MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[oldknight]

Massey is predicting some really close games on Saturday (gonna be a tough weekend for those in the pick 'em I think):

Olivet 85, Alma 84 - 52% chance Olivet wins
Albion 66, Kalamazoo 65 - 52% chance Albion wins
Adrian 76, Hope 75 - 51% chance Adrian wins
Calvin 75, Trine 70 - 70% Chance Calvin wins

Something tells me that this season's pick 'em winner won't match the 43-13 mark when FCGrizzliesGrad won last season. Weird year and a lot of really tough picks--which I expect will continue.

[Flying Dutch Fan]

Congrats Dante Hawkins on being the 40th Flying Dutchman to reach 1000 career points! That makes 3 straight seasons for a player to reach 1000 (Blackledge, Gardner, Benson)

Makes me wonder who and when the next Hope player to reach 1000 points will be

Been thinking about this since I read it yesterday.  Jason Beckman is actually on pace to do it in his 2 years of eligibility...

[HOPEful]

Congrats Dante Hawkins on being the 40th Flying Dutchman to reach 1000 career points! That makes 3 straight seasons for a player to reach 1000 (Blackledge, Gardner, Benson)

Makes me wonder who and when the next Hope player to reach 1000 points will be

Been thinking about this since I read it yesterday.  Jason Beckman is actually on pace to do it in his 2 years of eligibility...

I could definitely see Preston Granger do it. His growth so far as a freshman has been impressive.

[Flying Dutch Fan]

MIAA announced today that wrestling is coming back as an MIAA sponsored sport.

http://www.miaa.org/sports/wrest/2017-18/releases/WrestlingSponsored

[TUAngola]

MIAA announced today that wrestling is coming back as an MIAA sponsored sport.

http://www.miaa.org/sports/wrest/2017-18/releases/WrestlingSponsored

Right now only Adrian, Alma, Olivet and Trine have varsity wrestling.  Do any of the other MIAA schools have club wrestling and/or plan to bring wrestling back as a varsity sport?

[shknowsbest]

The Laketa kid from alma was a great shooter.  I watched him warm up against Calvin and it seem like he never missed a shot.  When he moved it look like he had a hitch in giddy up.  I saw that the 2 bigs from alma didn't play in their last game. 

[Young Knight 14]

Calvin taking care of business early against Trine.  The knights out rebounding their opponent almost 2 to 1 so far.  Side note, is it just me or does Calvin give up a basket right as the halftime buzzer sounds more often than not?  I can think of numerous examples just off the top of my head.

[maroonandgold]

Calvin taking care of business early against Trine.  The knights out rebounding their opponent almost 2 to 1 so far.  Side note, is it just me or does Calvin give up a basket right as the halftime buzzer sounds more often than not?  I can think of numerous examples just off the top of my head.

It is definitely not just you.  It has happened far too often!  What has not been as common this year is that Calvin really played well in the second half as well as the first.  They dominated the boards so much that the final rebounding edge was 50-20, and they really moved the ball well when Trine put on the hard press toward the end.  It was really encouraging to see the movement from the automatic passes which Trine was waiting to intercept and did a few times toward a second or third option that was cutting into the open.  A good team effort all around.

[Bulldog30]

Congratulations to the now 4 and 0 Adrian Bulldogs as they beat Hope 74 to 63.

It was fairly close in score in the 1st half (32-29 at halftime) but after an early stretch in the 2nd half (highlighted by 3's from Colbert and Kalonji), Adrian had a 21 point lead and it never was close after that.

Watching the game, the biggest thing I noticed was that Adrian was a step quicker the whole game, offensively (Hope was poor with their help D too) defensively, and with every 50/50 ball. And stats wise, 3 things stand out:

1 - Adrian shot 31 free throws to Hope's 13. This game could've been a lot worse for Hope if Adrian shot better than 61% from the line. But since Adrian was quicker to each spot, they didn't get fouls on D and got some reaches on O. Webster also caused a lot of contact (shot 12 of 18 from FT) on some strong inside play, as he tends to do.

2 - Huge discrepancy shooting percentage wise. Hope was 41 and 32% from FG and 3, and Adrian was 48 and 56%. Not going to lose much with that type of difference. Adrian has shown themselves to be a much better 3 point shooting team than I expected.

3 - Adrian had all 5 starters in double figures. Webster 16 (also had 14 boards) Kalonji 12, Harris 15, Colbert 14, and Heard 10. Great balance! It was really the guards that were most important in my eyes today. Adrian won the last few games with a lack of offense from the guards (minus Colbert last game), and I was telling a friend that if they shoot better to go along with their ball control and strong defense, Adrian could be real tough.

Go Bulldogs!
 

