MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[ziggy]

Calvin and Hope both make the cut for the season's debut regional rankings: https://www.ncaa.com/rankings/basketball-men/d3/regional-rankings-0

The decision was made this year for the first set of "rankings" to be presented in alphabetical order instead of a true ranking since there is no basis for results versus regionally ranked opponents to be considered.

[Flying Dutch Fan]

Quick look at vRRO I see this:

Calvin 3-4
Hope 3-2

[TUAngola]

Trine 82   Hope 75

Terrific 2nd half by the Thunder propels them to an important win to stay in the MIAA regular season title chase.  Hope with a solid 1st half takes a 10 point lead into the break.  The Dutch stretch it out to 12 points early in the 2nd half before Trine starts chipping away.  It was a very physical 2nd half, both teams were in the bonus early.  Trine with some sketchy free throw shooting, especially in the 1st half as they were only 1-5 with at least 3 of the misses front end of 1 and 1s.  If they would have lost the game it would have been because of their woes at the line.  But they did shoot it better at the line in the second half, and also shot a scorching 68% from the field in the second half.  Trine made it a point in the second half to drive to the hoop or post up Geller and let him go to work.  Geller was fantastic, he probably the best footwork of any big in the league.  I also thought another key was Connor Jones getting his confidence back, he played outstanding tonight.  It wasn't too long ago he was buried on the bench.  Best player on the court was Evan Thomas for Hope.  He is almost impossible to guard 1 on 1.  Trine tried to run 2 guys at him but he is so good at splitting double teams and getting to the rim.  But Trine was just too good in the second half tonight and pulled out the "W". 

Trine:  Geller 20, Bowman 20, Williams 15, Warzecha 12, C Jones 11
Hope:  Thomas 26, Bikus 14, George 14

[sac]

Once upon a time I was a pretty decent golfer, I was never real long, but could find the fairway more often than most and every now and then I could pop one out there pretty good.   You know the ones that feel pure where almost zero shock from hitting the ball reaches your hands, the sound is like something you've only heard watching the PGA guys do it.  Those drives that make you wonder "man, why I can't I do that all the time".   

One day playing out at the ol' ranch called Winding Creek East of Holland I stepped to the 16th tee.  If  you've played it you know its a medium Par 5 approximately 525 from the blue tees (though I've always suspected a little longer), slight dogleg right to a landing area that comes up a little rise between two growths of large Oaks on either side but wide enough I even felt comfortable drawing the ball against the dogleg on some days of maximum bravado.   On this particular day the wind was howling almost directly out of the South and thus the hole was playing almost dead down wind.  If you know, then you know, it smells like chicken **** out there on those days.  One of the also unique characteristics of the 16th fairway on a golf course that is frequently soggy in most places is that it is almost always bone dry on top of the landing area and I typically found an extra 10 yards here that always sort of made me scratch my head until I figured out why one day.   On this particular blustery, windy day it was tee it high and let it fly.

I have a pretty good memory about odd things.  Like for instance a random golf shot on a random day in which I can't even remember who I was playing with, when, what I shot or really anything else.  But I remember this drive.  I remember the feeling of contact that was sort of, well, like nothing.  No vibration, no awkward "ting" sound off the clubface that made you wonder if you hit it just slightly off center.  No, before the clubhead even reached my waist on follow through I knew it was a pure as any shot I had hit. 

When you play golf alot, as I did back then, you get used to recognizing odd feelings in your body.  A minescule lean one way or the other, and you know your balance was off, or your weight shift was just a little fast or slow, maybe the grip was a little off and you can feel your hands fighting each other a bit.  You still hit good shots, just not great ones.  You know small little things.  You can sort of tell the days you don't have it or you do, and the way you attack a course or lay back is often dictated by exactly how you're feeling your swing that day.  Nope none of that, this was as perfect a setup, balance, swing, tempo, contact, follow through and pose as I had ever had in my life.

Back to the tee shot at hand.  After that beautiful moment of impact your eyes almost rush to the sky to find that little white ball.  You pose with the club wrapped neatly around your head, perfect balance, perfect form, for just a brief second your arrogant mind tells you just hold that pose buddy, you look like Faldo. Then suddenly like a hawk hunting in a field you see the little white dot rising over the horizon and it is as beautiful as you had hoped.  A high powerful shot rising, and rising, and rising, still rising, higher and higher.  Oh my God, you think, have you ever seen anything so beautiful.

