MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[HopeConvert]

Um, not so fast...

[wiz]

Adrian gave Hope more of a (Bull)dog fight than what they gave to Calvin.  The Knights handily defeated the Bulldogs at Adrian by 31.  Tonight, Hope wins by 4.  An ill-advised foul on Krombeen with plenty of time left and a 1 point lead is what led to Adrian's slide at the end.  They needed to play strong D as the clock worked down may have had 10 seconds left with a one point deficit.  But, instead they chose to start the parade of free throws.  Desmond Young threw in a 3 pointer with 9 seconds left but it was too little too late.  Staley follows with another 3 with only a couple seconds left.  Hope makes all the free throws to win. Had Hope rebounded better, it wouldn't have been close.

[HopeConvert]

Ok ... now - whew.

Excellent free throw shooting by the Dutchmen, and Bowser was huge on the boards.

[HopeConvert]

Other than Bowser, Hope wasn't impressive on the boards. This has become the Achilles' heel of this team. Time to put on the pads in practice and work on boxing out.

[Hopester]

Other than Bowser, Hope wasn't impressive on the boards. This has become the Achilles' heel of this team. Time to put on the pads in practice and work on boxing out.

Bowser leads team in points, assists, and rebounds. Great game from him today, and a couple of huge rebounds on the offensive end to keep pace with Adrian when it was back and forth in the late stages of the game.

[HopeConvert]

Other than Bowser, Hope wasn't impressive on the boards. This has become the Achilles' heel of this team. Time to put on the pads in practice and work on boxing out.

Bowser leads team in points, assists, and steals. Great game from him today, and a couple of huge rebounds on the offensive end to keep pace with Adrian when it was back and forth in the late stages of the game.

Not in points:

Reimink - 19
Bunn - 18
Bowser - 17

[wiz]

One final note on today's events.  Congratulations go to Calvin coach Kevin VandeStreek on becoming the all-time winningest basketball coach in Calvin history.  With 2 of their starters in street clothes, it was an uphill battle, but they overcame the adversity and played hard.  KVS had the team ready to play.

[Hopester]

Other than Bowser, Hope wasn't impressive on the boards. This has become the Achilles' heel of this team. Time to put on the pads in practice and work on boxing out.

Bowser leads team in points, assists, and steals. Great game from him today, and a couple of huge rebounds on the offensive end to keep pace with Adrian when it was back and forth in the late stages of the game.

Not in points:

Reimink - 19
Bunn - 18
Bowser - 17

Sorry turned off the live stats before the free throw shooting brigade..... he was the leading scorer for most of the second half/ game.

[sac]

The Knights outrebounded Albion 41-30, and Mantel shut down Drew Yancey, who finished with 4 points on 1-11 shooting from the field.  Andrew Holmes led the Brits with 21.

Drew Yancey hurt his back last week and didn't practice this week, every shot but one he took was way off the mark.  Shutting him down might not be the correct phrasing because Yancey was very much limited in his movement today.  He sure wasn't himself.


This was a battle of the wounded today, Calvin was missing 3 players, Albion 3, with 2 who played and weren't at full strength.    It probably had a leveling affect on the game, either team at full strength probably beats the other with the same guys missing.   

One of Albion's missing was 6-8 David Bunn, while he only averages 10 minutes, those were 10 minutes they could have used today with Elliot in foul trouble.   Elliot I believe was one of the walking injured (? can't remember now), he averages 14 minutes, so Albion was missing about 20 min of frontline playing time today they rely on and vs a bigger team like Calvin they had a difficult time with Mantel.

With that said, Calvin may look back at this game as the biggest 'W' of the season.  Its never easy to walk out of Kresge with a win and to do so with 2 starters missing was certainly a big lift for the Knights.   This team was only vaguely recognizeable to the one that played so well in Holland last Saturday.   Calvin may, (emphasis on may) have its two biggest road games of the year out of the way.

Calvin was simply more confident and more solid down the stretch.  They knew what to do and where the ball had to go (Mantel), Albion just looked confused and disorganized on a number of key posessions and their shot selection reflected poor decisions.


Calvin's ultimate fate may rest on Caleb Veldhouse's foot.  It was in a boot today and thats never good, but if he's out significant time, Calvin may find the next few weeks difficult.  Getting just Rodts back may be enough to keep them ahead of the rest of the MIAA. 

