MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[KnightSlappy]

I noticed that Kent Raymond hit 2,000 points this week so I checked Caleb's career numbers.  If my calculations are correct, he only needs 18 more for the 1,500 milestone.

Looks like Caleb's 19 points give him 1,501 so far on his excellent Calvin career.

[OC_SID]

Four great MIAA games today ... Three decided by two points and the fourth went to overtime.

[almcguirejr]

Win or lose, "the rivalry" is a happening . . . an intense, packed crowd . . . even good student chants right off the bat:   "This is our house."  "Our house is bigger."  "We fill our house [or something to that effect]."  I have also been impressed by the sportsmanship this year . . . no whining over referee calls.

The two gentlemen wearing the  speedos were very classy as well...

Ray Smith showed some good speed taking care of that.

[GoVols]

Three other observations:

• Once again, Caleb Veldhouse and John Mantel excelled, and right out of the box in the first half.  Calvin fans, someday you'll feel the same ambivalent mix of admiration and anguish over David Krombeen that we Hope fans have felt watching Caleb in his best moments ... like draining shot after shot today at the beginning and then drilling that key 3 near the end
• Win or lose, "the rivalry" is a happening . . . an intense, packed crowd . . . even good student chants right off the bat:   "This is our house."  "Our house is bigger."  "We fill our house [or something to that effect]."  I have also been impressed by the sportsmanship this year . . . no whining over referee calls.
• And speaking of calls . . . Calvin fans, it looked to many of us like Jesse had a clean block on that foul call that led to the winning free throws.  Was this the refs deciding the game?  (I'll grant, you were closer.)
  

Jesse did have a clean block. I believe they called that foul on Krombeen (a push, it appeared).
yes, the foul call was on Krombeen, though that one seemed like a mystery, too.
One team wins; one loses. So be it.

The Dew Crew yelled back "You can't fill it" to the "Our's is bigger" chant. I rather liked that.

It was pretty intense in there today. I'm consoling myself with the knowledge that even though our point guard sat virtually the whole first half (picked up his second at 18:57), and we were ice cold from 3-point range, and our best player had an off game, and we lost a player to an ankle injury, we still had a chance to win it at the end. You couldn't ask for more on that final shot: your best player taking a wide-open jumper from 15 feet. It just wasn't his day today (despite his 20 point and 13 rebounds).

Pointlem: Indeed. Let's call it the Krombeen rule from now on.

[realist]

Two questions:
The first question goes to the Hope fans that had Hope winning by 6 + points.  What were you thinking?
The second question goes to the Calvin fans that had Calvin winning by 6+ points.  What were you thinking?
Being in a good mood I am willing to write this off as rookie mistake.
Pointlem:  Please correct me if I am wrong, but by definition wouldn"t an "off-target" shot by definition be a miss, not a "Winkle" which was made?:
p.s No need for revenge I remember S. Cramer, J. Holstege, etc. etc. etc. Mr Brady, etc. etc. etc.  The list of Hope players that have broken Calvin fan"s hearts is no shorter than the Calvin list that has broken Hope fan's hearts.
WADR: (with all due respect)  I think the 08-09 Hope team is great, and it won't surprise me one bit to see them finish the MIAA at 12-2.

[pointlem]

Pointlem:  Please correct me if I am wrong, but by definition wouldn"t an "off-target" shot by definition be a miss, not a "Winkle" which was made?:

Realist, to clarify:  The "Winkle" I referred to was akin to that 3 point shot today . . . one aimed at the hoop from long range, and missing the hoop badly enough to luckily carom off the backboard into the hoop.  The ball is off-target by a foot and a half and the basket is good.

My recollection is that when hope got "Winkled" from 10+ feet behind the 3-point line it put the game into overtime, leading to yet another dramatic Calvin victory. . . . another of those moments when Hope fans wondered if maybe God actually didn't like the Masons (or . . . help HopeConvert . . . whatever it was that Calvin and Hope's respective denominations split over).

[sac]

One of the things thats always a nice side show in this rivalry is the banter between student sections, which I'm sad to say has mostly been incredibly one-sided in Hope's favor for most of this decade, just more clever, creative and witty etc.


It was nice to see the  Calvin students make a solid attempt this year, but they totally wasted the "norovirus" cheer during warmups...........that one should have waited for a FT.

.......and really the "This is our house", the standard Hope students cheer just before tipoff for a solid decade now, was used as the best bait they could conjur up.  The expected reply was of course predicatable.........."ours is bigger".

When that started I nudged the person next to me and said "watch this"............."You can't fill it, You can't fill it".    Just a beautifull, poignant retort, I could see it coming from 3 sections away.  It was game, set, match Dew Crew before it even started.

There wasn't much after that, ......there didn't need to be.   

[Norm Zylstra]

I'm wondering: will OK and GK show up today wearing maroon and gold face paint? I'm willing to contribute to the cost of the paint.

