MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[HopeConvert]

A couple things:  2005 NCAA tourney first round game vs Wheaton at Wheaton.  Any Calvin fan remember that dude dressed up in a banana suit that kept going over the Calvin student section in the last few minutes to taunt Calvin fans when they(Wheaton) were winning(we got the last laugh)

Also at that Wheaton game, don't forget about the guy that had something written on this shirtless body (still don't know what it was) and ran around with a "flag" made from a snow shovel and a pink blanket.  I had heard he was a French exchange student, guess that would explain it all.

Couldn't have been a French exchange student. It would have been a white flag, not a pink blanket.

[ziggy]

Unfortunately the Sentinel article is right that we are likely a one representative conference this year. (Though has it been confirmed that this is only our 2nd in-region loss? If that is the case, then perhaps Hope would be OK for an at-large bid with a 3rd loss in the conference tourney, but I'd rather not leave it to chance.)

The regional rankings are from the NCAA, hopefully they wouldn't have made a mistake.  Even if this was their third, looking at the rankings, I don't see them falling from fourth after this loss.

There was a lot of talk on the Top 25 board that the Carthage lost was not an in-region game for Hope and the NCAA did count it as an in-region game. It sounds like that may not be the only mistake from reading that board last night and that Pat has said he will mention the possible problems to the NCAA before next week.

d3hoops.com has Carthage listed as in-region for Hope on last year's schedule but doesn't show it as in region the year before that.  Apparently no one knows for sure

[HopeConvert]

Not starting a debate about admission standards.

I thought Calvin was having trouble filling their Freshman classes, they were a couple years ago.  Hope doesn't have enough room for its Freshman classes, .........thats all I meant.

Calvin caps enrollment at 4,200.  This fall there were 4,199 (really) . . . I think they're working hard to fill that last slot.

Calvin didn't want to embarrass the competition by getting 4200 so they just ran out the clock on their final possession.

Very nice!

[HopeConvert]

Unfortunately the Sentinel article is right that we are likely a one representative conference this year. (Though has it been confirmed that this is only our 2nd in-region loss? If that is the case, then perhaps Hope would be OK for an at-large bid with a 3rd loss in the conference tourney, but I'd rather not leave it to chance.)

Certainly the sky is not falling though. Hope fans can be reminded that despite Calvin opening the game with that flaming ball from NBA Jam and out-rebounding Hope, it took a disappearing act by Cramer and countless misses from 2 feet for Calvin to win a game that came down to the final minute. If Hope had saved that game for an Olivet or Alma game, it would have just been an ugly win, though it sounds like the Albion game was such an ugly win, so hopefully this is not a trend and the team can get back on track going into the tournament.

Should I not ask about any missing posts from late last night? Perhaps the reason for some deleting was already given, but not sure if the posts went on much beyond what I'd seen at the time. 

I haven't seen anyone bring it up, but given Cramer's struggles in the first 35 minutes, was anyone else questioning the decision to play him down the stretch? He did nail 4 very key free throws when given the chance, but had some silly turnovers and was still cold from the floor. He can still play defense of course, but might Patridge or Jager have been helpful in the end, rather than perhaps having Cramer trying too hard to make up for his play to that point?

My wife was making the same point at the time. Especially after those two bad turnovers he had - the ball going right off his hands. He just never got into the flow offensively. My guess is that GVW doesn't like have Jager and DVS on the floor at the same time, but I can't see why Partridge couldn't have been in.

Calvin looked faster than Hope all night.

[HopeConvert]

The reason no one has brought it up is the fact that Cramer is the likely league MVP--and a deserving one. If GVW would have pulled him with the game on the line every poster would have rightly crucified Glenn for that coaching decision. Even if Cramer struggled last night you just don't pull a player of his quality with the game on the line and if GVW had done so every Calvin fan would have silently breathed a "thank you" to the Hope bench.

I breathed a thank you every time he settled for a contested jump shot instead of using his athletic ability to take it to the hole.

There were two times toward the end he had an open lane past his man down the right side of the key, and pulled back. His confidence was shot, I think.

[KnightSlappy]

I find it interesting that Hope's first two baskets were scored by Cramer and Vanderheide.  Cramer didn't score for the rest of the half. And Vanderheide's second half consisted of 5 fouls, 0 rebounds, and 1 pont.  Hope needs these two to show up big, especially in a rivalry game.  I think the Calvin Defense did a good job of keeping them contained.

On a side note Hope's deep, deep bench was outscored by Calvin's 25-12.

[HopeConvert]

I find it interesting that Hope's first two baskets were scored by Cramer and Vanderheide.  Cramer didn't score for the rest of the half. And Vanderheide's second half consisted of 5 fouls, 0 rebounds, and 1 pont.  Hope needs these two to show up big, especially in a rivalry game.  I think the Calvin Defense did a good job of keeping them contained.

On a side note Hope's deep, deep bench was outscored by Calvin's 25-12.

