MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[Flying Dutch Fan]

The 11am hope at Trine JV game is not happening. Fell victim to the early travel south by the Hope team (last evening) to ensure the varsity game could happen. Still a 1pm start for the varsity game.

I was wondering if any teams would consider doing this. I can imagine Hope didn't want to risk going two games down on the schedule.

First time in my memory that it's been done during league play. That being said it was absolutely a wise decision. Started out this morning to head to Angola and turned back due to the road conditions. Hope the team has a great game and a safe trip home.

Lucky for us we have the chance now to go watch the ladies Hope Calvin game at the DeVos.

[Flying Dutch Fan]

According to the Hope broadcast "most of the MIAA teams traveled last night"

[sac]

Hope 67  Trine  56

Sounds like a pretty solid all-around effort.  Trine was missing Tarvis Malone and played only 7 guys for most of the game.

Hope led the whole game and by double-digits for a lot of it, just never really able to connect the knock out punch.  Trine rallied in the final couple minutes to narrow the score to single-digits had one chance to get it to 5 or less.

Hope:  Eidson 15, Gardner 11, Byers 10
Trine:   Dixon 18, Holmquist 17

[sac]

Kalamazoo 60  Albion 58

3rd  loss at home for the Britons.  K tried really, really, really hard to give this one away at the end, squandered a 7 point lead and missed the front end of 1 and 1's twice.  Lawrence Ridgell missed a 3 that could have won it that no one watching video saw.

Albion just 10-20 from the FT line.

K:  Peters 22, Ghafari 21
Albion:  Evans 18, Ridgell 14

[northb]

Calvin 78 Alma 67
Alma led by two at the half, and kept it close or led until about 11 minutes left.  Then Calvin went on a 12-0 run.  Alma got close again, cutting it to 6, but Calvin had too many weapons. 

Beckman had 31 (!!) and Law 19 for Alma.
Brink 21, Kruis 19, and Daley matches his career high with 17.   

[sac]

If we had an 8 team tournament the team no one would want to play in the first round would be Alma.

[arena]

Sam Hargraves is probably the hardest working coach in the MIAA.

[sac]

Adrian 69  Olivet  67

Adrian comes all the way back from 17 down in the first half, hit 3 straight 3's to close a 9 point gap in about 1 minute with 10 to play, then sort of steal this one. 


edit, looks like this wasn't quite over with Olivet having to make and miss a ft for a chance to tie.

[realist]

Sam Hargraves is probably the hardest working coach in the MIAA.

Hard to argue that point.  Imagine what "Sammy" would do if blessed with the talent some of his counterparts enjoy.  I especially enjoyed the part when he was about 3 feet out on the court physically positioning one of his players where he wanted him.

[arena]

Sam Hargraves is probably the hardest working coach in the MIAA.

Hard to argue that point.  Imagine what "Sammy" would do if blessed with the talent some of his counterparts enjoy.  I especially enjoyed the part when he was about 3 feet out on the court physically positioning one of his players where he wanted him.

I have to say I was thinking about what he would do with Calvin's team.  Is there a WAR for MIAA coaches?

[oldknight]

Gotta admire the pesky Alma squad that showed up at VNA today. There's no quit in that club who, at times in the first half, showed more moxie than did the host club. The Scots actually outrebounded Calvin the first 20 minutes and outshot the Knights as well. As badly as Calvin shot the ball the first half (9-32) they were a little lucky to only be down two at the break. The second half was taken over by Calvin's two steady seniors, Brink and Kruis, plus an excellent session by Jordan Daley The trio combined for 39 points on 14-19 from the floor in the final 20 minutes of action. Good thing too because Alma went 8-15 from three over the same period and would have sprung an upset if the Knights had given a lackluster effort.

If we had an 8 team tournament the team no one would want to play in the first round would be Alma.

Other game notes:

--some really unusual first half rotations for Calvin. At times they had three guards (Parks or Daley, combined with Brink and Visser) on the floor at the same time and, at one point, that group was joined by Huizinga and Kruis.

--speaking of Visser, he got into the game early--within the first three minutes--but wasn't much of a factor in the game scoring zero points in nine minutes of play.

--Daley isn't your typical point guard but he seems to be warming to the position and had a very effective game for Calvin. Daley played 30 minutes and was turnover free for the afternoon. His teammates looked often to get him the ball in the post and he repeatedly delivered, scoring 14 second half points. A muscular 6'3" with good footwork around the basket it's a lot to ask of your standard D3 point guard to try and guard Jordan down low. Just by the way he works his defender you can tell Daley spent a lot of time in the paint as a high school player.

--Congrats to Tyler Kruis who scored his 1000th career point today.

--I don't know if Hope ever spent any effort to try and recruit DJ Beckman, but if they didn't that was a mistake, This kid can really play. He's hardnosed, competitive and can score inside and out.

Sam Hargraves is probably the hardest working coach in the MIAA.

Maybe the most observant too. In the second half, one of his starters was whistled for an obvious and totally justified foul call along the baseline which caused the young Scot to houl in protest. That led one endzone observer and MIAA board poster--who shall remain nameless to protect the guilty--to smartly and loudly remark with "You were all over him so quit whining." The Alma player turned, looked at the offending commentator and yelled back "Shut up" Hargraves immediately pulled his player where he was lodged in the doghouse for over four minutes.

[KnightSlappy]

Shall remain shameless as well, I'm sure.

[KzooHornet]

Kalamazoo 60  Albion 58

3rd  loss at home for the Britons.  K tried really, really, really hard to give this one away at the end, squandered a 7 point lead and missed the front end of 1 and 1's twice.  Lawrence Ridgell missed a 3 that could have won it that no one watching video saw.

I picked a bad day to stop taking my blood pressure medication...

A pretty well-played game by K turned into a nail-biter at the end today.  Kalamazoo took the lead late in the first half thanks to a big half from Adam Peters.  Mark Ghafari led the charge out of half-time and K held the lead most of the second half.  As SAC pointed out, the Hornets will take the win, but would probably like a do-over on the final minute.   K's 4 possessions in the last minute went turnover, turnover, missed FT, missed FT. 

I don't know if it was already mentioned in here, but Mark Ghafari and Adam Peters were just named 2 of the 5 members of the Co-SIDA All-District Team - http://hornets.kzoo.edu/sports/mbkb/2013-14/releases/20140131zd7snm.  Our district (I think) includes Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.  Quite an honor for two outstanding young men.

[almcguirejr]

Sam Hargraves is probably the hardest working coach in the MIAA.

I think Sam Hargraves does a very god job with Alma.  He had his team play about as well as they could possibly play today.  However, just because he is prancing up and down the sideline, yelling, and carrying on does not make him any more hard working than any other coach.  Personally, I am tired of seeing Tom Izzo, Tom Crean,and some these other coaches running up and down the sideline, being on the floor, and generally making spectacles of themselves.     

Hard to argue that point.  Imagine what "Sammy" would do if blessed with the talent some of his counterparts enjoy.  I especially enjoyed the part when he was about 3 feet out on the court physically positioning one of his players where he wanted him.

Maybe if "Sammy" had worked harder in practice the player would have known where to position himself.

[sac]

Anyone watch the documentary on Hope/Calvin today?