MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[goodknight]

Echoes of those nattering nabobs of nepotism? 

[hoopdreams]

I wasn't even sure what that meant but after "googling" it, and realizing its origin is a fairly famous quote + sort of knowing what nepotism is....it is mind blowing that what is being inferred is actually happening.  I'm not even sure what I just said....

[goodknight]

I rarely know what I've said until oldknight parses it and patiently explains it to me.

[oldknight]

Echoes of those nattering nabobs of nepotism? 

I rarely know what I've said until oldknight parses it and patiently explains it to me.

Well then, let me parse and patiently explain this for you.

The precise words, "The nattering nabobs of negativism" were written by William Safire but uttered in a speech given by Spiro Agnew at Hotel Fort Des Moines in November, 1969. It set off a mini-firestorm by the soon-to-be-shamed (for other reasons) Vice President as he became Nixon's point man in the President's long running feud with the national press.

The Hotel Fort Des Moines is a venerable and traditional hotel in the downtown area of the city where I attended law school. It's reminiscent of the old Pantlind Hotel in Grand Rapids, has a bit of a colorful history, and Mrs. OldKnight and I have been there (don't worry, we didn't add to the venue's colorful history). My con law prof--who at the time was Iowa's lieutenant governor--gave me the short course on the hotel's history. I found his recounting of the Log Cabin Raid of 1939 to be the most interesting story. Here's the sanitized version from the hotel's web site.

In March of 1939, the police liquor squad burst into the Log Cabin room on the 11th floor and arrested 128 men and four young women. They seized 10 bottles of liquor and an assortment of gambling equipment. The tip came from the wives of some of the men attending party. Hotel records showed that the room had been rented for a "benefit bridge" by one Giuseppe Verdi.

As a story in The Register noted: "One question involved is whether the management knew whether Giuseppe Verdi, Italian composer of the operas Rigoletto, Aida, Il Trovatore, and La Traviata, died in 1901, and whether, were he alive, he would sponsor a benefit bridge at the hotel."

Suffice it to say, more than garden variety gambling was going on that March eve.

[goodknight]

And right after deriding those "nattering nabobs of negativism" came this scornful riposte from the pen of Safire to the lips of Agnew:
"They have formed their own 4-H club -- the hopeless, hysterical hypochondriacs of history."
They don't make alliteration like that anymore, and that might be a good thing.

[wiz]

And right after deriding those "nattering nabobs of negativism" came this scornful riposte from the pen of Safire to the lips of Agnew:
"They have formed their own 4-H club -- the hopeless, hysterical hypochondriacs of history."
They don't make alliteration like that anymore, and that might be a good thing.

No ****, Sherlock!

[oldknight]

Calvin beats University of Redlands in SoCal 88-82. The Bulldogs led 45-44 at half on the strength of hot three point shooting (10-18) but the Knights started the second half on a 30-14 run to build a 74-59 lead. Redlands cut that to five the final minute of play before 4 late free throws sealed the win for Calvin. Austin Parks scored 20 (hitting 6-9 triples), Kruis also had 20, and Brink added 16.

[wiz]

Some nifty shooting for Austin Parks today.  Just to put it in perspective, if he can double that production of 3 pointers in a single game, he will tie Todd Hennink's Calvin record of 12.

[oldknight]

Tonight Olivet lost to Hiram 95-87 and Adrian lost to Mount Union 68-49. Something tells me this could be a very long season for the Comets. Their only two wins this year are a one point win over a not very good Lawrence Tech team and a 58 point drubbing of a truly horrific Illinois Tech (0-13) squad.


I did watch the entire first half and most of the last 10 minutes of Calvin's win over Redlands. Some observations/speculations from what I saw via the limitations of a computer screen.

--While a superficial look at the box score might not seem to support this statement (Calvin only won the rebounding battle 46-39) I sensed the Knights totally dominated the paint. Coming in, Redlands didn't seem to take an inordinate number of shots from the arc but today well over half of those taken (39 of 68) were from downtown. Redlands players rarely ventured to challenge the Knight's inside defense, took few shots close to the basket and only scored 6 points in the paint.

--If it wasn't obvious before, it's pretty clear now that KVS has settled on a "starting six" as I include the double headed point guard position to be jointly manned by Daley and Parks. Calvin is using Daley/Parks much like he did Rietema/Powell last season, giving each 20-25 minutes per game.