Frisians are lovers, not fighters,

Saint Boniface would beg to differ.

So would Pier Gerlofs Donia and Caesar Augustus.

[sac]

That is a circle, its not a perfect one, but a nearly perfect one.

If you think about it we are all standing on a circle, going around in circle around another circle.  It seems to be a natural part of this crazy universe.  I've often envisioned our calender as a circle, January at the bottom, July at the top, and we slowly plod our way around the circle, only to start another.

Life has many circles, some continous with an unseen ending, many others open and close without us really realizing it or takeing notice.    Most have beginnings and endings we don't see.  Some are obvious, for instance nearly every vacation I've ever taken by car invariably is a circle, .......not a perfect one, but a circle.

...........Three years ago these two teams played a classic in Grand Rapids, the game ended with a last second 3 that sent the home crowd in wild celebration.  He was a Freshman that day, and a Sr the next it seemed.  It broke the hearts of the Dutchmen, but it was in its own way the beginning of a circle.

Inside this circle Hope had 3 beautifull seasons of basketball,  2 MIAA tournament Championships, 2 MIAA Championships, 3 trips to the NCAA, eliminating their bitter rival twice along the way, 3 visits to D3's sweet 16 going a little bit deeper each time, culminating in a trip to the Final Four.......the holy grail of every quest.

Along the way Hope amassed an impressive 50-5 record vs MIAA competition, including the 3 from the 09 campaign.    This circle was branded with an 'H'.

There was another Freshman on the bench that day in 2006, his name was Jesse Reimink and along the way he's grown into one of Hope's best players to walk through the doors.  This season is easily his best, one that just seems almost like destiny in a way.

This week I had many thoughts on the game, as I always do.  Who would guard who, what were the keys, so on and so forth as I'm sure most fans in some way do themselves.  Several times this week 'on the edge of sleep' my vision was that this game would come down to one last shot, and it would be Jesse's.  I saw it go in at least a dozen times, every time.  When I related this story to my basketball friends over dinner, I think each of them was quite stunned, as I was really.  Mouths gaping is probably a good way to put it.

With 1:30 to go in the game during a timeout, I was just standing there amidst the sea of orange, just smiling.  I had goosebumps, and they didn't go away till the end.  I knew the moment that was coming, I had seen it all week.  Even when the game teetered on the edge of a blowout, I still was unwavering, the shot was going to happen, I had seen it.

As a Hope fan, I've witnessed my rival knock in 4 seemingly impossible shots to beat Hope or lead to beating Hope.   Todd Henink, Bryan Foltice, Aaron Winkle, Caleb Veldhouse.  Those all went it.

I certainly don't know why some shots go in and others don't..........how does one team throw a bank shot in from 3, the other run the perfect play to the perfect player to win the game see its shot not go in.

The feeling afterwards was one I have a hard time describing.  I've seen many of these games, many times I've seen and felt the anger, frustration, tears, sadness from the losing side.  Even as fans we invest so much into this little basketball game that we enjoy so much.  I didn't see much of that afterwards, and to my surprise I saw a collective group of Hope fans who seemed to almost be happy. It was a stunning revelation for me.  We enjoyed this, we weren't supposed to win this.

When I was in full goosebump mode during that timeout, I saw a  young women crying.  Not tears of sadness, but tears of pride in her team and school, 'her boys'.  They had fought back valiently.  It was a beautifull moment to me..........just before what was supposed to be the perfect moment.....



I've had much time to reflect on the last 3 years, not the basketball circle but my own circle, which seems to coincide with this basketball one.  I hope to close it myself someday, and may not realize when it does or if it does.  I've questioned why I put so much on myself to enjoy these games, all the driving, late nights, the stress and expense.  When I left my house this morning and turned down Willow Hwy my first thought was 'any other game, and I'd be turning back'.  I'm glad I didn't I would have hated to miss what I saw today.

After my dinner I walked back to my car through what I consider the 'perfect snow', huge light flakes that rain down at a steady pace.  If you live in Holland you see them frequently and I've always loved them.  I reflected on what a perfect day this had been, from the start to the end, I don't think I've smiled and laughed that much in a very long time.  But then it occured to me..........it can't be perfect, Hope didn't win.  Which brings us back to Jesse's shot..........

It wasn't a perfect circle, but it was nearly perfect.

[sac]

There is no analysis of the game that I can add, I know I've sort of followed a format with my little 'game reports' in the past but I'll just skip to the notes.

Notes from DeVos

**  Proper credit must go to Calvin's defense, while Hope struggled to shoot the ball the Knights were doing a very good job denying Hope the ball in key areas, or at least defending them quickly.  They beat on and beat up Jesse Reimink pretty good today and he had to work hard for everything.  Had the shots gone in, this would have been one amazing performance.  Rodts and Veltema took turns all day on Jesse and were very physical to the point I actually thought aloud I would have liked to have seen Hope be allowed to play that physical in Salem.  I don't think Hope shot 40% or thereabouts by accident.

