MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[oldknight]

Calvin collapses and loses 87-85 in OT.  Outscored 20-2 in the last 7:19 minutes of regulation. 

A mindboggling collapse. In the last 7 minutes, Calvin missed 8 floor shots, the front end of a one-and-one, committed 5 turnovers and got outscored 20-2. If you include the first minute of play during overtime, the Knights got outscored 25-2 in over 8 minutes of playing time. That's really mindboggling.

I thought I had seen it all this weekend. But then some unknown Seattle play-caller makes the most mind numbingly stupid decision in Superbowl history. Wow. Makes the Knights late collapse seem routine.

OldKnight, last night I agreed with you about that play call.  But this morning (this is before reading the team's explanation or other commentary), I decided maybe Coach Carroll—whose successful end-of-the-first-half call defied the announcers' wisdom—was thinking smarter than the rest of us.

His problem perhaps was having burned that second time out at the five yard line, which meant, with 2nd and 1 and 30 seconds to go, he had a choice of either
a)   Two running plays, with a time out in between, or
b)   Two running plays plus a pass attempt (which either could be a surprise pass, as the first play, or on the second play—when everyone would expect it, given that it would be a free down; if it was incomplete he'd still have time for the 4th down play).

So, given a choice between run/run, run/pass/run, and pass/run/run, perhaps he and his staff were thinking, why not have three plays available, and use the pass when it's unexpected?  Alas . . . and, if only they hadn't burned that second time out, then they would have had a run/run/run option.

P.S.  OldKnight, not sure you'll resonate with this, as I did . . . but I'm pretty sure KnightSlappy will:
http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/a-head-coach-botched-the-end-of-the-super-bowl-and-it-wasnt-pete-carroll/

Okay, back to BB

KS certainly will appreciate all the metrics, that's for sure. As for the article's narrative, I agree that Belichick's failure to call a TO was a mistake but so was Seattle's second down call. Up to that point in the game the Patriots had shown virtually no ability to stop Lynch. The game stats show Lynch rushed 24 times in last night's game, and 22 of them gained at least one yard. Twice he was stopped for no gain. If I'm the Seahawks, I like the odds of handing the ball to Marshawn and asking him to get just one more yard before we go home. I will so one thing though: As a viewer with absolutely no dog in the fight, it was certainly an entertaining game and finish.

[northb]

Equally big game in Angola this Saturday as two defensive minded teams go at it again.  Can Trine be successful this time?  In a low scoring afair, Adrian won the the first one, 54-44.

Go, Adrian!

[Knight2Day]

Geez, what's the deal with the extensive open seating? It looks like its only 3/4 full

[Flying Dutch Fan]

Geez, what's the deal with the extensive open seating? It looks like its only 3/4 full

It's called a 6pm start.

[pointlem]

TV announcer at the half:  "[Jordan Brink] has not been able to get it going offensively in the way that Kevin VandeStreek had hoped.  But the good news is that we have 20 more minutes here to see if he can get it going. Hopefully Calvin can find a way here."

Is that Jeff Febus doing the color commentary for WGVU?

That aside, WGVU is doing a great job, and so are both teams.

Attendance:  4352.

[Knight2Day]

Geez, what's the deal with the extensive open seating? It looks like its only 3/4 full

It's called a 6pm start.

Little snappy FDF? Little bit of an inferiority complex?

[Flying Dutch Fan]

Geez, what's the deal with the extensive open seating? It looks like its only 3/4 full

It's called a 6pm start.

Little snappy FDF? Little bit of an inferiority complex?

No, you asked a question and I answered it. It wasn't snappy and I have no "complex".  We have been discussing the impact of an early start on this board for weeks, and now we see what we expected.

[GoKnights68]

Brink really bailed out Calvin tonight.  Calvin was pretty good at getting loose rebounds and forcing turnovers, but it seems Hope was able to get a majority of their points on wide open lay ups and wide open 3s tonight. Calvin struggles to get back on defense a few times tonight even on made shots.

