MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[sac]

Hope's much maligned bench came up big again tonight.   Adam Dickerson had played all of 5 minutes of basketball since the Kalamazoo/Hope game 17 days ago.  All 5 in the reg. season finish with Trine.

With Hope's frontline in foul trouble in comes Dickerson with the pretty much impossible task of defending Mantel.........he gave up 3 layups and fouled on a 4th which resulted in a FT.......seven points.  But Dickerson comes up with two layups off great passes from his teammates and scores 4 himself.  That was almost a win for the Dutchmen all things considered.

......and of cours Ty Tanis'  2 big 3's in the 2nd half

14 points might not seem like a lot, but in a game like this one, it was big.

[sac]

Hope will be playing in the NCAA tournament for the 5th straight year......a little perspective on what that means. 

Hope's only longer stretch of consecutive years in the tournament was 1987 to 1992.....6 years.  Two other times Hope went 4 years in a a row....1982-85 and 1995 to 1998.

....one more reason Holland is a happy place to live right now. 

------------------------------------------

Calvin had a streak of 10 from 1986 to 1995......Hope's current streak is the 3rd longest in conference history.

[Happy Calvin Guy]

Congratulations Dutchmen on another NCAA tourney bid.  

We can hope for a Pool C bid but on the postgame show KVS was resigned to the fact that this season is likely over for the Knights.  If that's true it's a too-sudden end to the careers of 4-year Knights John Mantel and Matt Veltema, two class acts and a couple of the better players in Calvin history.  Matt had a rough night shooting the ball tonight (except on the free throw that he tried to miss), but Big John played possibly his best game of his career, unstoppable in the low post.  We should also recognize the brief career of Paul Campbell, who really only saw significant PT this season but was a huge unsung contributor to the Knights' success this year.  

Here's to tourney success for Hope, great memories of another MIAA championship team for Calvin, and the slim chance that this thing isn't over yet!  

[KnightSlappy]

Calvin fans: cheer for Franklin and Marshall tomorrow!

[Dutchmen 4 Life]

A great game played by both teams tonight.  They both played very hard and it ended up as another classic Hope v Calvin game.  Did anyone else notice the great creativeness of the Calvin students in "stealing" the Dew Crew's cheer.  I thought it basically summed up the season from a student fan standpoint and made me laugh more than anything.  Best of luck to Hope moving forward.  There's nothing better than seeing two nets cut down on the same day with Calvin looking on!

[Happy Calvin Guy]

Calvin fans: cheer for Franklin and Marshall tomorrow!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KX5jNnDMfxA

[almcguirejr]

Congratulations Dutchmen on another NCAA tourney bid.  

We can hope for a Pool C bid but on the postgame show KVS was resigned to the fact that this season is likely over for the Knights.  If that's true it's a too-sudden end to the careers of 4-year Knights John Mantel and Matt Veltema, two class acts and a couple of the better players in Calvin history.  Matt had a rough night shooting the ball tonight (except on the free throw that he tried to miss), but Big John played possibly his best game of his career, unstoppable in the low post.  We should also recognize the brief career of Paul Campbell, who really only saw significant PT this season but was a huge unsung contributor to the Knights' success this year.  

Here's to tourney success for Hope, great memories of another MIAA championship team for Calvin, and the slim chance that this thing isn't over yet!  

I know nothing about the Pool C stuff.  Calvin hasn't beat enough quality teams to get in it sems to me.  Their best win is probably over Carthage which I don't think counts.  They have 1 win over Hope.  Maybe one of their wins in AZ was a quality win but the other regional wins against a mediocre  MIAA aren't going to be enough to get them in.

I thought the Hope crowd was down in numbers from past years.

[GoKnights68]

A great game played by both teams tonight.  They both played very hard and it ended up as another classic Hope v Calvin game.  Did anyone else notice the great creativeness of the Calvin students in "stealing" the Dew Crew's cheer.  I thought it basically summed up the season from a student fan standpoint and made me laugh more than anything.  Best of luck to Hope moving forward.  There's nothing better than seeing two nets cut down on the same day with Calvin looking on!

Who cares

[GoKnights68]

It looked a lot like the last Calvin/Hope game down the stretch, where Calvin couldn't get any big baskets towards the end.  You got to give Hope credit, though.  They made the clutch shots down the stretch and Calvin didn't.  Hope wins their 3rd straight conference tournament championship.  Congrats.

[arena]

All right, I've had a night's reflection on the game.  I'm still annoyed at inconsistent reffing, but both teams have to deal with that garbage, it just isn't fun when the inconsistency comes at the end of a game at a crucial time.  But anyway, here is why Calvin lost.

The inability to handle a high pressure full court press.  All season Calvin was hurt by dumb turnovers under the basket because of poor decision making.  Hope scored 4 points in the second half because of bad decisions by a Calvin player.  That's a difference in the game right there.

