MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[oldknight]

Milliken may be improving but it's still an ugly and inexplicable loss by the Knights, akin I think to Alma losing to Finlandia. I'm thankful I had a Christmas party to attend that got in the way of watching last night's game, but looking at the box score this morning, it appears that it was what we have seen all year--Calvin's opponent can hit perimeter shots and the Knights can't. Siegel and DeWitte were 5-7 from the arc but the rest of the team was 0-16. Not a single starter hit a three pointer yesterday. You just can't win that way. Calvin has played 10 games now and are shooting 27.4% from the arc; their opponents are at 39.8%. Yikes!

The NCAA stats are a week old now, but as of the last D3 statistical reading Calvin ranked 394th in the division in terms of three-point percentage. That means that slightly less than 95% of all D3 teams outshoot the Knights from beyond the arc. Since the Knights actually shot below their season average yesterday against Millikin, I doubt that their placement will improve during the next NCAA statistical ranking early next week, unless they light it up from distance this afternoon against Geneva.

Thanks for digging out the national stats Greg. I looked at the MIAA web site to compare Calvin to their conference opponents. No other MIAA team is shooting remotely as poorly as the Knights--not even in the same zip code. Olivet is the second worst shooting team from the arc at 32.1%. On the other end of the spectrum, Alma is shooting 42.4% and Trine is at 41.8%.

In what appears to be an effort to address the three point shooting deficit, Calvin has inserted freshmen Tony DeWitte, into today's starting lineup. Tony has the sweetest shooting stroke on the team so let's see what he can do.

[Dark Knight]

Milliken may be improving but it's still an ugly and inexplicable loss by the Knights, akin I think to Alma losing to Finlandia.

That may be a bit exaggerated; Calvin was supposed to beat Millikin by 6, but Alma was supposed to beat Finlandia by 16.

On the other hand, Hope was supposed to beat Wilkes by 18 

[oldknight]

Milliken may be improving but it's still an ugly and inexplicable loss by the Knights, akin I think to Alma losing to Finlandia.

That may be a bit exaggerated; Calvin was supposed to beat Millikin by 6, but Alma was supposed to beat Finlandia by 16.

On the other hand, Hope was supposed to beat Wilkes by 18 

Depends on the definition of "akin." I give myself wide latitude.

[Young Knight 14]

By their own standard Calvin is setting the nets on fire.  Shooting a blistering 33.3% from 3 in the first half.  Wilks hitting multiple nice jump shots.

[maroonandgold]

Calvin won fairly easily by a score of 80 to 57 and shot 42% on 3 point shots!  Their overall shooting percent was 52.  They were getting open looks at the basket and missing them yesterday.  But today they seemed to relax and put them through.  Everyone on the team played in the game, but it was noteworthy that Siegel and Drews are getting more time again and contributed more points.  Is Geneva just that poor a team even though their win-loss record was even coming in, or did Calvin just play better?  As far as shooting is concerned, it seemed to be in the playing better.  It still seems to come down to outside shooting for Calvin.  I think they are better than many are giving them credit for.

How much the coaching is a factor is hard for me  to say.  But I think each year the team's seem to really progress over the course of the season.  So to me that looks realistically as good coaching.  It is disappointing to see good players like Trewhella and Vander Brug leave the program, but I have no idea whether that is due to personal reasons or communication.

[oldknight]

A comfortable 80-57 win by Calvin over Geneva this afternoon. The Golden Tornadoes didn't look very good with Calvin outrebounding Geneva 39-25 and outshooting them 54% to 38%. With officials showing up late you always wonder which team will be more ready after the unexpected delay, and that appeared to be Calvin. A veritable plethora of 3's by the Knights as they hit 8-19 for the game. Wilkes, Bykerk and Denney led in scoring with 21, 12 and 11. DeWitte scored 8 in his first start as a Knight, a start that was required by Kronemeyer's bad back. Calvin should give Tony at least 20 minutes every game IMHO. He's going to be a good player and the sooner he gets the experience, the sooner he will be a consistently good player for the Knights.

[sac]

I don't think you'll find a holiday tournament more competitive than the one at Mt. Union these last two days.

Williams 91  Hope 85  OT
Mt. Union 74 Wilkes 70
Wilkes 76 Hope 74
Williams 70  Mt. Union 67

[Dr. Acula]

^^^ I would have liked to watch the games, but Mount charges $6 for video.  And I've watched their feed for hoops.  It's not worth $6. 

[Fifth and Putnam]

^^^ I would have liked to watch the games, but Mount charges $6 for video.  And I've watched their feed for hoops.  It's not worth $6.

You're not the only one who brought that up over the last couple of days. I know I along with some folks from Hope made comment of it as well to Mount Union. I really hope this is not a trend that catches on.

