MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[knightmoves]

18 runners up get in & with Calvin's high ratio they will definitely get a Pool C bid. Just will have to play on the road. However, I hope the committee sets it up so both schools at least don't meet until the
sweet 16

[albionbritfan]

Congratulations to Hope for winning the tournament.  I felt strongly Hope would win, as in the two prior meetings, I think they had led for all but 1.7 seconds (out of 4,800).

It's interesting that Albion through the course of the season in many ways gave Hope more fits than Calvin did.  Unfortunately Albion did not fare well in the head-to-heads v. Calvin.  Oh well.....

Good luck in the tourney.  Carry the MIAA banner well.

[GoKnights68]

Yeah from the broadcast, it seems like I can ONLY hear the Hope fans....its a Hope crowd in Knollcrest, seems like the Calvin crowd got outrun

Well of course you're going to hear more Hope fans since they were up by double digits almost the whole entire game.  Why's everbody always got to gain up on the Knight Club all the time

Maybe the people chanting seasons over forgot about the tourney expansion?

[hope1]

i think hope played good they can play a lot better

maybe with wooster losing tonight   hope can get the 1 seed in the great lakes and play saturday  at home for a while

[sac]

The people chanting season over......about 2 dozen.......clearly do not have access to D3Hoops.com where we know better.  

I turned to someone next to me about 10 minutes into the game and told him it felt like a Hope home game.  I love 50-50 crowds.  But this one felt like 75-25 for the good guys.

[oldknight]

Hope was tremendous tonight, focused and intense. There might be a lot of talk of how poorly Calvin shot in the first half (5-25) but a lot of that was due to outstanding Hope defense. Calvin got few open looks and they simply couldn't put down the tough interior shot. Voison dominated the paint most of the night. Hope simply took away any semblence of an inside game and forced Calvin's play to the perimeter the entire half. It was nice to see that both teams played hard the second half and I actually found it to be fairly entertaining when I feared that it might turn into a garbage half. Calvin was much more competitive in the second half and forced Hope to play the full 40 which, to its credit, Hope did.

Based on my observations over two nights Hope's best player is Cramer. He performs at a superior level with respect to every skill important to the success of a BB player and he uses those skills within the context of team play. He must be a joy to coach. VanderHeide plays excellent on the ball defense and makes life miserable for the man he is guarding although he does get away with a lot. But being able to engage in physical play without being caught is part of being a good defender I guess.

To me the most interesting matchup to watch was the one at point, either Veldhouse/Immink or Veldhouse/VanSolkema. I thought Immink played a nice game on the offensive side. I've seen him play since high school and the only criticism of him I have ever had is the occasional tendency to over dribble. He didn't do too much of that tonight and he moved the ball around pretty well. He's a strong and tenacious defender too but I thought Veldhouse got the better of Immink on several occasions in the second half. Veldhouse is a tough matchup for Immink because Caleb is deceptively quick and is several inches taller as well. My biggest surprise over the two games I saw Hope play are my impressions of DVS. To me he is a less impressive player at the college level than I expected. He's still a good player but right now, based on the two games I saw him play, he deserves to be behind Immink. Things got a little chippy between DVS and Caleb and I was heartened to see Veldhouse not back down one bit, even after the ref came over for his little chat with the boys.

The longer the game went the more I couldn't help think that as the NCAA's progress, more and more teams are likely to ask the question about Hope "How did this team finish second in their conference?" Hope is a dominating team, as good as any in the conference since the Steve Honderd days. Congratulations to Hope on their tournament championship. The Dutch are as good a bet as there is in D3 for a Final Four slot.

The Hope fans were louder than the Knights' for most of the night. That's hardly surprising. Hope was winning and playing better most of the night. After Calvin hit a couple of 3s to cut the lead to 12 the Hope fans were a little quieter so don't make too much over the noise disparity.

[bulldogalum]

Congrats to Hope.  They were clearly the better team tonight.  Here's hoping these two teams run into each other again...late in the tournament.

[sac]

HOPE 68 Calvin 55

The story of this one was very simple......Hope's agression at both ends of the floor to start the game won this game.  Calvin shot poorly yes, but Hope had an awful lot to do with that, every shot challenged, every ball handler challenged..........and it was everyone, and that made me very happy to see.  If Hope plays like that, they can not be beaten.

The most amazing thing to me was 2 things,  1) Hope took control of this one and built on the lead without Andy Phillips seeing the floor after his 2nd foul.  2)  Jesse Reimink's presense on the floor changed the game completely.  Hope went from losing the rebounding battles to winning them.

It was 38-21 at the half and frankly Calvin was fortunate to hit that number and frankly even more fortunate Hope didn't torch the nets a little more, only 43% and up 17.  It could have been worse.

