MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[bulldogalum]

Adrian 61
Albion 58

Adrian really needed this one, and they played very well for long stretches of the game.

This was, in many ways, a typical Adrian/Albion matchup.  It was physical, hard hitting and intense.  It felt great to be back in the MIAA season.  Most impressive throughout the game was the Bulldogs' defensive intensity.  Adrian held Yancy to 0 second half points, a feat which I doubt will be repeated in the remainder of the season.  This is the second straight good defensive performance from the Bulldogs, a trend that I certainly hope will continue for the remainder of the season.

Offensively, Adrian has seemed much more balanced this year, and today was no exception.  While nobody set the place on fire, Desmond Young and Mike Staley made timely baskets, and were the most reliable offensive threats.  The most refreshing addition to the offensive side this season has been the play of the big guys.  10 points from Matt Wayne tonight were much needed.

Of particular concern, I am certain, for the Bulldogs will be the rebounding statistics for the game.  While at the half, the rebounding numbers were basically even (I think Adrian actually outrebounded the Brits by 1), in the second half, Albion really crashed the boards, and Adrian didn't step up to the challenge often enough.  There are too many good teams in this league to allow second chances, so I'm sure this category is one in which the Bulldogs will try to improve on Saturday and going forward.

Overall, a very nice game today, and a good start to the conference season.  Kzoo is next, and if the rest of the season has been any indicator, I'll be expecting a close game.

[Roughrider]

One thing that usually works is go to the school name .edu. ie: WWW.Calvin.edu will get you to the live broadcast, and livestats.
Many times you can also go to www.miaa.org to get to the various games, and stats.

Thanks realist.  I was in a hurry, and did a quick look on the Calvin website without success.  I'm sure if I would have taken more time, I could have found the links.  And since the Calvin game started later than the others, the MIAA site didn't have a score for them when I checked.

Calvin's livestats are always at http://www.calvin.edu/scoreboard/

Thanks DK.  Now I know.   

The game was sold out, but attendance is listed in the box score as 4395 and the arena was only about 80-90% full -- ??

Possibly a lot of advance ticket sales, and subsequent "no-shows" due to the bad weather?

RR

[sac]

Hope 79 Olivet 70

Pretty good one at the sparkling Cutler Center tonight.  Really I think the only surprise was Hope leading by 19 at one point, I didn't expect that at all.   But otherwise this was really everything I thought it would be.

Hope played a really good stretch of defense from about the middle of the first half to the end.  After a less than ideal start, Hope made some switches in the man-to-man, most noteable, Peter Bunn picking up Andre Evans who had torched Hope early with some nice outside shooting.   I think he only scored 4 after the switch.   They played a little zone which Olivet really struggled against at times, but they just didn't make enough shots to force Hope out of it.  Hope built a sort of comfortable double-digit lead, and shot the ball very, very well.  The first half shooting %'s don't match the defensive play I don't think.  Both teams made a ton of tough shots.

Second half Hope played pretty sluggish to start off, Olivet certainly looked the more energized team.  The second half start was a virtual carbon copy of last years game at Olivet with the Comets cutting into the lead quickly and rather easily.  It was down to 4 before Reimink and Bunn re-established Hope control. 

At 13:59 it was 59-52 Hope, then something weird happened, Hope went on a 10-0 run over 4 minutes without really doing anything incredible, Olivet just missed shots and Hope made all of theirs.  Altogether it was a 15-2 run by Hope.  The end of the run was a Jesse Reimink 3, and then all of the sudden it was like a lightbulb was switched on for Olivet and they rattled off a very impressive 16-0 run, which was led by a furious stretch of very good pressure defense.

Towards the end of this Olivet run Hope called a timeout and there was much yelling and getting in faces by Jesse Reimink and Zach Osburn in the Hope huddle, maybe an exagerration but it was audible from my seat.   Hope needed that, and I think some of Hope's intensity returned, which also coincided with a return to man-to-man defense.  Hope used a zone most of the 2nd half and with Olivet bricking 3's as bad as they were, you can't blame the strategy.  But it just sort of took some edge off Hope, oddly particularly on the offensive end.

Pretty sure the key moment has to be Peter Bunn's deep 3, with the shot clock winding down, that came out of nowhere and to that point Olivet's D had been an unbreakable wall for Hope for several minutes.  It gave Hope a 6 point lead under tremendous pressure, Olivet couldn't do much more than force up some well contested 3's after that.

It deserves mentioning that Hope did what I think was an outstanding job on the boards all night.  I wouldn't have expected them to outrebound Olivet coming in to this one.  Olivet's leading rebounder had just 5, with at least one McClary who's a double-double machine thats a really outstanding effort on the boards for Hope.