**  I hadn't seen Calvin this year, but have numerous times over the last 3 seasons and I can say without much doubt this is the most Calvin has looked like a unified team during that time.

**  When David Krombeen picked up foul #2 it had a pretty dramatic impact on Hope's offense.  That was plainly evidenced by how much better the ball moved in the second half with DK on the floor.  But what also popped out was just how much Hope has struggled at PG without Krombeen......and when Bosch went out it exascerbated things more.  Jungling filled in nicely which to me is a huge surprise.  None of us are convinced he knows the offense, and his job was just to take care of the ball, but Hope is much easier to defend when Krombeen isn't out there.  Keeping DK on the floor is probably a priority for the rest of the season.

**  There's a key stretch in the 2nd half when I think Calvin could claim they won this game and maybe took a big step forward as a team.  It was 44-35 Calvin at 16:24, they were held scoreless the next 4 minutes and it was 44-41........here's who put the offense on the board over the next 7 minutes

12:22  41-47  V 6  GOOD! 3 PTR by Mike Zwier
11:34  43-49  V 6  GOOD! JUMPER by Danny Rodts [PNT
08:53  49-51  V 2  GOOD! JUMPER by Tim Katt [PNT]
08:51  49-52  V 3  GOOD! FT SHOT by Tim Katt
07:48  49-55  V 6  GOOD! 3 PTR by Matt Veltema
06:55  49-57  V 8  GOOD! JUMPER by Tim Katt [PNT]
06:53  49-58  V 9  GOOD! FT SHOT by Tim Katt

Calvin was able to push the lead back to 9 with no points coming from Veldhouse or Mantel...........the two dominant Calvin players at the time.  Momentum was shifting and these four guys carried Calvin through this key stretch of the game.

I didn't see it mentioned earlier but I thought Hope did a really good job on Mantel and Veldhouse in the second half.  They made other guys beat them and........they did.
--------------------------------------------------------------

Leauge wise

**  Todays results are in a way impressive, all four really good close games.  But it again underscores what I think will happen.  The middle (or maybe rest is better to say) of the league is going to beat each other up so bad it will be nearly impossible for one of them to catch Calvin or maybe even Hope.  Calvin didn't look beatable to anyone but Hope to me today, Hope might have some trouble with a couple other opponents particularly at Albion.

**  Alma gets its second home win of the year.  Terry Smith has Alma playing well at home like I thought they did last year.  Its a first step for them and I'm sure its nice to see they've sustained that progress even with so much turnover.  They are competing, I dont' think you could always say that about Alma.  Adrian was the team today that probably couldn't muster much emotion, Wednesday it will be Hope, but at home.  Its not red flag danger, but Hope needs to put this one behind them and continue on the goal of getting better.  I saw nothing that discouraged me today, keep winning and they could/should enter round 2 with Calvin 1 game back.

**  Olivet's win at least keeps them in the talk, the game Wednesday at Calvin is probably their 'put up or shut up' moment if you will.  I dont' know the last time they won at Calvin, but I suspect its been awhile.

**  If things go right Wed. Adrian could be right back in 3rd place a game ahead of everyone else.......crazy.

[wolverinekeith]

Three other observations:

• 
  
• Win or lose, "the rivalry" is a happening . . . an intense, packed crowd . . . even good student chants right off the bat:   "This is our house."  "Our house is bigger."  "We fill our house [or something to that effect]." 
  

But, of course, the best chant remains "where's your banner?"  (And I'm not talking about women's hoops  .)

[Dark Knight]

[Dark Knight]

Trish did pretty well in predictions for Saturday -- got three of four predictions right, with predictions off by an average of six points:

Adrian at Alma, predicted -7, result -2
Calvin at Hope, predicted 6, result 2
Olivet at Kazoo, predicted -5, result 7
Trine at Albion, predicted -8, result -2

[hoopdreams]

I am still confused as to why Bunn cannot play point when due needed?  Multi all-state PG, D1 PG simply cannot run a team after doing it his entire life?  No disrespect to Bosch, but he is 1/4 the offensive player ( ball handling, shooting, floor general- BB can make right handed layups) that Bunn is, but he can flip-flop between the 1 and 2 which he has done?  It just seems like alot of the stress of PG play could be reduced by this. 

As a fan of the game, what more can you ask for.  Like I mentioned on Friday, foul trouble effected Hope, Krombeen and Osburn, but the big stat for me was FT's. Hope got to the line 6 times, total. Tip your caps to Calving because they were fairly physical and rarely put themselves in bad positions.

I don't see anyone competing with Calvin ( the rest of the league) if they can maintain that focus AND KEEP MANTEL ON THE BLOCKS.  Not 12ft, not 20ft, he is unstoppable in the paint.

[arena]

Mantel is good in the paint, but the freshman center from Trine did a decent job on Mantel until he got tired and in foul trouble.