MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[KnightSlappy]

Wednesday night is going to be pretty interesting. Both Calvin and Hope are playing about as shallow with respect to bench minutes as I have seen. We'll typically see these two teams tighten up the rotation in the Rivarly games, but I'm not sure how much more they can lean on the starters.

[HOPEful]

FWIW, Calvin is outperforming my preseason expectations for them (especially in conference play)... I said 4-7, missing on Anderson. However, I thought they'd go .500 in the MIAA. They have been able to dominate the smaller teams inside with Wilkes and Welch and have overcome their poor guard play much better than I expected. It's not a huge surprise that the loss at Kalamazoo came to a team who's best performers are listed at 6'6", 6'6" and 6'9"...

If Calvin hits the .500 mark this season that will be a huge victory.

Fwiw, Calvin being .500 or below is perfectly acceptable to me and I don't even need the koolaid.

I don't see Calvin getting to .500 personally.

In their pre-conference schedule, I see 4-7 with losses to Augie, Cornerstone, Aquinas, Oshkosh, Wheaton, Anderson, and Wittenberg.

In conference play, I think they go .500 (maybe)... Hope and Alma should sweep them and they should sweep Olivet. The rest could all be splits. I think the neighborhood of 11 wins is about right.

[sac]

Wednesday night is going to be pretty interesting. Both Calvin and Hope are playing about as shallow with respect to bench minutes as I have seen. We'll typically see these two teams tighten up the rotation in the Rivarly games, but I'm not sure how much more they can lean on the starters.

You might actually see more of Hope's bench than they've played this year depending on how things go in a couple areas.

[sac]

Interesting nugget, through 6 games Hope is the only MIAA team to use the same starting 5 in each game.

[KnightSlappy]

Interesting nugget, through 6 games Hope is the only MIAA team to use the same starting 5 in each game.

Calvin has also used the same starting five for each of the six games. For some reason Tony DeWitte's name isn't being linked for Saturday's game vs. Adrian.

[realist]

Oldknights picks:

"Winners for Wednesday, January 25:

Adrian - 4
Trine - 3
Alma - 2
Calvin - 1

So you are saying Calvin "should" win this game, right?

[oldknight]

Oldknights picks:

"Winners for Wednesday, January 25:

Adrian - 4
Trine - 3
Alma - 2
Calvin - 1

So you are saying Calvin "should" win this game, right?

Actually, the bigger shock is FDF picking Hope with a paltry 2 confidence points.

Wed Jan 25

Alma @ Olivet - 3
Albion @ Trine - 4
Hope @ Calvin - 2
Kalamazoo @ Adrian - 1

[KnightSlappy]

Oldknights picks:

"Winners for Wednesday, January 25:

Adrian - 4
Trine - 3
Alma - 2
Calvin - 1

So you are saying Calvin "should" win this game, right?

Actually, the bigger shock is FDF picking Hope with a paltry 2 confidence points.

Wed Jan 25

Alma @ Olivet - 3
Albion @ Trine - 4
Hope @ Calvin - 2
Kalamazoo @ Adrian - 1

As the scorekeeper, however, he's able to change that to a 4 if they win and a 1 if they lose.  Alas, he probably won't be able to get away with switching the pick altogether.

[Flying Dutch Fan]

Oldknights picks:

"Winners for Wednesday, January 25:

Adrian - 4
Trine - 3
Alma - 2
Calvin - 1

So you are saying Calvin "should" win this game, right?

Actually, the bigger shock is FDF picking Hope with a paltry 2 confidence points.

Wed Jan 25

Alma @ Olivet - 3
Albion @ Trine - 4
Hope @ Calvin - 2
Kalamazoo @ Adrian - 1

As the scorekeeper, however, he's able to change that to a 4 if they win and a 1 if they lose.  Alas, he probably won't be able to get away with switching the pick altogether.

Rivalry game - you are going out on a limb from either side if you put more than 1 on it IMHO. 

Might even change it to a 10 if we win   

[HOPEful]

Rivalry game - you are going out on a limb from either side if you put more than 1 on it IMHO. 

