MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[TUAngola]

Trine's program is at a point where they need to schedule up. The 0.483 SOS they have right now is nowhere close to being where they will get any kind of consideration.

Trine has less of an excuse to underschedule than do Hope or Calvin, too, inasmuch as it's a lot easier from a travel standpoint to schedule the array of powerhouses in northeastern Ohio (John Carroll, CWRU, Mount Union, Wooster, etc.) to/from Angola than it is to/from Holland or Grand Rapids. And Trine is just as close to the Illinois and Wisconsin schools as are Calvin and Hope.

I don't want to go too hard at Trine because I'm guessing they were counting on more of an SOS boost from their GLI participation and WIAC trip than they ended up getting. I do still think they have some room to build a schedule more on par with what we usually see from Hope and Calvin and I would have thought they moved further in that direction with the success they've had now going back to the COVID year.

Yes, unfortunately Trine wasn't in the 'heavyweight' pod of Keene St, Wabash, Maryville and Wabash at the GLI.  3 of those 4 teams are regionally ranked and wins would have helped SOS and RRO.  A split on the WIAC trip was more than what I anticipated, espcially since the one win was against UW LaCrosse who was 3rd in the nation at that time.  The wins against Manchester and Anderson look good as they finished 1-2 in the HCAC.  OAC Captial and BW wins were good.  Earlham, MSJ and Lawrence did nothing for our SOS.  We have played Mount and Heidelberg the last few years, those were probably just a 2 year home and home contract.  Could the schedule have been better? Yes, but it isn't like it's 'cupcake city' either.  The 22-3 season for those who follow Trine was a terrific accomplishment especially after losing 60%+ of their scoring from last year.   

[almcguirejr]

Sam Lewis, Milford HS, committed to Calvin University

Seems like a good get... I saw [Lewis] had offers from DIII...

What does offer mean these days, in this context?

"Offer" now has two meanings from a D3 perspective. The way that ziggy used it is the traditional meaning: Coach scouts prospect, coach contacts prospect, coach establishes relationship with prospect, and coach tells the prospect, in one way or another, "I'd like to have you on my team next year," with that last stage being the offer itself.

The newer meaning essentially refers to a legally meaningless piece of paper. It's about providing a ritual alongside the age-old practice described above in order to: a) conform to the social-media age; and b) establish a parallel narrative to the scholarship levels in an effort to, if I may be brutally candid here, compete better against them by playing to the egos of 17-year-olds.

So the word "offer" can still mean, "I'd like to have you on my team next year." Or it can be a reference to the document created in a subsequent "accepting an offer" ritual, the signing of a non-binding piece of paper in your high school lobby while your beaming parents look on, with you and your entire family all wearing the apparel of your future school. It's obviously meant to ape the sigining of a letter of intent to accept a basketball scholarship at a D1, D2, or NAIA school. It's a way of telling the kid, "You deserve the same sort of social-media fuss and fanfare that a scholie kid gets, even though we're not allowed to give you any money to play ball for us." But the actual nuts and bolts of how a high-school prospect becomes a D3 recruit remains exactly the same ... and, just as before, the kid is under no obligation whatsoever to even attend the school (he or she can always change their mind) or to participate in that sport once the kid arrives on campus (he or she can always change their mind about that as well), even after signing that piece of paper.

A friend of mine has a son playing D3 basketball.  He said these signing ceremonies are kids signing their loan agreements.

[Grutte Dirk]

A friend of mine has a son playing D3 basketball.  He said these signing ceremonies are kids signing their loan agreements.

Then there should be some pomp and circumstance for a parents signing as well. /s

[Gregory Sager]

It's not a loan agreement. It's called a "Celebratory Signing Form" -- and you can download it as a PDF from uslegalforms.com and affix your D3 school's logo to it.

[sac]

Hope 82 Adrian 63 F

Hope played pretty well tonight sort of pulling away down the stretch, though I think Hope led the entire way after a 10-0 start.  Adrian stayed close in the first half with a really good 6-9 effort from 3 which is well above their season avg.   The second half Adrian was unable to stop Hope much at all with the Dutchmen shooting 68% and 5-10 from 3.   Hope got the lead to double digits fairly quickly and I don't think the Bulldogs were able to get much closer than 8 or 9.

Dykhouse was pretty outstanding as were Quillan and Thomas. 

Hope:  Dykhouse 25, Quillan 20, Thomas 14
Adrian:  Price 14, Bellamy 14,  Rightnower 10, Seifert 10


We'll see how the legs react tomorrow, consecutive game nights have been tough for Hope this year, 0-2 only but did not look great against Oshkosh or Manchester.  They'll need to expend a lot more energy and effort tomorrow vs Trine.

[sac]

Olivet 78 Albion 73 F

Everytime  I looked at the score it was close. 

Olivet:  Robinette 21, Bart 15,  Johnson 12, Wiswary 10
Albion:  Garland 20, Thomas 20

Albion and Adrian both had very tough seasons and probably did not come close to their own pre-season expectations.  This is the second year in a row the bottom four teams have just 2 wins vs the top 4.   4-64 counting the tournaments the last 2 years, pretty rough.



