MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[HopeConvert]

Didn't Hope play today?

[AlwaysHope]

Folks, we got a four way tie for the MIAA lead, maybe the most exciting race in years?

Hope beats Olivet at home, 87 - 84, despite Dante and Jason shooting only 31% from the field (8/21).  Fortunately Lewis (23 points), Granger (18) and Ray (13) together shot 64%.  Soph Lewis is getting a lot more PT as is freshman Granger in recent games.  Towns again leads the team with 11 boards.

Riley Lewis also gets a critical steal with a few seconds left on the clock, gets fouled with .5 seconds, makes the first FT as well as the second one, despite trying to miss the latter.  Great expression on his face after his line drive free throw bounces in! 

[Bulldog30]

Adrian loses at Alma. Just straight up outplayed.

[pointlem]

Another electric DeVos atmosphere and gritty comeback win for Hope, with the heroics today from sophomore Riley Lewis, who scored 15 points in the last 8+ minutes with but one miss. Moreover, in 24 minutes of handling the ball he had 3 assists and but one turnover--matching his season 30 to 10 A/TO ratio. The capstone, was his steal denying Olivet the game-winning shot with 2 seconds left.

And for this fan, the most fun part was seeing his teammates lavish him with praise as he went to the free throw line after that steal, and then, at the game's end, literally carry him over to the student section and mob him.

After experiencing stardom in high school, and then experiencing last year from the end of the bench, it felt like a just reward for his patience. And the supportive love fest from his teammates was the icing on the cake.

[sac]

I think Olivet ran the same set on their final play at Hope that they ran at Alma last Saturday.  But instead of Edmond driving the lane they went for a pretty clever high ball screen from Blake Siersma with Edmond going right, Granger comes off his man(Siersma) blocking a path to the bucket and Beckman doesn't follow Siersma, both Hope defenders are kind of caught on their heels and indecisive.  Edmond steps back for the 3 but sees Siersma unguarded......as does Riley Lewis who comes out of nowhere (his man is standing in front of Ernst out of the play) to strip the ball on what should have been a wide open layup for the win.

Of all the options there, I don't think Hope was to worried about Siersma




This is just one example of how tight the MIAA is this year, think of Olivet's week,

Last Saturday:  1 point win at Alma where potential game winning shot by Alma hits the front of rim.   
Make that a loss and MIAA standings are  Adrian, Hope, Trine, Alma tied for first, with Olivet 3-3

Wednesday:  3 point win at Adrian, could have easily been a loss
Make that one game a loss and MIAA standing are Adrian 5-1, Hope, Trine, with Olivet and Alma 3-3
Make both those games a loss and MIAA standings are Adrian 5-1, Hope, Trine and Alma  4-2 with Olivet 2-4

Saturday:   3 point loss with game winning shot in PG's hands going up for win
Make that one game a WIN and Olivet is 5-1 leading the MIAA, Adrian, Trine 4-2 and Hope, Alma 3-3


Olivet was almost sitting in first place at 5-1 3 weeks in with probably its 3 toughest road games behind them and could just as easily been 2-4.


It seems 11-3 would be looking really good to win this league.  10-4 might even do it outright.

[wiz]

Make this that and that this and there you have it.

[realist]

Pretty quiet in here... Calvin needs to learn how to shoot.

If Wed., and yesterday had been the first two games of the 2017-2018 season I could understand and accept the performance of the Calvin team.  However,  we are one game away from the halfway point in the MIAA race, and Calvin needs a lot more than just to learn how to shoot.
I have been attending/following Calvin basketball games for over 50 years.  I have witnessed some great games, some great years, some average games, and some average years.  I do not recall ever watching a Calvin team that was as poorly schooled in the fundamentals of the game, and showing as little sense of urgency and court awareness as this team.  We have seen some flashes of individual talent, and team cohesion, but for the most part they look like five guys wearing the same color uniforms running around without much sense of direction or purpose.  A number of years back I was severely blasted for voicing my opinion that the primary problem with the current Calvin program originates at the end of the bench closest to the scorer's table.  Can any Calvin poster honestly tell me that they think the recent games are the best Calvin can do?

