MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

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Brent Musberger looking live from Van Noord Arena

Calvin has looked very good in the first half.  Several good interior passes.  Adrian has not put up a lot of resistance.  Schuster has been excellent off the bench.  JM could have had a huge scoring half if he was shooting free throws better today. I'm encouraged by what I see today.

I'd like to think that this is more than just one good game. We'll see if something has truly clicked but I'm quite happy with the start to the conference season.

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Things getting dicey for both the Dutchmen and Knights in the final minutes

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Things getting dicey for both the Dutchmen and Knights in the final minutes

The box scores suggest amazingly similar games.

Credit Adrian for picking up their intensity when Calvin went into clock-milk-mode. KVS clearly not happy with some of the officiating around the 5:15 mark.

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FINAL  Hope 79  Kalamazoo 63

Hope: Bunn 12, Krombeen 11, Bowser 10, Venema 9,

Kzoo:  Prepolec 24, Stewart 17

Kalamazoo made a late run in the final 10 minutes before Hope put it away in the final few minutes.  Cut it to 7 once.

30 points off the bench for the Dutchmen

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Olivet has fought back to lead Trine by 3 with 26 seconds left.....Trine ball

http://www.olivetcollege.edu/athletics/livestats/mbasketball/xplays2.htm

Wes Weir's 3 is blocked by Joe Post,


Olivet 85 Trine 80

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Calvin 68 Adrian 61

Calvin:  Schuster 12, Snikkers 11, Veltema 11, Mantel 11......if thats correct Mantel had 0 2nd half points

Adrian: Reed 17, Mosley 12, Kopicki 10

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Olivet 85 Trine 80

Olivet:  McClary 23, Evans 17, Edsall 15, Clark 10

Trine: Rogers 30, Weir 15, Tab McNally 10

[Hopecouple]

"Things getting dicey for both the Dutchmen and Knights in the final minutes"

Nice to see the bench play.... they contributed

but once again I see.... oh yah were winning by a ton.  No big deal.

ohhhh no there closing in at 8 points

better put the cold first string in again to hopefully pull us though the next 5 min.

over and over year after year.

I do recall one time just barley winning at an away game because this happened... can anyone tell me where?

[hope1]

i thought  hope played pretty good  andy played pretty good with nate going to the bench  a big  game wed for hope at albion

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Albion 81 Alma 53

Albion: Bridges 15, Hutton 14, Kazan 10, Cruse 9

Alma: Ginther 17, Erickson 14

Albion was 13-23 from behind the arc.

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Standings  + for road win/ - for home loss

Albion 4-0     +3
Calvin 4-0      +1
Kzoo 2-2      +1
Adrian 2-2      0
Olivet 2-2      0
Hope 2-2       -1
Alma 0-4       -2
Trine 0-4       -2

Next weeks games........big week for the Albion Britons

Wednesday, January 20
Trine at Alma, 7:30 p.m.
Calvin at Kalamazoo, 7:30 p.m.
Hope at Albion, 7:30 p.m.
Olivet at Adrian, 7:30 p.m.

Saturday, January 23
Kalamazoo at Trine, 3 p.m.
Alma at Olivet, 3 p.m.
Albion at Calvin, 7:30 p.m.
Adrian at Hope, 3 p.m.

[oldknight]

I thought Calvin played 33 minutes of pretty nice basketball Saturday afternoon until a combination of turnovers, missed puppies, miserable free throw shooting (18-33), some Adrian deep threes, and a couple of swallowed whistles stalled the Knights' offense. For the most part Calvin played well on the defensive end, forcing the Bulldogs into several hurried shots that never caught iron. It's been a while since I last observed that many bricks hit nothing but the backboard. It's hard to believe Mantel was credited with taking only 4 shots from the field in 29 minutes of play, but Adrian was whistled for fouling John 6 times while he was taking shots. Mantel has now taken exactly the same number of free throws in 15 games as he took all of last season in 27. 

Entering VanNoord I was most curious to see how well Mark White's magic at Detroit Renaissance High School would translate at Adrian. I came away impressed. I saw White led prep squads play very well but he had a bundle of talent to play with too (Joe Crawford, Malik Harrison, Tajuan Porter, among others). His Bulldog squad didn't always play well but they competed hard for the full 40 and never let the score of the game dictate their competitiveness. White appears to be an excellent bench coach and if Adrian can keep him at his alma mater for 8-10 years I expect his clubs will do some damage in the MIAA--especially since it seems he is attracting some highly athletic kids to his program.

