MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[KnightSlappy]

Maybe someone with better superpowers than me will see this but its only 4 or 5 days until the start of the basketball season and MIAA.org has not updated its link to the composite schedule for 2015-16.

Manually changing the dates in the link works, but yeah, doesn't look like there's a way to click through from the site.

http://www.miaa.org/sports/mbkb/2015-16/schedule

[jspiii]

Hope JV score: Hope JV 82  Kellogg CC 74

Starters: Smith, Ray, Goral, Towns, Davis

Leading scorers: Towns - 17, Goral - 16, Smith & Mellifont - 14 each

[BogeyMan]

Very interesting game tonight (6:00 pm) with Alma playing at Ohio Northern.  Both teams were picked by their league coaches to finish fourth in their respective conferences.  Ohio Northern may have a bit of an advantage with their season starting a couple weeks earlier than Alma.  Ohio Northern had ten days of practice and a few games in Canada before the rest of the D3 schools started.  They also had a game at D1 Northern Kentucky last Saturday where the lost by five.  ONU was only down 2 with 18 seconds left.  I would really like to see the MIAA start with a win here but things don't look so good with all the extra time ONU has had.  Ohio Northern by 7.

[sac]

Today's scores
Ohio Northern 69  Alma 67
Oberlin 91 Kalamazoo 81
Trinity Christian 77 Olivet 65
Adrian 69  Carthage 59


Lee Edwards has tallied 38 and 29 in his first two games with Olivet.  Edwards played at Glenn Oaks CC after HS and  Siena Heights last year.
Adrian's Christian Coville also off to a good start with 30 and 24  in his first two games, also a transfer from Siena Heights.

[kzoo99]

Saw the Kzoo game last night versus Oberlin.  Some encouraging things...  Kalamazoo had pressure on the ball all game.  They only committed 8 turnovers.  Shot over 40% from 3.  Scored over 80 (rare occurrence last year).  Too many fouls was their undoing.  Oberlin won the game on the free throw line.  The game was called very tight.   I think 5 or 6 players fouled out between the teams.  If Kzoo can cut back on the fouls, they will be a tough out.  It was a fun game to watch.  Both teams pushed the tempo.

Someone asked if Tommy Cervan was the same as the player from Olivet. The answer is yes.  He had four assists but three turnovers. 

[GreatScot!?]

Alma played Ohio Northern U in their season opener last night. Saw lots of good things out of the Scots, but the huge amount of turnovers cost them the game. First game in a long time they dominated the boards in a game. During the second half from about 11 to 7 minutes in the game the Polar Bears went on a run that put them up 8 points and had a huge affect on the outcome. DJ Beckman is about 20 points from being the Scot's 11th 1,000 point scorer and finished with 10 on the night. Bradfield ended up with a double double, hitting some timely shots and protecting the rim. The x-factor was Ryan Burns from Ohio Northern, he finished with a double double, coming from 19 minutes, almost exclusively in the second half. The Scots take on CMU tomorrow night at 7!

[KnightSlappy]

It appears Northwood will have video of tomorrow's game / Calvin exhibition game for a $7 fee.

http://portal.stretchinternet.com/northwood/

[TUAngola]

Just back from the Trine season opener vs. Heidleberg.  Good guys win 65-50.  Jared with a double/double of 24/11.  Just love the motor on him, never quits, hustling, such a great leader.  Should have an outstanding senior year.  Will struggled with his shot but still ended up with 14.  We led from wire to wire, but really didn't break the game open until the 2nd half.  The 'Berg pressures you full court for 40 minutes and has a ton of athletes and is 10+ deep.  Trine plays their usual patient game, not much has changed from last year.  The difference between the 2 teams is fundamentals.  Trine just plays so smart.  We were outsized at every position but if you hustle and want it more, that pays dividends most nights.  We started 4 guards and Jared tonight.  In the 2nd half both Tarvis Malone and Fr Kyle Dodson hit 5 treys between them to put separation between Trine and The 'Berg.  Still a thin bench, but Coach Miller's philosophy has been to play 8 deep, and let your studs play the big minutes.  We are a little banged up, saw 1 guy on crutches, and 2 guys in walking boots, and also Ellis Cummings didn't play so not sure what was going on there, he didn't look injured.  So I do know at least 2 of the guys that are out would have been in the rotation.  As far as the newcomers go, Dodson started and the Jr transfer Ciszewski was one of the first off the bench.  Good first game, I know The 'Berg got us at their place last year so was nice to get a little redemption.

