MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Hope did a great job hosting last weekend.  Great facility, kind and polite to visiting fans, etc. 

Thought the students were a little out of bounds with their repeated effort to count down the shot clock loudly for the opposing team, using the wrong count.  While it's not the first time I've seen this, and it didn't work, it's poor sportsmanship. Probably not approved by the Grand Dutch Tulip Bishop or whoever oversees your moral code.

Hmmm, I'll gladly take Hope's side in this and say you are probably in the large minority (not just on this board but in general)  on that opinion.    That's not disrespecting anyway, and it's just them having fun and getting a bit of home-court advantage.  I bet a large majority of student sections in d1 do it too.

I forget which team, but I saw it work in a big spot this weekend - one team took a bad shot early in the count because of the student section.  To me, that's the fans' job, to mess with the other team - the coordinated hand waving behind the basket on FTs, etc.  Why else call it a home court advantage?

[realist]

I would think that Calvin fans would love to be able to say that they beat the national champions twice this year, rather than hold animosity towards Hope. I know I would relish the opportunity.

Win the national championship, and then we will see how it plays out.   

[northb]

I would think that Calvin fans would love to be able to say that they beat the national champions twice this year, rather than hold animosity towards Hope. I know I would relish the opportunity.

Pure conjecture on your part :
1991-92       Calvin  81  Hope 69

           Calvin  77   Hope 75    

       Calvin  91  Hope 88    


1999-00    Calvin  78  Hope  68

       Calvin  82 Hope 80 (OT)    

[ziggy]

Glad to see Hope is hosting again next weekend.  That means good quality video, and hopefully, most of the seats will be filled.  I was surprised how poor the attendance was at some of the hosting sites.  I know gym size is one of the criteria, but also attendance when a team is awarded a pod should be tracked.

Hanover's reward for being higher ranked in the final regional rankings is a true road game in the Sweet 16. I'm sure they're thrilled.

[Winifred Durfee]

Hope did a great job hosting last weekend.  Great facility, kind and polite to visiting fans, etc. 

Thought the students were a little out of bounds with their repeated effort to count down the shot clock loudly for the opposing team, using the wrong count.  While it's not the first time I've seen this, and it didn't work, it's poor sportsmanship. Probably not approved by the Grand Dutch Tulip Bishop or whoever oversees your moral code.

Hmmm, I'll gladly take Hope's side in this and say you are probably in the large minority (not just on this board but in general)  on that opinion.    That's not disrespecting anyway, and it's just them having fun and getting a bit of home-court advantage.  I bet a large majority of student sections in d1 do it too.

I forget which team, but I saw it work in a big spot this weekend - one team took a bad shot early in the count because of the student section.  To me, that's the fans' job, to mess with the other team - the coordinated hand waving behind the basket on FTs, etc.  Why else call it a home court advantage?

This works quite often. The Dew Crew has utilized it a lot. It (almost) worked a few times against Oshkosh but Ben Boots felt like making some heroic contested 3s. It has definitely resulted in many air balls in the past few years, especially against teams that aren't used to playing in front of a few thousand people. Bad sportsmanship? Call a doctor, my eyes just rolled into the back of my head.

[dykstraj@hope.edu]

On a separate, but related, topic...

I have been slightly disheartened by the conduct in recent years of the Hope and Calvin student sections. I am aware that I am a Hope fan, as as such am biased and so have not seen as much from the Hope students.

In recent years I have witnessed the Calvin students seemingly trying to emulate Big Ten and other D1 student sections. It has mostly coming the form of being borderline out-of-control...

I agree and I "thank" Dick Vitale and his beloved "Dukies" for this unfortunate trend.  Every other fan base in the country is now trying to catch up.  Shame, shame, shame!

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Glad to see Hope is hosting again next weekend.  That means good quality video, and hopefully, most of the seats will be filled.  I was surprised how poor the attendance was at some of the hosting sites.  I know gym size is one of the criteria, but also attendance when a team is awarded a pod should be tracked.

Hanover's reward for being higher ranked in the final regional rankings is a true road game in the Sweet 16. I'm sure they're thrilled.

Move the campus 80 miles north and you won't have this problem.

[sac]

Glad to see Hope is hosting again next weekend.  That means good quality video, and hopefully, most of the seats will be filled.  I was surprised how poor the attendance was at some of the hosting sites.  I know gym size is one of the criteria, but also attendance when a team is awarded a pod should be tracked.

Hanover's reward for being higher ranked in the final regional rankings is a true road game in the Sweet 16. I'm sure they're thrilled.

Maybe the school founders should have thought about how far they'd be away from Waverly, Iowa when selecting a plot of land for their school

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Glad to see Hope is hosting again next weekend.  That means good quality video, and hopefully, most of the seats will be filled.  I was surprised how poor the attendance was at some of the hosting sites.  I know gym size is one of the criteria, but also attendance when a team is awarded a pod should be tracked.

Hanover's reward for being higher ranked in the final regional rankings is a true road game in the Sweet 16. I'm sure they're thrilled.

Maybe the school founders should have thought about how far they'd be away from Waverly, Iowa when selecting a plot of land for their school

This is why we missed it on the Whiparound.  I had thought Hanover was in Southern Indiana, but wasn't super positive.  Dave said it was north of Indianapolis, so I deferred to the big guy.  I knew that would be within 500.  My bad, though, I should've checked - it doesn't take very long.  I don't think there's a route through Canada, so we would've known for sure.

