MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[calalum]

Calvin looked good tonight.  Mantel made the all tournament team and Griffin was the Most Valuable Player for the tournament.

[goodknight]

I've said it before: this Calvin team has a chance to be scary good. It wouldn't surprise me if they ended up in Salem. It might surprise me if they don't.  A great win for them.

I concur. Calvin does have a chance to be scary good, now that the Knights have a real inside-outside game for the first time since a redhead wore No. 34.  Mantel and Engelsma are tough down low, and Griffin, Veldhouse and Veltema give Calvin plenty of options from long range.

A doff of the chapeau to our friends from Hope for the words of congratulations.  Let's hope our conference fares far better this season. 

[Raggs to Riches]

todays victory for the knights was a great sign of things to come. once kvs gets the team to stop penetration and then maybe we can extend leads instead of waiting nervously as our defense rotates slow and KVS should look for other options. it was surprising the amount of trouble the knights had with Wash U's press. Veldhouse should have just gotten the ball and cleared everyone out.
Griffin was excellent, and the combination of shooting and pure athleticism in the back court has me excited for an excellent year. Any rotation that has Dustin Smith coming off the bench is very solid, who was tremendous today.
I hope the knights have a great night of celebration and then come back with this same intensity next week.

[sac]

Congrats to the Knights, thats a very impressive early season win over a team I doubt will lose many.  But WashU is going to have a big burden to carry all year with really high expectations.

I'm really not surprised with this result.  Only that the team that was nearly perfect from the stripe over 2 games last spring in Wisconsin, was pathetic in 2 games here in Michigan.  Thats not the WashU team I saw.


Rochester 58, Tri-State 55
---As a league that just has to be considered a terribly disappointing loss, esp given what Albion did to them the night before.

Albion 75, Illinois Wesleyan 55
---This is what Albion did to teams of this nature when they were contending, much better start to 07-08 than last season.

Adrian 72, Cardinal Stritch 60
---Also a much better start to 07-08 than last for the Bulldogs, I've always said these are the games the Bulldogs needed to win to be taken seriously as a contender.

Olivet 83 Andrews 52
---Its a win, but Andrews is typically a sub MIAA JV level squad.  The #50 McClary led them with 17

Wittenberg 80 Kzoo 72
---Ordinarily that score might earn an extra look or two, but this Witt appears to be down from their norm as the loss to Benedictine last night suggested.  Still a close contest after last night is a nice turnaround for the Hornets.

Lake Erie 74 Alma 44
---As expected not good.


MIAA is 7-7 to start, last season at this point 5-9

[bulldogalum]

Although I wasn't at the Adrian game today, word has filtered down to me that the Bulldogs did, indeed, improve over their performance last night.  Sac's right, this was an important win for Adrian, not just as far as consideration on this board and around the conference is concerned, but also for the confidence of the players.  Cardinal Stritch won their game last night handily, and from what I saw of them (albeit only about 8 minutes worth), they looked as though they were relatively athletic.  Clearly not the biggest story in the league today, but a very nice weekend for the Bulldogs.

[Dark Knight]

I liked the Mantel dunk over Ruths.

And the next time down the court he was about ready to do it again, but instead Ruths stopped him and picked up his 4th (?) foul. Several Knights took the ball to the bucket quite often, and as a result (and because of the end-of-game foul-fest) four Bears fouled out.

I'm tempted to say that Mantel and the Knights' front line outplayed Ruths and Wash U's. At any rate, it was competitive. Griffin is a terrific player and a fierce competitor. Dustin Smith also had an excellent game. He brings great energy and quickness. So far this season he's averaging 6 assists and 5 steals per game.

It's fun having Zoerhof on the court. You never know what's going to happen. Often great things, other times...well, it certainly adds interest.

The scary thing is that there is still room for improvement. The defensive intensity was excellent, but there were some lapses. Some players didn't have A games; others will gain from more experience with this team (Engelsma and Schuster have only been with the varsity for a month). Maybe the team will practice some in-bounds plays at some point.

[CalvinChelseaMom]

Wow.  That was exciting!  I'm not sure what Wash U team folks saw last year, but this one was pretty darn good.  Yes, they missed 11 from the free throw line (and we missed 10 from 2 players who are usually right on), but they are a very good team.  We outplayed them and contained them (at least their 2 best players). 

The very fun thing was knowing how excited these Knights were to face these guys.  I, myself, was a bit nervous.  They were not.  Their confidence, enthusiasm, and overall enjoyment playing together has been so obvious.  They're having a great time!

Yes, still some things to work on, but what a good sign of things to come!

[goodknight]

Wow.  That was exciting!  I'm not sure what Wash U team folks saw last year, but this one was pretty darn good.  Yes, they missed 11 from the free throw line (and we missed 10 from 2 players who are usually right on), but they are a very good team.  We outplayed them and contained them (at least their 2 best players). 

The very fun thing was knowing how excited these Knights were to face these guys.  I, myself, was a bit nervous.  They were not.  Their confidence, enthusiasm, and overall enjoyment playing together has been so obvious.  They're having a great time!

