MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[Dark Knight]

Hope had 11 players play 10 or more minutes each. Cornerstone only had 8 players with double-figure minutes, and while Jonker is a formidable inside force, there's only one of him.

Calvin's depth and size also wore down Aquinas. Calvin won't have a depth or athleticism advantage against Hope--but Hope didn't seem to have a frontline that will match up with Calvin in terms of size and scoring potential. It will make for an interesting game.

No one knows how crowded it will be since this November meeting has never occurred before. However, there were only 2400 people there last night. There will be 4500 general admission tickets, and while some of the Aquinas-Cornerstone fans will leave before the second game, I'd be surprised if many of the rest decide to move up to the nosebleed section between games.

[hope1]

there schould be plenty of tickets     i also dont think the fans will move up from the lower section  thats the closet i ever parked to the  gym  it was nice

[northb]

Tickets go on sale at 5:00 p.m.

[goodknight]

The C'stone and AQ fans who stay may not move, but there won't be many of their species.  It'll be a much smaller than ordinary crowd for Hope and Calvin, but it'll be overwhelmingly orange/blue and marroon/gold.

[realist]

Aquinas head coach Dave Hammer gave a lot of praise to the Knights. "Their experience, bulk, and size just wore us down. They are quite the physical ball club. Their experience showed and the more they play, the better they are going to get."
Interesting comments, especially coming from a team with 8 games already played.  One would expect Hope to matchup much more closely.
Also expect to see more traditional MIAA type defenses tonight.

[northb]

Aquinas head coach Dave Hammer gave a lot of praise to the Knights. "Their experience, bulk, and size just wore us down. They are quite the physical ball club. Their experience showed and the more they play, the better they are going to get."
Interesting comments, especially coming from a team with 8 games already played.  One would expect Hope to matchup much more closely.
Also expect to see more traditional MIAA type defenses tonight.

He seems to see the "Ripening Knights" as ripe enough.  We shall know by about 10 tonight!

[oldknight]

I couldn't get back from Chi-town in time yesterday to see the games and was headed up the Ford near South Haven at 8:00 pm which--as it turns out--is near the limits of WFUR's signal range. I heard the entire game and it seems that this year's edition of Knight's men's basketball exhibits a pretty good shooting team. In fact, if it is fair to compare results to last year's first 3 games, it's really no contest. 

After 3 games last year Calvin was 73-178 (41%) overall and 18-53 (34%) from beyond the arc.

This year the same numbers after 3 games are 94-177 (53%) and 29-61 (47.5%).

There are a number of factors that influence shooting but a team's good (or bad) shooting is mostly influenced by 4 factors--1) quality of shot selection, 2) strength of defensive pressure faced, 3) ability to create turnovers (which leads to high percentage shots), and 4) abilities of the shooter's themselves. In Calvin's case I'm thinking that due to the maturity level of the younger players on this team the quality of shot selection is much higher this year after 3 games than it was last year at the same point in the season. The addition of Mantel adds an extra offensive dimension they lacked last year, giving Calvin more scoring in the paint which leads to more open looks for perimeter players. In particular, I think Mantel as a scoring threat has helped Meckes who is now a perfect 3-3 from beyond the arc. Meckes was perfect last year too going 0-5 from 3 point range--for the entire season.  I don't think Josh was ever comfortable being thrust into the role of being an important scoring threat for the Knights. I think he is much happier being a secondary scoring threat and in being left to do other things such as shotblocking, being a disruptive defensive presence, taking the occasional open look he gets, and getting "garbage" points on the offensive glass--the type of things at which he excels.

Obviously, both Veldhouse and Griffin are very good perimeter shooters but Calvin's depth this year, especially along the front line, seems to wear out teams in the second half. Calvin has only outscored opponents 128-118 in the first half this year but they have won second half battles by a 130-83 margin. They need to continue to show improvement as a defensive team and tonight's game will be a good measuring stick for this team.

