MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[Flying Dutch Fan]

For me it's not a moral victory or a coping mechanism - and it wasn't that Calvin was supposed to win this game.  It's my honest assessment of a game where we shot the ball poorly, in part due to Calvin's defense, but mostly we had a lot of open looks that didn't go in.  Considering that and the fact that we played without our point guard for 18 minutes of the first half, and we still had a chance to win is something to hang your hat on - call it confidence that we can beat Calvin, and have a legitimate shot at winning the MIAA - despite this being a rebuilding year.

It just seems to be quite selective in the stats to "hang your hat on".  Hope had the kind of turnover differential that would cause one to expect a blowout win, shooting woes notwithstanding.  You can't look at the bad stats and say, "but we still could have won" and not look at others that say, "we should have won and didn't".

Fine, you win, Calvin is the greatest team of all time - Hope sucks and all Hope fans must just sulk for weeks at the loss to Calvin

[oldknight]

• 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.)
  

One of the advantages of staying at home to watch the Calvin/Hope game is the benefit of replay. After seeing the replay, I would have to say that Calvin caught a break on that one. I'm guessing it was merely a make-up for the call under the same basket from 3 years ago when Caleb got mugged by Hope's # 10.

One of the disadvantages of staying at home to watch the Calvin/Hope game is having to endure what was, at best, a pedestrian broadcast by the Channel 35 crew. Tom Cleary is a good play-by-play announcer but he and his broadcast partner (whose name I never caught) left something to be desired when it came to analysis. For example, in the first half Mantel got the ball low in the blocks, gave a head fake, waited for two Hope defenders--one on each side--to sail harmlessly by, and then laid the ball in the basket. 

The brilliant analysis of the broadcast team was that this exemplified how John played "too soft" because if he had gone up immediately he would have made the basket and drawn a foul. Gee whiz guys, it was perfect execution of post-up play that he probably rehearses on a daily basis at practice. It was enough to get me to mute the TV and send me to Doug Wentworth's broadcast for better insight.

I also spent some time listening to the internet broadcast team from d3hoops. They were excellent and conveyed a sense of the excitement of the game very well. The only distraction with using the internet broadcast was the long delay in their audio signal vis-a-vis the video. Kudos to Pat and the folks at d3hoops for doing an audio broadcast of the game.

[cmlundy]

I have said this in the past but never on here.

Cleary is a horrible announcer for the Rivalry game.  I have not watched Saturday's game yet but no what to expect.  I know that it is fairly common for people to watch the game and have the volume on mute and listen to the broadcast of their choice.  In the past I have also wrote to WGVU complaining about the announcing and how he can be biased. 

I know that Hope fans could agree with this statement.  Cleary Cleary Cares for Calvin.  He seems to forget that people all over watch this broadcast and should be a neutral unbiased commentator.  It appears he targets the Grand Rapids market.  Maybe I'm way off on this but it's just my opinion. 

[oldknight]

I know that Hope fans could agree with this statement.  Cleary Cleary Cares for Calvin.  He seems to forget that people all over watch this broadcast and should be a neutral unbiased commentator.  It appears he targets the Grand Rapids market.  Maybe I'm way off on this but it's just my opinion. 

It's funny how our own bias affects our opinion. Since Saturday's game I have spoken with 3 Calvin fans who, like me, watched the TV broadcast. Every one of them was vehement in their denunciation of what they saw as Cleary's pro-Hope bias and said they wouldn't listen to any broadcast he did.

[Flying Dutch Fan]

I know that Hope fans could agree with this statement.  Cleary Cleary Cares for Calvin.  He seems to forget that people all over watch this broadcast and should be a neutral unbiased commentator.  It appears he targets the Grand Rapids market.  Maybe I'm way off on this but it's just my opinion. 

It's funny how our own bias affects our opinion. Since Saturday's game I have spoken with 3 Calvin fans who, like me, watched the TV broadcast. Every one of them was vehement in their denunciation of what they saw as Cleary's pro-Hope bias and said they wouldn't listen to any broadcast he did.

Sounds like we might need someone without orange or maroon glasses on to critique Mr. Cleary.

<I'm still sulking>

[HopeConvert]

Is the D3Hoops broadcast archived?

