MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[oldknight]

excited, confident and nauseous

Excited, hopeful (in a Knight sort of way ) and comfortable. Amazing what being the underdog does for your digestive track.

[realist]

MIAA:  Didn't realize my smiley hadn't copied.  Thanks.  I corrected that.  Always hard to predict what will happen during garbage time.

[knightmoves]

Excited, can't believe we're even in this position again, and wish the game were starting in 5 minutes instead of 7.5 hrs!!! I can't wait!!!

[dren]

Hope clearly has the edge in the game...they have yet to lose at Devos, and playing in front of a sellout crowd also helps.  However its the 2nd round of the NCAA round and anything is possible....this is where dreams are made.    

Ah yes, and we've all seen dreams made and dreams die in this.  As a Hope fan thinking about tonight, I have deja vu for 1992.  Hope dominated the league that year with what was arguably its best team ever, led by Wade Gugino and Eric Elliott (both still playing professional basketball today).  They beat Calvin by 20 points, as I recall, the prior Saturday.  They had the home court.  But Calvin came in and upset them at the Holland Civic Center, thanks to a game tying last second basket by a Holland Christian grad.  I still remember a disconsolate Eric Elliott escaping the floor after missing his desparation last minute overtime shots, and Wade Gugino trying to get through the Calvin pile-up to congratulate Steve Honderd (classy gesture, at that point).  And then (dreams were made as well as killed that night) the MIAA's second place team went on to get their first banner.   That, even more than the B-W loss that has been mentioned here, was the most painful defeat in my years of watching Hope BB.

I don't know what your talking about.  I remember Gugino, Elliot, Carlson and even Holbert.  Whatever game you are refering to obviously didn't ever happen... I was 14 years old that season and even more knowledgable about Hope basketball than I am now.  I am positive that I would of remembered that game.   

[knightmoves]

I Just checked with Calvin. They still have a few tickets. Only opened until noon, but if you live in G.R. you could still get there. If they don't all sell, may be a few available at the game. Probably want to check with Hope.

[Gregory Sager]

Werner of LaCrosse is a stud. I'm not surprised to found out that he is a football player first. I don't know what position he plays on the gridiron but my son commented about midway through the first half how Werner would make a great tight end.

Werner doesn't play football. As PS said, he went to UWL to play football but became a basketball player instead.

[sac]

  They don't sell Hudsonville Ice Cream over here, at least not anywhere I've looked, but I have some mighty fine Stroh's Ice Cream to snack on during the game.

Oh man I miss Stroh's Ice Cream

[realist]

Greg. S:  If you followed the converstion oldknight should have used "was" instead of "is" a football player first.   Probably made the mistake innocently.  We all get in a hurry to post, and don't proof read.
Dren:  I got you by a few years.  I am running these events through my archives, and can't place the game the poster is talking about.  It definitely wasn't 92.  Hope had Calvin on the ropes in the 92 tourney game, but that was played at Knollcrest.

[gohope]

Whew... Just got back from standing in line from last night to get tickets.  JUST KIDDING!!!!  It did take a while but we had fun standing in line "trying" to do the crossword puzzle that was in last night's program with the people that we were standing by.  Does anyone know what NCAA School is hosting the Water Polo Tournament this year?  Another question asked about (I think his name was Cedric Dempsy) who is the former NCAA President and Albion Alum?  At least it was a DivIII question from a school we were familiar with!  We then hit them with a question that we put together on a drive to one of the tournament games in the 90's - but nobody could come up with the answer.  "What Hope player who donned the blue and orange in the 90's has all 5 vowels in his full name (a, e, i, o & u)"  Anyone know?

Last night:  Just pure fun.  And Standing in line for tickets at the 11:49 mark I couldn't believe that I was already at the half-way point in line!!!  Tonight should be fun!!

There was a "Spanky" sighting in the Dew Crew last night.  Great to see him and chat with him before the game.  One of the original "Dew Crewers."

We also figured out that the team that has all the same shoes (sneakers if you're from out East!) seems to do better.

Okay, I think I had better stop.  As the little kid in the Disneyworld commercial puts it "I'm too excited!!!"

GO HOPE!

[dren]

Whew... Just got back from standing in line from last night to get tickets. 

Hahahaha    

[Gregory Sager]

I think you are thinking about 91 not 92 because the year Calvin won it all they were undefeated in the conference and went 31-1 overall losing only at North Park I believe (Greg Sager should remember, he surely would have been at the game).

Yep, I was there. North Park beat Calvin, 89-71. It was easily the greatest game of North Park All-American center (and recent NPU Athletic Hall of Fame inductee) Marc Horner's career. Calvin people have told me that it was the only time they ever saw someone dominate Steve Honderd.

Nevertheless, for all the pride Parkers take in that game, it was an it-might-have-been season for the Vikings. They finished in a tie for second in the CCIW with Elmhurst behind Illinois Wesleyan, and got cheated out of an at-large berth in the tourney that instead went to Elmhurst, in spite of the fact that the Vikings swept the Bluejays during the regular season.

As for last night, don't draw any sweeping conclusions about the WIAC from that UWL team. They finished in a tie for fourth in that league. I have no doubt that they're a good team, but it's not as though you were seeing the cream of the crop from the WIAC. As for Wisconsin Lutheran, Pat said it all. They were a mediocre team in a bad conference, and you certainly can't draw any conclusions about Wisconsin D3 ball from WLC.

So ... if the game starts at 7 pm, should I expect the real contest -- the Battle for the Hat -- between Dren's niece and Kcrest's daughter to begin somewhere around 7:45? I want to make sure that I'm near a computer when the two young'uns mix it up at center court in DeVos.

[dren]

We then hit them with a question that we put together on a drive to one of the tournament games in the 90's - but nobody could come up with the answer.  "What Hope player who donned the blue and orange in the 90's has all 5 vowels in his full name (a, e, i, o & u)"  Anyone know?

Wade Gugino, final answer

[big_yellow_hat]

Wow!  Who would have thought my hat would be a hot topic on this board.

Personally I thought it was pretty funny.  The two Hope girls played me pretty well.  They came over and asked me for a favor, ignorantly I bent down with the big yellow hat in a very vulnerable position and they stanched it and ran (I had no time to react).  It was all in good fun though because the Calvin kid got it back (who would have thought all those laps around the Fieldhouse would pay off so soon, that kid is fast)

As for the other kid, it did get a little annoying when he came over at least 3 times and tried to jump on top of me.  But it was no big deal, lets remember he's a KID.

Have yet to decide to go with duck tape or just leave the rips as they are for tonight's big game.

Go Knights!

[sac]

Poof read?  what that?  

[sac]

Let me tell ya, you have to watch out for little girls.  Somewhere around the age of 4 they learn how to manipulate us male adults.........something they clearly spend the next 15 years of their lives mastering.

Anyway, about a year ago I witnessed one of the all-time greatest "father in my pocket" moves from my niece.  She spent a good 10 minutes crying and explaining to my brother how she just had to do whatever it was she had to do.  Oh man the tears were flowing........uncle Sac felt a little bad for her as my bro held his ground.

Finally I think he gave up and allowed her to do whatever it was she wanted to do.................thats when she turned around and I witnessed the most devious smile in human history.