MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[almcguirejr]

Calvin 13-29 from the line. 
Calvin 38 rebounds, AQ 56 rebounds

[sac]

Calvin 13-29 from the line.

OUCH! with a capital O.

[Dutch_Man]

Ahhh a new season has begun! My favorite time of the year has finally arrived! Sac I am glad to see that you are already at the top of your game here on Posting Up.
Well I was not able to attend this weekends games but the radio/internet was enough for me to get my fix of D3 basketball. After a tough opening night loss to Aquinas I suddenly do not feel AS bad after listening to Calvin get beat by them as well (oh and after listening to Hope play a well rounded game against Cornerstone). It sounded like both and Calvin should have beaten Aquinas but both came up empty. I look forward to seeing next weekends games with Carthage and Wheaton. It should be a fun weekend to come!

[HopeConvert]

I have to say, I'm more than a little surprised. I stuck around until about 3 minutes left in the first half of the Calvin/AQ game, and didn't see anything from Aquinas that would lead me to believe they could win that game. Griffin was hitting some unbelievable 3-pointers, Mantel was banging hard on the inside, Veldhouse looks quicker to me than he did last year, and very in control of his game. Aquinas was playing hard and keeping it close, but just seemed overmatched to me. That's a big win for them.

As for Hope tonight, I thought they looked pretty sharp. They played hard and really never let Cornerstone into the game. I was especially impressed with Sharples and Carter, both of whom gave a glimpse of some offensive skills, but also really got after Cornerstone defensively. When the four freshmen were on the floor together, I thought the ball movement was very crisp and sharp. Freshmen are still freshmen, but it looks as if they are starting to get their feet under them. It'll probably take awhile for this team to gel, but there is unquestionably a good deal of talent out there.

[oldknight]

I have no idea how Calvin stayed in the game tonight. If Dustin Smith's runner had rimmed in rather than rimmed out, the Knights would have escaped with an amazing win despite pitiful free throw shooting and getting hammered on the boards. The Knights showed a lot of heart but I thought the Saints deserved to win. Sac correctly pointed out that Hammer really knows how to coach. His kids play hard and with confidence. Veldhouse was spectacular but appeared to run a little low on gas in OT as did everyone else. A couple of Caleb's shots fell a bit short in the late going although he did get bumped on a couple of them too. All in all, my ticket was money well spent. I didn't hear Doug's broadcast but it's been reported that it was a great college basketball game and it was. It actually was a lot like a Calvin/Hope tournament thriller.


A postsript on my pre-game meal at O'Charley's with my wife before the game tonight:

We're seated near the restaurant entrance when I look up and nearly choke on my bite of salmon. In walks--I kid you not--Manute Bol. You can't imagine how tall this guy really is until you see him up close. KVS could have used him on Lazic tonight, that's for sure.

[GoKnights68]

Boy that was looked and seemed like one of those Calvin-Hope match-ups in the MIAA tourney or NCAA tourney that we've seen taken place the past few years.

Calvin sure will have a long week of practice, even though they did play their hearts out tonight.  There's nothing to say about free-throws after seeing that ugly stat  .  There's defensive rebounding that will also need to be largely worked on.  Boy that sure was frustrating for Calvin fans watching Aquinas getting all those offensive rebounds, and also some real easy lay-ups, although Calvin improved in the second half with the easy-lay-up part.  I did think Calvin finally started to defend the 3 better towards the end of the 2nd half.

-A lot of people may be giving John Mantel a lot of flack for his performance this weekend, but I think he'll be fine if he has a nice week of practice. 

-Veldhouse was clearly the best player out there this weekend.  Amazing performance tonight!  Glad he was fearless down the stretch since the rest of their offense wasn't doing much.

-Griffin definitely isn't close to 100%.  Sure you saw his usual solid shooting performance out there tonight, but you didn't see those unstoppable drives to the basket that he usually has.  That's hope he can heal nicely during the week off.

I sure look forward to the rematch with Aquinas!

[GoKnights68]

I'll add one more thing.  I caught the second half of the Hope-Cornerstone game, and I was really impressed with Hope.  They ran a very smooth offense where there was a lot of movement without the ball.  That got me thinking of Calvin's offense during the game.  I  was pretty disappointed at times in the lack of movement without the ball.  Too many times, especially in the first half, they had one guy down low and the other 4 were standing around the perimeter not moving much.  This is was their problem during last season towards the end, including the miaa tourney win over Hope even, and obviously their loss to Hope the next week in the ncaa tourney...even though they did improve a lot more towards the end as a team. 

But I did like the offensive movement better during the second half but I'd like to see it run a little better organized.   That being all said, I am probably overstating the problem and making it a bigger deal than it actually is 

[sac]

(Well this post seems a bit unimportant after the AQ game)

Hope 87 Cornerstone 68

Real solid effort from the Dutchmen today, much improved on the boards and in the intensity category overall.  Might as well start with the fact that Fr. Kelvin Carter started at the point over DVS.  There was much debate as to whether this was discipline or strategy, as Hope's 2nd 5 included 2 veterans and 3 Fr. rather than 4 Fr and a veteran.  We'll see what the papers say, I can see both being the reason.

At any rate all 4 of the freshman played very solid games, and Hope got 30 points out of the four.  Some due to the big Hope lead for much of the second half, but an awfull lot was from overall good first half play.  Tanis had the hot hand with 3 of 4  treys.  Will Bowser and Doug Sharples also were around the high single digits.  Kelvin Carter was  outstanding at both ends of the floor.

