MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[almcguirejr]

Trine 71-58 secures the home game next Wed.
Holmquist with 26 points.

That game is Thursday night.

[realist]

Trine 71-58 secures the home game next Wed.
Holmquist with 26 points.

That game is Thursday night.

Thanks.  Thats what I get for believing the Trine announcer.

[goodknight]

Calvin 71
Albion 54
Final from Kresge

[oldknight]

Calvin 71
Albion 54
Final from Kresge

A fairly comfortable, workmanlike win for the Knights. From the looks of it (there essentially was no radio broadcast) a couple of thing stood out for me:

--Today Calvin seemed to have perfected the art of going back door when wing defenders overplayed their man. The Knights got more uncontested layups in one game than I've seen in years, doing a lot of that damage in the first half in particular. When Albion defenders backed off after getting burned, Calvin shooters buried 10-20 looks from the arc, most of them wide open. There's a reciprocal relationship between successful back door cuts and wide open outside looks.

--Seems to me ever since TJ Huizenga started to get major minutes off the bench, that Calvin consistency has jumped. The senior from Randolph WI again got his hands on several loose ball rebounds and he just understands how to play the game in a way that helps his team.

[sac]

Hope 56  Adrian 41

Slowest game of the year in the MIAA I think.  Hope made Adrian shoot jumpers and they couldn't make many.  Both teams were terrible from behind the 3-point line, 9-38 combined.

Blackledge and Benson were way more than Adrian could handle today.  Blackledge 20, Benson 11

Fewest points Hope's allowed an MIAA opponent since the 100-35 win over Kzoo in 2003.

[sac]

Calvin 71
Albion 54
Final from Kresge

A fairly comfortable, workmanlike win for the Knights. From the looks of it (there essentially was no radio broadcast) a couple of thing stood out for me:

--Today Calvin seemed to have perfected the art of going back door when wing defenders overplayed their man. The Knights got more uncontested layups in one game than I've seen in years, doing a lot of that damage in the first half in particular. When Albion defenders backed off after getting burned, Calvin shooters buried 10-20 looks from the arc, most of them wide open. There's a reciprocal relationship between successful back door cuts and wide open outside looks.

--Seems to me ever since TJ Huizenga started to get major minutes off the bench, that Calvin consistency has jumped. The senior from Randolph WI again got his hands on several loose ball rebounds and he just understands how to play the game in a way that helps his team.

[oldknight]

Calvin 71
Albion 54
Final from Kresge

A fairly comfortable, workmanlike win for the Knights. From the looks of it (there essentially was no radio broadcast) a couple of thing stood out for me:

--Today Calvin seemed to have perfected the art of going back door when wing defenders overplayed their man. The Knights got more uncontested layups in one game than I've seen in years, doing a lot of that damage in the first half in particular. When Albion defenders backed off after getting burned, Calvin shooters buried 10-20 looks from the arc, most of them wide open. There's a reciprocal relationship between successful back door cuts and wide open outside looks.

--Seems to me ever since TJ Huizenga started to get major minutes off the bench, that Calvin consistency has jumped. The senior from Randolph WI again got his hands on several loose ball rebounds and he just understands how to play the game in a way that helps his team.

Being the humble sort, I didn't even mention the game-breaking three ball I nailed mid-way through the second half.

[TUAngola]

Just back from the mens/womens doubleheader in Angola.  Trine men 71 Olivet 58.  Hope women 68 Trine 58. (This womens result coupled with Olivet's win over St Mary's clinches the 4th seed for Olivet due to the tiebreaker with Trine.  Nonetheless a tremendous improvement for the ladies from Trine this year!)

Men's game was not as close as the final score indicated.  We pretty much played with a 20 pt lead throughout the 2nd half.  News flash---none of the big 3 played more than 30 minutes! That might be the first time this has happened all year.  Not the greatest shooting day for Trine, but they did the other things they typically do game in and game out to win....play tough "D", take care of the basketball and hit their free throws.  They even outrebounded Olivet, which for Trine doesn't happen very often.

