MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[ziggy]

Where was Dutch tonight?  I was hoping for a mascot battle tonight but the sausage and the neckbeard were absent.

[ChicagoHopeNut]

I guess this year, Calvin was the better team.  My assessment of this and the last Hope loss is GVW.  I doubt even Calvin fans would argue the fact that we have more talent, and yet, we get jumped out the gate, and in a close game where we have the lead, are unable to step up with big plays and bring home a victory.  The mistakes were mental, characterized by bad passes and turnovers, and lax defense, and I think that reflects poorly on the coaching staff, specifically Glenn VanWieren.  VandeStreek has dominated VanWieren for the past two Hope-Calvin games.

p.s. DVS moved fine, no limp at all.  He just didn't play well. 

My belief for some time has been that GVW out-recruits KVS on a regular basis, but KVS gets so much more from his players.

Based on the last 5 years I couldn't agree more. GVW is a great guy and a wonderful professor at Hope but I think Hope has had the talent to accomplish more than they have. Sort of like Kansas under Roy Williams.

[HopeConvert]

I'm sitting here, not even knowing what to say. Taking sac's advice, sometimes when you have a lot going through your mind and a lot of things you're tempted to say, it is best to keep silent. Calvin played well tonight and deserved to win. Congratulations to them. Hope had no answer for Griffen, who is turning into a heck of a player.

[ChicagoHopeNut]

I'm sitting here, not even knowing what to say. Taking sac's advice, sometimes when you have a lot going through your mind and a lot of things you're tempted to say, it is best to keep silent. Calvin played well tonight and deserved to win. Congratulations to them. Hope had no answer for Griffen, who is turning into a heck of a player.

That is a good approach. I got into a lot of trouble posting on the board in the middle of Hope's sweet 16 game last year. So I have some "end of season" thoughts that I am saving until Hope is eliminated from the NCAA tourney, either by losing or not being selected.

[northb]

I'm sitting here, not even knowing what to say. Taking sac's advice, sometimes when you have a lot going through your mind and a lot of things you're tempted to say, it is best to keep silent. Calvin played well tonight and deserved to win. Congratulations to them. Hope had no answer for Griffen, who is turning into a heck of a player.

+K

[pointlem]

My take is that GVW took a team that was predicted not to win the league, and that had lost three starters, including its 6' 6" and 6' 9" post players, and coached them with last year's bench as 3 new starters to 23-4, with many dominating wins and a league championship.  A shot one way or the other, or a charge call called the other way, and we'd be talking about how GVW coached his team back from a 13 point deficit.  I tip my hat to GVW.  And with a healthier DVS (the word I got is that he was hurting before the game) and Steve Cramer continuing to pat his head and go for it, I'm hopeful of more good things to come.

Although I didn't appreciate Griffin's twice taunting the Tri-State students last night after making big shots, nor his strutting tonight after one of them, I tip my hat to him for those last two shots.  Amazing, really (and how many times have we now seen Calvin win at the end)?  But on a more positive note I really did like seeing DVS and Caleb greeting each other as friends during the warm-ups.  And I enjoyed when the teams came out from a time out with tie score and less than a minute to go, and Steve Cramer patted Caleb on the back and said something, and Caleb smiled back.  My sense was that they both must have been acknowledging how special the scene was, with a jammed house on its feet, and Hope-Calvin tied 82 games apiece, tied 76 in the score, and one of them with a career coming to a close.  Well, maybe they didn't think all that.  But I thought it was a cool exchange between two classy players and classy people, at the end of a great game in a great scene in a great rivalry.

[KnightSlappy]

Great game tonight at the Dick.  Can't believe Hope took Calvin's home floor twice and then Calvin returned the favor.  Maybe they will meet again on a neutral floor.  I think the officiating was sketchy at times, but I think it was even and fair both ways.  Griffin really stepped up tonight, he really used his quickness well against Vanderheide.  It will be interesting to see who they get paired up with.

My opinion is Hope gets in.

[sac]

I'm sitting here, not even knowing what to say. Taking sac's advice, sometimes when you have a lot going through your mind and a lot of things you're tempted to say, it is best to keep silent.

Two hour drives do wonders for collecting your thoughts!  


Well if you were lucky enough to see both the men's and women's finals today, you were treated to two games that were mirror images of each other.

Big crowds at both locations
Underdogs jump out to big leads
Home favorites claw back into the game only to have momentum thwarted at every turn
Home teams finally take the lead, home fans go bonkers
Underdogs collect themselves and make plays at the end.
Home team gets final last second 3 to win or tie...........sans the devistating knee injury and 2 more seconds in the men's game.


