MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[oldknight]

Calvin vs St. Vincent:  I rate this as the most important non-conference game remaining due to its potential impact on regional rankings.  It would be super nice to have a league team with a win over St. Vincent.   St. Vincent is a pretty heavy favorite to blow through the PAC and they'll have a really good overall record with at least a decent SOS calculation with a couple decent wins on their resume.  A Calvin win would go a long way here in helping any other MIAA team stay ranked ahead of them, including Calvin themselves if it should come to that.

I think there's reason for optimism for a Calvin win. Tonight's game will be the third one this week for St. Norbert and that's the recipe for a tough game. I was in Arizona a few years ago when Calvin played three straight games. The Knights won the first two games in the Valley of the Sun but that third one was a huge grind. The Knights appeared to be competing in mud and got absolutely smoked by a much fresher looking Loras team, particularly the first half when Calvin shot 5-23 from the floor, made 11 turnovers, and trailed 46-21 at the break.

[sac]

North Park 82  Albion 77    ---1 pt game late but NP pulled away.   There was either a technical of flagrant foul late in this game, not sure which.  I only saw the lonesome ft shooter.

Trine 76  Manchester 73 OT

Trine scored the last 9 points of the OT in last 1:18.  Tarvis Malone hit a 3 to put them ahead 74-73.  This after Trine blew a 7 point lead with 5 to play regulation.

[sac]

Alma 82  St. Norbert 65

I watched the 2nd half, very very impressive win for Alma, they dominated the Green Knights.



Hope 86  Beloit 66
Hope led by 20 early in the 2nd half and kind of cruised to the win.

Gardner 18, Blackledge 16

[KnightSlappy]

Mike Siegel did not play for Calvin after starting yesterday. I don't know what the story is there.

[Gregory Sager]

North Park 82  Albion 77    ---1 pt game late but NP pulled away.   There was either a technical of flagrant foul late in this game, not sure which.  I only saw the lonesome ft shooter.

it was a flagrant, not a technical. Albion's Arshawn Parker pushed NPU's T.J. Cobbs in the back after Cobbs had gotten to an offensive rebound and was anticipating what would've been an easy layup if he hadn't been shoved.

[KnightSlappy]

Calvin defeats St. Vincent 77-66. Only five Knights scored, but all were in double figures. Daley led the way with 20, Drews had 17, Wilks 16, Parks 12, and Denney 12.

[TUAngola]

Went to the Trine-Manchester game last night.  Thunder very fortunate to come out of there with a win.  I was impressed with Manchester, not sure why they are only 4-6.  Defensively we just didn't have a very good night, especially in the 2nd half, which is unusual for Trine.  Manchester caused a lot of matchups problems with their height.  They go 6'7, 6'6, 6'5, 6'5 and all can handle the ball.  They don't really have an inside game, but they slash to the basket very well and then Adrian Johnson, their point guard, we had no answer for him.  Got to the basket at will with his quickness and when we gave him room he could bury the 3.

We got down 11 early and then fought back and led by 5 at the break.  Pretty ugly first half offensively for both teams, Dixon couldn't hit a thing and had no points in the first half.  Things heated up in the second half, both teams scored at will for the most part.  We led by 6-10 points thru much of the second half and then Manchester just didn't miss in the last 5 minutes to tie it up.  We had an open look to win it at the buzzer, but Malone's shot rimmed out.

In the OT we hit the first bucket and was back and forth for a while, then MU hit some big shots to go up 6 with a little over a minute to play.  Then Trine pulled off an unbelievable finish.  Dixon hit 2 FT and then stole the ball on the next possession to hit a layup to cut the lead to 2.  Good defense on Manchester's next possession got us the ball back and after a Dixon 3 missed, Cummings with a huge offensive rebound and kicked out to Malone for an open 3 which he buried to put us up by 1. Manchester cleared out for Johnson to slash to the basket but his floater rimmed out and we rebounded with Dixon hitting 2 more FT to end the scoring.

Holmquist had his usual solid game, 20 pts and 10 reb.  Dixon ended up leading us in scoring will all of his 23 pts coming after halftime.  But he only shot 6-21 as he had a 6'6 guy guarding him the whole night and he had trouble with his length in getting to the basket and getting open looks on the perimeter.

[goodknight]

Mike Siegel did not play for Calvin after starting yesterday. I don't know what the story is there.

