MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[HOPEful]

With nice (not great, but nice) wins against Mt. Union and Wheaton, is this the week Hope cracks the top 25 or do they need to beat Wooster or OWU to get the attention? My guess is the latter, but with their only losses being to Whitewater (in a very close game the led much of), Stevens Point, and a NAIA D2 school... shouldn't they at least start to recieve more votes than Calvin, who just lost to Ripon?

[Pat Coleman]

Well, technically, no -- we won't have another poll until Jan. 5.

[HOPEful]

Well, technically, no -- we won't have another poll until Jan. 5.

Ah, good to know! I'll stop hitting refresh now and get back to work 

[sac]

Hope's Brock Benson player of the week.  Brock was strong Saturday.
http://miaa.org/sports/mbkb/2014-15/index

[Happy Calvin Guy]

Hope's Brock Benson player of the week.  Brock was strong Saturday.
http://miaa.org/sports/mbkb/2014-15/index

Benson did have a nice game Saturday, but this award should reflect the body of work for the whole week.

Benson last week: 13.0 ppg/5.5 rpg/3.0 apg, scored 13% of his team's points in two victories
Brink last week: 25.0 ppg/5.0 rpg/3.5 apg, scored 32% of his team's points in one win and one loss
Both had only 1 steal and zero blocks on the defensive end.

Either the MIAA is just rewarding a guy from the team who won their games (but it's not the "team of the week" award), or they are actively looking for opportunities to "redistribute the wealth" with their player of the week awards.

[HOPEful]

Either the MIAA is just rewarding a guy from the team who won their games (but it's not the "team of the week" award), or they are actively looking for opportunities to "redistribute the wealth" with their player of the week awards.

Probably a little of both. But for what it's worth, Brock only played 23 minutes on Friday in a game 14 players scored, 6 in double digits.

Question for Calvin fans that attended the Ripon game. Was Ty Sabin that good or was it defense related, as well? Who was guarding him?

[sac]

Either the MIAA is just rewarding a guy from the team who won their games (but it's not the "team of the week" award), or they are actively looking for opportunities to "redistribute the wealth" with their player of the week awards.

Probably a little of both. But for what it's worth, Brock only played 23 minutes on Friday in a game 14 players scored, 6 in double digits.

Question for Calvin fans that attended the Ripon game. Was Ty Sabin that good or was it defense related, as well? Who was guarding him?

The Ripon/Calvin game is available 'on demand':      http://portal.stretchinternet.com/ripon/

Jordan Daley takes Sabin to start the game.  Sabin scores the first 3 baskets.  His first two buckets are switches with Dykstra running at him late, the 3rd is in transition over Stout.
Huizenga checks in for Daley and takes Sabin, Sabin doesn't get a shot and sits down at 13 min.
Sabin checks in at 11 min, Daley checks him.....not much happens
Calvin goes to a zone later in the half,  Sabin hits a 3 from the Corner, Daley is late getting to him.
Sabin baseline drive past Daley, Stout called for a block

2nd half

Sabin sort of beat Daley off the dribble and hits some mess of a shot over Stout
Sabin backdoor cut on Huizenga (I think? the black numbers on maroon suck so hard) finishes over Brink
Sabin fouled in transition by a dismayed Vanderbrug
Sabin misses 3 in corner, Daley doubled inside which left him open, Daley recovered nicely
Sabin hits a 3 from the top of the key, nice ball screen that takes Daley out of the play  Welch(maybe?, uniforms) kind of waves at Sabin
Sabin dribbles through alot of the Calvin defense with Huizenga hounding him and hits a mess of a shot over a couple guys
Sabin blows through the zone from the left wing past Daley, layup and foul
Sabin beats Brink off the dribble and hits a fadeaway 19 footer that Brink hits all the time(zone btw)
Sabin beat Parks off the dribble, fouled by Parks
Sabin misses 24 footer from top of key over Daley before offense is even set.  zero passes
Sabin misses 3 from right wing, Daley is beaten but its a tough shot in motion.
Sabin dribbles past Daley in isolation play from 30 feet out, 2 other Calvin players converge and tip the shot out of bounds.

The rest is FT's

Conclusion:   Sabin is a very good player who played well.  Calvin lost him a few times but he also hit a couple pretty ridiculous shots.  Sabin looked to be the quickest player on the floor which is saying something with Parks, Daley and Brink in the game.

Sabin has scored 30+ points 5 times this year and is averaging 29.5 points, shooting 54% from the floor and 44% from 3.  He's really good everyone.

[HOPEful]

...  He's really good everyone.

I expect this detailed of a response to all my questions for the rest of the season... 
But seriously, thanks for the in depth response, SAC!

Back to Happy Calvin Guy... in both games this weekend, Brink was outscored by a guard on the other team. 66 of Ripon's 86 points came from their starting guards... With that in mind, I can at least entertain the notion that Benson had a better all-around weekend.

[sac]

...  He's really good everyone.

I expect this detailed of a response to all my questions for the rest of the season... 
But seriously, thanks for the in depth response, SAC!

