MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[northb]

7-7 with the availability that Calvin has for recruiting is absolutely disgusting. Calvin should never finish below 3rd in the league with the resources they have available. No disrespect to any MIAA team, but with the the facilities Calvin has at its disposal, not making the tourney is not an option. Anything less than 3rd is an utter disaster and most of the donors agree with me. This season is cause for concern.

"Availability that Calvin has for recruiting...."  What does that mean?  Asking parents to shell out $38,000 a year so their kid can come and try out for the team?   But hey,  they'll have a really nice gym to play in if they make it. 

You seem to have no clue as to the state of small college recruiting these days.  Virtually every college player has played AAU ball.  The minute they join an AAU program all they hear about is "scholarships."  They're told that their club will help their kid pay for their college education.  And the kids and their parents fall hard for this.   It's  a badge of honor to be "offered", and have that national letter of intent signing day.

And quite frankly,  it's real.  I can think of 5 quality players off the top of my head, all 6'6  or bigger from west Michigan Christian schools ( historically typical Calvin feeder schools), that are currently playing college ball under scholarships at NAIA schools.  Two of them have fathers that has good careers at Calvin .  The program, the history, the academics, and  the facilities cannot compete with what can amount to 10's of thousands of dollars over the course of 4 years.

With that logic, the overall talent level of D3 basketball should be falling and Calvin should be able to maintain its position as a national power. Unfortunately your logic fails. Trust me, I'm not only familiar with playing D3 and the expenses that come with it but also the decision to play or not play based on those financial questions and the role AAU is playing (some of us on this board aren't in our 40-50's and have played in the AAU circuit). The thing that people like you want us to believe (us being individuals who believe Calvin basketball deserves better) is that mediocrity is just a sign of the times and we should accept it. If finances were the only issue for Calvin, then Hope would be in an equally poor position as well as many other D3 institutions. It's poor coaching that is the problem and is pushing athletes away, as much as you want to put your head in the sand and think otherwise.

OK, I'll bite. I too would love to see Calvin have a UWSP type run -- win a few national championships and make the tournament every single year -- but it's just not true that Calvin is "mediocre" or in a "poor position" when it comes to men's basketball.

Under KVS, Calvin has been quite a good Division III basketball team. It might be true that they've come up short against some of our lofty standards, but there's a difference between being an objectively middling program and not quite where we wish they were.

I mean, for goodness sake, Calvin's present graduating class is on a streak of reaching three-straight Rounds of 32 and two-of-three Sweet Sixteens in the NCAA Tournament. They won two MIAA titles and all three MIAA Tournaments. They're 6-3 vs. Hope. Those streaks will probably end soon, but it feels like we're jumping the gun on this discussion.

You never cease to amaze me KS. Im just going to leave it at that. Spend some time in the locker room and inside the program and not just in the stands and writing on your blog and then come talk to me.

Henny2Penny

The sky is not falling.  Calvin will struggle this year.  But they will regress to the mean.  The storied tradition of Calvin Basketball does not mean that all is lost when they don't win everything this year.  It means that the Knights will use what they have always used to get back on track.  If not this year, then next.  We still have the ability to reload like few other programs.  This is not the Cubs saying yet again that fans wait have to wait till next year, so we need not commit Hari Kari.  That is what it means to be a Knight4ever, not just 2day.

In fact, I'll make the same prediction now that I do every year.  At the end of the season there will be one team standing.  That team will be from a city on the I-196 corridor.  It happens every year.  Year. After. Year.

[sac]

Just need to point out Alma is on the 127 corridor in case there was any confussion.

[Winifred Durfee]

So anyway, thinking 3-pt shooting will be pretty important Wed. night.

Thank goodness... something else to talk about. Hope has certainly had it's games where it struggles from 3pt range (Kalamazoo: 4-19, I believe). If they come out hot and hit their shots from deep, they can run away with this one. If they don't, they could still get to the stripe enough to eek out a win at home. Calvin will need to shoot around 50% from 3pt land to win I would think. I suppose, what I'm trying to say is that Calvin needs to hit shots more than Hope, but it certainly doesn't hurt anyone. Then again, what do I know. It's The Rivalry, anything can happen.

