MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[Flying Dutch Fan]

Please pardon this presumptuous question, but who would host the MIAA tournament if Calvin loses to Hope and Albion but finished 12-2 assuming Albion runs the table and also finishes 12-2?

If you assume Albion runs the table that means they would beat Hope, giving Hope 3 losses, leaving Albion and Calvin tied................you go down the standings until the tie is broken........under this scenario we dust off the MIAA Tournament hosting coin and flip.

If Hope were to run the table and tie with Calvin at 12-2, again assuming Calvin's two losses come at Albion and Hope, Hope would win the tiebreaker if Albion finished ahead of Olivet in the standings because Hope would have 2 wins over Albion...........Calvin would win the tiebreaker if Olivet finished ahead of Albion because Calvin would have 2 wins over Olivet.

Hope and Albion are not likely to run the table..........and  Calvin still has 4 road games @ Hope, @ Adrian, @ Olivet, @ Albion........those will all be tough wins.

8 games left in the season seems early to be worrying about tiebreakers

All very true, but I love the fact that Calvin fans hear footsteps coming.  It is kind of hard sneaking up on someone in wooden shoes   

[northb]

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?

about 10-12 more

I agree, every time I see Albion play they basically dare the refs to foul out every one of their players in the first half.  In order to avoid making a mockery of the game, the refs have all kinds of rough stuff go.  This style of play comes back to bite them when they give up 20 points on free throws in the final 7 and a half minutes to lose the game.  I love to see it go down that way--I don't believe it's "aggressive" defense, I think it's borderline dirty, and good basketball prevailed tonight.

From the 7:39 mark, over the next four minutes, Calvin went on a 16-2 run to turn the score around and put the game away.  Albion was worn out and Calvin's bench depth showed through.

[GoKnights68]

A couple things to add:

Northb and Oldknight mentioned it already I believe, but Calvin's depth advantage really came through in the end.

Calvin had a huge height advantage, but Albion did an excellent job at not letting the Knights get in good post-up position for an easy bucket ( at least for a majority of the game). 

In the post-game show,  I was glad to see that KVS immediately talked about his disappointment in the large number of turnovers his team committed in the game.  I think too many times a Calvin player would drive to the basket, realize the line was clogged, and then turn it over.



Calvin still has to play at Albion and at Hope, which are two toss-up games, imo, that could end up resulting on the losing side, so a lot of season left to play.

If Calvin takes care of business against Alma, I believe this will be the first time since 2000 that Calvin swept that first half of the MIAA regular season?

[northb]

If Calvin takes care of business against Alma, I believe this will be the first time since 2000 that Calvin swept that first half of the MIAA regular season?

They went a ways that year, didn't they? 

[gobrits]

As a bald guy, I generally support people of the bald persuasion. But that ref last night was an embarrassment. It made me want to buy a toupee.

And yes, the bad calls did go both ways. But more of them went against Albion.

[CalKnight60]

As a bald guy, I generally support people of the bald persuasion. But that ref last night was an embarrassment. It made me want to buy a toupee.

And yes, the bad calls did go both ways. But more of them went against Albion.

Actually I think, other than the horrible technical, Albion was very fortunate to have the officiating go the way it did.  I respect hard tough defense played by moving your feet and putting enough preperation into getting stronger so that you can hold your own.  However, it is hard to respect the defense that Albion sometimes plays where they use there hands WAY to much and don't move their feet near enough.  Good examples of this would be the Albion guards constantly hand checking Calvin players in order to not get beat, or Albion post players simply holding onto Mante's arms in the post. 

[wwjjdd]

Kudos to Ty Tanis for stepping in and playing extremely well - best I've seen him play since his freshman year. 

Perhaps this could be called the "raising of the 'TyTanis?"

[northb]

Kudos to Ty Tanis for stepping in and playing extremely well - best I've seen him play since his freshman year. 