[Civic Minded]

Aquinas head coach Dave Hammer gave a lot of praise to the Knights. "Their experience, bulk, and size just wore us down. They are quite the physical ball club. Their experience showed and the more they play, the better they are going to get."
Interesting comments, especially coming from a team with 8 games already played.  One would expect Hope to matchup much more closely.
Also expect to see more traditional MIAA type defenses tonight.

He seems to see the "Ripening Knights" as ripe enough.  We shall know by about 10 tonight!

I'm pretty sure they are ripe enough -- they looked good last night.  The one thing that will be interesting to see is how they handle a bit more defensive pressure -- it seemed to me that AQ was quite lacking in that department.  I really could have survived without this matchup already in November (I don't need any more grey hair!)!   

[hope1]

you said that  i dont need any more   either they could play 5 times i dont if i could handle that many

Aquinas head coach Dave Hammer gave a lot of praise to the Knights. “Their experience, bulk, and size just wore us down. They are quite the physical ball club. Their experience showed and the more they play, the better they are going to get.”
Interesting comments, especially coming from a team with 8 games already played.  One would expect Hope to matchup much more closely.
Also expect to see more traditional MIAA type defenses tonight.

He seems to see the "Ripening Knights" as ripe enough.  We shall know by about 10 tonight!

I'm pretty sure they are ripe enough -- they looked good last night.  The one thing that will be interesting to see is how they handle a bit more defensive pressure -- it seemed to me that AQ was quite lacking in that department.  I really could have survived without this matchup already in November (I don't need any more grey hair!)!  

[realist]

Civic, and Hope1:  I am inclined to think most Calvin fans would agree that 4/5 times in one year may be too much of a good thing.     Tonight will teach both teams quite abit, but doubt it will be typical Calvin/Hope MIAA matchup.  Both offenses seem to be firing at mid season form, but defenses need some work.  The only word the AQ coach missed was Calvin's "depth", but Hope maybe even deeper.
My guess would be Calvin in a real barn-burner, but my bias shows. Plus home court.
OK:  Your analysis on the front line seems about right.  Definitely may be the missing link from last year, and will be hard for many teams to match up past their first 5 or 6.  Both AQ, and Cstone lacked the depth of the MIAA squads.

[pointlem]

Last night fulfilled and slightly exceeded my expectations of Hope and Calvin.  Hope's seeming weakness this year is its athletic but undersized post players (replacing the bigger Andy Phillips and Eric Voison).  This was reflected in its being outscored in the paint 35 to 16.  Hope may have trouble against teams with dominating big post players (partly because they'll need to double team them, which will open up the opposition's 3-point shooters).

Zach Osburn showed some good moves and his strength may help, as one hopes Dan Holt will when he returns, after Christmas, I gather.  Hope's seeming strength is its guards and 3 point shooting.  Van Solkema not only scored 17 points, he had 4 steals, a team-leading six rebounds, and was a determined presence in the last 10 minutes.

Watching Calvin's first half I was very impressed (more so than last year) with Veldhouse's foot speed, and his ability to lose people, draw other defenders, and dish off.  His end-of-the-first half one-on-one 3-point basket (when everyone, including the defender) knew what he was about to do, brought back painful memories of his doing the same to Greg Immink for Calvin's winning shot last year.  Van Solkema will have his hands full tonight, but I think he'll relish and rise to the challenge.

I was also very impressed with John Mantel's shooting range and agility.  Mantel, Meckes, and Zoerhof make a formidable front for the smaller Hope team, and Griffin and Veldhouse look to be about the equal of Cramer and Van Solkema.  It looks to me like the league coaches and d3Hoops pollsters knew what they were doing in giving the edge to Calvin this year.  I don't see them losing many games.  And I see a very interesting match up of two national championship contenders (Calvin-Wooster) on December 30th.  But then next weekend's Calvin game against an improved Wheaton will also prove interesting.  But so will tonight's game!

[sac]

A November Hope/Calvin game is like finding out you get to open a Christmas present early.  Who knows these teams may only play two more times.

I think pointlem covered all the good points about this matchup, I would add I think Hope is going to win alot of games this year by outhustling and being scrappy.........doing the little things etc.  It will take some time for the low post game to develop, if it ever does.  Also a danger sign at least yesterday is  still no go to guy when you really need a bucket, Cstone kind of bailed Hope out with some fouling.

