MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[TUAngola]

A superb Calvin performance in Angola by the Knights, who win their 9th straight game and come away with a 75-64 win. Trine plays the best defense in the conference but Calvin sprinted away from a 34-28 halftime lead by taking advantage of the Thunder's constant overplay of passing lanes. Calvin's pinpoint passes led to high percentage shots and easy baskets. Morrison proved his veteran mettle with 33 points in a must-win game. Egekeze added 15, and Sensenig added 10, and was excellent off the bench. Bowman with 24 led Trine.   

Yep, Morrison was the man today.  We didn't have anyone that could check him and he was 'feeling it' the whole game.  He hit an unreal fade away 3 pointer from the corner with the shot clock running out in the second half.  You know it's your day when those type of shots go in.

Calvin was really good taking care of the ball today.  And I thought they did a real good job of running us off the 3 point line.  Morrison was checking Williams on defense and Bryce couldn't get many open looks at all.  We had just too many empty possessions in the second half trying to make it a game, either missing point blank shots or turning the ball over.

Huge crowd at MTI, close to 3000. 

[wiz]

A superb Calvin performance in Angola by the Knights, who win their 9th straight game and come away with a 75-64 win. Trine plays the best defense in the conference but Calvin sprinted away from a 34-28 halftime lead by taking advantage of the Thunder's constant overplay of passing lanes. Calvin's pinpoint passes led to high percentage shots and easy baskets. Morrison proved his veteran mettle with 33 points in a must-win game. Egekeze added 15, and Sensenig added 10, and was excellent off the bench. Bowman with 24 led Trine.   

Yep, Morrison was the man today.  We didn't have anyone that could check him and he was 'feeling it' the whole game.  He hit an unreal fade away 3 pointer from the corner with the shot clock running out in the second half.  You know it's your day when those type of shots go in.

Calvin was really good taking care of the ball today.  And I thought they did a real good job of running us off the 3 point line.  Morrison was checking Williams on defense and Bryce couldn't get many open looks at all.  We had just too many empty possessions in the second half trying to make it a game, either missing point blank shots or turning the ball over.

Huge crowd at MTI, close to 3000.

Great atmosphere!

[HOPEful]

Unless Hope loses one or both of their games to Kalamazoo this week, it looks like the Rivalry game will also be a regular season Championship game. If Hope wins, they'll win the conference outright. If Calvin wins, and beat Albion on Saturday, they'll win the conference outright. Even if Calvin were to beat Hope, but then lose to Albion, they'd still at minimum share the title with Hope.

[ziggy]

Unless Hope loses one or both of their games to Kalamazoo this week, it looks like the Rivalry game will also be a regular season Championship game. If Hope wins, they'll win the conference outright. If Calvin wins, and beat Albion on Saturday, they'll win the conference outright. Even if Calvin were to beat Hope, but then lose to Albion, they'd still at minimum share the title with Hope.

Maybe also a battle between Thomas and Morrison to settle league MVP? I'm inclined to say today may have wrapped it up for Morrison but I could see an argument for Thomas, especially if Hope wins an outright regular season title.

[sac]

Hope 84 Olivet 70 F

Hope played well today leading the whole way.  Relatively quickly made it a double digit lead and other than a brief stretch of good play to start the 2nd half from Olivet the lead was double digits for most of this one.  Thomas and Dykhouse set the pace with 14 and 10 by halftime.  Not the best shooting day for the team but on the road, pretty ok.

To beat Hope, Olivet probably had to have big games from Thigpen and Johnson and neither could deliver the kind of games they needed.  Hope never let Johnson really get loose and Thigpen played himself out of the first half with 3 really bad fouls and just never looked comfortable, struggled to get 7.   It could have been a much closer game had Olivet not been positively dreadful from the free-throw line  11-28 and some of those misses were really bad.


Hope:  Thomas 22, Dykhouse 15, Quillan 9, Shoonveld 8
Olivet:  Martin 18, Upshaw 11, Wiswary 10

Hope got 17 points from a couple surprise places but none more so than Fr. Gabe Quillan.  The Big Q hasn't played much this year but today drew 12 minutes of significant game action and delivered with 9 points, 5 rbs a block and more than a couple altered shots and tipped balls that ended up in Hope hands.

First of 4 games in 8 days for Hope,  at Kzoo Monday where a win sets up the Wed game between Hope/Calvin for at least a share of the title for the winner, but really we all know its gonna be for the title outright. 

[sac]

I was trying to think of the last time Hope/Calvin met in the last two games of the regular season tied for first with pretty much all the marbles on the line. 


.....its been awhile hasn't it?

Looking back I'm kind of shocked how infrequently Hope/Calvin have played each other in the final week of the regular season.

I just did some quick research and maybe I missed something and I kind of hope I did.   What will blow every one of you who read this away.  The answer is never.

[sac]

Alma 84 Albion 57    on Sr day at Albion.
Adrian 78 Kalamazoo 59



+1 for road win/ -1 for home loss

Calvin   10-2   +4
Hope     9-2  +4
Trine     8-4   +1
Albion   8-4  +2

Adrian   4-8   -2
Olivet    3-9   -2
Kzoo     2-8   -2
Alma     2-9   -4



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

There's still a lot to unpack for tie-breakers and I think its best to just let them play out through Wed. night.

Basically Trine has the tie-break over Albion
Winner of the Hope-Calvin game will likely have the tie-break over the other.  If Hope wins, 2 wins over Calvin, if Calvin wins 2 wins over Trine.


Go Hope, Beat K.

