MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[HOPEful]

A (somewhat) related question for those of us non-Hopers or simply too young to know... What is the origin of Hope's student section's association with Mountain Dew? Was there ever any official relationship with Pepsi?

Yes.

http://www.hopedewcrew.com/

It's pretty vague but I can tell you that the "former basketball coach" mentioned was in fact Matt Neil. I can also tell you that "back in the day" there was an abundant supply of Dew Crew t-shirts and bottles of Dew Crew for distribution at games, both home and away. I don't know what, if any, relationship with Pepsi still exists, since I've noticed the "3" point bottles haven't even been going up on the walls this season.

[HupHolland]

Winifred Durfee can tell you more, but Pepsi Still does supply funding for the Dew Crew. 500 free cases of Dew as well as some cash for making t-shirts and other stuff every year. And I know for a fact why there is a lack of students in the Dew Crew but that might end up becoming a long novel.

[Bulldog30]

Congratulations to the Adrian bigs, Justin Webster and Jeremy Kalonji.

Justin definitely earned that 1st team position with his strong play throughout the year. Extremely consistent on a team that has needed more of that. If the guards don't shoot well this weekend, then he will have to be a beast in the paint.

Jeremy has a lot of talent and he's still only a sophomore. His shot was way better than I expected (44% from 3) and he showed high level athleticism at times. I'll talk more about him whenever the season ends for Adrian. Hopefully not soon.

Go Bulldogs this weekend!

[GoKnights68]

I was impressed by the couple games I saw Hope's Preston Granger as has a pretty polished overall game, and didn't realize until know he's just a freshmen.  I wouldn't be surprised if he makes a big leap next season to be on one of the All-MIAA teams.   

[sac]

I saw Preston Granger last spring in his last home high school game and thought he could contribute this year, but not as much as he's had to.  He was far from a polished player and has really improved his post play from the night I saw him. 

He compares very favorably to a couple recent Hope players who saw a lot of time in the post their Fr. seasons.  These teams are made up differently and minutes were probably a little easier for Granger to find.

Granger     511 min  9pts 4.3 rbs   61.6% FG  71.4% FT
'14 Blackledge  276 min  4.7pts  2.4 rbs  49.3% FG  66.2% FT
'10 Snuggeruud  652 min 6pts  4.8 rbs  52.5% FG  57.6% FT

[Dutch_Man]

I have had this conversation with many former Dew Crewers... Hopeful, you have nailed it... The Hope student section needs to evolve and make it their own. I hate to see the 3-man and how it has faded away (given I was one) but I think it is okay for good things to come to an end. I honestly think the "Dew Crew" should let the name fade away and let a new something begin when the time is right...

Over the last few years I have said that the Dew Crew ran into a perfect storm... I believe it started around 1996 in the Civic Center where you only needed 25-50 people to make some serious noise with those low ceilings. They were solid until Hope built DeVos. When DeVos opened my freshman year and we had the right teams, the right student leadership and a ton of student participation with the glitz and glam of the new gym. Even in the early days of DeVos there were plenty of games where we only had three to four rows of students but we brought an enthusiasm unknown to mankind... 

This lasted for a good 8-10 years... good teams, good student leadership... I think the size of DeVos has always played against the Dew Crew... They have a section that fits close to 300 but 25-75 students doesn't "look" great... Once again, I come back to the Civic Center, you only needed 25-50 strong voices. I think Calvin fans can say similarly.

I am sure there is plenty of other potential reasons as well... just my thoughts as I reflect back on my glory days... We had fun.

More importantly, it's almost game day!

I think if Hope wants to keep the Dew Crew and it's reputation as being one of, if not THE, best student sections in D3, it needs to evolve. The group needs better structure, official leadership, and funding. They ought to be actively recruiting underclassmen in the same way junior and senior Pull coaches do.

[Winifred Durfee]

To try to address and wrap up some of the things discussed as far as the Dew Crew:

-Yes, Pepsi is a sponsor. The Dew Crew receives more than enough Mountain Dew each year and a stipend for other things. Combined with T-shirt sales, the budget is used for things like giveaways and bus rides to away contests.

-It's important to keep in mind that everyone will feel nostalgic about their time at Hope, so it's easy to say it was best during their time at Hope.

-I can only speak for my time: 2013-2017. We dealt with the struggles of getting students in the Dew Crew, but also worked hard and strategically to create what I think was a generally solid atmosphere at Devos. Even with 4-5 rows on most Wednesday night games (100 students, tops), we tried to rock the Devos. It's not about the size of the boat, it's about the motion of the ocean.

