MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[calvinite]

Calvin's last three wins come on the same 2 courts that the Calvin women volleyball team won their last two national championships.

[oldknight]

What a phenomenal game for Jordan Brink. The quiet assassin not only led all scorers with 27, he also snared a game high 11 boards. He's gotta stop missing free throw though. 8-10 from the stripe is unacceptable.

[Mr. Ypsi]

What a phenomenal game for Jordan Brink. The quiet assassin not only led all scorers with 27, he also snared a game high 11 boards. He's gotta stop missing free throw though. 8-10 from the stripe is unacceptable.

True, dat.  In the Tournament Fantasy contest, I was the first to draft a Calvin player.  I took Kruis, whose season fantasy stats were just slightly better than Brink's.  Tonight Kruis had 11 fantasy points; Brinks had 40!

Since their next game is against my Titans, I assume you won't hold it against me if I root for Kruis to have a monster game, but his team to lose!

[almcguirejr]

Calvin played great basketball for 33 and 1/2 minutes and then made enough plays down the stretch to hold off Wash U in a very physical game.  Wash U was not going to let Tyler Kruis beat them tonight and they were very physical with him.  He was knocked to the floor a half a dozen times at least.  Calvin persevered tonight and fought through some turnovers, giving up some offensive rebounds and some unbelievable 3 point shooting by Wash U to survive and play another weekend.  Calvin made some mistakes at the end, but the effort it took to win the game was phenomenal. 

Highlights:

- The starting front courts for Witt and Wash U combined for 22 points in the 2 games against Calvin this weekend.  Dykstra, DeVries, Kruis, and Stout off the bench have been very good.  Daley also has done a nice job when asked to play in the front court

- Jordan Brink hitting a huge 3 after Wash U had cut it to 4 with just over 4 minutes to play. Wash U had just gone on a 10-0 run in 2 minutes. Brink then scored 4 more points on Calvin's next 2 possessions. 

- Austin Parks was great tonight.  18 points, 1 turnover. 

- Jordan Daley's coming through with 12 points tonight. 

- Tyler Kruis and Austin Parks hustling back to break up a long pass on a fast break, only to be knocked to the ground by a flying Tyler Dykstra (who was also busting his tail) to make sure Calvin didn't give up an easy basket.  3 guys going all out.  It was great to see.  The whole team has typified that effort.

Hoping when we can get some Chicago area Calvin alums to the games next weekend.

[arena]

Kevin Vande Streek knows how to win in the Tournament. You can argue he doesn't get his teams there enough -- which, fair enough -- but Calvin has typically come out very strong when they get there (especially when you take out the results of playing good Hope teams for the fourth and fifth time in a season).

This is probably why he doesn't immediately switch up his defensive style the minute they lose to Hope in conference play. When that thing starts ticking at the end of the year, good teams such as Wittenberg and Wash U can look bewildered. This Calvin team has absolutely come together in the last couple of weeks.

So interesting that the guards have proved to be a major strength at the end of the year when they seemed to be the team  weakness early on.  They have really come on in defense and have done a much better job of protecting the ball on offense.  I'll admit that early on I thought they would have trouble all year with speedy guards.  Boy, has that changed!

True about the guard play.  I hated the back court play at times this year.  In fact, the guard play is why I walked away from the second Hope game.  I couldn't take the how weak they looked.  Now, fun unit to watch.

[wiz]

Headed to Bloomington.  Bring it on!

[sac]

IWUhoops.com/Bob Q ‏@IWUhoopscom 14h

I've never been so happy to learn that Carlisle, PA is over 500 miles from Grand Rapids, MI. #d3h

[calvinite]

Bloomington, Il, I take it. At first I thought you meant Bloomington, IN and that the committee decided to choose a neutral site so that none of the teams would need to fly.

Do we have game times for Friday and Saturday?

[GoKnights68]

IWU's season results:  http://d3hoops.com/teams/Illinois_Wesleyan/men/2013-14/index

[HOPEful]

IWUhoops.com/Bob Q ‏@IWUhoopscom 14h

I've never been so happy to learn that Carlisle, PA is over 500 miles from Grand Rapids, MI. #d3h

I have an image in my head of IWU fans everywhere typing Grand Rapids, MI and Carlisle, PA into google maps and whispering, "No whammie, no whammie, no whammie...""

