MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[GoKnights68]

I said yesterday that I think Calvin will have no trouble putting up points in tonight's game, and I was correct.  My concern was Calvin's defense and allowing Hope go on big runs offensively.  Hope went on a few nice runs but Calvin responded nicely to those runs with their own offensive runs.

Hope went ahead in the second half has KVS had all his second-stringers in.  Right when Hope went ahead, most of Calvin's starters came back in and it was lights out from there the rest of the game as they were well-rested.

Very glad Mantel was okay after he went in the tunnel for a short period of time but came right back in.  He played very well tonight, as he knew where to always be on offense.  Also happy to see Powell get more involved in the offense, something I have been calling for all season.  I don't think you'll ever see him play as little as 9 minutes again the rest of the year.  Salo and he did an excellent job tonight at running the offense and not turning the ball over.  Veltema sat a good amount in the first half.  Anyone know why that is...still finished with a nice game, though.


And hats off to Hope's Peter Bunn, who was nearly unguardable at times tonight, which is really remarkable for his size.  


Still just one game in the league, though.  Hope will get another shot or two at Calvin.  I hope the Knights can keep up the intensity this Saturday vs Olivet.

[CalKnight60]

Ha i guess the link worked after all...

[GoKnights68]

Anyone that has got a facebook can see very good quality clip of the Rodts to Mantel play that is being talked about.  Pretty sure this will be part a full highlight video that will be posted on Calvin's website in a couple of days, for anyone of you that do not have  facebook account

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1197892228173&ref=mf

[sac]

I thought the first 13 minutes of last nights game was very high quality on both ends......first foul called 6 minutes into the game and the box score has only 4 turnovers listed total in those minutes.  It really didn't let up a whole lot, but those first minutes really stood out..........these games have been a bit ugly in the style points category recently.

Mr. Obvious from The Bob and Tom show could analyze this one for us, the 3 point shooting sticks out like a sore thumb.    Calvin is probably the one team in this league capable of shooting over the Hope defenders, you would expect Rodts and Veltema to do the damage but Hope kept those two in check for the most part until Veltema hit a couple late three's to ice it.  What was distressing was seeing Trent Salo, Brent Schusters and Bryan Powell hit big 3's......Powell's were particularly distressing because it was just poor defensive recognition (maybe overplaying the drive down the lane?).

Calvin got some big points from some not so usual sources, frankly tonight was a bit of Hope getting a taste of the medicine they've been dishing to Calvin over the past 3 or 4 seasons.........hot three point shooting and better bench play.


There wasn't a lot of good defense played, good effort but not so great defense........Hope ran the layup drill during the game as well as before and at halftime.  However, maybe missed in the Bryan Powell deep 3 festival at the 10 minutes mark..............was that after Logan Neil's 3 to give Hope its first and only lead of the game, the Dutchmen went 5 minutes tallying only 1 FG and 3 empty trips down the floor.....Calvin scored at least 2 on every possession in this same time frame.    This was the only noticeable stretch of back to back defensive stops I can recall in the game.  2 point lead to 11 points down and it was pretty much over.

Overall a surprisingly well played game given the two teams non-conference hiccups.

[sac]

Looking over the league toinght.....I'm quite surprised by the Albion score, not necessarily the win but it looks like they really had Olivet down the whole night and I don't think you could have anticipated that kind of performance on the road.

Albion again played without their Fr. C  Jake Robison, making the score even a little more puzzling.

-------------------

One other conclusion I drew tonight on the drive home..........all four teams that we expect to seriously challenge for the title (Hope, Calvin, Albion, Olivet) have shown an ability to step up and play a great game at times, but have also shown a strange ability to put a real clunker effort out there.  Consistently inconsistent maybe?


Albion and Kzoo (yes Kzoo) are effectively a game up on everyone now with their road wins tonight.

Already a must win for Olivet Saturday at Calvin.........nothing new to them as they dropped last season's league home opener as well, in fact went just 2-5 at Cutler.

I still don't know what to make of Adrian.

Saturday, January 9
Albion at Trine, 3 p.m.
Adrian at Kalamazoo, 7:30 p.m.
Alma at Hope, 3 p.m.
Olivet at Calvin, 3 p.m.

[calvin66]

Good game by Calvin.  They needed the win on their home court.  I predict Hope wins in Holland and then the big game comes in the MIAA tournament, which would be a toss up.  The other teams in the MIAA, forget them.