Reimink 28, Bunn 17, Bowser 10

B. McClary 23, Evans 17, Kerns 11, M. McClary 10


Stats wise its pretty obvious and glaring why Olivet lost this one.  Three-point shooting, just 4-25 but a whopping 0-15 in the second half, and in a half that saw the momentum shifting in their favor for large stretches.  They could have used one or two of those, and this one's probably a 'W' for the Comets.

So the bottom line here is Hope gets the first real big road win of the MIAA season and they should feel great about that.  Considering how most of this team probably felt physically this weekend this was a terrific effort tonight.

[AlwaysHope]

Went to Calvin's new area tonight, and was very impressed.  I walked in about 6:45, and had a choice of lower bowl bleacher seats or a regular seat in the upper bowl.  They said it was a sell-out, but there were many vacant seats.  Still, the crowd was a good size considering the weather and that I was told most students are not on campus now.

Use whatever pleasing adjective you want, and it will be appropriate.  The Knights, if they will fill all those seats for most games, will have a huge home court advantage.

My only criticism is that the scoreboard does not show team fouls, only if a team is in the bonus or double bonus.  Obviously, this is very picky, but I always take full advantage of the scoreboard when the game is going on.

Speaking of the scoreboard, I think we need to give the operator a break since it was his or her first varsity game.  But at times there were 5 players vs. 3 players listed, and the errors were many.  The timeouts were sometimes wrong, as were the individual fouls.  # 10 for Trine was still listed on the scoreboard for at least 5 minutes after he was taken out in the first half.  Another time only one of the five players listed for Trine was actually on the floor.  But I am sure that this will improve.  At least the score was always right!

Still, the Knights have a very impressive facility that they can be proud of.

[sac]

notes from Olivet

***  Let me start out by saying what a nice facility Olivet has in the Cutler Center.  I've heard it described as "perfect" for a school Olivet's size and I couldn't agree more.  Its a much nicer place than Upton which was always very dark and dreary feeling.  The gym itself is spacious feeling for a relatively small building.  A nice high ceiling with good lighting.  It made this Hope fans face smile to see the floor has the same inlaid wood style of the Holland Civic Center.

My only criticism is one thats very relevant to the game.  I think Olivet should consider either a solid curtain, or turning off the lights behind the 'East' basket in the unused portion of the gym.  One of the first things Hope found with DeVos was the lighting behind the basket at the open end from the V-ball gym made the shooting difficult.  Which is why we get a big giant blue tarp.   I'm not saying its the reason Olivet went 0-15 from 3 , but it was something I made a mental note to watch for, but maybe not, I wasn't out there it might not be an issue at all.  Otherwise, its a perfect building for Olivet and a nice piece to help build thier athletic program.

***  Close games---  I think we need to get used to these kinds of nights, just a lot of even teams this year.  Olivet could just have easily won tonight, as Hope did.  That probably holds true for the other 3 games.  So important to win games at home this year, Olivets a pretty good team but they're already playing from behind.  For now there just isn't a lot of difference between any of these teams


***  Jesse Reimink has become one heck of D3 ballplayer, and after seeing him tonight I'm sort of surprised he hasn't gotten even more praise than he has on this board.  I've always thought Jesse looked a little more footballish than basketballish but he looks the part now, and obviously worked very hard in the off-season. ...... and his shot is as sweet as ever.  Dare I say he's having an all-american kind of year, his 28 looked effortless.

***  After what others had to say about this team this year, I kind of expected to see a little more bumbling around than I saw tonight.  Sure they make mistakes, but I came away pretty impressed with this group.  Its your typical yet atypical Hope team, long arms, lean athletes but really overall short on the front-line.  Yet they still had the height advantage in most places on the floor tonight.    What I wouldn't give though to have Bosma, VanFossan, Merritt and Meuhlenberg with these perimeter players. 

I came away most impressed with their poise, which I did not expect.  They were tough when it counted.  There's is some good development happening and by the years end, this could be a really good basketball team.  I think to last year and this very same game where the young Fr struggled against the higher intensity of league play.  Tonight a much younger overall Hope team handled it better, with two first year players on the floor at gaurd at the end.

***  I can't write this without some praise for Zach Osburn, what an underrated effort this kid has given hope for two years now.  He too, is every bit the basketball looking player as Reimink is now........and Hope fans, you have not experienced Hope College basketball untill you've seen Zach Osburn run a fast-break........twice.


