MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

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Olivet is playing at IPFW tonight.  A really oddly timed exhibition game between playing at Hope Saturday and at Calvin Wednesday.


IPFW beat Indiana which makes IPFW the best opponent anyone played in the MIAA this year.

[TUAngola]

Good news for Hope fans traveling to Angola Saturday:  FREE ADMISSION  (see below article)

ANGOLA, Ind. -- Trine University will offer free admission for all fans at the Free-for-All basketball doubleheader scheduled for Saturday, Jan. 14.
In addition to free admission, the first 500 fans in attendance at the Free-for-All will receive free Trine University hats. The first 250 fans will also receive free stadium cushions. All fans can participate in a half-court shootout for a $200 prize following the conclusion of the doubleheader. The first fan to sink the half-court shot wins the prize.
The doubleheader tips off at 1 p.m. with a MIAA contest between the Thunder women and Alma. With a 12-1 record, the women's team is off to its best start in school history. Trine owns an 11-game winning streak, the third-longest in program history.
The men's contest between the Thunder and No. 15 Hope follows at 3 p.m. in a potential postseason preview. The two teams have met in the MIAA Tournament each of the past four seasons.
Alumni are invited to attend the annual Hoops and Wings event. A catered lunch from Buffalo Wild Wings will be available between the two games. Admission to the Hoops and Wings event is $5.

[sac]

Good news for Hope fans traveling to Angola Saturday:  FREE ADMISSION  (see below article)

ANGOLA, Ind. -- Trine University will offer free admission for all fans at the Free-for-All basketball doubleheader scheduled for Saturday, Jan. 14.
In addition to free admission, the first 500 fans in attendance at the Free-for-All will receive free Trine University hats. The first 250 fans will also receive free stadium cushions. All fans can participate in a half-court shootout for a $200 prize following the conclusion of the doubleheader. The first fan to sink the half-court shot wins the prize.
The doubleheader tips off at 1 p.m. with a MIAA contest between the Thunder women and Alma. With a 12-1 record, the women's team is off to its best start in school history. Trine owns an 11-game winning streak, the third-longest in program history.
The men's contest between the Thunder and No. 15 Hope follows at 3 p.m. in a potential postseason preview. The two teams have met in the MIAA Tournament each of the past four seasons.
Alumni are invited to attend the annual Hoops and Wings event. A catered lunch from Buffalo Wild Wings will be available between the two games. Admission to the Hoops and Wings event is $5.

Sounds like a decent chance for a pretty good ice storm Saturday in Southern Michigan which gets worse the further South you go into the Ft. Wayne area. Something to keep an eye on for the weekend games.

[KnightSlappy]

It'll be another interesting night in the MIAA.

TRINE (1-1) AT ADRIAN (0-2)
Neither team wants to lose this game, but Adrian will be in a world of hurt if they lose this one and start 0-3 (and having lost to Olivet).

ALMA (2-0) AT HOPE (2-0)
Still looking to determine if Alma will be a player at the top of the MIAA after a slow start in the non-conference. I doubt they'll win tonight, but a strong showing would put them

OLIVET (1-1) AT CALVIN (2-0)
Calvin cannot let a game like this slip if they hope to make a top four spot. An Olivet win would suddenly put them in position to surprise us.

ALBION (0-2) AT KALAMAZOO (0-2)
Albion's in a similar position to Adrian with the 0-2 start, though the schedule has done them fewer favors (vs. Hope then @Calvin).

It's still very early, but I'm interested to see how the middle of the league will shake out. I devised an arbitrary point system (similar to the +/- sac has cited on here in the past) to see who's in the best shape to make the top-four based on schedule factors (etc.): +1 point for a road win, -1 point for a home loss, +1 point for a win over Hope, Calvin, Albion, Alma, Adrian, Trine, -1 point for a loss to Calvin, Albion, Alma, Adrian, Trine, Olivet, Kalamazoo.

The attempt here is to award zero points for an expected outcome, +1 point for a positive outcome (a road win or a "quality" win), and -1 for a negative outcome (a home loss or a "bad" loss). This is not a measure of relative team strength.

Team	Record	+/-	Max Pts
Calvin	(2-0)	3	3
Hope	(2-0)	2	2
Alma	(2-0)	2	2
Olivet	(1-1)	1	3
Trine	(1-1)	-1	2
Albion	(0-2)	-2	3
Adrian	(0-2)	-3	2
Kalamazoo	(0-2)	-3	3

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IPFW 115  Olivet 60   ...from Monday night

Olivet didn't play Eric Ewing and tried its best to limit the minutes of their key guys, like PJ Trammel who played only 5.    File this one under "contractually obligated to participate".

btw, that game counts for IPFW. 