-Dutch_Man and Hopeful make some good points: it's all about leadership. We had bus trips to Calvin for volleyball games, and to Alma and Trine for basketball games. Organized food and apparel giveaways at home games, contests on social media, all run by a team that included marketing, operations, social media, etc. We went canvassing on campus and took the basketball team with us to invite students in dorms to come to games. 100 students doesn't look so great in Devos, like Dutch_Man said, but we had a good time. For big games, the Dew Crew had 200+ throughout the last few years. I think it was fine during that time period. We tried our best to leave the Crew in good hands for this year, but you can't make people want to lead, just like you can't make them want to come to games. We gave away TWO IPADS at a women's game once and nobody showed up. Happens.

-The effort seems to have dropped this year and I'm a bit disappointed (I guess I'm part of the "Dew Crew was better in my day" club now).

-Coach Mitchell is very supportive of the Dew Crew. He was always willing to help in whatever way possible. Neil got things going, for sure, but he wasn't a part of much with us my freshman year. I didn't know him enough to speak much on him, however, so I won't.

-Hopeful also hit it on the head: there is a natural ebb and flow to student attendance. Schedule, strength of team, various events and organizations on campus, it happens. Maybe next year and/or the year after, someone will step in with the passion to make it work. It truly does take some extra time and effort to make the Dew Crew a great thing, just like any other campus organization.

-I cannot stress this enough, but one of the biggest factors of all, and perhaps least visible, is the changes made to Durfee Hall over the past few years. The Men of Durf have always been the core of the Dew Crew. Durfee is a special place full of tradition, and getting rowdy at Hope sporting events has always been one of them. Hope has made a concerted effort to change the culture of Durfee by getting different types of people in as the Resident Director, coming down harshly on Men of Durf for harmless shenanigans that have, in the past, been laughed at and allowed to slide, and outright changing the type of students they place in the dorm based on incoming freshmen surveys. If the Dew Crew lacks leadership, this is a huge factor as to why. The last 3 years have changed Durfee Hall completely from what it was in the past.   

Sorry for the long winded response, but it was something I was very involved with at Hope. I guess my conclusion is that attendance goes up and down. It's much better than at any other D3 school in the country. However, there are major cultural changes occurring over time at Hope that factor into Dew Crew attendance. Do not count out the changes to Durfee Hall, and the increase in Greek Life and other organizations.  Hopefully we will have more passionate young Dutch come through that want to create a home court advantage. I always said, I'd rather have 20 students here yelling the entire time than 400 here to look at their phones and make plans for later that night. Just need to find that core group to have some consistency and get others to notice and join. It's a 2 hour party... best one on campus.

[sac]

Back in my day it was 50 kids in polo's and designer rugby shirts sneering across the gym arrogantly.  No cheers, chants or props.  Just elitist arrogance. 

[Winifred Durfee]

I saw Preston Granger last spring in his last home high school game and thought he could contribute this year, but not as much as he's had to.  He was far from a polished player and has really improved his post play from the night I saw him. 

I was impressed by the couple games I saw Hope's Preston Granger as has a pretty polished overall game, and didn't realize until know he's just a freshmen.  I wouldn't be surprised if he makes a big leap next season to be on one of the All-MIAA teams.   

Yes and yes. He certainly seemed like the best player of this year's class coming into the season. He also surpassed any expectations I had for him, or any freshman for that matter. I would be surprised if he doesn't earn All-MIAA honors in his career, and probably will next year. He has a unique playing style with more athleticism than Harrison. He also shoots well from the FT line. I will be interested to see if he develops an outside shooting game, as Harrison knocked down 3s quite efficiently for a big man in his senior year.

[Winifred Durfee]

Back in my day it was 50 kids in polo's and designer rugby shirts sneering across the gym arrogantly.  No cheers, chants or props.  Just elitist arrogance. 

Ha! The important stuff.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJYlMH_9ZtQ

[Dutch_Man]

Great stuff! Love the good ol' days!

(I guess I'm part of the "Dew Crew was better in my day" club now).

Back in my day it was 50 kids in polo's and designer rugby shirts sneering across the gym arrogantly.  No cheers, chants or props.  Just elitist arrogance. 

[scottiedawg]

I'm pretty dang grateful for the great Hope men's and women's teams, Durfee and the Dew Crew during my 4 years at Hope.

Even if HopeConvert gave me my lowest grade of college......  ;-)

[sac]

Thought I should pass on that Eaton County is experiencing a lot of mostly rural flooding.  Highway travel appears to be fine, but if you venture off onto back roads you'll find a lot of closed roads and detours.

http://ecgis.maps.arcgis.com/apps/View/index.html?appid=2f9ba13231434ef78c3b76c0486904d5

[sac]

Good luck to all 4 teams tonight, should be a couple of good games, if not at least interesting.

I would not be surprised if any of the 4 teams won the tournament, just that kind of year.

[Dutch_Man]

Rubber match for both games tonight...

Jan. 6
Olivet 72 - Trine 79
Jan. 31
Olivet 70 - Trine 61

Jan. 13
Hope 63 - Adrian 74
Feb. 7
Hope 95 - Adrian 77