[almcguirejr]

Calvin was up by 21 (50-29) at the 14:05 mark.  Adrian then outscored Calvin 24-9 over the next 10 minutes or so.  Calvin looked sharp early and then their play became pretty ragged and never did really get it back.  They hung on at the end. Adrian forced a turnover with about 3 minutes to go and missed a wide open layup that would have cut the lead to 4.  Danny Rodts hit a huge 3 on the next possession to put the lead to 9.  I thought that was a huge break.  Adrian had rattled Calvin's confidence and that 3 brought a lot of breathing room.

[Happy Calvin Guy]

Some thoughts from Van Noord today:

--Again we saw the importance of free throw shooting.  This game should have been a blowout if the Knights could hit free throws like they have recently.
--I think officials dislike seeing a big differential in team fouls.  Calvin was playing fantastic position defense, contesting shots with hands straight up, etc, and as a result had very few team fouls midway through both halves.  (1 or 2 in each half at that point).  Adrian wasn't hacking, but they did have ~5 or 6 team fouls at that point.  All of a sudden it seemed like the refs swallowed their whistles when the Knights had the ball, as if they didn't want to see one team in the bonus and the other at only one team foul.  I say, stop being worried about perceptions, and actually call a foul a foul.  If one team is simply fouling more, they deserve to have more called on them, and conversely if one team is playing very clean defense, why shouldn't they be able to get through a game with very few fouls called on them?  
--It would have been interesting to be a fly on the wall in the Adrian locker room at halftime.  They didn't emerge onto the court until the horn went off to start the second half, so they got zero warm up shots.  I can only assume the coach had plenty to say, and if the message was don't give up, the players listened.  They showed great heart to come back from 20 down in the second half and rip off a 14-0 run to get back in it.
--Huge 3 ball from Danny Rodts to stop that 14-0 run and get Calvin back on track with a 9 point lead.  Supposedly he hurt his knee in practice yesterday and definitely showed grit today by playing and hitting that clutch trey from the corner.
--Tom Snikkers fills up the stat sheet again, leading the team in rebounds and assists, and nearly scoring as well.  Also an emphatic blocked shot spiked into the front row.
--As discussed earlier on this board, John Mantel pulled a "Bill Russell" with a blocked shot tipped to himself, rather than spike it out of bounds.  He worked hard today down low against Matt Wayne & Co. Unfortunately an early embarrassing free throw attempt seemed to have stuck in his mind all day and he struggled from the line throughout the game.
--There was some discussion and criticism about KVS's defensive "system" recently on this board.  I think the players are buying into it and executing well.  The denying/fronting defense is working better due to better talking and communication between the players.  Brad Schnyders is one of the quickest and fastest 6'6" guys I've ever seen in the MIAA and except for one time he let his man get inside him for a layup, his defense today was lockdown.  
--I think we got a glimpse of what Brent Schuster can be.  He has a pretty shot.  Even his free throws are high arcing things of beauty.   If he can add some bulk to bang with bigs down low, he could be a great starting center next season.  
--What is the deal with Michael Staley's playing time?  I thought that he was one of the best players in the MIAA that I saw last year and figured he'd be an all-MIAA first team candidate this year.  Today he came off the bench and saw 10 minutes of playing time.  I think he is underutilized.  
--Need a quiet place to study during interim?  How bout the Calvin student section during a game.  Come on students, this is a good team and a fun team to watch.  Get out to this great arena and make some noise for both the men's and women's teams this year.  
--Overall, except for a few minutes in the second half, great game by the Knights today.  Happy to be 4-0.  I've been impressed recently.  Kudos to Adrian for a great comeback and making the game tight late, I like what I see from their coach.  He coaches with energy and conducts himself with class.  
--Need to get ready for Kzoo on Wed and not take it lightly like last year.   Go Knights!

[oldknight]

--Huge 3 ball from Danny Rodts to stop that 14-0 run and get Calvin back on track with a 9 point lead.  Supposedly he hurt his knee in practice yesterday and definitely showed grit today by playing and hitting that clutch trey from the corner.
--Tom Snikkers fills up the stat sheet again, leading the team in rebounds and assists, and nearly scoring as well.  Also an emphatic blocked shot spiked into the front row.

That was a big trifecta and it was set up by beautiful dribble penetration and kick-out pass by Snikkers to a wide open Rodts.