MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[sac]

You can watch it here
http://www.wheaton.edu/wetn/

Wheat 64 Hope 55

I believe Wheaton has 7 3's this half

[sac]

Final

Wheaton 91 Hope 79

Hope hung in there, Wheaton kept them at around 10 points, lot of FT's after their initial burst to take control.

I actually think defensively Hope did ok in the second half, Wheaton just hit the shots and FT's.  Panner was big.

David Krombeen seemed to play a very good game for Hope.  He played the point most of the night.  

[oldknight]

Interesting quote from Carthage coach Bosko Djurickovic as reported by the school's press release:

Calvin is a really good team. They'll go home and win the MIAA—there's not much doubt about that.

[sac]

Some final stats

Raymond 34, Panner 24, Wiele 16 for Wheaton........8 second half 3's

Reimink 27, Bunn 10, Bosch 9


Hope was 29-65 44%, Wheaton 26-45 58%.  FT's Hope 13-20, Wheaton 30-37

[Gregory Sager]

Nice recovery by Hope to play a competitive game against a Top Five team on its own floor after being crushed the night before. It's the mark of a good coach when he can keep his team on an even keel and refocused in that situation.

[dumezrules]

Hope takes it on the chin this weekend but nothing practice and a little experience wont cure....it doesnt look like there are any MIAA teams that are scary good this year.....will be the most wide open league in a while.....

[Mr. Ypsi]

Its the emphasis on "NO BETTER THAN 6th in the CCIW" by Chuck thats irked me.........these little conference superiority jabs are just demeaning to the rest of us who follow D3.   

I understand that.  What I don't get is who he thinks is so clearly favored to finish 5th.  At this early stage I see Wheaton and Augustana as a clear 1 and 2 (not sure what order), Elmhurst as a clear 3, IWU as a clear 4, and a complete toss-up after that between Carthage, North Central, North Park, and Millikin.

Scott, my apology if the post came across as a 'conference superiority jab' - that was certainly not my intent.  (BTW, the capitalization of NO BETTER THAN 6th was yours, not mine - it was not a point of emphasis with me, just an observation.)

Bob, my guess on the final standings is almost identical to yours (though as the eternal optimist, I'd switch IWU and Elmhurst ).  I probably shouldn't have said no better than 6th (when 5th would have been more accurate); I guess I was thinking that if 4 teams are in a toss-up for the bottom 4 slots, 6th seems more likely than 5th.

Again, my apologies to sac and anyone else I may have inadvertently offended, but the CCIW IS having a ridiculously successful season so far - as of now, 37-8 non-con record (with picked-for-last Millikin at 6-0, and IWU tied for worst at 3-2).

[Titan Q]

Interesting quote from Carthage coach Bosko Djurickovic as reported by the school's press release:

Calvin is a really good team. They'll go home and win the MIAA—there's not much doubt about that.

Calvin may be a really good team that is going to go home and win the MIAA, but please note, Bosko is quoted as saying all kinds of crazy stuff. 

[sac]

Chuck, we understand the CCIW is a good conference, its very competitive from top to bottom every year.  But try to remember your audience on this board has seen 2 teams go to the final four in four seasons, one of them "only the 3rd best MIAA team", three other teams played in the sectional weekend, two more of those in a final........in the same time frame the CCIW has sent one to Salem, and the mighty CCIW's champ has made the second weekend once. (correct me if thats wrong)  I only see Augustana and Ill Wes making the sectionals in 2006.

No one on here is going to dispute that the CCIW isn't a better conference, but at the end of the day (season) there just isn't much difference between the conference champs from most of the midwest.

When you go onto another conferences board and says something like, "our at best 6th place" just beat yours, no matter how minor that might sound to you.............you might as well preface it with hahahahaha.  Because thats what it sounds like to the reader.