Just then you see your ball slighty turn right just as you'd hoped it would.  Oh baby its riding the wind now.  For what feels like an eternity you stare and just admire your work.  Still posing of course, oh you're not coming out of that pose until it lands are you.  Finally its reached its apex, so far above the tree line you didn't think possible, still curving and turning ever so slightly right and with nary a sign of deceleration.  Nope, this one has power, wind and almost magic behind it.

Finally it lands, but what you see is no ordinary fairway bounce.  No this seems to careen higher than most balls as if its punishing the ground with each bounce.  You can almost see it accelerate further and further until it finally settles somewhere over the crest you can no longer see.  You finally relax your pose, you don't know it now but you'll remember this ball, the swing, the feeling of impact, that flight and the smell.  Everything. 

You reach your ball in the fairway, its surely the longest walk to reach a drive you've ever had.  In fact you sort of look around in disbelief.  You can see the yard marker behind you.  You pause, look to the green, look back at the marker, then the tee.  You sort of grab your golf hat tilt it back and inaudible cuss words come out of your mouth.  That marker is the white one right?  You ask to no one in particular.  You walk back to it, yes, its the white one.  For no reason other than your own sure disbelief you frantically look for the blue one, the one that means 200 yards to the center of the green, but its WAY back there.  You look down again, nope this one is for sure the white one, 150 yards to the center of the green.

Let me see that scorecard again.  You've already done the math in your head, you know how far it went.  But there's that one squirrel in your brain that just has to see the evidence for themselves and do the math themselves.  So it says here its 525 and the tee was back a bit, and your ball is only about 140 to that green according to all these markers out here.  So you hit it...........at least 380 yards.  Huh, thats, impressive.   

With a drive this far we simply must attack, and attack we shall.  We're in a tree tunnel now and the wind is still howling, what do we hit.  Well how about a Pitching wedge.  A PW to a par 5,..... in two, don't be silly.  (Silent math calculations) Well yeah ok.  Now this shot wasn't as pretty, or long.  But it was effective and nestled within 8 feel of said hole, it was almost ....disappointing?   A very nice shot on any other hole without a 375+ yards drive.  The 8 footer was simple, I can still see it bend just slightly left and nestle calmly in the hole.  And I say ever so proudly, "well that's a nice eagle".  To which my faceless playing partner replied "wind aided".


Its a long way to get here, but I really didn't know what else to say.  The 16th hole had no defenses to a 40 mph wind that day, and the basket last night was not allowed to be defended by anyone.

You might say Trine took their driver hit one 380 yards, popped a wedge on the green and walked off with eagle.  An eagle well deserved in every single way. When Hope took the tee they had no driver in the bag.

Simply put, Hope didn't have the tools to take advantage of the conditions presented them last night, Trine did.


The End.

[sac]

Albion 87 Adrian 60
Calvin 83 Alma 70
Olivet 69 Kalamazoo 62

+1 for road win/ -1 for home loss

Hope     8-2  +3
Calvin   9-2   +3
Trine     8-3   +2
Albion   8-3  +3

Adrian   3-8   -2
Olivet    3-8   -1
Kzoo     2-7   -2
Alma     1-9   -5

----Well ladies and gents, we better start talking 3-way tie.  Those odds went way up tonight.  I believe in just about any 3 way tie involving Trine, the Thunder would come out with the #1 seed now by virtue of having a 2-0 record vs Albion. 

---despite the loss at Trine, Hope is in control of its own destiny, as is Calvin.  If either wins out, they will be the outright MIAA Champion.

Pretty much every game that directly impacts the championship involves Calvin.

Adrian:     KZO, @Alma, TRINE
Albion:     ALMA, OLIVET, @Calvin
Alma:       @Albion, Adrian, @Kzoo, @Olivet
Calvin:     @Trine, @Hope, ALBION
Hope:      @Olivet, @Kzoo, CALVIN, KZOO
Kzoo:       @Adrian, HOPE, TRINE, ALMA, @Hope
Olivet:      HOPE, @Albion, ALMA
Trine:       CALVIN, @Kzoo, @Adrian

[HOPEful]

Haha, I am certain I have never read a more eloquent, or long-winded, way of articulating that the manner in which the refs called a game heavily favored one team over another.

