MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[oldknight]

Calvin with a 66-41 win over the visitors from Adrian, in game Calvin led from the get-go. The Bulldogs team certainly isn't an offensive juggernaut, but Calvin's defense was absolutely stifling. Adrian needed a late triple in the first half to get their point total up to 14 at the break. Adrian was stuck on 30 with four minutes left in the second half, before both coaches emptied their benches, leading to an additional 11 Adrian points to close out the game. Price and Seifert are Adrian's two top scorers, but were limited to a combined total of nine points. Egekeze and Sensenig are terrific one-on-one defenders, and the Knights team defense is also excellent. In addition to 15 boards, Overway led Calvin with 15 points, while Egekeze netted 13. Calvin's offense was far from great (19 turnovers), but when you play D as well as they did today, and outrebound your opponent 54-30, the Knights still can come away with a comfortable win.

[TUAngola]

Trine 73 Olivet 52.

My first time to watch basketball inside the Cutler Event Center, been to several football games at Olivet but never to basketball.  Since it was a '2 for 1' with the girls game preceding the mens game I made the trip up I-69 this afternoon.  The game was very similar to the one in Angola where Olivet played well in the first half but then Trine dominated in the second.  Our defense was awesome the second half, Olivet didn't have many good looks at all and we were sufficating on any interior passes to Ali or Garrison.  We finished the game with 15 steals and outscored Olivet 50-20 inside the paint.  Good offensive contributions from guys who needed to step up.  Cox led the way with 22, but on an afternoon where Jones struggled, guys like Ryan Preston, Aidan Smylie and Nate Carbaugh had good games.  Carbaugh is one of those 'nuisance' guys other teams hate, he just does all the dirty work; diving on the floor, taking charges, snatching offensive rebounds, but he has to work on those free throws.  I think some Olivet students under the home basket kind of got in his head the 1st half, you got to try to block that out somehow.   

[sac]

Albion 79 Hope 78 F

Hope returned their injured players today, but then added a Wednesday hero to the DL with Devin Cheney sitting this one out.  I looked on the floor and whispered to myself, its not even the same team I saw 3 days ago....again.  And so against a team equally wounded (but way worse in some ways)  that they clobbered 2 weeks ago in their gym and missing an all-league starter in Ken Thomas Hope put up its 2nd worst first half (or maybe 3rd worst) of the season trailing by 19 at half, that felt like 30.  It was and I don't think anyone on Hope's bench or in the locker room would shy away from saying embarrassing.   

Hope made a valiant and improbable comeback from at one point down 23 with 15 min left, working it down to 8 with 7 and change left, only to be down 16 with 5 min left and taking it right down to a final ticks.  Inside the mess of a game and continued frustrations were so many things you want to see, its there, its coming together, then poof its gone, then its back then gone again.  Hope is 11-8, 5-3 now and quite literally only a couple FT's here or there from 15-5, 7-1 and things being not so bad all things considered.

It would have been a great comeback, probably an all-timer. 


Albion's biggest goal was to play  Evan Thomas tough, stop him at all costs, keep doing the defensive thing we're doing even if we die and everyone fouls out.  Which looked like it might happen.  It worked, though they almost did die trying.  Hope just didn't and hasn't helped Evan out enough in those sticky situations.

I joked on twitter that Albion's second half strategy should be to take 30 shot clock violations for the entire half and dare Hope to make 12 shots.   I wasn't sure Hope could do it, it turns out that was probably a bad strategy, but funny to think about at the time.    I should not coach basketball

But, great comeback as it was, Albion helped Hope out a lot.  Never seemed to concerned with their greatest ally the shot clock, took weird shots by people who weren't named Fred Garland and just generally opening the door and asking Hope if they wanted to come in.    I am quite sure Albion traveled all the way home.....with the W.


Hope:  Dykhouse 27, Quillan 16, Thomas 13
Albion:  Garland 30, Armstead-Wilkerson 15, Calhoun 11


Hope won last years league when they weren't the favorite, and they won't win this years league being the favorite, sometimes it breaks that way.

