MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[hoopdreams]

paraphrasing from upcoming Sentinel article....
"It's the first time my shot has felt good in 3 weeks.  If that's what being in the zone is, I guess I was in it."  Welcome back David!!!!! Amazing what a little confidence can do.  It wasn't the jumpers that got him going but the layups in transition or breakdowns in half court D.  Work inside, then outside if at all possible

Lead-footed Hope defender makes a key defensive play in defensive transition by hustling back and "getting in the way" of Brad S, on the already discussed seemingly given missed layup, even though it doesn't show up in boxscore.  

Huge, Huge, victory today.  A test of will, a test of character but this slow staring stuff will bite them in the rear at some point this season.  

Sat with a gentleman prior to tip off discussing lineups that could give Calvin problems.  Krombeen, Overway, Neil, King and Bowser was mentioned.  Oh so close!!!!!

May biggest question regarding Calvin's offense is this.... In 2 games Rodts and Snikkers have had Tanis guarding them either on the elbow or block 15-20 times.  Not one shot attempt.  Knowing Danny isn't much in the post but......

Schuster is really, really good.  Hopefully for Knight fans, he will realize he can dominate a game on both ends of the floor, just not against Hope.

Calvin plays off emotion.  When things are good, they're great.  When adversity presents itself, not so much.   Hope surprisingly was much more poised, which is a huge improvement from earlier games this season.

HC- my apologies for earlier sarcastic remarks, bad day at the office.  Really trying to improve on this.........

I usually think Kooiker does a pretty solid job, at least he tries to.  He was awful today, mainly calls against Hope.

[sac]

Hope 76 Calvin 70

I'm not sure what I saw today exactly......Good Calvin, Bad Hope, Bad Calvin, Good Hope.  Depending on your choice of colors, you probably saw varying degrees of each and the truth lies somewhere in the middle, that middle being Hope 76 Calvin 70.  Maybe I saw one game with 4 different teams.

The Dutchmen are playing with fire when it comes to these either slow starts or poor defensive halves.  Take your pick.  For me, as organized and as good as Hope looked last Saturday vs Albion they looked as equally disorganized and out of it in the first half today.  Will Bowser kept it from being a true embarrassment, maybe the difference between Hope and Albion.

The second half I thought Hope was just much more aggressive at both ends of the floor, partially a product of David Krombeen being able to play without worrying about fouls.  The biggest key to the game may have been DK making it through the first half without a foul.  But in short, that was much like Hope looked at Albion.

Calvin was ok until Hope strung together a few defensive stops and followed those up with points.  It surprised me how easily Calvin seemed to get rattled by Hope's defense and the full court pressure which forced Calvin to scramble to set up their offense, many times it never looked like they quite got set and ended up taking shots they probably didn't want.

The key sequence for me........

GOOD! FT SHOT by Colton Overway               09:22  54-54   T 1
GOOD! 3 PTR by Brent Schuster                     08:53  57-54  H 3
ASSIST by Tom Snikkers                               
GOOD! LAYUP by Colton Overway [PNT]        08:23  57-56  H 1
MISSED JUMPER by Brent Schuster                 08:07             
REBOUND (DEF) by Chris Ray
GOOD! 3 PTR by David Krombeen                   07:54  57-59  V 2 
ASSIST by Ty Tanis

Overway's FT tied the game for the first time (the only time), Schuster hit that big rainbow arching 3 from deep, normally a good momentum killing shot.  But Hope answered it within just one minute to take the lead (the only lead change).  Calvin called timeout, and on Calvin's next 3 possessions they turned it over each time, Hope stealing it twice resulting in 3 FT's and a layup, a seven point lead.  A 10-0 run in just over two minutes.   From there it was Hope's game to control.


I've seen more than my fair share of these game but I can't recall too many that had such dramatic differences in halves.


Hope:  Bowser 26, Krombeen 23
Calvin:  Snikkers 20, Schuster 20


Supertramp said to Take the Long Way Home
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nvT3_iSaHU

...so I did.  It was nice.

[oldknight]

I went back to watch the video of the game and on second look, several things are apparent:

1) Calvin didn't run the weave against a zone, it was a switching man. The Knights only ran it about three possessions the second half and when it didn't yield results they abandoned it for the rest of the game.

2) Calvin shot poorly the second half but their downfall was entirely due to a strange inpatience early in the shot clock, poor shot selection, and turnovers, turnovers, turnovers. Calvin gave the ball away 13 times after the break and they were mostly a matter of bad decision making.

