MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[iwumichigander]

North Central 77 Albion  63 --- I suspect North Central might be a little underrated.  If they're getting votes, shouldn't Alma?

Defiance 88  Kalamazoo 70




Hope's best win, Stevens Point,  took its 4th loss in a 56-38 loss to St. Thomas.  The Pointers have lost to 4 NCAA quality teams and 3 teams in the current top 5.  It will be really hard for Hope to have a good strength of schedule this year, they need the Pointers to do really well.

North Central is likely in the "wait and see" category. They lost a good amount of talent to graduate, gained a transfer or two and added some promising freshmen. Voters are probably waiting to see what and how North Central starts out in conference play.

[sac]

Capital 83 Olivet 57

105 people watched this game, a significant portion of them were Olivet players not suited up for the game.  Olivet's roster roulette went into hyper-drive tonight with 12, yes 12 guys who were able to play earlier this season not able to play for various reasons.  Missing all 3 of their leading scorers the Comets still had 6 or 7 of their top rotation guys.  But it was ugly. 

3:10 into the game it was 10-0 Capital and Olivet had called timeout twice and subbed twice.  Capital did pretty much whatever they wanted on offense and shot 69% in the first half, because layups are pretty easy.  They spiced things up by making 4 of the 8 3point shots they took.  It was 49-26 at the break.

Capital came out of a very short halftime talk and found the balls had been locked away in the corner closet, so the Capital players ran their layup line basketball free.  Some of those guys have outstanding moves and imaginations.  With the ball situation taken care of the Crusaders went about their business of trying somehow to break at least a mild sweat tonight.  On the other end the Comets returned to the floor after a much longer halftime talk and were greeted with the same lack of warm-up basketballs in their own gym.   Believe it or not someone in the stands happen to have a basketball, and tossed it to the court and Olivet warmed up for 1 min with a single ball a fan had brought to the game for some reason.

(That entire paragraph was the most entertaining thing that happened tonight) 

The second half happened because it had to and Capital allowed Olivet to have some dignity.  Not a single Capital player logged 20 minutes.  The End.




I have no idea what team Olivet is bringing to Holland on Monday/Tuesday.  Without Lee Gardner this team is pretty much not very good, with Lee Gardner they at least have a fighting chance.   Unless something drastic happens (which might) an O'fer the season is probably in the cards.

[almcguirejr]

Capital 83 Olivet 57

105 people watched this game, a significant portion of them were Olivet players not suited up for the game.  Olivet's roster roulette went into hyper-drive tonight with 12, yes 12 guys who were able to play earlier this season not able to play for various reasons.  Missing all 3 of their leading scorers the Comets still had 6 or 7 of their top rotation guys.  But it was ugly. 

3:10 into the game it was 10-0 Capital and Olivet had called timeout twice and subbed twice.  Capital did pretty much whatever they wanted on offense and shot 69% in the first half, because layups are pretty easy.  They spiced things up by making 4 of the 8 3point shots they took.  It was 49-26 at the break.

Capital came out of a very short halftime talk and found the balls had been locked away in the corner closet, so the Capital players ran their layup line basketball free.  Some of those guys have outstanding moves and imaginations.  With the ball situation taken care of the Crusaders went about their business of trying somehow to break at least a mild sweat tonight.  On the other end the Comets returned to the floor after a much longer halftime talk and were greeted with the same lack of warm-up basketballs in their own gym.   Believe it or not someone in the stands happen to have a basketball, and tossed it to the court and Olivet warmed up for 1 min with a single ball a fan had brought to the game for some reason.

(That entire paragraph was the most entertaining thing that happened tonight) 

The second half happened because it had to and Capital allowed Olivet to have some dignity.  Not a single Capital player logged 20 minutes.  The End.




I have no idea what team Olivet is bringing to Holland on Monday/Tuesday.  Without Lee Gardner this team is pretty much not very good, with Lee Gardner they at least have a fighting chance.   Unless something drastic happens (which might) an O'fer the season is probably in the cards.

It makes one wonder why  Olivet fired Gene Gifford 3 years ago. 

[KzooHornet]

It makes one wonder why  Olivet fired Gene Gifford 3 years ago.

Unrealistic expectations.

[sac]

Gifford was hired at Olivet 4 athletic directors ago.  A former alum who understood the school and the kinds of kids Olivet needed to recruit to be successful. 

Gifford was fired by athletic director #2 who seemed determined to make her mark on the college, which she sure did.  If I'm remembering right Gifford was let go for 'regression in the program' and a 'high attrition rate'.  There was probably much more to it, but if anyone thinks Gifford did a poor job at Olivet they are pretty clueless. 