Hope's deep, deep bench wasn't in the game much.

[KnightSlappy]

Unless they drop a bad game between now and the conference championship game, I see Hope getting in to the NCAA tournament.  I think the only way that the MIAA gets two in is if Hope makes it to the MIAA finals and gets beat.

[KnightSlappy]

I find it interesting that Hope's first two baskets were scored by Cramer and Vanderheide.  Cramer didn't score for the rest of the half. And Vanderheide's second half consisted of 5 fouls, 0 rebounds, and 1 pont.  Hope needs these two to show up big, especially in a rivalry game.  I think the Calvin Defense did a good job of keeping them contained.

On a side note Hope's deep, deep bench was outscored by Calvin's 25-12.

Hope's deep, deep bench wasn't in the game much.

Hope had 70 bench minutes, Calvin had 69 bench minutes.

[ChicagoHopeNut]

Unless they drop a bad game between now and the conference championship game, I see Hope getting in to the NCAA tournament.  I think the only way that the MIAA gets two in is if Hope makes it to the MIAA finals and gets beat.

Assuming that Carthage is not an in-region game. I think Hope is in if it wins out the season then gets to the Championship game of the MIAA tourney even if it loses that game. That said if Carthage is in-region that would be 4 losses (if Hope loses the MIAA championship game or somewhere else in the tourney) and I would be worried about Hope's chances. I think it will start to depend on what other upsets happen in conference tournaments.

[oldknight]

A couple things:  2005 NCAA tourney first round game vs Wheaton at Wheaton.  Any Calvin fan remember that dude dressed up in a banana suit that kept going over the Calvin student section in the last few minutes to taunt Calvin fans when they(Wheaton) were winning(we got the last laugh)

Also at that Wheaton game, don't forget about the guy that had something written on this shirtless body (still don't know what it was) and ran around with a "flag" made from a snow shovel and a pink blanket.  I had heard he was a French exchange student, guess that would explain it all.

Couldn't have been a French exchange student. It would have been a white flag, not a pink blanket.

That's good HC, very good. 8)

[sac]

Unless they drop a bad game between now and the conference championship game, I see Hope getting in to the NCAA tournament.  I think the only way that the MIAA gets two in is if Hope makes it to the MIAA finals and gets beat.

I'm usually pretty upbeat on positive about Hope, but I'm disturbed by the trend I've seen the 2nd half of the MIAA season with the substitutions and playing time.   That and their 2 poorest defensive efforts of the year have come this week, not a good sign.    Yeah, I knew and posted it would be tougher, but there's a couple questions marks.

Steve Kratz and Ryan Klein paired together are priceless as defenders, they MUST play more together, they have been awesome all year.  Why change that now?  I'm all for Klein getting more minutes, he played 25 last night, but paired together with Kratz every single opponent Hope has faced has struggled when they were on the floor together.


Saturday's effort vs Adrian will tell alot about where this teams mental state is...........I wasn't happy with what I saw at Olivet or at Albion to tell you the truth.

Alma's probably a W, but Adrian and TSU are toss-ups at this point.

[sac]

Calvin has been the only opponent that has contained Hope's bench all season, in all three games.

Last night's bench difference shouldn't be a surprise, the difference between the two teams has been bench performance in the other games where Hope has excelled.

[HopeConvert]

I find it interesting that Hope's first two baskets were scored by Cramer and Vanderheide.  Cramer didn't score for the rest of the half. And Vanderheide's second half consisted of 5 fouls, 0 rebounds, and 1 pont.  Hope needs these two to show up big, especially in a rivalry game.  I think the Calvin Defense did a good job of keeping them contained.

On a side note Hope's deep, deep bench was outscored by Calvin's 25-12.

Hope's deep, deep bench wasn't in the game much.

Hope had 70 bench minutes, Calvin had 69 bench minutes.

Exactly. Hope had an advantage, and had no more bench minutes than Calvin.

sac: well said. Very well said.

[oldknight]

I find it interesting that Hope's first two baskets were scored by Cramer and Vanderheide.  Cramer didn't score for the rest of the half. And Vanderheide's second half consisted of 5 fouls, 0 rebounds, and 1 pont.  Hope needs these two to show up big, especially in a rivalry game.  I think the Calvin Defense did a good job of keeping them contained.

On a side note Hope's deep, deep bench was outscored by Calvin's 25-12.

Hope's deep, deep bench wasn't in the game much.

As already noted a check of the box shows the two benchs almost even in minutes. Hope's non-starters played 70 minutes while Calvin's got 69. Klein got the most bench minutes for Hope with 25 and I thought he played very well for Hope even if he only scored 2 points. Hope's bench scoring woes were led by the poor shooting of Partridge (3-9 for the game and 0-5 from the arc) and Wolfe (1-6 and 0-3). Calvin's bench was led by Veltema who scored 15 in only 15 minutes of playing time (including 4-7 from 3). Matt was the "X" factor in the game and whichever team gets that player usually wins in this series.