Perhaps this could be called the "raising of the 'TyTanis?"

I would like to enter the above post into the running for the Supersweetness Hall of Fame for POY (Pun of the Year). 

wwjjdd=+k

[oldknight]

As a bald guy, I generally support people of the bald persuasion. But that ref last night was an embarrassment. It made me want to buy a toupee.

And yes, the bad calls did go both ways. But more of them went against Albion.

Actually I think, other than the horrible technical, Albion was very fortunate to have the officiating go the way it did.  I respect hard tough defense played by moving your feet and putting enough preperation into getting stronger so that you can hold your own.  However, it is hard to respect the defense that Albion sometimes plays where they use there hands WAY to much and don't move their feet near enough.  Good examples of this would be the Albion guards constantly hand checking Calvin players in order to not get beat, or Albion post players simply holding onto Mante's arms in the post. 

I agree that for 30 minutes the officiating style greatly benefited Albion's hyper-aggressive defensive approach. But I respect Albion for taking advantage of the fact that the refs were willing to swallow their whistles because the Brits were simply taking advantage of the opportunities that gave their defenders. More than once I thought they were on the edge of mentally wearing out Calvin but about the mid point of the second half things changed. Others have noticed that Albion seemed to ever so slightly show some fatigue. Briton defenders started to arrive just a hair late to their defensive assignments. It wasn't much of a difference, but it was just enough to free Veltema and Rodts to hit some huge threes. Albion also seemed to allow a bit more dribble penetration leading to blocking fouls caused by an out of position defender. Of the 29 fouls called on Albion, there was only one that made me think Calvin may have gotten the better of the call. Calvin did make 21 turnovers but 3 of those were offensive fouls of dubious quality (one on Snikkers and two on Veltema). Of the remaining 18, several were created as a direct result of Albion pressure that another officiating crew would have whistled. Calvin survived because they kept themselves in the game long enough that when things finally started to turn around they were close enough to take advantage. I don't know if KVS told his kids how proud he was of them but he should have.

[ziggy]

As a bald guy, I generally support people of the bald persuasion. But that ref last night was an embarrassment. It made me want to buy a toupee.

And yes, the bad calls did go both ways. But more of them went against Albion.

Perhaps, but the bulk of the bad no-calls went against Calvin.

[northb]

As a bald guy, I generally support people of the bald persuasion. But that ref last night was an embarrassment. It made me want to buy a toupee.

And yes, the bad calls did go both ways. But more of them went against Albion.

Actually I think, other than the horrible technical, Albion was very fortunate to have the officiating go the way it did.  I respect hard tough defense played by moving your feet and putting enough preperation into getting stronger so that you can hold your own.  However, it is hard to respect the defense that Albion sometimes plays where they use there hands WAY to much and don't move their feet near enough.  Good examples of this would be the Albion guards constantly hand checking Calvin players in order to not get beat, or Albion post players simply holding onto Mante's arms in the post. 

I agree that for 30 minutes the officiating style greatly benefited Albion's hyper-aggressive defensive approach. But I respect Albion for taking advantage of the fact that the refs were willing to swallow their whistles because the Brits were simply taking advantage of the opportunities that gave their defenders. More than once I thought they were on the edge of mentally wearing out Calvin but about the mid point of the second half things changed. Others have noticed that Albion seemed to ever so slightly show some fatigue. Briton defenders started to arrive just a hair late to their defensive assignments. It wasn't much of a difference, but it was just enough to free Veltema and Rodts to hit some huge threes. Albion also seemed to allow a bit more dribble penetration leading to blocking fouls caused by an out of position defender. Of the 29 fouls called on Albion, there was only one that made me think Calvin may have gotten the better of the call. Calvin did make 21 turnovers but 3 of those were offensive fouls of dubious quality (one on Snikkers and two on Veltema). Of the remaining 18, several were created as a direct result of Albion pressure that another officiating crew would have whistled. Calvin survived because they kept themselves in the game long enough that when things finally started to turn around they were close enough to take advantage. I don't know if KVS told his kids how proud he was of them but he should have.

