MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[Gregory Sager]

Anderson can't be playing the Grinnell system. Ravens coach Owen Handy only used eight players against Calvin, and the whole point of the Grinnell system is to use anywhere from 15 to 18 players per game in order to wear down opponents.

Plus, I know Owen, and I know how he feels about the Grinnell system. He'd sooner hop a plane to the Middle East, don a black mask, dub himself Owen al-Handi, and join ISIS than adopt the Grinnell system.

[realist]

Has anyone asked if Anderson is playing a Grinnell (or more likely Trine's brief experiment) type of style?  ie  lots of 3 point shots whether good or bad

Watching the game I did not get that impression.  Handy had his playerss ready, and they capitalized on the opportunities they had.  Credit the Anderson coach and players for doing a great job in their first game.  Calvin just had too many weapons, and the Ravens were severely height challenged.  Even with the defensive lapses by Calvin it was an entertaining game to watch.  I much prefer 108-98 to watching a 51-47 game with Albion.  IMO C Vanderbrug is the best fr. player at Calvin since that "red headed" kid back in the fall of 99.

[KnightSlappy]

Has anyone asked if Anderson is playing a Grinnell (or more likely Trine's brief experiment) type of style?  ie  lots of 3 point shots whether good or bad

Besides the three aforementioned "let's see if these go in" bombs from Justin Jordan (spoiler alert: they did go in), Anderson legitimately got 30+ looks from the arc. Not all of them were completely wide open but neither were they forced.

[arena]

Has anyone asked if Anderson is playing a Grinnell (or more likely Trine's brief experiment) type of style?  ie  lots of 3 point shots whether good or bad

Watching the game I did not get that impression.  Handy had his playerss ready, and they capitalized on the opportunities they had.  Credit the Anderson coach and players for doing a great job in their first game.  Calvin just had too many weapons, and the Ravens were severely height challenged.  Even with the defensive lapses by Calvin it was an entertaining game to watch.  I much prefer 108-98 to watching a 51-47 game with Albion.  IMO C Vanderbrug is the best fr. player at Calvin since that "red headed" kid back in the fall of 99.

It looks like that may be the case.  Like JV, is offensive game is advanced.  I just hope that he is able to play is natural position his entire career.

[sac]

Great opportunity for the Dutchmen tonight.  Looking forward to this.

[Dutch Calvinist Reformer]

Austin Bykerk from Unity Christian heading west to join the Dordt Defenders.  Not sure if he was on the West Michigan radar, but looks like a great get for Coach Ross Douma and what's becoming an NAIA power.  Are more to follow? 
http://dordt.edu/cgi-bin/news/get_news.pl?id=7729

[sac]

Kooiker. Not in mid season form.

[sac]

 Great effort by both teams.  Right down to the wire.

[pointlem]

Great effort by both teams.  Right down to the wire.

Agree, a terrific game . . . so well-played by both teams.  When Hope had the ball and the lead with just over 2 minutes, I thought they might do it.  The Warhawks 3-point shooting, including Brittany Berry-like 4 of 5 from their wing guard, was the difference, along with the impressive speed and spin moves of their point guard.  (I was a little surprised Hope didn't experiment with matching Dante Hawkins' quickness against that quickness, and moving Ben Gardner to the #2 position, as Hope sometimes has . . . but maybe that's for a future occasion).

Great games by Harrison Blackledge and Keith Brushwyler, both of whom are looking either much improved or else freed up this year.  And Brock Benson has shown how much his presence adds, when he's not sitting with NVA-like foul problems . . . though the first two fouls against him could both have gone the other way.

A tough game to lose, but for this young team with a new coach--and are we seeing a more free-spirited offense with slashing to the hoop?--an effort that suggests good things to come.

[almcguirejr]

Great effort by both teams.  Right down to the wire.

Agree, a terrific game . . . so well-played by both teams.  When Hope had the ball and the lead with just over 2 minutes, I thought they might do it.  The Warhawks 3-point shooting, including Brittany Berry-like 4 of 5 from their wing guard, was the difference, along with the impressive speed and spin moves of their point guard.  (I was a little surprised Hope didn't experiment with matching Dante Hawkins' quickness against that quickness, and moving Ben Gardner to the #2 position, as Hope sometimes has . . . but maybe that's for a future occasion).

Great games by Harrison Blackledge and Keith Brushwyler, both of whom are looking either much improved or else freed up this year.  And Brock Benson has shown how much his presence adds, when he's not sitting with NVA-like foul problems . . . though the first two fouls against him could both have gone the other way.

A tough game to lose, but for this young team with a new coach--and are we seeing a more free-spirited offense with slashing to the hoop?--an effort that suggests good things to come.

I made it over to DeVos tonight.  It was a very good game.  The intensity level was noticeably higher than the Calvin game Saturday.  Hope played well and if they would have hit a couple easy shots in the last 2 minutes they might have pulled it out.  The out of bounds play lob to Benson that he missed was one really you have to have.

Blackledge and Brushwyler played well for Hope.  I was surprised to see Stuive only get 6 minutes

[sac]

It felt like there were a lot of 4 or 5 point swings, and most of those went against Hope tonight.   For sure had some chances that got away, but ultimately a championship team made championship shots down the stretch of that game and they needed every one of them.

Hope should feel good about how they played and competed but dissatisfied with the outcome.

[HopeConvert]

Two quick observations from DeVos:

• That was a really good game.
• I like what I saw.

And some longer observations. For a team playing its first regular season game under a new coach, and against the defending DIII Tournament champion, Hope acquitted itself well. But for a few bad turnovers and a fair number of missed bunnies, Hope could have won this game. I dare say the Dutchmen will not get outhustled this year. I liked what I saw coaching-wise on both ends of the floor. In the first half the UWW absolutely abused Carlson. When Mitchell brought the diminutive in the second half he had the team play zone (yes, great ghosts of Bobby Knight, Hope was playing a zone) which effectively solved the match-up problem.

UWW hit a huge three-pointer with about a minute left that was a backbreaker, particularly because Hope had played hard defense right until the end of the shot clock and forced a low percentage shot which the Warhawk player, to his credit, made. Might have been a different outcome otherwise.

Much to be encouraged about tonight. If there is such a thing as a good loss at home, this was it.

[HOPEful]

Two quick observations from DeVos:

• That was a really good game.
• I like what I saw.

Agreed. I needed a nights sleep to process through the disappointment of letting that one slip away. However, what a well coached and played game by the Dutchmen! Save for a couple unfortunately timed dry spells and some missed layups, Hope looked like the better team for most of the game. A lot of positives to take from this game!

[Dutch_Man]

What a game last night! Overall, I was really impressed with Mitchell's game plan as we really controlled the. For the most part, Hope executed well (50% from the field) and played with a lot of grit! The Dutchmen took a very good team to the brink! If it weren't for 15 turnovers, a few poor fast breaks and some clutch shooting from Whitewater, we had this game. Kind of a disappointing to read the Holland Sentinel Title: Hope drops season-opener with missed shots late against Whitewater, and write up on the game.... Hardly does justice for a gutsy performance from a team under new leadership against a very good team. I do appreciate Coach Mitchell's quote thought... We're too good of a team and a program to say moral victories are something. But these guys have to hold their heads up because we played a very good program, and we were right there." He clearly has a lot of confidence in his team at such an early stage in the season.

It will be interesting to see if this game was the exception or if this is the kind of performance we can come to expect.

Cheers to another another season! There is always Hope!

[GoKnights68]

Haven't seen this posted yet:  http://www.mlive.com/smallcolleges/grandrapids/index.ssf/2014/11/hope_basketball_coach_greg_mit.html#incart_river