Peter Wallner wrote this article about Calvin being dangerous because they are "struggling":

http://www.mlive.com/smallcolleges/grandrapids/index.ssf/2016/01/calvins_struggling_-_does_that.html

Normally, I would give this some weight, but the way things went last year, I would have to answer 'no' to the headline. By that, I mean no less dangerous than usual. After being swept last year, especially with all of the included drama, I can tell you Hope is ready to take care of business tomorrow.

KVS says it well in the article:

"Well, in the rivalry, things get evened up and sometimes it favors the underdog with all the emotion and that one team is expected to do well and the other team has a little less on the line," he said. "But I've seen blowouts on both ends."

Who knows what will happen tomorrow. That's all part of the fun.

[sac]

The very dramatic Trine highlightes from their win over Olivet

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ecSJ2jeBeE&feature=youtu.be

[pointlem]

The very dramatic Trine highlightes from their win over Olivet

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ecSJ2jeBeE&feature=youtu.be

Beautifully done . . . kudos to Trine. That was an aesthetic pleasure to watch.

[GoKnights68]

The game tomorrow is on WGVU, correct ? I just checked my U Verse guide tomorrow and didn't see it listed. I see calvinhope.com says it will be, but usually the guide always has it correctly listed for scheduled Calvin Hope games.

[oldknight]

On the lighter side--and as we await tomorrow's rivalry game--I see sac finally returned that book he borrowed from Herrick:

http://wtvbam.com/news/articles/2016/jan/23/herrick-district-library-gets-really-overdue-book-with-apology-donation/

[Winifred Durfee]

The game tomorrow is on WGVU, correct ? I just checked my U Verse guide tomorrow and didn't see it listed. I see calvinhope.com says it will be, but usually the guide always has it correctly listed for scheduled Calvin Hope games.

As far as I know, yes, still on WGVU.

[Flying Dutch Fan]

The game tomorrow is on WGVU, correct ? I just checked my U Verse guide tomorrow and didn't see it listed. I see calvinhope.com says it will be, but usually the guide always has it correctly listed for scheduled Calvin Hope games.

It's also not listed in the channel guide on Charter (as of last night).  Makes it a bit difficult to set the DVR

[KnightSlappy]

The game tomorrow is on WGVU, correct ? I just checked my U Verse guide tomorrow and didn't see it listed. I see calvinhope.com says it will be, but usually the guide always has it correctly listed for scheduled Calvin Hope games.

Are you really trying to watch the basketball game, or is this your way of covertly asking if "Natural Born Hustlers: Sex, Lies & Dirty Tricks" will be running in its timeslot as scheduled?

[GoKnights68]

Regardless that I assume it's still on, as FDF mentioned, it becomes a bit more of a pain to DVR as they got a program on 7 to 9pm it looks like and then something 9pm to 10pm.    Obviously I'll just DVR both but just sayin'

[sac]

So, how about that Trine at Albion game tonight.  Pretty important I would think.

[Flying Dutch Fan]

So, how about that Trine at Albion game tonight.  Pretty important I would think.

That's for sure - winner either has 3rd alone or is tied for 3rd.  Trine is reeling a bit and needs a solid win.  Feels like if they lose this one (which is highly possible because Albion is always tough at home) they may be in jeopardy of not making the MIAA tournament, despite their great start to the season.

[sac]

Last year Trine won 45-44 at Kresge
http://miaa.org/mbb/stats/1415/m218tuab.htm

Its been a pretty decent series

13--Trine 70  Albion 62
13--Albion 73  Trine 68 OT
14--Albion 68  Trine 65
14--Albion 51  Trine 41
15--Trine 66  Albion 56
15--Trine 45  Albion 44

Trine has finished ahead of Albion in the standing twice in the last 3 years, they were tied at 8-6 in 2014 thanks to Albion's two wins.

[KnightSlappy]

So, how about that Trine at Albion game tonight.  Pretty important I would think.

That's for sure - winner either has 3rd alone or is tied for 3rd.  Trine is reeling a bit and needs a solid win.  Feels like if they lose this one (which is highly possible because Albion is always tough at home) they may be in jeopardy of not making the MIAA tournament, despite their great start to the season.

We certainly do have three big games tonight to wrap up the first round of robins.

Adrian at Kalamazoo -- A Bulldogs win would put them in the mix for the number four seed.
Trine at Albion -- as mentioned above.
Calvin at Hope -- A big pride game, but Calvin kind of needs to steal one to get back on solid footing in the MIAA Tournament race. Calvin could end the night anywhere from third to sixth, depending on results.