MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[sac]

With Albion's loss and Kzoo's win over Adrian Wed's pairings will be

Adrian at Hope 7pm ...winner vs Trine Fri at Calvin
Albion at Olivet ...winner vs Calvin Fri at Calvin

I don't have a time for Albion/Olivet but I assume 7pm

A fun day at DeVos, as Hope reversed their loss at Albion with an 81 to 56 win before 2325 fans.

The really fun part—-for fans and for their ecstatic, supportive teammates-—was having seniors Josh Decker, Ben Wagar, and Zach Hawes move into the senior-honoring starting lineup, and promptly draining 5 of 5 3-point shots in the first 2 minutes and 40 seconds.

They ended the game having played a combined 35 minutes, and scoring 38 points, including 10 of 13 triples. So cool . . . and for the team (shooting 53% and with only 9 turnovers) quite the turnaround from the dismal prior game at Olivet.

Probably one of the most fun Sr's minutes I can recall.  I wish someone had a picture of Coach Mitch on Zach Hawes ridiculous throw down in the first half, utterly speechless.  Very few have left DeVos buzzing like that one.


Also a quick tidbit, Hope went from its worst turnover rate of the season 30% vs Olivet, to its best 14% vs Albion.

[sac]

I have 23 seasons of MIAA efficiency, this years Alma squad finished dead last in offensive efficiency out of those 150+ teams.

Overall this Alma team comes in rated 4th lowest, and that probably only happened because they pulled a couple defensive rabbits out of their kilts against Kzoo and Adrian late in the year.

That gives Alma 4 of the 6 lowest rated teams in that time frame and 6 of the 9 lowest, Olivet has the other three.

There is a caveat that I think the most recent 3pt line change has made teams slightly less efficient on offense and slightly better on defensive.  There are simply more missed 3 point shots and the bar for "average" has lowered.  A timeline comparison is really not a great comparison anymore.  But I'm still gonna do it.


2003 Alma remains the gold standard of lowest efficiency MIAA squads by .... A LOT.

[Grutte Dirk]

Reading an old message today reminds me I need a Thad Shymanski rec league update, is he dominating?

Actually ran into Thad at the Calvin-Trine game today.  He is completing his graduate studies in physical therapy, and yes, still playing in a rec league with many ex-college players (including John Teske from U of M). I assume he is dominating.

Thad Shymanski | G  one-and-done guy–pursuing his NBA dream.

[oldknight]

Nice 70-53 win by Calvin over Trine today to finish the MIAA undefeated (first time since 2000 I think?).  They got off to 20-2 lead to start, and from there it seemed Calvin sustained about 15-20 point lead throughout the game.  Calvin really is going to have cut back on their turnovers asap if they want to make a run in tourney, should they make it.  They were fortunate that Trine shot so poorly, but nonetheless, a 17 point victory over the defending national champs and second place team is hard to complain about.

It did seem that the only real negative in Calvin's play yesterday was turnovers, but Trine plays fabulous defense, double teaming in unexpected ways and at unexpected times. But when Calvin did avoid the turnover problem, they typically wound up with a high value shot which explains their superior shooting which was the difference in the game. The Knights defenders are also a terrific defensive squad but they seem to take fewer chances than Trine does on that side of the ball. Consequently, I think Trine's shot selection yesterday was inferior to Calvin's which largely explains the shooting disparity. I did think Calvin made several turnovers that appeared to be unforced, but when a ballhandler is expecting to be severely challenged while handling the ball, the urgency--and anxiety--level goes up, and leads to unnecessarily quick and faulty decision making. All in all, a great game to watch, though the inestimable Mrs. OldKnight thought the officiating left something to be desired and didn't match the overall quality of the game.

[Flying Dutch Fan]

Heading into the 34th annual tournament, here is a bit of history of each teams performance over the years (note that the Qualified column includes this years qualifiers):

School	Years Qualified	Quarters Record	Semis Record	Finals Record	Overall Record
Adrian	29	12-13	4-11	1-3	17-27
Albion	29	17-6	7-15	2-5	26-26
Alma	28	1-24	1-3	1-0	3-27
Calvin	32	18-0	22-9	12-10	52-19
Hope	34	19-2	21-10	15-6	55-18
Kalamazoo	22	7-15	3-4	0-3	10-22
Olivet	26	5-19	1-5	0-1	6-25
Trine	21	4-6	5-9	1-4	10-19

[Flying Dutch Fan]

Sliced another way - here are how the teams have done in home/away/neutral court games:


                 

School	Years Qualified	Home Games	Away Games	Neutral Games	Overall Record
Adrian	29	6-0	7-23	4-4	17-27
Albion	29	19-5	3-14	4-7	26-26
Alma	28	0-1	1-26	2-0	3-27
Calvin	32	39-6	4-8	9-5	52-19
Hope	34	38-6	9-6	8-6	55-18
Kalamazoo	22	7-2	0-17	3-3	10-22
Olivet	26	6-3	0-21	0-1	6-25
Trine	21	8-4	2-9	0-6	10-19

[Grutte Dirk]

Heading into the 34th annual tournament, here is a bit of history of each teams performance over the years (note that the Qualified column includes this years qualifiers):

Sliced another way - here are how the teams have done in home/away/neutral court games:

This is excellent. Thanks for your time and energy.

