MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[sac]

"oh God, I should have called travel"



"the ball was deflected"

laugh, it will help.

[wiz]

We're just a few  hours away from what should be another tightly contested game in Holland.  Hanover (H.C.A.C.) will take on Augustana (Double C-IW ) for a ticket to Salem.  What do the odds-makers say we should expect tonight?

[Flying Dutch Fan]

We're just a few  hours away from what should be another tightly contested game in Holland.  Hanover (H.C.A.C.) will take on Augustana (Double C-IW ) for a ticket to Salem.  What do the odds-makers say we should expect tonight?

My gut tells me Hanover, but that may be partially due to my dislike of Augie and in particular it's coach. Augies size advantage could make the difference. Be headed over to watch for myself. Should be a good game. I'll make a wild prediction the Hanover wins by 2.

[bulk19]

Heck, I'm still partial to "Wee-AC," but I'm definitely on an island there.

You are not even alone on this -- when I'm in Wisconsin I still get about 25% Whee and 75% Why.

The smart ones in the conference, like those who attended UWEC, use a long I = Why-AC, because WEAC is the Wisconsin Education Association Counsel...

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

I always wonder why people think the WIAC is Wee-AC... only because it's an I after all. LOL The MIAC isn't an E and I wonder then how MEAC would be pronounced.

[Pat Coleman]

People in Minnesota don't care much about the MEAC, for what it's worth. Not really on our radar out here! And I doubt that WIAC fans care much about how the MIAC fans pronounce their acronym.

[almcguirejr]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-Z6QBPWfJM

at 46:42  of the first half,  Coach Mitchell was pretty upset at this call and from way across DeVos I could read his lips about Harrison being the primary defender and the half circle shouldn't matter.  I think he's probably right but I don't know this one well enough.  Harrison is definitely not a secondary defender.

http://www.ncaawbb.arbitersports.com/Groups/104884/Library/files/Restricted_Area%20Info_final.pdf

EDIT   It appears the video link goes dark at 4am, these were the 3 calls that really stood out to me

Video is still live. The block call on Blackledge was flat-out wrong. The circle does not apply to him as he was clearly the primary defender and had established legal guarding position. That's just very poor officiating to make that call and point to the circle like that.

The restricted arc only ever applies to secondary defenders playing help defense.

If I'm remembering it correctly, that official made that nearly identical call on the same move in both halves, each time motioning that the defender was in the circle. How the heck do you have an official at a sweet sixteen game who does not understand the basic rules of post defending. Certainly whoever is in charge of assigning the officials to these games can do better. As poor as I think some of the worst officials in the MIAA are, they certainly would have been better than what I witnessed last night. It's just disappointing for games with that importance to have both teams suffer through such horrid officiating

FDF- you remember it correctly. The official was consistent, wrong, but consistent.

[monsoon]

My gut tells me Hanover, but that may be partially due to my dislike of Augie and in particular it's coach. Augies size advantage could make the difference. Be headed over to watch for myself. Should be a good game. I'll make a wild prediction the Hanover wins by 2.

Hanover by a nose seems a good bet this season.

[Mr. Ypsi]

My gut tells me Hanover, but that may be partially due to my dislike of Augie and in particular it's coach. Augies size advantage could make the difference. Be headed over to watch for myself. Should be a good game. I'll make a wild prediction the Hanover wins by 2.

Hanover by a nose seems a good bet this season.

FWIW, Massey predicts Augie 72, Hanover 69, with a 62% chance of an AC win.

[Flying Dutch Fan]

My gut tells me Hanover, but that may be partially due to my dislike of Augie and in particular it's coach. Augies size advantage could make the difference. Be headed over to watch for myself. Should be a good game. I'll make a wild prediction the Hanover wins by 2.

Hanover by a nose seems a good bet this season.

FWIW, Massey predicts Augie 72, Hanover 69, with a 62% chance of an AC win.

Essentially the same Massey "underdog" prediction Hanover faced vs Hope last night.

[oldknight]

Glad we haven't heard the chant "Where's your banner" in a while... It is that very chant that makes me smile when Calvin bows out in the first round...

That's the spirit!  Way to go Dutch_Man.  A Christian smile, I presume.

