MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[KnightSlappy]

Massey SOS ranks for MIAA teams:

Hope: #1
Alma: #5
Albion: #22
Calvin: #27
Olivet: #139
Adrian: #225
Trine: #297
Kalamazoo: #327

[Mr. Ypsi]

Massey SOS ranks for MIAA teams:

Hope: #1
Alma: #5
Albion: #22
Calvin: #27
Olivet: #139
Adrian: #225
Trine: #297
Kalamazoo: #327

BUT ... still about a month premature for quoting Massey.

[KnightSlappy]

Massey SOS ranks for MIAA teams:

Hope: #1
Alma: #5
Albion: #22
Calvin: #27
Olivet: #139
Adrian: #225
Trine: #297
Kalamazoo: #327

BUT ... still about a month premature for quoting Massey.

Never too early to quote Massey.

[kzoo99]

Kzoo 25 marygrove 15 @ the half. Good defense and rebounding by kzoo. Only 3 fouls.

[kzoo99]

kzoo 53 marygrove 51.  Rebounds were the story. 53-28 for kzoo/size]

[BogeyMan]

Two good wins this week for the MIAA over the always tough NCAC.  Trine's win over a very good Ohio Wesleyan team and a win last night for Albion over a middle of the pack Kenyon. One has to believe the MIAA is a bit better this year than last.

[sac]

Two good wins this week for the MIAA over the always tough NCAC.  Trine's win over a very good Ohio Wesleyan team and a win last night for Albion over a middle of the pack Kenyon. One has to believe the MIAA is a bit better this year than last.

I don't know how good Kenyon is this year but that's an opponent that has given the Britons some trouble over the years.  All of these were close games into the final minutes.

2014  @Kenyon 76  Albion 71
2013  Kenyon 70  @Albion 65
2011  (n)Albion 72  Kenyon 66
2009  Kenyon 61  @Albion 55




Today probably isn't the best day to debate whether the league is better than last year with Wheaton, Chicago and NAIA #1 Indiana Wesleyan on the schedules.

[sac]

Watching ind. Wesleyan and olivet.  After a 10-3 start for the comets it's been mostly wesleyan.   Comets playing a very active 2-3 zone. Iwu talll and long.  33-27 iwu at the half

Update. 15-0  iwu run to open the 2nd and could have been 20 or more


Iwu heads to Puerto Rico after this game.  Played the first half like they were halfway there

[maroonandgold]

Watching ind. Wesleyan and olivet.  After a 10-3 start for the comets it's been mostly wesleyan.   Comets playing a very active 2-3 zone. Iwu talll and long.  33-27 iwu at the half

So far it's not looking like a good day for the MIAA.  Trine  has lost, and both Kalamazoo and Olivet are far behind in the second half.  Alma has Wheaton coming up.

[kzoo99]

kzoo lost 72-53. Shooting woes hurt them.  They competed well but shot 34 percent vs 47 for chicago.  Missing a few players (ghafari and whitney) that play significant minutes. 

[toooldtohoop]

trying to watch alma wheaton.  No audio?

[almcguirejr]

kzoo lost 72-53. Shooting woes hurt them.  They competed well but shot 34 percent vs 47 for chicago.  Missing a few players (ghafari and whitney) that play significant minutes. 

Is this the large print version for the vision impaired?

[maroonandgold]

trying to watch alma wheaton.  No audio?

I did not try the audio, but the video is quite good.  Alma is playing tough and only trails by 2 at half with a score of 42-44.  That is a good sign for them and for the competitive ability of the league.  It would be great if they can pull it out, and at this point it appears to be possible.

[sac]

Indiana Wesleyan 73  Olivet 53

Wesleyan is a very good basketball team.  Hard working, make the extra passes, really fun team to watch.  It was pretty clear early on the Wildcats weren't all in the game.  They probably thought their trip to Olivet would be easy but the Comets competed hard, stayed in a zone that was decent at times and made life more difficult for IWU than they wanted.  Once they began unlocking the zone though there wasn't much stopping them.  After Olivet's early 10-3 burst to take the lead it was all IWU even with a slimish 6 point halftime lead, it just didn't feel like Olivet was going to stay close for much longer.

Sure enough the Wildcats blew the game open to start the second half.  I happen to be standing at the door as they entered the gym for the second half and made a team circle and gave each other strong words of encouragement.  It might as well have been over then.   Stronger defense, some transition buckets and completely obliterating Olivet's zone with the extra pass down low led to a 15-0 run to start the half and it could have been so much worse.  The Wildcats made just 1 of 6 3-point shots during this run.  On the season they're a 46% team from 3 but struggled today even against that zone and getting a lot of wide open shots.  They made just 5 of 24 on this day.

Interesting finish to the game:   IWU only plays 3 guards, a fourth is listed as guard but plays the 3/4 spot the whole game.  With the score in hand IWU trotted out a lineup of 6-2, 6-5, 6-6, 6-6 and 6-9  with no point guard and no real ball-handler.  They played like that for 5 minutes and even subbed a couple of other 6-6 guys.

Terrific team, one that moves to 12-0 and every bit worthy of their #1 NAIA II ranking.  I'd really like to see what they could do in the MIAA or CCIW, or even the D3 tournament.  (Kind of scary young too)



Olivet
The Comets have a couple injury issues, Vondette is out, and it appear Blake Krum may be as well.  He was in street clothes looking more like a coach than a player and still limping.  Maybe he'll be ready by the MIAA.  Chris Coles is playing a lot of guys and certainly has a lot of similar parts and pieces.  They have the look of a team really searching for lineups and combinations that work.  If you asked their staff I'm not sure they could rattle off their best players right now.

A couple things working against the Comets they can't really do anything about.  They are not very tall, and they are pretty young.  Coles went with an all Sophomore starting lineup today leaving better and more experienced guys like Union, Callahan, Easter and Antic on the bench.  Those also happen to be their only upper classmen (and all transfers in).  Height wise they have 7 footer Adam Raynor but in a game where IWU could trot out wave after wave of 6-6 guys the tallest guy in the gym played just 4 minutes and was manhandled.  Beyond him, RJ Hass and Nick Pepin are the only guys over 6-4 and they didn't look anything like Wesleyan's 6-5/6-6 guys.  Against most teams with any kind of front line they're in trouble.

What the Comets did do well was compete.  The zone they employed was very active and they were able to get their hands on a lot of passes especially early in the game.  Man for man they were just over-matched today but not from a lack of trying.  I also like their team spirit, the bench was up constantly encouraging the guys on the floor even when the score was pretty much settled.

Olivet might struggle to stay off the basement floor this year but they'll stay in more games than many figure.   Its really a matter of can they score enough to stay close enough at the end of games.  So far they've topped out at 67 and over 60 just 3 times.

Lastly I'll just mention Indiana Wesleyan is probably not the best opponent to gauge how good or bad a team is because those guys could beat a very large slice of D3 on any given night.  The Comets will go from playing NAIA's best to maybe one of its worst, Monday they host Marygrove.

[sac]

Wheaton 85  Alma 65

Thunder led by 27 at one point