MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[oldknight]

Calvin with a miserable offensive performance--36% from the floor and 20 turnovers--but the Knights still win at Trine 54-47. While Calvin did win the rebounding battle 49-34, it really was Calvin's outstanding defense that won the day in Angola. Egekeze, Sensing, and Overway led the Knights with 14, 13, and 11. Jones and Cox scored 17 and 10 for Trine. Calvin has now clearly positioned itself as the team to beat in the MIAA.

[maroonandgold]

Hope is down 10 points to Alma at halftime, and Thomas has not scored so far.  What is going on?

[Dutchfan]

Hope is not working the perimeter. It seems like their whole game plan is based on getting the ball inside as fast as possible.

[oldknight]

Hope is down 10 points to Alma at halftime, and Thomas has not scored so far.  What is going on?

What's going on was that Hope was playing Y-league, one-on-one basketball the first 20 minutes, rushing to take the first shot available (or not available), both inside and outside the arc. Hope can be thankful they grabbed an amazing 15 offensive rebounds the opening half, because if they hadn't, they could have been down 20 (maybe even 32! ). Thomas came alive with 20 second half points, and the home team played a much better second frame, scoring 57 points to beat the Scots 83-76.

[pointlem]

Hope is down 10 points to Alma at halftime, and Thomas has not scored so far.  What is going on?

What's going on was that Hope was playing Y-league, one-on-one basketball the first 20 minute

Also, there was a lid on the basket, as layup after layup rimmed out . . . for awhile the ghost of Calvin-at-Hope appeared in my mind. . . but then, as OldKnight says, it all turned around, with Evan Thomas going from 0-6 first half shots to 9-10 second half, and Gabe Quillan going from 2-10 to 6-7.

Interesting that Trine, like Hope, was stymied by Calvin's impressive defense.

[TUAngola]

If you enjoy watching 2 very good defensive teams then today the Calvin-Trine game was your cup of tea.  Difference in the game was rebounding and second chance points for Calvin.  Also key was Megnanglo being saddled in foul trouble most of the day, and some of those fouls were awful.  When he's not in the game it's a huge differnence around the paint for opponents getting shots.  It seemed like there was one official on the floor today who wanted to be front and center, I am not going to name names but everyone knows who it is.  I bet he blew his whistle more than the other 2 officals combined, and it wasn't even close.

Trine has got to find some 3rd and 4th options offensively in the second half of the conference season.  Opponents watch tape, if you shut down Cox and Jones you're more than likely going to win.  Cox was swarmed when he got the ball on the box, but since we don't have many other offensive options he puts his head down and forces up shot after shot, with the majority being 'fade aways', which isn't ideal.  Brent's got to do better kicking the ball out when teams run doubles at him.  But credit to Calvin's defense, I thought we had the best defensive team in the conference but Calvin is just as good.

Huge crowd, close to 2500, probably the biggest in the short history of MTI.  Everyone was waiting for something to cheer about, just didn't happen today. 

[sac]

I was down in Angola, it was a terrific defensive game.  I was kind of disappointed one team hit 50, thought for sure I was going to see a score in the 40's for both teams, but two little bursts of scoring one right before the half one after, maybe a few at the end thwarted that idea.  It was just really hard to get a shot that wasn't difficult or contested.  Watch the tape, when they did get open looks, they more often than not made them.

Trine did a nice job on Overway, but maybe at the cost of giving up to many offensive rebounds, the very clear difference in the game.  Trine never got a single put back.   



---Calvin has its two biggest road games out of the way (I might even argue 3 of 4), the rest of the MIAA just can't play defense at that level and aren't good enough offensively to make up for it.  It would take a monumentally bad day shooting to lose one in this league.   Maybe a bad day at Olivet or something, but thats hard to see.


---I chuckled a little when I saw 'that guy' and Aaron Boersema as two of the officials.  Boersema was to his credit excellent.  As a neutral and given the style of the game I thought it was one of the better officiated games you can have.  That kind of defense and we barely hit the bonuses.  That's great.

---Weak T on Sall I thought, one too many finger points or magic words I guess.  I really didn't think he was riding that official or any up to that point either.  Sort of came out of nowhere, on really nothing that egregious either.

---34 turnovers with 20 being steals is incredible.

 

[sac]

The never too early +/-
+1 for road wins, -1 for home losses

Calvin  6-0    +3
Trine   5-1    +2
Hope   4-2    +1
Olivet  4-2    +1
Adrian 2-4     -1
Alma   1-5     -1
Albion 1-5     -2
Kzoo   1-5     -3


Trine will be an interesting team to watch next week, @Adrian, @Olivet.
Alma gets Albion and Kzoo, a chance to fully grasp the #6 spot 

[KnightSlappy]

If you enjoy watching 2 very good defensive teams then today the Calvin-Trine game was your cup of tea.  Difference in the game was rebounding and second chance points for Calvin.  Also key was Megnanglo being saddled in foul trouble most of the day, and some of those fouls were awful.  When he's not in the game it's a huge differnence around the paint for opponents getting shots.  It seemed like there was one official on the floor today who wanted to be front and center, I am not going to name names but everyone knows who it is.  I bet he blew his whistle more than the other 2 officals combined, and it wasn't even close.

