MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[goodknight]

A fun afternoon at the house that MJ built, with a nice win for the Calvin Knights over a game group of hard working Trolls from Trinity Christian.
No Trib scribe showed up, but Bob Becker, the longtime sports editor at the GR Press, held down press row.
A lot of missed shots in the first half, as both teams struggled to get comfortable with the vast environs of the United Center.  Calvin took conrol early in the second half, and cruised the remainder of the way. 
Griffin led the way with 20, and Velthouse added 13.  Meckes was big with a dozen points and 9 rebounds, while front court running mate John Mantel added 11 points and 5 boards.  A nicely balanced effort for the Knights before taking a two-week break heading into the year-end Mose Hole Classic at the College of Wooster.

[oldknight]

No Trib scribe showed up,

No current Trib scribe that is--I did spy at least one erstwhile cub reporter for that publication (unknown whether he was wearing a tight shirt with a large "S" underneath) who had Nicholson seats for the game. 

I thought both teams had a difficult time adjusting to the shooting environment--even point blank layups seemed to be a challenge in the first half. But Calvin also seemed to play their best defense this season and really harrassed Trinity shooters for a good portion of the game. Trinity led 24-17 with about 6 minutes left in the first half and didn't score again until about the 15 minute mark of the game. By that time Calvin had built a nice lead and never was really threatened after that. Calvin shot the ball quite well in the second half. It was pretty amazing to see these two schools playing in the United Center and it was a lot of fun for everyone.

The  "varsity" game later between the Bucks and Bulls was also very entertaining. Ben Wallace really earned some of those 60 million the Bulls are paying him with Ben getting 27 (yes, that's 27) boards. A monster game by the former Piston.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Check out the scoreboard before it gets corrected - Tri-State had no opponent, yet only won 71-68!

[goodknight]

No Trib scribe showed up,

No current Trib scribe that is--I did spy at least one erstwhile cub reporter for that publication (unknown whether he was wearing a tight shirt with a large "S" underneath) who had Nicholson seats for the game. 

I thought both teams had a difficult time adjusting to the shooting environment--even point blank layups seemed to be a challenge in the first half. But Calvin also seemed to play their best defense this season and really harrassed Trinity shooters for a good portion of the game. Trinity led 24-17 with about 6 minutes left in the first half and didn't score again until about the 15 minute mark of the game. By that time Calvin had built a nice lead and never was really threatened after that. Calvin shot the ball quite well in the second half. It was pretty amazing to see these two schools playing in the United Center and it was a lot of fun for everyone.

The  "varsity" game later between the Bucks and Bulls was also very entertaining. Ben Wallace really earned some of those 60 million the Bulls are paying him with Ben getting 27 (yes, that's 27) boards. A monster game by the former Piston.

In today's Grand Rapids Press account of the
game, headlined "Calvin finds Chicago its kind of town," one of the regular posters on this board was featured as scoring courtside "floor seats" for the matinee matchup.  Coincidence or D3hoops.com connections?  You decide.  

[Roughrider]

Collectively Adrian, Alma, Kalamazoo and Olivet are also 3-19. 

Tri-State is holding up the league. 

Yeah this was a point of discussion Saturday with FDF and CivicMinded........I'm to scared to look it up but I'm sure this is the worst non-conference start since the years prior to "The Defiance Experiment".

I attribute it to significant Sr losses across the board.......Calvin and Hope have plenty of talent to be good.  Calvin is still finding themselves and I truthfully haven't seen Hope play a bad game yet,  just 10 minutes of bad, but they are clearly not as talented overall as last season.

I don't know what's up with Albion..........if my tight schedule ( ) works out I might get to see Spring Arbor/ Albion tommorrow night.  I'll do some investigating.

Sac, I have to agree with you about the senior losses.  We may be hearing coaches quoting phrases such as "growing pains", "learning curve", "teams developing chemistry", and "teams finding themselves".   

I also appreciate your "diplomatic" term, "The Defiance Experiment".  You're way too polite.   

Roughrider

[Roughrider]

Through yesterday, December 9, the MIAA has an uncharacteristically shaky collective W-L record of 16-28.   

The "Big Three" of Albion, Calvin, and Hope, all accustomed to appearing in the national rankings in recent years, are an unimpressive collective 10-8.   

I sure didn't see this coming.  The coaching staffs have many "teachable moments" about which to teach.

Great post....Where where these teams in 2004 and 2005 at this time?