It was AD#2 who led the coaching search, publicly declared the final 4 candidates for the job via press release, and then hired Coles who wasn't one of those 'final 4 candidates'.

AD #3 was only at the school for something like 18 months, I never heard anything about the guy one way or the other, he was basically a ghost with a job.

current AD #4 was the schools former athletics trainer hired just a couple months ago.  I only know him from last night policing the frat brothers playing one on one to get off the floor after the game.....and he moved a chair.


You might remember Coles inherited a broken program, broken from the inside.  When Gifford was fired at least a couple guys left the program, recruiting for the 2013 season went in the dumpster (Olivet has 1 Sr this year that started with the program) and Olivet started 2012-13 with the remnants of Gene's program that chose to stick around and a couple of NAIA guys that had transferred in after leaving their previous programs.

If I'm remember right Olivet had 12 players that first year and barely enough to field a JV team.  Coles lashed together a team that improved from 4-21 in Gene's last year to 11-14, looking back that seems a little bit like a miracle.   The trend line here doesn't really lie though.

11-14
5-20
4-21
0-8 

I give Coles a ton of credit for playing difficult schedules.  Brave but probably unwise.  Of his 20 wins 11 are against the MIAA which makes him something like 9-32 out of conference many of those just weren't winnable games.  Every year under Coles Olivet is playing a schedule above themselves, this year no different.   But this doesn't look like progress and many of the same things that were happening at Olivet 4 and 5 years ago are still happening today and pretty much out of a coaches control.

[AppletonRocks]

Wondering if Adrian and Trine are favorites or dogs vs. UW-Oshkosh this weekend? 

[sac]

Massey has Adrian as a slight underdog, Trine as a favorite.  Sounds about right to me.

[sac]

Chicago 69  Albion 65

Brits led by as many as 11 in the first half but Chicago had a nice run at the beginning of the second half and held off Albion in a game that was tied several times late.    Chicago hit the big 3 with under a minute to play to break a 64-64 tie and that was it.  This would have been a really good win for Albion and the league.  As it is a nice performance and a little proof you annual trip to Kresge will be tough.

Herron 20, Roberts 16

[sac]

RIP to any innocent keyboards or computers out there.   

UC-Clermont, Wilberforce, Illinois Tech, Earlham, Calvin   

[almcguirejr]

RIP to any innocent keyboards or computers out there.   

UC-Clermont, Wilberforce, Illinois Tech, Earlham, Calvin   

Anderson 85
Calvin 77
Final

[maroonandgold]

RIP to any innocent keyboards or computers out there.   

UC-Clermont, Wilberforce, Illinois Tech, Earlham, Calvin   

Anderson 85
Calvin 77
Final

It was interesting to observe who received more playing time and even playing time after not being in earlier games.  It appeared to me that several players have only made it into the last game or two for the first time.  Looks like
Denney, Daley, and Siegel really did a good job.  But Wilks had disappointing game and Parks and Drews shooting on threes has been below earlier results.  I guess we could hardly expect Drews to keep up the same percentage of threes he had earlier in the year.  Calvin still out-rebounded Anderson, as they have with most teams this year.  Denney and Daley led in that part of the game, too.  Canonie seems to be doing more of the scoring as time goes on,  but I think the team will have to fight hard for every win they are able to have this year.

[TUAngola]

Just back from Hershey Hall, final Trine 65 Oshkosh 54.  Not a pretty win, but we'll take it.  Oshkosh has a nice team, lots of length, something Trine lacks.  But per usual Trine makes up for it in being a pretty darn good defensive team, held the Titans to 33% shooting.  I think I heard they are top 10 in points allowed per game in the nation.  Dixon and Holmquist lead the Thunder in scoring.  Quality minutes off the bench from freshmen Kreglow and Woolett.

In game 1 at Hershey Millikin defeats Adrian by 5. 

[Titan Q]

From San Antonio...

#25 Texas Lutheran 82
Alma 81

http://goalmascots.com/sports/mbkb/2015-16/boxscores/20151220_emo7.xml

Alma led most of the way in this one...TLU made a great comeback in the final minutes.

I was at the Trinity (Tx) tournament Friday and Saturday to watch IWU.  I saw Alma crush Mary Hardin-Baylor yesterday and was just really impressed with them. 

[Flying Dutch Fan]

Looking forward to a couple of Hope games the next two nights.  Ben Gardner is just 23 points away from reaching 1000 points in his career.  Alex Edison (873 points) and Brock Benson (776) could also both reach 1000 points this year.

[Flying Dutch Fan]

With two weeks and two days until the start of the MIAA season, the rules for the MIAA Pick 'Em are posted (on the MIAA Pick 'Em board).  Everyone is welcome to participate and try to dethrone our reigning champion oldknight.