MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[Mr. Ypsi]

Although I'm guessing midnight madness is the official start of basketball practice at midnight, I don't know this for a fact. What is midnight madness?

Legal bball practice begins at 12:01 am Oct 15.  If schools call it 'midnight madness' it means they are promoting essentially a pep rally/first practice.

[GoKnights68]

Calvin College Midnight Madness starts in a little over a hour!

Oops, sorry I think it is TONIGHT at midnight, not last night.  My bad. 

[GoKnights68]

Although I'm guessing midnight madness is the official start of basketball practice at midnight, I don't know this for a fact. What is midnight madness?

Legal bball practice begins at 12:01 am Oct 15.  If schools call it 'midnight madness' it means they are promoting essentially a pep rally/first practice.

I don't know what if that is what Coach VanderStreek calls it, but I do know one of Calvin's assistant coach always calls it that.

[sac]

Calvin College Midnight Madness starts in a little over a hour!

A Chimes photographer stumbled in on last night's Calvin practice and captured this image............

[realist]

Calvin College Midnight Madness starts in a little over a hour!

A Chimes photographer stumbled in on last night's Calvin practice and captured this image............

Is it just me or does that guy look like assistant # 13 or 14 from the Hope bench?

[gohope]

Calvin College Midnight Madness starts in a little over a hour!

A Chimes photographer stumbled in on last night's Calvin practice and captured this image............

Is it just me or does that guy look like assistant # 13 or 14 from the Hope bench?

Nope.  Not wearing khaki's! 

[Titan Q]

So I need to turn in a D3hoops.com Preseason Top 25 ballot Monday.  Is there any type of consensus regarding the 2010 MIAA favorite?  Would love to hear your thoughts on who you think the 3 top contenders are.  I assume Hope and Calvin on top?  Who is the favorite?  Who would you rank #3?

Thank you!

[realist]

TQ:  I don't envy you the task.
At this point, IMO, the MIAA is harder than normal to call.  I would still go with Calvin and Hope at or near the top,  Olivet has a good group returning, and may suprise a team or two. Trine is returning almost everyone, and they could make things interesting.  Albion appears to be doing a major rebuild, and Adrian with a new coach is hard to predict how that will turn out.  By the end of the year Calvin and Hope should both have very respectable teams, but early on I think they will both struggle.  HM at best for MIAA at this point.

[GoKnights68]

Glad you can get this talk going on here, TQ, as I assume a lot of posters will start chiming in soon, hopefully.

Calvin is the defending regular season league champs and returns 3 starters, Rodts, Veltema, and Mantel.  Those guys will be the main core of Calvin's offense every game and will be hard to stop all 3 of them every game.  They do lose Smith, Zoerhof, and Veldhouse, though, who were all 4 year varsity players.  Also Katt, a 3 year varsity player.  It will be up to Powell and Salo to fill in for some of the key guards Calvin loses.

Hope is the defending league tournament champs, and they return 4 starters, but the starter they lose ,Reimink, who was the MIAA league MVP last season.

Hope should have a little deeper bench this upcoming season imo (has an awesome JV team last season), so they should do nothing but improve throughout the season, but I think Calvin will do nothing but improve throughout the season also, as they will have some good young talent that can contribute on varsity.



Expect the league to come down to Calvin and Hope, as usual.  As for who I pick, I'll just say they tie for first place  .  As for who the coaches pick when they have their meeting coming up...tough call.   I say maybe they pick Calvin by a hair?   I think Albion gets 3rd.  Doesn't Olivet lose that good center they had last season to graduation?

[KnightSlappy]

Hope is the defending league tournament champs, and they return 4 starters, but the starter they lose ,Reimink, who was the MIAA league MVP last season.

Hope also loses starting big man Zach Osburn, so only 3 starters return for the Dutchmen.

Doesn't Olivet lose that good center they had last season to graduation?

Brandon McClary was a true talent during his time at Olivet. The Comets still have brother Michael McClary. Though he isn't as polished as Brandon he is just as feisty at hitting the offensive glass.

I say maybe they pick Calvin by a hair?   I think Albion gets 3rd.

This is exactly how I would pick my top 3 (with Olivet fourth).

Not really much to choose between Hope and Calvin at this point. My thought is that Calvin will not have to ask anyone to take a major step forward to carry the team (John Mantel should do fine there, with Veltema and Rodts providing nice assistance). The rest of the guys just need to play their role.

It seems to me at this point (maybe I'm wrong?) that Hope will need to ask someone to take a big step forward in order to take the league from Calvin.

[hopehoopfan]

Hope is the defending league tournament champs, and they return 4 starters, but the starter they lose ,Reimink, who was the MIAA league MVP last season.

Hope should have a little deeper bench this upcoming season imo (has an awesome JV team last season), so they should do nothing but improve throughout the season, but I think Calvin will do nothing but improve throughout the season also, as they will have some good young talent that can contribute on varsity.

I have two Calvin questions to throw out; is Mantel the concensus preseason pick for MVP and who off last year's  JV will make this year's Varsity? The only player that really stands out in my memory is a dark haired player that shot very well(maybe Matt Capel?).

[oldknight]

Hope is the defending league tournament champs, and they return 4 starters, but the starter they lose ,Reimink, who was the MIAA league MVP last season.

Hope should have a little deeper bench this upcoming season imo (has an awesome JV team last season), so they should do nothing but improve throughout the season, but I think Calvin will do nothing but improve throughout the season also, as they will have some good young talent that can contribute on varsity.

I have two Calvin questions to throw out; is Mantel the concensus preseason pick for MVP and who off last year's  JV will make this year's Varsity? The only player that really stands out in my memory is a dark haired player that shot very well(maybe Matt Capel?).

The answer to your question for the early MVP choice depends so much on which team wins the league but I've got to believe John is on anyone's short list. He has been named a pre-season All-American by DIII News. If Hope wins the conference then Peter Bunn would seem to be a likely choice. But I wouldn't count Olivet out of the hunt either. Like realist, I'm wary of the Comets which will field a squad that lost only one player (a very good one) but returns several skilled, quick, and highly competitive veterans. I would have to place Michael McClary in nomination too.

[BulldogBasketball01]

Made it to Adrian's "Morning Madness" today and the roster has undergone a complete overhaul (not surprising wih a new coach)  Only 4 players are back from last year's team despite the team only losing 2 seniors from last year.  The newcomers are very talented, Northwood transfer Jovon Mosley really stood out.  If all these newcomers can blend with the couple of returners Adrian could provide more of a challenge than the previous few years.  The talent level is certainly much higher, the question will be if they can play together, and if their lack of experience will hurt them also.  As a Bulldog Fan though, Coach White appears to have things heading in the right direction.

[13wapiti]

The Adrian Preview that talks about the new team members can be found here;

http://adrianbulldogs.cstv.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/101609aaa.html

It will be interesting to see if these guys can learn to play together and  make some waves this season.

[devossed]

The Adrian Preview that talks about the new team members can be found here;

http://adrianbulldogs.cstv.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/101609aaa.html

It will be interesting to see if these guys can learn to play together and  make some waves this season.

equally as "interesting" is no mention of SR-to-be Matt Wayne, who "only" led all of D3 in FG% last year...what gives there?