MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[ziggy]

Hope scores with 0:04 left to put them over the century mark, 101-57.

[bulldogalum]

Here's a surprising score...

Albion 73
Olivet 43

Looks like Coach Turner has his boys turned around.

[KnightSlappy]

Poor defense and poor shooting hurt the Knights in the first half.  KVS was not very happy.  Too many weak starts will eventually hurt you.

[doc]

More of the same story for the knights tonight.  A really sloppy 1st half, horrible shooting, missed puppies, poor defense.  Turned it up in the second half, with Griffin hitting some threes along with a pretty nice in-the-air-scoop lay in off a Meckes miss.  Nice to see Koetsier get some non-garbage time and provide a spark.  Kzoo didn't play very deep and they looked tired in the 2nd half.

Caught a little of KVS on the postgame show and he seems at a loss in terms of getting the Knights to play with energy early. . .

[Oval]

scores
Jan 24

Albion 73, Olivet 43
Calvin 74, Kalamazoo 63
Adrian at Alma, 8:30 p.m.
Hope 101, Tri-State 57

[Flying Dutch Fan]

From the Hope/3State game

- As impressed as I was with the Cramer dunk (I had to get it in there one more time), I was more impressed with Steve hitting 6 straight 3's in the first 6:18 of this game.  That was after DVS opened the scoring with a 3 of his own.  Hope had 12 3's in the first half, and 3 more in the second. (Cramer had 6, Partridge 4, DVS 2).

- Hope lead at the half 58-36 with 8 2 point baskets and 6 FT's to go with the 3's.  Haven't seen the box score, but their shooting % had to be pretty high.

- Second half was more about getting the ball inside, and playing awesome defense.  Both the second and third string had runs against the Thunder - who looked worn down with 10 minutes left in the game.

- Scoring - Cramer with 20, Partridge 12, DVS 10, Jager 10.  I was really impressed with Osburn as well, who scored 8 points in about 3 or 4 minutes.

- Nice to be through the league and be 2 games up.

[bulldogalum]

Adrian 79
Alma   73

F

I really hate listening to games on the radio.  At the moment, I'm not really sure how the stats look, but my general impressions are as follows:

Adrian finally got out of its 3 point shooting slump.  It sounded like Ryan Gallus had a whale of a night for the Bulldogs, and made numerous threes tonight.

Adrian missed a lot of front end free throws down the stretch.  Most of the time, both teams were in the double bonus, and thankfully, the Bulldogs made most of their second free throws.

Throughout the majority of the second half, Adrian held a double digit lead.  The widest margin, per my memory, was 20 points in Adrian's favor.  Give lots of credit to Alma for fighting hard to get back into the game, but in the end it wasn't enough.

The Alma announcers made mention on several occasions down the stretch of breaks the referees gave the Scots.  This suggests to me that the officiating may have been less than ideal.  Thankfully, it didn't come back to haunt us.

Speaking of the officials, they were the reason the game was delayed.  Apparently, there was some mix up, and they didn't show up until almost an hour late.

Next up for the Bulldogs, the Albion College Britons.  From the looks of it, Albion is starting to find its form, and Adrian will need everyone to put forth exceptional efforts to emerge with a victory.  

Also on Saturday, following the Adrian-Albion game, is the ever popular alumni game.  Adam Novak, the patron saint of redheaded basketball players, has guaranteed at least 100 rebounds in the game.  Frankly, any fewer and I would be disappointed.

[oldknight]

Caught a little of KVS on the postgame show and he seems at a loss in terms of getting the Knights to play with energy early. . .

I'll say. I caught KVS on the drive home and he's at wits end, even using hyperbole to say that he should be dismissed as coach for the effort this team is giving. At least I think it was hyperbole. If you were at the game you could clearly hear him spend an entire 60 second first half timeout to do nothing but yell at players about how sick and tired he was of the team's lack of effort. He was so loud he prompted one of the ref's standing to the side to say to fans, "Now I'm scared" a comment that drew chuckles from several seated in the north bleachers. I assume radio listeners didn't hear it because of a commercial break--presumably for Hudsonville Ice Cream--but if Doug's mike was on I'm sure folks at home would have heard every word. Wow. It actually seemed to work some because I did think the Knights played harder starting at that point but it didn't show up on the scoreboard for a while because Calvin shot so poorly in the first half. Caleb in particular was awful--at one point he was 1-8 from the floor and twice missed the front end of a one and one. Calvin did outscore Kalamazoo 50-32 in the second half but inexcusably allowed Kazoo to win the rebounding battle and the only reason was because the Hornets wanted it more. 

[AndersDY]

Well, if there is going to be officiating that head-scratching, it's fortunate it can happen in a 40 point throttling. You can't please all the people all the time, but it really takes work to displease every single person in an arena. When fans on both sides are screaming and groaning, you know the officiating is just all around inconsistent.

