MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[AndersDY]

Also, the last play was semi-ridiculous in my opinion. You can get a lot better with 12 seconds left after inbounding the ball. Let's leave magical junk 3-pointers to Winkle.

No one mentioned it immediately following the game, but was anyone else surprised (and for those of us in orange, relieved) that Veltema was not on the floor for the final play? Maybe my opinion of his 3-point effectiveness is skewed by only seeing him play Hope a few times, but Veltema with a clean look at a 3 is as scary to me as whenever Drayer would get a good look (didn't he also wear #30 coincidentally?). I suppose the final play may have been drawn up as: "Caleb-ball-shoot" in hopes of history repeating, but Smith or Veltema would have scared me more with the last shot, at least in that game.

On another note, everyone should go vote in the poll for #1 on the front page. Not necessarily to just vote for Hope, but to check out the current results, they are amazingly deadlocked. When I saw it, all 5 options had between 18.1% and 23.3% of the vote.

[bulldogalum]

Like last year, Hope hosts MIAA tournament and Calvin (a team that plays it's best in February) wins it.

I'll throw my hat in with the wizard. I think Calvin takes the game on Saturday if they play better in the last 2 minutes.

Yeah thats what Adrian said too after they lost to Hope..... JUST 2 more MINUTES PLEASE! 8)

I actually didn't want two more minutes, just a couple of things to go differently down the stretch.  Hope's a great team, and there's no shame in losing to a great team.  Still, perhaps by the end of the season you'll be asking for 2 more minutes against the Bulldogs.

[wiz]

It seems as though wizardry is aptly named, as he's working some magic with the facts right now.

The facts are these.  DVS is SLOW!  Calvin won the final game of the series last year and the MIAA tournament game by figuring out that they could blow past DVS for easy penetration into the lane.  Saturday's game showed the same.  Griffin started out by driving past DVS for easy layups.  You can't teach quickness and with DVS in the lineup in February, that will be Calvin's greatest asset.  Looking forward to it!

[HopeTV]

Well i have been in class all day and reading the last 4 pages has been entertaining to say the very least. To clear up a few things about my initial post that where in question. I was not second guessing the way MVH and Wolfe played, i was only saying i wish the people who watched it on TV could have been there to see the brilliants that was those two on saturday. And DVS tossing the ball and jumping around must have felt great after a subpar performance and in front of alot of his former fans and classmates non the less. I guess i'll take this as a lesson to make my sentences a little more complex since i do have a proper Hope education

I know last year when Hope lost at home i was out on the floor almost guarding the anchor from being stomped on when alot of the Calvin fans rushed the floor, and this year when the storming happened i was right on top of the knight at center court but wasn't stomping on it rather the jumping around with he players celebrating a very hard fought win after being down by wayyyy to much in the second half. I cant wait for round two, but until the. Hope vs 3 state on wed.

HOPE plays....HOPE WINS

[Pat Coleman]

New No. 1 team named.

[sac]

It seems as though wizardry is aptly named, as he's working some magic with the facts right now.

 Calvin won the final game of the series last year ..................

More wizardry with the facts. 

Dateline Aurora, Illinois...........Hope 80 Calvin 64

[Hopester]

New No. 1 team named.

Wash U. number one. Hope doesn't have a single vote for number one. Looks like they will remain at 5(guess not for certain). No problem there for me. Just keep doing business as usual.

*edit--fixed formatting

[Hopester]

Its official, Hope actually does move up to number four keeping Mass Dartmouth down at number 5.
1. Wash u.
2. Amherst
3. Rochester

[ChicagoHopeNut]

I think Hope can and should be happy at #4. I am a bit surprised they didn't receive any first place votes. The week 8 poll isn't currently available so I will ask if anyone recalls whether UMD had those 3 first place votes before or if those voters decided to leap over teams 2-5 after Rochester lost and give their first place vote to the last undefeated team. Any idea?

Of course those voters may have already had UMD as their number two teams on their personal ballots anyways.

[scottiedawg]

I don't know how many 1st place votes UMD had, but they gained 114 votes, to Hope's 31. 

WashU + 52
Amherst +22
Rochester -46
Hope +31
UMD +114
Capital +63
UPS +62
Whitewater -99
Brandeis -202

[Pat Coleman]

Added the link to the Week 8 poll.

If you're ever missing a poll like that, they are named very logically. Go to the Week 7 poll, for example, and change the week7.htm at the end of the address to week8.htm.

[ChicagoHopeNut]

I think Hope can and should be happy at #4. I am a bit surprised they didn't receive any first place votes. The week 8 poll isn't currently available so I will ask if anyone recalls whether UMD had those 3 first place votes before or if those voters decided to leap over teams 2-5 after Rochester lost and give their first place vote to the last undefeated team. Any idea?

Of course those voters may have already had UMD as their number two teams on their personal ballots anyways.

Well the answer to my question is that Rochester had all 25 first place votes, which makes a lot of sense. So the voters really split up their votes and UMD jumped from 8 in the overall poll to 5 but earned 3 first place votes. At this point they probably deserve them.
Hope has a chance to keep moving up though if they win twice this week because Wash U and Rochester meet on Friday night. I imagine Hope could move ahead of the loser of that game if they win out.

Added the link to the Week 8 poll.

If you're ever missing a poll like that, they are named very logically. Go to the Week 7 poll, for example, and change the week7.htm at the end of the address to week8.htm.

