MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[calvinite]

Hope in trouble despite Alma missing their first 5 free throws (I think of the game, but certainly of the 2nd half). Probably too early for Doug's "Hay is in the barn" (which the Calvin commentators just mentioned), but Alma is close to taking over sole possession of first place (I think).

Harrison Blackledge not playing tonight.

No, Blackledge just forgot his uniform, but he did get in a little foul trouble. Although if you were listening to the Alma commentators, you'd think Littleton was having a great game scoring all 7 of Hope's first 7 points.

[oldknight]

Calvin pulling away from a narrow 41-25 halftime lead, outscoring Olivet 40-7 to start the second half. The hay is in the barn. Wow.

[TUAngola]

Final:  Trine 69 - Albion 55

Another physical battle tonight in Angola.  Adrian game planned TU very well.  Collapsing on Holmquist anytime he touched the ball, and Dixon just didn't have it at all, couldn't get free for any looks, only made 1 basket all night, but it was a big one in the 2nd half to keep Adrian at bay.  Your players of the game for Trine, and this might be a first when it wasn't either Holmquist or Dixon this year, were Cummings and Dodson.  Dodson was the spark we needed in the 2nd half, hit some big time 3's and also had a huge put back of a miss, got fouled and hit the freebie for a conventional 3.  Cummings was saddled with foul trouble all night but still played some big minutes for us, and just like in the Kzoo game had a great defensive game and some put backs on offense.  Covile and Jackson were tough for Adrian, the whole team gave us fits as they really crashed the boards the 1st half.  Trine much better defensively and rebounded very well the 2nd half.  On the negative side, just like in the Kzoo game, is too many turnovers;13 for the game doesn't sound like much, but for Trine it is.  Holmquist tries to force things at times, and Syroka had a few too many bad passes. 

[oldknight]

Demolition complete. Calvin 91, Olivet 44. The Comets beat Grace Bible while the Knights lost to the Bible Tigers.   I'm totally confused.

An Alma win at Van Noord Arena Saturday puts the Scots firmly in the driver's seat. On the other hand a Calvin win . . . .

[oldknight]

Olivet made a layup at 16:05 of the second half to make the score 54-32. Calvin ripped off the next 31 points before the Comets scored with 4:05 left.

[almcguirejr]

Hope in trouble despite Alma missing their first 5 free throws (I think of the game, but certainly of the 2nd half). Probably too early for Doug's "Hay is in the barn" (which the Calvin commentators just mentioned), but Alma is close to taking over sole possession of first place (I think).

Harrison Blackledge not playing tonight.

No, Blackledge just forgot his uniform, but he did get in a little foul trouble. Although if you were listening to the Alma commentators, you'd think Littleton was having a great game scoring all 7 of Hope's first 7 points.

Thanks, I just watched the last 2 minutes.

[oldknight]

I don't think it's been mentioned yet but KVS has obviously settled on his rotation. Welch is no longer a starter as Calvin is going with one of the smallest lineups I've seen in quite a few years using four wing players: Parks, Canonie, Daley, and Wilks. Denney is the post player but he spends a lot of time on the perimeter too. The Knights basically use four players off the bench who play most of the minutes the starters don't log: Siegel, Welch, Kronemeyer, and Drews.

Canonie is an interesting choice to play the two guard. A superb defender who doesn't shoot a lot. Calvin compensates for the limited offense from that spot by bringing in Drews off the bench to bomb. His minutes have been progressively increasing and he's clearly a key reserve, maybe the most important non-starter Calvin has. Nate has taken 84 shots and nearly three quarters of them (61) have been from the arc. Despite that imbalance the kid from Rochester Hills Lutheran is shooting 55% from the floor. We need KnightSlappy to calculate his offensive efficiency. We don't know what kind of a free throw shooter Drews is. He hasn't shot one yet in 226 minutes of game time. Doesn't make a lot of mistakes though. Just 6 turnovers.

[wiz]

And whatever their inconsistencies, they keep winning their games. They've proven they can play their best ball with the game on the line (other than the Cornerstone game, which is an unfortunate anomaly)...

Although it is their only loss of the season, I would argue that the Cornerstone game was actually one of Hope's best played games this season, if not THE best. If you were asking me to defend their #4 ranking, I'd use tape from that game to show why they can compete with anyone this season.

Is Hope improving or are they just pretty much the same team I saw playing in November?

That's not a statement disguised as a question, it's a genuine inquiry, and I don't have the answer.

They are improving. I would say they started the season as below average to average defensively and continue to improve on that end of the court. Their inconsistencies tend to happen on the offensive end. For some stretches, their ball movement and shot selection is fluid and they show their depth and ability to stretch defenses and beat them inside or from the perimeter. At other times they seem perfectly content driving to the basket and throwing up an off balanced, well defended, low percentage shot...