Back to Happy Calvin Guy... in both games this weekend, Brink was outscored by a guard on the other team. 66 of Ripon's 86 points came from their starting guards... With that in mind, I can at least entertain the notion that Benson had a better all-around weekend.

One of Ripon's other guards is Hayden Hoerdeman who played against Hope as a Freshmen when he was at Western Michigan in 2012.   He didn't start for Ripon.

[sac]

Wish everyone a Merry Christmas and I'll leave you with this interesting player comparison.


Both players led their team in scoring in each of the first 10 games.  One won the MIAA MVP not long ago.

Player A:   217 points, 59 rbs, 34 assists, 28 to's, 3 steals 13 block
                 58.6 FG%, 47.7 3FG%(27 3's), 97.1 FT%

Player B:   216 points, 77 rbs, 24 assists, 19 to's, 16 steals, 26 blocks
                 46.9 FG%,  38.7 3FG% (24 3's), 76.4 FT%


Both teams started 6-4

[pointlem]

Wish everyone a Merry Christmas and I'll leave you with this interesting player comparison.


Both players led their team in scoring in each of the first 10 games.  One won the MIAA MVP not long ago.

Player A:   217 points, 59 rbs, 34 assists, 28 to's, 3 steals 13 block
                 58.6 FG%, 47.7 3FG%(27 3's), 97.1 FT%

Player B:   216 points, 77 rbs, 24 assists, 19 to's, 16 steals, 26 blocks
                 46.9 FG%,  38.7 3FG% (24 3's), 76.4 FT%


Both teams started 6-4

Sac, you're great . . . and your blog reflections before and after games are definitely worth the read for Hope fans, much like KnightSlappy's blog for Calvin fans.

But don't leave us in suspense over these mystery players for too long.  (I'm clueless, but others may want to take a stab.)

[goodknight]

Jordan Brink is Player A.
I'm guessing Player B might be Jesse Reimink or Marcus VanderHeide.

[sac]

Wish everyone a Merry Christmas and I'll leave you with this interesting player comparison.


Both players led their team in scoring in each of the first 10 games.  One won the MIAA MVP not long ago.

Player A:   217 points, 59 rbs, 34 assists, 28 to's, 3 steals 13 block
                 58.6 FG%, 47.7 3FG%(27 3's), 97.1 FT%

Player B:   216 points, 77 rbs, 24 assists, 19 to's, 16 steals, 26 blocks
                 46.9 FG%,  38.7 3FG% (24 3's), 76.4 FT%


Both teams started 6-4

Sac, you're great . . . and your blog reflections before and after games are definitely worth the read for Hope fans, much like KnightSlappy's blog for Calvin fans.

But don't leave us in suspense over these mystery players for too long.  (I'm clueless, but others may want to take a stab.)

Player A is Jordan Brink
Player B is Jesse Reimink

I'll make sure Goodknight gets his gift certificate to The Kletz in the mail


One other player that slipped my mind, also not long ago, and also an MVP.   Not the same comparison because a teammate of his selfishly led them in scoring in the first game of the year.

Michael McClary:   319pts, 93rbs, 6 assists, 15 to's, 16 blocks, 15 steals
                              55.8 FG%, 0 3FG%(1 attempt)  79.7 FT%

Michael led Olivet in scoring in 9 of his first 10 games, Olivet started 5-5.  Michael ended up leading them in scoring in 23 of 25 games in 2011.

Jesse Reimink led Hope in scoring 25 of 29 games in 2009.


Brandon Crawford probably had the most dominant MVP season in the past 15 years.  He led Albion in 8 of the first 10 games in 2006.

Brandon Crawford:   239pts, 128 rbs, 22 assists, 33 to's, 11 blocks, 9 steals
                                  66.7 FG%,  0 3pt attempts,  61.5 FT%


The gist of the comparison was to point out the great start Jordan Brink has had and how it compared to a past, dominant MVP performance.

[sac]

North Central 76  Olivet  54
Mt. Union 96  Adrian 68

MIAA overall record falls to 31-41.   Olivet and Adrian switch opponents today, doubtful they switch results which means the league comes within 2 games of clinching a losing non-conference record.


Games Remaining:

Today:
Adrian vs North Central
Olivet at Mt. Union

Monday:
Alma vs Wilmington
Hope vs Spalding
Trine vs St. Vincent
Albion vs Redlands

Tuesday:
Trine vs Case Western or Geneva
Hope vs UW-LaCrosse or Wooster
Alma vs Waynesburg or Wittenberg
Kalamazoo vs Elmhurst
Albion at Whittier

Wednesday:
Calvin at  Finlandia

Saturday:
Hope vs Ohio Wesleyan
Trine vs Ohio Northern


Adrian at Sienna Heights  Jan 5
Albion at Oakland  Jan 18

[sac]

Its late but I wrote a little preview (best guesses really) on my blog of the Wooster tournament.


Some interesting games around the league the next couple days.   A lot of match-ups we don't typically see.  Besides Hope, I'm pretty interested in the Trine/St. Vincent match-up.