I don't mind that teams charge for an HD feed. For really big games in the past, I have spent the money to have a nice feed to plug my HDMI cable into the laptop and watch it on the big screen TV. But charging $6 for a below average feed to people that are way out of town is not good.

[sac]

Trine beats Ohio Northern 78-70  and that wraps up the non-conference portion of the season for the MIAA.

MIAA non-Conference records
2005    46-38    0.548
2006    52-34    0.605
2007    27-51    0.346
2008    34-44    0.386
2009    35-46    0.432
2010    38-50    0.432
2011    43-43    0.500
2012    44-43    0.506
2013    48-39    0.552
2014    39-49    0.443
2015    39-49    0.443
2016    46-42    0.523

2017    38-49    0.437 


MIAA went 15-12 the last couple weeks,   32-38 vs D3,  21-14 vs Great Lakes Region. 
Adrian enters league play with the best record vs D3 at 6-2 followed by Hope at 6-3

[TUAngola]

Final nonconference game at Hershey Hall today, Trine wins over a decent Ohio Northern squad 78-70.  I haven't seen the Thunder play since mid-November and I thought we played well, especially in the first half.  Came out with a lot of energy and had good execution on offense and had a good defensive start forcing ONU into a lot of turnovers.  Devon Allen from ONU kept them in the game in the first half, but was much quieter in the second half.

The second half saw ONU work at getting their inside game going, and it worked for a while, they got Ellis Cummings in foul trouble and got to the bonus with 10 minutes gone in the half.  Trine had some difficulty offensively in the second half as we ran isolations for Will Dixon quite a bit, sometimes it worked, sometimes just too many forced shots with the shot clock running down.  However Myles Copeland played big, rebounded well and has some nice moves in the post and finished around the rim.  We need more games like that from Myles for us to be competitive in the MIAA.  He was easily the player of the game today.

Rotation looks a lot different that at the start of the season.  Freshman Kamron Harrington played a lot early on but is buried on the bench now.  Senior Addison Daub in now starting at point with Jordan Kreglow coming off the bench.  Copeland moving into the starting lineup helps us with an offensive inside presence.  I'd really like to see Ellis Cummings become more consistent too.  He has the big body to post up but for some reason we don't feed the post well, I will say this, he is active though, has a good motor and can be a force defensively at times.

Now it's time for the MIAA grind.  Calvin up first Wednesday night at Hershey, it is a doubleheader with the Lady Thunder taking on the Lady Knights at 6 followed by the men.  School is not in session yet so no student section, band, cheerleaders, the atmosphere is much quieter without their energy. Should be a big crowd from Calvin with both teams playing in Angola, but I hope the home fans turn out too.  The Trine women are really good, I've seen them play three times, but facing the Calvin ladies is a different animal.  Should be a good game.

[Dr. Acula]

^^^ I would have liked to watch the games, but Mount charges $6 for video.  And I've watched their feed for hoops.  It's not worth $6.

You're not the only one who brought that up over the last couple of days. I know I along with some folks from Hope made comment of it as well to Mount Union. I really hope this is not a trend that catches on.

I don't mind that teams charge for an HD feed. For really big games in the past, I have spent the money to have a nice feed to plug my HDMI cable into the laptop and watch it on the big screen TV. But charging $6 for a below average feed to people that are way out of town is not good.

The $6 is an HD feed, but I still don't think that's worth $6.  I've only seen a handful of schools charging for video and that's their decision.  It just stinks for anyone not local.  Hope fans aren't driving to Alliance, but I'll bet they'd like to see them play Williams.

[Knight2Day]

Calvin basketball is trash. When beating Geneva and Grace are signature wins, it's embarrassing.

[toad22]

^^^ I would have liked to watch the games, but Mount charges $6 for video.  And I've watched their feed for hoops.  It's not worth $6.

You're not the only one who brought that up over the last couple of days. I know I along with some folks from Hope made comment of it as well to Mount Union. I really hope this is not a trend that catches on.

I don't mind that teams charge for an HD feed. For really big games in the past, I have spent the money to have a nice feed to plug my HDMI cable into the laptop and watch it on the big screen TV. But charging $6 for a below average feed to people that are way out of town is not good.

The $6 is an HD feed, but I still don't think that's worth $6.  I've only seen a handful of schools charging for video and that's their decision.  It just stinks for anyone not local.  Hope fans aren't driving to Alliance, but I'll bet they'd like to see them play Williams.

There were quite a few Hope fans at Mt. Union. It did cost $8 at the door, so, though charging for the feed seems unreasonable, it was cheaper than in person!

[KnightSlappy]

If you're charging for the feed it better be high quality and highly produced.