MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[GoKnights68]

Thursday's match-up at Van Noord should draw quite the crowd.

[KnightSlappy]

With MIAA play just around the corner, I'd guess the final standings to look like:

1. Calvin
2. Adrian
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3. Hope
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4. Trine
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5. Alma
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6. Albion
7. Olivet
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8. Kalamazoo

[Adrian Bulldawg Alum]

I'm tentatively planning a trip to Adrian for the January 5th Hope@Adrian game - anyone gonna be there?  Should be a better game than one I went to there with my family, who had little trouble talking me out of leaving at the half with Hope up by c. 30!  Although Adrian is my more local team, I'll sit with Hope since I have yet to meet any Bulldog posters (are there still any?), but I retain the right to be more-or-less neutral!

It doesn't seem like it.  I know I haven't posted in a long time, but I've been paying attention.  Hopefully there are people still paying attention, especially since they should be to this Adrian team.

I haven't commented too much, but I just recently watched them play and I was one of former players that got to play a scrimmage against this team.  I came away thinking 2 things: 1st, I am continually impressed by Mark White.  2nd, this is a tough, athletic, and good shooting team.  They are real contenders.

Tonight, they beat Mt. Union 73 to 63.  Sean Gallant scored 27 and had 11 rebounds.  It seems like Adrian has different people fill the stat sheet in different games so they don't have to rely on just 1 or 2 players each game.  I really want this team to make the NCAA tournament and I feel like they will do it.

I also think one thing that people haven't talked enough about is the transfer Brandon Romain.  He has made an immediate impact on a team that already was having success.

I'll try to give Adrian a little more representation, though I'm not sure if I'll be making the Jan. 5th game.  If I do, I'll let people know where I'll be eating before or after the game (Garfield's or El Chaps).

Go Bulldogs!

[Knight2Day]

Calvin wins 87-62.  Brink with 27.
Calvin 12/19 on 3's. 63%.

All that and Brink only played 23 minutes. Wonder what would've happened if he would've scratched 28-30.

[Mr. Ypsi]

A Bulldog sighting!  A Bulldog sighting!  Alert the media!

There have been several over the years, but with a #12 national ranking, one would think there would be more action.

El Chapulin (The Grasshopper) is a favorite of mine (not sure if I know Garfield's) - if you wanna meet up, I'll buy.  (I was a youth soccer coach for a number of years.  Adrian and Ypsi were in the same travel league.  Most years Adrian was the dominant team, so we very much savored any wins we got [about 1/3 of the time].  They built a series of fields over on the northeast side that were the envy of the league.)

[oldknight]

There are a lot more good things than bad to say about Calvin's 25 point win over Ripon College. One night after Andy Draayer showed up as a spectator, Jordan Brink put on a Draayer-esque type of performance by drilling 7-7 from beyond the arc, six of them in the decisive first half of play. After Calvin's win over Wabash on Friday night, I suggested that Jordan needed to shoot the ball if he really wanted to help the Knights win. Mr. Brink took my mild tongue lashing to heart and came out firing. It's amazing how much better Calvin looks when their best shooter actually shoots the ball. In his defense Jordan hasn't played poorly this year, it just seems it has taken a few games for him to find his rhythm after a year away from the game. Now he appears to have the rhythm back and he was phenomenal, scoring 22 in the opening twenty minutes of play, grabbing rebounds, and interrupting passing lanes.

Sports generally are a test of wills and once a team begins to impose theirs on an opponent, that's when the game is generally won or lost. On Saturday afternoon, the last four one-half minutes of the first half was the time. The contest was tied at 26 when Bryan Powell hit a triple just seconds after stealing a pass. That jump-started the Knights who outscored the Red Hawks 25-3 for the balance of the half, a time of sustained excellence not seen on the Calvin side of the ball in quite some time. It was all fueled by great defense with Calvin getting six steals during that time and scoring on every possession. Tom Snikkers was particularly outstanding during that stretch. When he gets in the open court after a sudden change of possession he is very good. With about 12 seconds left before half time the Knights cleared room for Jordan Brink and every Calvin fan expected Jordan to do what he wound up doing--drill a deep three just before the buzzer, sending a jubilant Calvin team quickly to their locker room and leaving a bewildered and shell-shocked Ripon squad on the floor to try and figure out when the Calvin steamroller had arrived.

Now for the bad. One of the more difficult things to do in basketball is to maintain intensity after half time when it appears the final outcome is predetermined. Calvin failed that test the first 8 or 9 minutes of the second frame. The Knights played tentative and seemingly interested in only running out the clock. Ripon is clearly a better and more veteran team than Wabash was the evening before and the Red Hawks cut the lead to eleven. At that point, after a Calvin miss, Mickey DeVries dug out a huge, gritty rebound, got fouled while putting the ball in, and then made the ensuing free throw. That play ended the high water mark of Ripon's comeback and the Knights slowly built back up to their original half time lead and then beyond to the final margin.

The other bad thing to mention was Calvin's inability to keep Ripon off the offensive glass. The Red Hawks only stayed in the game by virtue of a ridiculous 20 offensive rebounds. Admittedly, Ripon took a lot of three point attempts which is part of the reason. I don't have any data on this but I have long believed that missed three pointers are easier for the shooting team to rebound than those taken closer the the hoop. But Calvin is far too good of a rebounding team to allow an opponent to rebound 20 of their 45 misses. Jordan Brink did his job though. He grabbed 7 boards to go along with the 27 points he scored. Calvin needs to be tougher on the boards in order to beat a still undefeated Adrian Bulldog club on Thursday at VNA.

Calvin did have three dunks by three different players--Powell, Snikkers and DeVries--and I can't remember the last time I saw that happen.

