MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[sac]

Seriously, 4 hours and not a single post Hope/Adrian post.

Was there a party afterwards that I didn't get the word about?

It wasn't that depressing of a game!

[sac]

Hope 84 Adrian 71

Hope clinches a share of the MIAA Championship!

Andy Kubish hit his 2nd 3 of the game just under 2 minutes in.......it was twice as many 3's and the Bulldogs knocked down at Adrian.  2 minutes later a seemingly unimportant deuce from Steve Cramer put Hope up 7-6 and the Dutchmen never trailed again.

First half of this one was defense optional, particularly for Hope, but somehow Hope managed 13 more shots at the half and a marginally comfortable 11 point lead.

Second half got off to a ragged start for Hope missing their first 4 shots and 9 of their first 11......Adrian got an opening and didn't take it, as they missed their chances too.   There really were no second half highlights, both teams were miserable from 3.........4-22 combined and a shockingly horrific 18-35 from the freethrow line combined.   Hope managed to stay in charge as Adrian got it down to 7 a couple times, but it was double-digits from 9 minutes on and the lead swelled to 16.  Probably the biggest momentum swing was trailing by 12, Adrian misses a 3, Hope rebounds and within seconds VanSolkema drains a 3 and all of the sudden it was 15, Adrian looked pretty defeated after that.

Hope had several spats of the in and outs, the biggest victim was probably Jesse Reimink, today the ball just wasn't dropping for him.  Still amazes me how many puppies these guys miss.

Marcus VanderHeide was outstanding on offense, really asertive going to the hoop and had  a deserved 20,  Wolfe 16, Cramer 10, Klein 10

Young 20 most in the 2nd half, Kubish 14......all but 2 in the first half.  Adrian did a very nice job on Cramer and VanSolkema, both found open shots hard to find.

I think basically Hope will feel like they could have blown the game open, and Adrian will feel like they could have really given Hope a scare if they'd made a few more shots the 2nd half.

[Oval]

MIAA scores
Saturday Feb 10

Hope 84, Adrian 71
Albion 83, Kalamazoo 62
Calvin 90, Olivet 43
Alma 76, Tri-State 62

[sac]

Few thoughts

-----The game within the game, VanSolkema v Young.....today went to Mr. Young who was a much bigger handfull this afternoon.  Down at Adrian Hope bottled him up completely, not so tonight.  I don't think they guarded each other all night, but they ended up on each other enough to provide a little entertainment.  DVS won the meeting down in Adrian hands down.


-----I don't think Hope should be to disappointed with their effort today, basically the balls just didn't drop today and they still scored 84, shoot their average and its a Ben Franklin afternoon.  But they also shouldn't be dancing in the aisles.........there just seemed to be a complete lack of energy and enthusiasm today.  Certainly the comatose crowd didn't help nor the lack of a student section today, but they need to find that energy they played with up to 2 weeks ago.   Lot of tired bodies.....but it has been a long week.

-----I left DeVos feeling its more between the ears than anything else, its much easier to shrug off mistakes when things are going great.  Much more difficult when things aren't.........right now they aren't and the boys are being a bit rough on themselves mentally when they really don't need to be.  I've always thought every team hits a couple weeks where they don't play great.......thats now for Hope.  I feel better that they'll break out of it after seeing today.  They're this close.......<holds thumb and forefinger almost together>

------I'll sum up the last 4 games this way  1) Hope's not playing as good on defense  2) Hope's not playing as good on offense  3)  Hope's opponents are better prepared and playing better overall.   Put these little 3 things together and you get closer games.


------The bench today was outstanding again, and this poster couldn't be happier with the substitutions (and this is the last time I'll bring it up).  I believe the lead went up each time they played together, except for right before the half.

-----Wednesday we head to Alma to hopefully wrap up an unexpected outright MIAA Championship.

[sac]

Alma's surprising win was highlighted by Isaac Smith's 28 points and 10 rebounds.

It also possibly changes the MIAA tournament pairings a bit.........as it stands

1 Hope v 8 Kzoo
2 Calvin v 7 Alma
3 Tri-State v 6 Olivet
4 Adrian v 5  Albion

Alma now holds the tie-breaker over Kzoo for 7th with their win today.  Still some what I would now call "toss up" matchups between now and next Saturday, so things will likely be shaken up in the bottom half.  I still think the first 4 will hold firm.  Olivet seems to be playing very poorly in their last 2, so the Kzoo v Olivet game probably has big implications for seeding. 

