MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[dren]

Furthermore maybe they will realize that the Great Lakes Region is stacked and they should move a team or five to different regions for the tourney.

It would be nice to avoid having a team like York last year at the final four

Not if your playing them in the semis 

[ziggy]

Brandon Crawford's night . . .

- 10 of 11 field goals
- 6 of 12 from the line
- 7 offensive rebounds
- 14 defensive rebounds
- in 34 minutes

What a beast.

Yeah, he got his but Tri-State does not have a typical big man.  Crawford should be able to put up big numbers against them.  This loss may point to bigger problems.  Crawford was limited against Calvin and Albion lost, Crawford was able to get his stats against Tri-State and Albion still lost.  The Thunder have played well at home but its a game we can all agree Albion should have won.  They are a good team but perhaps more beatable than originally thought.

[Flying Dutch Fan]

Brandon Crawford's night . . .

- 10 of 11 field goals
- 6 of 12 from the line
- 7 offensive rebounds
- 14 defensive rebounds
- in 34 minutes

What a beast.

Yeah, he got his but Tri-State does not have a typical big man.  Crawford should be able to put up big numbers against them.  This loss may point to bigger problems.  Crawford was limited against Calvin and Albion lost, Crawford was able to get his stats against Tri-State and Albion still lost.  The Thunder have played well at home but its a game we can all agree Albion should have won.  They are a good team but perhaps more beatable than originally thought.

Looking at the stats from the Albion/Tri-State game, two grabbed my attention - turnovers and FT's. 

Turnovers - Tri-State had 10, Albion had 20
FT's - Albion went 12-21

Those two cost them the game, considering they out-shot and out-rebounded the Thunder.

[Carl Yastrzemski]

Not being able to close out a game finally caught up to Albion. Albion did the same against K-Zoo and Alma, but was able to pull out the win in each of those games.

Nate, I guess Albion Students have read a newspaper the same number of times Adrian has won in the MIAA. Maybe the President of Albion should give Buck a call and tell him to step it up so the literacy rate at Albion will improve.

Ken Kolmodin the head of Facilities at Albion College walked into his office today and found possibly the greatest strategic coaching move of the season in the MIAA. On his desk was a work order placed by Coach Turner. With all of the publicity about the problems created by the sunlight behind one of the baskets at DeVos, Coach Turner put in a work order for a couple of those light fixtures construction crews use at night to be placed behind one of the baskets in Kresge.

[flash96]

Will the real Greg Immink please arrive for the game on  Saturday?  Not the one who made several errant passes and was ineffective with his shots.  I can't understand why GVW didn't use the press more often against Olivet.  When Hope struggled and they went on the press Olivet could not easily break it.

#3 for Olivet, if he is 5'9" then Immink must be 6'2".  Don't know who was responsible for that measurement, but then again it is Olivet, not the most stringent Academic college in the league.

Duane Bosma has an outstanding game, 25 points with 15 boards.  Played with an intensity not seen this year.  Rumor has it that Wendy Carroll dumped him the day of the game.  GVW sends Wendy flowers the next day.  Card reads, "Thanks!  Same plan for next week."

[albionbritfan]

The TOs tell the story of an energetic, hustling TSU defense.  That was the difference.

Albion still controls its own destiny, folks, and I believe in the heart of this squad.  I agree with sac; sit back and enjoy the next two weeks play out.  There are way too many games left to start dealing with hypotheticals.  This race may just flip on its head one or two more times.

And anyways, if you told me in October that Albion (who lost three key players from last year's team) would be without Lonny Fulse and be 16-3 right now with one D3 loss, I would have said, "I'll take it."  You never want to lose, but then again there are better teams and better teams that particular night.

[bulldogalum]

#3 for Olivet, if he is 5'9" then Immink must be 6'2".  Don't know who was responsible for that measurement, but then again it is Olivet, not the most stringent Academic college in the league.

Olivet has several players on their roster that are considerably shorter than the roster says.  I remember when they were playing at Adrian, they had a guy (don't remember his number) inbounding who was supposed to be 6'5", and I was standing near him.  I stand a solid 6'2", and I was at least a couple of inches taller than this guy. 

[KnightSlappy]

Albion still controls its own destiny, folks

Albion, Calvin, and Hope each control their own destinies.  If one of these teams win out then they get the regular season title.

[imafan]

Will Evan Hare be running track and field this spring?

He's not on the pre-season roster and I haven't heard anything about it before... what would he do? Throw?

Hare is not a trackie...he won't be on the team.

[imafan]

He's not on the pre-season roster and I haven't heard anything about it before... what would he do? Throw?

It think he was a hurdler for Coopersville.

the hurdler from coops was evan's younger brother...regional champion his junior year but blew out a knee during his senior year of football...now throwing the weights at an naia school in ohio.