[KnightSlappy]

Pretty quiet in here... Calvin needs to learn how to shoot.

If Wed., and yesterday had been the first two games of the 2017-2018 season I could understand and accept the performance of the Calvin team.  However,  we are one game away from the halfway point in the MIAA race, and Calvin needs a lot more than just to learn how to shoot.
I have been attending/following Calvin basketball games for over 50 years.  I have witnessed some great games, some great years, some average games, and some average years.  I do not recall ever watching a Calvin team that was as poorly schooled in the fundamentals of the game, and showing as little sense of urgency and court awareness as this team.  We have seen some flashes of individual talent, and team cohesion, but for the most part they look like five guys wearing the same color uniforms running around without much sense of direction or purpose.  A number of years back I was severely blasted for voicing my opinion that the primary problem with the current Calvin program originates at the end of the bench closest to the scorer's table.  Can any Calvin poster honestly tell me that they think the recent games are the best Calvin can do?

That's some serious shade being thrown in Ben de Waal Malefyt's direction.

[wiz]

Pretty quiet in here... Calvin needs to learn how to shoot.

If Wed., and yesterday had been the first two games of the 2017-2018 season I could understand and accept the performance of the Calvin team.  However,  we are one game away from the halfway point in the MIAA race, and Calvin needs a lot more than just to learn how to shoot.
I have been attending/following Calvin basketball games for over 50 years.  I have witnessed some great games, some great years, some average games, and some average years.  I do not recall ever watching a Calvin team that was as poorly schooled in the fundamentals of the game, and showing as little sense of urgency and court awareness as this team.  We have seen some flashes of individual talent, and team cohesion, but for the most part they look like five guys wearing the same color uniforms running around without much sense of direction or purpose.  A number of years back I was severely blasted for voicing my opinion that the primary problem with the current Calvin program originates at the end of the bench closest to the scorer's table.  Can any Calvin poster honestly tell me that they think the recent games are the best Calvin can do?

That's some serious shade being thrown in Ben de Waal Malefyt's direction.

. Looks like realist is also shooting about 25%.  Missed the mark by three chairs!

[sac]

Make this that and that this and there you have it.

Well I could have used Albion as an example but yesterday was only their 3rd best win of the season.

[CK150408]

My biggest issue with this Calvin team is just a lack of ball movement. The amount of times the ball is held for over 8 seconds by one player is problematic. In the past some of this would be forgotten when (insert Calvin star here) would hit a heavily contested shot. This team does not have that player and needs to find there offense through ball movement.

[Young Knight 14]

Pretty quiet in here... Calvin needs to learn how to shoot.

If Wed., and yesterday had been the first two games of the 2017-2018 season I could understand and accept the performance of the Calvin team.  However,  we are one game away from the halfway point in the MIAA race, and Calvin needs a lot more than just to learn how to shoot.
I have been attending/following Calvin basketball games for over 50 years.  I have witnessed some great games, some great years, some average games, and some average years.  I do not recall ever watching a Calvin team that was as poorly schooled in the fundamentals of the game, and showing as little sense of urgency and court awareness as this team.  We have seen some flashes of individual talent, and team cohesion, but for the most part they look like five guys wearing the same color uniforms running around without much sense of direction or purpose.  A number of years back I was severely blasted for voicing my opinion that the primary problem with the current Calvin program originates at the end of the bench closest to the scorer's table.  Can any Calvin poster honestly tell me that they think the recent games are the best Calvin can do?

That's some serious shade being thrown in Ben de Waal Malefyt's direction.

. Looks like realist is also shooting about 25%.  Missed the mark by three chairs!

Speaking of Ben de Waal Malefyt, he has Calvin's JV team off to a nice start at 10-1 and averaging over 80 points a game.

[arena]

Pretty quiet in here... Calvin needs to learn how to shoot.

