MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[sac]

Let me pose something


There are 2 instances in the game where Calvin defenders turn their back to ball and man.  Is that KVS not having his team prepared or is that a player making a really bad defensive mistake?

Hope hit 3's on both of them btw.



or what if you prepare your team for certain things but the team you're playing gives you looks and action you haven't seen yet?

[13xchamp]

At 1:32 of the 2nd Half Cody Stuive is credited with a  3pt miss on his shot blocked by Tyler Dykstra.  This is an error and was clearly a 2 point shot.

Hope was 9-14 from three.   



I also need to retract an earlier statement I made about Calvin playing a good defensive game.  That is partially true in some instances, but on many of the 3 point attempts they were simply lost.  Hope gave Calvin a lot of looks, screens and movement and it really seemed to get them confused many times.

Hope did nothing other than what every team has done to the Knights lately. Drive and kick to the shooter who flattens out on the opposite side with a back screen on his defender who is stepping into the paint to help the on the penetration. No higher percentage 3 pt shot than an inside out pass so the shooter is already squared up to the hoop. These high percentage looks are killing them right now.

That is the weakness of the up-the-line D that Calvin plays, force baseline and trap, it's no secret. Right now they are a step slow on the trap and that allows a free and clean look to the opposite wing where the weak side D has to rotate to cover up for the defenders who are trapping. Trap stronger and quicker, the tall hands are in the passing lanes and that skip pass gets deflected and picked off.

Eidson's 3's were another story. He reminds me a lot of Brian Powell. Streaky shooter with great athleticism to create space off the bounce and nice high release making his jumper impossible to block. The 27' "heat check" in the second half was ridiculous and eerily Powell-esque.

[sac]

At 1:32 of the 2nd Half Cody Stuive is credited with a  3pt miss on his shot blocked by Tyler Dykstra.  This is an error and was clearly a 2 point shot.

Hope was 9-14 from three.   



I also need to retract an earlier statement I made about Calvin playing a good defensive game.  That is partially true in some instances, but on many of the 3 point attempts they were simply lost.  Hope gave Calvin a lot of looks, screens and movement and it really seemed to get them confused many times.

Hope did nothing other than what every team has done to the Knights lately. Drive and kick to the shooter who flattens out on the opposite side with a back screen on his defender who is stepping into the paint to help the on the penetration. No higher percentage 3 pt shot than an inside out pass so the shooter is already squared up to the hoop. These high percentage looks are killing them right now.

That is the weakness of the up-the-line D that Calvin plays, force baseline and trap, it's no secret. Right now they are a step slow on the trap and that allows a free and clean look to the opposite wing where the weak side D has to rotate to cover up for the defenders who are trapping. Trap stronger and quicker, the tall hands are in the passing lanes and that skip pass gets deflected and picked off.

Eidson's 3's were another story. He reminds me a lot of Brian Powell. Streaky shooter with great athleticism to create space off the bounce and nice high release making his jumper impossible to block. The 27' "heat check" in the second half was ridiculous and eerily Powell-esque.

I understand what you're saying but Hope actually only did this twice, maybe a third time for the wide open 3.  You might count a 4th when Calvin double'd an inbounds at the low block.

[HopeConvert]

At 1:32 of the 2nd Half Cody Stuive is credited with a  3pt miss on his shot blocked by Tyler Dykstra.  This is an error and was clearly a 2 point shot.

Hope was 9-14 from three.   



I also need to retract an earlier statement I made about Calvin playing a good defensive game.  That is partially true in some instances, but on many of the 3 point attempts they were simply lost.  Hope gave Calvin a lot of looks, screens and movement and it really seemed to get them confused many times.

Hope did nothing other than what every team has done to the Knights lately. Drive and kick to the shooter who flattens out on the opposite side with a back screen on his defender who is stepping into the paint to help the on the penetration. No higher percentage 3 pt shot than an inside out pass so the shooter is already squared up to the hoop. These high percentage looks are killing them right now.

That is the weakness of the up-the-line D that Calvin plays, force baseline and trap, it's no secret. Right now they are a step slow on the trap and that allows a free and clean look to the opposite wing where the weak side D has to rotate to cover up for the defenders who are trapping. Trap stronger and quicker, the tall hands are in the passing lanes and that skip pass gets deflected and picked off.

Eidson's 3's were another story. He reminds me a lot of Brian Powell. Streaky shooter with great athleticism to create space off the bounce and nice high release making his jumper impossible to block. The 27' "heat check" in the second half was ridiculous and eerily Powell-esque.

Tell that to Tyler Dykstra.

[13xchamp]

At 1:32 of the 2nd Half Cody Stuive is credited with a  3pt miss on his shot blocked by Tyler Dykstra.  This is an error and was clearly a 2 point shot.

Hope was 9-14 from three.   



I also need to retract an earlier statement I made about Calvin playing a good defensive game.  That is partially true in some instances, but on many of the 3 point attempts they were simply lost.  Hope gave Calvin a lot of looks, screens and movement and it really seemed to get them confused many times.

Hope did nothing other than what every team has done to the Knights lately. Drive and kick to the shooter who flattens out on the opposite side with a back screen on his defender who is stepping into the paint to help the on the penetration. No higher percentage 3 pt shot than an inside out pass so the shooter is already squared up to the hoop. These high percentage looks are killing them right now.

That is the weakness of the up-the-line D that Calvin plays, force baseline and trap, it's no secret. Right now they are a step slow on the trap and that allows a free and clean look to the opposite wing where the weak side D has to rotate to cover up for the defenders who are trapping. Trap stronger and quicker, the tall hands are in the passing lanes and that skip pass gets deflected and picked off.

