MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[Happy Calvin Guy]

I noticed Olivet's JV team is also getting thin.  I counted a total of seven players.  Late in the game one got hurt and one fouled out.  That leaves no substitutes.  So what happens when another player gets 5 fouls and there is nobody left to put in?

I just looked at the Olivet site and their JV team is down to six players, one of which is a senior and two others are also listed on the varsity roster.  If there are any students at Olivet that want to fulfill a childhood dream of playing college sports, they may want to be in contact with the coaching staff.

[almcguirejr]

Calvin cannot use youth and inexperience as an excuse against Adrian tomorrow.  Adrian has 1 senior and only 2 juniors on the team.  Mark White has done a great job there in the last 2 years.

[gobrits]

Olivet's outside shooting will suffer. Joe Post is a good player — he has 11 more assists than Evans this year — but he's not nearly the outside shooter Evans is. He's made only 2 of 19 3-point attempts this year compared to Evans' 24 of 74. Eric Mack, a very active player who looked good coming off the bench against Albion and apparently will be the fifth starter, also has only 2 three-pointers.

[Erm Schmigget]

Last year, Evans took Hope for 16 at Hope, then was held to only 4 in their 2nd meeting (only MM scored double digits--27).  Olivet won when Evans was able to score, and lost when not.  This year, like last year, Evans had been the 3rd leading scorer on Olivet's team.  (After him it was Clark, Edsal, Duncan, Post last year and Edsal, Duncan, Post this year...all sub-8 ppg both years)  With him out of the picture, the Comets lose 11ppg.  His assist, TO, block, and steal stats aren't as good as Post's, but as it's been discussed here and elsewhere, Hope's biggest weakness this year has been defense--you need the most from your scorers to beat the Dutchmen.  (Can you say 68.8% from 3?)  Post has less than half as many points as Evans this year (closer to 1/3), so even if he is able to pick up a few more minutes, he doesn't bring the scoring to the table that Evans did.

I like Hope's chances tomorrow.  Without Evans, Olivet's biggest scoring threats are still MM and Jennings, but it really falls off after that.  Hope showed the kind of defensive and rebounding intensity last Wednesday that they'd been lacking in the other MIAA games.  If they can keep that up and score at their normal pace, I believe the game is theirs, imho.  MM scored 27 vs Hope on his floor last year, but that's just fine with me if Hope can keep the rest of the Comets from reaching double digits like they did that game.

[KnightSlappy]

Olivet's outside shooting will suffer. Joe Post is a good player — he has 11 more assists than Evans this year — but he's not nearly the outside shooter Evans is. He's made only 2 of 19 3-point attempts this year compared to Evans' 24 of 74. Eric Mack, a very active player who looked good coming off the bench against Albion and apparently will be the fifth starter, also has only 2 three-pointers.

It was clear that Edsall was the only player that wanted to shoot three pointers on Wednesday night.. It's tough to come back after trailing in college hoops if you don't have that weapon. That's a big part of what makes Calvin and Hope so dominant in most years. They have several guys who can, and do, knock down outside shots.

McClary is infinitely easier to defend if the kick out three pointer is (mostly) off the table. Just double or triple him as soon as he touches it.

[Erm Schmigget]

Olivet's outside shooting will suffer. Joe Post is a good player — he has 11 more assists than Evans this year — but he's not nearly the outside shooter Evans is. He's made only 2 of 19 3-point attempts this year compared to Evans' 24 of 74. Eric Mack, a very active player who looked good coming off the bench against Albion and apparently will be the fifth starter, also has only 2 three-pointers.

It was clear that Edsall was the only player that wanted to shoot three pointers on Wednesday night.. It's tough to come back after trailing in college hoops if you don't have that weapon. That's a big part of what makes Calvin and Hope so dominant in most years. They have several guys who can, and do, knock down outside shots.

McClary is infinitely easier to defend if the kick out three pointer is (mostly) off the table. Just double or triple him as soon as he touches it.

...and with his propensity to only go left, Olivet could be really hurting the rest of the season.

[northb]

A nice piece on Ed Douma, former coach at Calvin, and his former player, Bill Sall, now the coach at FSU


http://www.mlive.com/smallcolleges/grandrapids/index.ssf/2011/01/longtime_coach_ed_douma_enjoyi.html

[hoopdreams]

I agree wholeheartedly Erm, it irritates me to no end when teams do not force players to do things they cannot do, or are uncomfortable with.  I guess that's what makes MM's career so impressive- This is what i do, try and stop it.

There's weakness in everyone's game....exploit it.  Why brad S. is allowed to dribble with his right hand is another example.  I have watched him probably 20 times since he was in 9th grade and he has never taken more than 2 hard dribbles with his left hand, ever.  Kudos to him, his athletic ability, and his effort to get to the hoop going right.

[oldknight]

Props to KnightSlappy whose question was highlighted (and his board name laughed at) during the January 13 session of Hoopsville. You can listen to the archived broadcast and pick up Dave McHugh's banter with Gordan Mann during which KS is labeled "the master of RPI" and "one of the more informed message board members." Check it out just past the 38 minute mark on the broadcast. +k to one of our own.