Yes, still some things to work on, but what a good sign of things to come!

CCM:
It's great to have you on the board and in the stands.

It's probably not too soon to encourage you to keep the line of Mantel boys heading to Grand Rapids for college.  They would all look good in maroon and gold.    

[YeomansWork]

Tough weekend for the Hornets against solid competition. PicknRoll, Stinger, hornet fans...any of you at the game with a report? I saw the freshman put up double digits against Wheaten, seems like a possible, unexpected bright spot?

And for all the Calvin people on here, I got to say that's an impressive win to start the season.

[CalvinChelseaMom]

CCM:
It's great to have you on the board and in the stands.

It's probably not too soon to encourage you to keep the line of Mantel boys heading to Grand Rapids for college.  They would all look good in maroon and gold.    

Goodknight, it's always a pleasure talking with you and Oldknight in person, as well as reading your posts here.  Sounds like there may have been some other posters at the Calvin game, but I didn't get a chance to meet them.  Maybe next time.

I heard Vanderheide was at the game Friday.  Any word on how he's feeling since his concussion??

[almcguirejr]

I heard Vanderheide was at the game Friday.  Any word on how he's feeling since his concussion??

I heard he was improving until he heard the Calvin - Wash U result. 

[GoKnights68]

Was at Friday's game and saw the second half of Saturday's game.  In all honesty, when I get to the game at halftime on Saturday, I wasn't too surprised Calvin was up.  Despite a few defensive breakdowns Friday night,  Calvin just looked to be clicking offensively and could tell  how much experience most of their line-up had(kudos to Engelsma and Schuster for their great play!).  Washington U's pre-season number 1 ranking was definitely legit, though, as they returned 4 out of their 5 starters from last years' final four team.  I'm sure they learned a lot from this game and won't be surprised to see them have another deep tournament run.

My hope is for Calvin to not let down this weekend at Cornerstone.  Last season, Calvin also looked pretty impressive in their season opener tip-off tourney, but they laid an egg against Hope the next weekend.

[realist]

GK68:  This years team sounds alot like the one in 99-00.  They pointed towards yesterdays game, and did what they had to win.   Granted they have some things to work on, but it sounds like chemistry is already in place.  KVS places a premium in the guys buying into his system, rotations etc., and that sure was the case yesterday.  I think the Wash U coach said it quite well in that "his team can be beaten, but his players don't get intimidated"  He also said he was thankful they didn't "get blown out".   It won't surprise me if Calvin struggles a time or two over the season, but a major letdown just would be unexpected.   CU comes in at 3-4, and is a young team.  Certainly Calvin does not want to look past the Eagles, but if they play to their capabilites it should be an opportunity to work on some areas, and give lots of guys playing time.  If Calvin can control Wash U's frontline they should handle CU's Kingshott  At this point I would expect CU to put up lots of 3's so defending those will be important.

[PicknRoll]

Congrats to calvin on the big win over the weekend.

I was not at the Kalamazoo - Wheaton game. Obviously Kent Raymond going 7-9 from behind the arc makes Wheaton a fantastic team, way to much for K to handle. Reports were he got a few wide open looks to start the game, knocked them both down, and after that he was unconscious I heard, went into halftime 5-5 from trey balls.

I was in fact at the K - Witt game. Certainly a game K could have won. I talked with a hornet fan at both games and he said K looked bad Friday, and looked much better on Saturday. At the game the hornets got down early, I believe it was 24-7, with in my opinion, not very spirited play. Kellogg and Henry got a couple fouls early and that didn't help K, but they trimmed the lead to 12 going into halftime. In the second half the hornets came out fired up with very good play from their starting 5. No one on the court could gaurd Henry McCain, with several layups from him K quickly cut the lead. Unfortunately, in foul trouble, he picked up his 4th foul somewhere in the first 5 minutes of the second half. Since he was scoring at will Coach P put him back in shortly after, and with 12 minutes left in the game he fouled out. Even being out of the game, his energy rubbed off to the bench and starters and K was playing very well. However, Kellogg fouled out with a lot of time left in the game, and #11 from Witt was a very good player who was feeling real comfortable. #11 made a lot of good plays to deny the comeback, I was impressed with him.

This could turn into the likes of a broken record, but for K to be successful Kellogg and McCain have to stay out of foul trouble. Nate Orozco is playing with a lot of confidence and brings a great boost to the Hornets off the bench, I thought he played real well on offense and defense. Matych's shot was off, i'm sure he'll heat up soon. Mat Wagner may be the emotional leader of the team, hes very solid on offense and defense, and it seemed like when he got fired up, so did the other guys.

Obviously not the result K wanted, but they'll turn it around, I really believe the talent is there to be a good team. Any other hornet fans at the game, or not, have any thoughts after this weekend?

[calalum]

In the Calvin tournament on Friday night an intentional foul was called in both games.  Both times the player had the ball close to the basket and went with a fake.  The defensive player went for the fake leaped up and came down on the back of the player with the ball who was unable to go back up to the hoop.  I know it was a foul but suprised it was called intentional.  Is this a new point of emphasis for the refs this year?