[goodknight]

Haha, I am certain I have never read a more eloquent, or long-winded, way of articulating that the manner in which the refs called a game heavily favored one team over another.

How about the PA announcer?

[HOPEful]

Haha, I am certain I have never read a more eloquent, or long-winded, way of articulating that the manner in which the refs called a game heavily favored one team over another.

How about the PA announcer?

Couldn't speak on the PA announcer. I watched the Trine Livestream. And in my opinion, Trine's livestream is the best in the conference. They do an incredible job.

[goodknight]

Haha, I am certain I have never read a more eloquent, or long-winded, way of articulating that the manner in which the refs called a game heavily favored one team over another.

How about the PA announcer?

Couldn't speak on the PA announcer. I watched the Trine Livestream. And in my opinion, Trine's livestream is the best in the conference. They do an incredible job.

Now there's something upon which we can agree!

[wiz]

So, I'm standing on the first tee at Indian Trails and I sliced one onto 28th Street...oh, never mind.

PA announcer at Calvin last night was fantastic!

[Shamrock]

I've got tears in my eyes, Sac.

[MaroonKnighty]

Once upon a time I was a pretty decent golfer, I was never real long, but could find the fairway more often than most and every now and then I could pop one out there pretty good.   You know the ones that feel pure where almost zero shock from hitting the ball reaches your hands, the sound is like something you've only heard watching the PGA guys do it.  Those drives that make you wonder "man, why I can't I do that all the time".   

One day playing out at the ol' ranch called Winding Creek East of Holland I stepped to the 16th tee.  If  you've played it you know its a medium Par 5 approximately 525 from the blue tees (though I've always suspected a little longer), slight dogleg right to a landing area that comes up a little rise between two growths of large Oaks on either side but wide enough I even felt comfortable drawing the ball against the dogleg on some days of maximum bravado.   On this particular day the wind was howling almost directly out of the South and thus the hole was playing almost dead down wind.  If you know, then you know, it smells like chicken **** out there on those days.  One of the also unique characteristics of the 16th fairway on a golf course that is frequently soggy in most places is that it is almost always bone dry on top of the landing area and I typically found an extra 10 yards here that always sort of made me scratch my head until I figured out why one day.   On this particular blustery, windy day it was tee it high and let it fly.

I have a pretty good memory about odd things.  Like for instance a random golf shot on a random day in which I can't even remember who I was playing with, when, what I shot or really anything else.  But I remember this drive.  I remember the feeling of contact that was sort of, well, like nothing.  No vibration, no awkward "ting" sound off the clubface that made you wonder if you hit it just slightly off center.  No, before the clubhead even reached my waist on follow through I knew it was a pure as any shot I had hit. 

When you play golf alot, as I did back then, you get used to recognizing odd feelings in your body.  A minescule lean one way or the other, and you know your balance was off, or your weight shift was just a little fast or slow, maybe the grip was a little off and you can feel your hands fighting each other a bit.  You still hit good shots, just not great ones.  You know small little things.  You can sort of tell the days you don't have it or you do, and the way you attack a course or lay back is often dictated by exactly how you're feeling your swing that day.  Nope none of that, this was as perfect a setup, balance, swing, tempo, contact, follow through and pose as I had ever had in my life.

Back to the tee shot at hand.  After that beautiful moment of impact your eyes almost rush to the sky to find that little white ball.  You pose with the club wrapped neatly around your head, perfect balance, perfect form, for just a brief second your arrogant mind tells you just hold that pose buddy, you look like Faldo. Then suddenly like a hawk hunting in a field you see the little white dot rising over the horizon and it is as beautiful as you had hoped.  A high powerful shot rising, and rising, and rising, still rising, higher and higher.  Oh my God, you think, have you ever seen anything so beautiful.

Just then you see your ball slighty turn right just as you'd hoped it would.  Oh baby its riding the wind now.  For what feels like an eternity you stare and just admire your work.  Still posing of course, oh you're not coming out of that pose until it lands are you.  Finally its reached its apex, so far above the tree line you didn't think possible, still curving and turning ever so slightly right and with nary a sign of deceleration.  Nope, this one has power, wind and almost magic behind it.