One week ago I thought Calvin was good enough to roll to 14-0.  One week later and their position at the top seems alot more precarious.  The seeds of doubt have been planted but getting this win today was paramount.  Even a Veldhouseless Calvin should hande the next 3 of Kzoo, @ Trine, @ Alma.

All-in-all though a very good win under the circumstances for Calvin today, but they need to get healthy.

[sac]

Adrian gave Hope more of a (Bull)dog fight than what they gave to Calvin.  The Knights handily defeated the Bulldogs at Adrian by 31.  Tonight, Hope wins by 4. An ill-advised foul on Krombeen with plenty of time left and a 1 point lead is what led to Adrian's slide at the end.  They needed to play strong D as the clock worked down may have had 10 seconds left with a one point deficit.  

It was a curious decision but it was what Buck Riley wanted, it happened right infront of him and he was calling to foul.  I thought Buck was trying to preserve time and extend the game.  It almost worked out.  If they let Hope's posession go they get 1 shot with 10 seconds, instead he got 4 more shots.  They got the shot they wanted on the next posession it just didn't go in.  Hope went 9-10 under tremendous pressure at the line to lock up the game, not sure you can fault that strategy.

Calvin beat Alma big, Olivet beat Calvin, Alma beat Olivet..........so the score comparison game means nothing.

[Happy Calvin Guy]

Even a Veldhouseless Calvin should hande the next 3 of Kzoo, @ Trine, @ Alma.

There's been enough weird stuff happen in the last 8 days in this league that we shouldn't assume anything.  The team that wins the MIAA this year is the one that can avoid losing focus during "should win" games. 

[Mr. Ypsi]

I was in Adrian tonight - quite a contrast from the last time, when Hope reached 50 before Adrian reached 15 and my family made me leave early!  (As a precaution, I didn't bring them this time! )

I don't know the criteria for the MIAA top-player award, but if it is an MVP (whose loss would hurt his team the most?) I'd think Desmond Young has got to be the front-runner.  Without him, Hope could have named the score; with him, the quartet of Hope posters I sat with looked rather nervous right to the buzzer!

BTW, the Merillat hot dog at halftime was quite tasty.  They, alas, offered no relish, but had Heinz catsup and French's mustard - how does that rank in the condiment wars?

I've seen far worse officiating overall, but it was terribly inconsistent.  They sometimes called fouls which were technically accurate but terribly 'ticky-tacky' and better ignored (these IMO went generally against Hope), while ignoring much more obvious fouls (these IMO went roughly evenly both ways).

[sac]

Hope 81 Adrian 77

Terrific small college basketball game at Adrian tonight.  Hope seemed ready to run away about midway through the first half building an 11 point lead in a game that was up and down, fast and furious.  Adrian did an excellent job slowing the pace and controlling the tempo.  The fact this game ended up relatively high scoring points to the good shooting or maybe more aptly put poor defense.  There just wasn't much defense on display tonight.

Desmond Young was pretty solid today, I think he could have scored 40 if they'd kept feeding him the ball.  The way the second half played out that wasn't going to happen.  Peter Bunn did his best, but Desmond seemed to hit every tough shot he got.  There just wasn't much different Hope could have done.

For the second time in 8 days, David Krombeen picked up 2 early fouls.  Much like last week Hope worked through it, but they just aren't as fluid when DK isn't on the floor.  I felt pretty pleased to see Hope ahead at the half with Desmond scoring at will and getting absolutely crushed on the boards.

In the second half Adrian really focused on getting the ball inside and to put it mildly they absolutely undressed Hope's interior defense.  It was almost embarassing for awhile.  But Hope was doing nearly the same on the other end, just not with its big guys (cause we have 1 1/2).  So while Desmond ended up with 14 in the second half, he didn't get as many shots as he normally would have because they were getting so many bunnies.

There was one play that typified the kind of effort Adrian put in tonight, with the score tied at 62, Hope gets it hands on no less than 3 passes on an Adrian posession all 3 times the ball ends up in the hands of an Adrian player untill finally it ends up in Young's who slashes to the top of the key and burries a fade away 2 while getting mugged.  3 point play and a huge momentum play at the time.  It was at this point that I really wasn't sure Hope could pull this out.

