MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[formerd3db]

Notes from Alma

***   Great crowd at Alma........513 and a surprising large Hope turnout.  The highlight is still the 'Superfans'.  They were a mass of 5 sometimes 6 today and were as usuall a riot.  They seemed a little short on energy today which can only mean last night was rough.........and I can only imagine what some of the frat parties are like with those guys attending.

***  This game wasn't all that different from the Alma/Albion game I saw, Hope just couldn't make shots when they needed them, Albion did.   I will say Alma was much more disciplined running their offense today than that day, Jordan Reditt was much better as well.

Wow, sac, that's wild.  I came through Alma early last eveing on the way back from a speaking engagement in upper northern lower peninsula and stopped through Alma.  The campus was quite, which apparently means the frat/sorority parties didn't get started until later!!   Also, your observaton about the "Superfans" is hilarious!   Hope usually does have a good following to the games at Alma.  I'm sorry I couldn't make it back up there to see it today - had other commitments.  Besides, all that tons of snow we had which was completely gone this week returned last night and early this AM - a bummer (unless you guys are winter sports people i.e. skiers, snowmobilers, snowshoers, skatboard crazies, ). 

Anyway, if Albion beats Calvin, it could shake things up a bit, although Calvin would still have to lose the other game for Hope to tie and that is unlikely to happen.  On the other hand, realistically, it doesn't matter because equal chance in the MIAA tournament regardless of seeding spot, IMO for the top teams.

BTW, bulldogalum - congratulations on your 100 +karma! Great!

[formerd3db]

Oops!  My post, third sentence meant to say "...the campus was quiet"...mis-typed the word.

[Adrian Hoops Fan]

In the second half, things got very physical.  In my opinion, the officials let the game get out of control, and the result wasn't pretty.  The best illustration of this occurred about midway through the second half.  On a loose ball, Matt Wayne dove to the floor and grabbed the ball.  A Trine player came in and tried to tie the ball up.  Then, Glen Alfieri flew into the pile and attacked Matt Wayne.  Both teams on the floor converged, and Dwight VanHoesen tried to pull Alfieri off of Wayne.  One Trine player came in off the bench to try to assist his teammates in the struggle.  The officials gathered and called offsetting technical fouls on Alfieri and VanHoesen.  They got it half right.  Alfieri should have been out of the game for what he did--it was an act of thuggery and cowardice.  VanHoesen was trying to keep the situation from escalating further, and was penalized for it.

What else is new from Tri-State, I mean Trine?  Different year, same cheap play from this team.  Especially against Adrian wanting it to be a big rivalry.  Their first game in MIAA vs Adrian, there was a bench clearing brawl after an Adrian player was punched in the face while shooting a triple from the top of the key.  There were even a couple JV games with similar incidents where a AC player was punched in the face or shoved from behind into the basket support.  It calmed down while Benford was there because they had some real talent there.  But an open gym fight between Benford and Alferi and this team is the end result.  Not a real surprise.  I blame the Trine staff for encouraging this.

But on the positive note, nice to see VanHoesen hitting stride and Young's shooting touch back.  Definitely makes Adrian a dangerous team down the stretch.  It is sad to see that the regular season is coming to a close so soon.  Good luck Dawgs.

[gohope]

Work calleth, so I stayed in Kazoo today and caught the Kalamazoo vs. Albion game. A pretty good game too. Kalamazoo was down a couple of times by ten points or so, but worked their way back to make it a a pretty comptetiive game. But... Albion's Bill Leising was the factor of the game. He scored 27 points and was 4/5 from the 3 pt line (correction - make that wayyyyyyyy beyond the NBA 3 point line!) 9/16  and 5/5 for ft's. He was definitely on. Foul trouble hit Henry McCain which didn't help the Hornets. But it was nice to see the major improvement in FR Joe Prepolec. If he stays on this progress level, he will definitely be a factor in years to come. And... I lost count of the number of times that Coach May stepped "out" of the Coaches Box during the game!  He must be reading our posts!!  It was a lot of fun to watch an MIAA game without many pressures associated to it!!  Fun afternoon!

[bulldogalum]

And... I lost count of the number of times that Coach May stepped "out" of the Coaches Box during the game!  He must be reading our posts!!  It was a lot of fun to watch an MIAA game without many pressures associated to it!!  Fun afternoon!

Good to hear that Jody May is finally thinking "outside the box."  Zing!

