Box Score
Hope started Gardner, Seiler, Eidson, Snuggerud, VanArendonk. Bench minutes went primarily to Neil, DeMaagd and McMahon. Brock Benson's minutes were cut by foul trouble, Holwerda filled those minutes. Snuggerud played over 30 minutes for only the 3rd time this year and on a bad ankle, he was a warrior in his last game.
Game Recap:
It wouldn't be too hard to just copy and paste the first meeting at Calvin in this space and basically be correct. Each of these 3 games has looked very similar, about half-way through the first half Calvin begins to tighten the defensive screws and Hope flounders around looking for offense desperately trying to stay in the game. In Holland they were able to do that and ended up pulling out a close game late. In the other two, including last night, they weren't able to score often enough or stop Calvin often enough and the game just simply got away from them to a point there was no coming back.
Hope's been good since the week of that first Calvin game but last night many of the same shots they've been hitting just stayed out. Calvin's defense was very good and a big reason why the offensive struggles were there but I think Hope made themselves a lot easier to defend than they had been in recent games. I don't think its much of a secret that Ben Gardner has been a big reason why Hope's offense has improved so much the last 3 or 4 weeks. For long stretches of this one Dave Rietema's defense effectively took him out of the offense, if it hadn't been for a late basket w/foul he would have been shut-out of the first half scoring.
They were fortunate to only be down 8 at the half and really needed to have a strong start to the second half. The most disappointing part of the game for me was here when Hope turned it over 4 times in the first 5 minutes of the half, most of it just sloppy. By that 5 minutes in mark nothing had really changed, Calvin still led by 11. Five minutes later after nothing but ft's and no defensive stops the deficit was 20 and it was pretty much over.
Hope needed to be a lot better than they were last night to beat a good team on their floor. It was disappointing to watch them be outworked for rebounds and loose balls in a game that meant so much. A review of the film will show several times a Hope player in position for a rebound and having it knocked out of their hands, or in position to retrieve a loose ball and being out-hustled by the other guy, the 'want' was on the other side.
In the end it was much like their season, not enough to get the rewards they were looking for.
Pool C? Hope's out. I think Hope's going to end up in a
better position than people think, but its not going to be enough to
grab a bid. They still have a good winning %, and a strong strength of
schedule, numbers that have received bids in the past. Working against
them is a Pool C crop that seems a bit stronger than in years past and a
regional committee that thinks Thomas More should be ranked ahead of
them. Thomas More's ranking will block Hope from ever being discussed
and the Saints aren't likely to receive a C bid themselves with a
mediocre strength of schedule vs the schools they'll be compared
against. If you want a game to curse and shake your fists at the sky it
was the loss at Olivet. With that win Hope might have had enough to be
ranked ahead of Thomas More and thus be 'on the table' for Pool C
discussion. They still might not have received a bid but at least
they'd be there. One bad week of basketball and you're sitting at home,
that's pretty much the division 3 season.
20 win seasons With 18 wins a streak of seven years winning 20 games comes to an end. They only started playing something over 20 game seasons that made 20 win seasons realistic and more frequent in the early 80's. Prior to these past 7 years Hope's longest previous streak had been 4 years.
Hope's 4 Freshmen combined to go just 4-19 on the night. I think when the season began I was hopeful these guys could step in and contribute to what should have been a pretty decent core group of guys returning. Never would I have guessed Gardner, Eidson, Benson had to become such prominent figures in Hope's season. All of them had ups and downs but on the whole the ups outweighed the downs. When you start to look at next years depth chart you start to realize its really going to be their team, their program for the next 3 years. This year will turnout invaluable in their learning process. Nothing should stoke the competitive fires like getting your butt kicked at your rival twice in one season.
Scoring and Interesting Stats:
Not many stats are interesting when you play like Hope did, 10 first half turnovers and 4 more in the first 5 minutes of the second half is 14 in 25 minutes, its sloppy and too sloppy to stay competitive with a team like Calvin.