Beyond that, an number of Hope players certainly had better games than yesterday.  Much was due to the increased defensive intensity and a desire to play a more up tempo game.  Marcus VanderHeide was pretty agressive again tonight at both ends, but was slowed by foul trouble later in the game.

The only negative was probably the difficulty Hope had with Kingshott, that kid was a horse tonight.  Hope chose to double and sometimes triple him but mostly they just ended up fouling him.  Despite the better effort on the boards, Hope still lost this battle by 2, which kind of perplexes me since it seemed during the game Hope was winning that part of the game.

For the 2nd straight day, I was impressed with the way C'stone competes, they are very young, not very big but they sure have some guys who can play.  Down 25 in the 2nd they could have packed things in and went home but they kept fighting and chipped the deficit down to 12.  They might be a handfull a year or two from now.  The big lead enabled Hope to mix up the lineups, and actually run some offense they haven't run this year.  So all in all it was a nice but not pretty finish to the game.

Balanced scoreing  VanSolkema 12, Reimink 12, VanderHeide 10, Bowser 10, Tanis 9, Klein 9

Next Friday its Wheaton and I'm not sure Hope's ready for a team like Wheaton but I think most Hope fans will feel a heck of lot more positive after seeing the AQ/Calvin result.  Those guys just get after it.

Hope has now beaten Cornerstone 3 straight times which hadn't happened since 1998 when Hope completed a 5 game sweep over 2 seasons.  This was just prior to C'stone becoming an NAIA II tournament regular.  Since that stretch they've met 11 times with Cornerstone winning 7 of the first 8 meetings.

[sac]

Case Western 78, Adrian 68
Hanover 68, Olivet 64   (d3hoops scoreboard is reporting an Olivet win/ MIAA.org and the box score show Hanover won)

MIAA now 10-15

[Dutch_Man]

Sac,
I know you were at the game and I guess this is for anyone else as well. It sounds like Marcus Vanderheide had a pretty good weekend! That is great news for the Dutchmen because we really need his big body inside getting rebounds, blocking shots and working the post. It seemed that Marcus had a fire lit under him this weekend and I would love to see more of that from him as the season goes on. I wonder if GVW gave him captain to help light that fire in him so that more leadership would come out of him. You do not usually see Hope captains that are transfers.

[Flying Dutch Fan]

A few thoughts from the games at Cornerstone last night:

- The Hope team that showed up last night looked like the Hope team we expected this year, much better intensity, expecially on D.

- The four frosh played very well, only a few Freshman mistakes.  The potential that this group has for the next four years is tremendous.  Carter attacked the rim well and showed he is going to be a great point guard,  Tanis played great D and has a great looking shot, Sharples is not only quick and athletic, but also a very physical player, and Bowser showed his verstility, scoring on a three, a good low post move, and several athletic plays.  Every minute these guys are on the floor, Hope gets deeper.

- MVH played this weekend like we all knew he could.  An effort like that from him every game makes Hope a pretty good team.

- Cornerstone is going to be one heck of a team in another year.

- Both Hope and Calvin are looking forward to getting another shot at AQ.  That is one well coached, highly motivated team.

- Based on the two games I saw this weekend, Calvin looked to be one dimensional - Caleb Veldhouse.

- Interesting combo on the floor for Calvin at the end of regulation, and most of the overtimes - Veldhouse, Griffin, Smith, Zoerhof, Kaat

- Coming off the win over Wash U - Calvin sounded like a top 10, maybe top 5 team.  They have some serious work to do to climb back up to that level.  With all those big bodies, they lived and died on guard play.  AQ, a rather small team, ruled the glass, finishing with three guys with double-doulbes.

[hoopdreams]

Hate to say "I told you so" in regards to the freshman and their impact but.....
After watching the scrimmage against Ferris and the first 2 games, it's safe to safe that Hope fans should be as concerned about the upperclassman mistakes/ motivation, etc... as the baby ones.  still alot to work on for all but a much better effort against the eagles.

[northb]

Does anyone know why Mantel sat for so much of the second half and nearly all of the OTs?  Poor performance, illness?

[HopeConvert]

Score of interest

Augustana 66 Washington, Mo 60

Sad to say, WU had to play the game without Wallis, who is out for the rest of the season it appears. Jeez, you hate to see that happen.

Veldhouse looked quicker to me, and more decisive then he did last year. There's a temptation to see Calvin as a team in full, but they still have to adjust to each other and get their rotations straight. They did lose some key players from last year's team, after all. Veldhouse has clearly been the go-to guy so far, but as the season progresses I expect more balance. What really surprised me about this weekend was that Calvin got outrebounded in both games.

It's hard not to be excited by what we saw of Hope's freshmen last night. I share FDF's judgments. Sac and I were discussing at the game how much ground Bowser eats up with each stride. He covers a lot of court. Sharples and Carter both struck me as being quite advanced for freshmen in terms of size and strength. Per goknights68's comments, I thought the movement without the ball was even better with the second team than with the starters on the floor.  And FDF is surely right in noting that this team is going to be getting deeper all the time as the minutes accrue. 1-1 against two solid NAIA teams is not a bad start. We'll get a better measure next weekend when they play Wheaton, and see especially whether the defense can slow Raymond down. If so, that will augur well for the MIAA season. I'm bummed as I'll have to miss the whole tournament. I'm looking forward to detailed reports.

[sac]

Sac,
I know you were at the game and I guess this is for anyone else as well. It sounds like Marcus Vanderheide had a pretty good weekend! .

Marcus and Doug Sharples are the early team leaders in floor burns.  Friday night MVH must have hit the deck a dozen times and was on a similar pace Saturday.  Marcus played much like he did vs Carroll (which is a girl's name) in the tournament last March.   It was good to see.