[goodknight]

Highly entertaining and competitive Calvin-Hope game tonight with a couple of key moments down the stretch. One was T.J. Huizenga's huge offensive rebound of a 3-ball miss from Brad Visser, and an immediate kick out to Jordan Brink, who calmly buried the second-chance 3-pointer.  The other was Brink's ability to draw the 5th foul on Brock Benson.
The stat sheets show how close the game was, and for the Calvin faithful it was a relief to see that there was no hangover from the colossal bed-crapping incident in the final minutes on Saturday at Alma.
There also was the appearance in the Calvin student section of a giant stuffed Rasta Banana, about 9 feet long and adorned with dreadlocks.  Evidently, Brad Visser won the oversized fruit at Cedar Point.  Even though it's inanimate and presumably inedible, it's a vast improvement over Cal the Knight.

[TUAngola]

It wasn't pretty in Angola tonight but Trine comes away with a 66-55 victory.  Our offense was out of sorts for most of the game.  Adrian plays a style very similar to Trine...motion offense, tough switching man to man defense.  Trine jumped on Adrian 13-4 right out of the gate and held a 6-10 point lead most of the half.  Adrian made a run in the first 5 minutes of the 2nd half to tie up the game, but Trine persevered.  Trine's saving grace was the free throw line.  They made the 3rd most free throws in a single game in school history.  Time and time again we would run the shot clock and then dribble drive to the basket.  Adrian's only fault was a lot of silly reach in fouls.  Then the last part of the 2nd half was a constant parade to the free throw line for Trine as I don't think we scored a basket at all after about the 10 minute mark of the 2nd half.  Player of the game again was Jared Holmquist, but Ben Syroka had a solid game as well and scored a career high.  Will Dixon just couldn't get anything going, Adrian seemed to always run a 2nd guy at him and he forced some shots.  Rickey Jackson for Adrian probably one of the 3 best players I've seen this year.  He went on a tear early in the 2nd half to get them back in the game. 

[maroonandgold]

Highly entertaining and competitive Calvin-Hope game tonight with a couple of key moments down the stretch. One was T.J. Huizenga's huge offensive rebound of a 3-ball miss from Brad Visser, and an immediate kick out to Jordan Brink, who calmly buried the second-chance 3-pointer.  The other was Brink's ability to draw the 5th foul on Brock Benson.
The stat sheets show how close the game was, and for the Calvin faithful it was a relief to see that there was no hangover from the colossal bed-crapping incident in the final minutes on Saturday at Alma.
There also was the appearance in the Calvin student section of a giant stuffed Rasta Banana, about 9 feet long and adorned with dreadlocks.  Evidently, Brad Visser won the oversized fruit at Cedar Point.  Even though it's inanimate and presumably inedible, it's a vast improvement over Cal the Knight.

As Goodknight indicates, Brink really played a key role in Calvin's come-froom-behind victory.  But it appeared to me that the biggest contributing factor to Calvin's win was Calvin's overall defense the second half, holding Hope to only 38 points.  Two major factors were the constant pressure on Hope's guards to prevent the easy shots that had really hurt in the first half and the use of Denney as the backup center instead of Vander Brug or Welch.  The fact that 3 of Hope's best were held below their averages was really big, and I'm sure Denney was used because of his ability to defend Denson effectively without fouling out.  Welch was in less than a minute and already had 2 fouls when he left for good.  Vander Brug did better on defense toward the end of the game while still contributing on the scoring end.  As Goodknight indicates, Calvin's chance of winning really took a boost once Benson was out of the game. 

[HopeConvert]

Benson's 5th foul was a huge play because a) Hope is a better defensive team when he is on the floor; and, b) Brink was in the process of taking a bad shot at the end of a shot clock. His shot almost certainly would not have gone in, although not at the same level of certainty that both free throws would go in. It was a huge swing of events.

One big issue for Hope was rebounding in the second half, particularly giving up offensive rebounds to Calvin, and their inability to match up with Calvin's 3-guard set (Hope is now 0-3 against the 3 guard offense, with two of those games being blow outs). Ben Gardner simply could not handle Jordan Daley, who was basically running a lay-up drill. For Hope to compete against that set, Eidson has to play Brink close to a draw, and he has been nowhere near that the last three times they've met. As OK and I were discussing after the game, it's just a very bad match-up for Hope.

