MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[monsoon]

You can now sleep well (and quickly!) FDF.

[DewCrewVett]

It was just a matter of time before the better team, showed why they are better, and pulled away with a victory.

GO HOPE!

[Flying Dutch Fan]

You can now sleep well (and quickly!) FDF.

will do - TSOTJ   

[calvin_grad]

I'll answer my own post.  In the last 14:30 of the game (if I counted correctly), Calvin was 3-19 from the field, 4-7 from the line, and committed 5 turnovers.  Instead of having their cold spell at the beginning of the game, they decided to have it at the end.   

[wwjjdd]

He who "Why so quiet?"s last, "why so quiet?"s best.

[NW Hope Fan]

Anyone care to burn a dvd off their DVR and send it to me. I'd like to see... well most of that game.

[Happy Calvin Guy]

It IS possible for it to be a rivalry game and a hypothetical Vegas line to be set at something greater than 10 right?

Of course. I'd set this one at Hope -17.5. Over/under at about 136.5.

Way to cover the spread, Knights!     I would have done even better to have placed money on my pregame prediction:

I hope I'm wrong, but my prediction:  Hope 80 Calvin 65.

[goodknight]

Tonight's final margin at the DeVos was pretty much in line with what I expected, but it was disappointing to see how poorly the Knights finished after playing a surprisingly stellar first half.  Hope's deep, to be sure, but Calvin was complicit in the dramatic turning of the worm over the final 8 or 10 minute of play.  Lots of foolish turnovers and suspect defense -- almost the antithesis of the way the Knights played for much of the first 20 to 28 minutes. 

[Hopester]

First off, cheers to Alma for the upset of the year in the MIAA! Unbelievable...

Now to the main event of the evening... In the first half Calvin came out and punched Hope right in the mouth. They were the more energized team, and they, flat out, wanted it more. Even their students were louder for awhile (gasp). Every time Hope tried to claw back, Calvin had a three pointer up there sleeve to stifle it. Everyone knew that the 64% shooting wasn't sustainable and especially the 5/6 shooting from behind the arc, but it was still very nerve wracking.

The start of the second half was all about Dave Krombeen. He made a couple of nice offensive moves to get to the rim, but after an "and 1" cut it to 4, he had to leave the game for a few minutes because of leg cramps. Promptly Calvin pushed the lead to 8 and had the ball when Krombeen finally came back in. The rest of the game was absolutely dominated by Hope both inside and out.

The 14 minute to the 12 minute mark is the period of time that changed the game completely.  Snuggerud went into beast mode, and Kruis picked up his 4th foul (very questionable call). KVS clearly sat Kruis for too long, and never grasped that the game was slipping away without him in.

Cheers to Overway, Bunn, Snuggs, Kromb, and Holwerda for playing stellar basketball tonight. Not trying to minimize the impact of others, but those 5 had brilliant games especially in the second half.

Where have you gone Billy Seiler? The jumper has vanished, and his confidence shooting has clearly crumbled. He wasn't even close on his two free throw attempts. 

A cupcake game on Saturday that I will overlook and then on to a big matchup at Trine next Wednesday, see ya there!

[oldknight]

Never have the attrition losses Calvin has suffered this season (Brink, DeVries, Henry and Vallie) been more evident than tonight. Some have called for KVS to shorten his bench and tonight he did that, largely because he had to. Hope has enough horses inside and more perimeter players than Calvin and the Knights were totally gassed by the midpoint of the second half. I'm pretty sure that led to the decline in exection of team offense and a defense that repeatedly found itself a half step behind Hope's offense as the game progressed. I'm kind of surprised Jordan Mast played so little. Wonder if he was ill? Pretty good effort by the Knights, they're just a couple players short in such a highly competitive game against a good opponent.

As an aside, I can't ever remember seeing a team go so deep into a game without a foul. Hope was whistled for its first with 3:58 left in the first half. That's not a complaint though because I can't remember a time I thought Hope got a break on a non-call. If I remember correctly, Calvin had only three fouls at the time Hope got its first. Very strange for any game but especially for a Rivalry game.

[Civic Minded]

As an aside, I can't ever remember seeing a team go so deep into a game without a foul. Hope was whistled for its first with 3:58 left in the first half. That's not a complaint though because I can't remember a time I thought Hope got a break on a non-call. If I remember correctly, Calvin had only three fouls at the time Hope got its first. Very strange for any game but especially for a Rivalry game.

The lack of fouls was noted by those sitting around me, and the frustration at Hope's lack of defensive intensity was deserved.  If you can go 16+ minutes without picking up a single foul, you're not trying hard enough!     Thankfully Hope cranked up the defense in the 2nd half to something we're more used to seeing from them.

That being said, the officials did seemed determine to "let them play," which in this situation was probably the right approach. 

Kudos to Calvin for a great first half.  As hard as it was to watch from a Hope fans perspective, it was also really fun to watch a team who just couldn't seem to miss and who did so many things right.  (Rest assured I was ok with that crazy shooting % settling down in the 2nd half!)   

[almcguirejr]

The 14 minute to the 12 minute mark is the period of time that changed the game completely.  Snuggerud went into beast mode, and Kruis picked up his 4th foul (very questionable call). KVS clearly sat Kruis for too long, and never grasped that the game was slipping away without him.