Hope's loss to Alma should not affect their national ranking because they once played so well against Cornerstone.

[sac]

Alma 86  Hope  75

I've watched a lot of D3 basketball over the years, when Alma plays as well as they did tonight they're as good as any team in the top 10.  They're 3 shots from being 13-1 with 4 wins over top 25 teams.   Hope's playing well enough to maybe grab the 4th seed in the MIAA right now, this loss has been coming for some time now. 

I like this Hope team, a lot, but they don't play smart sometimes and hopefully this is the slap in the face they need.   

With that said, I thought Hope played well for about 25-30 minutes of the game, but it was the beginning of both halves and the end of the 1st that killed them. 

First 5 of first  3-12
last 4 of first  6-15
first 2 of the 2nd  2-7

That's 23 points right there. 


Hope had it down to 7 with 4 minutes to play and the ball and putting on their Houdini hat again, then there was a series of inexplicable happenings that resulted in a travel on Brock Benson by virtue of one official dude overruling other official dude followed by a technical foul that every single person breathing on this planet would have received.  What followed was a 6 point swing to  Alma in 30 seconds and it was over.


I don't think anyone who will win the league has lost at home yet, so this is Alma holding serve. 

[sac]

If someone has an unbiased opinion on Brock Benson's travel and even the subsequent "things" before it I'd like to hear it.  You may PM if you'd like.  I was mostly blocked on the ultimate call just looking for what other people thought of it.

[HopeConvert]

If someone has an unbiased opinion on Brock Benson's travel and even the subsequent "things" before it I'd like to hear it.  You may PM if you'd like.  I was mostly blocked on the ultimate call just looking for what other people thought of it.

I'm not unbiased, but it was a turning point. The official who overruled the other one seemed very sure of it. It was a bang-bang call. I'm not prepared to say it was a bad one, but it did seem to me that Brock may have been forced into a step. As for the T: Mitch gave the ref no choice. It was pretty clear how that was going to end. Plus he had been riding that ref all night the way it was.

Sam Hargraves can coach.

[sac]

I think we all know Jason Beckman has a strong sock game, this year it looks like he's going with some kind of tan sock with teel highlights and multi-colored polka-dots.


......Jason has the strongest wardrobe game in D3 basketball.

[calvin_grad]

New inbounds play (featuring D3 Brockport vs. Oswego State)   

http://deadspin.com/full-court-inbounds-hits-rim-and-bounces-to-teammate-w-1752863351

[HOPEful]

Hope's loss to Alma should not affect their national ranking because they once played so well against Cornerstone.

A team undefeated against D3 competition should, in my opinion, be judged based upon (among other things) how good they look when they are at their best. The lost last night provided further evidence of the inconsistencies we've seen all season. Hope will and should fall, and if they don't figure it out, could very well lose to Trine on Saturday.

[KnightSlappy]

Canonie is an interesting choice to play the two guard. A superb defender who doesn't shoot a lot. Calvin compensates for the limited offense from that spot by bringing in Drews off the bench to bomb. His minutes have been progressively increasing and he's clearly a key reserve, maybe the most important non-starter Calvin has. Nate has taken 84 shots and nearly three quarters of them (61) have been from the arc. Despite that imbalance the kid from Rochester Hills Lutheran is shooting 55% from the floor. We need KnightSlappy to calculate his offensive efficiency. We don't know what kind of a free throw shooter Drews is. He hasn't shot one yet in 226 minutes of game time. Doesn't make a lot of mistakes though. Just 6 turnovers.

Nate Drews is shooting .557 on three point attempts and currently has an effective field goal percentage of .750. Since he hasn't gotten to the free throw line, that translates directly into an astounding 1.50 points per weighted shot. That's Calvin's best mark of the last 18 years (the internet age) by a mile.

Jordan Brink just graduated as Calvin's career leader (internet age) in PPWS at 1.27 (minimum 50 career attempts). Right behind him are Andy Draayer (1.26) and Derek Griffin (1.25).

Calvin's team average is typically around 1.09, though they've skewed a few points higher in recent years (Mr. Brink likely had something to do with that).

So whereas a guy like Brink added something like 0.18 points above average to the team total every time he shot, Drews has added roughly 0.41 points above average!

The two player obivously shouldered different shooting loads, but it's possible Drew could approach Brink's mark last year in 'shooting value added' or whatever you might want to call it (kind of making things up on the fly here as per usual). Brink added ~68 points in 27 games last year using the numbers above. Drews has added ~34 in 14 games this year.