MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[sac]

Finland 84 Scotland 73   .......they'll play game 2 tommorrow afternoon.  Finlandia goes to 3-7, other two wins against St. Scholastica in OT, and Sault College in Canada (or Soo College).   Someone tell me how Finlandia has 4 kids from the Detroit PSL on their roster?
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Adrian lost a 15 point halftime lead to Albright, Albright shot 69% in the second half to secure the win.  Adrian had a couple shots to expand a 1 point lead or win.  Another 1 point loss by the dreaded last minute FT.

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League goes to 26-43........maybe I should have wished for 30 wins.  We're in rare territory here, I'd look up the lowest winning percentage for the league but I fear this years would be it.  14 games left.

[Flying Dutch Fan]

As my esteemed friend hope1 pointed out Aquinas' gym has been a tough place for Hope over the years.

I don't know about the skull and cross bones, but given the lighting situation in there, Sac's description isn't all that bad. They need new lights or something  -- the high school at which I teach got rid of those 'old' style lights years ago.

The strangest part of the lighting there is that it seemed to me - and was commented on by others including players - that it was actually lighter and brighter in the gym after the game.

This was the second game this year that Hope has lost that I felt pretty good about their play - not counting the offense for the last 5:27.  The D was really good, and they maintained their intensity the entire game.    I think Bowser did a fine job gaurding Lierman today, and Osburn and Venemea really bodied up on Lazic.  I also love seeing Krombeen on the floor.  Maybe the most impressive thing from him today was that he played good D, despite having 2 fouls called on him within the first few mintues of the game.

The most excitign part for me is that I see that as a team and as individuals, this team is improving.  Some family time, the RDV tournament, and they'll be ready to win another MIAA title.

[northb]

The D was really good, and they maintained their intensity the entire game.    I think Bowser did a fine job gaurding Lierman today, and Osburn and Venemea really bodied up on Lazic. 

Lazic was only held to 1.4 points lower than his season average (less than a basket  ), and Lierman actually scored 4 points more than his season average. 

[sac]

The D was really good, and they maintained their intensity the entire game.    I think Bowser did a fine job gaurding Lierman today, and Osburn and Venemea really bodied up on Lazic. 

Lazic was only held to 1.4 points lower than his season average (less than a basket  ), and Lierman actually scored 4 points more than his season average. 

Lazic and Lierman had 9 and 5 turnovers respectively between them

Lierman was at his average FG wise, Lazic was held well under his 55% shooting on the season

Lazic was held under his rebound avg by 1, and 9 less than he garnered the last time Hope played AQ.

.......that glass looks half full to me. 

[Flying Dutch Fan]

The D was really good, and they maintained their intensity the entire game.    I think Bowser did a fine job gaurding Lierman today, and Osburn and Venemea really bodied up on Lazic. 

Lazic was only held to 1.4 points lower than his season average (less than a basket  ), and Lierman actually scored 4 points more than his season average. 

Lazic and Lierman had 9 and 5 turnovers respectively between them

Lierman was at his average FG wise, Lazic was held well under his 55% shooting on the season

Lazic was held under his rebound avg by 1, and 9 less than he garnered the last time Hope played AQ.

.......that glass looks half full to me. 

My point exactly - thanks sac

[northb]

The D was really good, and they maintained their intensity the entire game.    I think Bowser did a fine job gaurding Lierman today, and Osburn and Venemea really bodied up on Lazic. 

Lazic was only held to 1.4 points lower than his season average (less than a basket  ), and Lierman actually scored 4 points more than his season average. 

Lazic and Lierman had 9 and 5 turnovers respectively between them

Lierman was at his average FG wise, Lazic was held well under his 55% shooting on the season

Lazic was held under his rebound avg by 1, and 9 less than he garnered the last time Hope played AQ.

.......that glass looks half full to me. 

It doesn't hurt to be optimistic.  You can always cry later.  ~Lucimar Santos de Lima

[sac]

A non-basketball short story, quit reading if you hate them.


Its the season for travel and the travel mishaps that accompany them.  While going over old photographs I was reminded of one I thought I'd share...just because.

We go back to the year 2000.  I was invited by my cousin Eric (HopeConvert has a remarkable resemblence to him) to attend his wedding in Napa, Ca.  Immediately I pulled out my Rand-McNally, and I now had as good excuse as I'd ever have to go on a grand adventure.  I mean really how many people get to attend a wedding in Napa?  I really obsessed over this trip and probably pulled out that atlas everyday for 6 months looking for routes and sidetrips along the way, trying to figure out what to do after the wedding.  With every page the route grew longer and more complex, untill finally I had a 16 day jaunt planned that would take me to California, down the coast, to the Grand Canyon, through Utah, Colorado and back home.