It was really eerie, but a blast.

[HopeConvert]

I went to the game with my wife, and my best friend and his wife (he teaches at Calvin) and we sat around a contingent of Hope and Calvin grads. In my mind, the rivalry is about two equal and compatible schools divided by a common heritage (my friend was laughing at the fact that Calvin had been "out-dutched"), who respect each other, support each other, but want to beat the heck out of each other. A sibling rivalry that is (for the most part) civil and amicable. I'm sure the moment between Cramer and Veldhouse was an instance of that, and I think we're all glad for it.

[MIdoubleA]

Where was Dutch tonight?  I was hoping for a mascot battle tonight but the sausage and the neckbeard were absent.

You could ask that of a lot of the crowd, including the students! Who would have thought that something as liberal as dancing would come back to haunt us as student support for the basketball team (against a school that doesn't dance) was mediocre at best. 

The crowd can get loud when it wants to, and then other times it can just sit there (most often when the team needs it the most). How do these people stand in line for tournament tickets when they can't stand for the last minute of such a good basketball game? 

Sitting in the student section is always bittersweet. Today when we got there a couple of Calvin players graced us with their presence by sitting in our front row and "refusing" to move. It was fun to joke around with them 

The other half is sitting there listening to fellow students that prefer to trash talk the officials or opposing team instead of cheer their own team on. 

Either way, two great games of basketball today. Perhaps if the men get in, both schools can look at the glass as half full, with all teams having berths in the tourney

[HopeConvert]

Latest QoWI out: Hope is sitting in 36th at 9.9. Will have to do the comparative work...

[almcguirejr]

Calvin 6-2 at DeVos

I thought the first 16 minutes of the first half were as solid as Calvin had played all year.  The last 4 minutes we scored 2 points.  We took some 3's that were  ill advised.  Zoerhof shot a 3, GVW was pleading with him to take more. 

Amazing that MVH and Zoerhof both missed wide open layups.  The MVH one turned out to be a 5 point swing when Griffen came down and converted a 3 point play.

I was surprised GVW had Wolfe defending Griffin with a minute and a half to go. Griffin made a huge 3 to put Calvin up 2.  I don't consider Wolfe a strong defensive player. To have him on Griffen was advantage Calvin.

I didn't like the Meckes 3 attempt at the 1 minute mark to go in the game.  He was our 4th best 3 pt option on the floor at the time and he takes a 3 with over 20 seconds left on the shot clock in a tie game.

Did Partridge play the 2nd half?

I think Calvin matches up with this Hope team very well, especially defensively.  We struggle at time offensively but we can match up pretty well with DVS-Smith, Meckes-VanderHeide,  and  athletic enough that we should be able to contest Reimink from 3.  We don't match up well with Cramer, but, who does.  What a player that guy is. I was happy that Hope did not put the ball in his hands the final 4.3 seconds because I'm positive he would have gotten off a better attempt. 

Where else can you go and have your heart in your throat for 2 hours for five bucks?
What a great night.

[KnightSlappy]

Amazing that MVH and Zoerhof both missed wide open layups.  The MVH one turned out to be a 5 point swing when Griffen came down and a converted a 3 point play.

Zoerhof tweaked something as he went up for what surely would have been a solid throwdown and didn't get his normal lift.  He was limping all the way back down the floor.

[wooscotsfan]

Latest QoWI out: Hope is sitting in 36th at 9.9. Will have to do the comparative work...

Yes...and I count 20 teams above them in the QoWI that are either Pool A automatics (already clinched) or virtual Pool B locks (Aurora, Lincoln, Maryville) so that means....

Hope is actually sitting in 16th slot on the QoWI for the remaining 18 Pool C bids.

IMO, the Dutchmen will be dancing!

[ChicagoHopeNut]

Latest QoWI out: Hope is sitting in 36th at 9.9. Will have to do the comparative work...

I think that places Hope firmly on the bubble. Definitely in the discussion but we'll see how it goes. I think losing to Calvin rather than someone else helps Hope because the committee should be somewhat aware of the rivalry. I also think that Hope's history as a top program helps it. I know that those are not any part of the criteria but I believe that the other criteria sometimes break down to 6 of one, half a dozen of another and history, etc. can creep into the subconcious of the committee members.

Wooscotsfan's count looks right to me. I agree with him that Hope is probably on the dancing side of the bubble. I would be more surprised if Hope didn't make the tournament tomorrow than if they did.