[oldknight]

I was trying to think of the last time Hope/Calvin met in the last two games of the regular season tied for first with pretty much all the marbles on the line. 


.....its been awhile hasn't it?

Looking back I'm kind of shocked how infrequently Hope/Calvin have played each other in the final week of the regular season.

I just did some quick research and maybe I missed something and I kind of hope I did.   What will blow every one of you who read this away.  The answer is never.

1965-66 was Eddie Douma's senior season. Bill DeHorn was Calvin's much-heralded frosh from Chicago Christian, who would lead the league in rebounding and scoring. I was in awe of the beast, who would--after a two-year hiatus elsewhere--come back to GR to play his senior year at Calvin and room in an off-campus apartment with my oldest brother.

The last game of the season featured a Calvin/Hope matchup at the brand spanking-new Knollcrest Fieldhouse. Calvin entered the game sporting a 10-1 record, with their only league blemish a loss to Hope, who came into the contest at 9-2. A Hope win would allow the visitors from Holland tie the Knights with a 10-2 record, and make a legitimate claim to being the outright champs by virtue of a season sweep over their arch rival.

I watched the game from an endzone perch above the court right next to the American flag. DeHorn got irritated with something a Hope player did, tackled the Dutch offender, and dragged him under the overhang, requiring a team of horses to get him off the Hope player. In today's game, he would have been ejected but it was a different world in 1966. After everyone dusted off and shook hands, the game continued without further incident.

After the final buzzer, the Calvin players carried Barney Steen off the floor on their shoulders. It was Steen's final game as head coach of the men's team. I think that was the last--and possibly only--time the rivals played each other in regular-season finale with the championship on the line.

[HOPEful]

Unless Hope loses one or both of their games to Kalamazoo this week, it looks like the Rivalry game will also be a regular season Championship game. If Hope wins, they'll win the conference outright. If Calvin wins, and beat Albion on Saturday, they'll win the conference outright. Even if Calvin were to beat Hope, but then lose to Albion, they'd still at minimum share the title with Hope.

Maybe also a battle between Thomas and Morrison to settle league MVP? I'm inclined to say today may have wrapped it up for Morrison but I could see an argument for Thomas, especially if Hope wins an outright regular season title.

Interesting. They have very similar PPG and Evan turns the ball over slightly more than Luke. But I would have said the battle between the two is pretty dead even, with a lean toward Evan Thomas due to his leading the league in rebounds.

[sac]

Thomas, Morrison and Bowman are all having MVP worthy seasons.  Its a very hard choice.  More than likely Bowman won't get it with Trine finishing 3rd.  Between Morrison and Thomas it comes down to what you value offensive, defense, intangibles.  Its really close and I don't think there is a definitive answer.

[KnightSlappy]

Unless Hope loses one or both of their games to Kalamazoo this week, it looks like the Rivalry game will also be a regular season Championship game. If Hope wins, they'll win the conference outright. If Calvin wins, and beat Albion on Saturday, they'll win the conference outright. Even if Calvin were to beat Hope, but then lose to Albion, they'd still at minimum share the title with Hope.

Maybe also a battle between Thomas and Morrison to settle league MVP? I'm inclined to say today may have wrapped it up for Morrison but I could see an argument for Thomas, especially if Hope wins an outright regular season title.

I would not be surprised to see the league champ get the MVP. I would set the odds to favor Thomas or Morrison simply based on which team wins the title.

[HOPEful]

Unless Hope loses one or both of their games to Kalamazoo this week, it looks like the Rivalry game will also be a regular season Championship game. If Hope wins, they'll win the conference outright. If Calvin wins, and beat Albion on Saturday, they'll win the conference outright. Even if Calvin were to beat Hope, but then lose to Albion, they'd still at minimum share the title with Hope.

Maybe also a battle between Thomas and Morrison to settle league MVP? I'm inclined to say today may have wrapped it up for Morrison but I could see an argument for Thomas, especially if Hope wins an outright regular season title.

I would not be surprised to see the league champ get the MVP. I would set the odds to favor Thomas or Morrison simply based on which team wins the title.

When it's this close, the best player on the best team approach seems appropriate. Unless one player dominates on Wednesday in a loss, I agree and feel like the winning team also ends up with the MVP.

[sac]

Hope 85 Kalamazoo 79  F

Kzoo played one of their best games of the season tonight.  Hope got off to a great start led 16-4 early, forced K to call 3 timeouts before just barely 5 minutes had been played.  But the Hornets never flinched actually dominated the rest of the first half and trailed Hope by only 1.  Hope regained control a couple times in the 2nd half but K came right back at them twice more and finally got within 2 with just over 6 min to play.  Ty George hit 2 huge 3's and a pretty clutch Evan Thomas midrange deuce gave Hope just enough breathing room to carry home the W.  With the game still in doubt Jeff Bikus hit 3 consecutive shots that ultimately put Hope to far out reach at 10.

K hit a 3 at the buzzer after dribbling it out to make the score a closer 6, yet a much more appropriate score than 9 would have been.  Hope was in a fight.

Hope:   Thomas 22, Dykhouse 19, Lilja 12, George 12, Bikus 11
Kzoo:    Decker 24, Horky 11, Atwater 11

Hope picked a fine night to have one of their best 3-point shooting nights of the year, and they needed it.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Week 2 Regional Rankings - which are ranked now: https://d3hoops.com/notables/2022/02/men-regional-rankings-first

[ziggy]

Former Adrian coach Buck Riley passed away yesterday: http://adrian.edu/news/murrell-buck-preston-riley-iii-obituary