MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[Mr. Ypsi]

So who says the MIAA is down this year - you got as many teams in the tourney as the CCIW and WIAC put together!

[GoKnights68]

So who says the MIAA is down this year - you got as many teams in the tourney as the CCIW and WIAC put together!

That would look great on the league to have both teams at least go to the sweet 16(assuming they don't play each other in the first 2 rounds).   I know how well it looked for the miaa when Albion and Calvin met in the elite 8 in 2005.

[ziggy]

Did we all wake up bright eyed and bushy tailed this morning?

[calvin_grad]

Brackets are out.  Aurora-Calvin, Chicago-Hope at Aurora in the first round.

[almcguirejr]

So KVS is a genious again I see.......

Takes a real great coach to have Derek Griffen take and hit a bomb from 28 feet. 

Sorry but I don't see a great coaching effort from KVS this year, Calvin should have been right in the MIAA race and they played themselves out of it and were completely uncompetitive against good teams like Carthage, Wheaton, Lax, Wooster and once vs Hope.  Despite the great win last night, thats still mostly a 1 on 1 team, without Derek Griffen's fortunate transfer to Calvin the Knights have a miserable season by Calvin standards.


That is just how I see it.

Sac, once again your frustration seems to turn into sarcasm and putting words into other people's mouths.   

CCMom - truer words were never spoken.

[almcguirejr]

Calvin - Aurora
Hope  Chicago

Winners play each other

[GoKnights68]

Yikes, just like last year with a potential 2nd round Calvin-Hope match-up.  Only this time it could be the fifth time in the season, and 9th time in 2 seasons.  Don't know why the tourney committee does this but oh well.  I guess if you're a Hope fan that wants a chance at revenge, then you got your wish.

Anybody know anything about Aurora and/or Chicago?  Like I said last yesturday.  I remember Aurora from 2 years ago being a very athletic team that had a good freshmen who would now be a junior.

Also, Aurora gym size is pretty average for a d3 gym if anyone cared.  Smaller than Hope and Calvins', though.

[almcguirejr]

Yikes, just like last year with a potential 2nd round Calvin-Hope match-up.  Only this time it could be the fifth time in the season, and 9th time in 2 seasons.  Don't know why the tourney committee does this but oh well.  I guess if you're a Hope fan that wants a chance at revenge, then you got your wish.

Anybody know anything about Aurora and/or Chicago?  Like I said last yesturday.  I remember Aurora from 2 years ago being a very athletic team that had a good freshmen who would now be a junior.

Also, Aurora gym size is pretty average for a d3 gym if anyone cared.  Smaller than Hope and Calvins', though.

A quick look at their stats shows 6 guys averaging 9.6 pts or better.
Those six play the bulk of the minutes.  3 guys average 30 + minutes

Larry Welton is their stud.

No seniors on the roster

No Centers on the roster

[ziggy]

Calvin and Aurora shared common opponents in Concordia (WI) and Benedictine.  Calvin played those two during the Calvin tip off tourney while Aurora met those two as part of their conference season.  I don't think Aurora is a battle tested team.  They lost to Wisconsin Lutheran earlier this year, and remember what Hope did to WLC in last year's tournament.

[oldknight]

If I had a choice I would like to see Calvin go play one of the greater Chicago area teams (Aurora and Chicago are in, Elmhurst is out) but not because I think the teams there are any easier to beat. The first reason is that going that direction is a little closer and would make it more likely I could go watch the game. The second reason is that Calvin gets pretty good support from Chicago area alumni when they go down there.

Wow, I didn't know I had that kind of pull with the selection committee. 8)

[HopeConvert]

I'm wondering if I can change my vote for the poll at the top of the page? I'm thinking Calvin might win it.

[Flying Dutch Fan]

So KVS is a genious again I see.......

Takes a real great coach to have Derek Griffen take and hit a bomb from 28 feet. 

Sorry but I don't see a great coaching effort from KVS this year, Calvin should have been right in the MIAA race and they played themselves out of it and were completely uncompetitive against good teams like Carthage, Wheaton, Lax, Wooster and once vs Hope.  Despite the great win last night, thats still mostly a 1 on 1 team, without Derek Griffen's fortunate transfer to Calvin the Knights have a miserable season by Calvin standards.


That is just how I see it.

Sac, once again your frustration seems to turn into sarcasm and putting words into other people's mouths.   

CCMom - truer words were never spoken.

I would suggest that before you accuse sac of those things, you look at the post he was responding to:

Maybe we can soon end the talk about how many miles separates the Illinois and the Michigan teams.  A good coach knows the sure way to get in is by being prepared for the automatic bid from a conference tournament championship.  That's the way KVS played it and now, of course, we all know it worked.  He had a young team that needed to be patiently guided to learn the system and be ready to play good ball in February.  Last night it was clear that one team improved greatly as the season went on and one not so much.  KVS proved once again he is MIAA coach of the year.  After the game, a Holland local was asking me some things about Calvin College and then he mentioned "that's a well coached outfit".  I couldn't agree more.

wizardry seems to be saying that KVS had it planned all along that his team would just win the conference tournament and his entire coaching strategy for the year was focused on that.  Yeah right - he's telling them to not worry about losing games to Adrian, Tri-State, and Albion, it's all part of the strategy.  And it was all strategy when KVS spent entire timeouts getting after his team to just put forth the effort (I'm paraphrasing a post from a Calvin supporter mid-season) and him questioning his own coaching abillity on the radio.

sac is absolutely right - and I'll bet the house KVS would agree, that this has not been one of his better years and that this years team (while they may have improved immensly) took most of the year to get to the level of play that was expected out of the gate.