[sac]

 +/-
+1 for road wins, -1 for home losses

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

Calvin played two sort of not great offensive games won by 13 and 25
Trine had a week I thought they'd be challenged a little more but nope
Hope    le sigh, as improbable as it was to maybe sneak another title, disappointed they didn't make it to 8-2 and get that shot
I think Olivet/Albion have quite a fight left to decide who gets to host the other, its not out of the question Hope falls into this 4/5 battle


Lots of season left yada yada, but I hope people can now see this league is really not very good on the offensive side and no one outside the top 4 (or less) is beating Calvin or Trine the way they both play defense.  I'd be shocked and frankly you should be too.  I think the final efficiency numbers will show that pretty emphatically. 

[Dutchfan]

Nocek did play. He went had 2 points and 3 rebounds against Albion last night.

I have ADHD, so l keep score during the games, it helps me stay focused. I remembered tallying points for him.

[pointlem]

Nocek did play. He went had 2 points and 3 rebounds against Albion last night.

Yes, Nocek played, and played well. It was Cheaney (in street clothes) and Wagar who were missing last evening. Nevertheless, a great write-up, Sac.

At home against Calvin, Alma, and Albion, Hope has had embarrassing (as Sac says) first halves, and then more than doubled their offensive output in the second half. I'm not sure what that 2nd half secret sauce is--more assertively driving to the basket rather than weaving around the perimeter till the clock runs down?--but if they could bottle it up, and get healthy, they still could be a hard team to beat.

Pretty stunning reversal of game fortunes for both the men and women vis a vis Albion. For Albion's men, this was a nice (and much needed?) team win, led by a great performance by Garland and excellent team free throw shooting.

[sac]

I have edited, getting older is fun. 

[sac]

Jordan Bellamy  6-2/6-3 G Marengo, Ohio  Highland HS/UM-Dearborn has committed to Olivet


Jordan left the UMD program at semester break, like most transfers any record of his being there has been removed so idk how much he played for them.  UMD is bad this year.

[Gregory Sager]

Jordan Bellamy  6-2/6-3 G Marengo, Ohio  Highland HS/UM-Dearborn has committed to Olivet


Jordan left the UMD program at semester break, like most transfers any record of his being there has been removed so idk how much he played for them.

He had 13 points and 7 rebounds in 11 games for the Wolverines.

[HOPEful]

Few other "fun facts" on the Hope v Albion game...

- Hope went 18 for 28 from the free throw line and 6 for 14 in the second half. This team was pretty automatic from the line at the beginning of the year, and once again missed clutch free throws late in the game that made the difference.

- With 40 seconds left, Gabe Quillan hit an absolute clutch 3. The big man for Hope continues to impress.

- After a timeout, immediately following Gabe's 3, Albion inbounded the ball to Armstead-Wilkerson, who got trapped right next to the Hope bench by two Hope players. He eventually got rid of the ball to Garland, but not before taking about 5 steps. No travel was called to the bewilderment of Coach Mitchell and everyone watching.

- Down 77-73, Dykhouse was fouled shooting a three with 8 seconds left on the clock. He made the first and the last.

- Speaking of clutch free throws, freshman Nathan Steinman drained both to seal the deal and put Albion up 4. Pretty impressive.

[Flying Dutch Fan]

The FT line was a huge difference in this game (yes, Hope lost this game in so many other ways as well). 

Albion 27-32 - .844
Hope 18-28 - .643

Coming into this game, Albion was last in the MIAA in FT shooting (.624) while Hope was leading the league (.738).  The same positions were true for FT attemps - Albion last at 266 (14.7 per game) and Hope first at 366 (20.3 per game).

[sac]

Hope at Alma is a 7:30pm start time

Somewhere along the way the times were not synched and different between MIAA, Hope, Alma sites, they are corrected now.

[TUAngola]

Not basketball related but still big news down here in Angola, the University has announced that Dr John Shannon has been named the 17th president of Trine University replacing Dr Earl Brooks effective June 1st: https://www.trine.edu/news/2023/john-shannon-president.aspx

[TUAngola]

Big game in Angola tonight.  Albion seeking revenge for the 'boycott game' loss to the Thunder.  The Brits will be fired up for this one for sure.  Going to head over early to catch some of the JV game.

[KnightSlappy]

Calvin at Kalamazoo tip delayed till about 8:25