MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[oldknight]

Bowman was the only Trine player in double digits with 13, but only shot 1-9 from the floor.

You missed Mitchell Geller's 23 points off the bench in just 25 minutes.  He almost singlehandedly kept the Thunder in this game.

Honestly, I thought Calvin was very fortunate to win this game, given the Trine 12 minute scoreless streak.  Yes, there was some very good defense played on both sides, but I also saw numerous questionable shots by both teams and some sloppy play.

I was trying to forget him. Geller was truly spectacular. I thought the sloppy play and questionable shots were primarily the result of great D by the two teams.

[Flying Dutch Fan]

Pretty solid game from the Dutchmen today.  Alma came out and hit their first 3 shots and 1:30 into the game lead 6-0, but it was all Hope from then on.  44-21 at the half, with 18 points off the bench lead by TJ McKenzie with 9.  Hope extended the lead to as much as 32 in the 2nd half, and crusied to the 89-63 victory.  Thomas with 18 and 9 reb and McKenzie with a career high 14 leading the way.  Bargesser lead the Scots with 13.  Kleiver came off the bench for 21 minutes but was held scoreless.

[HOPEful]

I switched from the Hope livestream over to the Calvin livestream towards the end of both games...

1. What was the deal with the long multiple possession shot from the corner? Did the cameraperson just not come back from the timeout with everyone else?

2. The long camera angle from the corner gave a very unflattering shot of how empty Van Noord was. My first thought was COVID capacity limits, but if that were the case, I would expect the bleachers to be opened up and everyone spaced out for social distancing. Is that a typical non-Hope game crowd?

3. I'm glad I switched livestreams. It was a fun ending to a defensive battle.

4. Lastly, the Calvin announcers for this game were much less unbiased than the supposedly neutral WGVU announcers are for the Rivalry games. I'd actually prefer to listen to the home team's broadcast than Cleary and Terpstra.

[sac]

Hope 89  Alma 63 F

Over 7 minutes of play midway through the first half Hope outscored Alma 18-1 and never looked back.  The Scots struggled to shoot the ball in the first half settling for difficult jumpers or 3's, just didn't make enough of them to keep up with a Hope team that shot the ball well and found getting close to the basket much easier.  Points in the paint was the story 46-26 but something like 26-6 in the first half.  Much more even play in the 2nd half, but no real run from Alma to chip into Hope's lead.

TJ McKenzie was a bright spot offensively today for Hope with a career best 16.  Evan Thomas again had a nice 2nd half of 12 in only about 8 min to give him 18 for the game and 1 rbd shy of another double-double.   Cole Kleiver did play for Alma but sure doesn't look 100%, he didn't find the bottom of the bucket today. 


Hope:   Thomas 18, McKenzie 16, Bikus 8, Wiegerink 8, Dykhouse 8, Swinehart 8
Alma:   Bargresser 13, Rake 9, Moore-Pierce 9, Whiteside 9


Hope has no midweek game this upcoming week so 5 practice days to prepare for Albion which will probably be the way to early showdown for sole possession of first place in the MIAA.  You may debate amongst yourselves whether you'd want a week off or to play Wed.    Albion has to travel to Alma Wed. night.

Great double-header next Saturday with Hope women and men taking on Albion and 3 at 5:30.

[almcguirejr]

I switched from the Hope livestream over to the Calvin livestream towards the end of both games...

1. What was the deal with the long multiple possession shot from the corner? Did the cameraperson just not come back from the timeout with everyone else?

2. The long camera angle from the corner gave a very unflattering shot of how empty Van Noord was. My first thought was COVID capacity limits, but if that were the case, I would expect the bleachers to be opened up and everyone spaced out for social distancing. Is that a typical non-Hope game crowd?

3. I'm glad I switched livestreams. It was a fun ending to a defensive battle.


4. Lastly, the Calvin announcers for this game were much less unbiased than the supposedly neutral WGVU announcers are for the Rivalry games. I'd actually prefer to listen to the home team's broadcast than Cleary and Terpstra.

I had to watch from home today.  When the camera person fell asleep at the switch, a friend texted me asking if “anybody had binoculars”.  He also asked me if the center court camera was on the moon.

Most casual fans aren’t going to attend a game if they have to wear a mask.  The closed concession stand doesn’t help either.

Did you enjoy the pep band rendition of “I’m hooked on a feeling?”  How about “Smoke on the Water?

[oldknight]

I switched from the Hope livestream over to the Calvin livestream towards the end of both games...

1. What was the deal with the long multiple possession shot from the corner? Did the cameraperson just not come back from the timeout with everyone else?

2. The long camera angle from the corner gave a very unflattering shot of how empty Van Noord was. My first thought was COVID capacity limits, but if that were the case, I would expect the bleachers to be opened up and everyone spaced out for social distancing. Is that a typical non-Hope game crowd?

3. I'm glad I switched livestreams. It was a fun ending to a defensive battle.


4. Lastly, the Calvin announcers for this game were much less unbiased than the supposedly neutral WGVU announcers are for the Rivalry games. I'd actually prefer to listen to the home team's broadcast than Cleary and Terpstra.

I had to watch from home today.  When the camera person fell asleep at the switch, a friend texted me asking if “anybody had binoculars”.  He also asked me if the center court camera was on the moon.

Most casual fans aren’t going to attend a game if they have to wear a mask.  The closed concession stand doesn’t help either.

Did you enjoy the pep band rendition of “I’m hooked on a feeling?”  How about “Smoke on the Water?