I agree with you on the game changing at this point.  It was during this time frame that Powell entered the game and took 2 horrible shots.  The first was off balanced, off one leg, with only 10 or 12 seconds off the shot clock.  Calvin was up 8 and Holwerda scored on a 3 point play on Hope's ensuing possession.  Powell received the inbounds pass after Holwerda's made free throw and threw up another terrible shot with only 6 seconds off the shot clock and nobody else touching the ball.  Hope rebounded and Snugeruud nailed a wide open 3.  You could feel the momentum change.  A couple minutes later another bad 3 was taken with Calvin down 2 and Bunn buried a 3 to put Hope up 5 and it was all over.

Powell has improved his shot selection this year but tonight he tried to do too much.

Calvin played about as well as they could play for the first 30 minutes of the game.  Hope's experience and senior leadership was too much to overcome.

[sac]

Not only did Alma win but they led wire to wire without even a tie.
http://www.miaa.org/mbb/stats/1112/0118amad.htm

Adrian's normally pretty good defense must have really let them down as the Scots shot over 50% in both halves.  I also notice that Dennis Mason and Wesley Reed did not play for the Bulldogs.


Always amazes me how going on the road in league play can be so tough, and its really that way in every league at every level.

[AndersDY]

For a while tonight, I was afraid that Calvin had hired the Pleasantville High shooting coach. The first half sure felt that way. As much as you expect that overall talent will win out when given enough time, you still expect every shot to fall when that is what the results to that point have led you to expect.

Without looking, did Bunn and Snugs have about 6 points at the half and another 30+ in the second half? Krombeen was the only player who had it going the full game tonight, but those two turning it around was the big difference. After the third VanArendonk foul (that was a real light foul), that looked like bad news for the comeback, but I think Neil kept him on the bench longer than necessary in the second half since everything seemed to be clicking without the big man to that point.

Did anyone recognize tonight's officiating crew at all? I could come up with a litany of individual complaints in both directions (Snugs being tackled into the Calvin bench and then Hope picks up a foul..?) but what was beyond the normal bad MIAA officiating was the odd attention to the crowd and the benchs. I'm sure some Dew Crewer did indeed touch the floor at least a bit when the warning was made, but I've never seen officials so intent on telling the fans to get back or telling each bench to sit down during play. They seemed to think they were at a symphony concert instead of the rowdiest D3 game of the year. (Aside - loved the wink and nod from Neil toward the Dew Crew upon hearing they were being warned about a possible T.)

Logically, my brain would figure that Hope should get the sweep in GR later in the year since Calvin can't possibly come out with that NBA-Jam-on-fire shooting yet again, but Calvin sure showed they are not ready to just accept their fate against Hope this year either. I think the line in the VanNoord should be a bit lower.

[sac]

Hope 81 Calvin 65


Basketball seasons are a series of tests.  Sometimes you get tested by teams you'd rather not be tested against in situations you'd rather not be tested on.  For Hope, last night was knowing you had an exam but when you read the first question you realized it was about the 5 chapters you didn't study.  The lump in your throat lasted for a good 30 minutes.  But in the end you relied on your notes, and memory and slogged through the test.   When the professor handed that test back to you, there was a big stinkin' A on it.  You felt relief, maybe lucky but at the same time a great sense of accomplishment.  You had faced a pretty serious situation, stared failure in the face and shrugged it off.


It might sound weird but on the way home it occurred to me that Hope might have won this game last year.  This is pretty much the same cast of characters who ended up breezing to the MIAA Championship last year.  At least it was a breeze in some eyes.  But a deeper look shows a Hope team that time and time again in the MIAA season faced a deficit, sometimes very serious like last night.

Down 5 middle second half at Trine.
Down 10 middle second half at Olivet
Down 5 early second half vs Adrian
Down 4 early second half at Albion
Down 14 in the first half vs Kalamazoo
Down 18 late first half at Calvin
Down 7 middle first half at Alma
Down 3 early second half vs Olivet, 14 ties
Down 7 early first half at Adrian
Down 1 4 minutes to play at Kalamazoo

Hope won all of these games, every one of them. 


Hope didn't panic last night, they just kept working, kept trusting each other and playing the game.  At no point last night did I think Hope would lose and I mean that in all sincerity.  This is a special Hope team, a different Hope team than most I've seen.  The leaders on this team were the young guys on the 2009 and 2010 teams.  Teams that didn't win the MIAA, weren't supposed to win the MIAA but when the MIAA Tournament wrapped up it was these guys holding the trophy and going dancing.  You don't reach pinnacles like that when you aren't supposed to without learning a thing or two about how to win a basketball game.  All of that wealth of experience served them well last night.  Hope kept playing because they knew they would eventually break their opponent, because they knew how they could, and they did.


When the game was over, it looked like any other Hope/Calvin game.  The exhausted faces, the sullen loser, the happy victors.  But deep down you could see that every coach, player and maybe even fan in orange knew this team had been seriously tested and passed. 

From here Hope has 9 MIAA games remaining, some of them will go a lot easier than this one, maybe two or three will be just as hard or harder.  Maybe they'll lose a couple, maybe they'll win them all.  Looking at Hope's schedule they have all of their toughest road games remaining  @Trine, @Adrian, @Albion and @ Calvin.  Those will all be stiff tests as they should be. 


This is a good Hope team, maybe a really good Hope team.  Good teams must be tested, they must learn what they're made off, what they can accomplish.  Without those tough tests a team is prone to panic when it gets really serious.   Somewhere down the line this 2012 team will be tested again, maybe Saturday vs Olivet, maybe next Wed at Trine, maybe somewhere in the future in a gym with an NCAA logo on it.  This game last night will serve this team well......they passed, and they won.