The Dutchmen hung tough though, got a couple fortunate Adrian misses at the FT line and found themselves in a tie game with 2:16 left, called a timeout and basically ran almost the same play they tried to beat Calvin with, Jesse burried this one and from there they dodged a couple good looking shots from Adrian and made 9-10 from the line under as much pressure as they might see this year.


This was a physical contest and Hope handled it as best they could.  For the first time though I saw Jesse Reimink get frustrated.  The kid is getting hammered evey time down the floor and tonight he wasn't playing smart because of it.  On one particular timeout, GVW really let the team have it and most of the ill will was directed in Jesse's direction.   From that point though Reimink was solid and of course buried the crucial shot of the game in my opinion.  Really an interesting moment, I'm sure neither coach or player liked having to go through that.  In all though pretty minor, it was just a fun timeout to watch.


Hope Reimink 19, Bunn 18, Bowser 17
Adrian Young 29, Wayne 18, Staley 16

This is a good road win to have out of the way.  I'm not sure Hope's played a tougher road game this year, maybe at Wheaton.  This is the 3rd time I've been pleased with Hope's poise down the stretch of close game.  That bodes well for the future with such a young team.  A very important win to keep pace at the top of the standings.  This game kicked off Hope toughest stretch of the year @Adrian, Trine, Olivet, @Albion, Kzoo, @ Calvin.  Good to get a W in the left hand column.

[sac]

Notes from Adrian and points in between

***It wouldn't be right to not mention Ty Tanis and Scott Jungling's big contributions to the score sheet.  These 2 were 3-4 from trey for a total of 11 points.  The rest of the team went 1-7 from trey.  Jungling's were probably the biggest 5 points, all coming late on back-to-back posessions, while trailing.

10:37  56-57  V 1  GOOD! 3 PTR by Ty Tanis
08:10  60-59  H 1  GOOD! JUMPER by Scott Jungling
07:37  62-62  T 6  GOOD! 3 PTR by Scott Jungling

These were the only FG's Hope scored over about a 7 minute stretch and frankly Adrian was the much better team on the floor during this period.  In the end these were monster points for the Dutchmen.

.......and Jungling.  Holy cow how lucky is it to have this kid around.  I'm so impressed with his play, and to think I didn't think he'd see much playing time.  Another rock solid performance in a tough spot.  How'd he get cut anyway?


***It's just not right seeing Mike Turner watching an Albion team from the stands.  I can't imagine its easy on him either.  He looks well though.

***Wild day, I wish the schedule permitted more days like this.  It was a good double-header today.  I've done this before but I enjoyed todays games quite a bit more than I remember the other times I've done this.  But I don't think the other times I've done this were 2 close games either.

***Wild league, I mentioned earlier in the week if Adrian/Albion/Olivet  all won we'd have a 5 way tie.  Instead we get the opposite and the 4 teams in the middle right where they were to start the week......2 games back.  My theory on Hope/Calvin separating themselves after last week was shot down today.  There just isn't much difference at all, and if you're not ready to play 40 minutes of physical basketball, you'll get beat.  Any given day I guess.

[sac]

Updated +/- from Sat.

Calvin 5-1   (+2)
Hope 5-1    (+2)
Adrian  3-3 (0)
Albion 3-3   (-1)
Olivet 3-3     (0)
Alma 3-3     (+1)
Kzoo 1-5      (-3)
Trine 1-5      (-1)


Wednesday, January 28
Albion at Alma, 8 p.m.
Trine at Hope, 7:30 p.m.
Kalamazoo at Calvin, 8 p.m.
Olivet at Adrian, 7:30 p.m.


**Lo and behold our 4 middle teams all play each other Wednesday.

**Alma can win their 4th MIAA game for the first time since 2005, last year they lost to Albion 75-73 at home in overtime.   I think the odds are good Alma will get at least win #4 at some point.   In the past 3 years Alma's won just 2 road games in MIAA play..........both at Olivet (2008, 2009)

**Unless we get upsets from Kzoo and Trine, there will still be at least a two game lead for our leader/leaders.

**Albion took the biggest hit today, they are now affectively 5 games back of Calvin/Hope


**Olivet is 0-3 at home, 3-0 on the road......imagine where they'd be with a couple home wins.