Eidson's 3's were another story. He reminds me a lot of Brian Powell. Streaky shooter with great athleticism to create space off the bounce and nice high release making his jumper impossible to block. The 27' "heat check" in the second half was ridiculous and eerily Powell-esque.

Tell that to Tyler Dykstra.

HA! How could I forget his only "miss".

Sac- you're right in that Hope didn't do that as much as other teams have been doing to Calvin lately. That's why I separated Eidson's 3's, they were more of the individual effort type.

[northb]

I'm sure someone knows this answer with no research needed...since Calvin opened their beautiful new arena (I do really like it), what is the record of the Rivalry on Calvin's campus?  It certainly seems like Hope has had tremendous success there

I think they said on the coverage this made a 6-3 Hope advantage at VanNoord, definitely a different story from how things were at Knollcrest.

Someone's math if fuzzy.

2009  Calvin 63  Hope 62
          Hope 69  Calvin 59  MIAA Championship game
2010  Hope 79  Calvin 76  Hall of Fame  Consolation
          Calvin 84  Hope 75
          Hope 78  Calvin 74  MIAA Championship game
2011  Hope 76  Calvin 70
2012  Hope 83  Calvin 70
2013  Calvin 75  Hope 49
          Calvin 77  Hope 57  MIAA Championship game
2014  Hope 71  Calvin 63

I come up with 6-4 against Calvin

All together I think Hope's played 19 games in Van Noord with an overall record of 12-7.   6-3 with wins against  Cornerstone, Wheaton, Carthage(2), Albion, Adrian.   Losses to Aquinas, Cornerstone and Wheaton.

Before the humbling results of last winter, Hope had a stretch of winning 7 of 8 at Van Noord.

Good for you Sac to go ahead and do the research rather than accept what you heard/read.  You must watch Jimmy Kimmel.

I don't watch Kimmel.  I actually don't watch much TV unless its sports or terrible gold miners.   

I was actually looking up Hope's total record at Van Noord because I'm naturally curious of those things and it came up at dinner (or maybe I imagined that).  I discovered the 6-3 graphic displayed during the game was indeed erroneous.

Kudos to Alex Eidson, who had a day to long savor.  6 of 7 three's more than offset 1 out of 10 from inside the arc (where he normally excels). 

But if I were Calvin I'd feel hopeful about future Hope-Calvin match-ups this season.  Most of us, I suspect, are more aware of our own team's near-misses and rimmed-out shots.  But yesterday, though I'm a Hope fan, time and time again those seemed to go against Calvin.  Hope hit 60% of its 3's (a feat unlikely to be repeated) and yet scored but 71 points, while lady luck likely won't be so unkind to Calvin next time around. I foresee more close, exciting games.

A second view of the game and I agree with all of this.  Calvin actually played a really good defensive game, except at the 3-point line and on VanArendonk(sort of, NVA was actually really good in this game).   Hope was just 8-35 from the field outside of those two things. 

I'll also add Hope challenged nearly every Calvin shot, there were very few wide-open looks that Calvin simply missed because it was a bad day, even the close ones.  On the whole, that was a very well played defensive game for both teams I thought.

To clarify, you did not just re-tweet what someone else said, but checked it out for yourself:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSJMoH7tnvw

[sac]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSJMoH7tnvw

That's gold!

[sac]

I went ahead and did this Sunday night, a description of all of Hope's 3-point attempts and what I see happening.  I'd welcome any Calvin commentary that can shed light on what Calvin is doing defensively, or supposed to be doing.  Kind of fun, a little obsessive but fun.

http://scottsbbblog.blogspot.com/2014/01/breaking-it-down-calvin.html

[wiz]

I once had an English professor who devoted an entire week to analyzing a two line poem by Ogden Nash, who wrote:
"Candy is dandy
But liquor is quicker."
I think that goofball, Ogden, was just trying to make a rhyme and failed miserably.  But, the prof thought differently and each day returned to class with more analysis.

Since Saturday I have been thinking about that professor as I read the comments concerning "the game".  I have also been reminded of the first Hope/Calvin game I saw in 1965 and how, since then, I have only missed a couple of the contests.  What I have learned over the years is that these games never go quite as one would expect.  This is part of what makes it such an interesting rivalry.  My simple analysis is this: Hope won and Calvin lost. 

More MIAA action this Wednesday and a long season ahead of us.  Enjoy!

[AppletonRocks]

Alma rules

[wiz]

Alma rules

Appleton rocks and Alma rules.  Detecting nostalgia for Sammy's Lawrence days?

[sac]

Younger brother of Alma basketball player Jake Murawske is missing, he attends Alma College.  Please keep his family in your thoughts and prayers.

http://www.themorningsun.com/general-news/20140113/second-update-alma-college-freshman-reported-missing

[Flying Dutch Fan]

Hope gets a little love in the top 25 this week (8 points = 38th place).  Calvin down to 6 points = tied for 40th:

http://www.d3hoops.com/top25/men/2013-14/week6

[HopeConvert]

A final comment from me about the game. I was up in the nosebleed seats so missed a lot of the nuances I typically get to see at Hope games. But one thing that struck me on watching the replay was the integrity of the players. I didn't see any jawing, and saw a lot of mutual respect. There's a really nice moment between VanArendonk and Kruis, for example. To me, that typifies what this rivalry is and ought to be. Respect, admiration and comity, and a fevered desire to win.

[wiz]

Wheaton cracks top 25.  Interesting.