It just so happened I was buying a new car in the spring of 2000  (I still own it, its a real war horse now), so I not only had a nice trip planned, I had a brand spankin' new ride to take me there.  The trip began without much fanfare, I was off early in the morning with a destination of Omaha, NE..........and my first grand cross country adventure had begun.

A two day flash across the plains and I arrived in Cheyenne, WY which is where the first 'issues' began.  It was late May and being a bit nieve I had no idea that blizzards could strike the high plains this late in the season.  I just never payed attention I guess.  I now know they can, this is actually a story for another day (and its a good one) but the affect this day had on me was profound,  I've no longer had any issues with any snow event since.  I've been in the worst that may ever get dished at me.  In fact I still chuckle whenever a 'storm' rolls across the lake.  Seriously folks our worst doesn't compare.  Nearly 9 years later I've watched with amusement as nearly every year the same part of Wyoming is struck with a late season blizzard.  Now I know.

From that day on the rest of my trip was hot and sunny, the thermometer touched 90 degrees everyday untill I reached Missouri on the return trip.  Weather wise it was spectacular.  The blizzard forced a 16 hour drive from Rawlins, WY to Reno, NV the last 7 spent racing to beat the sun across Nevada with no radio, and no other cars, just a lone black Honda and miles of desert, surreal.  It wasn't exactly Clint Eastwood and his trusty horse blazing down the Nevada trail but you get the picture.    I was pressing for time and wanted to spend a day in Tahoe, which was exactly how I had remembered it from 12 years earlier.  Three days in Napa, a wonderfull wedding, a spectacular drive down the California coast to LA, 2 days in Vegas, The Grand Canyon, a couple days wandering Arizona and Utah.

It was now time to head East, I had chosen Grand Junction, CO as my nights stay and would push across Colorado, to somewhere in Kansas.  This was day 15, most of it spent in a car for 10 hours a day, I was pretty exhausted and fatigued.  I left early in the morning, kind of cool, even crisp, perfect blue sky with no wind.  Simply a great day to drive through some Mountains.  No hint that the thermometer would reach 100 later in the day.

I had been driving 4 or 5 hours, through Mountains and Denver, it was time for a stop and rest.  Near Limon, Co there was a nice rest area, unusual becasue it was in the median.  It was in one of those places that reminded you this was cattle country.  You could look out over the great expanse and almost imagine thousands of cattle being driven to market or heards of buffalo grazing the land.  In the far distance you could still see the remaining snow on the peaks of the Rockies west of Denver.  Then I would snap back to reality as an 18 teen wheeler hummed by, Denver was the blotchy smog pack below the peaks

I did the usual rest stop business, and then took some time to look around the lobby.  This was no ordinary rest stop, this one had a display area.  It contained indian and settler artifacts, a brief history of the area, even with old photographs.  It was really fascinating stuff, made more so because it was in a rest stop and not a museum.  I wandered around the displays for a good 10 minutes, strolling around with my hands in my pockets (they were dockers, and the hands in pockets is important to remember).  I decided it was time to press on, and turned to head for the exit..........WHAM!  Face meet glass, I had walked nearly full speed straight into a pane of glass.

Its here I should explain the facade of this rest area was at least a 15 foot high wall of glass, floor to ceiling.  Obviously this made depth perception difficult for me, and as I was hunched over in agonizing pain  (remember my hands were in my pockets, there was nothing to break the impact), I half expected people to come running out of the restrooms thinking someone had a gun in the lobby.  It was that loud, I was able to glance up just enough to see the window still vibrating from the shock.  Thankfully it stayed intact and I didn't have any Stewie Griffin sized shards of glass sticking out of my skull.

I'd flipped a mini-bike over when I was 11 and suffered a bloody nose, was punched in the face in 6th grade and told it wouldn't hurt because the kid had fat fingers.  It did.  But at this moment near Limon, Colorado I was experiencing the worst pain at that time in my life.  I had literally seen stars and tweety birds.  I decided then there was only one other place on the male body that could possibly hurt worse from such a blow.  Alot of thoughts raced through my head like 'how many people saw that', 'how many people heard that', and 'oh my god I've broken my nose and suffered a concusion by walking into a pane of glass'.  At this point I realized how obscenely funny this was and probably looked, and while still hunched over, grasping my nose, I began laughing hystericaly.  This whole series of thoughts and events probably only took 30 seconds.

