MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[ChicagoHopeNut]

Congrats to Alma on a nice win this afternoon.

Albion played a solid defensive game. Shot well from the field, 46% overall and 45% from beyond the arc, and most importantly Albion shot a wonderful 15-16 from the FT line.

The good news for Hope fans is that despite all that and the fact Hope 32% and 61% from the FT line they still only lost.

Slightly simplified reason that Hope lost today. An embarrassingly bad -20 rebound margin in the first half. You close that gap by just half and you probably win thanks to stopping a few second chance buckets for Albion and getting another shot or two off yourself.

Another subject, FT shooting.
For the third game in a row Hope shot well below its season average at the line. It was only a few weeks ago I recall mentioning bad FT shooting and someone actually pointed out Hope was in the top 5 in FT shooting in D3. Boy does that seem like months ago because since then Hope's FT percentage has done nothing but nosedive.

[ChicagoHopeNut]

Some were hoping for a three game lead for Hope after today....could it be three teams separated by only one game in the standings?

The games not over yet. 

Over now!  Nice road victory for the Knights today.....the MIAA race just got a lot more interesting!

Hope still has the benefit of sitting in the driver's seat and controlling its own destiny. Unfortunately, the margin of error is much smaller now than it could have been.

[ChicagoHopeNut]

Once again, next to nothing from the bench for Hope.

4 points total and not many minutes overall for the bench except from Zach Osburn who saw a lot of those minutes because Klein and MVH each got 2 fouls in the first half.

[realist]

Good win for Albion.
Tough loss for Hope.  That Kresge is one hard place to play, and Turner just doesn't give any ground. 
Will be interested to hear from eyewitnesses.
Stats don't look good for Hope.

[Dutch_Man]

Well it was a tough day in Albion due to a TURN of unfortunate events that resolved in getting to the game about 10 minutes late.... ANY WAYS.... Right when I got to the gym I got the feeling that it was not a Hope day. Klein got 2 quick fouls and our offense was out of sink. On the other side Albions defense proved to be very effective against Hope. They took away the outside perimeter and they didnt give Marcus anything inside. With both of those it proved to be a ruff day at Albion. The rims were very unfriendly today as well. Hope could not buy a bucket. Oh and not to mention our free throw shooting. I do not know the numbers but THEY MUST BE BAD!!! AHHH it was just one of those days for the dutchmen. I think a lot can be learned from a day like today.

oh and kudos to the Albion fans for rushing the floor... It was a big win for those Brits.

Hope makes free throws...... Hope wins

[sac]

So what was up with the foul at the end?

Contact yes, but it would have been a tough call to make.

[hope1]

what a tough lost you cant not hit 3 pointers like hope did not   3 out of 20  maybe they learn from the lost  but give rewards to albion

[bulldogalum]

Adrian 68
Olivet  64

F

A gritty performance by the Bulldogs today.  There were stretches--especially the first bit of the second half, where they looked bad offensively out there, but they fought through it and found a way to win. 

This was due, in large part, to converting on 9 of their last 12 possessions, and their ability of force Olivet into tough shots throughout the second half. 

The McClary brothers are a force to be reckoned with, and they pose serious matchup problems for Adrian, but the Bulldogs managed to stay even with the Comets on the boards for the game.  I posted earlier this week that the rebounding statistic would be pivotal to Adrian's success, and it proved to be today.  When Adrian gave Olivet more than one opportunity, Olivet usually made the most of it.  However, more often than not, Adrian successfully limited the Comets to one shot.

Adrian is 2 for 2 in recent years in their last trips to opponent arenas.  When Hope closed the Civic, Adrian ended with a 2 game winning streak.  Now, with Olivet's gym's days numbered, the Bulldogs departed with a victory.  Here's hoping we can do the same and the Fieldhouse in a week!

[sac]

Albion 56 Hope 52

This one started out just about like the first one, these two teams just flat out get after each other on the defensive end.  Just no space at all.  It may be ugly to others but its just a joy to watch two teams compete against each other as hard as these two have so often the last decade or so.  I could watch that stuff all day.

Today was just another tough physical defensive game, and it really came right down to the end as it should.  Often times the winner of this game has been the team that misses the fewest shots....... today that was Albion.  Both teams had an awful lot of tough breaks with shots going in and out.  Really the game was typified by DJ Mocini's attempted layup in the last minute or so that defied the basic laws of gravity, thermo dynamics, and the space time continueum, and somehow stayed out and gave Hope a couple chances to tie the ballgame.

Unfortunately Hope could only muster two forced shots at the basket a little further out than a layup with Albion staying strong on defense.  They certainly got the ball in the right mans hands, he just couldn't make the plays today.  Tyler Wolfe's layup to potentially tie was a very tough break, contact, and a big mit on the basketball prevented Ty from getting the shot up.  Again just a little better defense at the right moments.

Andy Reuhle was probably the player of the game for Albion, his 9 pts, 8 rbs off the bench was huge along with his solid post defense.  He was a large reason why Hope had a hard time getting easy ones.  Sadly for Hope, Andy outproduced Hope's entire bench by himself.

Hope did a lot of things they just can't do in games like this, #1 was stay out of foul trouble.......Klein sat for 15 minutes of the first, VanderHeide for to big a chunk of the second and was forced to play softer D.  Marcus did not get MVP treatment with the whistle today either.  Hope's not deep enough to have those guys sitting for that much time.  The #2 thing they did poorly today was rebound, although Albion deserves a ton of credit for their efforts on the glass, they just dominated the first half.  But basically if the ball didn't land in a Dutchmen's hands off the board, Albion was getting the rebound.  Tremendously poor effort on the boards, you just can't do that in a tough, tight ball game like this.  Lastly, #3, freethrows, another sub-par performance at the line but to be truthfull Hope was just snakebit from 15ft today.  How many in-and-outs can one team have........today the answer was 8.  Put those 3 things together and its a loss, interesting enough Albion did all 3 of those things really well today.

