MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[sac]

6th annual MIAA/CCIW Challenge at DeVos Fieldhouse

Friday
Carthage 5-1 vs Calvin 1-3 6pm
Wheaton 4-0 vs Hope 3-1  8pm

Saturday
Wheaton vs Calvin 1pm
Carthage vs Hope 3pm

Last year Wheaton and Carthage whipped up on Hope/Calvin pretty good winning the four games by a combined 58 points, and it really wasn't even that close.

The host conference has won the series in each season.
05 @Wheaton CCIW 3-1
06 @Hope MIAA 4-0
07 @Carthage CCIW 4-0
08 @Calvin MIAA 3-1
09 @Wheaton CCIW 4-0

The host school has gone 9-1

Overall records
Wheaton 7-3
Carthage 5-5
Hope 4-6
Calvin 4-6

Carthage vs Calvin: Calvin 3-2
Wheaton vs Calvin: Wheaton 4-1
Carthage vs Hope: Carthage 3-2
Wheaton vs Hope: Wheaton 3-2


There have been only 6 of the 20 games decided by fewer than 10 points with 2 OT games.  The average margin of victory has been 12.7 points.

[Flying Dutch Fan]

Perusing the CCIW pick 'em board, and here is how they are picking the 4 games at Hope this weekend:

Carthage - Calvin
14 - 0

Wheaton - Hope
8 - 6

Wheaton - Calvin
14 - 0

Carthage - Hope
7 - 7

[KnightSlappy]

Well work ran late for me today and I wasn't able to make it to Holland as planned, so I'm stuck with the vocal stylings of Doug E Fresh on WFUR for the first time this season (much thanks to Hope's live stats for clearing up many of Doug's um's, uh's, well's, let's see's, and I guess').

Sounds like a nice first half of ball for the Knights against a very good Red Men team. Doug said that it "looks like Mantel took his vitamins before the game" he has 9 points and 6 boards at the half. I'm still not comfortable, Stevie D can have his team right back to even in only a matter of minutes.

Perusing the CCIW pick 'em board, and here is how they are picking the 4 games at Hope this weekend:

Carthage - Calvin
14 - 0
Wheaton - Hope
8 - 6
Wheaton - Calvin
14 - 0
Carthage - Hope
7 - 7

It was my week to pick games for the National Pick 'em and I put in all four MIAA/CCIW games. I think I was the only one to pick Calvin in any of those games, so there's not much faith in the Knights around these boards.

**Correction -- one other person picked Calvin over Wheaton**

Go Calvin! and Go Hope (but only for tonight because a W would help out Calvin's OWP)!

[scottiedawg]

Early thoughts: Mantel is stepping up big, which the Knights really need.  Snikkers is a way better option than Schnyders.  What is up with Cary?  Injury? 

[Mr. Ypsi]

Calvin wins a nailbiter, 72-69.  Steve Djurickovic was his usual self with 25, but Mantel totally neutralized him with 24 and 9 rebounds.

Calvin led by 8 at the half, but Carthage stormed back to lead by 9 with 7:45 to go.  Calvin quickly responded and no one led by more than 3 the last 5-6 minutes.

[KnightSlappy]

Mark a W down for the Knights 72-69! They saw a 8 point halftime lead turn into a nine point defecit, but they battled back to take the lead with 15 seconds remaining.

Mantel was huge, Snikkers looked like he played well with 6 assists.

[wiz]

John Mantel,
You stepped up and played like a man! Congratulations to you and all the Knights for a really well played game.  I gave you a lot of criticism in my last few post and hoped you might read some of it.  And now, I hope you see this: Tonight you proved me wrong and I am happy for you.  Keep it up.
-Wiz

[wiz]

The Dutchmen have quieted the Thunder.  Good night for the MIAA.

[almcguirejr]

My parents go to a lot of Trinity Christian games...they live 15 minutes away.  I think my dad told me Will Bruinsma has a younger brother who is a good player (high school senior).

http://athletics.trnty.edu/Roster/bb20.html

http://athletics.trnty.edu/MBasketball/Statistics.html


How good is the younger Bruinsma?

