MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[bulldogalum]

Well, last night the Adrian College Bulldogs, defenders of Truth, Justice, and Lenawee, put together a pretty impressive win over Tri State.  They went through some rough patches and cold spells, and watching them shoot free throws was a truly dreadful experience, but they hung on and gutted out a win, their 2nd in 3 games, with a good chance to win 3 out of 4 to win the regular season.

Nick Clark and Ian Weber had the best games I've seen them play all year.  Both played high intensity, physical defense that gave Tri State fits all game long.  

This team is hitting its stride at just the right time, and, even though they'll have to face a top tier opponent, they're in a better position to knock one of those teams off than they have been all year.  If they could just make some free throws, they'd REALLY be in good shape.

Let me also add a note of thanks to this year's seniors.  The season isn't over yet, and there are still some goals to be accomplished, but last night was their last game at the Merillat Center.  So, Nick Clark, Mark Bohlen, Billy Collins, and Jeff Nokovich, I have no idea if you guys read this stuff, but thanks for giving all of us something to cheer for over the past few years.

[ziggy]

dothedew:
I believe Albion will now need to win the MIAA tournament to get a spot.  Calvin and Hope should be guaranteed a spot barring a monumental breakdown in the tournament (first round loss).  BEFORE losing again to Calvin, Albion had only the 41st best QOWI which is sure to go down a bit more following the loss.  Hope and Calvin came into last nights games ranked 21 and 26 respectively in QOWI and have firmly established themselves in the top 6 of the region.

[big_yellow_hat]

In regards to Calvin's attendance I've always wondered how accurate it really is.  When the students come into the game all they have to do is flash their IDs to the ticket people and they don't have a ticker to count them.  I wonder if they just guess or don't count them at all (that would add about 300 or maybe more to last night's attendance). 

As for the extra seats on non Hope or Homecoming games I feel this is a good thing, it allows for casual fans to come see a game without planning 3 weeks in advance and it also allows groups of kids like the boy scouts, cadets or high school basketball programs (Sparta brought about 30 kids to watch the game last night) to attend the game.  I have a hard time seeing this happening at Hope, correct me if I'm wrong.

[John Rusnak]

If Albion can get to the championship of the MIAA tournament I'd say they have a pretty good shot of getting in.

However, it will all depend on what happens elsewhere in the country.  Albion is a team that is now praying for very few upsets in conference tournaments.  The more upsets there are, the less likely they are to get an at large bid.

With that said, with all of the extra space in the brackets this year, the committee should hopefully find a way to sneak Albion in, given that most of their losses are respectable and they are still 18-5 in a tough conference/region.

[albionbritfan]

I completely agree with JR's assessment of Albion's situation.  I thought Albion needed to win either last night or get to the championship game to really help their cause and seal it for them.  Even so, Albion should (PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE) have 20 wins with a win this weekend and in the first round of the tourney.  With the expanded field, the NCAA could go deep in a couple regions.

[oldknight]

sitting so close last night and hearing the stuff coming out of Draayer's mouth

I couldn't pick up any of Draayer's on court commentary last night so I'm curious. Just what was he saying anyway?

[ziggy]

A couple of observations after a long drive home with thoughts swimming in the old head:
1) Calvin starts two seniors and two juniors.  Are they really baby Knights?  Let's reserve that phrase more appropriately for Texas Tech.

I've done some quick analysis to verify the validity of the "Baby Knights" tag.  Follow me for just a moment on my formula.  I listed average minutes played for the players that play the most so that the total number of minutes was as close to 200 as possible (5 players times 40 minutes of gameplay).  I then divided each players average minutes played by the total number of playing minutes available (again, the number close to 200).  This gives the percentage of the total minutes available taken by that particular player.  I then multiplied that by a value for their class level (4 for senior and fifth year, 3 for junior, 2 for sophs, and 1 for frosh).  Taking the sum of this column yields the weighted average of experience level on the floor at the average playing time senario.   Now, if you follow that then here are the results...

Calvin had an average experience level of 2.62 years
Hope had an average experience level of 3.41 years
Albion had an average experience level of 3.32 years

And since Albionbritfan brought up Texas Tech, they had an average experience level of 2.29 years.  However, 26.4% of Texas Tech's playing time goes to Freshmen while 35.2% of Calvin's PT is to freshmen.

Take that however you want but I think its pretty amazing what KVS has gotten out of this squad.

[Briton Backer]

I said enough of the grade school tattle tale garbage OLD knight.  Grow up.  He's a big boy, he can say what he wants to say and none of us are going to cry about it.

[oldknight]

I said enough of the grade school tattle tale garbage OLD knight. 

Does this response mean that like me, you didn't hear what Draayer said either?

[Briton Backer]

I did not hear what Draayer said to warrant the technical (that happened underneath the basket at the closed end of the arena, so it would have been impossible for anyone to hear (including me, unless one of the old Calvin fans had lent me their MiracleEar).  However, I could frequently hear Draayer jawing with the Albion bench throughout the night.

Regardless of what he did or didn't say, we know for a fact that he said (or did) something inappropriate enough to warrant a technical from the officials (as did your coach).  The intent of my comment was to point out that the pious fans should get off their soapbox with respect to Crawford, as they live in the same glass house as their players and coach.

[almcguirejr]

RE:  Baby Knights

4 of the top 10 players are freshman.

Snoeyink is listed as a Junior but this is only his second year of basketball.  He played baseball at GRCC for 2 years.

