MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[monsoon]

But again, we need two wins from the women and one from the men to make sure this is a discussion worth having.

[mjfasteenwolf]

   okay I'll quit as others have "pointed" out stuff about this situation well enough in earlier posts (as well as on the Holland Sentinel Blog).

It's impossible to take seriously anything Alan Babbit or the Sentinel prints. I could not read past the very first sentence of his blog without finding an obvious grammatical error. D3hoops posters make errors too but we don't 1) get paid to write, and 2) have editors to review our work before it goes out to the public (maybe the Sentinel doesn't either).

That's Babbitt with a second "t." Just thought you'd like to know.

I hate reading the sentinel sports, unfortunately its my only choice for  Hope sports coverage, their writing is poor, and just not written in an interesting way. The stats that they often use are not important, and not well used either.

[northb]

Wow--Congratulations to the Hope Men and Women for the dual number 1 rankings.  Quite impressive. 

Now live up to it and do the MIAA proud!

[EC Knight]

If Hope wins it all, does the banner get thrown in the mix, or, do the insignificant banners come down?  Where would the National title banner hang?  From the score board?

My guess would be they'll make two of them, and hang one from each backboard. That would set them apart from all the other banners up there. They might also make one that they can unfurl in front of the Calvin Student's section each time that same old cheer starts up... which hopefully it wouldn't if Hope wins it all (I can almost hear "There's our Banner" repetitively... that would be a shocker). Maybe if Hope's men's team got a banner, that would start a decade or two long war of banner stealings (or duplicatings like the Hope students' rather clever prank several years ago).

All fun aside, congrats to Hope men and women, and as others have said, represent the MIAA well. It's a whole new ballgame now, and hopefully they can adapt to it as they'll need to. This banner talk is premature, but not out of reach - go get it.

[AndersDY]

It's a question of if you want to root for the conference to look good now that your team is out. As a Michigan fan, I have had to develop a strategy for watching the last 2 football championship games in a similar way. I settled on the fact that I hoped the certain Big Ten team playing for the national title would play a close game that would show they belonged, but eventually lose in some horribly gut-wrenching fashion so I didn't have to hear it from all the Buckeye fans (of course they didn't even get the making the game respectable part right).

As an equivalent for Calvin fans, I suppose you want the MIAA to look good but Hope to not get our own banner, so you could be rooting for us to win our next 4 games only to lose in the finals on some horrible misfortune (like say someone forgets to reset the shot-clock so our team thinks the buzzer has sounded before the winning shot ).

[pointlem]

I'm not sure if I speak for the silent majority on this . . . but I appreciate the Sentinel sports reporters and their coverage of Hope sports, including their late night travels to away games, their player and coach interviews, and their human interest stories.  I also appreciate reading about the previous evening's game in the next morning's paper, which no longer happens with the GR Lakeshore Press (which, for example, had nothing on Saturday evening's Hope-Calvin game in its Sunday morning paper).

[Civic Minded]

I'm not sure if I speak for the silent majority on this . . . but I appreciate the Sentinel sports reporters and their coverage of Hope sports, including their late night travels to away games, their player and coach interviews, and their human interest stories.  I also appreciate reading about the previous evening's game in the next morning's paper, which no longer happens with the GR Lakeshore Press (which, for example, had nothing on Saturday evening's Hope-Calvin game in its Sunday morning paper).

Here, here!  And forgive me for standing silent as the Sentinel bashing ran on.  I appreciate the job they do, and have especially appreciated Lee being back covering the men's team (and have told him as much in person).  Is it always perfect?  Of course not.  But I think the bad mouthing is out of proportion compared to the product.  Thanks, pointlem, for saying so out loud.

[realist]

MK:  Make up your own mind on whether you want to pull for Hope or not.  However, you should keep in mind the MIAA, and MIAA schools gain much more by any success the Hope teams may have, rather than their failure.  Winning a banner would go a long ways towards quieting down all the talk about how great the CCIW, WIAC, UAA etc. etc. etc. view themselves.

[sbaum]

MK:  Make up your own mind on whether you want to pull for Hope or not.  However, you should keep in mind the MIAA, and MIAA schools gain much more by any success the Hope teams may have, rather than their failure.  Winning a banner would go a long ways towards quieting down all the talk about how great the CCIW, WIAC, UAA etc. etc. etc. view themselves.

After reading this for the past few years, I decided I should just make a name and add my own commentary. So to that, I agree. Plus, who doesn't want to continue to add a little fuel to the fire of such a great rivalry?!

[realist]

Welcome to posting bbaum.  If you have been lurking for awhile you know it can get crazy in here from time to time.

To my previous post I should amend it an say if Hope could get two banners it would be twice as impressive.

[Stinger]

MK:  Make up your own mind on whether you want to pull for Hope or not.  However, you should keep in mind the MIAA, and MIAA schools gain much more by any success the Hope teams may have, rather than their failure.  Winning a banner would go a long ways towards quieting down all the talk about how great the CCIW, WIAC, UAA etc. etc. etc. view themselves.