Finally it lands, but what you see is no ordinary fairway bounce.  No this seems to careen higher than most balls as if its punishing the ground with each bounce.  You can almost see it accelerate further and further until it finally settles somewhere over the crest you can no longer see.  You finally relax your pose, you don't know it now but you'll remember this ball, the swing, the feeling of impact, that flight and the smell.  Everything. 

You reach your ball in the fairway, its surely the longest walk to reach a drive you've ever had.  In fact you sort of look around in disbelief.  You can see the yard marker behind you.  You pause, look to the green, look back at the marker, then the tee.  You sort of grab your golf hat tilt it back and inaudible cuss words come out of your mouth.  That marker is the white one right?  You ask to no one in particular.  You walk back to it, yes, its the white one.  For no reason other than your own sure disbelief you frantically look for the blue one, the one that means 200 yards to the center of the green, but its WAY back there.  You look down again, nope this one is for sure the white one, 150 yards to the center of the green.

Let me see that scorecard again.  You've already done the math in your head, you know how far it went.  But there's that one squirrel in your brain that just has to see the evidence for themselves and do the math themselves.  So it says here its 525 and the tee was back a bit, and your ball is only about 140 to that green according to all these markers out here.  So you hit it...........at least 380 yards.  Huh, thats, impressive.   

With a drive this far we simply must attack, and attack we shall.  We're in a tree tunnel now and the wind is still howling, what do we hit.  Well how about a Pitching wedge.  A PW to a par 5,..... in two, don't be silly.  (Silent math calculations) Well yeah ok.  Now this shot wasn't as pretty, or long.  But it was effective and nestled within 8 feel of said hole, it was almost ....disappointing?   A very nice shot on any other hole without a 375+ yards drive.  The 8 footer was simple, I can still see it bend just slightly left and nestle calmly in the hole.  And I say ever so proudly, "well that's a nice eagle".  To which my faceless playing partner replied "wind aided".


Its a long way to get here, but I really didn't know what else to say.  The 16th hole had no defenses to a 40 mph wind that day, and the basket last night was not allowed to be defended by anyone.

You might say Trine took their driver hit one 380 yards, popped a wedge on the green and walked off with eagle.  An eagle well deserved in every single way. When Hope took the tee they had no driver in the bag.

Simply put, Hope didn't have the tools to take advantage of the conditions presented them last night, Trine did.


The End.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hfYJsQAhl0

[tartanpride2016]

Once upon a time I was a pretty decent golfer, I was never real long, but could find the fairway more often than most and every now and then I could pop one out there pretty good.   You know the ones that feel pure where almost zero shock from hitting the ball reaches your hands, the sound is like something you've only heard watching the PGA guys do it.  Those drives that make you wonder "man, why I can't I do that all the time".   

One day playing out at the ol' ranch called Winding Creek East of Holland I stepped to the 16th tee.  If  you've played it you know its a medium Par 5 approximately 525 from the blue tees (though I've always suspected a little longer), slight dogleg right to a landing area that comes up a little rise between two growths of large Oaks on either side but wide enough I even felt comfortable drawing the ball against the dogleg on some days of maximum bravado.   On this particular day the wind was howling almost directly out of the South and thus the hole was playing almost dead down wind.  If you know, then you know, it smells like chicken **** out there on those days.  One of the also unique characteristics of the 16th fairway on a golf course that is frequently soggy in most places is that it is almost always bone dry on top of the landing area and I typically found an extra 10 yards here that always sort of made me scratch my head until I figured out why one day.   On this particular blustery, windy day it was tee it high and let it fly.

I have a pretty good memory about odd things.  Like for instance a random golf shot on a random day in which I can't even remember who I was playing with, when, what I shot or really anything else.  But I remember this drive.  I remember the feeling of contact that was sort of, well, like nothing.  No vibration, no awkward "ting" sound off the clubface that made you wonder if you hit it just slightly off center.  No, before the clubhead even reached my waist on follow through I knew it was a pure as any shot I had hit. 