Tri-State ought to take a look at ditching their current team shoe and taking bids from some other sneaker companies, their players are really having a hard time staying on their feet (or perhaps they just have too many players enrolled in theater classes with Prof. Divac and Prof. Battier).

Once again Dan Holt was in the unfortunate position of being Mr. 99, I think he owes Scott Glaser a Coke for that unlikely steal and last second bucket.

[dewthedutch]

as happy as i am that hope broke 100 tonight, i don't think that glaser should have put up the basket at the end.  i know that it was mostly to please the audience, but at that point in the game.............i don't know, it just feels like the line was crossed a bit to being unsportsmanlike.

on another note, i was very impressed with cramer's shooting display in the first 6-7 minutes of the game.

[HopeConvert]

I extrapolated after Cramer's sixth 3-pointer that if he played all 40 minutes and kept the pace, he would have finished with 121 points. But he cooled down.

I was disappointed with the fans and the team getting so fixated on getting to 100 points. The house got way too excited about hitting the century mark, and I agree that Glaser should have pulled the ball out. Poor sportsmanship at the end by Hope, I thought.

As to the game: what more can we say about Cramer? DVS continues to be rock solid, and I want to officially welcome back Tim Partridge. It's good to see you again. I'd like to see MVH more aggressive about posting up smaller players. Osbourn showed a real nice touch on his shots. Hope's defense was outstanding, and even though the score seems lopsided, I was actually quite impressed with Tri-state - more than I was with either Adrian or Albion. They simply wore down in the second half. Even though Hope had a 20 point halftime lead, I thought the game was very competitive. Of course this was in no small part due to some of the most curious officiating I have ever seen. Both teams were guilty of a lot of handchecking and pushing. I thought the refs should have called the handchecking tighter at the beginning, as there were a few times things almost got out of control.

I was personally happy to see GVW mix some of the lineups up a little more tonight. I remain of the opinion that this will be important come tournament time.

The sad thing about an 8:00 start is that it is difficult to get a twinburger in after the end of the game.

I heard the Calvin score at the fieldhouse and was wondering what was going on, and was eager to read the reports. Perhaps it is just the youth of that team. I thought they sort of found themselves in the Hope game and am surprised they can't seem to get it together. They play like that on Feb 7 and the game won't last long. This Hope team has been burying opponents early.

[sac]

Hope 101 Tri-State 57

What do you say........this was another incredible start for Hope.

3 by VanSolkema
3 by Cramer
2 by Richardson
3 by Cramer
2 ft by Richardson
3 by Cramer
2 by VanSolkema

6-7 shooting, 4-4 from 3 in 3:34    18-2

Following Cramer's 6th 3 in 6 attempts it was 30-9 and TSU should really be commended for staying in the ballgame and playing hard.  In fact the first half was quite a 3point show and very enjoyable.  17 of 33 from 3 for the 2 teams in just the first half.  Hope got a 12 pack of 3's, I was sort of taken aback to see they missed 9 because it sure didn't seem like it.

Hope finished the first half scoring the final 9 points to gain the 58-36 advantage, up to that point it was competitive, but those 3 minutes were a bad omen for the slowly wearing down Thunder.

Second half, Hope really struggled from the floor early some but played outstanding defense.  With about 13 and a half to go Hope subbed as they typically do to their 2nd unit up by 22 at 68-46.  I kind of felt Hope had missed a chance at a knockout blow at that point and the starters services were expected in another 4 or 5 minutes, TSU is not a team you feal entirely comfortable with a 20 point lead.......they've got some shooters.

From this point on I saw Hope's 2nd unit demoralize what was basically TSU's 5 best players and outscore them 22-2 over the next 7 minutes including 4 straight trips where Hope stole the ball before it even got within 15 ft of the basket.  The moment the score reached 40 GVW goes to the bench and inserts the 3rd unit and they proceed to outscore again what is basically TSU's 5 best 10-2.  A 34-4 run against another teams best 5 with your bench......wow!  This little stretch of 10 minutes was probably Hope's best defensive efforts of the night.

Hope ended up with 24 assists on 36 baskets, thats pretty darn good.

Cramer 20, VanSolkema 12, Partridge 12, Jager 10,

Hard to believe we've gone through the first half of the MIAA and Hope has completely destroyed 6 of 7 opponenets and destroyed the 7th back in November.  Hope is simply playing 2 or 3 gears higher than everyone else right now. 

[sac]

My random thoughts---

-----Snowy basketball nights are alot easier to tolerate when you live 5 minutes away than when you live 2 hours away.  Yikes what a drive.  But still Cramer's 6 for 6 was worth the drive and I never would have believed the bench play in the second if I hadn't seen it.  Like Bulldogalum I simply can't stand listening on the radio, I feel like I'm missing so much.


