MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[wiz]

Congratulations to Calvin for winning another MIAA championship.

[goodknight]

If I heard the official scorer correctly, Ian Jackson scored the last 21 for Trine.  Calvin caught a huge break tonight as Scott Rogers did not play for Trine tonight.

If there's a better pure shooter in the league this year than Ian Jackson, I don't think I've seen him.  He was money in the second half, and Calvin defended him as well as you can -- legally.

[sflzman]

I don't know if anyone caught the ending of the Alma/Albion game online. But as far as games that don't matter go it sure was played like it was a must win game for both teams. Crazy finish for Alma. Almost give Albion a wide open layup on the press break but the Albion kid bobbles the ball giving Alma time for a foul. He missed the front end of the one and one. Two Almatimeouts and three Albion fouls later Krause misses a pull-up three. Deshais then misses a tip in before silverthorn finally tips one home as the buzzer sounds to give Alma the road win.

[Hopester]

Dew Crew Harlem Shake

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2VD4uzPGKE&feature=youtube_gdata_player

[almcguirejr]

Calvin won tonight and played well only the last 17 minutes of the first half.  Calvin was out rebounded for the second game in a row.  Trine out rebounded Calvin 19-12 in the second half. 

Calvin has not played a complete 40 minute game since their 3 point win at Adrian.  KVS has talked about their mental toughness and I thought that was lacking tonight.  Calvin had an 18 point lead at halftime and they put it on coast and think they can win.  Trine should have been buried tonight but Calvin let Trine dictate the whole second half. 

Bryan Powell and Jordan Brink were good for Calvin tonight.  Powell got Calvin rolling in the first half.  Calvin was terrible the first 3-4 minutes until Powell scored with almost 4 minutes gone.  That triggered a 19-0 run by the Knights.  Powell also had 2 huge 3's in the second half after Trine had cut the lead to four.

Calvin had 17 turnovers.

It didn't seem like a night to cut down nets when there is one more game to play.  I wouldn't be satisfied sharing the title with Hope.  KVS said after the game Hope would host the MIAA tournament if there is a tie for first.

[oldknight]

If I heard the official scorer correctly, Ian Jackson scored the last 21 for Trine.  Calvin caught a huge break tonight as Scott Rogers did not play for Trine tonight.

If there's a better pure shooter in the league this year than Ian Jackson, I don't think I've seen him.  He was money in the second half, and Calvin defended him as well as you can -- legally.

Ian was phenomenal down the stretch. When he has room to manuever, he's nearly unguardable. As good as he was though, Trine got back in the game with defense, by going to a double team every time the ball went to the wing. Calvin never really figured out how to attack it.

[sac]

Adrian played without Adam Meier last night, Adrian is not a team that can afford to have offense sitting in street clothes.

Trade you for Kendall Smith.

I actually think I've seen Kendall doing some D1 games.  None recently, but nov/dec.

  KVS said after the game Hope would host the MIAA tournament if there is a tie for first.

I think KVS is wrong......this assumes a Calvin loss to Olivet, both would have a loss to Olivet.  Calvin would be 6-1 on the road to Hope's 5-2.

Men's tie-breakers
a. Head to Head
b. Combined record vs. the teams ahead of the tied teams in the standings.
c. Record against 1st place team, then 2nd place team, etc....all the way through the standings.
d. Total conference road wins
e. Individual road records against conference schools, starting with the 1st place team, then 2nd place team, etc...all the way through the standings.
f. Record in second half of conference season (last 7 games).
g. In-Region win total.
   h. Coin Flip.

[sac]

Hope 87 Olivet 65

Hope brushed aside the Comets after Olivet kept themselves around with some good 3 point shooting early on.  This is just a tough defensive match-up for Hope but they were able to adjust well enough and push the pace high enough that Olivet just wouldn't be able to keep pace.

Nate Snuggerud had an excellent night with 23 points, 11 rebounds in just 20 minutes of action.  Billy Seiler had 12.  Amusing beginning, to me anyway, as Hope started Seiler, DeMaagd, Ray, Snuggerud and Holwerda.  None of these guys are PG's but it worked out ok.

Olivet was really poor on the boards but mostly because they didn't make much effort, lots of easy rebounds, Calvin will kill them Saturday if that happens.  Hope outrebounded them 58-22.

