MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[ziggy]

Did anyone else that was there think that the AU mascot should have taken it a little easier last night?  All that dancing can't be good with an obvious whiplash injury.

[petemcb]

The NathCon is ONE YEAR(S) old.

Calvin did everything possible to throw that game away.  It looked like Calvin was going run Aurora out of their own building, going up 15 at half time, but it was more during the 1st half.  Aurora's athleticism takes over and ties it at 51 but they just can't get over the hump.  Your guards hit some key 3s and got some lucky bounces (offensive rebound on a missed FT etc).  Great, exciting game for a neutral fan like me.

I'm sure there will be plenty of tickets left.  I don't see any Aurora or chicago fans showing up.

I didn't see any Chicago fans show up last night either.  I'm sure there will be tickets, but I'm still glad I got mine last night.  This should be a great rematch.  My high school junior loved the games, although I don't know if they did much to help him in his choice of which of the two schools he'd prefer to attend.  He loved both teams.  It was a great night of intense basketball.

By the way, good to meet you last night Old School.

[petemcb]

As impressive as the Knights were in the first half, they really showed me something in not letting the Spartans carry the momentum all the way to a lead.  Aurora was able to come back by playing their style of ball with an athletic run and gun style.  Calvin kept AU in the half court in the first half which made AU look pretty uncomfortable, similar to what happened in 2005.

The Knights were able to frustrate Larry Welton Jr, who looked like he was used to drawing more fouls on his way to the hoop against lesser opponents.  Larry getting stuffed by the rim on a breakaway was also a funny moment.  You have to keep guys like him in perspective, there is a reason he's playing DIII and not something higher but he has some skills.

No matter where you go, the refs are always questionable.  Those guys were worse than anything I have seen in the MIAA.  Maybe it was just perceived inconsistency because the teams play different styles but wow, Mantel and Meckes repeatedly getting hacked and they swallow the whistles.  Can't complain too much after a win.

As a neutral observer last night in terms of connection to the schools,  I thought the officiating, while a bit inconsistent, was not in favor of one team or the other.  There was a lot of body contact on trips up the floor that went uncalled both ways, and both teams got mugged in the paint at times that went uncalled.  I don't think officiating influenced the outcome.  Great game, though.

[northb]

Waiting on the analysis from SAC, FDF, and others that were at the games--must have been a wild night after the big win(s)

[John Gleich]

What an odd development.  The Rivalry that can put 11,000 fans in the seats will play in front of its smallest crowd in years!  It's like Rocky and Apollo fighting it out in the empty gym.

After all of the questions about AU's gym size (whether it really held as many fans as D3hoops says it did), was the gym packed last night?  And, as Hope and Calvin have two of the best followings in D-3, will it really be a small crowd tonight?  I mean, comparitively, there aren't going to be 3000 people at the game... but AU's gym won't seem empty, will it?  It seems like more Calvin and Hope fans would have made the trip?

I don't forsee it being the the UWSP/Lawrence Elite 8 game from three years ago, where 250 people (maybe...) saw one of the best basketball games that I've ever seen, for sure.

[chidutch]

Did AU mention when the doors will open and tickets will be available for tonight's game?  As an avid dutch alumni here in chicago, I was kicking myself for not being able to get over to AU last night to see the first game.  I obviously don't want to miss the fifth rivalry rematch of 06-07.   

[northb]

Welcome to the board, Chidutch.

[realist]

Point:  My thinking is the alums from both Calvin and Hope in the greater Chicago area will take advantage to see only the second Calvin/Hope game to ever take place outside the state of MI.

[realist]

Gosh:  didn't even get my post finished, and I see the "dutch" underground is already getting the word out.  Plus it isn't such a great risk to take the trip to Aurora this afternoon.  Quite a few of the Calvin people at Aurora in 05 made the decision to go that day.

[chidutch]

Welcome to the board, Chidutch.

Thanks northb...I always watch the board because I think the insight is pretty great, but haven't been an active part since I graduated.  I figured it might be time to get back into the game.

[chidutch]

Gosh:  didn't even get my post finished, and I see the "dutch" underground is already getting the word out.  Plus it isn't such a great risk to take the trip to Aurora this afternoon.

there is no risk...I'm only about 40 minutes east of aurora....and I'm considering just driving over around lunch and seeing what I'm told....maybe get lucky and get a ticket or two (if the wife wants to see some great B-ball) and not have to worry.

[SKOT]

Did AU mention when the doors will open and tickets will be available for tonight's game?  As an avid dutch alumni here in chicago, I was kicking myself for not being able to get over to AU last night to see the first game.  I obviously don't want to miss the fifth rivalry rematch of 06-07.   

I asked the AU AD if i could buy a ticket after the Calvin game while wearing an orange shirt, he said I could not buy tickets after the Calvin/AU game because those tickets only went to calvin tickets (even though they sold 12 tickets to the 3 guys with maroon tickets directly in front of me in line for tickets, but that isn't here nor there).  The AU AD ended our conversation by saying, "see you at 5:30."  So, I am going to guess they go on sale at 5:30 this afternoon.