If Wed., and yesterday had been the first two games of the 2017-2018 season I could understand and accept the performance of the Calvin team.  However,  we are one game away from the halfway point in the MIAA race, and Calvin needs a lot more than just to learn how to shoot.
I have been attending/following Calvin basketball games for over 50 years.  I have witnessed some great games, some great years, some average games, and some average years.  I do not recall ever watching a Calvin team that was as poorly schooled in the fundamentals of the game, and showing as little sense of urgency and court awareness as this team.  We have seen some flashes of individual talent, and team cohesion, but for the most part they look like five guys wearing the same color uniforms running around without much sense of direction or purpose.  A number of years back I was severely blasted for voicing my opinion that the primary problem with the current Calvin program originates at the end of the bench closest to the scorer's table.  Can any Calvin poster honestly tell me that they think the recent games are the best Calvin can do?

Soon, hopefully very soon, a chnage will happen.

[sac]

Home wins is something I've always kept tabs on, I can't think of a season where everyone had a home loss before we even reached the halfway point but my memory is not as good as it once was.  Just feels like something that hasn't happened in a while.

Breaking out the +/- chart
+1 for road win
-1 for home loss

Trine      4-2   +2  (ALM, HPE, OLI, @Adr, CAL, @Alb, KZO, @Alm)
Adrian   4-2   +1  (KZO, @Cal, ALB, TRN, @Hpe, @OLI, ALM, @KZO)
Olivet    4-2   +1  (CAL, @Alb, @Trn, @Kzo, ALM, ADR, HPE, @Cal)
Hope     4-2    0    (@Alb, @Trn, KZO, @Cal, ADR, @Alm, @Oli, ALB)
Alma     3-3    0    (@Trn, KZO, @Cal, ALB, @Oli, HPE, @Adr, TRN)
Calvin    2-4    0    (@Oli, ADR, ALM, HPE, @Trn, KZO, @Alb, OLI)
Albion    2-4   0     (HPE, OLI, @Adr, @Alm, KZO, TRN, CAL, @Hpe)
Kazoo    1-5    -4    (@Adr, @Alm, @Hpe, OLI, @Alb, @Cal, @Trn, ADR)

I really like Trine's position, especially if they can hold home court these next 3 game days.

Looks like Wednesday we could potentially see little separation right in the middle of the standings,  If top 4 all win that creates a 2 game gap back to 5th and 3 to 6th.  Alma @ Trine might be the key game there

Even at 2-4 Calvin and Albion will have lots of say in the standings with 5 home games each remaining. 
Lots of great games to be played.

[oldknight]

Pretty quiet in here... Calvin needs to learn how to shoot.

If Wed., and yesterday had been the first two games of the 2017-2018 season I could understand and accept the performance of the Calvin team.  However,  we are one game away from the halfway point in the MIAA race, and Calvin needs a lot more than just to learn how to shoot.
I have been attending/following Calvin basketball games for over 50 years.  I have witnessed some great games, some great years, some average games, and some average years.  I do not recall ever watching a Calvin team that was as poorly schooled in the fundamentals of the game, and showing as little sense of urgency and court awareness as this team.  We have seen some flashes of individual talent, and team cohesion, but for the most part they look like five guys wearing the same color uniforms running around without much sense of direction or purpose.  A number of years back I was severely blasted for voicing my opinion that the primary problem with the current Calvin program originates at the end of the bench closest to the scorer's table.  Can any Calvin poster honestly tell me that they think the recent games are the best Calvin can do?

That's some serious shade being thrown in Ben de Waal Malefyt's direction.

. Looks like realist is also shooting about 25%.  Missed the mark by three chairs!

Speaking of Ben de Waal Malefyt, he has Calvin's JV team off to a nice start at 10-1 and averaging over 80 points a game.

This has proven to be a tough year for Calvin but they actually have a lot of talent in the freshmen and sophomore classes. I didn't see the early game before Calvin varsity lost to Hope at DeVos, but I'm told the Knights JV team whacked Hope pretty good that night. In addition to freshmen Morrison and Warners playing meaningful minutes this year, they have Cluj-Napora native Tim Ghita-Urmancy on the freshmen team. He's a strong and athletic 6'5" kid who plays that European style we have become familiar with, and he strikes me as a varsity player. Most importantly, Tim's Hungarian genes warms the cockles of oldknight's Magyar heart.