Defensively Hope did 2 or 3 things that were unexpected.  Dauntrell Hill scored 0 points, Garner Small had 2, neither of these guys looked 100% to me or certainly not as impressive as times I saw them earlier this year.  Small has really struggled in his last 3 games.  Take these guys out of the equation and its tough for Olivet to find offense.  Blake Krum is usually a pretty good rebounder, he had 0 last night.  I don't know how much influence Hope had on these numbers but certainly some.

Nice ceremony afterwards for 6 outgoing seniors, another great reminder that underneath the wins and losses are young man trying to make their path through life and that D3 athletics is there to help them along the way. 

[sac]

standings with +/-........+1 for road wins/-1 for home losses

Calvin          12-1        +6      Clinched #1 seed and home court
Hope           11-2        +4      Clinched #2 seed and home court
Trine           7-6          +1       Clinched tournament spot
Olivet          6-7          -1
Adrian         6-7           0
Alma           4-9          -3       eliminated
Kzoo           4-9         -2        eliminated
Albion         2-11        -5       eliminated

Home teams now 37-15    (11 of these road wins belong to Hope and Calvin)

Saturday, February 16
Hope at Trine, 1 p.m.
Alma at Kalamazoo, 3 p.m.
Olivet at Calvin, 3 p.m.
Albion at Adrian, 5:30 p.m.

Albion has clinched last place, wow!
Trine has clinched a tournament spot.

A Trine win Saturday clinches the 3rd seed
...combined with an Adrian win Olivet loss gives Adrian the 4th seed.   
...combined with an Olivet win, Adrian loss gives Olivet the 4th seed
...combined with an Olivet loss, Adrian loss gives Olivet the 4th seed
...combined with an Olivet win, Adrian win gives Olivet the 4th seed

IF Trine and Olivet tie at 7-7 w/Adrian loss (requires Olivet to beat  Calvin)  Olivet wins on win over Calvin
#1 Calvin, #2 Hope, #3 Olivet, #4 Trine

IF Trine and Adrian tie at 7-7 w/Olivet loss.......Trine wins on head-to-head vs Kzoo
#1 Calvin, #2 Hope, #3 Trine, #4 Adrian

3-way tie between Adrian, Olivet and Trine at 7-7(requires Olivet win over Calvin)
#1 Calvin, #2 Hope, #3 Olivet, #4 Trine

.....Olivet breaks the 3-way with better record vs Calvin + Hope
.....Trine wins tie-break over Adrian w/record vs Kzoo
.....Trine and Adrian would have a play-in game on Tuesday night, with Trine hosting because of their two wins over Kzoo.


Basically if Olivet wins, Adrian is out..........if Olivet loses, Adrian still needs to win.

[KnightSlappy]

Are they sill implementing a play-in game for fourth place ties?

[almcguirejr]

Mlive article on the Calvin game last night:  http://www.mlive.com/smallcolleges/grandrapids/index.ssf/2013/02/share_of_conference_title_does.html#incart_river

[Flying Dutch Fan]

I can envision both Trine and Olivet dropping their games this week.  Adrian, not so much.

I was right there with you on this post, then last night Kazoo puts up 70 on Adrian - 70??  Wow!!!

[oldknight]

Calvin had a close call last night but five teams ranked ahead of the Knights lost Wednesday as #5 WPI, #7 St. Mary's, #11 Hampden-Sydney, #16 Ramapo, and #18 Rose-Hulman all went down. Rose-Hulman was defeated by an Earlham team that had lost ten straight and who now improves to 3-21.

[realist]

If I heard the official scorer correctly, Ian Jackson scored the last 21 for Trine.  Calvin caught a huge break tonight as Scott Rogers did not play for Trine tonight.

During the broadcast Dougie W. asked someone where Rogers was, and the answer was flu.

[oldknight]

Yesterday I suggested reading KnightSlappy's blog containing what he labels "definate proof" that the NCAA calculation method is flawed and being implemented wrongly. This can hurt many teams but to use Calvin as an example he points out that had the Knights played Manchester, Finlandia, and Wabash all at home (instead of road-road-neutral), the "new" calculation method would have increased their SOS by .008. If KS is correct (and knowing Matt's attention to detail, I'm confident he is) this is really a disgrace. As was rhetorically asked on the Pool C board, it's just not possible to defend the NCAA on this.

I believe Calvin is the best team in the MIAA this year. Obviously, they will need to prove that next week.