MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[Flying Dutch Fan]

Off-topic:

Calvin volleyball hosts a regional starting Thursday. As expected, Hope got an at-large and travels to Elmhurst. The two teams are bracketed opposite and if they keep winning would meet in the national championship game at Hope. Now that would be interesting.

Basketball Committee - please take note that it is feasbile to separate teams like this so as to more equally balance the bracket!!!

Meeting for a nataional championship - as a fan, AWESOME!!!   For my friends in the Hope ticket office - I would never wish that on my worst enemy.

[KnightSlappy]

Off-topic:

Calvin volleyball hosts a regional starting Thursday. As expected, Hope got an at-large and travels to Elmhurst. The two teams are bracketed opposite and if they keep winning would meet in the national championship game at Hope. Now that would be interesting.

Basketball Committee - please take note that it is feasbile to separate teams like this so as to more equally balance the bracket!!!

Meeting for a nataional championship - as a fan, AWESOME!!!   For my friends in the Hope ticket office - I would never wish that on my worst enemy.

It's much easier to do in Volleyball where the whole tournament is played in two weekends. The "pods" can be arranged however you want because there are no intermediate sites before the championship site.

[calvinite]

While it's great that Hope and Calvin are on the opposite sides of the bracket -- which is the first thing I checked -- I would hardly call the brackets balanced. Hope's quarter of the bracket is certainly the toughest (4 of the top 8 ranked teams are in that quarter), and their half of the bracket has 6 of the top 8 ranked teams. Given the men's soccer draw this morning, however, I'm guessing Calvin's men's soccer team would prefer Hope's draw to the bracket that they got.

Post Script: I've also been very disappointed when Calvin and Hope have met in the 2nd or 3rd round of the tournament.

[realist]

Off-topic:

Calvin volleyball hosts a regional starting Thursday. As expected, Hope got an at-large and travels to Elmhurst. The two teams are bracketed opposite and if they keep winning would meet in the national championship game at Hope. Now that would be interesting.

Basketball Committee - please take note that it is feasbile to separate teams like this so as to more equally balance the bracket!!!

Meeting for a nataional championship - as a fan, AWESOME!!!   For my friends in the Hope ticket office - I would never wish that on my worst enemy.

It's much easier to do in Volleyball where the whole tournament is played in two weekends. The "pods" can be arranged however you want because there are no intermediate sites before the championship site.

Perhaps the fact Calvin has already played 9 of the teams in the tournament makes it much easier for the committee to get a feel across regions.  Every season I wonder how it is that the volleyball team can manage to schedule top teams from Ohio, but men's bball can't seem to make it happen. 
  AQ, CU, Grace Bible, and the other "little sisters of the poor" don't get scheduled, and apparently travel isn't an issue either. 

[KnightSlappy]

Off-topic:

Calvin volleyball hosts a regional starting Thursday. As expected, Hope got an at-large and travels to Elmhurst. The two teams are bracketed opposite and if they keep winning would meet in the national championship game at Hope. Now that would be interesting.

Basketball Committee - please take note that it is feasbile to separate teams like this so as to more equally balance the bracket!!!

Meeting for a nataional championship - as a fan, AWESOME!!!   For my friends in the Hope ticket office - I would never wish that on my worst enemy.

It's much easier to do in Volleyball where the whole tournament is played in two weekends. The "pods" can be arranged however you want because there are no intermediate sites before the championship site.

Perhaps the fact Calvin has already played 9 of the teams in the tournament makes it much easier for the committee to get a feel across regions.  Every season I wonder how it is that the volleyball team can manage to schedule top teams from Ohio, but men's bball can't seem to make it happen. 
  AQ, CU, Grace Bible, and the other "little sisters of the poor" don't get scheduled, and apparently travel isn't an issue either.

Basketball doesn't have the same "let's play four games in two days" kind of culture that Volleyball has with the mega weekend tournaments. Outside of conference play the Calvin Volleyball team took one trip to Ohio and one trip to California, that was the extent of the travel. And the California trip was before class was in session.

[sac]

Saginaw Valley State 76  Alma 44
http://athletics.svsu.edu/sports/mbkb/2013-14/boxscores/20131111_0rjk.xml

SVSU designated this as a exhibition overnight so it didn't count for anyone, but then they consider themselves 2-0 with 3 exhibitions in 4 games so who knows.  Like Olivet the Scots tried to balance the minutes with the bench getting about half the game.  Four Fr. played including Ivy Johnson* who started.  Chase Fairchild, Tyler Edwards and Quinton Cook were the others.    Alma's going to be a touch taller than in recent years, but by no means 'tall'.  Also another very young team.

*  Johnson is listed as a Fr on the roster but he played in 6 games for Alma the first semester.  He may have snuck under the minimum for an injury year?

[sac]

On my blog I tried to measure Hope's youth by assigning numbers to class like so  Sr=4, Jr=3, So=2 and Fr=1 and divided by roster size.

I tried this for the whole league.  On rosters with more than 15 I simply cut out the extra Fr. except Alma because they've played 4 Fr. in a game and their 26 man roster says all 10 Fr shouldn't count.

Kzoo      2.67
Calvin    2.53
Alma      2.40
Adrian    2.36
Hope      2.36
Trine      2.35
Albion    2.20
Olivet    1.80

That Olivet team is just incredibly young.