3-point shooting: 1-14 last night, bad night to have your worst night of the season. 1-10 against Trine Thursday meant 2-24 on the week. Woof
Nate Snuggerud: 17 pts, 7 rbs.......uncharacteristic night at the ft line otherwise this was a terrific final performance.
Nate VanArendonk: 9 pts, 5 rbs.....Calvin did a nice job pushing him away from the basket
Ben Gardner: 7 pts, 2 rbs.....just a tough night shooting the ball, shots that went in the last 4 weeks just didn't for him last night.
Efficiency:
Estimated number of possessions: Hope 70 Calvin 68
Normal as can be normal
Offensive Efficiency: 81.2
Woof again. Both halves looked like that. Calvin's been doing this to ordinary offensive teams all season long, Hope's not an ordinary offensive team but Calvin made them look like an ordinary offensive team last night and again in early January.
Defensive Efficiency: 112.12
There wasn't much 'stop' in Hope defense, 105 first half, 122 second. The only thing that kept the second half from being something gigantic was Calvin getting sloppy when the game was out of reach.
I guess if you really wanted to analyze it in simple terms; one team elevated their game at both ends of the floor, one did not.
Rebounding Efficiency:
Hope: 28% of available offensive rebounds
Calvin: 43.3% of available offensive rebounds
Second chance points was 15-5 in Calvin's favor, again I point to the number of times Hope was in position and just got out battled for the ball. This needed to be a lot better to even have a chance.
Moments or Keys to the Game:
Early second half was the difference, Hope was still in it and needed a strong start but didn't get it. Calvin put the ball in Tom Snikkers hands and he went hard to the basket 3 or 4 times in a row and either scored or was fouled. Not much longer after that the deficit was insurmountable.
Bryan Powell, was clearly not 100% in Holland but looked much more like himself last night. His overall season was a big reason Calvin was able to get over their 'hump' (which was mostly themselves)
My Game Ball Goes To:
Nate Snuggerud was Hope's best player on a night when they needed their best player to be good. Only Nate knows how uncomfortable he was out on the floor this season and on Thursday he picked up a sprained ankle for good measure.
Standings
Snuggerud - 7
Overway - 4
Gardner - 3
VanArendonk - 2
Eidson - 2
Seiler - 2
Benson - 2
Byers - 1
DeMaagd - 1
Neil -1
Everyone -1
Going Forward:
Unfortunately there is no forward as this loss puts an end to Hope's season. The immediate aftermath of last night is not a good feeling. Hope didn't go down playing its best basketball, Calvin's to be given credit for making Hope look the way they did.
On the night of January 19th though even having a last night didn't seem very likely. Since then Hope strung together a strong stretch of play going 9-1 while losing your Senior starting point guard and included turning around a 26 point loss in the rivalry game into an improbable win. It didn't turn out to bad.
Up Next: Stiff drink
Showing posts with label rivalry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rivalry. Show all posts
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Sunday, February 10, 2013
Hope 73 Calvin 70
Box Score
Hope started Gardner, Seiler, Eidson, Snuggerud, VanArendonk. Pretty short bench today with Neil and DeMaagd grabbing 14 and 17. Denham spelled Gardner a couple times, Byers and Benson played small parts. Hope got some big time minutes from Van Arendonk, Seiler and again Gardner.
Game Recap: (apparently this Calvin game required a novel)
Leaving Olivet's gym on Jan. 19 I was sure I had seen a Hope team that might not recover from the blows taken in the previous two games. Routed on the road at your rival, letting that rival beat you twice losing at Olivet. Hope was down, way down. Things had to be fixed, and fast or the season which was already maybe lost could never be recovered.