Fortunately there were possibly only two other people in the whole rest area at the time, and they were probably doing their rest area business wondering what that noise was.  No one came to my aid, no one had noticed, ........or so I thought

I gathered myself up and decided it was time to stagger to the car, tears now welling up in my eyes and the searing pain now reaching parts of my brain I didn't know I had, but mostly it was my pride that hurt.  As I walked out the door I saw a small church youth group (it was obvious) sitting in a kumbaya circle in the grass.  I was caught between a full cry and hysterical laughter, only mildly succeeding at masking both.  It was my intention to slip by them without any of them noticing I was possibly injured.  I didn't want their help, because then I'd have to explain to them what I had just done.   I'm sure I couldn't have done it with a straight face.

Three of the four didn't notice me, but the fourth was facing me on the other side of the kumbaya circle,..... and facing the building.......he was trying really, really hard not to laugh.  Yep, he had seen me and bless is young heart somehow realized it was my pride that hurt more than anything and he was trying with all his might not to let me know he had seen everything.  But I knew and he knew.

I reached my car, sat down, shut the door and unleashed a series of words not meant for anyone but God and me.........I touched on subjects such as God and hydro-electric power, God's son, the human reproductive process, hydro-electric power again, and sons of female dogs.  Pretty random stuff but said fairly loud, all while still holding by obviously crushed facial cavity.  Then I realized the sunroof on my car was wide open, and my private conversation had been heard by the 'kumbaya group', ........all four were now rolling in the grass in shear joy.  It was time to go.

I merged back on I-70, somehow managing to remember I was going East.......I also realized  my nose was now bleeding.  All I had in the car were a couple of old McDonald's napkins, so I stuffed them in the offending nostril.  

So there I was driving across some of our country's most beautifull land  (where pioneers bet their fortunes, buffalo once grazed in the thousands, Indians hunted, and cowboys drove cattle).............with McDonalds' napkins stuffed up my nose and my pride bruised and battered.   Still laughing inside with the pain slowly subsiding.
------------------------------------

I'll finish by saying the rest of that day was pretty uneventfull........sort of, I stopped for lunch in Colby, KS.  By this time it was apparent I hadn't broken my nose or any other facial features, just damaged my ego and pride.  I did have a pretty good headache most of the day, whether that was from fatigue or hitting my face on glass is debatable.   The most difficult part of the day was to not break out into wild laughter in front of complete strangers when the toughts of what happened flashed across the brain.  I nearly became a permanent part of a truckers grill pulling onto I-70,  I blame it on a VW Bug whose teenage driver was probably more interested in jamming to the 'Back Street Boys' than actually maybe paying attention to when she should merge or let others merge.  Though I'm sure it was my fault.

I settled into the steady pace of highway driving, sunroof open enjoying another gorgeous hot day on my grand journey.   Occasionally drifting into a psychotic like laughter at the thought of a man walking into a pane of glass.   I settled on Topeka, KS for the night, because I could probably make it to Holland from there the next day, and did.  Preparing for bed, I checked the mirror to see if my nose was showing any signs of the mornings encounter with a pane of glass.  To my horror I realized that leaving the sun roof open across the Great Plains on a 100 degree day was not such a bright idea afterall.  I now had a diagonal burn pattern across my face with the right side now a glowing red.   Perfect.



So enjoy your travels this holiday season, take the trials of travels in stride, they sometimes make the best stories.

[northb]

+k, Sac--good story

[sac]

Scotland 78 Finland 75 no details,  Aggregate 159-151 in favor of the Fins.

[hoopdreams]

from what i've been told, Hope played quite well at times and with the exception of the last 1-3 minutes of the 1st, and 5 minutes of the 2nd half was the better team.  Still, little satisfaction the the players and staff. 

I found the stats compelling: winning the boards, the to totals for AQ, cox took 5 shots in 4 minutes?, bunn only 5 in 30, tanis 3 in 6 minutes?

A prior post about shooting % got me thinking about the last several games, so I did a quick check on Peter's shooting.  In the last 5 games he is 9-33 for 27%, 1-6 for 17% behind the arc.