[Knight In The Stan]

Is there any where on line that I can watch last nights game? I went to WGVU's website and I couldnt find anything that would allow me to watch it. If someone could help me that would be great.

[ziggy]

Interesting experiment from Michael Zuidema:
http://www.mlive.com/smallcolleges/grandrapids/index.ssf/2010/01/this_hope_grads_experiment_in.html

[KnightSlappy]

One other conclusion I drew tonight on the drive home..........all four teams that we expect to seriously challenge for the title (Hope, Calvin, Albion, Olivet) have shown an ability to step up and play a great game at times, but have also shown a strange ability to put a real clunker effort out there.  Consistently inconsistent maybe?

How many times has Olivet seriously put together a great game this year? I think we've been giving the Comets far more credit than they have deserved to this point. Sure they're a good team, and they'll likely finish in the top half, but are they really serious challengers in the league?

[sac]

One other conclusion I drew tonight on the drive home..........all four teams that we expect to seriously challenge for the title (Hope, Calvin, Albion, Olivet) have shown an ability to step up and play a great game at times, but have also shown a strange ability to put a real clunker effort out there.  Consistently inconsistent maybe?

How many times has Olivet seriously put together a great game this year? I think we've been giving the Comets far more credit than they have deserved to this point. Sure they're a good team, and they'll likely finish in the top half, but are they really serious challengers in the league?

Olivet beat Spring Arbor, the Cougars handled both Hope and Albion pretty easily.  Olivet was within 3 of GVSU with 3 minutes to play.

[ziggy]

One other conclusion I drew tonight on the drive home..........all four teams that we expect to seriously challenge for the title (Hope, Calvin, Albion, Olivet) have shown an ability to step up and play a great game at times, but have also shown a strange ability to put a real clunker effort out there.  Consistently inconsistent maybe?

How many times has Olivet seriously put together a great game this year? I think we've been giving the Comets far more credit than they have deserved to this point. Sure they're a good team, and they'll likely finish in the top half, but are they really serious challengers in the league?

Olivet beat Spring Arbor, the Cougars handled both Hope and Calvin pretty easily.  Olivet was within 3 of GVSU with 3 minutes to play.

Calvin didn't play Spring Arbor this year. They played last year with Calvin winning 71-61.

[Knightmare]

3.5+ hours and counting.  28 folks have entered their picks, and the numbers are rather interesting

Team -- Picks

Trine -- 8
Adrian -- 20

Kalamazoo -- 0
Alma -- 28

Albion -- 10
Olivet -- 18

Hope -- 13
Calvin -- 15

Not sure if Alma has ever been a unanimous favorite by the pickers, or if Olivet has been picked over Albion by nearly 2/1.

Looks like it may be an interesting year for pick 'em, especially when it comes to confidence points.

KZoo must have taken a look at the MIAA pick-em board and pinned it to their bulletin board in pre-game for motivation.  Not one single vote for them, and on the other hand it has been reconfirmed why Alma never has been before, and may never be again, an unanimous pick to win against someone  .

[sac]

One other conclusion I drew tonight on the drive home..........all four teams that we expect to seriously challenge for the title (Hope, Calvin, Albion, Olivet) have shown an ability to step up and play a great game at times, but have also shown a strange ability to put a real clunker effort out there.  Consistently inconsistent maybe?

How many times has Olivet seriously put together a great game this year? I think we've been giving the Comets far more credit than they have deserved to this point. Sure they're a good team, and they'll likely finish in the top half, but are they really serious challengers in the league?

Olivet beat Spring Arbor, the Cougars handled both Hope and Calvin pretty easily.  Olivet was within 3 of GVSU with 3 minutes to play.

Calvin didn't play Spring Arbor this year. They played last year with Calvin winning 71-61.

mistype, meant Albion

[ziggy]

KZoo must have taken a look at the MIAA pick-em board and pinned it to their bulletin board in pre-game for motivation.  Not one single vote for them, and on the other hand it has been reconfirmed why Alma never has been before, and may never be again, an unanimous pick to win against someone  .

What's the old quote? If you want to be the worst you have to lose to the worst?

[ziggy]

mistype, meant Albion

Ah, got it. That makes sense based on Albion's 20 point loss to Spring Arbor. Just shows how dangerous it can be to predict an outcome based on common opponents although I'd be lying if I said I picked Albion over Olivet based on anything more than track record.