What else can I say about Jared Holmquist this year.  He was a man among boys today.  26 pts, 9 reb, 4 ast, 1 steal, 1 block in 26 minutes.  I have now seen every conference team in Hershey Hall this year, and in my mind no one has played better than Jared Holmquist and he should get serious consideration for MIAA MVP.  Of course this is skewed because I have not seen the whole body of work of the other stars in the league; Jordan Brink, Harrison Blackledge, Scott Nikodemski, et al.  But if you take away Holmquist from Trine, no way does this team finish in the top half of the conference.  If you take away the other 3 stars from their respective teams do they still finish where they are at?  I would probably say yes.  Again a lot of factors play in to this, Trine starters play heavy minutes compared to the other teams starters thus resulting in more opportunities to pad their stats, but on the flip side playing heavy minutes also means playing when gassed but still producing.  Jared also has the uncanny knack to stay in games with foul trouble.  Many games he gets a couple fouls early on, including today, but Coach Miller knows that Jared plays so smart he can shuffle him back in playing with 2. 

I am pretty certain Jordan will win the MVP.  He has been a stud throughout his career with Calvin.  But Jared has to be seriously considered too and should be right there with Jordan.

On a side note we almost broke 1000 today at Hershey, 975 in attendance, with even quite a few fans sticking around for the womens game (those free hot dogs maybe had something to do with that  .  It was nice they opened up the 2nd level seating.  It makes the gym so much larger and it feels more like a college gym atmosphere, and those first 5 or so rows in the upper gym have seat backs too!

Good luck in the tournament to your respective teams!

[realist]

TUA.  Very good game by Trine.  Did you understand why the Olivet bench got those two technicals? 

[sac]

With the regular season over I think I'd go with this for All-MIAA

MVP--Jordan Brink, Calvin

First Team
Jordan Brink, Calvin
Jared Holmquist, Trine
Harrison Blackledge, Hope
Scott Nikodemski, Alma
Brock Benson, Hope
Will Dixon, Trine

2nd Team
Ricky Jackson, Adrian
Jordan Daley, Calvin
Travell Oakes, Albion
Jake Zielinski, Olivet
Ben Gardner, Hope
Tyler Good, Trine
DJ Beckman, Alma

This is leaving out a handful of good players like Alex Eidson-Hope, Austin Parks-Calvin, Deondre Callahan-Olivet, Adam Peters-Kzoo, Ben Sykora-Trine and I really liked Doug Bradfield and Jason Beckman at Alma.

The coaches typically defer to Sr's so Peters probably gets on the first or second team.


Notes:
--Out of the league's top 20 leading scorers only 4 graduate.  Brink, Callahan, Good and Peters.

--Pretty sure Will Dixon set the single season mark for FT% and Jordan Brink the career mark for FT% in league games

--Trine set the league games single-season team FT% at a whopping 85.1%, Hope shot 80.5% which also broke the old record.

[TUAngola]

TUA.  Very good game by Trine.  Did you understand why the Olivet bench got those two technicals?

Realist---they were both called "administrative technicals".  The first one was because Olivet subbed in a player that was not in the scorebook.  Not sure about the second one.  It was very strange.  Never seen anything like it.  Maybe Olivet needs a new "scorebook administrator". 

Speaking of Olivet, just on a side note I noticed in the game program that 24 players have played in a varsity game for Olivet this year.  24!!  On second thought maybe I will give the "scorebook administrator" a pass this time not knowing who was dressed for today's game. 

[knightvision]

What else can I say about Jared Holmquist this year.  He was a man among boys today.  26 pts, 9 reb, 4 ast, 1 steal, 1 block in 26 minutes.  I have now seen every conference team in Hershey Hall this year, and in my mind no one has played better than Jared Holmquist and he should get serious consideration for MIAA MVP.  Of course this is skewed because I have not seen the whole body of work of the other stars in the league; Jordan Brink, Harrison Blackledge, Scott Nikodemski, et al.  But if you take away Holmquist from Trine, no way does this team finish in the top half of the conference.  If you take away the other 3 stars from their respective teams do they still finish where they are at?  I would probably say yes.  Again a lot of factors play in to this, Trine starters play heavy minutes compared to the other teams starters thus resulting in more opportunities to pad their stats, but on the flip side playing heavy minutes also means playing when gassed but still producing.  Jared also has the uncanny knack to stay in games with foul trouble.  Many games he gets a couple fouls early on, including today, but Coach Miller knows that Jared plays so smart he can shuffle him back in playing with 2. 

I am pretty certain Jordan will win the MVP.  He has been a stud throughout his career with Calvin.  But Jared has to be seriously considered too and should be right there with Jordan.

First, I'll echo goodknight's comments--it's been fun to read your summaries.   Since I'm a Calvin fan, my nod for MVP for game summary poster goes to oldknight, but I'd probably have you tied for for second with sac.  On second thought, since sac is a Hope fan, I'll give you the nod    Keep in mind though that I don't have enough posts to actually give any "official" love, so take it for whatever it's worth!