I think Calvin has nearly solidified the #2 spot, right now they have the tie-breaker with TSU should it come to that, and I suppose its now possible for Adrian to get the #3 spot by beating Tri-State, and a Hope win over TSU next Saturday.

Some interesting possibilities for pairings.

[ChicagoHopeNut]

a shockingly horrific 18-35 from the freethrow line combined

Ever since I started watching Hope basketball about 6 years ago I have regularly been surprised by how poor Hope's free throw shooting can be.  For teams that tend to be fundamentally sound in other aspects of the game  I have often been surprised at games where Hope shoots between 50 and 60% from the line.  It shouldn't happen and it could cost them a game down the road.

[HopeConvert]

Seriously, 4 hours and not a single post Hope/Adrian post.

Was there a party afterwards that I didn't get the word about?

It wasn't that depressing of a game!

My wife and I are down in South Carolina playing golf, so didn't get to see the game. I've been eagerly awaiting analyses. My son went to the game and told me the second team outplayed the starters. Any truth to that? Glad to get sac's analysis, and hear that he thinks they're close to getting out of their funk.

I'm getting concerned with DVS on the defensive end of the floor. He's been getting beat a lot lately. Earlier in the year he was getting a lot of pokes-from-behind as guys went past him. But now it seems they're just going past him.

[almcguirejr]

I'm getting concerned with DVS on the defensive end of the floor. He's been getting beat a lot lately. Earlier in the year he was getting a lot of pokes-from-behind as guys went past him. But now it seems they're just going past him.

DVS is not a very good defensively.  When I watched the replay of the Calvin-Hope game he was especially poor in the first half.  Dustin Smith could go anywhere he wanted.  He let Griffin attack the basket with very little resistance acouple of times.  I was critical of GVW for letting DVS sit for so long, but after watching the effort he gave the first 3 and half minutes it was justified.  That move of letting your man go by and then trying to reach in from behind is just plain bad fundamental defense.  Move your feet and keep your man in front of you.  Somebody at the game said " you should call him Errick Van Solkema because he has no D."

[NW Hope Fan]

There's a women's board, no?

A) Bla Bla Bla...
B) Have you ever seen much get posted there?
C) With all the other crap that gets posted on this, THE MEN'S BOARD, cut us some slack!

[David Collinge]

There's a women's board, no?

B) Have you ever seen much get posted there?

Just because the women's board is not as active as this one doesn't mean topics directly on point for that board should be discussed here.  That's a self-defeating argument.  Has it occurred to you that there might be more traffic on the women's MIAA board if discussions of the women's MIAA were posted there instead of here?

[bulldogalum]

I've got very little to add to Sac's analysis, but I'll do what I can...

I got the feeling that the game was won for Hope on the offensive glass in the first half.  They had 11 offensive boards--as many as we had defensive boards--and that went a long way in creating a comfortable gap despite being somewhat cold from 3 point range.

I was worried for a decent portion of the game that Vanderheide was going to get a technical.  I love the spirit, but early in the second half when he nearly punted the ball into the volleyball court, I was ready to put him on the Unibomber Watch List.  That being said, he had an excellent game, especially in the first half.

This was more like the Adrian team I've seen all year today.  They really didn't play poorly, but they just couldn't quite get a run together to make things more interesting than they were.  I can't help but leave this game thinking that if we get another shot at the Dutchmen, it will be a VERY interesting game.

Kubish had a great first half for the Bulldogs (4 for 5 from 3 point range), and Desmond had a tremendous second half (18 points). 

Adrian definitely struggled without regular starter Lamar Cardenas, who normally provides an extra 8 or so points that would have made a big difference in today's game.

That is all. 

[northb]

-----I don't think Hope should be to disappointed with their effort today, basically the balls just didn't drop today and they still scored 84, shoot their average and its a Ben Franklin afternoon.  But they also shouldn't be dancing in the aisles.........there just seemed to be a complete lack of energy and enthusiasm today.  Certainly the comatose crowd didn't help nor the lack of a student section today, but they need to find that energy they played with up to 2 weeks ago.   Lot of tired bodies.....but it has been a long week.