When you play golf alot, as I did back then, you get used to recognizing odd feelings in your body.  A minescule lean one way or the other, and you know your balance was off, or your weight shift was just a little fast or slow, maybe the grip was a little off and you can feel your hands fighting each other a bit.  You still hit good shots, just not great ones.  You know small little things.  You can sort of tell the days you don't have it or you do, and the way you attack a course or lay back is often dictated by exactly how you're feeling your swing that day.  Nope none of that, this was as perfect a setup, balance, swing, tempo, contact, follow through and pose as I had ever had in my life.

Back to the tee shot at hand.  After that beautiful moment of impact your eyes almost rush to the sky to find that little white ball.  You pose with the club wrapped neatly around your head, perfect balance, perfect form, for just a brief second your arrogant mind tells you just hold that pose buddy, you look like Faldo. Then suddenly like a hawk hunting in a field you see the little white dot rising over the horizon and it is as beautiful as you had hoped.  A high powerful shot rising, and rising, and rising, still rising, higher and higher.  Oh my God, you think, have you ever seen anything so beautiful.

Just then you see your ball slighty turn right just as you'd hoped it would.  Oh baby its riding the wind now.  For what feels like an eternity you stare and just admire your work.  Still posing of course, oh you're not coming out of that pose until it lands are you.  Finally its reached its apex, so far above the tree line you didn't think possible, still curving and turning ever so slightly right and with nary a sign of deceleration.  Nope, this one has power, wind and almost magic behind it.

Finally it lands, but what you see is no ordinary fairway bounce.  No this seems to careen higher than most balls as if its punishing the ground with each bounce.  You can almost see it accelerate further and further until it finally settles somewhere over the crest you can no longer see.  You finally relax your pose, you don't know it now but you'll remember this ball, the swing, the feeling of impact, that flight and the smell.  Everything. 

You reach your ball in the fairway, its surely the longest walk to reach a drive you've ever had.  In fact you sort of look around in disbelief.  You can see the yard marker behind you.  You pause, look to the green, look back at the marker, then the tee.  You sort of grab your golf hat tilt it back and inaudible cuss words come out of your mouth.  That marker is the white one right?  You ask to no one in particular.  You walk back to it, yes, its the white one.  For no reason other than your own sure disbelief you frantically look for the blue one, the one that means 200 yards to the center of the green, but its WAY back there.  You look down again, nope this one is for sure the white one, 150 yards to the center of the green.

Let me see that scorecard again.  You've already done the math in your head, you know how far it went.  But there's that one squirrel in your brain that just has to see the evidence for themselves and do the math themselves.  So it says here its 525 and the tee was back a bit, and your ball is only about 140 to that green according to all these markers out here.  So you hit it...........at least 380 yards.  Huh, thats, impressive.   

With a drive this far we simply must attack, and attack we shall.  We're in a tree tunnel now and the wind is still howling, what do we hit.  Well how about a Pitching wedge.  A PW to a par 5,..... in two, don't be silly.  (Silent math calculations) Well yeah ok.  Now this shot wasn't as pretty, or long.  But it was effective and nestled within 8 feel of said hole, it was almost ....disappointing?   A very nice shot on any other hole without a 375+ yards drive.  The 8 footer was simple, I can still see it bend just slightly left and nestle calmly in the hole.  And I say ever so proudly, "well that's a nice eagle".  To which my faceless playing partner replied "wind aided".


Its a long way to get here, but I really didn't know what else to say.  The 16th hole had no defenses to a 40 mph wind that day, and the basket last night was not allowed to be defended by anyone.

You might say Trine took their driver hit one 380 yards, popped a wedge on the green and walked off with eagle.  An eagle well deserved in every single way. When Hope took the tee they had no driver in the bag.

Simply put, Hope didn't have the tools to take advantage of the conditions presented them last night, Trine did.


The End.

You typed all this out to complain about the officials? Hope was 17/21 from the line and Trine was 19/28. It was 26 fouls called on Hope and 21 called on Trine. That doesn't seem too one-sided to me...

Why not instead take this space to mention that Hope was 8/26 from deep and that being an issue last night? Or praise Tyler George for his 14 points off the bench to even keep the Dutch in the game? People are quick to blame the officials when they lose, but there are so many other controllable factors in a game...

[sac]

I never actually said it was one sided and don't believe it was, far from it.

[tartanpride2016]

I never actually said it was one sided and don't believe it was, far from it.

Looks like someone else did, my apologies.
Then I disagree with that person's take...