[sac]

Last year Hope and Olivet split the series, winning on each others floor in two closely contested games.

Olivet 67 Hope 64
Hope 71 Olivet 69

If it weren't for a great performance by Peter Bunn at Olivet, 31 points on 11-16 shooting, Hope would have lost both games.

Michael McClary had big nights both times, with 22pts 15 rebounds in Holland and 27pts and 11 rebounds at Olivet.  Prior to last season Hope had done a pretty good job keeping Michael off the boards, in his Fr. and So. seasons he had 27 total rebounds over 4 games......last year he had 26 in the 2 games.

Nathan Jennings and Michael McClary is a pretty difficult defensive assignment for a Hope team that has pretty well been beaten up inside all season.  I haven't been to all the games but it seems in most cases the opponent had one tough interior player, Hope has struggled.  This is two.

I'm not sure how Andre Evans' absence will hurt Olivet exactly, it certainly won't help.   Evans was kind of a streaky scorer, able to dominate a game for a few moments but would fade into the background at other times.   Andre had pretty good success vs Hope and only 1 bad game that I can recall.  Krombeen won't have to play defense on Evans which was a little bit of an adventure, so that's a plus for Hope.  

Second Saturday in a row I'll see the Comets, yet its very much a different team than the one I saw last week.

[maroonandgold]

Nathan Jennings and Michael McClary is a pretty difficult defensive assignment for a Hope team that has pretty well been beaten up inside all season.  I haven't been to all the games but it seems in most cases the opponent had one tough interior player, Hope has struggled.  This is two.

I'm not sure how Andre Evans' absence will hurt Olivet exactly, it certainly won't help.   Evans was kind of a streaky scorer, able to dominate a game for a few moments but would fade into the background at other times.   Andre had pretty good success vs Hope and only 1 bad game that I can recall.  Krombeen won't have to play defense on Evans which was a little bit of an adventure, so that's a plus for Hope. 

Second Saturday in a row I'll see the Comets, yet its very much a different team than the one I saw last week.

Has any word come on why Andre Evans is out and how long he will be out?
[/quote]

[northb]

Nathan Jennings and Michael McClary is a pretty difficult defensive assignment for a Hope team that has pretty well been beaten up inside all season.  I haven't been to all the games but it seems in most cases the opponent had one tough interior player, Hope has struggled.  This is two.

I'm not sure how Andre Evans' absence will hurt Olivet exactly, it certainly won't help.   Evans was kind of a streaky scorer, able to dominate a game for a few moments but would fade into the background at other times.   Andre had pretty good success vs Hope and only 1 bad game that I can recall.  Krombeen won't have to play defense on Evans which was a little bit of an adventure, so that's a plus for Hope. 

Second Saturday in a row I'll see the Comets, yet its very much a different team than the one I saw last week.

Has any word come on why Andre Evans is out and how long he will be out?

[/quote]

It may be academic

[sac]

Has any word come on why Andre Evans is out and how long he will be out?

Andre Evans, Dakota Ellis and Brett Konyndyk are all no longer on the Olivet roster.

[almcguirejr]

Hope 77

Olivet 71

[sac]

Hope 77 Olivet 71

Really good game down at Olivet this afternoon.  Michael McClary and Will Bowser had a scoring dual in the first half.  McClary finished with 21 and Bowser with 16 at the break.  Despite the 4 point deficit, it felt pretty evenly played.  But wow does that 16-28  57.1% for Olivet stick out.  Another difficult half on the defensive end for Hope.

The second half saw Hope start off with its worst offensive stretch of the game and 6 minutes in found themselves down 10 and Olivet with the ball.  A 12-2 Hope run over the next 2 minutes brought the game back to a tie....and it was game on.

Seven more ties later Hope was able to take the lead for good with about 5 minutes to play, the lead was up to 6 before Olivet was able to quickly get back down to 1 with 2 minutes to play.  Then after Hope ran the shot clock down only to see their shot attempt blocked out of bounds and just four seconds on the shot clock, Ty Tanis stepped up and hit the shot of the game from 3 to give Hope a 4 point lead with 1:28 to play.

Olivet had one more shot left in them, as they ran what I believe was last weeks game winning play and Nathan Jennings hit a 3 from the top of the key to cut it back to two.  Hope  was able to close it out with FT's.

The clearest difference between half one and half two can be found in Hope's defense, which at times in the 2nd half was very good.  I have Olivet going 5-18 during the final 12 minutes from the 47-37 Olivet lead to the finish.  A stretch where Hope outscored Olivet 40-24 and I think Hope's defense had a lot to do with that.  Including an epic defensive series where Will Bowser took McClary and denied him the ball and forced a missed layup immediately after Tanis' big shot.  It felt like the only time they stopped McClary all night with defense instead of him just missing one of his dozens of turn around fade away jumpers. (probably not true but it felt that way)

The two big keys for Hope was staying even on the boards and being a little better from behind the arc......otherwise the stats across the board point to an even game.

For this Hope fan an encouraging performance on both ends of the floor, and a very entertaining Saturday afternoon.


Hope:  Bowser 18, Neil 13, Tanis 13, Krombeen 11

Olivet:  McClary 34pts 10 rebounds, Jennings 11