-----I left DeVos feeling its more between the ears than anything else, its much easier to shrug off mistakes when things are going great.  Much more difficult when things aren't.........right now they aren't and the boys are being a bit rough on themselves mentally when they really don't need to be.  I've always thought every team hits a couple weeks where they don't play great.......thats now for Hope.  I feel better that they'll break out of it after seeing today.  They're this close.......<holds thumb and forefinger almost together>

------I'll sum up the last 4 games this way  1) Hope's not playing as good on defense  2) Hope's not playing as good on offense  3)  Hope's opponents are better prepared and playing better overall.   Put these little 3 things together and you get closer games.

You must be expecting alot from your team.  They led the game for the last 36 minutes, won by 13, completing the sweep of a competitive team.  They've only had one (close) loss this calander year to a perenially competitive team.  I don't think you have much to worry about (until Calvin meets them in the MIAA tourney playoffs, then again in the NCAA tournament!! )

[pointlem]

A couple points of information regarding two posted comments, the first concerning "Hope's poor free throw shooting."  It was 68.5% last year and is 73.0% this year, which is markedly better than their opponents' 66.7%.  It's the nature of variable data, even coin tossing, to have streaks.  Yesterday's game with 60% free throw shooting and another game with 85% are expected variations in the range that any of us experience when shooting free throws (well, except my normal variation, when shooting 20 or so, is about 30 to 70 percent). 

Regarding "DVS is not a very good defensively," I agree that he seemed slow afoot in the first few minutes last Wednesday.  But he shut down Caleb Veldhouse in the first two Hope-Calvin games (which Hope was unable to do last year).  And his 47 steals are nearly double the next best steal #.  And many of the steals he causes, by poking the ball to a teammate, apparently he doesn't, under NCAA definitions, get credited with.  (I gather it's rather like in football where the interception on a tipped pass goes to the person who catches it.)

All in all, for Hope fans this season, with basically the same team as last year minus their two bigger post players, this season has been a pleasant surprise . . . with excellent team chemistry, 3-point shooting, and defense.

[goodknight]

At the dawn of the league season's final week, I've awakened with enthusiasm about the Calvin Knights for the first time since the opening weekend of regulation play.  (It's funny what three wins in a little more than five days will do to lift your spirits and make you, um, looser .)

The three top reasons for optimism: Defense. Defense. Defense.

KVS has the boys playing it with a swarming intensity pretty consistently over the past four games -- blowouts of Alma and Olivet and a surprising 19-point win over Adrian to go along with the Wednesday night hoohaa in Holland.

I snuggled into a seat behind the Calvin bench for the game at the DeVos, and was impressed by KVS' remarkably calm coaching throughout that game of enormous momentum swings.  The Knights clearly still have miles to go before they approach their potential, but finally they seem headed in a happy direction.

It's important to finish strong on the road this new week, even though a 2 or 3 seeding is sown up for the tournament next week.  A huge game at Albion awaits along with a trip to K on Saturday.

So, now I'm questioning my sanity for allowing my wife to schedule a much-needed warm-weather vacation in Mexico that coincides with the MIAA tourney.   This could get very interesting. 

[hope1]

i think  the final 4 teams will be  hope vs albion  and calvin vs 3state   



 

Alma's surprising win was highlighted by Isaac Smith's 28 points and 10 rebounds.

It also possibly changes the MIAA tournament pairings a bit.........as it stands

1 Hope v 8 Kzoo
2 Calvin v 7 Alma
3 Tri-State v 6 Olivet
4 Adrian v 5  Albion

Alma now holds the tie-breaker over Kzoo for 7th with their win today.  Still some what I would now call "toss up" matchups between now and next Saturday, so things will likely be shaken up in the bottom half.  I still think the first 4 will hold firm.  Olivet seems to be playing very poorly in their last 2, so the Kzoo v Olivet game probably has big implications for seeding. 

I think Calvin has nearly solidified the #2 spot, right now they have the tie-breaker with TSU should it come to that, and I suppose its now possible for Adrian to get the #3 spot by beating Tri-State, and a Hope win over TSU next Saturday.

Some interesting possibilities for pairings.