[realist]

Ziggy: "Forgive me, but I'm not sure where this idea came from that Calvin was supposed to win  "
Personally I expected Calvin to win.  How you managed to infer that this means "was supposed to" win is beyond me.
Frankly if you read my entire post you should understand that at one point in the game IMHO Calvin was poised to make a great surge forward.  Hope stopped that, and deserves credit for good coaching, and great playing.  As someone else has pointed out the MIAA coaches all thought Calvin would be the team to beat this year, but they put Hope very close behind.
Again IMHO Calvin was the better team on Sat., but the better team doesn't always win.  Hope didn't roll over and play dead just because Calvin came to town.  Just looking at the De Vos scores notice that when Calvin wins it is by a narrow margin.  When Hope has won it generally has been a much larger margin.  What has frustrated me in recent De Vos games was that Calvin has not forced Hope to beat them.  

Pointlem:  I knew which "Winkle" shot you intended.  He was only "off target" if one assumes he wasn't intending to use the glass to bank the shot.   I have watched that shot over and over, and considering where he was on the floor etc. using the glass IMHO increased his odds of making the shot.    Also there was enough time left on the clock for Hope to launch a shot of it's own.

[hope1]

  i have heard the same thing about cleary   my dad said they were all for calvin he said it was hard to watch the game when cleary and the other guy were for calvin

[hope_hoops1]

I think the disgruntlement with Cleary comes from the fact that he is a completely negative announcer.  Both teams' fans view him as pro-'other' because he is constantly criticizing every player on the court.  I'd rather have a biased announcer who would acknowledge great plays from at least one team than one who criticizes 20-year olds for 40 minutes plus.

Another classic rivalry game, and the posts on here are showing why it is such.  Both teams have a lot of positives to take from the game and a lot of things they can improve upon.  Calvin has to be the favorite from here on out simply becaues they won at Hope and it appears the rest of the league is not as good as advertised. 

Hats off to all the participants.  A few shots here or there and Hope wins the game.  A few shots here or there and Calvin wins going away.  That's why it's such a great game.   Every player on the court gave it their all.  Now, I'm just counting down the days until the rematch.  HOPEfully we can open up the Noord in style with a Hope win. 

Is it just me, or is everyone else glad these teams won't play 5 times this year as they did a few years ago?

[realist]

hh1:  One can easily picture these two teams playing 2 more games this year.  A 3rd game would imply one team getting a pool C bid, and I just don't see that as very likely this year.  Winning the AQ is critical this year.
To do that homecourt is important, but it is not a guarantee.

[Galahad]

I think the disgruntlement with Cleary comes from the fact that he is a completely negative announcer.  Both teams' fans view him as pro-'other' because he is constantly criticizing every player on the court.  I'd rather have a biased announcer who would acknowledge great plays from at least one team than one who criticizes 20-year olds for 40 minutes plus.

Another classic rivalry game, and the posts on here are showing why it is such.  Both teams have a lot of positives to take from the game and a lot of things they can improve upon.  Calvin has to be the favorite from here on out simply becaues they won at Hope and it appears the rest of the league is not as good as advertised. 

Hats off to all the participants.  A few shots here or there and Hope wins the game.  A few shots here or there and Calvin wins going away.  That's why it's such a great game.   Every player on the court gave it their all.  Now, I'm just counting down the days until the rematch.  HOPEfully we can open up the Noord in style with a Hope win. 

Is it just me, or is everyone else glad these teams won't play 5 times this year as they did a few years ago?

+K

As, Cleary was quoted in Alan Babbitt's blog from a year ago:

"I hear 'You're a Calvin guy' or 'You're a Hope guy'. I'm neither. I'm a Catholic guy that both sides distrust," Clearly said, jokingly.

[Pat Coleman]

Is the D3Hoops broadcast archived?

Not at the moment. It's a 19 MB file I'm hoping to get from our broadcaster but I could see posting it on the server for a little while, at least.

[calvin_grad]

hh1:  One can easily picture these two teams playing 2 more games this year. 

Sure, at Calvin and then again in the finals of the conference tournament. 

[ziggy]

John Mantel has been named player of the week.  Jesse Reimink certainly made a strong case to "three-peat" but the result of Saturday's game certainly came into play.  Desmond Young had a very nice week scoring the basketball but Adrian went 0-2.

[cmlundy]

Well I didn't realize that Calvin fans had the same issue as Hope fans. 

Who's all in for nominating a new announcer....