3) But for a heroic second half performance by Schuster, Calvin would have lost by 15. Brent had 11 points, 5 boards and 3 blocks after the break.

4) Hope probably locked up the league title and in my mind, Will Bowser should be the clear favorite for MVP. He validated his 46 point performance in the OT win over Kalamazoo by single handedly keeping the first half from being a total blowout thereby giving his team at least a chance at a comeback win.

[sac]

Kalamazoo 73 Adrian 64


Ah thank you Kzoo!

As expected Prepolec and Clark had better games, JP a solid 6-9 day.  Some really good offensive balance from Kzoo.

Adrian:  Mosley 23, Gallant 13, Mason 10
Kzoo:  Prepolec 20, Clark 11, Stewart 10,  Wilson 10, Fishman 9



Trine 84 Alma 80  3OT

311 witnessed this 3 Overtime thriller in Angola.  Depending on how things go, the MIAA home office may have to pull out the coin to decide the 8th seed in the tournament.

Alma: Erickson 18, Lackie 17, Silverthorn 13, Ginther 10
Trine: Rogers 26, Croll 15, Jackson 11, Thompson 10



Olivet at Albion





Standings  +1 for road win/-1 for home loss


Hope    7-1     +3
Adrian  5-3     +2
Kzoo    5-3      +1
Calvin   5-3     0
Albion   4-3     0
Olivet   3-4     -1
Alma    1-7     -2
Trine    1-7     -3



Monday, January 31
Olivet at Albion, 7:30 p.m.

Wednesday, February 2
Calvin at Kalamazoo, 7:30 p.m.
Trine at Hope, 7:30 p.m.
Albion at Alma, 7:30 p.m.
Olivet at Adrian, 7:30 p.m.

Saturday, February 5
Calvin at Olivet, 3 p.m.
Kalamazoo at Trine, 3 p.m.
Albion at Adrian, 3 p.m.
Hope at Alma, 3 p.m. (note this is a time change)



Kzoo's win creates a logjam for second that Albion can join Monday night.   Hope takes on #7's Alma and Trine next week, either Kzoo or Calvin could fall to 3 games back, and Adrian has a big week with Olivet and Albion at home.  Barring a major upset over Hope, the Dutchmen will enter the final two weeks of the season with at least a 2 game lead over someone.

[oldknight]

Two more items from watching the game again, both related to the Schnyders missed layup with 30 seconds left:

1) I don't think Schnyders should have passed the ball on that play. Why would a guy who is shooting a layup pass the ball to Rodts so he could shoot a layup? Also, I don't think Danny was all that open, certainly not any more open than Brad.

2) I was wondering how Calvin didn't come up with what appeared to be an easy rebound on the Schnyders miss. It appears that Rodts and Snikkers interfered with one another. If either player had been there alone it was an easy score for a tie game.

[sac]

4) Hope probably locked up the league title and in my mind, Will Bowser should be the clear favorite for MVP. He validated his 46 point performance in the OT win over Kalamazoo by single handedly keeping the first half from being a total blowout thereby giving his team at least a chance at a comeback win.

Have to concede, Will is in the hunt.  He's been impressive since the 2nd half last Saturday.


What an 8 days it was for Hope, it could have gone so differently.

[sac]

By Calvin Sports Information Student Assistant Andrew Knot

"The 18 point comeback marks the biggest comeback in the history of the Calvin-Hope rivalry."




Ah, that's what I saw.

[Knight81]

The turnovers, poor decisions, and overall lack of basketball intelligence shown by Calvin all year are sickening. Now, they hit the road for tough games at Kalamazoo and Olivet. I'd say stick a fork in this team, they're just about done.

[Knight2Day]

I take it no ones wants to try the "they'll right the ship" argument anymore?.....Sad part is that this team has more pure TALENT than they know what to do with, and that's the problem, they don't have a single clue what to do.

[calvin_grad]

The turnovers, poor decisions, and overall lack of basketball intelligence shown by Calvin all year are sickening. Now, they hit the road for tough games at Kalamazoo and Olivet. I'd say stick a fork in this team, they're just about done.

I would agree.  Getting one home game in the tournament is about as well as they are going to do at this point, and even that's not a guarantee with the second half road schedule.

[calvin_grad]

1) Calvin didn't run the weave against a zone, it was a switching man. The Knights only ran it about three possessions the second half and when it didn't yield results they abandoned it for the rest of the game.

After is SO effective against Trine last Saturday, 3 times was 3 times too many.   

