MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[GoKnights68]

7 Straight Years....  I will enjoy it while it lasts!

2006   Hope 70, Calvin 67 (NCAA-Second Round)
2007   Hope 80, Calvin 64 (NCAA-Second Round)
2008  Hope 88, Calvin 72 (MIAA-Championship)
2009  Hope 69, Calvin 59 (MIAA-Championship)
2010  Hope 78, Calvin 74 (MIAA-Championship)
2011  Hope 72, Calvin 67 (MIAA-Championship)
2012  Hope 87, Calvin 80 (MIAA-Semifinals)

Being both a Michigan and Calvin fan, it has been rough on me in recent years when it comes to losing streaks against each one's rival(s). ...Michigan losing to O$U from 2004 to 2010.  Michigan losing to MSU the past 4 seasons.  And of course what you listed above, which also happens to come with an overall 5 game losing streak against the Dutch.  When will the madness end?  I guess one of those streaks ended last November.

[sac]

Hope 87 Calvin 80

http://www.miaa.org/mbb/stats/1112/0222calv.htm

What an odd score.  Seven points probably doesn't do justice to Hope's effort and good play.  And 15 probably wouldn't do justice to Calvin's tenacious effort and good play.

Crazy last few minutes with Hope doing their best Albion impersonation at the FT line (zing).  20-33 and they made their last 5.   Made even more odd by the fact it was 5 different Hope players who shoot well above 70% missing so many of those down the stretch.  Something to work on.  Mix the FT issues with some just prayer shots going in for Calvin (Powell's two were just unreal efforts) and it made for a tighter finish than it really should have been.  Make the FT's and that game probably never gets to where Hope needs to make FT's to get it back to a 3 possession game.

Some positives for Hope were the number of times they hit big shots when they needed it, the obvious good 3 point shooting and turning the rebounding around mid game.   First time all year I've seen a team leave Hope that wide open for 3's, and they made Calvin pay big.  It was probably a gamble KVS was willing to take, nothing else works.


Calvin played their guts out tonight, its been awhile since I've seen a Calvin team play that hard. 

[sac]

Not to be that guy again but I'm fascinated by the Kruis comments for some reason.

Kruis scored 10 of his 16 points in the final 8 minutes (actually in just a 4 min stretch of that final 8) which means he had all of 6 for the previous 32.   I'm fairly certain he had 1 FG maybe 2 FG's with Van Arendonk defending him and a number of other times was reduced to throwing up wild looking shots, a couple times not even drawing iron.

He's a good player and has a chance to develop into a very good MIAA big man, but I think the suggestions the last few games have been he's directly gotten the better of VanArendonk and I really don't think that's the case at all.  NVA has more than held his own defensively against Kruis the actually surprisingly few times they've gone head to head, and that proof lies in the videos.   Rent them this summer if you can. 


If the suggestion is just that Kruis is a more developed player in his Sophomore year to VanArendonk in his Fr. year than yes you probably have a point.  But head-to-head I don't think this has been the 'win' for Kruis some people think its been.

[sac]

Hope and Adrian meet in the championship game Saturday.  I guess about midway through the season this seemed like a pretty likely ending.

Neither game this year was pretty to watch.  Very physical, tough defensive basketball. 


Hope 69 Adrian 60 @ Hope
http://www.miaa.org/mbb/stats/1112/0107adri.htm

Hope 64 Adrian 47 @ Adrian
http://www.miaa.org/mbb/stats/1112/0201hoad.htm
(I doubt Adrian will shoot 4-30 in the 2nd half this time)


I understand Brad Whitby is probably out for Adrian.  DeLano Collins does not appear in the boxscore from last nights semi-final, which means Adrian could be hurting for PG's.   Cody Barnes on the other hand appears to be back from a brief injury.

[Knight2Day]

   First time all year I've seen a team leave Hope that wide open for 3's, and they made Calvin pay big.  It was probably a gamble KVS was willing to take, nothing else works.

Sac, have you not been watching Calvin for the past ohhhhh 14 years? Calvin gives up the weak side 3 pointer...it's all part of the defensive system!

[wiz]

You know, now that I have reviewed the box score, I have to admit that I didn't give VanArendonk enough credit for his performance last night.  He did, in fact, get a rebound. 

[Flying Dutch Fan]

You know, now that I have reviewed the box score, I have to admit that I didn't give VanArendonk enough credit for his performance last night.  He did, in fact, get a rebound. 

That's OK, he's got some more games this year to work on improving that 

[bojack]

Sac...
I think you need to take a look more closely at the match-up you speak of between Kruis and NVA.  In 3 games head-to-head Kruis has 46 points, 22 rebounds, and 7 blocks for an average of 15.3ppg and 7.3rpg. His counterpart, NVA has 20 points, 7 rebounds, 2 blocks for an average 6.6ppg and 2.3rpg. Those numbers are not close. NVA averages 7.6ppg and 4.7rpg per game on the year while Tyler Kruis averaged 10.9ppg and 6.8rpg on the year...so at a closer look Tyler Kruis is actually performing better against NVA than his other oppponents while NVA is performing below his average against TK...so who is getting the better of this match-up?

It can seem helpful to try and breakdown which player plays when during the game, but the simple fact remains that they went head to head 3 times this year for long stretches of the game and TK got the best of all three match-ups. Whether or not the coaches from Hope choose to play him during stretchs of the 2nd half should say something about the match-up itself. The truth of the matter is that these two players are the same age with the same amount of time spent in college basketball...one got more tick his FR year while the other had a chance to hone his talents against better competition, where they stand today is clearly evident...Kruis is the better player...

Good luck to hope the rest of the way, they clearly have the better team and a great chance to make some noise in the NCAA...