Hope vs Trine 5:30pm
Olivet vs Calvin 7:30pm
All tickets through Hometown ticket app.  link at MIAA.org

I might recommend buying and downloading your tickets before you leave home.  There is very little available internet service once you're inside VanNoord (not sure about the lobby area) and I found pretty low service sitting out in the parking lot before last Wednesday's game.  Maybe others have had better luck.

[calvin_grad]

I might recommend buying and downloading your tickets before you leave home.  There is very little available internet service once you're inside VanNoord (not sure about the lobby area) and I found pretty low service sitting out in the parking lot before last Wednesday's game.  Maybe others have had better luck.

Nope.  For whatever reason, that arena is a black hole when it comes to getting an internet signal.

[KnightSlappy]

I might recommend buying and downloading your tickets before you leave home.  There is very little available internet service once you're inside VanNoord (not sure about the lobby area) and I found pretty low service sitting out in the parking lot before last Wednesday's game.  Maybe others have had better luck.

Nope.  For whatever reason, that arena is a black hole when it comes to getting an internet signal.

Wednesday was particularly bad, both for the Wi-Fi in the arena and the mobile signal outside. I'm not sure what it was. Usually mobile coverage is just fine in the area outdoors. I usually also have decent success with the in-arena Wi-Fi, though you have to go through the authentication steps.

The Calvin ticket line is also usually not great so I'd 2nd what sac says and get them ahead of time. Pretty sure they can scan directly from your phone.

[almcguirejr]

I might recommend buying and downloading your tickets before you leave home.  There is very little available internet service once you're inside VanNoord (not sure about the lobby area) and I found pretty low service sitting out in the parking lot before last Wednesday's game.  Maybe others have had better luck.

Nope.  For whatever reason, that arena is a black hole when it comes to getting an internet signal.

Wednesday was particularly bad, both for the Wi-Fi in the arena and the mobile signal outside. I'm not sure what it was. Usually mobile coverage is just fine in the area outdoors. I usually also have decent success with the in-arena Wi-Fi, though you have to go through the authentication steps.

The Calvin ticket line is also usually not great so I'd 2nd what sac says and get them ahead of time. Pretty sure they can scan directly from your phone.

The concession stand line is also usually not great!

[oldknight]

Freshman Jalen Overway has been named the MIAA's Most Valuable Player. Junior Uchenna Egekeze has been named the MIAA's Defensive Player of the Year for the second straight season. Both Calvin players have been named to the All-MIAA First Team. Full list of first and second team All-MIAA is as follows:

First Team
Brent Cox, Trine
Uchenna Egekeze, Calvin
Connor Jones, Trine
Jalen Overway, Calvin
De'Ovion Price, Adrian
Evan Thomas, Hope

Second Team
Josh Decker, Kalamazoo
Clayton Dykhouse, Hope
Fred Garland, Albion
Emmanuel Megnanglo, Trine
Gabe Quillan, Hope
Ken Thomas, Albion

[TUAngola]

Heard from a good source that one of Trine's seniors will be returning for a 5th year.  Fantastic news!

[maroonandgold]

I'm a little confused by the way the tickets are listed.  Are there separate tickets for the first game and second game, or do the tickets work for both games?

[Dutchfan]

I'm a little confused by the way the tickets are listed.  Are there separate tickets for the first game and second game, or do the tickets work for both games?

The tickets are good for both games.

[sac]

Hope 67 Trine 56

Feel good about that win mostly because they should have won down in Angola and that loss changed their whole outlook on January.  Heck of a team effort to get this W all around.

Hope:  Thomas 19, Quillan 18, Wiegerink 10
Trine:  Jones 14, Cox 11, Pahl 10 

Will take a monumental effort to win 3 nights in a row

[oldknight]

Calvin with a terribly slow start against Olivet tonight, trailing 15-2 the at the 14 minute mark. The only good thing was that there were still 34 minutes to play. Bill Sall was looking for somebody, anybody, to jump start Calvin's offense. He inserted Matt Ambrose who paid instant dividends on the investment, hitting two triples, plus a two point basket in rapid succession, to give the Knights offense some life. While the Comets still led 25-16 with just over 7 minutes left, Calvin went on a 21-8 run to end the half, giving the home team a four point lead going into the locker room.

The early minutes of the second frame were interesting and decisive. Sam Hargraves chose to go small, basically playing five guards the first 5 minutes, no doubt hoping to draw out Calvin defenders and hit some quick threes. It didn't work, as Olivet missed their opportunities, while Calvin's bigs had their way in the paint. The Knights outscored the Comets 20-2 to start the half, basically putting the game on ice. It was amusing (to me anyway) watching a 6'2" guy trying to defend Jalen Overway, looking in vain for help from a pair of 6'1" guys.

Overway, Egekeze, Bult, and Varnado led Calvin with 18, 17, 16 and 12. Uchenna was also all over the boards, snaring 12 rebounds. Upshaw scored 18 for Olivet. Now we'll see if Hope can win 3 games in 3 days. If they do, better tip your cap to the Dutchmen, as that would be a very impressive feat.