People on this board have seen players like Raymond, Djurickovic .......some of us multiple times.  We've seen Elmhurst, Wheaton, Carthage, North Park, North Central, Augustana etc.  We are well aware of how our conference stacks up on a yearly basis. 

[Titan Q]

Chuck, we understand the CCIW is a good conference, its very competitive from top to bottom every year.  But try to remember your audience on this board has seen 2 teams go to the final four in four seasons, one of them "only the 3rd best MIAA team", three other teams played in the sectional weekend, two more of those in a final........in the same time frame the CCIW has sent one to Salem, and the mighty CCIW's champ has made the second weekend once. (correct me if thats wrong)  I only see Augustana and Ill Wes making the sectionals in 2006.

No one on here is going to dispute that the CCIW isn't a better conference, but at the end of the day (season) there just isn't much difference between the conference champs from most of the midwest.

When you go onto another conferences board and says something like, "our at best 6th place" just beat yours, no matter how minor that might sound to you.............you might as well preface it with hahahahaha.  Because thats what it sounds like to the reader.

People on this board have seen players like Raymond, Djurickovic .......some of us multiple times.  We've seen Elmhurst, Wheaton, Carthage, North Park, North Central, Augustana etc.  We are well aware of how our conference stacks up on a yearly basis. 

I'm pretty sure the MIAA's best team has been better than the CCIW's best more times than not over the course of the last 10 years or so.  The CCIW is the better conference by a big margin because of its depth, but the bottom line is that the CCIW has not won a national championship since 1997 and has only had three Final Four teams in the last 10 seasons (IWU - 2001, 2006, Carthage 2002).

It's obvious to me Chuck does not understand how he comes across.  He tries to joke around, but it really comes across wrong a lot of the time.  The biggest D3hoops.com related question I get from IWU fans (lurkers) at games is, "Who the heck is Mr. Ypsi?!"

[sac]

Well my eyes must have been deceiving me because the box notes David Krombeen only played 17 minutes.  5 assists, 0 turnovers........thats a good day for a Fr. against a team like Wheaton.

In fact my eyes were so deceived I didn't notice Daniel Cox, who started the day before didn't even play today.  Along with Kelvin Carter, Doug Sharples and Jon Snikkers.........mix that with some of the odd minutes and substitutions over the weekend and its just so clear Hope is really searching for answers.  Maybe not to be unexpected with such a young and inexperienced team.

The shot distribution is out of wack, reflecting a team that has not found a consistent 3rd option.  It was more even today with 7 guys taking at least 4 shots.  But, still very reliant on Jesse Reimink's points. 

Overall a game to build on with a distinct aftertaste of disastisfaction.

[sac]

Putting an end to the weekend.........Madonna gets its first win vs Alma.

Carthage, Wis. 95, Calvin 82
Wheaton, Ill. 91, Hope 79
Spring Arbor 70, Albion 60
Kalamazoo 71, Chicago 70
Olivet 83, Michigan-Dearborn 73
Madonna 71, Alma 61
Case Western Reserve, Ohio 77, Trine 73 

League falls to 20-29, from here it will be pretty difficult to reach my self prescribed goal of 40 wins.  This was a disappointing and damaging weekend.  3-9 overall, was looking for 6-6 or 7-5.  Kzoo's win over Chicago was a nice surprise though.

Michael McClary gets 24pts and 11rbs, for the weekend 44pts, 28 rebs.  Shoe-in for player of the week?

[oldknight]

Completing the frightful winter trip around the lake gave me plenty of time to reflect on Calvin's loss to Carthage. I wasn't able to hear the coach's post game analysis with the Calvin announcers but I am reliably informed by one wise wag that KVS was kind of down on the boys. If so, I will register a mild dissent.