The stat geek in me couldn't resist

Games through 12/11

Albion/Calvin/Hope

04/05  14-8  .636

05/06  20-4  .833

06/07  10-8  .555

Adrian/Alma/Kalamazoo/Olivet

04/05  14-15  .482

05/06  13-16  .448

06/07  3-18  .143

Tri-State (can't leave them out completely)

04/05  2-5  .286

05/06  3-5  .375

06/07  3-1  .750

It's also quite interesting that almost every team has played less games to this point in the season as compared to the last 2.

Oval, thanks for the comment.   

FDF, nicely done on answering Oval's question.  You are truly a man of stats.  Being of the stat persuasion myself, as you know, I would never call anyone a geek, at the risk of prompting pot-kettle comments.     Nonetheless, you are a master of MIAA stat-trivia.

Roughrider

[sac]

Serious case of the lazy's prevented me from makeing the 25 mile drive to Aquinas.

Halftime  Aquinas 33 Hope 33

Steve Cramer show for Hope, scoring Hope's first 10 points, finished first half with 14.  Hope led by as many as 10 at 20-10, then went cold from the floor and the FT line, while AQ cashed in the easy layups.  Hope scored last 4 of the half.

Dan Holt saw his first action of the season a couple weeks earlier than expected and scored his first bucket.

[sac]

See what being lazy gets ya...........

Derek Van Solkema's midcourt shot with less than a tick left gives Hope a 65-62 win over Aquinas.

[sac]

Final from Aquinas

HOPE 65 Aquinas 62

Lets start with about 6 minutes to go Hope led 50-46, Aquinas then hit 3 straight 3's to lead 55-50.  Baskets by Cramer, Cramer and Reimink regained the Hope advantage at 56-55.  Aquinas then hit their 4th straight 3 to lead 58-56

Four free-throws from VanderHeide and Van Solekema sandwiched a layup from AQ's Wierzbicki made it 60-60.

Van Solekema made a "scooper" in the lane to put Hope up 2 with :30 seconds left,  AQ's John Leerman (sp?) made 2 FT's with 5 seconds left.

Then Van Solkema hits the banker from near midcourt to win it. ...........he called it, I heard him.

Lazic 19, Lierman 16 (4 trips) for AQ, Jayson 7 pts but 1-9 from floor.(HUGE)


Steve Cramer had a monster 28 to lead Hope, Van Solkema 16





Its just an amazing freakish thing how Hope struggles in that gym............I am fairly certain I have never seen Hope win a game on a last second shot that I can remember.

Purdue North-Central on Monday.............as Mr D has explained this is a replacement game for a late drop from Hope's schedule.

[oldknight]

Serious case of the lazy's prevented me from makeing the 25 mile drive to Aquinas.

Then Van Solkema hits the banker from near midcourt to win it. ...........he called it, I heard him.

I knew Derek was quite a talker but I didn't know his voice carried that far.

[formerd3db]

Purdue North-Central on Monday.............as Mr D has explained this is a replacement game for a late drop from Hope's schedule.

I should know this, however, missed it.  What team cancelled out of Hope's schedule to be replaced by Purdue-North Central?  Just curious; thanks.

[Flying Dutch Fan]

Its just an amazing freakish thing how Hope struggles in that gym............I am fairly certain I have never seen Hope win a game on a last second shot that I can remember.

Sac - Civic reminded me that Hope has won a game on a last second shot (in the NCAA tournament no less).  Travis Spaman (as a freshman) hit a 15 footer with less than a second left to beat St. Norbert, which you may not have seen but we did.

We're "stuck" in Florida (celebrating our 25th anniversary) so we missed the game at AQ as well.  Figures it would be a barn burner. 

[MIdoubleA]

All I know is that it feels good to be on the other end of a last-second buzzer-beating trey. 

[Stinger]

The Hornets trailed 35-33 at half,. 50-46 at the 13 minute mark, and lose 84-57.  That's two games in a row that close games  at the half have ended up in blow out losses. Looks as if Tyler Worst was the only bright spot, going 5-6 from 3 pt range and finishing with 21.  Kzoo plays Grinnell in the consolation game this afternoon.

[hope1]

[quote  Sac - Civic reminded me that Hope has won a game on a last second shot (in the NCAA tournament no less).  Travis Spaman (as a freshman) hit a 15 footer with less than a second left to beat St. Norbert, which you may not have seen but we did.

We're "stuck" in Florida (celebrating our 25th anniversary) so we missed the game at AQ as well.  Figures it would be a barn burner. 

we were  wondering where you were at  it was really quit without you bill  was sitting in back of us