MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[bballfan13]

I'm interested to see what kind of a crowd is at St. Thomas on Saturday night. From the looks of it, they've been about 75% capacity for the tournament games so far (1,500 in attendance) and the campus hasn't been on spring break (that is at the end of the month according to the UST academic calendar).

I'm not sure what kind of an atmosphere they typically have up there but I doubt it will be more intimidating than what Calvin saw at Point. In actuality, Calvin (and Hope) should never be overly impacted by a hostile road environment considering none will compare to what they face in The Rivalry.

It would be nice to see another strong Calvin contingent. I know of two people that will be making their first road trip of the tourney this weekend...

1500 is right about capacity for the Shoe.  Fan#1600 is not going to find a seat. They have a couple balconies that they don't currently sell tickets for, so they're probably estimating an additional 500 seats there to come up with their 2000 seat official capacity.   They definitely did not approach their building in the same way Calvin did in terms of capacity.  They knew they'd be able to sell more than 2500 tickets for a couple games a year but they'd rather have the gym be 80% full for the majority of games.

Maybe 65% full the majority of games, even if the gym's capacity is only 1500. Tommies average home attendance this season has been 967.

You're right, same idea.  They had $60 Million to spend and could have put in 5000 seats, but wanted a cozier gym.

There's a lot to be said for the atmosphere created by a more compact gymnasium, that's for sure. They can be fun places for a fan of basketball. There's also something to be said for having a larger facility that has more than one purpose. Comfortably seated in an air conditioned arena to watch graduation is one of those purposes. Of course, as folks in West Michigan are learning to their chagrin, we really didn't have $60 million to spend for those 5000 seats.

We did have it, just put it in the wrong place 

[knightvision]

Couple of MIAA recruiting tidbits heard recently:
Cody Stuive, a 6'6" forward from Hudsonville, appears to be headed to either Calvin or Hope.  Left-handed, long, Tyler Dykstra type body, nice player.  Be nice to break the Hudsonville to Hope pipeline....
Alma is recruiting Tanner Opple and Matt Stone, both guards, also from Hudsonville.  Opple is more a pure 1, while Stone would fall into the combo guard category. 

[oldknight]

Couple of MIAA recruiting tidbits heard recently:
Cody Stuive, a 6'6" forward from Hudsonville, appears to be headed to either Calvin or Hope.  Left-handed, long, Tyler Dykstra type body, nice player.  Be nice to break the Hudsonville to Hope pipeline....
Alma is recruiting Tanner Opple and Matt Stone, both guards, also from Hudsonville.  Opple is more a pure 1, while Stone would fall into the combo guard category.

I concur. Breaking from my rule to not spend much time talking about recruits during tournament time, I will say Stuive would be a great addition and I would hate to see him play for our friends from Holland.  I understand Cody goes to the CRC, not RCA, so maybe Calvin has the inside track. He could benefit from some weight room work but he can stroke it from the arc and put it on the floor. Has tons of upside and the potential to be a pretty good defender too. Surprised he hasn't gotten more notice in the local high school hoops scene because he has had a very nice senior season at a Class A school. Also, a very good student. Here's what Steve Bell reported about Stuive last fall:


He's not as well known as he should be, as his junior year Stuive played his role behind two future college players, Blake Hibbitts and BJ Van Loo, and then didn't play with a "name" program in AAU, but when he went up against them was as good as any forward from ACB, Camp Darryl, Lakers or Storm. Like Brushwyler, another admission department's dream with a 4.0 gpa and 30 ACT. What will be crucial for Stuive is to mature from his xc runner's physique, into that of a college basketball player.

"A very good shooter off the catch with a nice size," one coach said. "Needs to be more of a factor on the defensive glass."

"The sky is the limit with this player," another coach said. "Long, smart, athletic, skilled and can play multiple positions. Not afraid of anyone or anything. Plays both ends with a passion. If he can consistently knocked down the 3, and he has a nice shot already, then what a player he is going to be."

[realist]

Not sure on which board I saw it, but someone commented something about a "raucous" crowd atmosphere at St. Thomas.  Now one person's defntition of raucous may vary considerably from anothers.  If it is anything like fellow MIAC school Gustavus A. (which Calvin played in St. Peter in 92) raucous means a football, greek type affair.   I sort of gathered from a niece and nephew who attended St Thomas that most students don't follow sports that much.  It has a large graduate student population, and many students are commuters as on campus housing as I recall is limited.  In many respects one could easily picture St Thomas more like one of the UAA schools. 

[ziggy]

Well, it appears this tournament run Calvin is enjoying is impressing the recruits. Drake Harris has de-committed from Michigan State! https://www.facebook.com/961ESPN/posts/542267145818011

[AO]

Not sure on which board I saw it, but someone commented something about a "raucous" crowd atmosphere at St. Thomas.  Now one person's defntition of raucous may vary considerably from anothers.  If it is anything like fellow MIAC school Gustavus A. (which Calvin played in St. Peter in 92) raucous means a football, greek type affair.   I sort of gathered from a niece and nephew who attended St Thomas that most students don't follow sports that much.  It has a large graduate student population, and many students are commuters as on campus housing as I recall is limited.  In many respects one could easily picture St Thomas more like one of the UAA schools.

Most of what you've said is true, but the crowd on Saturday will probably fit in everyone's definition of "raucous" if the game is close.  It's not going to be a neutral court.

