MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[Flying Dutch Fan]

Wow. Thoughts and prayers to the Garland family, Trine and everyone involved.

https://www.kpcnews.com/heraldrepublican/article_289149fa-b899-11ef-8d4c-0b2fc3b2bb30.html

Absolutely devastating news.  Prayers for the family, teammates,  and friends of Fred

[BigBallBoy]

Wow. Thoughts and prayers to the Garland family, Trine and everyone involved.

https://www.kpcnews.com/heraldrepublican/article_289149fa-b899-11ef-8d4c-0b2fc3b2bb30.html

How shocking and sad! What a tragic reminder of the uncertainty and brevity of life.

I always appreciated the Garland's competitive edge - and was so glad the brothers got to compete together and win the National Championship.

Praying for the Garland family, coaches/teammates past and present, and the Trine University community.

[TUAngola]

I am deeply saddened by the tragic news of Fred's passing late last evening from a car accident.  I've been teary eyed most of the day, even now still trying to process.  The Trine community has lost a great leader, competitor, teammate and friend.  Fred brought great joy to those who knew him and from those of us who witnessed his talents on the court, helping lead the Thunder to a national championship.  I am truly heartbroken.  My sincere thoughts and prayers go out to Fred's family, Coach Miller and the Trine team, coaches and staff, the Trine campus family. 

[FyteOnne]

Devastating.  Thinking of the Garland and Trine families as well as Albion family, where I know he still has friends.

[Little Giant 89]

Prayers to the Trine and Garland families.

[BigBallBoy]

I am still processing this and can't imagine what the Garland family, team and fans (TUAngola - thinking of you) are going through.

Long-term followers of the MIAA or D3 - can you think of other occasions when something similarly devastating happened?

Also curious how the Trine team is doing (though each person will be different and few people will truly know and be able to say) and what the path ahead looks like in the wake of something so tragic?

[Flying Dutch Fan]

Like others, I find myself thinking about this over and over, trying to process it all.  I keep thinking of his teammates - as we all know what a special connection there can be there.  I'm praying for them all, and I suspect it may be even more difficult with them apart  (whether now or very shortly) - I'm assuming that since they have no games between 12/7 and 12/28 that they  are apart for some of that time.

[goodknight]

I have been away from my laptop for the past day or two and only now am seeing the horrific news about the loss of Fred Garland. I join all those who have already pledged their prayers and offered expressions of condolence to the Garland family and our friends in the Trine community.

[RFMichigan]

This is so sad for Fred's family, his teammates and the Trine community. I pray for peace and healing for them all.

[BigBallBoy]

The Flying Dutchmen earned a much-needed win against Ohio-Wesleyan in what was a tale of two-halves.  Hope shot the ball very well in the first half 72% fg and 55% 3-pt to double-up OWU 46-23 at half.  OWU, to their credit, chipped away at the lead and Hope's shooting returned to reality but the team held on after being out-scored 46-33 in the second half. 

The A/TO ratio was much better this game with the two point guards have a 7/2 A/TO ratio. It was very nice to see Wourman  make timely buckets and assert control of the game.  It will take some time to really hit their stride together, but he is a player that really appears to make everyone else better.

I also thought Simon Neuhaus had a really nice game scoring the basketball (apart from free throws!) - especially against the zone.  His mid-range shooting really exposed a weakness in the OWU zone. He is certainly embedding himself in the rotation and brings a lot of hustle and heart!

An encouraging game to enter this final non-conference weekend.  After a challenging (disappointing?) majority of the non-conference schedule - Hope could really turn the corner and bring a bright outlook to the Conference competition.

[TUAngola]

Trine 58
Manchester 37

After a 3 week layoff and the absolutely heartwrenching death of their teammate the Thunder grinded out 2 wins, first on the road over Franklin last Saturday and at home this afternoon against Manchester.  A great tribute to Fred before todays game.  The guys are wearing patches on the uniforms and new warmup T's with the word 'ONE' on the front as this was Fred's uniform number, but it also defines Trine basketball, they play as ONE.  Great crowd on a weekday afternoon with no students, over 1200.  It was vocal too, lots of cheering and encouragement.  The boys are going to need energy from the crowd as they try to navigate the rest of the season.