Back to the final moments, it actually was amazing to see Hope tie this game and have another chance to tie.  Lets not forget Hope was down 5 with 5 to go.   Ryan Klein's "tip in" at 2:40 or so was from about 6 ft away, falling backward with a man draped all over him.  That probably shouldn't have gone in.   Albion did not score a FG the final 5 minutes, alot of good D by Hope during this stretch including a steal by Reimink for one big defensive stop and the resulting layup.  There was also a near steal by VanSolkema at center court which surely would have been a layup, but DJ Mocini fought hard and got the ball back to call timeout.   That may have been a game saving effort.

Enjoyable game to watch all around, and makes the MIAA race tremendously more exciting.  Albion is just in a great spot now, whereas a loss would have probably put them out of the race.  Hope still controls things, but they aren't driving with two hands on the wheel.

[Happy Calvin Guy]

Marcus did not get MVP treatment with the whistle today either. 

Perhaps the MIAA refs haven't been paying enough attention to the poll on our thread here....

[sac]

Notes from Albion

----Tyler Wolfe came into today 11 of his last 16 3's, Ty Tanis came in off a 5-6 effort Wednesday.  Today Albion gave up just one 3 point attempt to each of them, very solid perimeter effort.  Derek VanSolkema was the only 3 point shooter able to get open today.  Klein and Reimink had some looks and it would certainly have helped if a couple of theirs went in, but Hope needs its gaurds to be knocking down shots, when the big guys knock them in its a bonus.    Wolfe had also come off back to back games of 19 and 26, today he was held to 5, just nothing fell for him today.  One of those days and of course really good Albion defense.


----2 weeks ago Hope was one of the better FT shooting teams in D3, but have since gone a collective 36-67 in the last four games, 54%.  That is just horrible.  But after watching the Calvin and Albion performances at the line, I'll reiterate they are just plain snakebit right now at the stripe.


----There's not much I can add about Hope's bench situation, it is beginning to look like an unexplainable phenomenon.  Good production, followed by no production, perhaps its just following the inconsistency you expect from young players, which Hope's bench most certainly is.  A little 1 minute dialog between my uncle and I "Hope has 4 Freshman on the floor", one whistle later "Hope has 4 Sr's on the floor".  There's no in between, and at least today the mixing and matching didn't result in much performance.   Bottom line is the young guys need to settle down and think about how they played at the beginning of the season, focus on the defense and above all they need to match the intensity that their opponents are putting in front of them.

----Today's results are interesting, at one point during the Albion game I looked up at the screen in the corner to see a 3 point lead, 2 2 point leads and a game tied, all very late in the day.  Somebody from the bottom four is going to beat a Hope or Albion or Calvin and its going to affect this race in a major way.  I don't think there are any easy nights, from here on out.

[sac]

Some of today's individual performances.

Double-Doubles
Ian Weber, Adrian 15 pts, 12 rebs  vs Olivet.....thats doing something with 2 McClary's in the neighborhood
Brandon McClary, Olivet 14 pts, 11 rebs vs Adrian
Michael McClary, Olivet 10 pts, 12 rebs vs Adrian
Matt Brown, Alma 15 pts, 10 rebs vs Kzoo  (2nd in a row)

Two good things for historians to look up.......last time teamates had double-doubles.............late time 3 guys had double-doubles in one game.

Tony Benford, Tri-State 29 pts vs Calvin
Derrik Griffin, Calvin 21 pts vs Tri-State
Desmond Young, Adrian 21 pts vs Olivet

[ChicagoHopeNut]

----2 weeks ago Hope was one of the better FT shooting teams in D3, but have since gone a collective 36-67 in the last four games, 54%.  That is just horrible.  But after watching the Calvin and Albion performances at the line, I'll reiterate they are just plain snakebit right now at the stripe.

That is just an amazing "turn around" in the last four games. Really frustrating to watch/hear and I am sure its driving the coaches up the wall. The worst part is there probably is no "reason" for it that is identifiable or fixable. Hope is a terrible FT shooting funk and it is something they need to break out of or I fear the rest of Hope's season will be filled with a combination of unnecessarily close finishes (ie Calvin) or frustrating losses (ie Albion).

[sac]

Marcus did not get MVP treatment with the whistle today either. 

Perhaps the MIAA refs haven't been paying enough attention to the poll on our thread here....

All I meant by this was, VanderHeide put up 2 contested shots in the final minute with contact (like every other shot in the game) I've seen other MVP's like Honderd, Bosma,  Holstege, Veenstra, Overbeek get a whistle in those situations when they probably shouldn't have.  MVH did not today.  It was suggested to me, and maybe this was off the board can't recall that Marcus has been getting favorable whistles this season.

For whatever its worth, I thought Kooiker, McDermott and Smith did a really good job today.  These games may be the most difficult to officiate because they turn into borderline wrestling matches sometimes.  Today wasn't much different.

All 3 had opportunites to blow whistles in the last couple minutes that could have directly impacted the outcome of the game in both teams favor and they did not, to their credit. 

[Flying Dutch Fan]

Tough, but typical game at Albion today.  Kudos to the Britons on playing great D.  Every shot was contested, and they crashed the boards extremely well.  I aslo think that Ablion won most of the 50/50 balls, and that will win you games.  Also doesn't hurt when you outshoot your opponent by 10%. 

I do not share sac's admiration of the officiating.  I don't necessarily think it affected the outcome, but it was at best, well let's call it, imaginative.  I do appreciate that they let the players decide the game, and I feel like Albion used that more to their advantage then Hope did.