[oldknight]

Calvin--playing with a chip on their shoulder after Wednesday night's dispiriting loss--showed up with their best all-around game of the season beating up Trine 89-69. Trine actually outshot their hosts but with the Knights getting an incredible 25 offensive rebounds, and out-boarding the Thunder 50-20, this game became a bit of a mismatch. Walter came off the bench to lead the winners with 23 points and 12 boards. Derrick DeVries shrugged off his four minute second half performance at Hope to score 21, while Luke Morrison and Bykerk added 14 and 10. I thought Pete Smith (19 points) played a very nice game for Trine, while Clune and Hunter added 13 each, but with Calvin coming at the Thunder in waves, Trine never really made a move to cut into the Knights' 19 point half-time lead. Other game notes:

--Walter is obviously comfortable now with the D3 game. He's become a real force off the bench for Calvin on both sides of the ball (two more blocks today), and is a tremendously consistent shooter of the ball in the paint.

--Easily the best defense I've seen from this Calvin team. It's amazing what a passionate commitment to the defensive side of the ball can do for you.

--Emmett Warners is slowly but surely creeping up in playing important minutes. The volleyball coach's son has exceptionally quick feet for a guy who is 6'5". 

[sac]

Adrian 74  Hope 63

Adrian played a really good 40 minutes game, one impressive stretch at the beginning of the 2nd half put this one out of reach.  Bulldogs beat Hope in just about every facet of this one.  Hope struggled to find a 3rd offensive threat with Ray struggling from the floor and Granger being over matched against a veteran player, every post player Hope tried struggled.   But as has been the story all year its the defensive end where Hope is just really really poor.  Hope gives up 45% or better shooting every night out and that just won't win many games let alone a conference.

Hope let an opportunity slip today, still a long way to go but I'm not sure what kind of say this Hope team is going to have in the conference race if they continue to struggle on defense like they have.  The next two home games are really crucial.  Alma and Olivet.

Hope:  Hawkins 22, Beckman 19
Adrian:  Webster 16, Harris 15, Colbert 14, Kolanji 12, Heard 10

I've seen everyone but Albion in person now and there aren't anything more than marginal differences in personnel between teams.  Adrian can play better defense than all of them and that will make them the favorites probably the rest of the way.   Olivet gets their shot Wednesday for first place.   A win by Adrian means a two game lead over everyone and it then becomes worth mentioning Adrian hasn't won any kind of MIAA Championship since 1955 and has never won an outright Championship.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Has the MIAA gone totally mad??

Last year Hope went 23-7, 13-1 in conference, and made a run at getting to Salem.  This year they already have 7 losses, and have doubled their conference loss total for the entire season.

Last year Adrian went 7-18 overall, 1-13 in conference.  This year they are 13-2 (nearly doubling their entire season wins already) and 4-0 (already quadrupling their conference win total).

At 13-2, will Adrian finally get a Top 25 vote this week?  (I'm sure they won't get IN the Top 25, but a stray vote or two would be nice!)

BTW, saw a photoshoot of Adrian's new mascot.  I'm not really a fan of bulldogs, but that puppy is a cutie!

[shknowsbest]

Great defense, Walters and Bykerk contesting shots allow Canonie and Amoros taking chances on disrupting plays.  Canonie held their leading score to 6 on 2-9 fg.  Calvin plays at this level, they are going tough to beat by the end of the yearl

[maroonandgold]

Great defense, Walters and Bykerk contesting shots allow Canonie and Amoros taking chances on disrupting plays.  Canonie held their leading score to 6 on 2-9 fg.  Calvin plays at this level, they are going tough to beat by the end of the yearl

I totally agree.  One thing that was really noticeable in yesterday's game was that Wilks played incredibly hard, nailing 10 rebounds (which I suspect might be his career high).  It's my guess that he was really making a statement after a disappointing game against Hope.  His shooting has not been there as usual in past years.  So he really did what he could to help--even one move from the corner to the basket that really brought applause!

[Mr. Ypsi]

Has the MIAA gone totally mad??

Last year Hope went 23-7, 13-1 in conference, and made a run at getting to Salem.  This year they already have 7 losses, and have doubled their conference loss total for the entire season.

Last year Adrian went 7-18 overall, 1-13 in conference.  This year they are 13-2 (nearly doubling their entire season wins already) and 4-0 (already quadrupling their conference win total).

At 13-2, will Adrian finally get a Top 25 vote this week?  (I'm sure they won't get IN the Top 25, but a stray vote or two would be nice!)

BTW, saw a photoshoot of Adrian's new mascot.  I'm not really a fan of bulldogs, but that puppy is a cutie!

Woo Hoo!  Not just a 'stray vote or two', they got 13 points!  Not much for a team now 13-2, but it's a start.

Though by January 15th, they probably shouldn't be, some (many?) voters are still greatly affected by preseason expectations and by past history, neither of which would be helpful for Adrian.  We're seeing the same thing in the CCIW, where Augustana is probably the FOURTH best team by THIS season's resume, yet is still in the top 10 while IWU finally cracked the top 25 at 23rd and NCC and Wheaton are both barely receiving votes.