Ok, been a long-time reader of this board.  It always amazes me that WIZ always has a smarta** comment about Hope, whenever anything positive happens to Hope.  This week he has posted 3-4 fine jabs, including taking potshots at Matt Neil (a personal friend of mine) and now along with Dutch_Man have waded into the Church and Christianity portion of the rivalry.
I never thought I would take this experience public, but here is goes:
My two sons and I attended Van Noord Arena on the Campus of Calvin College (Ladies and Gentlemen please welcome Mr.......another story) for the first time on 2/18/15 to attend the MIAA Tournament Championship game between Hope College and Calvin College.  Yes, the very night that Jordan Brink put on one of the best all-time individual performances.
We arrived early for the game, not knowing the seating arrangements or the layout of the arena.
I quickly found an usher/stadium worker and inquired were the Hope College section or seating area was.  I was informed by him, "This is the MIAA Championship game, there are no assigned seats, feel free to sit where you would like and enjoy the game."
My boys and I proceeded to the upper seating portion, on the sideline opposite the benches.  We sat approx. 8 rows up to avoid the glass ring and sat at near-mid court.  Very nice seats.  Yes, we were wearing orange and blue and Hope attire.
As it approached game-time, it was becoming apparent from the color of people's clothing (maroon and gold) and the under the breath comments directed our way, we had "invaded" the turf of the wiser Calvin fans (by that I mean old and gray-haired and soon to find out mean-spirited).
I asked the boys, would you like to move to a different section and both said no we like the view from here.  Big parenting mistake on my part.
I told the boys, root for Hope, clap for Hope, but realize we are actually in the "Calvin" section tonight so be respectful.

If you were at the game, you will remember for the first 30-35 minutes of actual game time, Hope performed very well and had built what appeared to be an insurmountable lead.
During this (one hour and half of actual clock time), I have never been treated so disrespectfully and unwelcome.  Insults were hurled our way like....go to your own side losers, get out of our section, you don't belong here, go back to Holland where you belong (I won't include some of the 4 letter words, yes, Christian Reformed people said 4 letter words to us).
Finally, feeling like Hope was going to win (I was wrong on that one and congrats Jordan Brink), I felt it best to move out of the area with about 5:00 minutes to go in the game, so not to be there and have to deal with the "group" if Hope actually did win.
I said to my boys, at the next timeout, I am going to stand up and say something to the people around us and then we are going to walk out.
At the next timeout, I stood up and said loud enough for 7-10 rows of people, wearing Maroon and Gold, to hear me and said, "I hope tomorrow morning when you walk into your places of worship, that you treat your guests with the same vigor, language and welcomeness that you treated me and my boys with tonight.  Your pastor's would be proud!"  We got up and walked out.

WIZ, I don't know if you were within those 7-10 rows, I don't really care.  However, your carry the banner still today for those people from 2.18.2015, you should be proud of yourself.

Really starting to wonder...

Me too. When I first read drosselmeyer's post about the reported shabby treatment he got at VNA two years ago, I admit I asked myself if the story he related was true--or at least heavily embellished. But he was a new board poster and I had no real reason to doubt him other than my Calvin bias so I accepted it as true. But his more recent, embarrassing posts reminds me of someone who showed up several years ago (can't remember his board name, but it wasn't Ashabi). That unknown clown launched a board-wide attack on Dave McHugh's integrity before being justly relegated to poster purgatory if not hell. I don't expect drosselmeyer is the same guy as the one who got flushed back then, but their m.o.'s are similar. I am wondering if drosselymeyer is a Hope fan at all. 

[almcguirejr]

Augustana 77 Hanover 64

Poor FT shooting by Hanover (15-29), Augustana out rebounding Hanover 48-35, and Augustana's depth proved to be to much for Hanover to overcome.  Muchmore played a nice game tonight, but going 2-10 from the line hurt his team.

[wiz]

Having watched a little of all four games tonight, I am favoring Whitman and Augustana in the finals next Saturday.

[devossed]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-Z6QBPWfJM

at 46:42  of the first half,  Coach Mitchell was pretty upset at this call and from way across DeVos I could read his lips about Harrison being the primary defender and the half circle shouldn't matter.  I think he's probably right but I don't know this one well enough.  Harrison is definitely not a secondary defender.

http://www.ncaawbb.arbitersports.com/Groups/104884/Library/files/Restricted_Area%20Info_final.pdf

EDIT   It appears the video link goes dark at 4am, these were the 3 calls that really stood out to me

Video is still live. The block call on Blackledge was flat-out wrong. The circle does not apply to him as he was clearly the primary defender and had established legal guarding position. That's just very poor officiating to make that call and point to the circle like that.

