MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[realist]

Calvin floats up to #11 in the latest poll. Feels high to me.

http://d3hoops.com/top25/men/2013-14/week1

I am inclined to agree with you, and felt that 17 was a tad high to begin with.  Once again the games with Wheaton and Carthage should give us a better feel for where Calvin really is versus normally tough teams.
I think the voters have really struggled with all the "upsets".  I can see Woo beating Wheaton, but the loss to Loras is hard to square in for Wheaton, and darn next thing you know Loras does the same thing to IWU.  Lurking on the other boards seems to indicate many people are scratching their heads over ytd results. 

[sac]

Four games tonight

Calvin will roll at Manchester, but the road game aspect probably keeps it "closer"

Heidelberg at Albion.....these games have given Albion trouble recently, too early to make anything of H'berg.   Good win over Transy maybe, losses to maybe good Mt. St. Joe and D1 Ohio.

Siena Heights at Adrian.......I think Siena might give Adrian a lot of trouble.  SH improved its roster, is a year older while Adrian lost more and is far from the roster that beat SH easily last November.  To date the Saints haven't performed though at just 3-6 with a sketchy loss or two. This begins a stretch of 4 games against the WHAC bottom dwellers, Adrian needs to win these.


Baldwin-Wallace at Olivet.......first game of an interesting double-header involving the Hope/Olivet women.  BW shouldn't have much trouble with the Comets. 

[KnightSlappy]

Four games tonight

Calvin will roll at Manchester, but the road game aspect probably keeps it "closer"

Heidelberg at Albion.....these games have given Albion trouble recently, too early to make anything of H'berg.   Good win over Transy maybe, losses to maybe good Mt. St. Joe and D1 Ohio.

Siena Heights at Adrian.......I think Siena might give Adrian a lot of trouble.  SH improved its roster, is a year older while Adrian lost more and is far from the roster that beat SH easily last November.  To date the Saints haven't performed though at just 3-6 with a sketchy loss or two. This begins a stretch of 4 games against the WHAC bottom dwellers, Adrian needs to win these.

Baldwin-Wallace at Olivet.......first game of an interesting double-header involving the Hope/Olivet women.  BW shouldn't have much trouble with the Comets.

Pretty much agree with sac's assessment.

I have Manchester being a perhaps good offense (though maybe not) and a probably really bad defense. A final in the 79-64 range would be an okay result. 10 point win wouldn't be reason to panic, but 20 would be better.

I think Tryansylvania might be a really bad team this year, so Heidelberg's win might bot be all that impressive. But yeah, jury is still out. Albion looks like they might be legit, could win this one by 10.

Baldwin Wallace will probably beat Olivet by about 20.

(trying out a way-too-early score prediction model)

[wiz]

During this Thanksgiving season, I am thankful this is the last time I will be listening to the Manchester announcers.

[KnightSlappy]

During this Thanksgiving season, I am thankful this is the last time I will be listening to the Manchester announcers.

Calvin leads 39-28 at the half.

Takeaways:

-- The Manchester announcer remembers BJ Van Loo from last year.

-- Manchester has "all the odds going in their favor" because they drew a few on-the-floor fouls.

--Deekstra and DeVryes seem to be playing well, but it was nice to see Hughey-zenga get in the game

--Manchester scored probably three points in the last several minutes, but it was said that they might have the momentum going into the half.

[wiz]

During this Thanksgiving season, I am thankful this is the last time I will be listening to the Manchester announcers.

Calvin leads 39-28 at the half.

Takeaways:

-- The Manchester announcer remembers BJ Van Loo from last year.

-- Manchester has "all the odds going in their favor" because they drew a few on-the-floor fouls.

--Deekstra and DeVryes seem to be playing well, but it was nice to see Hughey-zenga get in the game

--Manchester scored probably three points in the last several minutes, but it was said that they might have the momentum going into the half.

And don't forget Deekstra's dirty play.

[oldknight]

The Knights still need some work on the defensive end, but their offensive efficiency tonight has been excellent. Very few mistakes with the ball. To my surprise, Jordan Daley looks better every game he plays the point and he scores with a minimum number of shots.

[goodknight]

Final

Calvin 78
ManU 50

Jordan Brink with 17, Tyler Dykstra with 13, Jordan Daley with 12 and Tyler Kruis with 11.

