MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[Gregory Sager]

I'm imagining someone checking out this board for the first time and starting on this page. "Wow, those MIAA schools sure produce some outstanding scholars!"

We'll have to give Sager an honorary degree. I'm all for it.

Yeah, I can already hear that debate:

CALVIN FAN #1: OK, we'll give Sager an honorary degree, but it has to be from Hope.
HOPE FAN #1: The heck with that! Give Sager a Calvin degree.
CALVIN FAN #2: Are you serious? Just look at his posts. He deserves a Hope degree.
HOPE FAN #2: He's not up to Hope's standards! He's Calvin material!
CALVIN FAN #3: No, he's not! Give him a Hope degree!
HOPE FAN #3: No, a Calvin degree!
CALVIN FAN #1: Hope!
HOPE FAN #2: Calvin!

And on and on, until a picture of a dead horse or of condiments appears, whichever comes first.

[realist]

An those guys back East think they have a rivalry!

[Mr. Ypsi]

Would someone from Adrian step in and give Greg a degree before WWIII breaks out?!

Wait, I've got it - Trine is new; maybe they can be suckered talked into it!

Would CCIW guys get involved in a Williams/Amherst smackdown?

[realist]

Wow.  Basketball is still being played.
Hope is kicking the stuffing out of Trine.
Calvin leads Kalamazoo at the half.
Olivet is beating Adrian.
Albion is ahead of Alma.
We now return to our regularly scheduled posts.

[ziggy]

6 20 point scorers in the MIAA tonight.  That strikes me as unusually high, congratulations to those impressive scorers.

[ACHOOPS-00]

Notes of the Olivet/Adrian game. 

Olivet tried to give this game away.  They outplayed Adrian for about 35 mins and Adrian made a late run and had 2 chances to tie at the end but came up short.  Adrian isn't going to win many games witih Desmond Young playing like he did tonight. He had 17 tonight but many were late. He has a little bit of Billy Collins in him meaning that when he isn't scoring he doesnt do anything else for his team.  He doesn't get enough rebounds for how big and strong he is and he doesn't get enough assists for how much attention he draws on the offensive end.  I do not want to sound like i am bashing Desmond but if he wants to win MVP he can't be a one dimensional player. 
This was a game Adrian should of won at home but dug themselves too big of a hole.  Hopefully the bulldawgs can bounce back on saturday.  They are still in the haunt for the 3rd or 4th seed.   

[Dark Knight]

Rodts is back, but there were still three Knights in street clothes, Veldhouse, sometime-starter Schneiders, and Sytsema. However, the remaining 8 or so in the regular rotation had the lead up to 30 with a little over five minutes left.

The first half was a defensive battle, with a half-time score of 27-15. Both teams started to flow a little better in the second half. Later in the game the intensity of defense went down a little.

How 'bout 5' 9" Dustin with a double-double, 10 points and 12 rebounds? A few more assists and it could have been a triple-double.  And Veltema with 23?

Veldhouse is questionable for the next game.

I hope that the Knights can get comfortable with shooting in the new arena in the next week or so. It was good to see Veltema find his mark.

[KnightSlappy]

The scoreboard woes continue at Van Noord.  Fix it.  'nuff said.

It was nice to see the Knights get a relatively easy win even with Caleb in street clothes and what seemed like a very pedestrian game by Mantel.  Veltema was hot and Dustin was fighting for the boards.  A nice 10 points from Salo who showed a pretty good shot when he decides to shoot.  Calvin was up 25 with 4:25 left and put in the JV team (literally ) and got outscored 13-2 for the rest of the game.

[HopeConvert]

I'm imagining someone checking out this board for the first time and starting on this page. "Wow, those MIAA schools sure produce some outstanding scholars!"

We'll have to give Sager an honorary degree. I'm all for it.

Yeah, I can already hear that debate:

CALVIN FAN #1: OK, we'll give Sager an honorary degree, but it has to be from Hope.
HOPE FAN #1: The heck with that! Give Sager a Calvin degree.
CALVIN FAN #2: Are you serious? Just look at his posts. He deserves a Hope degree.
HOPE FAN #2: He's not up to Hope's standards! He's Calvin material!
CALVIN FAN #3: No, he's not! Give him a Hope degree!
HOPE FAN #3: No, a Calvin degree!
CALVIN FAN #1: Hope!
HOPE FAN #2: Calvin!

And on and on, until a picture of a dead horse or of condiments appears, whichever comes first.

It'll be like Faye Dunaway in "Chinatown."