[almcguirejr]

Gene Gifford being fired is a traveshamockery and I lost a lot of respect for Olivet Athletics upon hearing this news last night.  He deserves much better treatment and the basketball program that he winds up coaching for in the future will be lucky to have him.

I would be interested to know the graduation rate of Olivet's players in the Gifford era.  It seems like the attrition rate is high. 

[Happy Calvin Guy]

Now that our season is over, I took a quick look at where a couple of future Calvin 1000 pt club candidates stand. 

Bryan Powell, 643 points.  Assuming 27 games (yes, this year we only got 26, and if we go to the NCAA we'd get more), he needs to average 13.2 next year to achieve the personal milestone.

Tyler Kruis, 363 points.  Assuming 27 games each of his jr and sr years, he needs 11.8 ppg to get there. 

Kruis is a more reliable bet to eventually do it but I think Powell will get there as well. 

(As an aside, there is actually a chance that Nate Snuggerud goes over the 1000 point mark yet this season.  He's at 907 with at least two and as many as seven games left to play.)

[Busted Stuff]

I had the opportunity to talk to Tom Snikkers after the game. He said he can't wait for next year... Neither can I!

[HopeConvert]

After a nice pre-game meal with Knights Old and Good I headed down to the DeVos to catch what I was reasonably confident would be a Hope victory. I thought Hope's defense in the first half was outstanding, the best I've seen, holding Calvin to 27 points. Still, Calvin was playing as hard as I've seen them play, and they didn't fold in the 2nd half, though well they might have. And they struck fear in the hearts of Hope fans, going for 53(!) points in the second half. Hope's defensive intensity didn't seem as good to me, and six of those points were on Bryan Powell double-rainbow prayers, the second of which will require a physicist to explain to me how it snuck into the basket. Calvin attacked Hope's interior defense as well as freeing up space for three-point shooting. Fortunately for Hope, Calvin missed a lot of them. The game got very chippy and physical toward the end.

Calvin's defense was clearly geared toward clamping down on Snuggeruud, doubling and sometimes triple teaming him. This left Hope with some wide-open three's, which they knocked down. Calvin's defensive intensity in the second half seemed to throw the Dutchmen off, which may account for why Hope guards missed three wide-open layups.  At halftime it seemed to me that Calvin just didn't have enough guys on the floor who can score - but jeez - 53 in the second half is nothing to sneeze at. That has to be a concern to the coaches. That and free throw shooting.

Snikkers may be right to be excited about next year. They're bringing players back and losing only one. If they can put together 40 minutes of basketball game after game like they did last night, they will be a force to be reckoned with. Had they done it this year they would have played Adrian last night instead of Hope.

But for now it's all about the rest of this year. Calvin gave Hope a good test last night, and I suspect the pressure-cooker did Hope some good. They need to improve their interior defense and their free-throw shooting. They'll have to play whole games with the defensive intensity they showed in the first half. They'll need Logan to step up like he did last night. They'll need Peter Bunn to be Peter Bunn again. They'll need NVA to stay out of foul trouble. But Calvin knows how to play this team and these players, in that environment. It promises to be an exciting (what I hope is a couple of) week(s).

[Flying Dutch Fan]

The truth of the matter is that these two players are the same age with the same amount of time spent in college basketball...one got more tick his FR year while the other had a chance to hone his talents against better competition, where they stand today is clearly evident...Kruis is the better player...

Kruis may be the better player right now, but the experience he and Nate have is no where close to equal. NVA's freshman year at CMU included so little actual playing of basketball that it did not consume a year of eligibility (as recognized by his medical redshirt from the  NCAA). 

After being in pre-season workouts and practice with CMU, he played a total of 12 minutes over 3 games in November.  As reported on the CMU website:

"2010-11: [Game-by-Game] Appeared in three games off bench at Outrigger Hotels Rainbow Classic in Honolulu, Hawaii (11/12-16) ... missed final 28 games of season due to illness ... received a medical redshirt ... transfered to Hope College prior to the 2011-12 season."

Due to the illness, Nate simply did not play any basketball for an extended period of time.  First organized basketball he played was at Hope, this school year.  While he did gain some experience with practicing against the CMU team in pre-season, the long lay-off (IMHO) negates that to a certain extent. 

[Busted Stuff]

If I had an MVP vote, without a doubt I would give it to Mr. Krombeen.  While I appreciate how skilled a player Nate Snuggerud is, I think he is a direct beneficiary of Krombeen's play; moreso than David is of Snuggs. I understand that basketball is a team sport, and the MVP award in many cases is a "team" award as well, but it is awarded to one person.  Krombeen seems to hit big shots whenever his team needs him, whether it be a three or breaking his man down off the dribble. He is the straw that stirs the drink! MVP for me!

[Erm Schmigget]

Grey-  I agree with your comments for the most part.  I think Snuggs creates alot of offense for himself, so I would say that emphasizing Krombeen's contributions to that isn't wrong, but it could give the impression that you're overlooking the progression Snuggs has made as a scorer.  Looking back on some of the shots he's made, I found myself wondering "how in the heck did that go in?"  With all that in mind, though, you're right about David Krombeen as the favorite for MVP.  Overall, +k.

FDF-  Thank you for pointing out the true amount of experience NVA has had in comparison to other MIAA players.  I would add to that by saying that between his brief tenure at CMU and coming to Hope, he picked up some bad habits playing in what I guess you might call "disorganized" basketball.  That was a concern that someone very much in the know shared with me earlier this year, and something he has, and will continue to, improve upon this year and in the 3 years of eligibility he has thereafter.  Count on it.  (I would give you +k too, but I guess I'll have to wait until later today.    )