[ron doney]

Not sure on which board I saw it, but someone commented something about a "raucous" crowd atmosphere at St. Thomas.  Now one person's defntition of raucous may vary considerably from anothers.  If it is anything like fellow MIAC school Gustavus A. (which Calvin played in St. Peter in 92) raucous means a football, greek type affair.   I sort of gathered from a niece and nephew who attended St Thomas that most students don't follow sports that much.  It has a large graduate student population, and many students are commuters as on campus housing as I recall is limited.  In many respects one could easily picture St Thomas more like one of the UAA schools.

Ehh, I'd say you are drawing the wrong conclusion from a quick and incomplete survey of facts.  The arena holds 2,000 and change.  We have 6,000+ undergrads.  We don't have 70% of the student body packing suite cases on the weekends.  It will be full and loud. 

It is also fair to say there will be a noticeable amount of neutral fans in attendance......the arena being in St. Paul makes it convenient for fans of the conference and small college ball to attend.

[sac]

Well, it appears this tournament run Calvin is enjoying is impressing the recruits. Drake Harris has de-committed from Michigan State! https://www.facebook.com/961ESPN/posts/542267145818011

Ahem......after his third consecutive weekend in Ann Arbor.



and yes the Curragh is right across the street from New Holland.   

[ziggy]

Well, it appears this tournament run Calvin is enjoying is impressing the recruits. Drake Harris has de-committed from Michigan State! https://www.facebook.com/961ESPN/posts/542267145818011

Ahem......after his third consecutive weekend in Ann Arbor.



and yes the Curragh is right across the street from New Holland.   

Ah well, one out of two ain't bad. Especially when the one involves food and drink.

[sac]

If you haven't seen it.......Brandon Knight needs to make better decisions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=1_rKW3HL9GE


Love his twitter response though...
Brandon E Knight ‏@BrandonKnight07

It wasn't in the scouting reports that the clippers threw lobs lol

[ziggy]

If you haven't seen it.......Brandon Knight needs to make better decisions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=1_rKW3HL9GE


Love his twitter response though...
Brandon E Knight ‏@BrandonKnight07

It wasn't in the scouting reports that the clippers threw lobs lol

I thought this was a really interesting take on the play (and the reaction to it) from Yahoo's Adrian Wojnarowski: http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nba--basketball-s-backward-culture-makes-punch-line-of-brandon-knight-for-trying-to-stop-deandre-jordan-s-dunk-174058736.html
I highly recommend the read as it really says more about the game in general than the play in specific.

[Dark Knight]

When I made the case last week for Calvin probably being superior to UW-SP by diving deeper the season records and Massey ratings, arena was vocal about his dislike of the optimistic picture I painted.  I just called it as I saw it, and that assessment looked pretty good on Saturday night.  I hate to say it but I can't paint the same picture with St Thomas.  They are healthy, deep, and playing great ball. 

About the best way to spin the data in Calvin's favor is to look at the last 4 games, in which Calvin has been playing really well.

Calvin won those games by an average of 11.5 points more than Massey says they should have. St Thomas has won their last four by 4.3 points more. That gives Calvin a 7.2 point advantage compared to Massey's prediction. Massey predicts an 8-point St Thomas win.

So, if Calvin plays as well as they have been playing, it's a near tossup, even taking into account the home court advantage for St Thomas.

[calvinite]

FYI:

CALVIN KNIGHT SPORTS REPORT FOR MARCH 11, 2013

Fan Bus for Calvin Men's Basketball NCAA III Tournament Trip Planned;
Calvin Holds Lead in Commissioner's Cup Standings

MEN'S BASKETBALL
(from the Calvin alumni office)

Knights Fans,
We're trying to bring a home court advantage to St. Thomas with a fan bus! The Tommies (ranked #1) will have good fan support. Show your Maroon and Gold spirit by coming to the game with us! Your costs will include a bus ride to the game, a ticket, pizza reception post-game and hotel.

Here's the breakdown:
-$82 per person for the bus ride
-Cost of the game ticket
-$100 for a hotel room (multiple people can stay in a room). We will stay at the Holiday Inn Express in Woodbury (off of I-94 about 20 minutes east of St. Thomas).
-FREE post-game pizza reception
The bus will stop for other meals. You will be responsible for these costs.

*Please note that in order for the bus run we need it full. Our deadline is Thursday at noon! If it is not full, we will have to cancel. If you're interested please call the alumni office at 616-526-6142.

[ziggy]

Nice little factoid from KnightSlappy's latest blog entry which exemplifies the 2012-13 Knights: In their last four games (which have basically been do-or-die type games), Calvin has had four different leading scorers.

On Saturday it was Brink with the game-high 21 points, but last week against Rose-Hulman it was Tom Snikkers with 20. Against Hope in the MIAA Championship, Bryan Powell led the way with 18 and Tyler Kruis had a game-high 15 against Adrian.

[John Gleich]

I'm interested to see what kind of a crowd is at St. Thomas on Saturday night. From the looks of it, they've been about 75% capacity for the tournament games so far (1,500 in attendance) and the campus hasn't been on spring break (that is at the end of the month according to the UST academic calendar).

I'm not sure what kind of an atmosphere they typically have up there but I doubt it will be more intimidating than what Calvin saw at Point. In actuality, Calvin (and Hope) should never be overly impacted by a hostile road environment considering none will compare to what they face in The Rivalry.

It would be nice to see another strong Calvin contingent. I know of two people that will be making their first road trip of the tourney this weekend...

Was Point really all that intimidating? The majority of the crowd is usually people from the town and families, as opposed to students (doesn't make much sense, as UWSP has 8900 students, but the WIAC in general really lacks organized student sections). In some years, the students have risen up and supported the team well (2004, 2005, and 2010, the championship years) but most years they're lacking... at least compared to what they could be.