--The first wave of subs isn't fully settled yet but I detect a trend. Stout obviously belongs in the first rotation of subs as the primary backup for Kruis, but it seems both Van Loo and Mast may be losing playing time. Van Loo seems lost at times on defense and at Calvin, if the coach loses confidence in your ability to defend, that will cost you. Mast seems to be in the process of being surpassed by the more athletic TJ Huizinga and, to a lesser extent, freshmen Brad Visser.

--Speaking of Visser, while he got only 7 minutes today, those 7 were meaningful as he was given one rotation each half of play. The young Squire made them count too scoring 5 points on 2-4 from the floor and dishing 2 assists with no turnovers. I don't yet have a good handle on how well Brad is progressing on the defensive side of the ball but if KVS thinks he can handle things there we will see those minutes progressively go up as the season lengthens. There is no doubt the kid can play on the offensive side of the ball.

--The players seemed impressed by the alumni support so far from home. After the game Jordan Brink tweeted "Incredibly blessed by Calvin College alums! CalvinMensBball just had a home game in Southern Cal, KnightNation is everywhere."

[wiz]

Tonight Olivet lost to Hiram 95-87 and Adrian lost to Mount Union 68-49. Something tells me this could be a very long season for the Comets. Their only two wins this year are a one point win over a not very good Lawrence Tech team and a 58 point drubbing of a truly horrific Illinois Tech (0-13) squad.


I did watch the entire first half and most of the last 10 minutes of Calvin's win over Redlands. Some observations/speculations from what I saw via the limitations of a computer screen.

--While a superficial look at the box score might not seem to support this statement (Calvin only won the rebounding battle 46-39) I sensed the Knights totally dominated the paint. Coming in, Redlands didn't seem to take an inordinate number of shots from the arc but today well over half of those taken (39 of 68) were from downtown. Redlands players rarely ventured to challenge the Knight's inside defense, took few shots close to the basket and only scored 6 points in the paint.

--If it wasn't obvious before, it's pretty clear now that KVS has settled on a "starting six" as I include the double headed point guard position to be jointly manned by Daley and Parks. Calvin is using Daley/Parks much like he did Rietema/Powell last season, giving each 20-25 minutes per game.

--The first wave of subs isn't fully settled yet but I detect a trend. Stout obviously belongs in the first rotation of subs as the primary backup for Kruis, but it seems both Van Loo and Mast may be losing playing time. Van Loo seems lost at times on defense and at Calvin, if the coach loses confidence in your ability to defend, that will cost you. Mast seems to be in the process of being surpassed by the more athletic TJ Huizinga and, to a lesser extent, freshmen Brad Visser.

--Speaking of Visser, while he got only 7 minutes today, those 7 were meaningful as he was given one rotation each half of play. The young Squire made them count too scoring 5 points on 2-4 from the floor and dishing 2 assists with no turnovers. I don't yet have a good handle on how well Brad is progressing on the defensive side of the ball but if KVS thinks he can handle things there we will see those minutes progressively go up as the season lengthens. There is no doubt the kid can play on the offensive side of the ball.

--The players seemed impressed by the alumni support so far from home. After the game Jordan Brink tweeted "Incredibly blessed by Calvin College alums! CalvinMensBball just had a home game in Southern Cal, KnightNation is everywhere."

I too watched on the computer screen.  But based on what I saw, I like oldknight's review better than that of the homer reporter for the Redlands Daily Facts, a paper that may just give the Holland Sentinel a run for the money.
http://www.redlandsdailyfacts.com/sports/20131228/university-of-redlands-mens-basketball-suffers-second-half-lull-loss-to-calvin-college

[sac]

Mt. Union 104  Olivet 97
Union 26, Krum 19, Vondette 16, Woodson 16

Olivet's 7-0 Adam Rayner has started the last two games


Adrian 64  Hiram 59
Jackson 24, Reed 18

This is actually the first win by an MIAA team over a Great Lakes Region opponent this year.  1-11

[sac]

Defiance 50  Albion 48

at least I think its over, stuck on :01 for awhile

brutal game?  Looks like Albion had a shock clock violation with 6 seconds remaining in a tie game.  Albion foul led to Defiance FT's with 1 tick on the clock to win it.