-----Hope kept TSU's Benford and Brookins in check for the most part, I think they've held every MIAA team's leading scorers below their averages.


-----I can't say enough about this Hope teams focus, the only game they struggled out of the gate was Kzoo.  They are just simply showing no mercy and are relentless.

-----The second half of the MIAA is often much more difficult, I've sort of felt that teams have been a little shocked at what Hope's been throwing at them early and not prepared for the different level of competition.  Opponents will be more ready in the 2nd part of the season, but my 18 years of watching the MIAA tells me it will take a monumental effort by another MIAA squad to beat this Hope team but its possible.  As an example compare Hope/Calvin I to Hope/Calvin II

-----I'm not ready to say Hope has one hand on the Championship trophy untill its 3 up with 3 to go, IF the right teams win between now and Hope/Calvin III, the Dutchmen might have a chance to wrap things up that night or the next homer vs Adrian.

-----Cramer was an un-Cramer like 1-7 following his great start..........so was this a great night, or an off-night for #22 ? 

[Gregory Sager]

I'm certainly not the world's preeminent Augustine scholar, but I am quite familiar with The City of God and have to say I have no recollection of that passage appearing anywhere in the text. Did Stott provide a citation or was he taking it as general knowledge? Frankly, it doesn't sound like Augustine to me. I am happy to be proven wrong if someone can provide me with a citation in Augustine himself, but until then I will remain skeptical.

Stott does not provide a chapter or page number from City of God but if you read the link I provided you will see that there are quote marks around the statement to which he gave Augustinian attribution. The link provides what appears to be a republished speech Stott gave in 1998 at Regent College (I believe it's an Anglican school) located in Vancouver. Knowing the general respect Stott has and something about his academic pedigree (he has at least one doctorate and has written over 40 books) I'm pretty comfortable relying on him right now.

Reading your comments make me think that all you've really done is repeat what someone else has already written on the internet (See 4Simpsons Blog). Unless you have a photographic memory I wouldn't expect anyone to have a recollection of that rather obscure passage from an author who writes stuff as heavy as does Augustine. And exactly what, pray tell, does Augustine "sound like" anyway. I'm skeptical of anyone who claims to know from that writing that Augustine wouldn't have expressed that thought. Forgive me if I prefer to keep my eggs in John Stott's basket right now rather than in that of an apostate from Knightdom.

I know nothing of the 4Simpsons blog, and am going off my repeated readings of City of God. When I say it doesn't sound like Augustine I mean that in two senses: it is stylistically not the way he writes, and certainly not the way he writes in City of God; and, secondly, I don't take it to be a formulation entirely congruent with his theology in general, or with the issues addressed in City of God in particular. Augustine doesn't express himself in such aphoristic fashions.

I don't have a photographic memory, but as I said I have read the text multiple times and I would think a phrase like that, given its general familiarity, would have stood out to me. It sounds more like an 18th century latitudinarian than a 4th century Bishop. With all due respect to Stott, unless someone provides me with a textual citation, I will remain skeptical. You are certainly welcome to take Stott's word over mine on this, and I wouldn't blame you for doing so.

Exactly. I'm right with you on this, HopeConvert, with regard to Augustine's content and tone. I have a great deal of respect for John Stott, but I think he's wrong on this one. I've only read City Of God once, in my "Theology of St. Augustine" class back when I was in seminary, but I don't remember coming across the Friedenspruche in it. In fact, the prof specifically stated, in response to a student's question, that the Friedenspruche wasn't from Augustine.

http://www.trueknights.org/ECFfaq.html#4

(My favorite moment in the class came on the first day, when a student referred to the great doctor of the Church as "Saint Aw-guh-STEEN". The prof gently corrected him by saying, "Saint Aw-guh-STEEN is in Florida. Saint Aw-GUHS-tin is in heaven." )

My apologies, MIAAers, for dragging you back into this unpopular digression. I hereby promise that my next digression in this room shall be Supersweet!

[Stinger]

Outstanding effort for the Hornets last night. To a man, each of them showed up to play hard, and leave it out on the court . I was very happy to see that.  Tyler Worst led the Hornets to a that nice lead in the fist half.  Calvin caught up with a solid first 5 minutes in the 2nd half.   Though outscoring K 40-23 in the second half, it was a 5 pt ball game with 3 minutes to go.  The Hornets hung in there until the end.  In the end, just too many turnovers at costly times.

On Calvin's end, no one really stood out for me. Veldhouse was kept in check, Meckes was ok. That team can't afford to not give 100% effort. 

I was disappointed in the lack of a 3 piece suit on KVS . He was looking a little too Glenn last night with the chinos and blue blazer.  At least his pants actually reached the top of his shoes.