[realist]

"It's a huge advantage for us to have the home crowd," Zoerhof said. 

In light of the conversation earlier I share the above comment.  It was made in reference to Calvin securing home court advantage in the MIAA tournament.

[scottiedawg]

Are there any MIAA rules regarding ticket distribution during the tournament? 

[GoVols]

Terry Smith had to bail early because he got married Saturday evening. Funny that he runs such a slowdown offense, yet he couldn't get off campus fast enough to say "I Do." Congrats, coach!!!!!! Too bad Hope was not in a celebratory mood when they said "No, you don't."

[formerd3db]

In the second half, things got very physical.  In my opinion, the officials let the game get out of control, and the result wasn't pretty.  The best illustration of this occurred about midway through the second half.  On a loose ball, Matt Wayne dove to the floor and grabbed the ball.  A Trine player came in and tried to tie the ball up.  Then, Glen Alfieri flew into the pile and attacked Matt Wayne.  Both teams on the floor converged, and Dwight VanHoesen tried to pull Alfieri off of Wayne.  One Trine player came in off the bench to try to assist his teammates in the struggle.  The officials gathered and called offsetting technical fouls on Alfieri and VanHoesen.  They got it half right.  Alfieri should have been out of the game for what he did--it was an act of thuggery and cowardice.  VanHoesen was trying to keep the situation from escalating further, and was penalized for it.

What else is new from Tri-State, I mean Trine?  Different year, same cheap play from this team.  Especially against Adrian wanting it to be a big rivalry.  Their first game in MIAA vs Adrian, there was a bench clearing brawl after an Adrian player was punched in the face while shooting a triple from the top of the key.  There were even a couple JV games with similar incidents where a AC player was punched in the face or shoved from behind into the basket support.  It calmed down while Benford was there because they had some real talent there.  But an open gym fight between Benford and Alferi and this team is the end result.  Not a real surprise.  I blame the Trine staff for encouraging this.

But on the positive note, nice to see VanHoesen hitting stride and Young's shooting touch back.  Definitely makes Adrian a dangerous team down the stretch.  It is sad to see that the regular season is coming to a close so soon.  Good luck Dawgs.

This trend is concerning.  That (cheap shots, fighting, and just sheer/blatent dangerous play) has been occurring more often in some of the sports (we had a discussion about this earlier regarding football, hockey and lacrosse involving MIAA teams).  I hope the officials made the appropriate reprimands but also that it wasn't them who let it get out of control in the first place.  I place the blame the officials many times for this (especially of recent) because when they let this kind of cheap play go, it can then become a safety issue concerning the players.  I am all for tough play in contact sports, yet when the officials don't do their jobs in controlling this (and oft they "look the other way"), not only is that not right it is dangerous.  Officials are human and obviously miss things and/or don't see them (those of us who have served in those positions know this all to well) and that is not the point, but rather it is a serious part of their job to indeed be looking for such aspects (in addition to "officiating" the game obviously) when there is demonstrated a tendency for that to happen once a game starts.

Also, if the Trine staff kept a "blind eye" and/or encouraged this, then they are to blame as well.  Unfortunately, I've seen some coaches and/or staff demonstrate such behavior this year and it is rather appalling.

Let's hope the upcoming MIAA tournament runs smooth in regards to this "stuff".   Best of luck in the final week to everyone's teams.  This may be one of the more interesting years in MIAA basketball of recent as opposed to the usual "runaways".  

[northb]

In the second half, things got very physical.  In my opinion, the officials let the game get out of control, and the result wasn't pretty.  The best illustration of this occurred about midway through the second half.  On a loose ball, Matt Wayne dove to the floor and grabbed the ball.  A Trine player came in and tried to tie the ball up.  Then, Glen Alfieri flew into the pile and attacked Matt Wayne.  Both teams on the floor converged, and Dwight VanHoesen tried to pull Alfieri off of Wayne.  One Trine player came in off the bench to try to assist his teammates in the struggle.  The officials gathered and called offsetting technical fouls on Alfieri and VanHoesen.  They got it half right.  Alfieri should have been out of the game for what he did--it was an act of thuggery and cowardice.  VanHoesen was trying to keep the situation from escalating further, and was penalized for it.