It's going to be a struggle to find consistent offense, with Nate Tucker inserted into the starting lineup we are essentially playing 4 wings and a center, no true point guard.  Ball handling is and will be an issue going forward.  We did not get much offense from our sets, it was all pretty much take your guy off the dribble and try to create.  Defense was tremendous though over these last 2 games.  Manchester came in averaging 84 points a game and were 47 under that average today.  One addition to the roster, Grant Pahl is back on the team this semester after not playing the first semester.  He was in the rotation both games.

[TUAngola]

Manny sets a new school record for blocks in a game with 11 today in a win over Illinois Tech 75-57.  The Red Hawks kept it close for the first half, Trine with a good start to the second half and eventually pulled away down the stretch.  It wasn't a pretty game, but a win is a win.  We need Aidan to get back to how he played last year, he's had some not so good games lately, when he's playing well offensively it makes us so much better.  The conference grind starts next week.   

[oldknight]

Calvin closes out an exceptionally difficult pre-conference season schedule with a 68-52 home win over St. Norbert College. The visitors from DePere came into Van Noord Arena sporting a 9-2 record, including an impressive 16 point win over UW-Oskosh, a team that beat the Knights by 4 in November. Thanks to Owen Varnado's 11 straight points (who went BOOM after a very slow start) Calvin broke away from a 20-20 game to score the last 13 points of the first half for a 33-20 lead going into the locker room. Calvin pulled away from there, leading by as much as 22 in the second half, with the Knights never seeing the lead dip into single digits. Calvin's defense tonight was exceptional, while their offense was balanced, led by Varnado with 17, with Ressler adding 12, Winkle 10, and Egekeze 9. After losing their first 5 games, the Knights head into conference play with a 5-6 record. It will be interesting to see what happens in league action after facing so many good teams before the MIAA opener against Albion on Wednesday. 

[Greek Tragedy]

Calvin closes out an exceptionally difficult pre-conference season schedule with a 68-52 home win over St. Norbert College. The visitors from DePere came into Van Noord Arena sporting a 9-2 record, including an impressive 16 point win over UW-Oskosh, a team that beat the Knights by 4 in November. Thanks to Owen Varnado's 11 straight points (who went BOOM after a very slow start) Calvin broke away from a 20-20 game to score the last 13 points of the first half for a 33-20 lead going into the locker room. Calvin pulled away from there, leading by as much as 22 in the second half, with the Knights never seeing the lead dip into single digits. Calvin's defense tonight was exceptional, while their offense was balanced, led by Varnado with 17, with Ressler adding 12, Winkle 10, and Egekeze 9. After losing their first 5 games, the Knights head into conference play with a 5-6 record. It will be interesting to see what happens in league action after facing so many good teams before the MIAA opener against Albion on Wednesday. 

Oshkosh actually beat Calvin by 8 on a neutral court in November and then by 4 at home in December.

[Flying Dutch Fan]

Here we are, ready to start MIAA play.  Lot's of anticipation for how this all plays out - are there any surprises, upsets (of course).  The one thing I know we can count on is the next 7 weeks will be interesting, fun, and will fly by.  So as we get ready to start, I thought I'd look at what the pre-conference part of the season looks, and put this together:

Team	vs D3 Opp	NPI Rank	Avg Opp NPI	vs NPI Top  100
Adrian	2-8	346	199	0-4
Albion	5-6	215	169	0-3
Alma	0-11	406	183	0-2
Calvin	4-6	85	55	3-5
Hope	5-6	180	154	1-4
Kalamazoo	6-4	164	209	0-3
Olivet	2-9	306	138	0-5
Trine	10-1	5	125	4-1

A huge spread in NPI across the league with Trine at number 5 and Alma at 406 (there are 408 teams total).  I think Kalamazoo at 164 is the biggest surprise for me, although they are 0-3 against Top 100 NPI teams.  Interested to hear other's thoughts as we dice into MIAA play.


NOTE:  If you want to learn more about NPI or review rankings : https://d3datacast.com/npi/