[Gregory Sager]

Glad to see Hope is hosting again next weekend.  That means good quality video, and hopefully, most of the seats will be filled.  I was surprised how poor the attendance was at some of the hosting sites.  I know gym size is one of the criteria, but also attendance when a team is awarded a pod should be tracked.

Hanover's reward for being higher ranked in the final regional rankings is a true road game in the Sweet 16. I'm sure they're thrilled.

Maybe the school founders should have thought about how far they'd be away from Waverly, Iowa when selecting a plot of land for their school

This is why we missed it on the Whiparound.  I had thought Hanover was in Southern Indiana, but wasn't super positive.  Dave said it was north of Indianapolis, so I deferred to the big guy.

You should've stopped deferring to Dave after he steered you wrong on UWO getting left out of Pool C.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Glad to see Hope is hosting again next weekend.  That means good quality video, and hopefully, most of the seats will be filled.  I was surprised how poor the attendance was at some of the hosting sites.  I know gym size is one of the criteria, but also attendance when a team is awarded a pod should be tracked.

Hanover's reward for being higher ranked in the final regional rankings is a true road game in the Sweet 16. I'm sure they're thrilled.

Maybe the school founders should have thought about how far they'd be away from Waverly, Iowa when selecting a plot of land for their school

This is why we missed it on the Whiparound.  I had thought Hanover was in Southern Indiana, but wasn't super positive.  Dave said it was north of Indianapolis, so I deferred to the big guy.

You should've stopped deferring to Dave after he steered you wrong on UWO getting left out of Pool C.

I'm a geography bee champ, too, from way back.  I should've known better.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

For the record... I was a bit worn out by the time the location of Hanover came up in conversation. I flipped them with Trine for some crazy reason. Not sure why other than Trine was in the conversation during the weekend. SMH

And I steered the conversation about UWO where the trend and what I had been told for years (including this year) had led... as I said on the show at the time as well... if I was wrong, it was a major trend breaker and then so be it. I think we have shown just how big of a trend breaker it was. I am just fine to not make that selection based on what we had known and seen for a number of years.

[Gregory Sager]

Just rattling your cage, D-Mac. That's all.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Touche.

I will say... I didn't like the pick... but I think anyone who heard my interview with KVS knows why. No point in rehashing it now. I am not saying OWO wasn't a good team... just didn't feel they fit the criteria to be in. But again... listen to my interview to get an idea of where my issue was.

[Fifth and Putnam]

I know there has been some chatter on here about Jon VanderWal and his ties to Calvin and the MIAA. There was a nice article about VanderWal and Vande Streek in this morning's Marietta Times:

http://www.mynewsonthego.com/marietta/EPaper/?pageid=5e4644c9-4a7f-4d3d-9e5e-792b072f2d3f

Ron Johnston

Jon VanderWal had not one but two basketball reunions at the NCAA Division III tournament this past weekend at Ban Johnson Arena.

On Friday night, the 10th-year Marietta College men's basketball boss coached against veteran Kevin Vande Streek of Calvin (Mi.) College, and the Pioneers claimed an 83-66 decision.

Then, the following evening at the BanJo, VanderWal dueled with No. 23 Guilford (N.C.) College head man Tom Palombo, who helped mentor him at Defiance College. The seventh-ranked Pioneers ended up winning 88-64 to advance to the Sweet 16.

"I have so much respect for Coach Vande Streek and his program," said VanderWal of the Knights' coach. "He recruited me out of high school. I was this close to going there (Calvin)."

VanderWal ended up attending and playing ball at Albion College.

"They (Knights) actually won the national championship (1999-2000 season) my junior year," VanderWal said. "So, that stunk for me a little bit.

"But I'm a Dutch Christian Reform kid from northern Michigan, and that's probably what their entire team is. A lot of my family members have gone to Calvin. There's a big history there for my family. So, obviously, when I went to Albion and played against Calvin all those years, it was always kind of an intense game for me."

VanderWal paused.

"So, when we (Pioneers) saw that we were playing them," he continued, "it had a little extra to it for me."

VanderWal said that he and Vande Streek spoke on the day before the game.

"We talked yesterday," VanderWal said. "He's a super nice guy. A class act all the way around."

The feelings are mutual.

"A couple of years ago, I was an NCAA site rep at Augustana when (Marietta) played there," said Vande Streek, who has been at the Calvin helm for 21 years. "It's been fun to see him to go from a player to an assistant coach - at places under a couple of really good coaches - to become a head coach."

Vande Streek gave VanderWal a lot of credit.

"In Division III," the Calvin boss said, "it's harder than any other level to take a program that's not been good and turn it into consistently being good.

"Jon's done it like very few have done. He's done a great job, and he's got another really good team. I'd love to see him keep on going (in the tournament)."

VanderWal smiled.

"He stopped me in the handshake line (after Friday's game)," he said. "He said if our kids defend this way every game, we're going to be playing for awhile. That was nice of him to say. It's the truth, too. If we move that fast and play that hard defensively, I think we've got a chance to make a run."