MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[Winifred Durfee]

Just rolled into Olivet and there doesn't appear to be a line out the door so unless all the students, faculty, and staff claimed them, we should be good.

[Winifred Durfee]

http://www.d3hoops.com/notables/2018/02/men-regional-rankings-second

Well hello there.

[arena]

Ironic how many schools are having difficulty fielding JV teams during a year in which Calvin is actually sporting two JV teams.  Tonight one of the teams will play at 5:15 and the other at 7:30.  Would be fun if they can both get a W tonight. 

😂

If you can't have a aense of humor, what's the point?

1

[HupHolland]

Jason and Dante a combined 9 points at half


Not good. I'll eat my words

[CK150408]

Coaching question for you all. Nothing against the elder Morrison because I bet this coach has done this before but if you are only will to play a kid for 3 min. a half, why start him?

[goodknight]

In other news, pitcher and catchers reported this week.

[TUAngola]

Final from Angola:  Kalamazoo 70 Trine 63

You 5-7 teams in the conference just got new life. 

We stunk it up offensively and had no answer for Paprocki defensively.  Just wasn't our night, shots we normally hit weren't falling, and we missed a ton of shots around the hoop, including 2 consecutive missed dunks in the 2nd half.

Kalamazoo started with a 10-0 run, then Trine answered with a 16-0 run.  Kalamazoo regained control and led at half by 5. 

Kalamazoo still with a comfortable 11 point lead midway thru the 2nd half when Pete Smith made a steal and was going in for a layup when Roger Hood from Kalamazoo with a bush league intentional push in the back while Pete was the laying the ball up.  It clearly looked like an intent to injure.  Lots of tempers flaring, I've never seen Coach Miller so irate....he was all over Kalamazoo's coach.  Pete Smith wanted to fight and it looked like Hood was encouraging him to do so but teammates held Smith back.  Officials conversed and called it a flagrant 2 and Hood got ejected from the game.  I don't think I've ever seen an ejection of a player before like that.  It was deserved though.  It temporarily got our guys fired up and we even went around Kzoo but couldn't sustain the momentum and Kzoo kept running clock and feeding Paprocki who hit some tough shots down the stretch.

Needless to say Coach Miller and Coach Smith aren't going to be buddy/buddy anytime soon. 

[knightvision]

Caught the 2nd half of the Olivet-Hope game.  Pretty cool to see a nearly full house.  Can't help but be excited for Rod Hathaway--Olivet alum that the court is named after.  Rod is not only a tremendous advocate/supporter/cheerleader for Olivet, but also a longtime AAU sponsor/coach/advocate/ for countless local high school kids, many of whom have gone on to play not only in the MIAA but all the way up to DI.  Sure Rod is smiling right now...congrats Coach!!

Story of the second half was defense.  Olivet extended a zone waaayy out and gave up very few uncontested threes-- forced Hope to  drive and dish and beat them with 2's.  Hope certainly caused some foul troubles on penetration, but Olivet also caused some turnovers off the perimeter pressure.  Pretty much the blueprint for how to defend a Hope squad whose strength is in the backcourt.  On the other end, Hope had a hard time staying in front of Edmonds and Adams...a tall task for any MIAA team.  Wasn't uncommon to see penetration get by 2 and sometimes 3 layers of defense all the way to the rim.  I suspect Coach Mitchell was not pleased with the defensive effort....

I caught some of the Calvin/Albion game before the 2nd half of the Olivet/Hope game and during timeouts.  Let's just say a long and frustrating year for the Knights is almost in the books.

[pointlem]

Hats off to Olivet . . . and to their big two--Jalen Adams and Tracy Edmond--for their 53 points (of Olivet's 70), and for once again substantially outscoring Hope's two big scorers.  In my book, all four are all-league.

I'd like to think that Hope won't hit 1 of 17 3-point shots in a rematch. But then a big part of that was their not getting many open looks against Olivet's extremely effective zone, which Hope will need to find a way to solve . . . if they should be so fortunate as to enjoy a rematch for the tournament championship.

Kudos also to Olivet for a well-done video broadcast, with excellent announcer and a game score feed.

