MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[sac]

Calvin 80  Albion 70

Calvin: Veltema 21, Mantel 16, Rodts 16

Albion:  Hutton 17, Cruse 16, Kazen 15

Big win for Calvin, now with a 2 game lead in the standings.

Two games in row Albion's loss margin can be found at the strip, and both times they barely made 50% from the FT line  9-17 Wed, outscored by 10 lost by 7............12-24 tonight, outscored by 25 and lost by 10.

[sac]

Standings  + for road win/ - for home loss

Calvin 6-0      +2
Albion 4-2     +2
Hope 4-2       0
Adrian 3-3      0
Olivet 3-3      0
Kzoo 2-4       0
Trine 2-4       -1
Alma 0-6       -3

Next weeks games

Wednesday, January 27
Hope at Trine, 7:30 p.m.
Olivet at Kalamazoo, 7:30 p.m.
Calvin at Alma, 7:30 p.m.
Albion at Adrian, 7:30 p.m.

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

[wiz]

Tough victory for the Knights as games with the Brits are always rugged affairs.  Albion made some good outside shots in the first half while the legs were fresh but they lack a solid inside presence and were out rebounded 36-24.

I am a Calvin fan and agree with the comment about our homer announcer.  Should leave the color commentator job to the radio guys.

Regarding Mantel, he actually stands 8" behind the line, not two feet, and doesn't appear to need to make any adjustments as of late.  He's putting them in.

And since my favorite team won, please allow me to make the statement, so there will be no thought of sour grapes.  The officiating crew was horrible.  That bald guy has got to go.  Technical on May was rediculous.  He was chewing out his own player for a stupid foul and the ref gave coach the T.  Oh yeah, it was the bald guy again.  And the other two were two dumb to over turn it.

[Dark Knight]

How can a team shoot so well from behind the arc and so poorly from the free throw line??

The T was a bad call, but the officiating was bad all around. Calvin had 21 turnovers, which is too many, but some of them should have been fouls. The refs just couldn't call them fast enough.

[sac]

How can a team shoot so well from behind the arc and so poorly from the free throw line??

The T was a bad call, but the officiating was bad all around. Calvin had 21 turnovers, which is too many, but some of them should have been fouls. The refs just couldn't call them fast enough.

They called 29 fouls on Albion......how many more do you want?

[Dark Knight]

How can a team shoot so well from behind the arc and so poorly from the free throw line??

The T was a bad call, but the officiating was bad all around. Calvin had 21 turnovers, which is too many, but some of them should have been fouls. The refs just couldn't call them fast enough.

They called 29 fouls on Albion......how many more do you want?

All of them.

[arena]

How can a team shoot so well from behind the arc and so poorly from the free throw line??

The T was a bad call, but the officiating was bad all around. Calvin had 21 turnovers, which is too many, but some of them should have been fouls. The refs just couldn't call them fast enough.

They called 29 fouls on Albion......how many more do you want?

All of them.

Correct.

[Intangir]

That was the most physical game I've seen in a long time.  I don't think the final score quite lets on how close and tense that game was - Albion was leading for 4/5 of the game with at times a 10-12 point lead and was playing just a totally stifling defense, especially the in the first half.  They had a ton of big threes as well, though as mentioned they could have used a few more down the stretch as Calvin finally battled back and pulled ahead.  All credit to them for a seriously hard fought game though.

Agree with the above posters about free throws being the difference, Calvin could hardly miss tonight and shot loads of them, I think they were in to double bonus with at least 10 minutes left in the game.  As mentioned, had Albion made a few more of those as well they probably would been able to keep their lead just long enough.  

Hard to say about the refs, it was clear neither team was happy with them, though in a game with almost 50 fouls and 3 players fouling out, that's probably not surprising.  It was a seriously physical (and emotional) game, particularly from Albion, and considering how many fouls were called I'm not quite sure what else could have been done.  

Lots of credit to Calvin as well for all the clutch free throws and for continuing to battle the entire game and not getting discouraged by Albion's fantastic defense.

[wiz]

How can a team shoot so well from behind the arc and so poorly from the free throw line??

The T was a bad call, but the officiating was bad all around. Calvin had 21 turnovers, which is too many, but some of them should have been fouls. The refs just couldn't call them fast enough.

They called 29 fouls on Albion......how many more do you want?

The 29 fouls was more than fair to Albion.  The refs gave the Brits 9 that they didn't deserve but at the same time they missed 17.  So I think it should have been 37 fouls.

[sac]

How can a team shoot so well from behind the arc and so poorly from the free throw line??

Albion does a great job of getting their 3 point shooters open.  Tonight I noticed several times when Albion drove the lane there were 2 sometimes 3 Calvin defenders waiting, which left at least 1 wide open option for 3.  For most of the game Albion capitalized, that can explain maybe some of Albion's 3 point prowess, they are just good shooters getting wide open looks.

I wouldn't at all be surprised to hear Calvin's defensive adjustment around the 10 minute mark of the 2nd was to try and extend the defense and make Albion go inside, which they simply couldn't do.  Albion was 1 for its last 10 3's all in the final 10 minutes, while they more than doubled their 2 point production in that same time frame.

I can't explain the poor ft shooting, it shouldn't be that hard to be at least average.........but then average means someone has to be below it and thats Albion right now.

JC Cruse isn't a good FT shooter, so that explains his 4-8 which is right around his 55% average.  However Chris Hutton was an 88% FT shooter and made just 1-4.  Stasiak also a reliable FT shooter went 0-2.

Albion is now just barely above 60% in MIAA play......60.9%

[Dark Knight]

It looked as though Calvin was playing a zone that let Albion get all of those open threes. That seemed an interesting choice, when Albion is a great three-point shooting team and has little inside presence. But second-half adjustments seemed to turn things around.

[wiz]

How can a team shoot so well from behind the arc and so poorly from the free throw line??

Albion does a great job of getting their 3 point shooters open.  Tonight I noticed several times when Albion drove the lane there were 2 sometimes 3 Calvin defenders waiting, which left at least 1 wide open option for 3.  For most of the game Albion capitalized, that can explain maybe some of Albion's 3 point prowess, they are just good shooters getting wide open looks.

I noticed the same thing in the game against Hope.  The would penetrate and then kcik out for the open three.  But, in that game they only made 4-13.

[sac]

This was passed on to me.........

Michael McClary became Olivet's leading shotblocker today with 111.  The MIAA doesn't keep a list for that record, but I would think he'd be near the top 10 by next season if there was one.

He needs just 45 points to become Olivet's 13th 1,000 point scorer.

[almcguirejr]

That bald guy has got to go.  Technical on May was rediculous.  He was chewing out his own player for a stupid foul and the ref gave coach the T.  Oh yeah, it was the bald guy again.  And the other two were two dumb to over turn it.

He quickly made up for his error by calling an offensive foul on Veltema on Calvin's next possession.   

[calvinite]

...or even the next two offensive fouls on Veltema -- both pretty questionable -- but I don't remember if the bald guy made the second call on Veltema -- just seems like it because he seemed to be making all kinds of bad calls