Disagree. I'll keep the 4.

Wednesday, January 25thHope @ calvin - 4
Alma @ Olivet - 3
Kalamazoo @ Adrian - 2
Albion @ Trine - 1

[sac]

That Albion @ Trine game is so, so big for Albion.  A win and they stay in touch for the MIAA tournament after 2 or 3 super tough losses, a loss and there will be a clear division of 2 games between 4th and 5th unless Olivet beats Alma

A Hope win @ Calvin would of course make it very, very hard for anyone to surpass them in the standings and would go a long way to winning the title.

[Young Knight 14]

If you are willing to settle for last years 10-15 record fine by me Personally with everything thing Calvin has to offer 20 win seasons should be the expected norm.  Other coaches at Calvin are able to get their teams to this level of performance so why should we accept less in men's basketball?   

Out of the Knight's seventeen or so sports–what teams are at "this level"?

The obvious standouts would be the volleyball and men's soccer programs.  Swimming and diving are consistent top 25 teams for both men and women.  The cross country teams both go to nationals almost every year as well.  Women's basketball has also been ranked more times than not over the past 10 years.  The track team sends individuals to nationals every year and has had multiple all-Americans.  So I think there are a lot of teams performing at "this level" and I may have missed a few.

[HOPEful]

My thoughts on tonight's Rivalry game...

1.) I will be keeping a close eye on the foul situations for Blackledge vs. Wilkes from tipoff. The makeup of this game could shift dramatically if one of the two is in foul trouble and the other isn't. Personally, I feel as though if Harrison and Dante stay out of foul trouble, Hope wins by double digits. However, I fear that will be a difficult task for Harrison. If both Harrison and Wilkes find themselves in trouble, I'd give the nod to Welch over Brushwyler, but at that point, I wonder if Hope's guards would take over the game...

2.) Speaking of guards, it's a rivalry so it's as good of a time as ever for a Calvin guard to step up. My guess is it will have to be someone other than DeWitte because I expect Dante to shut that down. Could Canonie pull out of nowhere a star performance?

3.) What Cam Denney will show up? I would expect Coach Mitchell to have Stuive/Ray stay on him like white on rice, but I've seen him have games where the ugliest of fade away threes just seem to fall.

[KnightSlappy]

My thoughts on tonight's Rivalry game...

1.) I will be keeping a close eye on the foul situations for Blackledge vs. Wilkes from tipoff. The makeup of this game could shift dramatically if one of the two is in foul trouble and the other isn't. Personally, I feel as though if Harrison and Dante stay out of foul trouble, Hope wins by double digits. However, I fear that will be a difficult task for Harrison. If both Harrison and Wilkes find themselves in trouble, I'd give the nod to Welch over Brushwyler, but at that point, I wonder if Hope's guards would take over the game...

Michael Wilks has rarely been in foul trouble. He committed four fouls in the Aquinas game (the last with 25 secons remaining) but has been foul-free as many times (4) as he's committed three this season.

Of course, watch him pick up two quick ones now.

[almcguirejr]

My thoughts on tonight's Rivalry game...

1.) I will be keeping a close eye on the foul situations for Blackledge vs. Wilkes from tipoff. The makeup of this game could shift dramatically if one of the two is in foul trouble and the other isn't. Personally, I feel as though if Harrison and Dante stay out of foul trouble, Hope wins by double digits. However, I fear that will be a difficult task for Harrison. If both Harrison and Wilkes find themselves in trouble, I'd give the nod to Welch over Brushwyler, but at that point, I wonder if Hope's guards would take over the game...

2.) Speaking of guards, it's a rivalry so it's as good of a time as ever for a Calvin guard to step up. My guess is it will have to be someone other than DeWitte because I expect Dante to shut that down. Could Canonie pull out of nowhere a star performance?

3.) What Cam Denney will show up? I would expect Coach Mitchell to have Stuive/Ray stay on him like white on rice, but I've seen him have games where the ugliest of fade away threes just seem to fall.

I think Kronemeyer may have an opportunity to do something against Hope's guards.  He is quite a bit bigger and maybe able to take advantage of that posting them up.