MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[AlwaysHope]

Hope 88 Albion 73

Pretty solid win.  Albion just didn't have the defensive intensity they had at Kresge.  Hope was 54% from the field and 11-21 from 3. 

Hope:  Gardner 20, Eidson 14, McMahon 13,  Benson 10, Stuive 10
Albion:  Oaes 14, Ridgell 12, Herron 10

Hope:  Gardner, Eidson, and Benson, all sophmores, McMahon - junior, Stuive - freshman

I like the future!

[sac]

Olivet 87  Alma 80

Pretty damaging loss to Alma's tournament hopes, they really needed to win this one at home.  R.J. Haas with 26 and 13 to lead the way for Olivet.  Alma was just 4-22 from the point line, 2 days after 15 of them to beat Albion

Olivet:  Haas 26, Krum 23, Woodson 14, Rogers 11
Alma:  Nikodemski 21, Law 18, Krause 16

[wiz]

Coach speak:  "I didn't do anything to motivate them".  (quote WFUR)
Calvin 68-55

Realist speak:  "No S..."

Now to put your predictable post game comment in perspective.  Coach was asked what he said at half time to motivate his team to play better in the the second half.  KVS did say, "I didn't really say anything to motivate them".  And then he went to say how Adrian shot so well in the first half and that he felt Calvin played really hard.  He commented that they came out ready to play.  If you watched the opening minutes, that was evident.  He said he just reminded them of a few minor adjustments needed. 

[wiz]

Not a chance for too many rebounds in the Trine/Kazoo game when the shooting is good.  In the first half, Trine made 80% of their field goal attempts and 100% from 3 point range.  They didn't cool off much in the second half.

[sac]

Cal the Knight sighting, Middleville Thornapple-Kellogg vs Hastings.

[jspiii]

Hope 88 Albion 73

Pretty solid win.  Albion just didn't have the defensive intensity they had at Kresge.  Hope was 54% from the field and 11-21 from 3. 

Hope:  Gardner 20, Eidson 14, McMahon 13,  Benson 10, Stuive 10
Albion:  Oakes 14, Ridgell 12, Herron 10

Does Hope have an archive of this game? I'd like to see Benson's put back dunk again from a missed 3.

[almcguirejr]

Hope 88 Albion 73

Pretty solid win.  Albion just didn't have the defensive intensity they had at Kresge.  Hope was 54% from the field and 11-21 from 3. 

Hope:  Gardner 20, Eidson 14, McMahon 13,  Benson 10, Stuive 10
Albion:  Oakes 14, Ridgell 12, Herron 10

Does Hope have an archive of this game? I'd like to see Benson's put back dunk again from a missed 3.

WOOD TV had it on their highlights at 6 pm tonight.  I would check their website to see if it shows up there.

[Flying Dutch Fan]

Benson's dunk:

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VjQuAeqcI1Y

[Civic Minded]

Benson's dunk:

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VjQuAeqcI1Y

The video doesn't do it justice, but it's still amazing. 

[sac]

standings with +/-........+1 for road wins/-1 for home losses

Hope    9-1     +3
Calvin   8-2     +4
Trine     6-4      +2
Albion   5-5      0
Kzoo     4-6      -1
Alma     3-6      -3
Olivet    3-6     -1
Adrian   1-9     -4

Hope clinches a spot in the MIAA tournament, Calvin virtually has as well.  Hope has 4 games remaining with the 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th place teams, 3 of them on the road.

Trine is in good shape for both making the tournament and the third seed.  I think 8 wins would get them the #3 seed, so they need just 2 more wins.

Albion really has a big week with 2 games they can win and 2 games they'll need.  I really think you'll need 7 wins to get in at least a tie for 4th.   Their final two games are at Trine and at Calvin, that's not guarantee if you need a 7th win.  Overall Albion is in pretty decent shape since Kzoo/Olivet probably need a win over Hope or Calvin and Alma has to win 4 of 5.

Kzoo needs to win 3 of 4 to get to 7 wins and that would require beating Hope or Calvin.  With Mark Ghafari questionable its a tall task.

Even with last nights loss Alma is still in this.  They need to win 4 of their remaining 5 games which would require winning 3 on the road and at least one at Trine or at Hope.