Calvin is just plain a really good D3 team, I think their fans are being to cautious about their prospects for the season.  Last year I talked privately that I didn't think Hope would lose more than 3 games, well this year I'll say the same publicly about Calvin.  They won't lose more than 3 games......if they do, it would mean Hope had a great year.

Griffen is a terrific pickup for Knights (shockingly a transfer), Mantel is the real deal and then some, add with it a stronger and more confident group around Mr Veldhouse and you've got a winner.  By the way I think the most improved player on Calvin's team is Veldhouse and its by far.  The game looks way to easy for the kid.


Might be a tougher game tonight  for both sides coaching staffs who typically have 2 months of scouting each other to prepare for that first meeting.  Hope's had 3 games to look at Calvin and Calvin has had 1.  How much of the offensive and defensive schemes have both coaches been able to install?  Does either team really know what it does well?

If Hope's going to win this they absolutely have to shoot the ball well and play good defense.  I'm not sure Calvin has to do anything special to beat Hope.  If Hope is to be taken seriously as an NCAA tournament team this is a pretty crucial game in the eyes of the NCAA"s points index.  It would be a really nice early season feather in the cap.

Should be an atypical crowd tonight too, few students, although I'm sure some of the local kids will show up.  We'll call this one for the alumni.  I bet you get close to a full house.

My prediction.......typical hard fought Hope/Calvin game and I bet the two teams surprise us in the quality of play.  In the end though I think Cavlin will be a little too much for the Dutchmen to handle and Calvin pulls away to win by about 12 to 15.

But I wouldn't be surprised if Hope won    (thats called hedging)

[sac]

Series is Calvin 81 Hope 80 with just 22 points separating the two teams.

Hope won 3 of 4 last year and has won 8 of the last 11 meetings.

First pre-conference meeting since early 80's in Pella, Iowa at Central College.  Wonder what the attendance was?



If we had known this matchup would happen and the weather would be so nice............we could have had a nice pregame golf outing somewhere.

[Flying Dutch Fan]

Just doesn't seem right that I just finished mowing the lawn, and later in the same day I'm going to a Hope/Calvin game. 

My guess is that the intensity (of the crowd) and the pressure fo the rivalry will be a bit lower than normal, at least pre-game.  Once they start playing, it doesn't matter if it's basketball, tiddly winks, or rock/paper/scissors- this is Hope/Calvin and it will be awesome.

As to the inside play - Hope is a bit undersized, but Richardson, Reimink, and Osburn play a lot bigger than they are.  I keep remembering how Richardson shut down Crawford in the MIAA tournament last year - that's the kind of effort needed this year.

[Grutte Dirk]

CALVIN SPORTS REPORT FOR NOVEMBER 24, 2006

Calvin/Hope Matchup Set For Select Bank Championship Game

MEN'S BASKETBALL
For the first time in the 11-year history of the Select Bank/Hall of Fame Classic, Calvin and Hope will not only meet, but also face each other in the championship game. The two rivals will meet for the 162nd time this Saturday night in a storied rivalry that spans 84 years.

Calvin and Hope advanced to the championship game with first round victories on Friday night at the Calvin Fieldhouse. Hope defeated Cornerstone 80-76 while Calvin defeated Aquinas 81-65. Saturday's championship game is scheduled to tip off at 8:00 p.m. Saturday's championship game will mark the first time since the 1980-81 season that Calvin and Hope will meet in a non-conference game, preceeding the MIAA regular season. The two teams met in December of 1980 at a tournament hosted by Central College in Pella, Iowa. Calvin won the game 85-66.

Calvin holds an all-time series lead of 81-80 against Hope but the Flying Dutchmen are coming off a 2005-06 campaign where they defeated the Knights in three out of four meetings.

Series is Calvin 81 Hope 80 with just 22 points separating the two teams.

Hope won 3 of 4 last year and has won 8 of the last 11 meetings.

First pre-conference meeting since early 80's in Pella, Iowa at Central College.

deja vu