[Gregory Sager]

IWUhoops.com/Bob Q ‏@IWUhoopscom 14h

I've never been so happy to learn that Carlisle, PA is over 500 miles from Grand Rapids, MI. #d3h

I have an image in my head of IWU fans everywhere typing Grand Rapids, MI and Carlisle, PA into google maps and whispering, "No whammie, no whammie, no whammie...""

I have an image in my head of IWU fans calling their grandkids and asking them to explain how to calculate the distance between Grand Rapids, MI and Carlisle, PA on a computer.

[oldknight]

IWU's season results:  http://d3hoops.com/teams/Illinois_Wesleyan/men/2013-14/index

Titan Q has a very nice thumbnail sketch summary of the two teams on the CCIW board which Calvin fans might find worth reviewing. Let me try and supplement it with some additional narrative which is partly based on personal observation. I actually went to DeVos Fieldhouse in December and watched the Titans beat Hope 91-83.

IWU is a veteran, well-rounded and well coached team that can test you at any position. I posted after that game that they very much had the look of the kind of team that makes it to the Final Four and based on how the rest of their season has gone, that statement seems to have stood the test of time. Like Calvin they rebound well, defend well and shoot the ball well. They have a power forward, Victor Davis, who is absolutely ripped, and a highly effective 6'5" post player, Andrew Ziemnik, who is plays with exceptional basketball IQ. The backcourt is very strong and deep with Pat Sodemann and Dylan Overstreet starting. Both are 6'3" and are one of the few backcourts that can match the size of Calvin's. Of course, by the same token, Calvin has one of the few backcourts that can match IWU's in size so it will be interesting to see how that plays out. I liked Sodemann a lot and he can really shoot the ball from the arc where he is hitting an outstanding 51% for the year. He's not one-dimensional and reminds of former Hope star and conference MVP, Steve Cramer. Overstreet didn't have a great night against Hope but he's talented. When Ron Rose needs to sub in the backcourt he doesn't lose much. Bryce Dolan, in particular, impressed me. He killed Hope from the arc and isn't the least bit shy about putting it up from the NBA three point line.

The night I saw IWU play Hope, the home team would have won if it had been able to match the Titans from the arc. IWU went 12-26 from downtown while Hope was a mere 3-15. That was the clear difference between the two teams that night. IWU is a fine team and Calvin will have to be at their best to have a chance to win. The Titans are an outstanding three point shooting team (42%) and they take a lot of those shots. For the season they have taken some 201 more triples than Calvin and made 101 more than the Knights. If IWU shoots like that from the arc, it could be a long night for the Knights. The good news for Calvin is that if they defend the perimeter well I think they have a good shot at winning. When the Titans have struggled they have almost always shot poorly from the arc and given Calvin's ability to defend in the paint, the odds favor Calvin if IWU struggles from the perimeter. Given Calvin's defensive play the last few games, that's reason for encouragement. It's a major test for Calvin but if you want to get to a FInal Four you have to beat teams like this. I'm pretty sure IWU isn't rubbing their hands in glee at having to take on a team like Calvin who seems to be peaking.

[Titan Q]

IWU's season results:  http://d3hoops.com/teams/Illinois_Wesleyan/men/2013-14/index

Titan Q has a very nice thumbnail sketch summary of the two teams on the CCIW board which Calvin fans might find worth reviewing. Let me try and supplement it with some additional narrative which is partly based on personal observation. I actually went to DeVos Fieldhouse in December and watched the Titans beat Hope 91-83.

