MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[Grutte Dirk]

Interesting that the league cancelled all the basketball games last night. Oh well, Saturday's games could be fun.

Huh??

Poll KnightSlappy. . .
A.) ... got slapped by a knight.
B.) ... got bite by a Bulldog.
C.) ... tripped on the way to Damascus.
D.) ... is living a life where Wednesday, January 29 does not exist.

[oldknight]

Interesting that the league cancelled all the basketball games last night. Oh well, Saturday's games could be fun.

Huh??

Poll KnightSlappy. . .
A.) ... got slapped by a knight.
B.) ... got bite by a Bulldog.
C.) ... tripped on the way to Damascus.
D.) ... is living a life where Wednesday, January 29 does not exist.
E.) ... is pulling your leg.

Needed one more option, so I added it for you. Now we're ready to vote in your poll.

[sac]

Alma's Ryan Stevens had 10 assists Wed night which gives him 8 games of 10 assists or more in his career.

I have Ryan with 273 career assists in MIAA regular season games which puts him ahead of Hope's David Krombeen at 239 and would make him the all-time league leader in assists.  Ryan is also only a handful of assists away from enough to surpass Hope's Joel Holstege's per game assist mark, which would be a record if they kept it that way.

[MaroonKnighty]

That was a tough one to watch at Calvin today.

[arena]

Offensive game for sure.

[Flying Dutch Fan]

free throws, Free Throws, FREE THROWS!!!!!!

[MaroonKnighty]

Actually, Calvin's Free Throw shooting was pretty good, it was the rest of the shooting that sucked.  Also, never like blaming a game on the refs but they were absolutely terrible today.  Albion is still the better team but OMG.

[sac]

Olivet 73  Hope 67

That's a pretty good lie of a final score.  Olivet was better than Hope right from the opening tip to the end.  The last 2 minutes was just some stupid basketball that went Hope's way.  Should have been a 12 point or more margin.  On a night the Comets played without Shawn Pardee, they rallied around themselves played with fire, emotion and belief and if they could have would have dunked on Hope every time down the floor.

Not to take anything away from Olivet's fine performance but this was a really weak effort by Hope.  Take your pick on the things you had to do poorly tonight to lose this game and Hope did it.  14 missed FT's and miss 3 front-end of 1 for 1's, terrible night shooting the 3,  Preston Granger coming up one turnover short of a double-double.

Even with the above Hope was in this with 9 min to go trailing by 6 and some decent momentum then went turnover, missed layup, missed layup, missed jump shot (from about 4 feet) and never really could recover from that stretch.

Three straight really weak efforts at Olivet for the Dutchmen, all of them deserved losses.


Hope:  Thomas 19, Granger 15, Dykhouse 10
Olivet:  Thigpen 17, Angell 15, Franklin 10


Rough depiction of Olivet's Ryan Franklin.  Absolutely love this kids energy and tenacity, doesn't play much but I've watch him light a fire under the butts of his teammates twice now. Hit two three's tonight one a banked three, several good hustle plays.



67.5% of his career points came tonight and that equaled the win, hope he got the game ball.

[sac]

Alma 83 Adrian 72
Trine 90 Kalamazoo 77
Albion 75 Calvin 66


+1 for road win/ -1 for home loss

1.  Albion 8-0  +5
2.  Trine 6-2 +2
3.  Calvin 4-4  -1
3.  Hope 4-4  -1
3.  Alma 4-4  +1
6.  Adrian 3-5  -2
7.  Olivet 2-6  -1
8.  Kalamazoo 1-7  -3

Two game lead for Albion and a super favorable schedule the rest of the way.  In reality its probably a huge gap, but it only takes one loss somewhere doesn't it.

Hope's looking at a pretty tough week with Albion/Calvin, likely 4-6 and will need at least 2 wins from their last 4, 3 to be safe and 3 of those final 4 on the road.  Not guaranteed Hope will make the tournament but their position is better than I thought in the haze of a loss at Olivet.

Pretty big week for Alma too with Trine at home and a visit to Albion. 

Things could look super messy after the top 2 next Sunday, stay tuned.