Trine has got to find some 3rd and 4th options offensively in the second half of the conference season.  Opponents watch tape, if you shut down Cox and Jones you're more than likely going to win.  Cox was swarmed when he got the ball on the box, but since we don't have many other offensive options he puts his head down and forces up shot after shot, with the majority being 'fade aways', which isn't ideal.  Brent's got to do better kicking the ball out when teams run doubles at him.  But credit to Calvin's defense, I thought we had the best defensive team in the conference but Calvin is just as good.

Huge crowd, close to 2500, probably the biggest in the short history of MTI.  Everyone was waiting for something to cheer about, just didn't happen today.

It's sort of fortunate for Calvin that Trine's two best offensive weapons are Jones and Cox who can be very naturally defended by Egekeze and Bult. Egekeze was excellent on Jones and gave him very few clean looks (if any at all). Bult also did a nice job on Cox albeit got himself into foul trouble.

Jones and Cox combined for 27 pts on 36 FGA and 12 FTA. Not very efficient.

Of course, it was a similar story for Calvin's offense as well.

[TUAngola]

Trine commit:

Eddie Millington, 6'4 G/F, Brighton HS, MI

[sac]

Hope 82 Kalamazoo 72 F

Hope's season of group, re-group, re-group and re-group again went on the road and beat a very game Kalamazoo team tonight.  Eli Schoonveld was back in Hope's lineup, but their end of the bench walking wounded didn't change with Gabe Quillan sitting this one out joining Wiegerink and Nocek. 

Hope pulled away about midway first half when they held Kzoo without a FG for nearly 6 minutes.  The lead hovered around double-digits for most of the rest of the game but it never really felt comfortable.    Kalamazoo played very hard all night, but seemed to hit a little higher gear the last half of the game.  Hope struggled with foul trouble down the stretch and one or two mistakes gave the Hornets just a hint of an opening but Hope held on.  Big difference in FT's with Hope a stellar 21-23, Kzoo 20-34.   Tighter game maybe if Kzoo hits the free ones.

Cheaney, Hawkins, Mims, Leeper had great minutes tonight, think each one provided a big bucket or changing possession.  Schoonveld's limited minutes were very impactful.   Hawkins I think had a career high with 12 including a couple nifty post moves that got his teammates off the bench.   TJ McKenzie was being ridden all night by a bunch of Kzoo football players seated near center court.  TJ's been struggling with his outside shot a bit lately.  They hooted and hollar'd every miss and mistake, thought maybe they'd gotten in his head a bit, but TJ got the last laugh with a couple great 3pt line to bucket drives to help put the game away.  Fun to watch those guys storm out with a couple minutes left.   Nothing ever changes.   They can go home and think about getting beat 66-20 and 67-0 to Hope the last two years on the gridiron: 


Evan Thomas was pretty sensational tonight, esp the 2nd half where he carved up the Kzoo defense with ease a few times.  I quit counting halfway through the game but he was pretty close to being the reason for half of Kzoo's fouls and it probably wasn't enough.   I'm going to beg Hope fans to put their negative thoughts on this team or players aside and just appreciate and enjoy Evan's final few games in a Hope uniform he has been an amazing player to watch.

Very similar to the game last week vs Adrian where Hope spends a significant portion of the game leading by double-digits but is never quite able to put the game fully away.   Good win, stretched at the end but held on.


Hope:  Thomas 28, Dykhouse 15, Hawkins 12
Kzoo:   Decker 15, Broadsword 13, Horky 10

[HOPEful]

I'm going to beg Hope fans to put their negative thoughts on this team or players aside and just appreciate and enjoy Evan's final few games in a Hope uniform he has been an amazing player to watch.

I feel like last night's game was the first time Evan has looked like Evan post injury. It was very, very encouraging. With Schoonveld back now too, this team is approaching being somewhat healthy a month before the MIAA tournament. Any negative thoughts from me up until this point have really revolved around "what could have been..." But as we've seen already, a lot can happen in a month. Assuming everyone gets/stays healthy, the optimist in me has no problem believing Hope can contend with both Trine and Calvin come late February. It almost feels like a season reset, with all the pre-season goals still attainable outside of the MIAA regular season championship.

Could be a really fun month. I'm excited to see how it goes, and yes, watch Evan's final 8-11+ games.

[ziggy]

We are through the first round of conference play. Anyone brave enough to put out an early conference awards list?

[sac]

We are through the first round of conference play. Anyone brave enough to put out an early conference awards list?

Passing thoughts on this last night.   The league has a lot of All-MIAA second teamers


Probably missing a player or two, but standouts seem to be
Calvin-   Overway<first team lock>, Egekeze<first team lock>   Bult
Trine-  Jones, Cox   both probably first team locks  Megnanglo
Hope-  Thomas <first team lock>,  Dykhouse, Quillan
Olivet-   Johnson, Ali, Upshaw     
Albion-   Garland, Thomas   
Adrian-   Price  <first team lock>
Alma-   Moore-Pierce,  Riley
Kzoo-   Decker, Horky, Broadsword 

So I have
Overway - Calvin
Egekeze - Calvin
Jones - Trine
Cox - Trine
Thomas - Hope
Price - Adrian

Egekeze probably won't win MVP without the big numbers but I can't imagine a more impactful player in the league than him right now.  He was terrific in both of Calvin's big games.  Overway has the inside slot for MVP, but Hope's Thomas might make a strong push.

[sac]

Special shout-out to Hope Athletic Director Tim Schoonveld and President Matthew Scogin who made the wintery trek down to Kalamazoo last night to take in the big rivalry game with the Hornets.