***  If you turned around and went back home tonight (HopeConvert)  you made a good choice.  My Uncle did the same from East Lansing, and it was a real bear getting down I-69 for me which included about a 45 min delay to clear a pretty benign looking accident, several more slideoffs and with the backed-up highway not plowing the way a long stretch of awfull road.   Where that came from I have no idea, just 2 hours earlier the same road was wet and clear.  A half-hour drive for me was about 1 1/2...........but the tunes were good.

***  Finally the M*A*S*H report.  Kelvin Carter might be out for awhile, the hit he took on his knee last week was pretty bad I guess.  Curtis Carroll was called up to varsity as the 3rd PG, I think at this point it doesn't look good that Carter will return this season.  Several Hope players had the flu this weekend and I have to say, Osburn looked pretty bad afterward, he was a warrior tonight.  But otherwise things weren't nearly as bad as I was told they could be. 

[gohope]

Some additional notes from tonights game:

*  It was GREAT to see SAC at tonight's game!  And because of that he has covered pretty much the majority of the highlights, so welcome back to live Hope Basketball SAC!  You have been missed!

*  Nice to have visited Olivet's new gym. Quite a nice place. Holy Brightness - as in compared to the Upton Center!!    It created quite the nice enviroment to play in. Kudos to the college band (hint, hint Hope!! Though I was waiting for the band players to skate out after the basketball game!) And nice to have another school provide a *free* program to spectators. (My Dutch blood really enjoys things like that!) It even included a score sheet in the program - THANK YOU!!!!! 

*  Nice to have won the contest at the beginning of the game with SAC! The question was, who was taller, #2 for Olivet, Andre Evans, or one of the stripes!  FYI - It was Andre by a couple of inches!!  Nice to have a new official to the MIAA that can make the calls at knee level.

*  Noticed that Olivet has three transfer players - why the audacity!!!     (I know, bring out the dead horse again!!)

*  As SAC stated earlier, the intensity of Hope's Defense in the beginning of the second half, was, well, er, maybe still on break!!  And then there was "THE" time-out!  Thanks to both Jesse and Zach for taking the leadership roles and "encouraging" their fellow players to, well, um... play!

*  It was at 3:00 left to play that Peter Bunn swished the 3 pointer!  Too bad his number isn't #3 - that would have been the icing on the cake!

*  Once again there was a lapse of scoring in the game. During the second half the offense decided it was siesta time and from about 9:00 to 4:00 there wasn't any scoring for the Dutchmen!  Gotta work on that!

*  But I couldn't agree more with SAC as to the progress that this team has made since the first game of the season.  They have all been working very hard to get to this point and I know that the coaches will continue to have them working throughout the rest of the season. Nice going guys!

*  Oh yeah, I won another contest. The question was asked, "How many points are the ladies leading by at halftime?" I guessed 34 and it was 35!  Congrats ladies after your loss on Saturday.

*  And in regards to a comment on the front page by Pat Coleman, I don't think that you're really sorry!!

*  Lastly, I sure didn't want to be in the lockerroom after tonights game or at practice tomorrow at IU!  Congrats Michigan!  Go Blue!  Best line of the game was from the announcers when Michigan was down by 20, "They must have direct dial ready to Jack Kovorkian!"  And with that laughter the dog was "awoken" from a nightly slumber and gave me a really dirty look - time to sign off!

[GoKnights68]

Somewhat of a sloppy performance by the Knights, but they got it done.  There was a little better energy level in the second half, though.  Mantel looked like he could have scored at will if he wanted to.  He will be the main x-factor in The Game in 10 days.  It will be interesting how GVW plans to stop him.  It seemed Trine didn't make much of an attempt tonight, which may be why Calvin didn't get many open looks in their outside game, as Mantel never could nor needed to kick it out.

Calvin gave Trine all kinds of open looks from the 3-point line (as usual).  Trine wasn't hitting them in the first half, but started to in the second half, when Calvin continued to let them shoot 3's at will.  Please don't do that against Hope in 10 days or I won't have any hair!

The bench was utilized fully again tonight.  The only complaint I have is I think Katt and Zweir should not be out there at the same time.  Trine took that to their advantage and concentrated on the 3 other players when on defense.

[Dark Knight]

The game was sold out, but attendance is listed in the box score as 4395 and the arena was only about 80-90% full -- ??

Possibly a lot of advance ticket sales, and subsequent "no-shows" due to the bad weather?

RR

The thing that doesn't make sense is this: 4395 is too low to be the number of tickets sold because capacity is supposed to be 5000. It also seems a little high to be actual attendance, because of those 20% empty seats.