Wow, #1.  Setting up for an even harder fall.  Nice.

[GoKnights68]

It's a question of if you want to root for the conference to look good now that your team is out. As a Michigan fan, I have had to develop a strategy for watching the last 2 football championship games in a similar way. I settled on the fact that I hoped the certain Big Ten team playing for the national title would play a close game that would show they belonged, but eventually lose in some horribly gut-wrenching fashion so I didn't have to hear it from all the Buckeye fans (of course they didn't even get the making the game respectable part right).

As an equivalent for Calvin fans, I suppose you want the MIAA to look good but Hope to not get our own banner, so you could be rooting for us to win our next 4 games only to lose in the finals on some horrible misfortune (like say someone forgets to reset the shot-clock so our team thinks the buzzer has sounded before the winning shot ).

Whether Hope wins it all or goes one and done in the tourney,  Calvin fans have no room to talk about banners for quite a while.  Hope has kicked our butts the last 4 match-ups, and Hope is the two time league champions.

[sbaum]

Desmond Young became the 5th different Adrian player to lead the MIAA in scoreing in the last 11 seasons.

Marcus Vanderheide is the 4th Hope MVP in 6 seasons, and becomes Hope's 20th different player to win the MVP award.  Its the 26th time a Hope player has been named MVP.


Next years MVP race should start out as a four/ maybe 5 horse race between Desmond Young, Tony Benford, Caleb Veldhouse, Brandon McClary and maybe Jesse Reimink.  I'd expect Caleb to come out on top.

Once again, I think it all depends on how you think of MVP. Personally, I've always believed that it should be the player that is most valuable to his team. Normally this player does have good statistics but also displays poise and strong leadership capabilities. With this view, I think that although he won't be strongly considered, Henry McCain of Kzoo would start out the year on or near the top of my list. When Hope played them this year, I was extremely impressed with the way he handled himself on the court as a leader, even more so than Kellogg in my opinion. He is a well rounded player, and he will be the most valuable player to his team's success next year.

[northb]

Wow--Congratulations to the Hope Men and Women for the dual number 1 rankings.  Quite impressive. 

Now live up to it and do the MIAA proud!

All fun aside, congrats to Hope men and women, and as others have said, represent the MIAA well. It's a whole new ballgame now, and hopefully they can adapt to it as they'll need to. This banner talk is premature, but not out of reach - go get it.

So as a Calvin fan, am I supposed to root for Hope?

The mature side of me says that yes I should root for Hope in the tournament.  They are really more similar to Calvin than they are different, so I can root for my brethren to the West.  But I must say that the competetive, immature side of me breathes a sigh of relief each time I write the obituary posting for Hope's failure to win it all     A bit schizophrenic, eh?

It's a question of if you want to root for the conference to look good now that your team is out. As a Michigan fan, I have had to develop a strategy for watching the last 2 football championship games in a similar way. I settled on the fact that I hoped the certain Big Ten team playing for the national title would play a close game that would show they belonged, but eventually lose in some horribly gut-wrenching fashion so I didn't have to hear it from all the Buckeye fans (of course they didn't even get the making the game respectable part right).

As an equivalent for Calvin fans, I suppose you want the MIAA to look good but Hope to not get our own banner, so you could be rooting for us to win our next 4 games only to lose in the finals on some horrible misfortune (like say someone forgets to reset the shot-clock so our team thinks the buzzer has sounded before the winning shot ).

Whether Hope wins it all or goes one and done in the tourney,  Calvin fans have no room to talk about banners for quite a while.  Hope has kicked our butts the last 4 match-ups, and Hope is the two time league champions.

No room to talk about banners?!!?  What else do we have to talk about, fer crying out loud?   Having been there for both Nat'l Championship runs/games, I will point proudly to them until Hope wins just as many.

MK:  Make up your own mind on whether you want to pull for Hope or not.  However, you should keep in mind the MIAA, and MIAA schools gain much more by any success the Hope teams may have, rather than their failure.  Winning a banner would go a long ways towards quieting down all the talk about how great the CCIW, WIAC, UAA etc. etc. etc. view themselves.

Won't shut them up anyways       

[NW Hope Fan]

MK:  Make up your own mind on whether you want to pull for Hope or not.  However, you should keep in mind the MIAA, and MIAA schools gain much more by any success the Hope teams may have, rather than their failure.  Winning a banner would go a long ways towards quieting down all the talk about how great the CCIW, WIAC, UAA etc. etc. etc. view themselves.

Wow, #1.  Setting up for an even harder fall.  Nice.

While your "Nice" is your typical evil spew, I agree with the potential fall from #1 being difficult. I had hoped all season for a ranking of about 10 for the men. #1 seems a bit lofty, but I hardly think it will go to any one's head.

But on the other hand I guess I'd rather fall from #1 to somewhere in the top 59 than be wallowing somewhere around #300...