Besides Blackledge, who was, again, superb, Hope's best player tonight was Sam Otto, who made some big shots and played very good defense against one of the best guards in America. I would like to see him get more floor time.

In my opinion, Hope's offense is starting to click more and more each game, as the players get more familiar with Mitchell's system. But with Benson in foul trouble and Eidson still in his funk, Hope was simply overmatched.

[HopeConvert]

Hope got 21 total points from Benson, Gardner, and Eidson. Tough to win when that's the case.

[almcguirejr]

A very well played game tonight by both teams.  Jordan Brink was excellent again tonight.  I thought Jordan Daley played his best game tonight.  He was great going to the basket and scored some tough points on drives to the basket.  He also played great defense on Gardner and limited him to 5 points.
Calvin also came out and competed for loose balls from the start of the game.  That has been a problem all year.

[oldknight]

Geez, what's the deal with the extensive open seating? It looks like its only 3/4 full

It's called a 6pm start.

Little snappy FDF? Little bit of an inferiority complex?

Take it easy on the commish. He's a bit under the weather today. You know he's not feeling well when he misses a Rivalry game.

I'm feeling the pressure to come up with a comprehensive and fair game report. This afternoon knightvision first raised his expectation that I provide a readable post, and after the game a Calvin regular attendee told me she was looking forward to a good report as well. I'll try not to choke under the pressure of this full court press and hold on to a late game lead.

In recent years we've been "treated" to mostly dull or poorly played (by one team or the other) Rivalry affairs that lacked any late game drama. Tonight's game wasn't one of them. Both teams played well, both saw their stars excel, both had other key players make important contributions, and each team got some big plays from someone off the bench. The Knights showed not a shred of hangover from Saturday's debacle at Alma, and took extremely good care of the ball (only 7 turnovers) while still repeatedly testing Hope's defense with either dribble penetration or good ball movement. The Knights' biggest single advantage in a game with very similar team statistics was the extra possessions they got by making four fewer turnovers and getting one more offensive rebound. In a close game like tonight's these extra possessions are magnified.

In the end, Calvin's star made just a couple more plays down the stretch than did Hope's star. With Calvin down three and six minutes left, TJ Huizenga dug out a gritty offensive board and immediately fired a pass to Jordan Brink who promptly buried the game tying triple. On the following possession, Brink drove the lane and somehow managed to bank an off balance left handed shot while getting fouled. The ensuing free throw by Jordan (who went 11-11 from the stripe) gave his team a three point lead and Hope never caught up. Other game notes:

--Tyler Dykstra picked a very good night to be especially active--and on both ends. In a game where rebounds came at a premium, he led his team in rebounds with 8--five on them on the offensive side. In addition, as sac perceptively mentioned to me after the game, when Dykstra defended the hard working Blackledge late in the game, Tyler's defense caused the Hope star to struggle to get off good shots near the basket.

--Jordan Brink must make Hope fans weary. With the game on the line, and everyone at VNA knowing Calvin would repeatedly give him the ball, he scored 8 of Calvin's next ten points to give Calvin a lead they wouldn't give up. Calvin students would chant "MVP, MVP" though I'm not certain if they were voting for Player A, B, or C.

--In addition to the gritty rebound he grabbed with Calvin down three, TJ Huizenga also dislodged a loose ball rebound sending it over to Dykstra who dunked a basket with less than two minutes left and Calvin clinging to a four point lead. Guys like TJ who do little things well typically warm my heart.

--Hope's defense is significantly better when Brock Benson plays. His second half foul issues really hurt his team's chances.

--Some Calvin fans  have wondered why Connor VanderBrug doesn't get more minutes. Hope fans should ask that of Sam Otto. Every time I see him play he does everything right. Hope's three guard offense is simply better when he's in it, not on the bench watching.

--I'm very upset with Jon Wassink for being such a good football player. Today he signed a national letter of intent to play for Western Michigan University. He would be the perfect replacement for Jordan Brink, who no doubt will not be missed next season by folks in Holland.