Over the next few games I watched intently for those positive signs that this team could get to a point they could give Calvin a legitimate run for its money. On both ends of the floor things started to improve, it was harder to score against them, easier to score on the other guys. Minutes were changing, those who could play defense were seeing more, those who couldn't less. Then I watched a Sr. point guard go down with an injury, surely the death blow right?
Apparently Fr. point guards from Indiana come with super hero blood coursing through their veins. Gardner took the wheel confidently and said 'I got this'. It took less than two games for me to realize this wasn't the problem I thought it might be. But still in the back of my mind 'maybe by the tournament' was all I could muster for a positive thought.
Wednesday night at Kalamazoo a young women who's been a part of our little basketball clan asked me point blank in her always cheery way 'so do they have a chance Saturday'. And I said bluntly, because I sometimes lose all tact, 'No!!'. I had crushed her soul. I somehow gathered enough sense to say 'well maybe, if they clean up the bad habits that crept back into this one' or something stupid like that, but I really believed 'no'.
Between then and Friday I tried really, really, really hard to not think about it. To just go into Saturday with an open mind. But Friday I started looking at stuff, stats, efficiencies, replaying the last game in my head, thinking about whats changed since then. Over and over it really didn't look good to me, I didn't think they had come far enough yet. But, I started to lay it all out, 'ok here's what has to happen' and I wrote this crazy preview.
Saturday morning as I was ready to leave about 100 Canadian geese flew overhead, because I notice crap like that. It was a gloriously sunny February day and thought, at least its a nice day. Once inside DeVos some old friends from that other school stopped by, I tried to convince them but more myself, that yes I thought Hope had gotten better. I probably didn't sound too convincing because I wasn't really sure myself.
(Actual game recap starts here)
Hope started off nicely, early baskets by Snuggerud and VanArendonk put Hope in front, defensively Hope caused a couple turnovers and things looked positive. By the 14 minute mark it was Hope leading 11-5. Calvin's defensive noose started to tighten and things began to look quite a bit like that horrible Wed. night in January. By the 5 minute mark Calvin had seized control and led 24-17, the only real difference had been Hope's defense staying a little stronger, they competed on the boards. Nothing was really coming easy for them, shots that went in the last time, weren't this time. With so little time remaining in the half it was so important to break this death grip of defense Calvin had on them, just find some way, anyway, to keep this margin close and regroup at halftime.
Chase DeMaagd, the 6-3 F from Woodland, played at tiny Barry County Christian. Woodland is about as out in the middle of nowhere you can get between Grand Rapids and Lansing. This Sr. is usually asked to guard bigger players with more accomplished basketball backgrounds, sometimes the butt of opposing fans catcalls and jokes, then they see he can play and they shut up. Chase DeMaagd rubbed two sticks together and lit his own personal fire. First it was one basket then another with a ft to boot. Then it was drawing a foul on a rebounded ft, then a simple put back on a Ben Gardner miss, followed by another in the first half's final minute. This Sr., possibly playing in his last Hope/Calvin game had made a halftime score that probably should have been 22-34 or something, 31-34. 10 points, 2 offensive rebounds in 6 minutes, the games leading scorer. Chase made his team believe, Chase made me believe.
As the early 2nd half played out Hope opened strong scoring points on all but a couple possessions. By the end of those critical first 5 minutes of the half mark, a thunderous VanArendonk dunk had put Hope ahead by 5. Calvin answered right away and the game seemed on. Back and forth it went with neither team grabbing a foothold on the game or momentum. The under 8 media timeout came at 6:56 with Hope leading by 2. Yeah, this qualifies as having a chance late to win it.
Billy Seiler curled off a high screen and banged in a 3 with a man in his face, Brink answered with a 3 of his own, Snuggerud banked in a 3, Brink answered again. Torture man, glorious torture. We ended up tied two more times until with less than one minute to play Nate VanArendonk, this mountain of a kid who has received far more criticism than most should receive floats in a beautiful lefty hook to give Hope the lead. Now comes the tricky part, surviving the Calvin 3. Many Hope teams have tried, many have spectacularly failed. But not today, the damn thing stayed out. Then free-throws those hate inducing 15 foot shots, all of them went in.