Admittedly, I'm not the biggest Bunn fan...yet. He is certainly no Joel Holstege and its certainly not fair to compare. I  saw him get dominated in HS against Tri-unity's pg in the tourney his junior year, 1 and done at Oakland, I know he is very weak defensively, and stats are showing that he's not a lights out shooter either "all the time".  But I have seen increased effort to do the right things on D, so hopefully it will click soon. He is an outstanding athlete, and does some "WOW" things on the floor, but "wow" doesn't guarantee "w's". 

Off to some sunshine for a few, I hope everyone has an enjoyable, safe holiday.

[realist]

Point...  Just listening to the games, and looking at the stats I would be willing to bet that you have pretty much seen who/how Hope will play going forward.  I think with the recent departures it has made GVW's choices fewer, and easier.  Andy V will grow into a very good role player, and it strikes me some of the so's will do better as well once they understand their roles. 
At this time I think Hope has done what it could, and had to do to grow into a potentially good team.  On the other hand, Calvin , while it has shown flashes of great potential continues to frustrate, and confuse.  IMHO KVS would be well served by upping his starter's minutes to 30 plus, and than  rely on 2 or three people coming off the bench to split the rest of the time.  Having a player like Katt come in, and not get either rebounds or points doesn't add to the cause. 
FDF:  I am inclined to agree with you that at this time it looks like the MIAA is Hope's to lose.
NB:  The losses to AQ and Trinity have not given much reason to be either glass half full or half empty on Calvin's chances.  They may struggle to even equal last years record.

[oldknight]

Point...  Just listening to the games, and looking at the stats I would be willing to bet that you have pretty much seen who/how Hope will play going forward.  I think with the recent departures it has made GVW's choices fewer, and easier.  Andy V will grow into a very good role player, and it strikes me some of the so's will do better as well once they understand their roles. 
At this time I think Hope has done what it could, and had to do to grow into a potentially good team.  On the other hand, Calvin , while it has shown flashes of great potential continues to frustrate, and confuse.  IMHO KVS would be well served by upping his starter's minutes to 30 plus, and than  rely on on 2 pr three people coming off the bench to split the rest of the time.  Having a player like Katt come in, and not get either rebounds or points doesn't add to the cause. 
FDF:  I am inclined to agree with you that at this time it looks like the MIAA is Hope's to lose.

It's still too early to be so inclined. In fact, I would say it's unrealistic to be so inclined. I'm in a bit of a quandry about what to think about Calvin. Other than Calvin's loss to Trinity, the Flying Dutchmen and the Knights have had virtually identical results against common opponents--so much so that I find it impossible to see a clear difference between the two teams. Comparing Hope's close win over the Trolls is mitigated somewhat by the fact that Trinity's loss was at DeVos while their win against Calvin was in Palos Heights.

I'm thinking that part of Calvin's problems may be associated with the fact that they have been without a home court--even for practice--since school opened in September. I understand the team began formal practices at the newly opened Huizenga Tennis and Track Center, but haven't been able to use that facility since November. Since then the Knights have had to practice at no less than two off-campus facilities. In addition, they haven't had a "home game" since the Tip-Off Tournament which was also off-campus. That kind of moving around isn't exactly helpful in building team consistency. Don't be too surprised if the opening of the new arena and the playing of some true home games coincides with a different--and more consistent team. Besides, Bosko has already proclaimed the Knights to be the certain league champs. 

[sac]

I don't think anyone's done enough to earn the tab 'favorite'.  I don't even think there is a consensus top 3. 

The only discernable difference between Hope and Calvin's results is the last Aquinas game where Hope lost by 5, Calvin by 13 both at Aquinas.  Not sure thats enough to earn a 'favorite' tag.

[sac]

Don't be too surprised if the opening of the new arena and the playing of some true home games coincides with a different--and more consistent team.

I won't be surprised, Calvin's first two home games in the new digs are against Trine (2-7) and Alma (2-8) 

[Flying Dutch Fan]

I don't think anyone's done enough to earn the tab 'favorite'.  I don't even think there is a consensus top 3. 

The only discernable difference between Hope and Calvin's results is the last Aquinas game where Hope lost by 5, Calvin by 13 both at Aquinas.  Not sure thats enough to earn a 'favorite' tag.

My comment about Hope being ready to win another MIAA title was intended to say they would be ready to compete for it.  I certainly never meant to indicate it was theirs to lose, or that I could even articulate who the top 3 or 4  teams are at this point.