I agree the Knights' first half defense wasn't up to the level of the previous night's effort against Wheaton. On the other hand, I can't ever remember seeing a team go 10-10 from the arc in one half of basketball which--according to the stat sheet--is what Carthage did. The statisticians may have counted a couple of long misses wrongly (i.e., as missed 2 pointers, rather than 3's), but let me tell ya,  their wasn't a lot of missing going on. Even if Calvin was late to cover the skip pass, that's still pretty amazing shooting. It made Calvin's 7-7 from the land of the threes look rather ho-hum. Good thing they moved the line back this year to make it tougher way to score. I don't know what shocked me more this weekend--watching two teams go a combined 17-17 on treys in one half or paying $1.45/gallon to the Pilot gas station at the Burns Harbor/Porter exit in Indiana. After seeing this game I now understand why Hope--always a solid defensive team--gave up 89 last night.

Carthage is really a pretty amazing team. They are hardly physically imposing but they have a player (Djurickovic) with extraordinary quickness, they pass the ball well, have a wealth of good shooters, and almost never turn the ball over. Despite the fact that Carthage doesn't exactly walk the ball up the court they only made 3 TO's for the game. Even though the Knights lost I found it to be a highly entertaining game to watch. Carthage plays exactly like the modern European model of Olympic basketball with which we have become familiar--spread the floor, then penetrate to the basket and dish to a perimeter player if you can't get a good look near the hoop. In fact, at one point I remarked that the game made me think of the gold medal contest the US had this summer with Spain. The talented veterans from the NBA couldn't stop Spain from scoring--they could only outscore them. Unfortunately, Calvin wasn't able to do the same to Carthage.

I thought Calvin played a really solid second half. They could easily have folded their tents at half time when they trailed 55-43, but they showed some heart and never quit. Carthage couldn't compete with Mantel inside who was a man among boys, scoring 24 and grabbing 9 boards. Calvin definately played tougher D in the second half, and the Carthage threes were clearly tougher shots for them in the second half as compared to the first. It showed because the Red Men hit a mere 8 of 12 threes after the break while Calvin hit a paltry 3 of 7. So for the game the two teams were a combined 28-36 on threes. Good thing they moved the line back this year to make it a tougher way to score. Is there an echo on this board?

The stat sheet shows something you almost never see. Carthage got outrebounded (by 7) and outshot (by over 5%), yet won the game. They did so entirely on the strength of 18-22 on threes. If KVS implied his team lost because of a lack of heart, I disagree.

One final aside. Veltema played very well in both games this weekend. He 15 Friday and 13 Saturday, showing a combined 10-16 from the floor. He appears to have his confidence this year.

[arena]

oldknight:

Did you happen to meet any Timothy Christian folks at the tourny?  I'm an alum from Timothy and can't understand why Calvin does such a poor job getting kids from Timothy and the PSL to attend Calvin.  There is a huge Calvin alum base in the area as well.  Is Trinity and the other schools that big of a draw, or does KVS not pay attention to the area? 

[oldknight]

oldknight:

Did you happen to meet any Timothy Christian folks at the tourny?  I'm an alum from Timothy and can't understand why Calvin does such a poor job getting kids from Timothy and the PSL to attend Calvin.  There is a huge Calvin alum base in the area as well.  Is Trinity and the other schools that big of a draw, or does KVS not pay attention to the area? 

I not only met Timothy Christian (H.S.) folks, I stayed at their house Friday night. Actually, quite a few Timothy kids wind up at Calvin--just not many BB players. Of the Timothy class of just two years ago, about one-third started Calvin that fall. A few years back, Calvin heavily recruited a Timothy big man, got him enrolled, and he even had a roommate (I believe it was Koetsier). About two weeks before school started this recruit announced he was going to Hope where he played under the pseudonym of Ryan Klein. It's not unusual for Timothy hoopsters to continue their basketball at Timothy Christian College, just down the road, and I know at least one player on the Trolls' current roster (Huizenga) went to Timothy H.S. Calvin did get a 2008 Chicago Christian grad--Joel Kamp--a player Wheaton wanted, and Kamp is currently on Calvin's JV roster.