Also, I really like Tom Snikkers and I believe he will be a huge part of Calvin's team in the future, but he played like a freshman too often.  He has a ton of energy and is very active, but he's going to have to control that and play within himself.  Too often his he reacts and it doesn't appear that he's aware of what's going on around him.  I really like his potential and can't wait to see him mature and grow into the leader I believe he will be.

This game was emblematic of the entire Calvin season.  It was a frustrating season.  To see the talent on the floor and compare it to the level of play at times that didn't match that level. 

Next year can't come soon enough.

[HopeConvert]

I thought it was a remarkably exciting game last night. I thought, at halftime, that Hope was in big trouble. Prior to Tanis' entry into the game, I really didn't think Hope could pull it out. The last five minutes were really terrifically entertaining.

Here's what I thought was the difference in the game: even though Hope's starters averaged about 30 minutes a piece, and Calvin's about 25, I thought Hope looked fresher at the end of the game than Calvin did. If you look at all the 3-pointers Calvin missed in the last 3.5 minutes of the game, a lot of those shots were short, or badly off target. On most of those shots the Calvin player got a good look, I think they just didn't have their legs anymore. Bunn, despite playing 37 minutes, confidently drained every free throw.

I'll throw this out there as a controversial claim and see what others think. In my estimation, Hope was the better conditioned team, and thus prevailed.

[arena]

I thought it was a remarkably exciting game last night. I thought, at halftime, that Hope was in big trouble. Prior to Tanis' entry into the game, I really didn't think Hope could pull it out. The last five minutes were really terrifically entertaining.

Here's what I thought was the difference in the game: even though Hope's starters averaged about 30 minutes a piece, and Calvin's about 25, I thought Hope looked fresher at the end of the game than Calvin did. If you look at all the 3-pointers Calvin missed in the last 3.5 minutes of the game, a lot of those shots were short, or badly off target. On most of those shots the Calvin player got a good look, I think they just didn't have their legs anymore. Bunn, despite playing 37 minutes, confidently drained every free throw.

I'll throw this out there as a controversial claim and see what others think. In my estimation, Hope was the better conditioned team, and thus prevailed.

I don't know about conditioning, but many of those short shots were due to a Hope defender consistently in the face of the shooter.  How many off balance 3's did Veltema take?  I can recall about 4. 

[Hwbb]

Congratulations Dutchmen on another NCAA tourney bid.  

We can hope for a Pool C bid but on the postgame show KVS was resigned to the fact that this season is likely over for the Knights.  If that's true it's a too-sudden end to the careers of 4-year Knights John Mantel and Matt Veltema, two class acts and a couple of the better players in Calvin history.  Matt had a rough night shooting the ball tonight (except on the free throw that he tried to miss), but Big John played possibly his best game of his career, unstoppable in the low post.  We should also recognize the brief career of Paul Campbell, who really only saw significant PT this season but was a huge unsung contributor to the Knights' success this year.  

Here's to tourney success for Hope, great memories of another MIAA championship team for Calvin, and the slim chance that this thing isn't over yet!  

For what it's worth, Calvin backers, the gurus at D3 Hoops think you're in...barely, but in. (See the D3Hoops main page.) And with a better projected bracket draw than Hope--at least I  think I'd rather see Wooster and John Carroll in Ohio than IWU and Wash U in St. Louis. Go figure the NCAA.

[ziggy]

Congratulations Dutchmen on another NCAA tourney bid.  

We can hope for a Pool C bid but on the postgame show KVS was resigned to the fact that this season is likely over for the Knights.  If that's true it's a too-sudden end to the careers of 4-year Knights John Mantel and Matt Veltema, two class acts and a couple of the better players in Calvin history.  Matt had a rough night shooting the ball tonight (except on the free throw that he tried to miss), but Big John played possibly his best game of his career, unstoppable in the low post.  We should also recognize the brief career of Paul Campbell, who really only saw significant PT this season but was a huge unsung contributor to the Knights' success this year.  

Here's to tourney success for Hope, great memories of another MIAA championship team for Calvin, and the slim chance that this thing isn't over yet!  

For what it's worth, Calvin backers, the gurus at D3 Hoops think you're in...barely, but in. (See the D3Hoops main page.) And with a better projected bracket draw than Hope--at least I  think I'd rather see Wooster and John Carroll in Ohio than IWU and Wash U in St. Louis. Go figure the NCAA.

Knightslappy and I have them in as well but just by the hair on their chiny chin chin. It will come down to how the committee weights WP and SOS. One problem we had is that John Carroll stayed on the board a little longer than either of us probably anticipated.

[KnightSlappy]

Ziggy and I also went through the selection process last night and we also had Calvin as in. I think the link in my sig is still good, if you want to check it out. No margin for upsets today though.