[BogeyMan]

Alma played Ohio Northern U in their season opener last night. Saw lots of good things out of the Scots, but the huge amount of turnovers cost them the game. First game in a long time they dominated the boards in a game. During the second half from about 11 to 7 minutes in the game the Polar Bears went on a run that put them up 8 points and had a huge affect on the outcome. DJ Beckman is about 20 points from being the Scot's 11th 1,000 point scorer and finished with 10 on the night. Bradfield ended up with a double double, hitting some timely shots and protecting the rim. The x-factor was Ryan Burns from Ohio Northern, he finished with a double double, coming from 19 minutes, almost exclusively in the second half. The Scots take on CMU tomorrow night at 7!

At the end of the first half Alma was leading on the boards 25-11 and ONU only had one offensive rebound.  Bruns did not play the first half for some reason and still ended with a double-double.  He is 6'9" and a Freshman.  Had many offers to go bigger but liked the engineering program at ONU.  He will be a great D3 player by the time his four years are up!!!

[sac]

In Exhibition play at Mt. Pleasant

Central Michigan 79   Alma  64

CMU's starters combined to score 69 of their points.  DJ Beckman 16, Nikodemski 15, Fairchild 14 for the Scots.  Lead was around the 10 to 15 point range for most of the time I saw the score, spiked to 20 once maybe.

[wiz]

Calvin loses exhibition game to Northwood 101-94.  NU 9-2 run at the end of first half was the game changer.  Brad Visser, wishing to be Jordan Brink, wears #12 this year.  Look for increased game time this year from Canonie, Wilks, and Drews.

[KnightSlappy]

Calvin loses their exhibition with Northwood 101-94. The Knights were somehow super-efficient on offense even with Parks and Daley both having off games from the floor.

Denney (16), Visser (15), Canonie (14), Drews (12), Daley (11), and Wilks (10) all reached double figures in the points column. As a team they shot 17-31 from the three-point line.

Calvin's defense was not good, but neither was Northwood's. I doubt this kind of shooting will continue for the Knights, but I'll take it for now.

Here's the box score if the link stays live: http://calvinknights.com/sports/mbkb/2015-16/boxscores/20151117_cnou.xml

[GreatScot!?]

The Scots lost to the Chips 79-64 last night, pretty impressive showing for the Scots. Featured some Northern Michigan talent between Simons, Redman, Gernaat and Coach Hargraves. Fowler did not play, but the game hovered around 10 points for the second half. Pretty poor shooting from the Scots 37% from the field, the Chips length had a lot to do with it, but it seems like they missed a long a good looks and were a little tentative around the basket. The Scots also struggled from the FT line, shooting 33%, which seems unprecedented for a jump shooting team. Chips had an off-shooting night as well and that might have been attributed to shooters not being able to get the looks they get when Fowler plays. Kozinski did not make a three until a minute left in the game finishing 1-10 for the night. The Scots also rebounded from their 24 TO game at ONU to have 17 assists and only 7 TO's beating CMU at both categories. They also got out rebounded by 9, but looking at the differences in shot %'s that doesn't look that bad. The Scots will continue their non-conference schedule at Ohio Wesleyan this weekend.

[maroonandgold]

Calvin loses their exhibition with Northwood 101-94. The Knights were somehow super-efficient on offense even with Parks and Daley both having off games from the floor.

Denney (16), Visser (15), Canonie (14), Drews (12), Daley (11), and Wilks (10) all reached double figures in the points column. As a team they shot 17-31 from the three-point line.

Calvin's defense was not good, but neither was Northwood's. I doubt this kind of shooting will continue for the Knights, but I'll take it for now.

Here's the box score if the link stays live: http://calvinknights.com/sports/mbkb/2015-16/boxscores/20151117_cnou.xml

It is rather interesting and has to be unusual that Calvin had a higher 3-point percentage than free throw percentage especially over their 2-point shot percentage.  That has to be unlikely to happen again.  Looks like Drews really hit a high percentage especially, but he did not appear to get shots the second half.  How did his overall game look to those who actually saw the game?  The other really interesting thing to watch was the choice of who received how much playing time.  Much of it was about what one would expect.  But it looks as if it will really be a battle among the big men for playing time.  Wilks appears to be doing himself some good, and it sure appears as if Canonie will get more playing time again since he is also scoring so far in addition to his good floor play, which he showed last year.  I have to believe the seniors will both shoot better than they did throughout most of this game.

Denney certainly appears to be the most dependable big man in all aspects of the game along with Daley, who isn't all that big but plays big with rebounds and inside scoring most games.

[sac]

Hope put out a season preview:  http://athletics.hope.edu/sports/mbkb/2015-16/releases/20151119fzvbln