and Hope shouldn't schedule Grace Bible (insert dead horse here), Grace Bible is travelling down to South Carolina to play Div. I Citadel on Friday.    

Citadel 81, Grace Bible 72 - Obviously Citadel isn't a DI power, but Grace Bible certainly hung in there.

This summary appears on Grace Bible's website:

Friday, November 14, 2008
Tigers Take The Citadel To The Wire
Grace's Tigers traveled 1,000 miles to take on the Bulldogs of The Citadel and almost pulled off the upset. Grace lost the game 81-72 but was in it unill [sic] the final seconds. GBC took their last lead at the 12:51 of the second half but only trailed by three, 73-70 at the 2:12 mark. The Bulldogs hit two late three's and a pair of free throws to extend their lead to nine.

Allen Durham led Grace with 26 points and 7 rebounds, Paul Nelson hit for 19 and Ryan Krombeen 13. Cory Jamieson led GBC with a game high 6 assists. The Tiger's turned the ball over 15 times

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To travel two days on a bus and give a DI school a battle on their floor speaks well of the gradual improvement we've seen in Grace Bible's BB program over the years--irrespective of the fact that The Citadel isn't a DI hoops power. They still compete at that level of competition. Keeping the game competitive is even more impressive when considering the fact that Grace did it without Matt Jamieson who is a medical red-shirt this season. When I saw him play last year I believed he was Grace's best player, a confident, hard nosed and skillful hoopster who would fit in well on any MIAA roster.

The fact that Grace has already played several games this year while this one was Citadel's opener probably was a contibuting factor in the closeness of the game. For this reason the Knights would do well to be wary of taking on Grace in Calvin's opener next Friday. One of the most unnoticed changes in college basketball over the last 25 years is the fact that there are so many good players available now. I don't believe the best players are any better--the best players of the 1980's would still be the best players today, and vice versa. It's just that there are so many players today who have pretty good skills, even if they don't have the athleticism to be a star at the small college level. It wasn't that many years ago that an MIAA team didn't have to take school's like Grace (or even Trinity) that seriously and could still win, usually quite easily. That's no longer the case.

Similarly, I think Hope has a challenge when they take on Trinity next Saturday and had better take the Trolls seriously, especially this year with all the roster changes and turmoil of the nororvirus that interrupted Hope's campus. Certainly Trinity doesn't have all the athletes that Hope does but Trinity has some skilled and experienced players who have that "gym rat" mentality making them a dangeous opponent for a young team in search of an identity. This will be Trinity's sixth game of the year and they're the preseason favorite in their conference, so an upset at DeVos really wouldn't shock me.

BTW: I noticed that Grace has a freshmen from Grandville by the name of Ryan Krombeen. I assume he is related to Hope's freshmen, David Krombeen also from Grandville.

[Gregory Sager]

For those who think Calvin and Hope shouldn't schedule Grace Bible (insert dead horse here), Grace Bible is travelling down to South Carolina to play Div. I Citadel on Friday.    

Citadel 81, Grace Bible 72 - Obviously Citadel isn't a DI power, but Grace Bible certainly hung in there.

I would imagine that those Citadel players are doing a lot of pushups today.

[Bulldogs2006]

Erik Sklar is beginning his first season as an Adrian assistant.........guess where he's from.......yep, Widener.
[/quote]

Actually this is Eric's second season at Adrian.  I have heard from some people in Adrian, that the team looks good this year. Ready to challenge for the MIAA title.  The coaches really seem to like the transfers and the incoming freshmen they have

[jspiii]

Observation from the scrimmage Friday night.
  I saw Hope had a visitor: Tim Dezelski and his parents from Detroit Catholic Central. I' m not sure of his intentions but here is writeup from someone on the MLive board:
  I watched this kid at the Kentucky Hoopfest and the Hoosier Shootout and this kid can play. He is 6'6" plays forward and can also stroke the three. Look for him to make alot of noise in the Catholic League and possiblity in the state. His college choices include all MAC schools and a few Big Ten schools

  Here is a link to his profile:
     http://profiles.berecruited.com/athletes/athletics/270360

[hope1]

i think hope looked pretty good to  last night now wait till thuresday  night to see how they do in a game

[scottiedawg]

I had to leave with six minutes left in the scrimmage, but here are some rough stats up to that point in the game:

Jesse Reimink, 19 pts, 5 reb
Will Bowser, 8, 8
Zach Osburn, 6, 10
Pete Bunn, 6, 1
Dan Cox, 6, 0
David Krombeen, 5, 2
Ty Tanis, 5, 2
Brandon Bosch, 4, 0
Jon Snikkers, 3, 2
Andy Venema, 2, 3
Chris Nelis, 2, 1
Kelvin Carter, 1, 2
Nate King, 0, 4
Kevin Warren, 0, 1
Doug Sharples, 0, 1

--I heard Tanis hit some threes late, so he probably ended up being the second highest scorer. 

--Hope will have a nice problem trying to split up minutes between Bunn, Carter, Tanis, and Krombeen at PG and SG. 

--Opening lineup of Bunn, Tanis, Bowser, Reimink, and Osburn.

--We saw Carter and Bunn on the floor at the same time, with Carter mysteriously playing the 2.

--Krombeen showed me a lot; playing at a high speed and intensity, while still being in control.  This is a quality that Bowser did not possess last year, but has improved upon.

--A lot of the guys, especially the newcomers, were hesitant to take shots.  This will change as everyone becomes more comfortable.

--I counted 8 Hope players dunking in warmups, and quite easily I might add.

--Carter was 1/6 from the line.  Improvement here is necessary as he has shown an ability to get to the rim, but not an ability to finish.  His ability to hit free throws will drastically increase his value to the team.

[calvin_grad]

--I counted 8 Hope players dunking in warmups, and quite easily I might add.

I used to be able to dunk in warmups fairly easily.  I should've gone to Hope to play hoops.