[oldknight]

Nice game for the Knights tonight. 
The new scoreboard is a perfect example as to why you shouldn't always give the business to the lowest bidder.

The problems with the new scoreboard are now becoming a running joke with Calvin fans. No sooner do they get a working on-screen program that displays total team fouls and moments later the game clock shows 75 seconds. I almost can't wait for the Hope students to show up and take a crack at commentary when the Flying Dutchmen take on Calvin in two weeks. It could be brutal.

On the other hand, after a first half of more offensive misery at VanNoord, the Knights finally shook off the dust of the new facility and displayed a shooting touch at the new digs. Calvin's second half was the best combined offensive and defensive basketball I've seen from the Knights in quite some time. Calvin continues to pound the boards and their defensive effort was outstanding. Veltema showed his teammates the way to the promised land of made field goals by going 9-14. The only negative was 18 turnovers by the Knights. That's too many.

[HopeConvert]

A pretty good basketball game tonight against a feisty Trine team. After seeing them up close, I'm a little surprised they're 1-6. Regular posters know that I have been in the tank for the last 4 years for Jesse Reimink, and his impending graduation has had me in a bit of a funk. I'm pleased to announce that I am ready to anoint Peter Bunn a worthy heir. For the next couple of years, he will automatically be my "key to the game."

[HopeConvert]

19-20 from the line for the Dutchmen tonight. Superb. I'm still a bit concerned about the rebounding, however.

[Gregory Sager]

I'm imagining someone checking out this board for the first time and starting on this page. "Wow, those MIAA schools sure produce some outstanding scholars!"

We'll have to give Sager an honorary degree. I'm all for it.

Yeah, I can already hear that debate:

CALVIN FAN #1: OK, we'll give Sager an honorary degree, but it has to be from Hope.
HOPE FAN #1: The heck with that! Give Sager a Calvin degree.
CALVIN FAN #2: Are you serious? Just look at his posts. He deserves a Hope degree.
HOPE FAN #2: He's not up to Hope's standards! He's Calvin material!
CALVIN FAN #3: No, he's not! Give him a Hope degree!
HOPE FAN #3: No, a Calvin degree!
CALVIN FAN #1: Hope!
HOPE FAN #2: Calvin!

And on and on, until a picture of a dead horse or of condiments appears, whichever comes first.

It'll be like Faye Dunaway in "Chinatown."

Just as long as it isn't like Jack Nicholson in Chinatown. I like my nose the way it is.

[Happy Calvin Guy]

Had a chance to take in the Calvin/Kzoo game tonight and had a few thoughts.

Not to start a new dead horse discussion, but how many problems with the scoreboard can you have?  They could never properly list the opponent as Kalamazoo, as it was stuck on St Mary's from the women's game.  The time clock snafu that took about 5 min to figure out, no individual player pts/fouls, etc.  There was a nice video on the scoreboard before the game though that seemed to be entitled "Tradition never graduates", highlighting Calvin's past MIAA titles, NCAA appearances, individual honors, and national titles.  Maybe this has been shown before but it was the first time I saw it.  It was downhill from there for the scoreboard.  

The four starting guards in the game are 5'6", 5'8", 5'9", and 5'9" (really pretty generous for Mr. Salo).  

Speaking of Trent Salo, I thought he did a nice job pushing the action and looking for his own shot a little more than he has in the past.  10 pts on some nice shooting and some great drives to the rim too.  

Dustin Smith has gotta be the best 5'9" rebounder I've ever seen.  I was noticing his rebounding prowess in the Trine game earlier this year too.  12 boards tonight--nice work.  

The team looked a little unprepared mentally during pregame warmups.  Lack of emotion and a fair amount of joking around.  I thought that Tyler Zoerhof was the only one that appeared to have a game face on.  When Caleb gets healthy, I think the team really needs him to step up and be a leader, not just the talented player that he is.

McCain for Kalamazoo seems to have great talent but wow he is not into the game at all.  I saw him lip synching to the music during timeouts and not listening to the coach, complaining to his coach about his teammates, and generally playing with less intensity than you see in most pickup games.  A few ticky tack foul calls may have discouraged him early, but that is no excuse.  

Overall a good win for the Knights.  The game was not near as close as the score indicated, as Calvin was up 32 at one point.  Congrats to Matt Veltema on a career high scoring night--we needed that with Caleb out and Mantel having an off night.  

[almcguirejr]

To paraphrase George Gobel from an old Tonight Show

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue3Gcp_5ESs

"did you ever feel like the Spoelhof complex is a tuxedo but the scoreboard is a pair of brown shoes"