MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[Knight In The Stan]

Apparently the Knights scrimmaged GRCC last night. Anybody there to make any comments?

[almcguirejr]

Grace Bible College has played 1 game already and plays at Davenport tonight.  Grace will have played 8 games before playing Calvin on their opening night..  I also noticed Grace is playing in Anchorage on Dec 11-12 and in Hawaii on Dec. 20 and 22.

[goodknight]

Apparently the Knights scrimmaged GRCC last night. Anybody there to make any comments?

Didn't get over to Grand Rapids for the event, but did receive a report from an eyewitness.  Calvin ran out to a big lead early and never looked back, winning by about 30.  GRCC had no one to contend with Mantel, who ended with 24 points and 10 boards. Good performances from the other starters (Veltema, Rodts, Salo and Schnyders) and solid contributions off the bench from Schuster, Snikkers, DeYoung, Powell and Campbell.
Next Tuesday will be a better indicator of the Knights' talent.  They'll play D2 Ferris State, which just played an exhibition last week at D1 Dayton, losing by a final of 88-73. 

[hope1]

hope has a scrimmage at 10 today please come out and watch

[hoopdreams]

any feedback pertaining to Hope's play today?  Did Bunn play?  Any good things, players, rotations, anyone? anyone? anyone?

Interesting reading in the whac boxscores the past couple days....

[Adrian Hoops Fan]

Tonight Adrian Hoops family celebrated the retirement of their own class act long-time coach, Buck Riley.  70+ people (including players from his 27 years coaching, former assistants, family and friends including rival Coach Turner) gathered togather to celebrate Coach's career and talk of the stories from on & off the court and the life lessons taught by Buck.  Great night.  Congratulations Coach Riley on a great career you did so much for so many people and you will always represent what is good about Adrian College & the MIAA.

Looking forward to another fun season.  Go Dawgs!!!

[13wapiti]

Kalamazoo played an exhibition at Western Michigan yesterday and lost 78-52.

Link here:
http://www.wmubroncos.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=4600&ATCLID=204829069

[hope1]

bunn did  not  play saturday   he started   bowser  krombeen  tanis  venema  nelis
  they looked pretty good won the first half then lost the 2nd half first off the bench were fr snuggerud and  fr jared mysilweic   they did a really nice job nate king played a lot junguling  came in to shoot some 3 pointers  but overall i think hope looked really good

[hope81]

I attended the Meet the Dutchmen yesterday, but saw only the first half.  As hope1 said, Bunn did not play, although he was out shooting around during warmup.

The most interesting thing I saw in the first half was that Bowser appeared to have a whole different attitude of wanting to take the ball to the hole and he appeared to be much stronger and a little quicker than he has been.  I thought he played very well.  Venema played well too, but conditioning may still need a little work.  I thought the starters were solid, and would only be better if Bunn played.  The subs had flashes, but need some experience.

Hope was basically playing the Holland Blast team which is not a patsy opponent, so I thought they acquitted themselves well.

[pointlem]

Echoing Hope1 and Hope81, I thought the Hope team looked excellent yesterday, playing nearly even in two 20-minute halves against a higher level of talent than they may face in any DIII team this season.  Will Bowser was terrific, but so was the team as a whole, including its Frosh . . . and, of course, David Krombeen, whose spinning moves, passes, and full-speed behind-the-back dribbles are going to be much fun to watch again this year.

[hoopdreams]

As much as I enjoy the MIAA in general, and Hope in particular, tomorrows game at Oakland could be ugly.  They are loaded for bear, no pun intended, and will be ready to make sure they don't pull a Syracuse.

Preseason player of the year, 6"11 benson, Class A state final legend J jones at pg, Larry wright at sg (started in the big east 2 years ago), Derrick Nelson who was the most physically imposing hs player I have seen in 10-12 years (played with Suton, won Class A title), a 7'0 post, and 2 extremely gifted wings Cushingberry (hs with doug sharples) and Mannard.  Don't know what there starting line-up will be but they are deep in talent this year.

don't think it will be any indicator at all as to how prepared Hope will be for the start of the season, or how far along they are post-jesse.  If you thought the Holland Blast team they played on saturday was athletic, be prepared.   

On that note, if anyone is making the trip, please fill us in on the good and the bad.  The start of the season cannot come soon enough.

[13wapiti]

You can go to the Oakland U website and follow the game on Game Tracker to see how Hope handles the Grizzlies!

[sac]

You can go to the Oakland U website and follow the game on Game Tracker to see how Hope handles the Grizzlies!

http://www.ougrizzlies.com/sports/m-baskbl/sched/oakl-m-baskbl-sched.html

[sac]

Oakland was picked as the pre-season favorite to win the Summit League.

The Summit League consists of .......

IUPUI----Indiana Univ, Purdue Univ, Indianapolis
IPFW---Indiana-Purdue Ft. Wayne
UMKC---Missouri-Kansas City
Centenary
North Dakota State
South Dakota State
Southern Utah
Oral Roberts
Western Illinois
Oakland

......not exactly D1 powerhouses, but last years champ North Dakota St lost to Kansas by 10 in the NCAA's.


Oakland has to replace leading scorer Eric Kangas who graduated, but their starting   five returns 3 solid starters and 2 others who both started several games last year.

If I had to guess a starting lineup for Oakland

Jonathan Jones 5-11 PG
Drew Maynard 6-6 G
Blake Cushingberry 6-3 G
Will Hudson 6-9 F
Keith Benson 6-11 C

I have Maynard and Cushingberry penciled in as the new starters, both started 20 and 14 games respectively last year........Oakland seems short on Forwards overall, so I put 3 guards in there.  Whoever the starting 5 is, its a huge mismatch in  either size or  athleticism, or both everywhere.  If Hope uses the same starting 5 as Saturday

David Krombeen 6-2 PG
Ty Tanis 6-3 G
Will Bowser 6-5 F
Andy Venema 6-8 F
Chris Nelis 6-4 C


I don't expect Oakland's guys to play more than 20 minutes apiece (or have to play more) and we'll be seeing a lot of Oakland's bench and Freshmen.

When Hope played The University of Detroit 2 years ago, the Titans were one of the worst teams in the Horizon league with a bunch of transfers and suspensions.  Hope was expected to be one of the best in D3, and took the Titans to the wall for 25 minutes before they woke up(or one guy woke up) and erased an 18 point deficit and won going away.

Oakland is a different animal, they are a program on a solid base and I'm sure expect to be in the NCAA's this spring.   Oakland beat Oregon in OT last November along with games against Syracuse, Iowa, Kansas State, Michigan and Michigan State.  The Grizzlies have pretty much the same group back this year, save for Kangas and one other from their top 7.   Hope meanwhile is not nearly the team they were in 2008.

This probably won't go well but should be good fun anyway.

[GoKnights68]

Calvin opens up with an exhibition game tomorrow night (Tuesday) against Ferris St at 7:30pm in the VanNoord Arena.  Just reminded everyone...