I'm pretty sure the slick roads were a factor too. It wasn't much fun driving to VNA yesterday. I noticed from last night's sports report, which showed video of the Hope game, that DeVos didn't exactly have a packed house either. Given that Saturday's game in Holland featured Fan Appreciation Day--with a free stress ball going to the first 500 fans--I'm assuming the Hope faithful were pushing and shoving to get in the door prior to the start of the JV tilt.

[HOPEful]

...I noticed from last night's sports report, which showed video of the Hope game, that DeVos didn't exactly have a packed house either. Given that Saturday's game in Holland featured Fan Appreciation Day--with a free stress ball going to the first 500 fans--I'm assuming the Hope faithful were pushing and shoving to get in the door prior to the start of the JV tilt.

Hope attendance - 1408
Calvin attendance - 687

A 40% full arena that seats 3400 vs a 14% full arena that seats 5000. Hope's lowest this season was 980 at the rescheduled Monday game against Trine, and I will say, that game felt very unusually empty. It was still 300 more fans than in attendance at Van Noord yesterday in a stadium 68% the size.

I was genuinely wondering if the attendance at the Trine game was normal for Calvin, without taking the time going through box scores and looking. Since your response was less than helpful, I went and looked. Calvin had 357 show up to the game against Adrian, so the Trine crowd was actually close to double the previous home game. The non-conference games seemed to hover in the 700-900 range, still less than 20% capacity. So, no, doesn't seem to be just the weather... and given Calvin's enrollment and financial woes, perhaps your fans could use some stress balls.

[pointlem]

Most casual fans aren’t going to attend a game if they have to wear a mask. 

I'm not sure wearing a mask to protect your own and others right to life (and health) is that big an imposition on individual liberty (more akin to those darn stop signs and stop lights that constrain my driving liberties?). But at the peak of a pandemic, Covid concerns surely are deterring some fans at both Hope and Calvin from going out in crowds. I expect to see some rebound next year.

[HOPEful]

I'm not sure wearing a mask to protect your own and others right to life (and health) is that big an imposition on individual liberty (more akin to those darn stop signs and stop lights that constrain my driving liberties?). But at the peak of a pandemic, Covid concerns surely are deterring some fans at both Hope and Calvin from going out in crowds. I expect to see some rebound next year.

Agreed Pointlem. Despite being a season ticket holder, I have not attended a game in person since the start of the pandemic. Not because I have to wear a mask, but because of continued precaution. The Adrian or Calvin game might just be our return, happily wearing our orange and blue masks

[sac]

I'm pretty sure attendance at basketball games during a pandemic, and the height of one fyi, is probably not the best subject to try and dig your rival.

There are schools out there in D3 land that have restricted attendance to zero.  I'm very grateful to be able to see games at all.

[oldknight]

...I noticed from last night's sports report, which showed video of the Hope game, that DeVos didn't exactly have a packed house either. Given that Saturday's game in Holland featured Fan Appreciation Day--with a free stress ball going to the first 500 fans--I'm assuming the Hope faithful were pushing and shoving to get in the door prior to the start of the JV tilt.

Hope attendance - 1408
Calvin attendance - 687 688

My wife forgot her season pass yesterday, but the lady with the handheld device at the door that normally accounts for entry, promptly waved her through, after a simple explanation that she had left her pass at home. I, on the other hand, was required to produce two pieces of photo ID to match the name on my pass.

Just correcting the record.

[TUAngola]

So what is going on with Trine and their awful starts to games recently?  That is 3 games in a row with pretty much the same script...other team jumps out to big lead and Trine spends the rest of the game trying to come back.  I could see this coming back in November with the Thunder.  Even though we hang our hat on our defense which is terrific, we just aren't a very good offensive team.  As I mentioned in previous posts, we are so focused on passing, passing, and passing some more, that we are running deep into the shot clock and end up getting awful looks at the basket.  This happened multiple times in both the Kalamazoo and Alma games and sounds like the same thing happened in the Calvin game yesterday.  And the more this happens the more our players get gun shy and sometimes will pass up open looks earlier in the shot clock.  There have been many times I have been yelling in the stands to "shoot the ball" when we had an open look, but we pass it up and end up getting a forced shot with the shot clock running out.  Why is this year so different offensively from last year?  Couple things jump out; Trine basically had a totally different lineup last year, other teams didn't have good scouting reports on them.  Now other teams have a pretty good handle on how to shut us down.  Also, for some reason we look "slower" than we did last year on tape.  Our cuts and screens aren't as effective.  Last year we had quicker backdoor cuts or hard screens that resulted in easy baskets.  Easy baskets this year are harder to come by.  Bowman just doesn't seem to have the same quickness he showed last year, maybe he is playing hurt?  Connor Jones was also big for us last year and this year he has been relegated to the bench of late with only getting in a couple minutes a game.  Brent Cox is another guy who just hasn't been very consistent like he was last year. 

It's hard to win games in this league, I get it.  Last year was terrific and exciting and the expectations this year were huge with basically the same team returning.  But that's the great thing about basketball, especially in D3, it's not about wins and losses but growing as young men.  I still think they can right the ship, but even if they don't this has been a great group of young men representing the University as student-athletes.     

[sac]

***ALBION HAS CHANGED ITS ATTENDANCE POLICY***

https://gobrits.com/news/2022/1/23/updated-spectator-policy.aspx

[HOPEful]

I'm pretty sure attendance at basketball games during a pandemic, and the height of one fyi, is probably not the best subject to try and dig your rival.

Again, was not originally meant as a dig but genuinely wondering if the attendance at the Trine game was a one game anomaly or trend for the season. The dig to follow was more in response to pushing and shoving for stress balls response.

[KnightSlappy]

The long camera angle from the corner gave a very unflattering shot of how empty Van Noord was.

Despite being a season ticket holder, I have not attended a game in person since the start of the pandemic.

This is tremendous discourse!