Calvin's post player's ( DeVries, Meckes, and Snoeyink) combined for only about 9 points a game last year.

KVS and each player deserve a lot of credit for how much they have improved since losing 2 games at Van Andel at the beginning of the season.  After watching those games I would have bet money they would not be a .500 team
this year.

They are  playing the best team defense in the league right now and KVS has
this team playing about as well as it is capable of playing.  

This team winning 20 games;  Who'da thunk it?

[realist]

Stinger:  RP has come a long way in his time @ K.  He is a smart coach, and one has to assume he watches what the other coaches do, and after each game win or lose he learns from it.  It took KVS a while to learn his way around the MIAA.  He (RP) does have more obstacles to recruitng than some coaches, but over the years K has had some very good players RP included. 
It is rather unusual for a Calvin player under KVS to let his tongue get him into too much trouble.  Historically KVS has come down rather pointedly on anyone getting T'd.  In KVS's 10 years at Calvin he probaly has fewer T's than he has fingers on one hand.
DTD:  Hard to say at this time, but it probably will be difficult for 3 MIAA teams to get into NCAA.  If Hope makes it to MIAA tourney title game they should be a lock win or lose.  Either Calvin or Albion probably need to win it all before they relax.  Calvin might stack rate slightly higher, but other conferences will impact the final field.  Do either Calvin or Albion get in ahead of an ONU or other good regional teams?  The CCIW will feel they deserve at least 3 slots as will several other conferences.

[albionbritfan]

I've done some quick analysis to verify the validity of the "Baby Knights" tag.....
Take that however you want but I think its pretty amazing what KVS has gotten out of this squad.

You make one silly comment to play off the whole Calvin Knights/Bobby Knight thing, and someone goes to the numbers to prove you were....oh wait I was right.  I never argued your final point about KVS or the fact that Calvin has some solid young contributing talent.  It was more of the point that we aren't dealing with a Michigan Fab 5 situation (thankfully for our sake).  Plus, if you want to call your team a bunch of babies, that's fine too.    Relax, Zig; that's a joke too.   If you haven't figured it out yet, I enjoy wordplay for whatever stupid reason.  But at the end of the day, while I root for one team in particular, I respect every MIAA team out there on the court.

[ziggy]

britfan,

I didnt do it out of defense, I was interested.  It wasnt really mean to prove anything just some numbers for curious minds.  I first called them the baby Knights because of the similarities to the young Chicago Bulls team that was often referred to as the baby bulls.  Calvin's group of youngsters have certainly showed they are no babies!

[tniem]

Tneim:  Thanks for posting the attendance for last night, however, a more relevant statistic would be how many times has Hope "sold out" the De Vos?  If they have repeated sell outs, than they built too small.   
It would seem to me that if Hope were to win out from here on they have a very good shot at hosting at least round one.   Gosh, wouldn't be a problem filling the seats those nights!

Let's see, this season there have been three sell outs (about the number as last year, as I remember):

- The opening night at DeVos
- The Calvin game
- The Albion game (largest attendance ever)

That means every other night they have had enough seats for everyone that wanted to come out.  At least 150 seats have been available for all other games! 

Would a NCAA tournament game be a sellout?  Yes.  Would an MIAA tournament game?  Haven't been in the last five years (in either GR or Holland) unless it has been Hope/Calvin.  And I think, and the experience of VanAndel proves it, that no matter how large the stadium was Hope/Calvin would fill it.  But that does not mean you build something so large that the rest of the games it looks empty.

You are also forgetting that the women play at the stadium (not to mention that an extra thousand seats costs a lot of extra money).  Hope has averaged 1400 people at women's games, Calvin 300.  For the women the thousand people that show up and least make it look like someone is there.  If there were another thousand empty seats that would not be the case.  And I think this weighed heavily on the decision makers in Holland.

In regards to Calvin's attendance I've always wondered how accurate it really is.  When the students come into the game all they have to do is flash their IDs to the ticket people and they don't have a ticker to count them.  I wonder if they just guess or don't count them at all (that would add about 300 or maybe more to last night's attendance).

Hope counts the students the same way.  Just flash an ID.  My guess is that they are equally accurate (or not accurate as the case may be).

As for the extra seats on non Hope or Homecoming games I feel this is a good thing, it allows for casual fans to come see a game without planning 3 weeks in advance and it also allows groups of kids like the boy scouts, cadets or high school basketball programs (Sparta brought about 30 kids to watch the game last night) to attend the game.  I have a hard time seeing this happening at Hope, correct me if I'm wrong.

If the boy scouts are not showing up at Hope it is not the fault of there not being tickets available.  See above.  Sure you would have had to plan ahead for the opening of the stadium and the Hope game (but you would have to do this at Calvin too).  To see Alma or Kzoo, there was plenty of room.


In the end, it is a difference of attitude.  If your attitude is that we should have enough seats for the biggest game we play every year and we are satisfied with a half empty gym for the majority of games, then you build a larger stadium (like Calvin's).  If your attitude is that you would rather have a full gym every game and are willing to have people turned away for the biggest games, you build a smaller stadium (like Hope's).  Neither approach is necessarily wrong.  They are just different. 

Hope's leadership decided they wanted the smaller stadium with a full gym each night.  They thought it would lead to a better small college environment.  The college had experience with the Civic Center.  And they wanted the women's team to play in front of what seemed to be a reasonable sized crowd and not drowned in ten people among thousands of seats.  So they built a 3200 seat stadium.  You may disagree with that approach but I think in a town like Holland, it was the right one.