MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[KnightSlappy]

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!

Coming up right after this break.

[calvinite]

GREAT!!! Guests not here yet, so I won't even have to be rude and listen while they are here!

Thanks!!!!

[Mr. Ypsi]

And Hoopsville archives go up immediately after the show.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Many, many thanks to Calvin for allowing the sectional to be at the Shirk instead of in St. Louis.

But don't think our gratitude extends to not trying to beat the snot outa ya!

The way Calvin is now playing, it oughta be a very good game.  But TQ is quite correct that IWU is now a much improved team than the one that beat Hope - Nelson just might be our best player at the moment (I think of him as IWU's version of Vinnie 'The Microwave' Johnson - a guy who can come off the bench to bury 3-4 3s in a very short time to launch a comeback or ice a game).  And Marietti had IMO his best game yet yesterday.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

You can actually listen to the Hoopsville archive while we are on the air... the video is like a DVR... you can watch earlier parts of the show even if we are on the air.

[ziggy]

You can actually listen to the Hoopsville archive while we are on the air... the video is like a DVR... you can watch earlier parts of the show even if we are on the air.

That's what I did! Love the new setup, Dave!

[13xchamp]

Great weekend for the Knights, peaking at the right time. Thanks to the IWU fans for the chuckle, with the old "we are much better than the team that put up 91 at DeVos because of xyz...." line. No one here is underestimating your team. I will say that if you are going into the paint vs the Knights right now, you better have hair on your chest.

On to Bloomington.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Great weekend for the Knights, peaking at the right time. Thanks to the IWU fans for the chuckle, with the old "we are much better than the team that put up 91 at DeVos because of xyz...." line. No one here is underestimating your team. I will say that if you are going into the paint vs the Knights right now, you better have hair on your chest.

On to Bloomington.

I was just trying to give you fair warning!

And Victor Davis has plenty of hair on his chest.  I suspect Andrew Ziemnik does too, but he has a lot less on the top of his head than last year!

I'm expecting a great game.

[veterancciwfan]

Should be 2 great games at Shirk Center Friday. Shirk Center was built in 1994 for $15 million which was a huge amount then. Great arena but seats are somewhat uncomfortable as rows are narrow. No chairbacks like the gold standard, DeVoss. IWU was very fortunate to escape Webster but played one of their best games of the year Sat. vs. St. Norbert. Undoubtedly IWU's best defensive performances of the year and the offense was back to the usual efficiency. I noticed that Calvin has 8 players who average at least 14 minutes a game. The constant story this season is that IWU's bench (Nelson is part of it) almost always doubles or triples their opponents' bench points. For you runners, there is a 5K race in Bloomington on Sunday. Race time is 1 pm our time. Great flat course. If interested, go to lakerunclub.org. For food, Tobin's Pizza is just west of the IWU baseball field on Main St. See you Friday.

[Happy Calvin Guy]

Calvin's last 3 games, all on the road:  #24 Hope, #23 Wittenberg, and #2 Wash U; Calvin outscored oppenents by 48.
IWU's last 3 games, all at home:  (unranked) Wheaton, (unranked) Webster, #5 St. Norbert; IWU was outscored by 4.

It's pretty clear who is playing better ball of late. 

I think a key to the game will be IWU's 3 point shooting. They have a number of weapons and shoot 42% as a team.  This may be even more of a factor as Nelson is getting starter's minutes recently.  In Calvin's five losses this year, opponents shot 41% on 3's.  However, since the loss to Hope in Holland on 2/5, Calvin has only allowed 31% on 3's.  I do believe that this is the result of Calvin sticking with KVS's defensive system and improving their defensive rotations as the season wears on.

Also noteworthy on an individual level--Jordan Brink is 45 points away from hitting the 1,000 point mark in three seasons. 

[Happy Calvin Guy]

New Massey ratings are out:

IWU #3 (up 1)
Wheaton #6 (up 3)
Calvin #9 (up 8)
Dickinson #25 (up 16)

Probabilities of going to Final Four:

IWU 49.2%
Wheaton 32.5%
Calvin 12.0%
Dickinson 6.3%

[USee]

Calvin's last 3 games, all on the road:  #24 Hope, #23 Wittenberg, and #2 Wash U; Calvin outscored oppenents by 48.
IWU's last 3 games, all at home:  (unranked) Wheaton, (unranked) Webster, #5 St. Norbert; IWU was outscored by 4.

It's pretty clear who is playing better ball of late. 

I think a key to the game will be IWU's 3 point shooting. They have a number of weapons and shoot 42% as a team.  This may be even more of a factor as Nelson is getting starter's minutes recently.  In Calvin's five losses this year, opponents shot 41% on 3's.  However, since the loss to Hope in Holland on 2/5, Calvin has only allowed 31% on 3's.  I do believe that this is the result of Calvin sticking with KVS's defensive system and improving their defensive rotations as the season wears on.

Also noteworthy on an individual level--Jordan Brink is 45 points away from hitting the 1,000 point mark in three seasons.

I think Wheaton has made it pretty clear the "unranked" part is mostly fallacy.  I don't think it wise to think IWU isn't playing good ball. And the bench strength advantage for either team seems a bit negated by the 4 additional TV timeouts. That has been a huge advantage for teams like Wheaton who needs Peters, Haynes and Teuscher on the floor as much as possible to compete with the top teams. The CCIW actually instituted the TV timeouts for the CCIW tournament. I believe that fact alone had a lot to do with the Thunder's performance over IWU a couple weeks ago. Looking forward to some great games at the Shirk this weekend.

[scottiedawg]

It's pretty clear who is playing better ball of late. 

I don't think it wise to think IWU isn't playing good ball.

You see this fallacy in logic all the time.  You take a relative statement "better ball" and turn it into an absolute statement "isn't playing good ball."  HCG's statement made zero implication whether IWU is playing good or bad, simply that recent results point that, whatever level IWU is playing at, it isn't at as high a level as Calvin. :-)

[ziggy]

New Massey ratings are out:

IWU #3 (up 1)
Wheaton #6 (up 3)
Calvin #9 (up 8)
Dickinson #25 (up 16)

Probabilities of going to Final Four:

IWU 49.2%
Wheaton 32.5%
Calvin 12.0%
Dickinson 6.3%

Massey says:

Calvin 71
IWU 77

Win Probability:
Calvin 27%
IWU 73%

[13xchamp]

Great weekend for the Knights, peaking at the right time. Thanks to the IWU fans for the chuckle, with the old "we are much better than the team that put up 91 at DeVos because of xyz...." line. No one here is underestimating your team. I will say that if you are going into the paint vs the Knights right now, you better have hair on your chest.

On to Bloomington.

I guess I don't understand that reaction from a Calvin fan to a pro Calvin post, but I digress. You seem to like being a lightning rod on here. You were complaining about the officiating this past weekend on here and if you were part of the extremely vocal minority at the games, I have one plea if you are going this weekend: please knock it off, it's a poor reflection on a great fan base. At one point in the Wash U game, KVS yelled at the players on the bench for complaining to the refs, I am sure he was saying it with extra decibels so some of the fans behind the bench would hear it as well. I understand there are going to be calls questioned by the fans, happens all the time, but not EVERY call is some sort of conspiracy by the refs against our team.

Now lets get back to reveling in our tourney run and trying to get some actual work done this week. Go Knights!