MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[oldknight]

I am so glad Calvin got past Albion. Albion is such a good team. John used to play travel ball with Stasiak and Stasiak always brought such an intensity to the game in high school. It seems Albion teams do the same thing.

You're right about Stasiak. He's a great leader and a really tough kid. He took a tumble late in the game and rolled an ankle. Unfortunately, it looked like the type that won't heal soon.

When the night started I expected the usual rough and tumble, defensive minded game we expect to see from Albion, with good shots at a premium. I wasn't disappointed. If you weren't at the game tonight, don't worry. Regular watchers of Albion basketball have seen this game many times before. Veltema finally hit Calvin's first field goal at the 13:07 mark to put the Knights up 6-5. Calvin went into another offensive funk late in the half, going nearly 6 minutes without a field goal while being outscored 19-2. Someday Calvin will shoot well at VanNoord but it wasn't going to be this game.

RuleBritannia's comments mentioning Calvin's newly found ability to win the close ones is exactly on the mark. This was the gritty type of game you have to win to be a champion. Last year's team doesn't win this one. Rodts and Veltema carried a balky offense while Zoerhof was tremendous on defense, especially down the stretch.

The officiating was--shall we say--uneven, but at least they didn't threaten the Knight mascot with a tech. He was on his best behavior. The held ball call with about 30 seconds left and Tyler firmly in possession was quite mysterious. With the ball going back to the Brits at that point in the game it could have been a really bad break for Calvin. But immediately following that headscratcher, the refs overlooked Veltema's rather obvious walk. Seconds later Matt was fouled and sank two free throws to give Calvin a 65-61 lead with 16 ticks left. So in the end, all was well, even if Mantel did get a couple of doubtful calls before his early exit.

[wiz]

One thing that strikes me is that this Calvin team really seems to enjoy playing together.  The stats may not reflect it but I thought that once again Caleb showed some great senior leadership out there tonight. 

I thought the same thing.  Caleb began the second half with a couple of quick jumpers, a 2 and a 3, and really wanted to have the ball in his hands from that point on.  While he was sluggish in the first half and has been sporadic in his shooting this season, his abililty to bring value and leadership to this championship team has always been there.  The Albion defense was the best I have seen against the Knights this year and Caleb was the one that could slip through it for a drive to the bucket or to find the open man.  He didn't have the most points and he didn't have the best shooting percentage but, again, he was clearly the leader.  And, of course, KVS had the usual confidence to have Veldhouse receive the inbounds pass when it was absolutely necessary for Albion to foul. 

I was also struck by the loss of good contributors there will be on next year's team.  Six seniors were recognized prior to the start of the game and I don't remember a time in recent years that we have seen so many conclude there season at the same time.  Thank you seniors for all you have done.  But, it isn't over yet.  We expect to see you play many more games yet in your Calvin basketball career.

[hope1]

great game last night hope played very well  the whole gme shut down adrian now a tough game at calvin  sat  night schould be tough there last home game. what a good starting line up the seniors came out and played big last night i hope he keeps the lineup for the rest of the year i tought that was the beast they played last night will be tough in the tourments next week

[oldknight]

A lot of you were not happy with the quality of WGVU's broadcast of Hope/Calvin last Wednesday.  Somebody from Calvin posted a nice 3 minutes or so highlights of  the game, which is in pretty good quality.  It has Zoerhof's block in there that some of us from talking about.

It might take a while to load, though...

http://www.calvin.edu/news/2008-09/calvin-hope2/

Nicely done and a +k to Mr. Zaagman on the highlights. Quality was pretty good even when going to full screen. Worth watching, especially if you're a Calvin fan.

[KnightSlappy]

MIAA Tournament Scenarios: Listed in order of current standings.

1. Calvin - Clinched #1 seed.
2. Hope - Clinched #2 seed (2 wins over Adrian).
3. Albion - Clinched #3 seed.
4. Olivet - Clinched #4 seed (win over Calvin).
5. Adrian - Clinches #5 seed with win OR Kzoo loss.
6. Kalamazoo - Clinches #5 seed with win AND Adrian loss.  Clinches #6 seed with Trine loss AND loss or Adrian win.  Clinches #7 seed with loss AND Trine win.
7. Alma - Clinches #7 seed with win AND Trine loss.  Clinches #8 seed with Trine win.
8. Trine - Clinches #6 seed with wind AND Kzoo loss.  Clinches #7 seed with win AND Kzoo win.  Clinches #8 seed with loss.

Let me know if you see an error.

[doc]

That being said, Albion can't expect to get a victory when they shoot 30% from the field. In fact, only one Brit, Bill Leising, had a personal shooting percentage over 50%, curiously, all his shots were from "three."

These were not just ordinary threes, either.  They were more of the 3-5 ft behind the line, Caleb-esque three variety.

[realist]

Undisputed league champions.  There were more than a few times in December and January when that seemed a far-fetched prospect for this 2008-2009 Calvin team.
The net-cutting ceremony was the first of what one can hope will be many more for the Knights inside the VanNoord Arena in coming years.  