Maybe there was a significant number of people who came to the women's game only, which was on the same ticket. So it's actual attendance, but for either of the two games.

[oldknight]

The game was sold out, but attendance is listed in the box score as 4395 and the arena was only about 80-90% full -- ??

Possibly a lot of advance ticket sales, and subsequent "no-shows" due to the bad weather?

RR

The thing that doesn't make sense is this: 4395 is too low to be the number of tickets sold because capacity is supposed to be 5000. It also seems a little high to be actual attendance, because of those 20% empty seats.

Maybe there was a significant number of people who came to the women's game only, which was on the same ticket. So it's actual attendance, but for either of the two games.

In addition to the likelihood that there were no-shows and that a small number of people left after the women's game, the lateness of the men's game was a contributing factor. At the start of the men's game--which didn't tipoff until 8:45--I took a full look around* and estimated their were no more than 500 empty seats, meaning the arena would have 4500 spectators (90% full). By the start of the second half (which didn't begin until 9:45), it was obvious some who were there at the start of the game had already gone home. Likely those who left constituted people who came primarily to see the new arena and/or had an early wake-up call today. It was encouraging to see a very good student turnout--the best in years.

*The link below has a photo gallery of the game. The first 15 photos include a panoramic view of the arena at the start of the game. There aren't many empty seats.

http://www.calvin.edu/gallery/Trine-1-7-2009

[Dark Knight]

Everything's bigger at Calvin...

[KnightSlappy]

The game was sold out, but attendance is listed in the box score as 4395 and the arena was only about 80-90% full -- ??

Possibly a lot of advance ticket sales, and subsequent "no-shows" due to the bad weather?

RR

The thing that doesn't make sense is this: 4395 is too low to be the number of tickets sold because capacity is supposed to be 5000. It also seems a little high to be actual attendance, because of those 20% empty seats.

Maybe there was a significant number of people who came to the women's game only, which was on the same ticket. So it's actual attendance, but for either of the two games.

I heard that they gave some students (300?) upper level tickets (the normal 600 student section tickets sold out) but many of them crammed themselves into the student section anyway.

[ziggy]

Alex Kroll is a Thundering beast at 6-10, 280 lbs.

Definitely big enough to clean up some garbage, but also very raw.  Following up a made free throw off the glass with a free throw air ball doesn't exude confidence.  Still, he should give teams problems on the boards.  He was more effective than Alfieri in half the time.

The seating arrangement works very well -- students can stand the whole game in the lower bowl without affecting the view from the upper bowl.

My view was great, upper bowl behind the Calvin bench.  Nice to have some familiar feel of the old fieldhouse in a comfortable and modern arena.

The score board is nice, but the players it showed as in seemed rather random, and not connected to the players actually on the floor. Also, no team foul display?

No team foul display was the first thing I noticed.  Something the old fieldhouse had that the VNA does not!!!  The mistakes with players not being correct was probably an opening night thing.  I noticed it during the women's game and it certainly carried through the night.  I'm willing to forgive but it was frustrating because it was obvious Mantel was having a huge night, and no one was able to keep up with how huge it was.

I very much look forward to the rest of the season in the new digs.  The drive across the glove from West to East wasn't so pleasant, however.  Mrs. Ziggy gets the super wife award for last night.

[Stinger]

quote author=ziggy link=topic=4596.msg1013638#msg1013638 date=1231424343]
No team foul display was the first thing I noticed. 

That is strange.  I would think that's a major oversight there, no? 

K has to have updated scoreboards and shot clocks updated by the start of the '10-'11 season   NCAA regulations state the shot clocks must be above the backboards, a red light must be displayed on the backboard and the scoreboard clock must have a 10th of a second display.

[almcguirejr]

quote author=ziggy link=topic=4596.msg1013638#msg1013638 date=1231424343]
No team foul display was the first thing I noticed. 

That is strange.  I would think that's a major oversight there, no? 

It was strange.  I'm hoping they can program it to show the team fouls. 

[Dark Knight]

quote author=ziggy link=topic=4596.msg1013638#msg1013638 date=1231424343]
No team foul display was the first thing I noticed. 

That is strange.  I would think that's a major oversight there, no? 

It was strange.  I'm hoping they can program it to show the team fouls. 

For the women's game they used the TOL indicators (Timeouts Left) for team fouls. Anyone want to get some duct tape and re-label the TOL indicators? Got a big ladder?

I guess the 4395 attendance number was accurate but some people were out of their assigned seats for one reason or another -- crammed into the lower bowl, touring the new facility, standing in the lobby, home early, etc.