[AndersDY]

Ugly ugly middle portion of the game for Hope last night. A controlling lead in the first half dwindled back to just OK by halftime and then the 3rd quarter was just hideous. A big offensive slump came with Olivet stepping up their defense pressure. Meanwhile Dozie was getting good shots and Olivet seemed to hit the 3's at the times they needed to. Hope wasn't taking great care of the ball, but fortunately Olivet was more sloppy. The Comets had a lot of bright spots but their glaring weakness was in not protecting the ball. I even thought a couple fouls that went against Hope were extremely ticky-tack and never would have been called, but the Olivet player had no control of the ball at the time and when the ball went flying it appeared it had to have been because of a foul.

Speaking of calls, some very iffy MIAA officiating last night. There weren't a ton of complete misses on calls, but the game got really out of hand up until the point where Hope started pulling away again. Glenn nearly got T-ed up after Cramer didn't draw a whistle until the third piece of significant contact he drew on a particular drive (ironically, worked better for Hope as he picked up a bucket +1 while the first foul that could have been called occurred before the shot). Olivet's coach did draw a T upon Dozie fouling out, pretty much intended to get T'ed up as he was discussing excrement, I couldn't hear whether it was from a horse or bull, with the official. That wasn't the call to blow his top over, but the officials certainly let the game get out of control. The only plus side is that they were consistent and weren't calling random handchecks while using the no-blood-no-foul rule the rest of the time.

Albion being the first to fall to the bottom half of the conference is interesting, though I still can't decide if it hurts or helps Hope's chances for Saturday. My gut says a narrow 1 point win would have been better as Albion would be coming off a full 40 minute test but wouldn't have the complete wakeup call of having lost. In reality, there probably isn't reason to worry about what happened to each team coming into Saturday. Both of them know that it's a game they need and that's true regardless of Wednesday's results. Both were going to come in fully prepared no matter what. The 3State win might just serve as a reminder for Hope that if they had been playing as sloppy as they did on the road against a better team than Olivet, they could have been in Albion's shoes so they need to never let the guard down.

[sac]

Here's a little something for the fans of our 3 frontrunners.

http://d3hoops.com/nation/

A little bit about Hope, Crawford and a nice bit with Dan Aultman in Norway.

enjoy

[Flea]

I realize it's speculation, but what MIAA team(s) do you feel seems to benefit the most from their weight training program?  

Does one team's strength and stamina stand out from the rest?

Do any teams seem like that rarely weight train?

[albinomascot19]

I am looking forward to the game in Holland, should be a dandy. I think the Brits will regroup and play their hearts out.  We'll just have to see what happens on Saturday.  I know the Dutchmen are undefeated at home, but who says that streak won't end someday.  Look for one heck of a game.

[wmballa]

Hopefully the 3 point kid from the Dew Crew gets caught in up the foot traffic on the way to the Devos on Saturday and can't make it to the game. He is just another member of the wishy washy Dew Crew, that takes up the seats at big games and fails to show for all of the others. I will admit 3 point d bag does make it to most of the games, and thats great, but you really got to chill out when you are there. Nobody really enjoys it when you prance across the court to hang up your stupid signs. The only thing the fans have enjoyed that you did this year was that faceplant when you were running up the stairs. Now that was funny. You are just another one of those Dew Crewers who except for a few dont even have any friends on the team, yet you think its your job to keep the rest of us out of the stands. Most of the Dew Crew pitches tents over seeing a basketball player on campus, thats great, I'm glad the students love the players, they should, I mean they have lost one measly game. But if thats really how you feel, then fill the stands up. 50 people isn't going to cut it, you claim to be the Cameron Crazies of D3 ball, but do you think that Duke's student section is half full when they play Virginia just because its a bottom half of the conference team. NO! If you really want to be a cool student section don't show up for one game a year. Anyways back to the 3 point kid, if you just stop running around like a fairy you are halfway to being a legit fan. Well more like a third, ditch the tie dye, and then you're two thirds of the way. The other thing you need to stop, and this is also this biggest thing to remember. Everyone in the gym can hear when you yell at the refs and let me tell you, all this does is embarres yourself, and shows your lack of basketball knowledge. Usually when you are getting in the ear of an official, you are either wrong, or misunderstanding what was called. This only embarrasses you, and it doesn't help out the team or the school. As a sports official myself I can tell you that unknowledgabe nagging, annoying fans only make you want to make calls that favor the other team just to spite the annoying fan. Please keep this in mind and keep your mouth shut next game! Do us all a favor, I'm glad you like to go to the games, but just support your team in a classy way, and dont embarrass yourself, or the rest of us in the stands. We have a great team, who is having a great season, dont ruin it with your ridiculous antics.