MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[sac]

Trine's first two games were with familiar Calvin foes, Wheaton and Ohio Northern.......a 15 point loss and an 8 point loss.

They've lost to every good team they've played and haven't been run out of the gym by anyone really (at least final margin wise, Albion had them down 24)......but they have beaten no one.  The combined record of their wins is 23-63 .363 and seven of those wins have come from North Park whose seven wins are even weaker I think.

I have Trine in the Adrian category, not sure what to make of them.

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Olivet and Hope have 6 common opponents with very mixed results(Aquinas, Madonna, Davenport, Spring Arbor, Ohio Dominican and Calvin).   Both lost to Aquinas, both beat Madonna.  Hope has beaten Davenport and Calvin, Olivet beat Spring Arbor and Ohio Dominican.  This has all the makings of a toss up kind of game.

Olivet hasn't had much reason to enjoy their trips to Tulip Town.......they've lost all 4 games they've played at DeVos by 14, 29, 28 and 28 points.

[realist]

Calvin generally tries to schedule it's Christmas break trip to an area of the country where they have an Alumni presence.  They have gone West to CA., WA, CO, and now AZ.  Also a fair number of people who support Calvin winter in the Pheonix area.   Several years ago Calvin went east, and has a group of fans/alumni in NJ, and greater NYC area.  

At one point I had Olivet at Hope as my upset pick of the year, but after seeing what happened with Olivet at Calvin I dropped that idea.  I fully expect Olivet to trip up either Calvin or Hope, but that is going to happen on their floor.

[Flying Dutch Fan]

At one point I had Olivet at Hope as my upset pick of the year, but after seeing what happened with Olivet at Calvin I dropped that idea.  I fully expect Olivet to trip up either Calvin or Hope, but that is going to happen on their floor.

Interesting, considering Olivet went 3-5 against the MIAA at home last year, and are 7-9 at home since opening their new gym.

[realist]

At one point I had Olivet at Hope as my upset pick of the year, but after seeing what happened with Olivet at Calvin I dropped that idea.  I fully expect Olivet to trip up either Calvin or Hope, but that is going to happen on their floor.

Interesting, considering Olivet went 3-5 against the MIAA at home last year, and are 7-9 at home since opening their new gym.

Calvin plays Olivet at their place on Wed. Feb.  3rd.  This is the Wed. after the Rivalry game in Holland.  Hope plays at Alma that eve., and gets Olivet on Sat. 6th at their place.  Granted Olivet has not done a great job establsihing dominance on their new floor, but than neither has Calvin.  However, I do feel Olivet has enough talent that should Hope or Calvin come in tired, happy, complacent etc. they could easily leave with an L.

[Flying Dutch Fan]

At one point I had Olivet at Hope as my upset pick of the year, but after seeing what happened with Olivet at Calvin I dropped that idea.  I fully expect Olivet to trip up either Calvin or Hope, but that is going to happen on their floor.

Interesting, considering Olivet went 3-5 against the MIAA at home last year, and are 7-9 at home since opening their new gym.

Calvin plays Olivet at their place on Wed. Feb.  3rd.  This is the Wed. after the Rivalry game in Holland.  Hope plays at Alma that eve., and gets Olivet on Sat. 6th at their place.  Granted Olivet has not done a great job establsihing dominance on their new floor, but than neither has Calvin.  However, I do feel Olivet has enough talent that should Hope or Calvin come in tired, happy, complacent etc. they could easily leave with an L.

Good points - not sure about knight fans, but I know the Hope faithful are always a little worried about a "rivalry hangover" 

[realist]

At one point I had Olivet at Hope as my upset pick of the year, but after seeing what happened with Olivet at Calvin I dropped that idea.  I fully expect Olivet to trip up either Calvin or Hope, but that is going to happen on their floor.

Interesting, considering Olivet went 3-5 against the MIAA at home last year, and are 7-9 at home since opening their new gym.

Calvin plays Olivet at their place on Wed. Feb.  3rd.  This is the Wed. after the Rivalry game in Holland.  Hope plays at Alma that eve., and gets Olivet on Sat. 6th at their place.  Granted Olivet has not done a great job establsihing dominance on their new floor, but than neither has Calvin.  However, I do feel Olivet has enough talent that should Hope or Calvin come in tired, happy, complacent etc. they could easily leave with an L.

Good points - not sure about knight fans, but I know the Hope faithful are always a little worried about a "rivalry hangover" 

Having been granted authority to speak for only one Calvin fan I am  concerned with a let down more after a Wed. win than a Sat. win.   I was very apprehensive going into the game with Olivet last Sat., and sure enough my fears were well founded as Calvin went down by 13 early.   IMHO the seeds for Calvin pulling that game out last Sat. were planted in the overtime win versus ONU Dec. 29th.  With Sunday being an "off" day, and then back to class routine on Monday the effects of a Sat game seem to be smaller than Wed to Sat. 

[sac]

Its been a tight one at Albion

http://www2.albion.edu/sports/stats/xlive.htm

[sac]

Any update from Angola, no audio or livestats here

[calvinite]

Calvin up 79-64 with a minute left

[oldknight]

Knights with a solid win 81-66. Snikkers with 18, Veltema 15, and Mantel with 17--including 9-10 from the stripe. Keep hacking him boys!

Olivet leads Hope 63-58 with 3:10 left.

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Albion 64 Kalamazoo 55

Hutton 13 , Cruse 10  , Bridges 11 for  Albion

Joe Prepolec with 27 for the Hornets

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Olivet 67  Hope 64

Big road win for the Comets.  Hope got its tail whipped for about 20 minutes losing an 8 point lead to 14 point deficit.  A deficit that turned out to be a little too much to overcome.  Hope made the final minutes exciting, and Olivet hit a couple big shots in the final possessions, none bigger than Andre Evans 3 with 2 min to go to put the Comets back up 7.   Hope missed a 3 by Peter Bunn at the buzzer to tie

Olivet:  McClary 22, Evans 16, Jennings 15

Hope:  Bunn 16, Nelis 14, Mysliwiec 13

[sac]

Adrian 78 Alma 60

Adrian:  Ramsey 13, Reed 12, Mosley 11

Alma: Erickson 13, Weiss 10, Ginther 10

.......Adrian knocked down 10 treys in the game.

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Standings  + for road win/ - for home loss

Albion 3-0     +2
Calvin 3-0      +1
Kzoo 2-1      +1
Adrian 2-1      0
Olivet 1-2      0
Hope 1-2       -1
Alma 0-3       -1
Trine 0-3       -2

Saturday's action

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

[Happy Calvin Guy]

Despite what the numbers say this year, I wouldn't characterize Mantel as a poor free throw shooter.

zig:  The proof is in the putting.   

Big John hits his first nine from the stripe tonight.  Then misses one in the final two minutes to give the naysayers something to talk about this week.

Reading the play by play, looks like Calvin got its first non-Mantel dunk (that I'm aware of) tonight.....Snikkers throws down two of his game high 18.  Great game for the Knights, amazing to be two games up on both Hope and Olivet at this point of the league season.