MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[sac]

Todd Blackledge just announced on the U of M game that he will be in Grand Rapids tonight.

I hope he had better arrangements than I, because from experience I can tell you it took me two hours to get out of there.

I was just in awe of what Michigan nearly pulled off today.

[sac]

Cornerstone 79  Hope  73

don't know much about it, from the looks of the running score, this one finished closer than it was for most of  it

[almcguirejr]

Todd Blackledge just announced on the U of M game that he will be in Grand Rapids tonight.

I hope he had better arrangements than I, because from experience I can tell you it took me two hours to get out of there.

I was just in awe of what Michigan nearly pulled off today.

Devin Gardner was unbelievable today.   I thought that was a fantastic finish, until I drove home from the western suburbs of Chicago, and saw the end of the Auburn/Alabama game.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Todd Blackledge just announced on the U of M game that he will be in Grand Rapids tonight.

I hope he had better arrangements than I, because from experience I can tell you it took me two hours to get out of there.

I was just in awe of what Michigan nearly pulled off today.

Devin Gardner was unbelievable today.   I thought that was a fantastic finish, until I got from the western suburbs of Chicago, and saw the end of the Auburn/Alabama game.

The zebras stole the game from Michigan today.   Gardner's 'fumble' was NOT a fumble!  His knee clearly slammed into the ground before the fumble (the pain may have even caused the fumble).  (That's why he was gimpy the rest of the game.)  The zebras blew it on the field (understandable), and blew it again on the replay (NOT understandable).

One of the greatest UM/OSU games ever; a shame it was a sham.

BTW, I loved Brady's call for the 2-pointer.  UM was utterly incapable of stopping the run today, so going for the win before OT was IMO the right call.

[Roundball999]

Cornerstone 79  Hope  73

don't know much about it, from the looks of the running score, this one finished closer than it was for most of  it

Actually, the final score was quite representative of the game.  Hope was down most of the game but other than the last 10 minutes or so, Hope was within 2-6 points and actually had brief leads late in the first half and again a few minutes into the 2nd half.  NVA (16 pts, 9 rebs, 4 blks) made a big difference for Hope when he was in this game, both cleaning up 2nd chance points and on the defensive end.  When he was not in, Cornerstone was too strong down low and also had a lot of success with single and double screens at the high post leading to open drives down the lane.  Cornerstone has a nice team; it was really a short stretch of Hope missed 3 pointers and TOs midway through the 2nd half that gave Cornerstone some separation, other than that it was tight the whole way.

[Flying Dutch Fan]

Todd Blackledge just announced on the U of M game that he will be in Grand Rapids tonight.

I hope he had better arrangements than I, because from experience I can tell you it took me two hours to get out of there.

I was just in awe of what Michigan nearly pulled off today.

H
I think he arrived at halftime FWIW

[pointlem]

For Hope the bright spots amid the loss included NVA's 7 for 8 shooting and defensiveness presence (giving hints of a fine year ahead for him) and Ben Gardner's continued floor acumen. 

Sac has an interesting analysis on his blog of last year's Hope team, which "ranked solidly in the bottom half of D3 in both number of 3's made and percentage.  Their 32.4% from beyond the line was the team's lowest since the introduction of the shot in 1987." 

After 4 games this year, they're shooting 27.4% from 3-point land.  In the paint, NVA, Benson, and Blackledge are shooting 67%, 63%, and 50%, respectively (and respectworthily).

It was good to see Chad Carlson get a chance to show what he could do, which included hitting his only 3.  Perhaps sharp-shooting Sasha Yonov will get an opportunity before long?

In both games this week, the team showed grit when down  . . . coming from behind to win last night and to make it interesting tonight.  Having also played the two highly ranked WI teams near even for 2/3rd of those games--on their opponents' home floors--I like Hope's prospects for a successful season going forward. This is a very young team, with lots of upside potential.

[oldknight]

Cornerstone proved to be the best team at the Hall of Fame Classic. This shouldn't be all that surprising considering they recently lost by one point to an excellent Davenport squad on a pair of Panther free throws with 2 seconds left. Hope made a game of it against Cornerstone with some heady and steady play by Gardner and what I thought was the best game I've ever seen Van Arendonk play in a Hope uniform. He went 7-8 from the floor, grabbed 9 boards and swatted 4 CU shots. It helps when NVA can stay on the floor (26 minutes). Eidson really struggled this weekend, following up last night's 1-8 performance against Aquinas by going 2-9 tonight. He's always been a streaky shooter and right now the streak is going the wrong way. 13 of his 17 shots at the HOF games were from beyond the arc and that's just too one dimensional. Harrison Blackledge will be a good player in time and it was nice to see his Dad has his priorities in order and make the trip over to GR from Ann Arbor after calling the OSU vs. UM game.

Calvin started slow against Aquinas in the nightcap, somewhat reminiscent of last night's game against Cornerstone. But once the Knights got the ball rolling downhill the Saints had no answer. The good play started late in the first half with Calvin finishing on a 14-5 run to head into the break with a 29-25 lead. The Knights immediately seized control of the game by scoring the first 8 points of the second frame and eventually took a 25 point lead. Aquinas never seriously challenged in the final 20 minutes as Calvin simply showed the kind of aggressiveness that had been lacking. Some game notes:

--Jordan Brink was simply superb, going 7-10 from the floor, scoring a team high 18 points, and controlling the pace of the game in only 21 minutes of playing time. His veteran savvy is very apparent.