I am not at all surprised by Calvin's MIAA title.  Back in Dec. (about page 1190 if you care to check)  I predicted the MIAA champion would come in 13-1 or 12-2.  One or the other of these is going to happen.  The coaches preseason poll had Calvin first, and Hope a close second.  Guess they knew what they were doing.  Hope has 3 MIAA loses by a total of 5 points.  Looking at it another way Hope is 8 points, and one game away from having run the table.  Calvin has won, but seldom dominated.   

[ACHOOPS-00]

Massey's MOV-based ratings for the last few years:

	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009*
Adrian	61	228	183	181	217
Albion	10	28	127	45	69
Alma	116	171	321	271	320
Calvin	2	14	28	48	28
Hope	29	3	5	2	68
Kazoo	157	111	292	262	225
Olivet	128	226	327	156	168
Trine	93	144	137	198	296

*To 2009-02-17

Note that the whole league is pulled up if teams do well in the NCAA tourney. I'd take the 2005 results with a grain of salt since two teams went far. For this year, inter-league comparisons are based exclusively on pre-conference games; if the conference has strengthened as a whole that won't show up until the post-season. Watch for this year's rankings for all conference teams to climb if an MIAA team makes a good run.

In 2005 the MIAA finished as the 4th-strongest conference. Currently it's something like 17th.

According to these numbers, 2005's worst team would be #4 in the conference this year.

I wouldn't take that with a grain of salt........2005 was an ultra-competitive year in the MIAA.  That Adrian team that finished 4th was very good.  I thought then there were 4 teams talented enough to do well in the NCAA's.

Jeff Nokovich, Brian Schaffer, Adam Novak, Mike Lewis, Billy Collins.......that was a pretty good starting 5.  They beat Albion and Hope, as well as lost close games to Hope again and Calvin.


Adrian had the best starting 5 in the leage for 2 years in a row with that group but Buck messed it up and split them up for about 10 games in 2005.  They had the best point gaurd in the league in nockovich, the best player in the league in shaffer, best offensive rebounder in novak, best defensive rebounder in Lewis and Collins was one of the best scorers in the league.  Those were probably the best 2 years in Adrian History but Buck couldn't put it all together to win the league. 

[almcguirejr]

I think this is the moment Mike Turner realized he had become a "honorary Knight."

http://www.calvin.edu/gallery/2009-02-18Albion/IMG_0104

[oldknight]

This has to be the perfect metaphor to describe the kind of aggressive, hard-nosed style of Albion defense we've all come to know so well.

http://www.calvin.edu/gallery/2009-02-18Albion/IMG_1152

[GoKnights68]

First off, I'd like to say it was great seeing Albion's number 1 fan at the game last night.  Fox 17 news anchor, Amy Turner.


Well a lot has been said about how this league is "down" this year.  With Calvin winning the league outright, I say that is a big accomplishment in my mind.  This league had a lot of scrappy teams.  Olivet and Alma were much better than usual.  While Adrian struggled this year, they lost a lot of close games, especially in the pre-conference games, and they were a pretty well balanced team.  Albion looked like a typical Albion team this year.  They improved tremendously over the season, and they will be and under-the-radar team to win the tourney next weekend.  Hope arguably had the best player in the league this season imo, along with a load of young talent around him.

I say going 13-1 in the league-play against some competitive teams that I mentioned is quite an accomplishment.  I was really hoping these seniors, after winning an outright title their freshmen year, would get to do that at least one more time, and they did so, by winning their second title in four years. 

Here's to finishing the year strong, Calvin!  Hopefully a lot of basketball left to be played!

[GoKnights68]

As the decade of MIAA mens' regular season basketball comes to an end this Saturday....I'd like to mention the number of MIAA titles that were won by each team.

Calvin finishes with 5 titles (all outright)
Hope finishes with 4 titles (3 outright, 1 shared)
Albion finishes with 2 titles (1 outright, 1 shared) 

For MIAA tournaments:

Calvin leads the way with 5.
Hope has 4, with a chance of ending the decade in a tie if they can take home the championship in two Saturdays.

[Pat Coleman]

First off, I'd like to say it was great seeing Albion's number 1 fan at the game last night.  Fox 17 news anchor, Amy Turner.

Can you tell me a little more about this? Sorry if I'm retreading the obvious for the regulars here but this is not something I've seen talked about before.

[realist]

First off, I'd like to say it was great seeing Albion's number 1 fan at the game last night.  Fox 17 news anchor, Amy Turner.

Can you tell me a little more about this? Sorry if I'm retreading the obvious for the regulars here but this is not something I've seen talked about before.

Not sure it has ever been mentioned before.  Calvin made a special presentation to former Albion head coach Mike Turner.  The last name is the real clue.  Fox 17 is local GR Fox station.

[hope1]

hey pat amy turner is a local sports reporter for a tevelesion  station to gr that all he was saying