[HopeConvert]

A pair of interesting games last nght. Cramer finally got a little selfish, and put on quite a clinic of basketball. 25 points, 7 rebounds in the first half. Chicago had no answer for him. That really was the story of the game, and there wasn't much else to tell. Solid games from Reimink, Klein and Jager. DVS still looks a little hobbled to me. With Cramer on fire UC couldn't double-down on defense, so GVW simply swung Marcus over to Cramer's side and let him pound in for a few close looks. Hope looked confident and loose last night. FDF, sac and I all agreed it was the best they have looked in about two months. It makes me feel a little more confident about playing the Knights tonight.

The Calvin/Aurora game was an interesting one. I thought the officiating was fairly even, so that didn't seem to be an issue to me. It did look to me as if Veltema got pushed out rather than traveled, so I thought they made the right call there. Aurora had plenty of chances to win the games. Lots of decent looks that simply didn't go down for them. Veldhouse had some ball control problems late in the game I thought. This seems to be happening more with him. Aurora's final shot actually looked like it might go in from where I was sitting. I'm sure Calvin fans were holding their breath. 13 and 15 were pretty impressive for Aurora. For Calvin, Griffin was the main guy again. Mantel played hard and gave them a real boost off the bench, especially defensively. Other than that, Calvin was very balanced in the first half with Veldhouse hitting some big shots, but simply didn't play that well in the second. No one really stood out to me.

I think most Hope fans are not too keen on a Calvin matchup. They seem to have Hope figured out pretty well, and it would really sting to be knocked out of the tournament by our rival. At the same time, Hope started quickly last night, and they haven't done that for awhile. If Hope comes out loose tonight and having fun, I think they'll win. If they start as tight as they have the last two Calvin games they could dig themselves too big a hole again.

I anticipate there will be plenty of tickets available for tonight, and the weather shouldn't be a factor. It was good to meet some of the posters. The gym was pretty much full last night. I gotta ask: what goes on in these other conferences? There was security everywhere, and during times-out security and police would be 7 wide lining the sidelines.

Petemcb - I hope you and your son will come again. I'd like to spend a little more time talking with the two of you.

[Titan Q]

Well, I planned on just making the 1:45 drive from Bloomington to Aurora for last night's games, but with a Hope/Calvin game so close to me, I'm heading back this evening.  Looking forward to seeing The Rivalry in person for the first time.

Hope vs Chicago

Stephen Cramer's first half performance last night is about as good as I've seen in one half of tournament play.  With 1:40 to play in the 1st half, Cramer was 10-10 from the field, including 5-5 from 3, with 25 points.  He missed his final two shots to finish the period 10-12.  Chicago just had no answer for him.  In the 2nd half, it was more of a team performance by the Flying Dutchmen.  I got the feeling Cramer could take the game over again if necessary, but it never was.  Hope's smallest lead was 13 in the 2nd, and most of the way it was 17-18 points.  Another player I really like is #10, Jesse Reimink, who just does a lot of things very well.

I've seen Chicago play 3 times this year, including last weekend in St. Louis in a close game vs Wash U for the UAA title, and they're better than Hope made them look last night.  The Flying Dutchmen just executed really well last night on both sides of the ball and took Chicago totally out of their game.  Chicago just has no inside game and it's hard to win games in the tournament by just firing up 3's and 18 foot jumpshots.

Calvin vs Aurora

As they introduced the starting lineups, Aurora guard Darrick Leonard took the floor showboating and playing to the crowd.  I turned to the people I was with and said, "He's not ready to play a tournament game against a good team."  And he wasn't.  Leonard went 0-7 from the field in the 1st half behind a series of terrible shots and bad decisions.  Calvin, meanwhile, came out of the locker room slow but had a terrific final 12:00 of the half.  The Knights made 7 3-pointers in the final 12:10 (Derek Griffin 3, Caleb Veldhouse 2, Matt Veltema 2).  With Calvin up 44-29 at the break, I started planning my trip back to Aurora Saturday night.

Aurora fought back behind a huge 2nd half from Darrick Leonard, who had 21 second half points to lead the Spartans back.  The final score seems a little deceiving, because it never felt like a 1-point game to me...it seemed like Calvin never really lost control of the game, even when it was tied with 13:08 to play.  The Knights always had an answer for Aurora, but those two missed FT by Eric Devries with 0:05 and Calvin up 1 were almost enough to send Calvin home.  I thought Aurora would get a better look than they ended up getting, but as it turns out they had to settle for a half-courter.  

I'd say that Calvin played pretty well overall, but no individual player really caught my attention and nothing about Calvin made me think they can advance far in the tourney (with Hope I left thinking that Cramer is so good they could go as far as he takes them).  Hope and Calvin overall seem pretty even to me and I guess the regular season results prove that.  Cramer was by far the best player I saw last night among the 4 teams, but I see he "only" averages 16 ppg, so he can't be quite as ridiculous night in and night out as he was vs Chicago.

I am really looking forward to the game this evening.  Having seen these two teams just once a piece, I'd say that on a neutral court Hope is favored by about 6 points.

[chidutch]

The AU AD ended our conversation by saying, "see you at 5:30."  So, I am going to guess they go on sale at 5:30 this afternoon.


Thanks for the insight skot.....I'll be there before 5:30, as we might have some transplants making the trip from MI on a blustery saturday.  Hopefully if I get in the gym tonight, my heart won't break like the last time I saw a hope/calvin game in person.