Olivet needs to win 4 of it remaining 5 to get to 7 wins.  Four of those games involve the teams 1-4 in the current standings.  They would need to win 3 of those.

Adrian is eliminated.

Home teams are just 18-22 this year

What's left:

Adrian:    @Albion, @Kzoo, ALMA, HOPE
Albion:     ADRIAN, OLIVET, @Trine, @Calvin
Alma:       @Trine, @Hope, @Olivet, @Adrian, KZOO,
Calvin:     KZOO, @Trine, OLIVET, ALBION
Hope:      @Olivet, ALMA, @Kzoo, @Adrian
Kzoo:      @Calvin, ADRIAN, HOPE, @Alma
Olivet:     HOPE, @Albion, ALMA, @Calvin, TRINE,
Trine:      ALMA, CALVIN, ALBION, @Olivet

[HollandKnight]

     This Knight made his way over to DeVos to get a good look at Albion. I noticed that Alex Eidsen and Ben Gardner don't only show up against Calvin. The pair of sophomore guards manufactured a few Mountain Dews as they went a solid 3-5 from beyond the arc. (3-4 for Eidson alone.) They also combined to score 34 points. This duo will give Knight Nation headaches for the next 3 years.
     Also some more points for those planning to make the adventure through the snow to GR, Albion is a very fast, quick team. They are young, they didn't show much from beyond the line yet they loved nothing more than to push the floor. If the Calvin guards don't get out in front they will run Calvin right out of business. The forwards were fast. There frontcourt will have to keep up which won't be impossible. they had a center who was big but wasn't a dominant presence on offense or defense. He did get a few rebounds and blocks but Kruis should be able to handle him relatively simply.
     Above all there shouldn't be too much of a struggle in Calvin as they will gain a comfortable second-seed (unless they already clinched? ) in the MIAA tournament.

[ziggy]

Cal the Knight sighting, Middleville Thornapple-Kellogg vs Hastings.

Fake tans just aren't worth the risk of ending up in a neckbrace.

[Flying Dutch Fan]

Alex Eidson (Hope) and Blake Krum (Olivet) share player of the week honors

[knightvision]

Taking sac's look at the remainder of the year a step farther, and in the spirit of March madness (mostly because I'm already sick of February and ready for spring!) I was thinking ahead to end-of-year scenarios.  With Hope in the conference driver's seat, I'm assuming (and please correct me if I'm wrong) that the only way Calvin (or anyone else besides Hope) makes the big dance is if they win the conference tourney. 

Let's assume Hope wins out the rest of the year, but loses in the conference tournament final.  In that scenario, Hope would finish with a 20-7 record with a very good strength of schedule and would likely have a pretty strong regional ranking.  I've paid attention to previous discussions like this enough to know that it would probably depend on what happened not only with other teams in region but also on if there are other "surprises" with conference tourney winners in other regions--but on balance (whatever that means), do you think that Hope receives an at-large bid if they don't win the conference tourney?       

[KnightSlappy]

I'm assuming (and please correct me if I'm wrong) that the only way Calvin (or anyone else besides Hope) makes the big dance is if they win the conference tourney.

Correct. Calvin has no shot at a Pool C right now. They certainly needed to win in Holland, but even then their at-large chances were slim (if even existent).

Let's assume Hope wins out the rest of the year, but loses in the conference tournament final.  In that scenario, Hope would finish with a 20-7 record with a very good strength of schedule and would likely have a pretty strong regional ranking.  I've paid attention to previous discussions like this enough to know that it would probably depend on what happened not only with other teams in region but also on if there are other "surprises" with conference tourney winners in other regions--but on balance (whatever that means), do you think that Hope receives an at-large bid if they don't win the conference tourney?       

It looks right now like Hope would be the #2 team in the region to be "on the board" behind the NCAC runner up (assuming that's either Wooster or Ohio Wesleyan), although there's a (smaller) chance that the OAC runner up could jump them. I'd say they look to be on the "in" side of the NCAA tournament bubble.

In this scenario, they'd be hoping for Calvin to run the table (actually, most would probably be hoping for a non-Calvin to win the AQ) to (possibly) enter the rankings by the end, giving Hope an extra 2-1 versus regionally ranked opponents.