[WLCALUM83]

Calvin and Aurora shared common opponents in Concordia (WI) and Benedictine.  Calvin played those two during the Calvin tip off tourney while Aurora met those two as part of their conference season.  I don't think Aurora is a battle tested team.  They lost to Wisconsin Lutheran earlier this year, and remember what Hope did to WLC in last year's tournament.

Aurora's other in-NathCon loss was to Edgewood. When Wisconsin Lutheran beat Aurora earlier this season, it was Wisconsin Lutheran's turn to come out of the gate hot and shoot the lights out in the first half. Reportedly, Aurora had an off night. The Spartans tend to shoot a lot of 3's. A team with inside studs like Edgewood's C Averkamp and C DeMarco could potentially give them fits. (BTW, WLC finished 12-6 regular-season in NAthCon, winning four more in-conference games than last year. Not to open a can of worms, but Hope-from what little I've read off this site--hasn't been as good this year as last,--and at least this year, no one's saying that WLC "backed into" an NCAA D3 playoff spot. I don't think the Warriors are quite as bad as they may have looked against Hope last year. Hope would have beaten almost anyone the way the Dutchmen were shooting coming out of the gate that game.)  

[ziggy]

Calvin and Aurora shared common opponents in Concordia (WI) and Benedictine.  Calvin played those two during the Calvin tip off tourney while Aurora met those two as part of their conference season.  I don't think Aurora is a battle tested team.  They lost to Wisconsin Lutheran earlier this year, and remember what Hope did to WLC in last year's tournament.

Aurora's other in-NathCon loss was to Edgewood. When Wisconsin Lutheran beat Aurora earlier this season, it was Wisconsin Lutheran's turn to come out of the gate hot and shoot the lights out in the first half. Reportedly, Aurora had an off night. The Spartans tend to shoot a lot of 3's. A team with inside studs like Edgewood's C Averkamp and C DeMarco could potentially give them fits. (BTW, WLC finished 12-6 regular-season in NAthCon, winning four more in-conference games than last year. Not to open a can of worms, but Hope-from what little I've read off this site--hasn't been as good this year as last,--and at least this year, no one's saying that WLC "backed into" an NCAA D3 playoff spot. I don't think the Warriors are quite as bad as they may have looked against Hope last year. Hope would have beaten almost anyone the way the Dutchmen were shooting coming out of the gate that game.)  

Thanks for the input, we don't have a lot of first hand experience with some of those teams.  I'm just glad it looks like Calvin has a chance, thats all you can ask for.  Anyone with info on Chicago?

[CalvinChelseaMom]

So KVS is a genious again I see.......

Takes a real great coach to have Derek Griffen take and hit a bomb from 28 feet. 

Sorry but I don't see a great coaching effort from KVS this year, Calvin should have been right in the MIAA race and they played themselves out of it and were completely uncompetitive against good teams like Carthage, Wheaton, Lax, Wooster and once vs Hope.  Despite the great win last night, thats still mostly a 1 on 1 team, without Derek Griffen's fortunate transfer to Calvin the Knights have a miserable season by Calvin standards.


That is just how I see it.

Sac, once again your frustration seems to turn into sarcasm and putting words into other people's mouths.   

CCMom - truer words were never spoken.

I would suggest that before you accuse sac of those things, you look at the post he was responding to:

Maybe we can soon end the talk about how many miles separates the Illinois and the Michigan teams.  A good coach knows the sure way to get in is by being prepared for the automatic bid from a conference tournament championship.  That's the way KVS played it and now, of course, we all know it worked.  He had a young team that needed to be patiently guided to learn the system and be ready to play good ball in February.  Last night it was clear that one team improved greatly as the season went on and one not so much.  KVS proved once again he is MIAA coach of the year.  After the game, a Holland local was asking me some things about Calvin College and then he mentioned "that's a well coached outfit".  I couldn't agree more.

wizardry seems to be saying that KVS had it planned all along that his team would just win the conference tournament and his entire coaching strategy for the year was focused on that.  Yeah right - he's telling them to not worry about losing games to Adrian, Tri-State, and Albion, it's all part of the strategy.  And it was all strategy when KVS spent entire timeouts getting after his team to just put forth the effort (I'm paraphrasing a post from a Calvin supporter mid-season) and him questioning his own coaching abillity on the radio.

sac is absolutely right - and I'll bet the house KVS would agree, that this has not been one of his better years and that this years team (while they may have improved immensly) took most of the year to get to the level of play that was expected out of the gate.

Except that Sac did not quote anyone when he made his comments.  The comment you mention was made several posts earlier.  So it's not always clear, as I think Sac will admit, who or what he is responding to.  Regarding your own comments about KVS not having one of his better years, etc. that is pretty much what I said in my earlier post.