Maybe I'll revisit this later with minutes weighted or something.

[almcguirejr]

OT: Davenport University football announcement.

http://www.dupanthers.com/news/2013/11/12/DANCE_1112135418.aspx?path=general

[maroonandgold]

There is a very skimpy write-up on local college basketball teams in the Grand Rapids Press.  It claims that Calvin's first game is today rather than next week as the schedule indicates.  It does mention the records last year and one or two players per game.  But is shows little information about prospects for any of the teams.  It gives the impression that someone with little time or interest was told it is time to have an article about the local college bb teams.

[calvinite]

Calvin men's varsity basketball will play the alumni tonight (11/13) at Calvin (the old field house; not VA Arena).  An inside source reports that the the intent of this game is to be more on the 'serious' side of things, not just a 'fun' game. Sorry... I should have posted this earlier....

Also forgot to include the start time: pretty sure it's 7:30 PM.

[sac]

Hope takes on Grand Valley State Thursday night in the final exhibition for the league before things kick off for real Friday.
GVSU press release fluff:  http://www.gvsulakers.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/111313aaa.html


I was under the impression GVSU was in a bit of rebuild mode but the Lakers were picked 2nd in the GLIAC North with 6 first place votes from 24.  Maybe last year was the rebuild.  (also Ric Wesley has been there 10 years, yikes!)

From the GLIAC preview:

Grand Valley State University

Coach: Ric Wesley is entering his 10th season as the head coach of the Lakers

2012-13 Record: 19-9 overall, 15-7 in the GLIAC

Overview: The Lakers are coming off a year where they made the semifinals of the conference tournament and expectations should be high with nine returning players. Five of those players started at least one game. Junior  guard Ryan Saban will lead the way, averaging 10.8 points per game a season ago. He is a solid shooter and was 88.1 percent from the free-throw line. Ricardo Carbajal, a sophomore forward, shot 55.9 percent from the field and clicked for 7.3 points per outing. Guard Rob Woodson is the lone senior and dished out 41 assists last year. Junior forwards Darius Norman and Darren Washington will be key players as well while sophomore guards Ernijs Ansons and Darren Kapustka will both vie for more playing time.

Noteworthy: Freshman Luke Ryskamp is the brother of former GVSU women's star Erika Ryskamp, who helped the Lakers win the 2006 NCAA Division II national championship.


vs Michigan State, GVSU used this starting 5 and primary bench
http://www.gvsulakers.com/sports/m-baskbl/stats/2013-2014/msu-gv.html

G  Darren Kaputzka  5-9  So.
G  Rob Woodson  5-11  Sr.
G  Ryan Sabin  6-4  Jr.
F  Trevin Alexander  6-6  Fr.
F  Bryan Bollin 6-7  Jr.
---------------------------------------
C  Darren Washington 6-8  Jr.
G  Ernijs Ansons 6-2  So.
G  Luke Ryskamp  6-3  Fr.
F  Chaz Rollins  6-6  Jr.


Hope's starting 5 is little tougher to figure out and not just because they haven't made a public appearance yet.  Grant Neil would probably start at the 3 but he's still playing soccer and Caleb Byers would maybe start at the 4 but his injury will likely keep him sidelined tomorrow.  So this is a complete guess....

G  Ben Gardner  6-0  So.
G  Corey McMahon  6-2 Jr.
G  Alex Eidsen  6-2  So.
F  Brock Benson  6-8  So.
C  Nate VanArendonk  6-10 Sr.
--------------------------------------
I'm slotting Benson at the 4 just because, but the 3/4 could also go to one or two of these 3 guys with Eidsen at the 2.
F  Sam Otto  6-3  So.
F  Harrison Blackledge  6-6  Fr.
F  Keith Brushwyler  6-6  Fr.

In other words, yeah I don't know.  But I suspect we'll see most of Hope's bench quite a bit with a chance either or both Sashsa Yonov and Ryan Skowronek make the trip off the JV team.

If you believe roster heights and weights than Hope isn't giving up much per man, in fact in the starting 5's above Hope is the heavier team by 35 lbs.  GVSU has more 6-6, 6-7's on the bench to throw out there if needed.  The likely difference will be athleticism where the D2 guys would be sure to have the advantage.

[KnightSlappy]

As a Calvin fan, there's no such thing as too much Grant Neil. Give him as many minutes as he can handle.

[calvinite]

I tend to agree with that assessment on the hard court, but didn't Neil score a big goal (or maybe assist) against Calvin in the MIAA soccer tournament (note: shootouts don't go in the books as a loss, but what else do you call it?) a few days ago? That tie/loss ended Calvin's season.

[Dutch Touch]

No, Grant didn't score or get an assist in the MIAA tournament championship, but he did gut out a great performance and converted his PK in the shootout. Hopefully it will be a while before he can join the bball team due to his commitment with soccer.

His many assists throughout the soccer seasons did come from his long throw in as displayed in the Hope v Calvin bball game last year.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

I tend to agree with that assessment on the hard court, but didn't Neil score a big goal (or maybe assist) against Calvin in the MIAA soccer tournament (note: shootouts don't go in the books as a loss, but what else do you call it?) a few days ago? That tie/loss ended Calvin's season.

It's a tie for both teams and a team advances in a tournament in a shootout - unless it is the national championship and then for some reason they credit the team with a win or loss.