Remaining games:

Adrian:  @Kzo,  @Trn,  HPE,  ALB,  @Oli,  @Cal
Albion:   HPE,  ALM,  @Kzo,  @Adr,  TRN,  OLI
Alma:     TRN,  @Alb,  OLI,  @Cal,  HPE,  KZO
Calvin:   @Oli,  @Hpe,  @Trn,  ALM,  @Kzo,  ADR
Hope:    @Alb,  CAL , @Adr,  KZO,  @Alm,  @Trn
Kzoo:     ADR,  @Oli,  ALB,  @Hpe,  CAL,  @Alm
Olivet:    CAL,  KZO,  @Alm,  TRN,  ADR,  @Alb
Trine:     @Alm,  ADR,  CAL,  @Oli,  @Alb,  HPE

[sac]

Albion 76  Hope 68  F

Interesting game, if for nothing more than this was the hardest I've seen this group of Hope players play all season.   Their reward was a first 20 minutes of the same kind of frustrating stuff that's been happening to Hope at Kresge for the past 2 years.  Hope managed to stay within 13 14 at halftime despite really nothing going their way.

Hope gave a heck of battle and were at least equal if not the better team for almost all of the second half.  8 point game with 8:30 to play, Hope held Albion to just 3 fg's the rest of the way but just couldn't get those one or two critical shots to drop in about a 6 possession stretch trailing by 6.  Albion sewed it up at the FT line.

Hope punched back tonight at least, which was 180 degrees from getting body punched all night long Saturday and being ok with it.  Still frustrating to leave Kresge shooting below 20% from 3 again and only losing by 8.

Hope caught Jamezell Davis on an off night too maybe, Davis took his usual big shots but ones that have gone in all year didn't tonight.  The difference for Albion and everyone else is they have 1 or 2 other guys to go to when their best isn't at his best.  Garland was great again, and Armstrong was their best interior guy tonight.

Hope:  George 21, Granger 18, Thomas 15
Albion:  Armstrong 16, Davis 14, Ebeling 13, Garland 13

[sac]

+1 for road win/ -1 for home loss

1.  Albion 9-0  +5
2.  Trine 8-2 +3
3.  Calvin 5-4  E
4.  Alma 4-5   E
4.  Hope 4-5  -1
4.  Adrian 4-5  -1
7.  Olivet 2-7  -2
8.  Kalamazoo 1-8  -4

Albion maintains the 2 game lead, Trine closes the +/- by 1 matching Albion's win at Alma earlier.  Albion and Trine have clinched spots in the MIAA tournament, or realistically anyway.  Albion is def. in.

In the quartet of Calvin, Alma, Hope, Adrian   Alma/Adrian are done playing each other with Alma winning both.  The second matchups between these 4 all have to take place yet. 

Kzoo and Olivet aren't in great spots, but you never know.


Remaining games:

Adrian:  @Trn,  HPE,  ALB,  @Oli,  @Cal
Albion:   ALM,  @Kzo,  @Adr,  TRN,  OLI
Alma:     @Alb,  OLI,  @Cal,  HPE,  KZO
Calvin:   @Hpe,  @Trn,  ALM,  @Kzo,  ADR
Hope:    CAL , @Adr,  KZO,  @Alm,  @Trn
Kzoo:     @Oli,  ALB,  @Hpe,  CAL,  @Alm
Olivet:    KZO,  @Alm,  TRN,  ADR,  @Alb
Trine:     ADR,  CAL,  @Oli,  @Alb,  HPE

[sac]

Not that it matters much but there was a bit of a scoring kerfluffle at halftime which involved a long conversation with coaches, officials, scorers etc.  The explanation I received was Hope was awarded a 3 when it should have been a two.

Here's the box corrected to a 2point basket:
02:52   Hope GEORGE,TYLER made jump shot   25 - 38   
02:52   Hope Assist by THOMAS,EVAN

Here's the video of the 2:52 jumper by George
https://youtu.be/P9eBLoqy984?t=4330

Referee signals 3 very clearly.  Best part is, as it was described to me by Albion's table the official who insisted he remembered the shot and signaled two to the scoring table wasn't even the one seen in the video.

Does internet video count as available video review?

[ziggy]

Official on the near side also indicates a three-point goal so shouldn't be any confusion there. And from the looks of the video, there is no doubt George was behind the three-point line for the shot attempt.

[Flying Dutch Fan]

I wonder if the scorer was confusing George's shot with the Granger long 2 that was initially put up as 3 pts, then corrected to 2pts (at least I assume that happened on the actual scoreboard since it happened on the video feed score and the commentators mentioned it was wrong as 3pts several times before it was corrected). 

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Does internet video count as available video review?

If it is available at the table, technically it could be reviewed.