I happen to know Jared and his family a bit, and in addition to having a fine year he's a great kid from a nice family who plays the game the right way --exactly the kind of kid you love to see have success.  As I noted in a post a couple days ago, though, I think Jordan is a slam dunk for MVP.  The only thing I'd probably disagree with in what you said is what I highlighted.  I haven't seen nearly as many games as  several other Calvin posters on here, so I will defer to them, but right off the top of my head Calvin doesn't win home games against Alma, Albion, or Hope if they don't have Brink.

The fact that Brink and Holmquist are so critical to their respective team's success is but one of the reasons that I think the tourney is a complete toss-up.  If either one of those guys has a bad game, the chances for team success drop pretty significantly--probably less for Calvin because of their depth, but still a significant hurdle. 

I honestly will not be surprised at any result in the league tourney--I don't think there is much separation between these four teams right now.  Should be entertaining!   

[TUAngola]

[

First, I'll echo goodknight's comments--it's been fun to read your summaries.   Since I'm a Calvin fan, my nod for MVP for game summary poster goes to oldknight, but I'd probably have you tied for for second with sac.  On second thought, since sac is a Hope fan, I'll give you the nod    Keep in mind though that I don't have enough posts to actually give any "official" love, so take it for whatever it's worth!

[/quote]

Thanks for the kind words.  I am not a long time follower of Trine basketball, been more of a Trine football guy here.  I did go to some games when Trine/Tri-State was running that Grinnell College offense under Coach Harmon...I couldn't stand it!  When Trine hired Coach Miller they hit a home run.  His teams are so disciplined and fundamentally sound, which I enjoy tremendously.  Being an Indiana kid I idolized Bobby Knight growing up.  Not necessarily the person, but the coach.  Coach Miller uses a lot of the same philosophies of his teams; motion offense, man to man defenses, getting to the free throw line more than your opponent, etc.  It has been a pleasure to watch the boys play this year.  To me there probably isn't a huge differential in talent in the 8 MIAA teams.  So it mostly comes down to execution of the game plan.  Trine doesn't "wow" you with an abundance of talent, they just execute with what they have and work extremely hard!

I agree that any of the 4 teams could win the MIAA tournament.  Is there any team playing better right now than Alma?  They are on fire and will be a scary matchup for Calvin.  In the Trine-Hope game I think the key player will be Benson.  If he can stay out of foul trouble it makes things very tough on the undersized Trine team.  If I remember right in the first game they played in Angola, both Benson and Holmquist both picked up a quick 2 fouls.  Benson sat the rest of the first half but Trine continued to sub Holmquist in and out with 2 fouls, and that coaching move proved huge in the game.

Good luck to all your favorite teams in the tournament.  Unfortunately I have a prior engagement to attend this Thursday evening and can't make the Hope-Trine game and it is killing me!    Trine finally gets a home tournament game and I can't go....argh!

[sac]

Fiddling around with SOS stuff.

Hope and Calvin need to ditch playing Cornerstone and Aquinas in favor of playing even mediocre D3's.  The extra win% would soften the blow of individual losses.  What Hope and Calvin are doing right now is making their margin for error even smaller than their OAC/NCAC counterparts.


With two more wins vs D3, Hope would actually be looking at being at the tail end of the Pool C consideration instead of being out of it.



And another thing.......

Just one more non-conference win for each MIAA school can result in a nearly .030 increase in SOS calculation.   That's significant.

Its nice that Olivet and Alma want to beat themselves up by playing tough schedules but it really doesn't help them or their conference by going to such an extreme.  Its better to schedule mediocre games on the road you can possibly win.

[HOPEful]

Hope and Calvin need to ditch playing Cornerstone and Aquinas in favor of playing even mediocre D3's. 

Yes. A thousand times, yes. A lose/lose situation where a win is meaningless and a loss is damning. According to Massey, Cornerstone was Hope's best win this season. Even with a better record, I'm certain the selection committee would have counted the Aquinas game as a bad loss and the Cornerstone win as an insignificant win against a non NCAA team.

Why not invite John Carroll and Mount Union up for an MIAA/OAC challenge. Each team playing Hope and Calvin at their place? Or 2 NCAC teams? Or an MIAA/UAA challenge with Chicago and Case Western? For crying out load, two AMCC teams would be better!