Second half for Hope was hang on baby........they became passive, trying to milk the clock but at the same time had enough attack in them to draw some fouls.  Can't blame them for that strategy, 20 point leads should be easy for Hope to protect.  Calvin made some nice changes on defense....mostly overplaying passing lanes and created some turnovers.  On offense they took advantage of Hope losing some of its defensive edge.

I was shocked to see Hope only made 6 FG's in the entire second half, even more shocking just 19 attempts, a season low I'm sure...........Calvin's D had a lot to do with that.

Immink 15, Cramer 14, Voisin 11, VanderHeide 10

Draayer 16, Veldhouse 15, Trewhella 10

41 of Calvin's 55 from 3 guys.....wow.

Great atmosphere as always, the line prior to the game reminded me of many past trips to Hope/Calvin games.

The game itself had its usual collection of physical plays, bodies on the floor and ridiculous shots.  Overall a well played game............too many foul calls for my taste but I can live with it.  

Congrats to my Dutchmen on the MIAA  Tournament Championship.

[realist]

In my heart I wanted Calvin to pull it out somehow, but in my head the Hope team just has too much depth, and yes the talent level is obviuosly there at all positions.  I don't mind losing to a better team, I just wish that Calvin had played better.  If it can't be Calvin that has a nice long run in the NCAA then I won't have any problem pulling for Hope to represent the MIAA well.  Hopefully both teams get a decent placement, and don't have to face each other until the 8's like last year.  As I mentioned earlier Hope may have a shot at home court for awhile, and perhaps better now that Wooster lost.
Playing at home is nice, but after the last 3 games it wasn't a tremendous advantage for the Knights.

[sac]

A few random thoughts tonight

----In the first half the best Freshman on the floor wearing #10 was dressed in Orange.  Reimink was a big difference maker for Hope

----Maybe the most impressive defender for Hope in the first half was VanderHeide, I'm not sure I've seen him challenge the ball like that all year. .....or for that matter, the fact that every single Hope player who played tonight challenged the ball.

----But the most impressive player for Hope in the first half was Eric Voisin, as Oldknight said he absolutely dominated the paint.

----Funniest moment, the little kid for Calvin running around with the Calvin flag.  Then at the half the Dew Crew recruited a young girl to run around with a Hope flag and followed it up with a chant of "Ours is cuter".  Classic.

---- The "silent" Regional Ranking comes out Sunday, and although we'll never see it, I have little doubt Hope will be #1 and will be a virtual shoe'in to host next weekend.


----There were 51 fouls called in the game.........Wallace Whitfield called 110 of them.  Wally your a better ref than that!

----The intentional foul on Voisin was perhaps the worst call I've ever seen from the upper level at the far end of the Fieldhouse.  There had to be more to it than what I saw.

----1.7 seconds, the difference between being an "underachieving" team in some people's eyes and being  what everyone thought you should be.  This is life in the MIAA.

----We may not have a lot of things here in Holland.......but we have a nice shiney trophy that says 2006 MIAA Tournament Champions. 8)

[ziggy]

----We may not have a lot of things here in Holland.......but we have a nice shiney trophy that says 2006 MIAA Tournament Champions. 8)

Three in a row would have been just too greedy

[David Collinge]

Here's how I see the final regional rankings, assuming I have recalculated the QoWI correctly:

1. Wittenberg (20-3, QoWI 10.652)
2. Hope (17-2, 10.211)
3. Baldwin-Wallace (22-4, 10.077)
4. Wooster (21-3, 10.042)
5. Carnegie Mellon (15-4, 10.474)
6. Calvin (13-2, 9.750)
---------------------------
7. Lake Erie (18-4, 9.682)
8. Bethany (20-4, 9.417)
9. Ohio Northern (17-6, 9.130)
10. Albion (12-4, 9.125)

Pool C candidates shown in boldface; Pool B candidate shown in italics.

[dren]

9. Ohio Northern (17-6 (.739), 9.130)
10. Albion (12-4 (.750), 9.125)

I'd put this up as more of a tie than ONU having the lead.  Albion holds the lead for inregion win percentage, meanwhile only .005 seperates the QOWI.  They are dead locked and you would have to look at more criteria for consideration.  Regardless, I don't believe either will recieve a bid. 

[sac]

I disagree Dave.....Hope will be the #1 ranked team in the Region.

Hope was #3, Witt #4 this week, I don't believe Hope did anything to warrant losing a spot to Wittenberg.

[David Collinge]

I disagree Dave.....Hope will be the #1 ranked team in the Region.

Hope was #3, Witt #4 this week, I don't believe Hope did anything to warrant losing a spot to Wittenberg.

We'll probably never know.  Witt's #1 in QoWI and #3 in win %, and Hope is the reverse: #3 in QoWI and #1 in win %.  Witt's large QoWI advantage I think puts them over the top, but I could be wrong.  I often am.   

I'm hoping that Witt and Hope are both seeded #1 in different sectionals, along with Lawrence and Amherst, but that may be wishful thinking.