If I were KVS (which I am not), that certainly would have been my game plan.

[Flying Dutch Fan]

Belated congrats to GVW on reaching the 650 win mark on Saturday.  His career coaching numbers (all at Hope) are:

650-217   0.750


In looking at the records of Hope's coaches over the years, I found it quite amazing that every Hope coach has a record of .500 or better.

[Knight81]

Please pardon this presumptuous question, but who would host the MIAA tournament if Calvin loses to Hope and Albion but finished 12-2 assuming Albion runs the table and also finishes 12-2?

If you assume Albion runs the table that means they would beat Hope, giving Hope 3 losses, leaving Albion and Calvin tied................you go down the standings until the tie is broken........under this scenario we dust off the MIAA Tournament hosting coin and flip.

If Hope were to run the table and tie with Calvin at 12-2, again assuming Calvin's two losses come at Albion and Hope, Hope would win the tiebreaker if Albion finished ahead of Olivet in the standings because Hope would have 2 wins over Albion...........Calvin would win the tiebreaker if Olivet finished ahead of Albion because Calvin would have 2 wins over Olivet.

Hope and Albion are not likely to run the table..........and  Calvin still has 4 road games @ Hope, @ Adrian, @ Olivet, @ Albion........those will all be tough wins.

8 games left in the season seems early to be worrying about tiebreakers

All very true, but I love the fact that Calvin fans hear footsteps coming.  It is kind of hard sneaking up on someone in wooden shoes   

Well, as a Calvin fan, I DO hear footsteps coming. Calvin's 2 game lead in the standings was built on a favorable early home schedule. There's a good chance Calvin will lose at Hope and Albion, and maybe at Olivet. Hope already has a good road win at Albion. The race will certainly tighten up.

[Flying Dutch Fan]

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.

Based on the stats available in MIAA archives (league leaders - for MIAA games only goes back to the 1996-1997 season), he's a shoe in for the top 10 since 1996.  In fact he's 14th on that list after last year. 

Here are the top 20 from the 96-97 to 08-09 seasons (MIAA games only)

Rank	Name	Team	Blocks
1	Don Overbeek	Hope	123
2	Kris Merritt	Hope	76
3	Jeremy Hyler	Alma	73
4	Travis DePree	Albion	68
5	De'Andre Pruitt	Olivet	59
6	Josh Meckes	Calvin	57
7	Eric Voisin	Hope	52
8	Jeremy Veenstra	Calvin	51
9	Mat Kellogg	Kalamazoo	49
10	Andrew Neidlinger	Albion	47
11	Chad Kahle	Defiance	47
12	Tony Wichmann	Kalamazoo	44
13	Ian Weber	Adrian	43
14	Michael McClary	Olivet	43
15	Josh Tubergen	Calvin	42
16	Sam Machuta	Alma	40
17	Steve Thornton	Adrian	39
18	John Mantel	Calvin	38
19	Rob Taylor	Alma	34
20	Kevin Baird	Kalamazoo	33

[KnightSlappy]

Well, as a Calvin fan, I DO hear footsteps coming. Calvin's 2 game lead in the standings was built on a favorable early home schedule. There's a good chance Calvin will lose at Hope and Albion, and maybe at Olivet. Hope already has a good road win at Albion. The race will certainly tighten up.

The game in Holland will certainly be a big one for the MIAA race. If Calvin wins, they'll have a really hard time not winning the league. If Hope wins, things could begin to get quite tight.

Hope and Calvin are the only teams I can see running the table the rest of the way in MIAA play.

All very true, but I love the fact that Calvin fans hear footsteps coming.  It is kind of hard sneaking up on someone in wooden shoes   

It's also hard to sneak up on someone when you lose to Olivet at home...