MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[gohope]

TWO "Go Blue" Men's Basketball games tonight

BOTH Games go into OT

MORE than 200 Heartbeats lost!!

Not able to attend the game in Holland tonight but being able to watch the video/live stats was torture and delight all in one!

And its NOT even March Madness!

Don't you just love it??!! 

[HOPEful]

Trine played great. Will Dixon was incredible tonight.

Hope was not. Snuck out a victory by the hairs of our chinny chin chins...

[Dutchfan]

VanArendonk had a much bigger game than 16 points suggests. In the first half when the rest of the Hope team was colder than the weather outside Nate went 6-7 with 4 rebounds and ZERO fouls. The rest of the Hope team was 4-14 in the first half. In the seconds half Trine had two to three guys ready to swarm Nate every time he got the ball. Can't say enough about how big of a game he really had for Hope tonight.

Final line for Nate...
6-8 from the floor, 4-7 from the line, 12 rebounds, 16 points and 2 fouls.

[sac]

Trine had ZERO offensive rebounds after the first half.


Little things win games.

[GoKnights68]

There's going to be live video feed of Saturday's game, correct?

[Roundball999]

There's going to be live video feed of Saturday's game, correct?

Yes, links are already up on the Hope MBB schedule.  Scroll down...  http://athletics.hope.edu/sports/mbkb/2013-14/schedule

[Flying Dutch Fan]

Also worth noting that Trine scored 51 points in the first 29 minutes of play, but were held to 11 points the last 16 minutes.  The Dutchmen did turn up the d to finish the game.

[oldknight]

A workmanlike 64-55 Calvin win tonight somewhat reminiscent of those low scoring, drag-out, Mike Turner affairs with a couple of important differences--this Briton team is smaller but quicker and more athletic than the Albion teams from the past. Former Brit Mike Thomas now sits next to Jody May and we might be seeing some of his influence on the Albion squad. While at K-Central Thomas proved he could coach a team to a championship with tough minded kids who never give up. This Albion team carries nary a senior and should be very good next year and beyond. Freshmen Ridgell led the visitors with 13 and I think the young man from River Rouge is going to bedevil league opponents for the next three years.

Calvin was led by the steady play of Jordan Brink (21) and another excellent effort by Tyler Kruis (18) who hit yet two more triples. Going from dim memory I believe Kruis started the season 0-10 from the arc which would mean he has now nailed 9 of his last 13. He has been really stroking it lately, both inside and out, and Calvin could use more of that on Saturday. The big thing though will be on the boards. Hope outrebounded Calvin both games this year which goes a long way in explaining the results. Calvin has been outrebounded only four times this year and lost every time that happened.

EDIT: While my program says Ridgell is a freshmen I'm reliably informed he's a senior with junior eligibility. I thought his name was too familiar.

[HopeConvert]

Hope needed a little luck to pull this one out tonight. Alex Eidson didn't look right to me all night. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that he had some sort of bug. The whole Hope team, except for Nate, looked pretty flat for the first 30 minutes of this game. Speaking of Nate: Trine did a good job of scouting him. He has a bad habit of putting the ball on the floor, and whenever he got it on the blocks, Trine sent a small defender in there to swat at the ball. I don't know how many they knocked away from NVA with the ball below his waist, but it was a good number.

Cody Stuive came up very big for Hope. Will Dixon looked unstoppable most of the night for Trine. I had wanted Hope to go to a zone in the second half, as Trine repeatedly too the ball to the rim, and consistently beat the Hope defender off the dribble. Hope did a better job late in the game of leaving either Stuive or NVA in the lane to turn Dixon away. Their rotations were much sharper.

That said, if Hope plays like that on Saturday they will get their wooden shoes handed to them. They can't afford another game like this.

[Hopester]

Man, what a game.

Trine came out with a game plan and aggression that matched the desperation to continue their season. That passion is what makes the month of March (and late February) so special. Hope got punched in the face a little bit. I wonder if there is some sort of bug going around in the locker room, because the energy level was really lacking at a lot of points in the game. In the early going NVA played like a man down low. Really controlled the paint and kept Hope in the game when no one could get open for a shot or connect on one either.

In the second half, it remained a struggle for both sides to score. Trine kept repeating a high pick and roll, spread the floor and try to get a moving shot from 3-5 feet away from the hoop with NVA spaced out wide unable to protect the rim. Brilliant coaching and execution for the most part by Trine. No adjustment was ever really made, except that Hope buckled down and played intense defense for 35 seconds repeatedly.

On offense Cory McMahon and Cody Stuive were the offensive spark needed to complete the comeback, as well as the two clutch free throws by NVA. But those first two hit clutch outside shot after clutch outside shot, including two deep threes (maybe they just felt deep because they didnt have feet on the line, so many long twos tonight. the shot chart efficiency nerd in me cringes at these shots.) They were awesome though and Hope doesn't win without those two guys filling the void a clearly ill Alex Eidson. Hopefully he can get well soon and continue to be the Calvin Killer this season!

[sac]

First semi-final overtime in the tournament since that 82-81 Hope/Calvin classic played at Kresge Gymnasium in 2003.

[HOPEful]

Hope needed a little luck to pull this one out tonight. Alex Eidson didn't look right to me all night.

Agreed. I caught myself actually upset when they put him in at times because of how cold and uninvolved in the offense he had been. My wife actually leaned over and unprompedly asked me, "what's wrong with Alex?" A bug would also give some sort of explanation to why the first half team strategy seem fixuated on feeding Nate under the basket every time down the court. The second half was much less one dimensional. Will Dixon blew by whoever was guarding him all game, whether it was Grant Neil, Ben Gardner, or Chad Carlson...

I'm not too worried going into Saturday. Nate seems to have Kruis' number. If he does again on Saturday, Calvin will become one dimensional with Jordan Brink (Mickey DeVries and Tyler Dykstra aren't going to carry the Knights) and Hope will be just fine.

[KnightSlappy]

What are the chances that coaches Vande Streek and Neil come to a friendly agreement whereby Calvin takes the Pool A and Hope walks to a Pool C?

[HopeConvert]

NVA did keep Hope in the game early, scoring a quick 11 points. After that Trine began doubling-down aggressively and, as I said, consistently stripped him of the ball. He was unable to find open men, or get a shot off. He really needed to keep the ball high in those situations. For one thing, that's an easy foul call. Trine also outrebounded Hope that first half, which shouldn't happen.

Trine was clearing out a lot for Dixon, and Hope finally adjusted in the last five minutes by having Stuive hedge off his man (and Nate also in situations) on the entirely sound belief that Dixon wasn't looking to pass. This strategy led to that very important traveling call on Dixon with 12 seconds left. Gardner came down and found a wide-open VanArendonk down low, but Trine immediately descended on him and interrupted his dribble.

Hope's defense got better as the game went on, but for a good part of the game it was a layup drill for Trine. As others have commented, the whole team looked pretty lethargic. As Hopester mentioned, one guy who really stepped up in the second half was Cody Stuive, who has turned into a very nice player. It would not surprise me to see him compete for Player of the Year award at some point. He's a match-up nightmare for opposing teams.

Any tournament win is a good win, but no way Hope wins Saturday if they play like that again.

[oldknight]

What are the chances that coaches Vande Streek and Neil come to a friendly agreement whereby Calvin takes the Pool A and Hope walks to a Pool C?

Both John Scali Adlai Stevenson and The Eagles have answered that question.