[sac]

Congrats to Olivet on winning the MIAA Championship tonight.  They were mostly excellent all night, Hope wasn't up to the task.  I can't really think of a single thing Hope did well tonight and in its biggest game that's the biggest disappointment.  This was nearly identical to actually worse than their trip to Kresge and they looked nothing like the team they'd been the last 2 1/2 weeks.

Caught the 2nd half of the Olivet-Hope game.  Pretty cool to see a nearly full house.  Can't help but be excited for Rod Hathaway--Olivet alum that the court is named after.  Rod is not only a tremendous advocate/supporter/cheerleader for Olivet, but also a longtime AAU sponsor/coach/advocate/ for countless local high school kids, many of whom have gone on to play not only in the MIAA but all the way up to DI.  Sure Rod is smiling right now...congrats Coach!!

Rod got to cut a piece of the net down, I was somewhat amused by that.

[Gregory Sager]

First MIAA title since 1973.

Congrats to Olivet's players, coaches, and fans. That's gotta feel awfully special.

[sac]

+1 for road win
-1 for home loss

Olivet    10-3     +3     (@Cal)
Hope     9-4     +3     (ALB)
Adrian   8-5     +1     (@KZO)
Trine      7-6       0     (@Alm)
Albion    6-7       -1     (@Hpe)
Alma      5-8       -1     (TRN)--Eliminated
Calvin    5-8      -1     (OLI) --Elimnated
Kazoo    2-11    -4     (ADR) --Eliminated

1.  Olivet  clinches share of MIAA title and host of semi-finals. Clinches outright with win at Calvin or Hope loss to Albion
2.  Hope   -- is locked in here by beating Olivet once vs Adrian going 0-2 regardless of Saturday outcome  (diff between wearing white or blue next Fri)   Can tie for share of title with win over Albion and Olivet loss at Calvin but lose tie-break with 1-1 vs Adrian vs Olivet being 2-0
3.  Adrian is the third seed, win  any potential tie-break over Trine with 2-0 head-to-head

Hope's playing Adrian next Friday


Fourth gets a bit more complicated
Trine is the 4 seed with a win at Alma or loss by Albion at Hope
Albion can tie Trine for fourth with a win at Hope and a Trine loss at Alma.  In which case we should get a play-in game that may or may not exist.   If it doesn't exist, Trine wins the tie-break with 2-0 head-to-head over Albion.  I imagine Trine would host a play-in game for the same reason. 

I've asked about the play-in game and no one seems to know for sure, its always yes but its not in writing anywhere.

[sac]

A word on Olivet hosting.  The school did a great job with everything tonight.  Tickets went very smoothly, the extra bleachers brought in were perfect.  I have little trouble believing they'll do another excellent job next weekend.

They listed attendance at 1275 tonight, which feels about right.  Figure your ticket shares around that number, I don't think we'll have any issues.

I would imagine they'll consider a split session next Friday, but with the first semi-final at 5:30 and the difficulty people from Hope and Adrian will have getting there on a work day that may not be necessary.  Hope had maybe around 100 there tonight.

[HOPEful]

A word on Olivet hosting.  The school did a great job with everything tonight.  Tickets went very smoothly, the extra bleachers brought in were perfect.  I have little trouble believing they'll do another excellent job next weekend.

They listed attendance at 1275 tonight, which feels about right.  Figure your ticket shares around that number, I don't think we'll have any issues.

I would imagine they'll consider a split session next Friday, but with the first semi-final at 5:30 and the difficulty people from Hope and Adrian will have getting there on a work day that may not be necessary.  Hope had maybe around 100 there tonight.

I'm really happy to hear all that sac! Thanks for sharing! Admittedly, my first reaction to last nights loss was a mix between, "Yikes! That was pathetic..." and "Darn, do I really want to go to Olivet and that gym?" Sounds like the answer is yes!

[wiz]

Ironic how many schools are having difficulty fielding JV teams during a year in which Calvin is actually sporting two JV teams.  Tonight one of the teams will play at 5:15 and the other at 7:30.  Would be fun if they can both get a W tonight. 

Bummer!  They split.