The restricted arc only ever applies to secondary defenders playing help defense.

If I'm remembering it correctly, that official made that nearly identical call on the same move in both halves, each time motioning that the defender was in the circle. How the heck do you have an official at a sweet sixteen game who does not understand the basic rules of post defending. Certainly whoever is in charge of assigning the officials to these games can do better. As poor as I think some of the worst officials in the MIAA are, they certainly would have been better than what I witnessed last night. It's just disappointing for games with that importance to have both teams suffer through such horrid officiating

FDF- you remember it correctly. The official was consistent, wrong, but consistent.

The rumor going around was that this was dude's 1st ever NCAA tournament game assignment. I have yet to confirm, but if so - wow!

[sac]

MIAA  Sr's

Adrian
Anthony Cannon
Chad Mossing

Albion
Jared Larr
Jason Zahran

Alma
Tyler Edwards
Trevor Gernaat
Chase Fairchild
Bryce Hines

Calvin
Cam Denny
Nate Drews
Nick Kronemeyer
Michael Welch

Hope
Harrison Blackledge
Chad Carlson
Cody Stuive
Mitchel O'Brien
Keith Brushwyler
Zach Littleson

Kalamazoo
Tommy Cerven
Adam Dykema
Josh Whitney
Jake Whitney
Chase Baysdell
Josh Miller

Olivet
Zach Walker
Kevin Woodson
Eric Ewing
Aaron Washington
RJ Haas
Chris Chrzan

Trine
Adison Daub
Will Dixon
Adam Ciszewski
Luke Wenger


Adrian--  The Bulldogs fell apart through attrition for various reason this year.  Justin Webster returns for his Sr. year and that's just about it.  Looking like a major rebuild in doggie land. 

Alma-- gets the injured Kevin Gamble, Doug Bradfield and maybe Rob Holmes back next year.  That's probably gaining more returning than losing, mixed with all those Fr. returning.

Albion-- has potential to be good, that hinges on improving their defense, better team chemistry and improving a front line that loses its most productive player.  6-7 Fr. Caden Ebeling returning from his leg injury (forget what it was exactly) could be key there.  Jaylen Fordham getting over a terrible sophomore slump could be key as well

Calvin-- going to lean on Michael Wilks and So. to be Tony DeWitte a lot probably.  Losses vary in your opinion but its not insignificant and it could be said by someone bold Kronemeyer carried them the last half of the MIAA.  Young front line really has to develop and guard play has to improve which includes getting offense from Canonie.   

Hope--   significant graduation hits will be hard to replace.  Dante Hawkins could have a really big year but he'll be surrounded by a pretty inexperienced team at all levels really.  Lots of new faces probably means a retooling rather than reloading.  Hope gets to be like everyone else was this year, young to start out, hopefully good by February.

Kalamazoo--  Heavy graduation losses makes next years Hornets team a big unknown.  Tanner Blyly and Josh Poprocki return after that its probably going to be a lot of Freshmen

Olivet--  even heavier graduation losses, Thomas Tsalkitzis will be their best returning player, after that you're looking at fringe minutes guys.  New faces will play a big part in Olivet's 2018

Trine--   will still be considered pretty young next year,  potential for good frontline.  Dodson, Copeland and Johnson will probably carry them offensively, key is going to be finding points from the 1 and 2 guard positions which will probably be very young and/or inexperienced


**Adrian, Olivet and Kalamazoo have potential to be really bad next year.  They probably won't be but the potential is there so it might be hard for the league to get above the .500 mark out of conference again.


I kind of feel like 1 thru 5 will be pretty even again and you could just about throw the first five in any order and be reasonably confident.  I base this purely on what I saw this year with the returning players, minus losses and without taking off-season development potential into account.

1.  Alma
2.  Calvin
3.  Trine
4.  Albion
5.  Hope
6.  Olivet
7.  Kzoo
8.  Adrian

Does Hope fall that far?  probably not but they lose the most and return the least among the first 5 teams in minutes.  Outside of maybe Dennis Towns and Teddy Ray, Hope didn't get many productive minutes from its young guys this year.