What else is new from Tri-State, I mean Trine?  Different year, same cheap play from this team.  Especially against Adrian wanting it to be a big rivalry.  Their first game in MIAA vs Adrian, there was a bench clearing brawl after an Adrian player was punched in the face while shooting a triple from the top of the key.  There were even a couple JV games with similar incidents where a AC player was punched in the face or shoved from behind into the basket support.  It calmed down while Benford was there because they had some real talent there.  But an open gym fight between Benford and Alferi and this team is the end result.  Not a real surprise.  I blame the Trine staff for encouraging this.

But on the positive note, nice to see VanHoesen hitting stride and Young's shooting touch back.  Definitely makes Adrian a dangerous team down the stretch.  It is sad to see that the regular season is coming to a close so soon.  Good luck Dawgs.

This trend is concerning.  That (cheap shots, fighting, and just sheer/blatent dangerous play) has been occurring more often in some of the sports (we had a discussion about this earlier regarding football, hockey and lacrosse involving MIAA teams).  I hope the officials made the appropriate reprimands but also that it wasn't them who let it get out of control in the first place.  I place the blame the officials many times for this (especially of recent) because when they let this kind of cheap play go, it can then become a safety issue concerning the players.  I am all for tough play in contact sports, yet when the officials don't do their jobs in controlling this (and oft they "look the other way"), not only is that not right it is dangerous.  Officials are human and obviously miss things and/or don't see them (those of us who have served in those positions know this all to well) and that is not the point, but rather it is a serious part of their job to indeed be looking for such aspects (in addition to "officiating" the game obviously) when there is demonstrated a tendency for that to happen once a game starts.

Also, if the Trine staff kept a "blind eye" and/or encouraged this, then they are to blame as well.  Unfortunately, I've seen some coaches and/or staff demonstrate such behavior this year and it is rather appalling.

Let's hope the upcoming MIAA tournament runs smooth in regards to this "stuff".   Best of luck in the final week to everyone's teams.  This may be one of the more interesting years in MIAA basketball of recent as opposed to the usual "runaways".  

Does anyone recall an incident from years ago involving old Smokin Joe and a Calvin game?  My memory is hazy about it, but I recall the Calvin player (Hennink?) had made some great move on a Kalamazoo player, and Hacklin had told the player, that "if he does that again, you take him out!"  The Calvin player did it again, and the Kalamazoo player took him out!  I think they both got T'd up.  Does anyone remember the exact details?  OK?  Anyone?   

[NW Hope Fan]

Dude... You are opening a can of worms there! 
How long before we hear from stinger???

[northb]

No intent to fire anyone up, just trying to refresh my memory

[Flying Dutch Fan]

Are there any MIAA rules regarding ticket distribution during the tournament? 

Pretty sure that for the semi-finals each team is alloted 25% of the tickets, and for the finals each team gets 50%

[sac]

I thought I recall it being 50% to host, other 3 divide 1/2 among them for the semi's.  Championship game splits 50/50.

Since there's only 2 schools that can really fill their allotment anyway its never been an issue.  I don't think the semi-finals has ever sold out except the years we played at Albion and maybe a Hope game or two at DeVos or the Civic Center.

Seme finals attendence last time we were at Calvin in 2006.  1st game: 1753, 2nd game: 2657

[oldknight]

I don't remember anything about a Smokin' Joe inspired tiff involving Hennink. I'm not saying it didn't happen, I just don't know anything about it. Over the years there certainly have been a few incidents where players between MIAA schools have gotten chippy with one another but I think the conference history involving player fights is surprisingly clean--even admirable. In fact, the last time I can remember seeing an MIAA game where a player actually squared off was the first time Calvin and Hope played at the old Fieldhouse. It was the final game of the 1965-66 season and was Barney Steen's last game as coach. Naturally, the conference title was on the line. Calvin had Ed Douma running things from the backcourt while Hope had the late Floyd Brady and future Calvin College English professor, Roy Anker, on their roster. The Knights also had a talented and bruising freshmen from Chicago Christian, Bill DeHorn, who took umbrage at something that happened under the basket close to the balcony overhang. I don't recall who it was from the Hope team DeHorn wanted a piece of but as best I remember it from my perch overhead, Big Bill dragged the Hope player completely under the overhang and was just beginning to give a pounding when players from both teams intervened. It took the efforts of every Calvin player on the floor to keep DeHorn away from his opponent while things cooled down. Calvin went on to win 79-72 and took the title that day.


On another note, I found it interesting and hugely ironic that this news occurred at almost exactly the same time of my post from about a week ago.

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20090211/SPORTS0208/902110379/-1/BUSINESS04