Perhaps it's the old saw, "What happens in Vegas...."?

[sac]

Mike Siegel did not play for Calvin after starting yesterday. I don't know what the story is there.

Perhaps it's the old saw, "What happens in Vegas...."?

Is Mike Tyson missing a tiger?

[sac]

Trine's twitter is reporting the Thunder's 10-1 start is the schools best since 1983-84.

If you're wondering about Pool C.  Trine is in much better shape than Hope due to the SOS calculations but neither team is really going to present a great resume to the committee unless we as a league get 3 ranked teams in the region.    Alma's criteria is at least pretty decent as they'll have at least 3 wins vs ranked teams from outside the MIAA most likely and a pretty strong SOS.  Calvin actually isn't in terrible shape either.


Knightslappy ran his numbers this week:
http://tomaroonandgold.blogspot.com/p/division-iii-mens-regional-rankings.html

I actually have Hope with much worse SOS, but since I'm much worth at math we'll go with KS's numbers.  I do think Hope's SOS is going to drop quite a bit as the year goes on and should finish around .500 or below which isn't all that great.

[Flying Dutch Fan]

MIAA Pick Em contest is up and running. First games to pick are this Wednesday. For rules, and to join the fun, go to the MIAA Pick Em page!!

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Trine's twitter is reporting the Thunder's 10-1 start is the schools best since 1983-84.

If you're wondering about Pool C.  Trine is in much better shape than Hope due to the SOS calculations but neither team is really going to present a great resume to the committee unless we as a league get 3 ranked teams in the region.    Alma's criteria is at least pretty decent as they'll have at least 3 wins vs ranked teams from outside the MIAA most likely and a pretty strong SOS.  Calvin actually isn't in terrible shape either.


Knightslappy ran his numbers this week:
http://tomaroonandgold.blogspot.com/p/division-iii-mens-regional-rankings.html

I actually have Hope with much worse SOS, but since I'm much worth at math we'll go with KS's numbers.  I do think Hope's SOS is going to drop quite a bit as the year goes on and should finish around .500 or below which isn't all that great.

Looking at SOS numbers this time of year is challenging. They are going to be all over the place for so many reasons. While I understand the idea that Hope's SOS may fall to or below .500 because of conference place, I don't think it will fall as far as you think it will. The SOS numbers right now are looking at out of conference schedules with little or no influence by the conference. Yes, teams they have played will pick up some losses, but they will also pick up a lot of wins. Yes, the conference as a whole may drag them towards .500, but it depends if the conference has an overall SOS above or below .500 (with the schedule Alma, Trine, and Calvin have that could keep the SOS above .500). I would honestly be surprised if Hope's SOS is below .500 by the end of the day.

The numbers are just too difficult to read into with not even a half-a-season of data in place. Heck, they are hard to read into when they are 2/3s in there.

[sac]

Between the end of non-conference play last year and the end of the season, Hope's SOS dropped about .060, from roughly .620 to .560.  That was with a much stronger non-conference schedule full of teams competing for their conference championships and ultimately NCAA invites.

Hope doesn't have that schedule this year and I stand by my thoughts Hope's SOS is going to drop a lot and will not be very good at years end compared to other C candidates.   If they get in the tournament it will be because of Pool A or because they'll have an outstanding win% you can't keep out of the tournament.

[BogeyMan]

North Park 82  Albion 77    ---1 pt game late but NP pulled away.   There was either a technical of flagrant foul late in this game, not sure which.  I only saw the lonesome ft shooter.

it was a flagrant, not a technical. Albion's Arshawn Parker pushed NPU's T.J. Cobbs in the back after Cobbs had gotten to an offensive rebound and was anticipating what would've been an easy layup if he hadn't been shoved.

Completely wrong!  Albion intentionally grabbed the shirt of a NP player going in for a uncontested breakway layup just past mid-court!  Missed one free throw and made 2 point basket after getting ball inbounds.

Mr. Sager, with your reputation on this board I hate to disagree but I was there were no flagrants were called.

[sac]

St. Joseph's 101  Kalamazoo 86

Kzoo hung in with the D2 school for a long time, even led at halftime but a big run in the last half of the 2nd half put it away for the Puma's.



MIAA finishes 46-42 in the non-conference which is pretty respectable I think when  you look deeper at the schedules.  Quite a few really D3 good opponents, a D1 and D2 or two and some very good NAIA's.