IWU is a veteran, well-rounded and well coached team that can test you at any position. I posted after that game that they very much had the look of the kind of team that makes it to the Final Four and based on how the rest of their season has gone, that statement seems to have stood the test of time. Like Calvin they rebound well, defend well and shoot the ball well. They have a power forward, Victor Davis, who is absolutely ripped, and a highly effective 6'5" post player, Andrew Ziemnik, who is plays with exceptional basketball IQ. The backcourt is very strong and deep with Pat Sodemann and Dylan Overstreet starting. Both are 6'3" and are one of the few backcourts that can match the size of Calvin's. Of course, by the same token, Calvin has one of the few backcourts that can match IWU's in size so it will be interesting to see how that plays out. I liked Sodemann a lot and he can really shoot the ball from the arc where he is hitting an outstanding 51% for the year. He's not one-dimensional and reminds of former Hope star and conference MVP, Steve Cramer. Overstreet didn't have a great night against Hope but he's talented. When Ron Rose needs to sub in the backcourt he doesn't lose much. Bryce Dolan, in particular, impressed me. He killed Hope from the arc and isn't the least bit shy about putting it up from the NBA three point line.

The night I saw IWU play Hope, the home team would have won if it had been able to match the Titans from the arc. IWU went 12-26 from downtown while Hope was a mere 3-15. That was the clear difference between the two teams that night. IWU is a fine team and Calvin will have to be at their best to have a chance to win. The Titans are an outstanding three point shooting team (42%) and they take a lot of those shots. For the season they have taken some 201 more triples than Calvin and made 101 more than the Knights. If IWU shoots like that from the arc, it could be a long night for the Knights. The good news for Calvin is that if they defend the perimeter well I think they have a good shot at winning. When the Titans have struggled they have almost always shot poorly from the arc and given Calvin's ability to defend in the paint, the odds favor Calvin if IWU struggles from the perimeter. Given Calvin's defensive play the last few games, that's reason for encouragement. It's a major test for Calvin but if you want to get to a FInal Four you have to beat teams like this. I'm pretty sure IWU isn't rubbing their hands in glee at having to take on a team like Calvin who seems to be peaking.

This is very accurate, oldknight.  I would only add a few things in terms of where IWU is now vs December 21...

* IWU PG Dylan Overstreet had a really tough game vs Hope.  I wasn't there, but by all accounts he just wasn't himself in that one in almost any phase of the game (he was 1-5 from the field and had 5 turnovers).  Dylan was a 1st Team All-CCIW player as a sophomore, and a 2nd Teamer this year (could have been 1st but they went with Davis and Ziemnik instead).  It's hard to determine exactly who IWU's MVP is with this group, but it'd be easy to make a case that it's Overstreet.  He's a lot better player than he looked in that game on 12/21.

* The biggest development with IWU's team since that game is the emergence of 6th man Jordan Nelson, a 6-1 SG (transfer from D1 Evansville).  Nelson was injured (severe ankle sprain) in IWU's first practice of the year and missed the entire practice season, and then first 5 games.  The Hope game was his 5th game, and he was still pretty out of sorts at that time - didn't really know the offense, his teammates, etc..  Nelson has been IWU's leading scorer in 6 of the last 10 games (25 vs Augustana, 18 at North Central, 19 vs North Park, 17 vs Carthage, 16 vs Webster, 20 vs St. Norbert).  The Titans are a much more dangerous team since Nelson got fully healthy and fully into the flow of things.  He's a guy you have to guard from 25 feet and his presence really creates great spacing for IWU's offense.  He is also a really good perimeter defender and is usually asked to take the opposing team's best guard.

* IWU was also missing 6-8/245 center Mike Marietti in the Hope game (knee injury that also kept him out the practice season and most of the non-conference).  Marietti was inserted into the starting lineup last night and was a big presence on both ends of the floor vs St. Norbert.  He is a very big body, but also has really nice touch around the basket and out to 15 feet.  Marietti is still a sophomore finding his way, but I really like him - he brings a lot to the table.


With all of Calvin's size, this is going to be a great matchup...really looking forward to it.

[KnightSlappy]

Sounds like Kevin Vande Streek will be on tonight's edition of Hoopsville, which begins at 7 PM.

[calvinite]

Hey, if anyone's able, I'd love a post here when Kevin is about to speak on Hoopsville. I'm busy entertaining guests, but I can keep this screen open and possibly catch the interview. Otherwise, I'm pretty sure they archive the shows.

THANKS!