[wiz]

Another nice accolade for this year's MVP.
https://calvinknights.com/news/2025/2/24/mens-basketball-uchenna-egekeze-named-miaa-mens-basketball-player-of-the-week-for-the-second-time.aspx

[KnightSlappy]

Taking a quick stab at All-MIAA selections. Several others in the mix for 2nd team. Would like to get Kretschman on there and/or someone from Albion. Could put one of Hope's guys on the 1st team rather than two from Olivet.

1st Team
Uchenna Egekeze, Calvin (MVP, DPOY)
Owen Varnado, Calvin
Drew Moore, Trine
Nate Tucker, Trine
Conner Schipper, Olivet
Nathan Richardson, Olivet

2nd Team
Parker Hovey, Hope
Marcus Wourman, Hope
Gabe Quillan, Hope
Nick Seifert, Adrian
Lukas Broadsword, Kalamazoo
Trevin Winkle, Calvin

I didn't spend a ton of time here, so I would appreciate other thoughts if anyone wants to chime in.

[sac]

1st team
Uchenna Egekeze, Calvin  MVP
Owen Varnado, Calvin
Drew Moore, Trine
Nate Tucker, Trine
Parker Hovey, Hope
Nick Seifert, Adrian

2nd team
Gabe Quillan, Hope
Nate Richardson, Olivet
Conner Schipper, Olivet
Porter Kretchman, Olivet
Lucas Broadsword, Kalamazoo
Manny Megnanglo, Trine

I have Nick Seifert as the most productive player in the league by a whisker over Egekeze with fancy stats.  On a per minute basis its Parker Hovey.

I'm thinking one of the Olivet guys gets left out and the last spot is Lucchesi, Wourman or Winkle.

Broadsword and/or Megnanglo being left off would not suprise me,  Lucchesi, Wourman and Winkle are basically neck and neck in the fancy stats.

[Dark Knight]

Nice 70-53 win by Calvin over Trine today to finish the MIAA undefeated (first time since 2000 I think?).  They got off to 20-2 lead to start, and from there it seemed Calvin sustained about 15-20 point lead throughout the game.  Calvin really is going to have cut back on their turnovers asap if they want to make a run in tourney, should they make it.  They were fortunate that Trine shot so poorly, but nonetheless, a 17 point victory over the defending national champs and second place team is hard to complain about.

It did seem that the only real negative in Calvin's play yesterday was turnovers, but Trine plays fabulous defense, double teaming in unexpected ways and at unexpected times. But when Calvin did avoid the turnover problem, they typically wound up with a high value shot which explains their superior shooting which was the difference in the game. The Knights defenders are also a terrific defensive squad but they seem to take fewer chances than Trine does on that side of the ball. Consequently, I think Trine's shot selection yesterday was inferior to Calvin's which largely explains the shooting disparity. I did think Calvin made several turnovers that appeared to be unforced, but when a ballhandler is expecting to be severely challenged while handling the ball, the urgency--and anxiety--level goes up, and leads to unnecessarily quick and faulty decision making. All in all, a great game to watch, though the inestimable Mrs. OldKnight thought the officiating left something to be desired and didn't match the overall quality of the game.

Hmmm. I hadn't really thought about the fact that that there is a tradeoff between going for steals and solid defense, that a high number of steals may also result in a higher opponent field goal percentage. Nice observation.

Maybe we need some combination stat that includes both factors. Or would that just be defensive efficiency? From D3Datacast, Calvin 86.3 (#4), Trine 89.7 (#15).

[Flying Dutch Fan]

First round game predictions for tonight:

Albion @ Olivet
D3datacast: Olivet 70-69 over Albion
Massey: Olivet 72-71 over Albion

Adrian @ Hope
D3datacast: Hope 76-59 over Adrian
Massey: Hope 76-61 over Adrian

[Happy Calvin Guy]

Hmmm. I hadn't really thought about the fact that that there is a tradeoff between going for steals and solid defense, that a high number of steals may also result in a higher opponent field goal percentage. Nice observation.

Maybe we need some combination stat that includes both factors. Or would that just be defensive efficiency? From D3Datacast, Calvin 86.3 (#4), Trine 89.7 (#15).

Calvin's opponents' points per game:
First 7 games: 78.0 ppg
Next 18 games: 57.9 ppg

It would be interesting to see how Calvin ranks nationally in defensive efficiency during the 18-game win streak.

[sac]

Trine and Calvin have very different opponent turnover rates.  Calvin's is roughly 18%, Trine 25%, those are both good, Trine's is outstanding and probably top 10 nationally.

Calvin has 192 steals vs Trine's 182


Calvin is holding opponents to 37% FG shooting, Trine 38.5%, yet Trine is holding opponents to 2 pts fewer per game.   Ie, create more turnovers which equals fewer opportunities to score thus fewer points.


Personally the differences seem negligible long term, playing both teams you're going to be forced into making difficult shots with varying levels of pressure at different points on the floor. 

Its not a fun time for most teams.

[sac]

There's a formula out there called non-steal turnovers.  Very basic, your turnovers minus opp steals divided by possessions.

Percentage of possessions that result in non-steal turnover.

Since we've been discussing defense, here's everyone's defensive numbers, think of it as 10.9% of possessions against Trine result in a non-steal turnover

Trine    10.9
Adrian    8.9
Hope      7.8
Calvin    7.6
Kalmazoo  7.6
Olivet    7.5
Albion    7.3
Alma      5.9

7 point something'ish seems like a normal number.  You can probably infer the kind of pressure you face might have something to do with these numbers.