[almcguirejr]

Calvin fed off their defense against Albion and Hope in the first half yesterday.  Why they came out  in the second half like that is a mystery.  I sat near the Calvin bench at Hope and KVS in every timeout talked about denying everything.  That happened Wednesday night and the first half yesterday.  They denied everything and the rotations were excellent (except for the Snuggerud layup at the end of the half)  Hope had only 8 points inside the arc in the first half yesterday. Calvin contested everything.  Bowser's 3 pointers kept them close. 

Izzo, after the Michigan loss said, "we are good enough to beat anyone and we are good enough to lose to anyone" that applies to Calvin as well.  For 60 minutes of basketball Calvin could have played with anyone this week.  For the last 20 they were horrid.

I am as disappointed and frustrated any Calvin fan.  However,  I did see more sustained excellent play over the last 2 games than at any time this year.
The league championship race is probably over for Calvin.  There is still time to improve to the point of playing 40 minutes at a consistent high level and winning a MIAA tournament.

On another note:  I have no issue with officiating yesterday ( other than Snikkers' self inflicted nose bleed.)  I wonder how 2 teams can play the first half
with a combined 8 fouls and the 2nd with 22?  Was the play that much different?

[oldknight]

Calvin's loss was tremendously disappointing but don't confuse the MIAA board with the Big Ten board. Now MSU, that's a sickening mess of a team that is truly clueless as to what to do. Play 35 minutes of crappy ball every game followed by 5 minutes of wild catchup. When you saw the Spartans play Wisconsin, the MSU huddle was chaos. Everyone was talking and Izzo couldn't get in a word edgewise. Then look in the Badger huddle--Bo is the only person talking, and everyone else is listening.

http://www.mlive.com/spartans/index.ssf/2011/01/turbulance_from_korie_lucious.html

If Calvin had entered the season as the national runnersup with all its key players back and a Hall of Fame coach at the helm, I could understand all the nuclear weaponry being detonated by some fans right now.

[realist]

Calvin's loss was tremendously disappointing but don't confuse the MIAA board with the Big Ten board. Now MSU, that's a sickening mess of a team that is truly clueless as to what to do. Play 35 minutes of crappy ball every game followed by 5 minutes of wild catchup. When you saw the Spartans play Wisconsin, the MSU huddle was chaos. Everyone was talking and Izzo couldn't get in a word edgewise. Then look in the Badger huddle--Bo is the only person talking, and everyone else is listening.

http://www.mlive.com/spartans/index.ssf/2011/01/turbulance_from_korie_lucious.html

If Calvin had entered the season as the national runnersup with all its key players back and a Hall of Fame coach at the helm, I could understand all the nuclear weaponry being detonated by some fans right now.

You miss the point of some of your fellow Calvin posters.  It is exactly the fact Calvin isn't coming off a runnerup season, and the prospects for one anytime soon look unlikely is what is making us agitated.  Last year we had a very capable team that under performed at all the key times, and finsihed 19-9.  This year we have heard repeatedly how great the Calvin "talent" is, but youth is used as an excuse.   How long do we have to wait before KVS gets all the planets, and stars lined up?  
Frankly Calvin looked very poorly coached yesterday (in the second half) in that it did not recognize what Hope had done, and was doing.  I buy missing that stuff in the pre-season games, but after 19 games it seems either the coach or the players are missing it.  Sadly yesterday Calvin fell into one of it's own self inflicted traps of becoming very tentative, and very predictible at key points in games.   After 19 games onme would surely think Calvin's players would have been schooled in how to break a press, and avoid traps.

Smite me all you want I just don't see KVS as a Hall of Fame coach.  Considering the talent he has had to work with the results are pedestrian at best.  

[sac]

It might be easy for some folks to concede that Hope will win the MIAA by looking at the standings.  I'll admit with the games remaining a lot of those match-ups favor Hope in the way they can just kind of sit back and potentially watch the challengers cannibalize themselves, key word potentially.   Hope might win 2 games this week and find themselves 3 games up with 4 to play without playing any of the 5 teams right behind them.  That's an ideal scenario.

Howeva....


Trine by 11
Olivet by 10
Adrian by 8
Albion by 6
Kalamazoo by 16



Those are the deficits Hope faced vs 5 of their 6 remaining opponents (I have no play-by-play of Alma, Hope won by 31), they could have lost any of those..........throw in the two Calvin games where Hope trailed by 14 and 18.

This isn't going to be a walk in the park for Hope by any stretch.  Complacency is Hope's biggest enemy now.

This also illustrates what an amazing 8 days this was for Hope,  win at Albion, come from 16 down at home to beat Kzoo in an OT thriller, come from 18 down to defeat your biggest rival on the road.