Did Hope and Calvin recruit Will?  He has become a stud.

Evan Bruinsma is a 6'5" wing at Western Michigan Christian.  He is an excellent player.  I believe he was All State in basketball last year as a junior.  His team has won the Class D state championship the last 2 years.  He was their leader last year.  I think he was the 6th man as a sophomore.  If I remember correctly he was also an excellent soccer player.  He would look great in a Calvin uniform next year.

http://www.mlive.com/sports/muskegon/index.ssf/2009/03/bruinsma_gives_western_michiga.html

[oldknight]

Based on what I saw in last year's game, I concur that Carthage may be vulnerable to good post play. At King Arena last December, Mantel was more than the Red Men could handle, especially in the second half when John scored 15, grabbed 8 boards, and blocked 2 shots. It would be nice to see him duplicate that feat at VanAndel.

Guess what? He duplicated it. The game stats aren't up yet but I'll give you my impressions. John proved to be that load just too much for Carthage to handle, scoring 24, grabbing a number of caroms, and generally forcing the Red Men to double him more than I'm sure Bosko would like. Mantel has struggled at the stripe this year but with the game on the line he hit 2 free throws that were about as pressure packed as they get this early in the year. Calvin needed a win and John produced.

Streek found his lineup tonight. Starting Snikkers and bringing in Schnyders off the bench makes eminent sense. Tom plays his role beautifully, distributing the ball, grabbing boards, and shooting only as needed. He's a smart, fundamentally sound player, wise beyond his freshmen year, and has a great future. Schnyders is an energizer bunny whose role is perfectly suited to a second team role because Calvin already has 2-3 starters who should be doing the bulk of the shooting.

Calvin did something to Carthage you don't normally see from the Knights--they rarely doubled the ball when it went inside, a tactic no doubt utilized in an attempt to keep Djurickovic under control. It worked for a half with Steve limited to very few shots, 4 points, and relatively little involvement in the offense. It was obvious from the very first two second half possessions that Djurickovic (either Steve, Bosko, or both) made an adjustment. In the first half, Rodts, or whoever was guarding Djurickovic, would simply wait for him to walk up to the arc before engaging him. I believe Steve only took one three point attempt in the first half (a miss) but he immediately took two at the start of the second, making one. The entire second half was an interesting game of cat and mouse between Bosko and KVS. It was nice of Bosko's son to miss his last two shots when the game was on the line.

The light appeared to go on for the Knights. Now let's see if it stays on.

[goodknight]

A knightlight is very comforting when things seem darkest.
A good night for our beleaguered conference tonight with 4 wins in the MIAA/CCIW challenge and the MIAA/WHAC challenge.  Alma, Calvin, Hope and Olivet carried the MIAA banner proudly tonight.

[wiz]

Congratulations to the Calvin College Knights soccer team as they defeated Dominican and play in the National finals tomorrow night.  Hopefully another beautiful championship banner for the VanNoord Arena.

[KnightSlappy]

I hope I don't get reprimanded for mentioning soccer, but Calvin has defeated Dominican on the pitch tonight (1-0) to advance to the National Championship game where they will face defending champion Messiah.

[Happy Calvin Guy]

Great day for the MIAA today, well done!  

Congrats to the Calvin men's soccer team as well, playing for a national championship tomorrow.  Go Knights!

[Gregory Sager]

I didn't see the game so I can't comment on this definitively, but it appears that Calvin did an outstanding job of guarding Steve Djurickovic. He was held to two assists tonight, and the last time that he dished out so few dimes was December 30 of last year. He came into tonight's contest averaging 8 apg after six games. The number of games in which he's had a negative a:to ratio (he turned over the ball four times tonight) in his Carthage career can be counted on one hand.

The Knights also kept him from getting to the free throw line, which is his specialty. According to the box score, he went 2-2 from the line tonight. The only other time in his career in which he had only shot two free throws over the course of a game came in a contest against Illinois Tech in the middle of his freshman season. Last year he went 14-14 from the stripe against Calvin; the year before he went 8-8 from the line against the Knights.