[sac]

Hope 96 Aurora 85
http://www.hope.edu/pr/athletics/mbb/stats/1213/1229auro.htm

This one turned out to be exactly the kind of game I thought it would be, lots of offense, not much defense.  Yet when it mattered Hope was able to get a few stops at the end of the game with a little help from the Spartans.  Turning those stops into points was the real key.   After Aurora had pulled within 1 at 84-83, the closest the game had been since the tip, Hope outscored the Spartans 12-2 in the decisive last couple minutes.

I've not seen too many D3 squads so in love with the mid-range jumper as Aurora, they've got the guys to hit them and hit them they did.  Unfortunately for them not attacking the basket resulted in a substantial difference in FT attempts.  Shock of shocks the Dutchmen won a game at the FT line going 29-35 for 83%.......9 days ago they shot 30 something %.

Eidson 26, Benson 17, Wittenbach 13, Overway 10


Raise your hand if you thought 2 months ago those two Fr. would ever lead this Hope team in scoring in a game this year.   No one?  thought so.

[sac]

On the drive home I tuned into George Blaha and his spectacular call of the MSU/TCU bowl game.  Somewhere in the early stages of the 4th Quarter after MSU had crossed midfield for the first time in the game and scored a TD, Blaha and his sidekick were wondering who MSU would trot out on their next possession.  When Connor took the field Blaha's sidekick determined Dantonio was going with the "hothand".

Please discuss.

[KnightSlappy]

Calvin wins 87-62.  Brink with 27.
Calvin 12/19 on 3's. 63%.

All that and Brink only played 23 minutes. Wonder what would've happened if he would've scratched 28-30.

Calvin would've won if he played 30.

[pointlem]

That was a satisfying pair of DeVos games yesterday, with both so well-played.  The women in the afternoon made 58% of their 3-point shots and gave up only 10 turnovers, against a good team.  And in the nightcap, both teams treated fans to an impressive shooting display and an exciting, down-to-the-wire game, with (for Hope fans) a satisfying conclusion.

And how about those new players?  The two frosh starters combined for 43 points.  And the Eidson/Wittenbach position produced 39 points, with each at a point-a-minute rate (Eidson 26 points in 27 minutes, Wittenbach with 13 points in 13 minutes).  I look forward to the day--perhaps next year if not before--when those two are on the floor at the same time, taking Hope's long-range and free throw shooting to a high level. 

And then there's Brock Benson, whose 17 points in 20 minutes included some rotation moves around the basket that gave me a flashback of Steve Honderd.  As he gains confidence in asserting himself, and with new firepower on the outside (and more on the bench and on an excellent jv team), the future looks promising.

[sac]

Adrian plays at Defiance tonight to finish off the non-conference schedule for themselves and the league.

Defiance will be Adrian's best opponent they've played since Wooster according to massey.  The Yellowjackets are 6-4 having beaten both Alma and Kazoo already by 16 and 8.



With a 4-2 mark yesterday the league improved to 47-39 on the year (48-39 with the CofF/Hope game).

In-region goes to 26-26 with one more tonight.


The overall record is nice and the best in several years but 14-0 of it built on beating these 11 programs:  Siena Heights, Marygrove, UM-Dearborn, Lawrence Tech, Purdue-North Central, Aquinas, Finlandia, Earlham, Illinois Tech, Akron-Wayne, Mt. Vernon Naz.

Combined those 11 teams are 31-118 for a .208 win %.  And that's counting Mt. Vernon's 8-7 winning record which basically came from playing the Akron-Wayne's of the world 8 times.

[KnightSlappy]

Adrian plays at Defiance tonight to finish off the non-conference schedule for themselves and the league.

Defiance will be Adrian's best opponent they've played since Wooster according to massey.  The Yellowjackets are 6-4 having beaten both Alma and Kazoo already by 16 and 8.

With a 4-2 mark yesterday the league improved to 47-39 on the year (48-39 with the CofF/Hope game).

In-region goes to 26-26 with one more tonight.


The overall record is nice and the best in several years but 14-0 of it built on beating these 11 programs:  Siena Heights, Marygrove, UM-Dearborn, Lawrence Tech, Purdue-North Central, Aquinas, Finlandia, Earlham, Illinois Tech, Akron-Wayne, Mt. Vernon Naz.

Combined those 11 teams are 31-118 for a .208 win %.  And that's counting Mt. Vernon's 8-7 winning record which basically came from playing the Akron-Wayne's of the world 8 times.

Every team/league is going to play some bottom feeders, but has the MIAA played more than usual?

[sac]

Every team/league is going to play some bottom feeders, but has the MIAA played more than usual?

I honestly don't know.  Its just the one thing that really stood out to me this year.   The CCIW, HCAC, NCAC and OAC play almost entirely D3 schedules.  Certainly the NCAC and OAC play their share of Presidents and AMCC programs.  The CCIW has the SLIAC and NathCon to pick on.

The MIAA is probably going to play more bottom feeders because we have more non-conference games to fill than our regional neighbors.

[Adrian Bulldawg Alum]

Adrian down by 2 at half to Defiance 27 to 25.

It's been close most of the way.  The biggest lead was for Defiance by 6.

The stats are similar for each team except for some poor shooting by some of the normally accurate Adrian shooters.  Adrian went 10 of 26 from the field.  Because of this, I feel like Adrian will take it in the 2nd half.   The strength and athleticism that they possess make me believe this.

Gallant scored 5 and had 7 boards while Lewis led Adrian with 8.

Hopefully the shooting improves and they are not looking ahead to the big MIAA games coming up.

[Flying Dutch Fan]

Defiance and Adrian in OT