--Mickey DeVries was just as good making all 7 of his floor shots, grabbing 7 boards, defending, and dishing a team high 6 assists. His patience and footwork around the basket was excellent.

--I sure would like to have been a fly on the KVS lapel as he had a brief and apparently unsatisfactory conversation with Jordan Daley at about the 6 minute mark of the first half. Jordan went to the bench at that point and stayed there the rest of the half. Apparently all was well during the break because Jordan started the second half. But Parks got plenty of playing time tonight (24 minutes) and I thought he ran the team extremely well.

--Since KnightSlappy wouldn't want me to mention it, I won't breathe a word about all the mid-range jumpers and 3 point shots Tyler Kruis took tonight.

[HopeConvert]

Todd Blackledge just announced on the U of M game that he will be in Grand Rapids tonight.

I hope he had better arrangements than I, because from experience I can tell you it took me two hours to get out of there.

I was just in awe of what Michigan nearly pulled off today.

Although it shouldn't be allowed to cover up the fact that what has happened these past two years in A2 is simply unacceptable. These are sad times when we take solace in a close loss to those hated Buckeyes.

[sac]

Sac has an interesting analysis on his blog of last year's Hope team, which "ranked solidly in the bottom half of D3 in both number of 3's made and percentage.  Their 32.4% from beyond the line was the team's lowest since the introduction of the shot in 1987." 

After 4 games this year, they're shooting 27.4% from 3-point land.  In the paint, NVA, Benson, and Blackledge are shooting 67%, 63%, and 50%, respectively (and respectworthily).

Thus far they've dug themselves a pretty good hole from the FT line as well, shooting just 66.2%

Only 3 more makes gets them to 70%, so this might be a case of small sample size..

[sac]

Adrian played without Eric Lewis again yesterday.

Today they tackle their second win-less program in two days with a trip to UM-Dearborn.


If you want to get yourself in the lead for basketball fan of the year you might consider heading over to UM-Dearborn on Wednesday to be one of dozens in attendance for the 0-9 vs 0-8, Marygrove vs  UM-Dearborn game.
---------------------------------------------

Kzoo travels to Univ. of Chicago this afternoon.  If the Hornets win this one you should probably start paying attention to them.  I'm going with 170 as the over/under on points scored.

[Knight2Day]

CU conducts a clinic at the VNA 85-66.
A complete game summary is CU controlled the opening tip, every aspect, and facet of the game from that point to the end.

Losing to Cornerstone isn't the worst thing in the world (other than bragging rights, the game doesn't really "count" in terms of post season, etc)...

But was anybody else surprised by the margin?

Not really,  I told the friend I was with that the final would be Cornerstone by at least 25. That just based on how poorly they handled Cornerstone's pressure defense.

Personally I think it's absolutely embarrassing for us to think that a team as talented as Calvin should lose by 25 to anyone short of a D1. With the size and talent we have, losing by 20 to any NAIA or D3 team is a joke. 

[arena]

CU conducts a clinic at the VNA 85-66.
A complete game summary is CU controlled the opening tip, every aspect, and facet of the game from that point to the end.

Losing to Cornerstone isn't the worst thing in the world (other than bragging rights, the game doesn't really "count" in terms of post season, etc)...

But was anybody else surprised by the margin?

Not really,  I told the friend I was with that the final would be Cornerstone by at least 25. That just based on how poorly they handled Cornerstone's pressure defense.

Personally I think it's absolutely embarrassing for us to think that a team as talented as Calvin should lose by 25 to anyone short of a D1. With the size and talent we have, losing by 20 to any NAIA or D3 team is a joke.

I don't disagree with you.

[knights2000]

CU conducts a clinic at the VNA 85-66.
A complete game summary is CU controlled the opening tip, every aspect, and facet of the game from that point to the end.

Losing to Cornerstone isn't the worst thing in the world (other than bragging rights, the game doesn't really "count" in terms of post season, etc)...

But was anybody else surprised by the margin?

Not really,  I told the friend I was with that the final would be Cornerstone by at least 25. That just based on how poorly they handled Cornerstone's pressure defense.

Personally I think it's absolutely embarrassing for us to think that a team as talented as Calvin should lose by 25 to anyone short of a D1. With the size and talent we have, losing by 20 to any NAIA or D3 team is a joke.

I don't disagree with you.

I'll disagree. Nobody on Calvin's squad looks comfortable bringing the ball up against any sort of pressure. Cornerstone's smaller, quicker, point guards gave Daley, Parks, and to a lesser extent, Brink trouble. I think we'll see Calvin continue to struggle with pressure on the perimeter. Size doesn't matter if you can't get them the ball in spots where they can be effective.

[wiz]

CU conducts a clinic at the VNA 85-66.
A complete game summary is CU controlled the opening tip, every aspect, and facet of the game from that point to the end.

Losing to Cornerstone isn't the worst thing in the world (other than bragging rights, the game doesn't really "count" in terms of post season, etc)...

But was anybody else surprised by the margin?

Not really,  I told the friend I was with that the final would be Cornerstone by at least 25. That just based on how poorly they handled Cornerstone's pressure defense.

Personally I think it's absolutely embarrassing for us to think that a team as talented as Calvin should lose by 25 to anyone short of a D1. With the size and talent we have, losing by 20 to any NAIA or D3 team is a joke.

Calvin likes 20 pt margins.  They won their first four games by an average margin of 20 points so they probably thought they should lose one the same way.  Those tight games can sometimes be just too stressful.