Thanks Pat.

[Dew Nation]

Could someone please explain to me why all the hype about DVS?  I have seen him play a few times now and I am not impressed, granted I've only see him play against Calvin.  Also what's with the trash talking after he finally makes his first bucket of the game in the second period?

He plays on emotion.  For the most part that emotion got the best of him but once he got a little going for himself he lets you know about it. 

Um, let's see.  How about we operate from some facts here, instead of our own preconceived (and incorrect) notions?  As Derek was lining up for the shot, Knightmares students were swearing at him and calling him names that were, well, let's say unsportsmanlike (and definitely inappropriate). 

Thanks for clearing this up for me.  I change my mind, Derek is awesome!

Here's where knowing the local historical background might be helpful to readers of this board not familiar with it. I saw DVS play many times in high school and he was a very good player on an outstanding high school team at South Christian. One of his teammates was Kirk Walters, now a post player at the University of Arizona, and another was a future Mr. Basketball, David Kool, now a star at Western Michigan. DVS and his team played in the Class B state finals his last two years, finishing runners-up as a junior and winning it all as a senior. Over the course of his high school career Derek developed a reputation among local fans as a somewhat brazen, trash talking, shoot from the hip (and lip) 2 guard who irritated mightily fans of opposing schools. He wasn't afraid to express his opinion to students watching their team play (and typically lose) to DVS. The fact that he seemed to have rabbit ears for any courtside comment thrown his way during games only made DVS a bigger target, as did the growing reputation of his father who would sit courtside to "protect" his son from the miscreants who dared to criticize Derek's play and demonstrative behavior. Whether DVS deserved any of the criticism is a matter of opinion of course, but there is no question that he was more an object of disdain than was any of his teammates. This stands in stark contrast to Kool whose on court demeanor (and play) only enhanced the legendary status and respect that he acquired in high school.

Fast forward four or five years and DVS, after a brief detour through Eastern Michigan University, is again playing before many of the same fans who came to know and love him  when they all were in high school. Obviously Calvin draws a substantial portion of its student body from west Michigan, they remember his reputation, and its a big game. I have no idea what was being said to him by fans as he passed by the Calvin student section but some was probably good natured ribbing (some Calvin students no doubt were his high school classmate), other comments a bit more offensive. But since we should operate from the facts, unless you sat right in the middle of the Calvin student section, there no way anyone could possibly know if students were swearing at him. DVS had his first half struggles and when he finally buried a three from the corner directly in front of the Calvin student section he reacted--right on cue--exactly as his reputation would lead one to expect if you knew him from high school. He turned to the Calvin student section with what I assume was some trash talking of his own. He's a good player at Hope but not as effective as he was in high school when he played the 2 guard spot. He's not quite big enough to play that spot in college and isn't as natural from the point.

I will add.........

Most peoples opinion of him are based solely on the color of the uniform he currently wears.  Were it a different color, those opinions would be more favorable. People see what they want to see.

If people spent as much time watching him play, as they do wishing him to fail, they'd see what a good D3 player he is and has become.

I know this is getting to be quite the long entry, but I thought i had something to add here.  It is interesting to note that as a Hope Fan and Christian School teacher in the middle of the Calvin section under the basket, it was interesting to hear so many people comment on how certain players in orange are "traitors" for playing for Hope.  Interesting perspective. 

Also thought I should add it was awesome to see Klein force mantel to post up at 8-10 feet all night while giving up 2-3 inches and 20-30 lbs.  Great player.  Congrats to whomever was his recruiter and convinced him not to follow his fathers path to Calvin.

[northb]

I'm not keen on the storming the court episode either.

1. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. I can't imagine Dew Crew members would relish Calvin fans storming their court. I seem to recall after the MIAA Championship game last year that someone on Calvin's sideline kept the Knights' fans from doing precisely that. I thought it was a good gesture.
2. Nothing good can come of it. It's easy for things to go a little too far.
3. It's not what this rivalry is about. This is a rivalry of mutual respect, with many, many shared ties (I should know!). I don't like gloating or rubbing the opponent's face in it. There's a lack of grace involved in taunting a defeated opponent (I'm pretty sure this was covered by St. Augustine in his teaching on just war.)

I hope Dew Crewers who read this board will keep this in mind for the future. I understand and appreciate the spontaneous enthusiasm, but it has to operate within certain constraints. Staying off the court is one of those.

No worries about that for the next little while.  Hope will not play at Calvin until the 08-09 season, at which time the teams will look very different and only Calvin fans will be celebrating--you heard it here first! 

[Erm Schmigget]

I know this is getting to be quite the long entry, but I thought i had something to add here.  It is interesting to note that as a Hope Fan and Christian School teacher in the middle of the Calvin section under the basket, it was interesting to hear so many people comment on how certain players in orange are "traitors" for playing for Hope.  Interesting perspective. 

Who let you into the Calvin section? 

Sitting upstairs on the Hope side of midcourt, I was amazed at the number of Calvin fans sitting to my right.  There were also quite a few Hope fans sitting on the Calvin side of midcourt.  A few Hope and Calvin fans even swapped seats so they could feel some more camaraderie (or conviviality, for some of us  ) with the fans around them.  Maybe a Calvin poster in the know could make the connection for us to how that fits in with the "Master Plan".   8)