Evans 14, Herron 10


Albion will play #17 Marietta(lost to OWU earlier) in the consolation game Monday.


Kalamazoo  70  Regis(Mass)  66

This game was really not this close, Hornets doinked around at the FT line at the end, Regis hit some shots, looks good for Regis on paper.

Ghafari 20, Peters 19
Kzoo will play DePauw on Monday.

[BogeyMan]

I am not sure what you mean by brutal Sac.  The game was played as hard by both teams as any game I've seen in a while.  It came down to poor foul shooting by Albion and a turnover with :06 on the clock.  You might think because the FG percentages were so bad, the game was poorly played. Too many people believe the high scoring games are the best played.  This was not the case. The game was very even in the stat categories:

Rebounds:  Albion 40, Defiance 39
Turnovers: Albion 7, Defiance 8
FG%:  Both teams 35.1%
Free Throws:  Albion 4-13 (30.8%), Defiance 6-8 (75%)

The three best players for Defiance played 40 min., 35 min., and 35 min. tonight.  I would have to give the championship game edge to OWU.  I think it will be tough for Defiance to hang with OWU in the second half tomorrow night.

The OWU vs Marietta game was two very good teams battling it out.  OWU has shooters, rebounders, good size and strength.  OWU will be a tough out for Wooster and Wittenberg.  Kenyon is just about as good as OWU.  It looks like the strength in the Great Lakes Region will be the NCAC this year.  I am sure Marietta will also finish fairly high in the OAC.  Edge in the OAC goes to B-W.  Marietta would be one of the next two or three teams.

[sac]

Hope plays Centre College in Crestview Hills, KY tonight at Thomas More.  The schools have never met on the men's side and my only contact with Centre was in the 1990 Women's Final Four in Holland when Hope beat the Colonels 75-62 in the semi-finals.  Centre becomes the 5th team on this years Hope schedule to play in last years NCAA tournament.

This is considered an in-region game and will count towards Hope's 70% threshold of all D3 games counting.  It is 460 miles from Holland to Danville, KY       

If you like history lessons, Centre has some  http://www.centreathletics.com/sports/mbkb/information/history/history

Centre is 6-2 on the season without a win over a team with a winning record.  Franklin is their only D3 loss at 5-4, a game they lost in OT.  Their other loss is to 7-4 NAIA II Asbury.

Massey compares them to Carthage for Hope and for Centre, Hope will be the best team they've played thus far if you buy into massey.  Massey makes this a toss-up game with 51% to Hope.

Starters
G  Chris Taylor  5-10 Jr.
G  Donovan Whiteside   6-3  Sr.
G  Colin Lopez  6-2 Sr.
F  Tyler Wesley  6-6 So.
C  Blake Scinta  6-8  So.
--------------------------------------
primary bench
F  Josh Karsner  6-4  Jr.
G  Matt Gump 6-4  Fr.
G  Ryan Murray  6-0 Fr.
G  Andrew Steggeman  6-0 Fr.

http://www.centreathletics.com/sports/mbkb/2013-14/teams/centre
Karsner is their leading scorer off the bench, followed by Whiteside and Scinta all in the teens.  6 guys log over 20 minutes per game.  As you can see they're a little thin in the post, when Scinta's out of the game they become pretty small.  Hope's bigger frontline is going to find matching up on defense a little difficult maybe.  I might expect less NVA/Benson.


3 things to watch out for:
Centre attempts an average of 24 3's per game and make them at a 40% clip.  This is another good test for Hope's perimeter D.  Karsner, Whiteside, Lopez will chuck the most.

Centre turns it over slightly more their opponents, Hope has been very good at protecting the ball this year.

As with most sports, the further South you go the quicker teams get.  I'm sure Centre will have a quickness advantage in most areas on the floor.


The good people of Northern Kentucky have figured out this video internet thing  http://livestats.prestosports.com/thomasmore/mbkb/?e=gkoxntqcc5e0cam0

[sac]

I am not sure what you mean by brutal Sac. 

Was a question which you clarified, thanks.


Also at this point BW has some work to do to win the OAC, already two games back.  I currently have Marietta as the favorite.