MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[Flying Dutch Fan]

WOW!!  Alma goes 3-3 from 3 in OT to win at Kresge.

[KnightSlappy]

Calvin 78 Trine 51

This gives Hope the opportunity to open a 2 game lead tonight.

David Rietema with 11 assists for the Knights. Calvin made 31 field goals, of which 24 were assisted on.

Tyler Kruis filled up the stat sheet with 14 pts, 10 rebs, and 6 blocks.

Trine made 17 field goals and had 10 blocked.

It was the first game of the year -- maybe the Trinity game also -- that you felt like you were watching the real Calvin for all 40 minutes.

If Calvin can beat Olivet on Wednesday, they'll find themselves either in a tie for third or a tie for second.

[KnightSlappy]

Tom Snikkers is now at 951 career points. Saturday, Feb. 4 at Kalamazoo is the most likely day he'll cross the 1,000 mark.

Trine's Scott Rogers is at 923.

[oldknight]

Random thoughts after watching Calvin lay the wood to Trine this afternoon:

--The best all-around game we've seen from Calvin this year. Ball movement was purposeful, shot selection excellent, rebounding aggressive, and the defense Stout (more on that in a moment).

--Tyler Kruis is starting to look like a young man who could eventually be numbered among the top big men in the region. His post play and footwork is fundamentally sound, he can hit the mid-range face-up jumper, he goes to the boards well and his defensive presence in the lane imposing. He's attracting more and more attention from other teams without a loss in productive statistics and that makes things a lot easier for the other Calvin players. He's a player for whom you have to game-plan now.

--The officiating was awful today--both ways--yet the Knights seemed pretty unfazed by it all, unlike yours truly. Possibly a sign of maturity?--by the Calvin players that is.

--Matt DeBoer is starting to show a knack for getting down the floor and becoming a recipient of fast break points. I can't remember the last time I saw Calvin get down the floor so quickly so often.

--Young Daniel Stout--only off the freshmen team due to varsity attrition losses--is going to be a player at Calvin. He made the play of the game at around the 13 minute mark when, with Calvin nursing a single digit lead, he came out of no where to completely stuff what appeared to be an easy dunk by Tim Pearcy and then corral the rebound leading to an easy fast break layup. That play was the beginning of a long run of domination by the Knights that didn't end until the final buzzer. It may have been Daniel's fault in the first place that Pearcy was so open but he more than made up for it.

[Dark Knight]

Numbers 2, 3, and 6 in the d3hoops.com poll all lost today. #7 Hope may be moving up.

[scottiedawg]

Numbers 2, 3, and 6 in the d3hoops.com poll all lost today. #7 Hope may be moving up.

Curent #4 Amherst and #5 UW-Whitewater have tough upcoming 3-game stretches:

Amherst: current, 44th, 122nd and 18th in Massey Ratings
UWW: current, 125th, 4th and 74th in Massey Ratings

Current #1 Middlebury plays an average upcoming 3-game stretch

Middlebury: current 237th, 44th and 75th in Massey Ratings

[maroonandgold]

--The best all-around game we've seen from Calvin this year. Ball movement was purposeful, shot selection excellent, rebounding aggressive, and the defense Stout (more on that in moment).

--Tyler Kruis is starting to look like a young man who could eventually be numbered among the top big men in the region. His post play and footwork is fundamentally sound, he can hit the mid-range face-up jumper, he goes to the boards well and his defensive presence in the lane imposing. He's attracting more and more attention from other teams without a loss in productive statistics and that makes things a lot easier for the other Calvin players. He's a player for whom you have to game-plan now.

I agree completely with all of Old Knight's comments on the Calvin-Trine game today.  I would also add that Calvin's success all started with the defense, especially the constant blocks and intimidation by Tyler Kruis most all but also by Van Eck, Stout, and even Dykstra.  That had the effect of eventually really relaxing the shooters to the point where they became extremely confident by the end of the game.  Look at the overall and especially the second half shooting percentages.  Wow!

[KnightSlappy]

--Young Daniel Stout--only off the freshmen team due to varsity attrition losses--is going to be a player at Calvin. He made the play of the game at around the 13 minute mark when, with Calvin nursing a single digit lead, he came out of no where to completely stuff what appeared to be an easy dunk by Tim Pearcy and then corral the rebound leading to an easy fast break layup. That play was the beginning of a long run of domination by the Knights that didn't end until the final buzzer. It may have been Daniel's fault in the first place that Pearcy was so open but he more than made up for it.