[sac]

Adrian's DaVonte Harris is leading all of D3 in FG attempts.  His 258 attempts is 35.2% of all of Adrian's shot attempts.   Per another thread by TitanQ in the CCIW, I now believe Harris is probably taking more of his teams shots than any other player in D3.

[Gregory Sager]

Harris took a comparatively economical 30.2% of Adrian's shots (19 out of 63) in the game I saw him play at North Park. A big reason for that was because Daton Aaron attempted 16 shots himself in that game -- which did NPU a big favor, because Aaron's not a good shooter at all (unless he's at the FT line, where he's golden).

The bigger problem for the Bulldogs is that, aside from Harris and forward Justin Webster, there just doesn't seem to be anybody on the team who can put the ball in the basket with any regularity. That's the reason why Adrian is dead last in the MIAA in scoring and next-to-last in FG%. I don't think Harris is a ballhog as much as he's a gifted player who can manufacture his own shot who is therefore forced into being a volume shooter by necessity as a result of his team's offensive shortcomings.

[oldknight]

In a high energy, frenetically paced game, Calvin beats Olivet 87-69. I found the visitors were actually pretty athletic but they have few players who understand what a bad shot is. One of the few Comets who does understand is Chris Chrzan who scored 13 and made 3-8 from the arc, but didn't see the ball nearly enough. Too many bricks were laid by Olivet who needed to take 38 treys just to make 10 of them. That, combined with Calvin's big advantage on the boards and the charity stripe made it impossible for Olivet to be truly competitive. The Knights did make 19 turnovers but that was largely due to the high volume of possessions and the fact that their opponent tried to steal every pass or dribble, thereby leaving them vulnerable to numerous Calvin shots close to the basket. The Knights made 2 more baskets than Olivet even though the Comets took 24 more shots. Other game notes:

--A very steady, headsup game by Michael Wilks who scored 22 on 7-12 floor shots and 5-6 from the stripe, plus 6 boards. Wilks has average athleticism but he's an old-school hoopster who just knows how to get open and make shots.

--Speaking of Michaels, the one named Welch had a pretty nice game too, scoring an efficient 13 points on 5-6 from the floor and 3-3 free throws. Welch will never play a spectacular game for Calvin, but has shown a lot of grit this year.

--So, just that like Calvin is 3-0 in the league and tied for first with their archrival. A very big game coming up Saturday against an Alma team that badly needs to hold serve and win at home. If Calvin sneaks out a victory, they take a huge step towards a second place conference finish (forget about first place, I can only drink so much Kool-Aid at one time). I don't see it happening though. Sammy Hargraves might never admit it but I think the Calvin game is the most important one on his schedule, and his players always seem to play like it is.

[sac]

Hope 88  Alma 77

Very enjoyable game at DeVos tonight.  Back and forth tight game throughout before Hope opened up just a little margin midway through the second half when they held Alma without a FG for 4 minutes.  Hope went with a mostly Sr. rotation down the stretch and that's something Alma just can't do with this roster and it makes a big difference.

Few key things that swung the game, Alma had  a really outstanding first half shooting the ball with Gernaat going 6-6 and Laketa 3-4, Hope made just a minor adjustment to them defensively and the two went 1-7 in the second half.  Alma turned the ball over too much while Hope didn't, those turnovers really stood out in the first half when it felt like Alma was the more likely team to pull away.    Lastly rebounding, Alma had a halftime edge but that was mostly because Hope missed more shots, the second half was all Hope on the glass with 10 offensive rebounds and Alma finishing with just 1 for the game and that one was a deadball, effectively Alma had zero offensive rebounds.   A few big ones late helped Hope bleed the clock away and never let Alma get into a real good "rally mode".

Dante Hawkins was truly outstanding in this one and I was really surprised to see he missed as many shots as he did because it never felt that way.   Inside or outside, Dante was the best player on the floor this night.