[KnightSlappy]

78-50 is the final, Calvin wins over Manchester. A pretty good all-around effort by the Knights. +15 on the glass and 12-25 from the arc.

Brad Visser missed a shot. He's now only 3-4 on his three-pointers this year.

[ziggy]

The Knights still need some work on the defensive end, but their offensive efficiency tonight has been excellent. Very few mistakes with the ball. To my surprise, Jordan Daley looks better every game he plays the point and he scores with a minimum number of shots.

To your point:
20 assists to just four turnovers.

[KnightSlappy]

The Knights still need some work on the defensive end, but their offensive efficiency tonight has been excellent.

A 144 offensive efficiency rating for the Knights tonight (1.44 points per possession). That might be the highest game rate since I've been keeping track (3 or 4 years). Defensive efficiency rating was around 92 which is a solid number, but not overwhelming against an overmatched opponent. Only calculated 54 possessions, so a slow pace.

Box is here: http://www.muspartans.com/sports/mbkb/2013-14/boxscores/20131126_qst6.xml

[oldknight]

A couple of quick game notes:

--I keep saying I don't see Jordan Daley at the point, but he's in the process of proving me wrong. Jordan can put points on the board without dominating the ball, thereby allowing Jordan Brink to have the ball more, get some shots and flourish. After tonight's performance Daley has scored 43 points in four games on only 23 shots from the floor. That's darn good.

--Speaking of Brink, he continues to have a huge impact, getting 4 more assists to go along with his team high 17 points on 6-10 shooting. Jordan now leads the team in both points (63) and assists (20). He also has committed only 5 turnovers while making a lot of really good decisions with the ball. I feel very comfortable when the ball is in his hands.

[sac]

Baldwin-Wallace 101  Olivet 89
http://miaa.org/mbb/stats/1314/1126olbw.htm

Nice comeback for BW considering Olivet had them 12 down in the first half.  The Yellowjackets played a pretty poor first half of defense giving up 52.  BW was much better in the 2nd half on the defensive end, more ball pressure and did a much better job cutting off the lane.  Held Olivet under 30% from the floor which was probably all of the margin.  The frantic pace of the first half was slowed quite a bit, both by BW and 52 second half FT's.

BW's best players didn't disappoint as All-OAC guys Krekowiak and Payne were defensive matches Olivet had no answer for.  Krekowiak was the smooth shooting forward on the wings and Payne was a beast in the post at 6-9, 252.   PG Jaren Crowe added 24.

To be honest I was a little underwhelmed by the OAC favorite, their first half though was probably pretty lackluster.  I think their 2nd half was probably closer to the team they really are, in which case yeah they're a good team.


The bad news for the MIAA is that this Olivet team looks ahead of last years and I think they have some really nice looking Freshmen.  Add in a couple good JC transfers and its the makings of the same kind of team that gave everyone a fit at their place last year.  Still pretty undersized, but looked a little quicker to me.  Youth might get them a couple times but I think I see this team being in a lot of MIAA games with a chance to win.  (You've been warned Hope(again))

Olivet played a lot of 1-3-1 zone in the 2nd half.  I don't remember seeing that from them last year.  It was effective for them enough times to stick with it.

[sac]

Siena Heights 66  Adrian 53
http://miaa.org/mbb/stats/1314/1126adsh.htm

I think we all knew taking Cody Barnes and Adam Meier out of the equation meant a little offensive trouble for Adrian.  They've played the last two without Eric Lewis and that's a lineup that will make it really hard for them to win games.

up next for them is 0-8 Marygrove.

[oldknight]

Calvin's 2012-13 team was one of the better shooting teams in recent Calvin history. Before this season began there was some speculation that the 2013-14 version of Calvin basketball would be a better shooting one than last year's. Through four games that speculation is holding up very well. Against Manchester, Calvin shot 51.7%, the Knights' worst shooting performance of the season. For the year, Calvin is hitting 55.6% overall and 48.6% from the arc. Expect those numbers to go down the next two weekends, especially given the better quality of the upcoming competition, but it's encouraging to see these numbers. Among other things, it seems that having a brand new pair manning the point hasn't hurt Calvin's ability to get a lot of high quality shots, both inside and outside.