I got to the car in time to hear most of KVS' post game comments on the radio, and he said that Dan 'would have made the team' out of practice if they didn't have a JV squad.

Anyone watching Stout recognizes that he's extremely raw, but he shows flashes of the player he could become. Getting minutes this season will be huge for his development.

--Tyler Kruis is starting to look like a young man who could eventually be numbered among the top big men in the region. His post play and footwork is fundamentally sound, he can hit the mid-range face-up jumper, he goes to the boards well and his defensive presence in the lane imposing. He's attracting more and more attention from other teams without a loss in productive statistics and that makes things a lot easier for the other Calvin players. He's a player for whom you have to game-plan now.

Tyler has gotten a lot better at showing his teammates that he wants them to get him the ball in the post. Very nice to have a big man demand the ball down low. It seems like he's beginning to fully realize that he's the biggest, strongest guy on the floor on most nights -- he could have really special Junior and Senior seasons.

[scottiedawg]

Hope holds Olivet to 6 points in the final 12 minutes of the 1st half.

[KnightSlappy]

Another comment on Calvin today: It looked like Calvin decided to go out and have some fun. Not necessarily a loosey-goosey type fun, but more like they were all committed to playing team offense and defense together. Great communication on defense, lots of encouragement for teammates, and lots of smiles.

KVS was his teams biggest cheerleader when the buckled down on defense early. He was out of his chair applauding on several occasions. He also went to bat for his guys with the officials several times -- as OK pointed out, neither team was very happy with the officiating.

[hoopdreams]

noticed Jared Edsall's name from Olivet has been missing the past couple games.  Is he injured?  If so, is it serious?  You hate for anyone to be injured, serious or not, especially a senior.

Nice win for Calvin today.  regardless of who you support, the league is much more fun with more than one competitive squad.  Not to look into the future but could Calvin's next head coach be earning his stripes up in Alma?

[almcguirejr]

Not to look into the future but could Calvin's next head coach be earning his stripes up in Alma?

I don't think Hargraves will be patient enough to wait until KVS retires in 2025.

[knights2000]

When I posted some numbers the other day, I didn't intend to say that they made up for a poor won-loss record, especially non-conference. I'm not blind to the fact that Calvin is not winning as many games as Calvin fans would like to see or feel that they should.

Calvin scores enough (on average) to win games. If you believe defensive FG% is a good reflection of the type of shots you are forcing your opponent in to taking (as I do), then it seems like they are playing good enough defense to win games (on average). They seem to be rebounding well.

I guess my question to realist and others is this: What do you think KVS should be doing differently? What is it that he does so poorly, and what would you like to see him change, specifically? I understand numbers and stats aren't everything, but he seems to have the team scoring enough, forcing poor shots on defense, and rebounding well. I'm not necessarily trying to defense KVS, I just wonder what it is I am missing, because I feel like I am missing something. I'm not trying to be rude or anything like, and no sarcasm intended: But I feel like I'm missing it. What is it that KVS does so poorly?

[goodknight]

That was a fun afternoon at the Van Noord -- probably the best performance this year for the Knights, and it was great to see the 91-92 National Championship team introduced at halftime.  Former coach Ed Douma received a very warm ovation, as did Steve Honderd and the rest of the players.
It can't possibly be 20 years ago, can it?

[sac]

Hope 84 Olivet 53

Not much to add that can't be learned from the boxscore.  http://www.miaa.org/mbb/stats/1112/0121oliv.htm

In short this was a pretty easy win for Hope.  Olivet is simply hurting, not only did the Comets graduate some really good players and lynchpins of their team from last season but this year they've now lost 3 guys (El, Mack and Edsall) they were counting on and a 4th from the roster.  El, Mack and Edsall were either starters or had started at some point this year.

Olivet did play pretty well for about 10 minutes but then it all went badly and it was over and hopefully painless for them pretty quickly.

On the plus side, Olivet had a lot of fans at DeVos for some reason.  Good to see, I wish the MIAA fans traveled better.