Hope:  Hawkins 29, Carlson 19, Blackledge 12, Stuive 10
Alma:  Gernaat 17, Edwards 16, Harvey 13, Laketa 11, Stevens 10


Terrible news for Alma though is going home knowing Chase Fairchild is likely done for the year.  Chase was open about telling people afterward he thinks he tore his achilles about midway through the first half.  With that injury the Scots have just Gernaat and Edwards remaining from last years excellent quarterfinal team.  Third major injury for the Scots this year (that I know of).

Alma will be very tough for anyone all year, that Fr. class is very impressive.

[Gregory Sager]

It's hard to remember a team being as seriously snakebit as Alma's been this season.

[GreatScot!?]

Hope 88  Alma 77

Very enjoyable game at DeVos tonight.  Back and forth tight game throughout before Hope opened up just a little margin midway through the second half when they held Alma without a FG for 4 minutes.  Hope went with a mostly Sr. rotation down the stretch and that's something Alma just can't do with this roster and it makes a big difference.

Few key things that swung the game, Alma had  a really outstanding first half shooting the ball with Gernaat going 6-6 and Laketa 3-4, Hope made just a minor adjustment to them defensively and the two went 1-7 in the second half.  Alma turned the ball over too much while Hope didn't, those turnovers really stood out in the first half when it felt like Alma was the more likely team to pull away.    Lastly rebounding, Alma had a halftime edge but that was mostly because Hope missed more shots, the second half was all Hope on the glass with 10 offensive rebounds and Alma finishing with just 1 for the game and that one was a deadball, effectively Alma had zero offensive rebounds.   A few big ones late helped Hope bleed the clock away and never let Alma get into a real good "rally mode".

Dante Hawkins was truly outstanding in this one and I was really surprised to see he missed as many shots as he did because it never felt that way.   Inside or outside, Dante was the best player on the floor this night.

Hope:  Hawkins 29, Carlson 19, Blackledge 12, Stuive 10
Alma:  Gernaat 17, Edwards 16, Harvey 13, Laketa 11, Stevens 10


Terrible news for Alma though is going home knowing Chase Fairchild is likely done for the year.  Chase was open about telling people afterward he thinks he tore his achilles about midway through the first half.  With that injury the Scots have just Gernaat and Edwards remaining from last years excellent quarterfinal team.  Third major injury for the Scots this year (that I know of).

Alma will be very tough for anyone all year, that Fr. class is very impressive.

Great assessment of the game, thought Hope was just a tad more poised and tough which led to victory for them. Deeply saddened to see Fairchild hurt at this point of the season, great kid, player and student. On top of Fairchild, Alma has the season ending injuries to Gamble, Bradfield and Holmes on top of J Beckman and Cook not returning to the team, which means Alma has 2 of their top 11 rotation guys from last year. Obviously not helping them this year, but a positive I can take out of it is that their youth get a ton of experience instead of sitting on the bench, which will pay dividends as the season progresses and over the next few years for the Scots.

[GreatScot!?]

To clarify, I'm not positive of Fairchild's status, don't want to say for certain yet.

[sac]

Trine has a "committment" from 6-6 wing man Luke DeHahn out of Lafayette, Indiana Faith Christian School.  (I've seen 6-5, 6-6 and 6-7 for height)


Luke's an intersting guy for a couple reasons.  One being he was getting interest from some good NAIA programs like Cornerstone and St. Xavier and because in October he "committed" to Franklin College.

Anyway, he looks like a pretty good player, and according to one article is a former post player who turned is attention to guard play.....which I find fascinating.

[Flying Dutch Fan]

Just noticed that we have had 3 game days of MIAA play, and in all three of them there have been 2 home wins, and 2 road wins.  Probably means nothing (3 is not really a trend), but I found it interesting.

[TUAngola]

Nice win for Trine at Adrian last night 68-54.  Pretty much held Davonte Harris in check all night until the last minute when he put in a couple of uncontested 3's with Trine up 20.  Trine played without leading rebounder Ellis Cummings, didn't hear why but assuming out sick.  Copeland had a nice game with 18, Dixon who was playing sick had 14, but the biggest contribution was from senior Addison Daub who hit 5 big 3's in the second half, I'm sure that was a career game for him as he hasn't seen much playing time until this year and now has clearly taken over the point guard position.  Sickness has coursed thru both the womens and mens teams recently, noticed a lot of coughing and hacking at the womens game last Saturday with one of their key players out.

Hope comes to town Saturday, weather permitting.  Hope by far with the better talent up and down the roster, but if Dixon has a good game and some others step up we might make it close at home.  Safe travels for those who venture out Saturday to Angola.