Cue the celebration.
12 years in a row now Hope has won at least one game against Calvin. Surely the longest such streak in school history. Series stands at 96-88 with Hope winning 8 of the last 10 and with the ridiculous point total between them now at 108. Since Calvin swept the regular season in 2009, the two have split each year except last.
NCAA you ask? Well its complicated of course and probably actually better to just wait things out but.....yesterdays win actually made an at-large bid a possibility. Teams have received bids into the NCAA's with 7 and 8 in-region losses and an in-region win% north of 70% with a strong strength of schedule. With 2 wins next week and a win in the MIAA semi-final and the Pool C making loss in the championship game puts Hope 15-6 or .714 and a relatively strong but not CCIW strong strength of schedule. You would at least think they'd be in the conversation. As always I'd recommend winning the tournament and the auto-bid. Next week is really important to finish strong.
Speaking of MIAA tournaments, things have become a little crazier with Olivet beating Trine and Hope's win. Officially nothing is settled except Calvin and Hope will host a semi-final while Olivet, Trine and Adrian sort out the final two spots. Calvin and Hope will play a big role in determining tournament fates as each play Olivet and Trine next week. The inside tracks still probably belong to Trine and Adrian with Olivet needing to win one and hope Trine doesn't. What was kind of a boring straight forward looking season suddenly has an interesting finish.
Scoring and Interesting Stats:
Rebounding: has to be top of the list, the Knights came into this with the best margin in D3. Hope outrebounded them 41-33. I think I heard this was only the 2nd time that had happened this year.
Free-throw shooting: Calvin hurt themselves by going just 8-16 while Hope had a just slightly above their avg day of 19-26. Those 11 points were huge of course.
Turnovers: Not great, finishing with 18. Considering it was 11 at the half though Hope did a much better job keeping that under control the second half. After reviewing this a second time, many turnovers were the result of getting stuck with the ball in the middle of Calvin's defense. Still some shaky passing at times.
Ben Gardner: 16 points, 4 rebounds, 2 steals.........seriously I think he has super hero blood in his veins, he's been pretty incredible these last few games
Nate VanArendonk: 12 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists.......outstanding, many different things have made Hope better but none bigger than this guy.
Chase DeMaagd: 12 points, 3 rebounds.......kept Hope in the game with his late first half play
Nate Snuggerud: 11 points, 7 rebounds.....relatively quiet but knocked down those really big ft's that I couldn't watch in the games waning minutes.
Billy Seiler: 11 points, 9 rebounds......what doesn't show up here is defensive work, 37 grueling minutes
Alex Eidson: 11 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists.......also hit the first set of 'clinching' ft's, no pressure freshmen
You might notice these 6 guys add up to 73
Efficiency:
Estimated number of possessions: Hope 73 Calvin 71
No more than a handful each more than last time. Kind a weird one where the first half had more possessions but less scoring, while the 2nd half had more scoring, fewer possessions.
Offensive Efficiency: 99.52
Not great and the lowest since those back-to-back losses 3 weeks ago. However its quite an improvement over the first game which was an eff of 74. For this game the first half was 80 which looked an awful like the game in Grand Rapids while the 2nd half was a 120 rate. There's a good chance that 2nd half was the highest rate anyone has scored on Calvin this year in a half.
Defensive Efficiency: 99.15
This is an improvement over the 112 up at Calvin and just a touch above Hope's season average. First half was 92, second half 106. Feels weird to say it but the defense scraped out enough stops in the first half to keep this game from getting away like the first one.
Rebounding Efficiency:
Hope: 41.9% of available offensive rebounds
Calvin: 33.3% of available offensive rebounds
This is right around Hope's avg, maybe above it by only 1 rebound, this is below Calvin's season avg.
Really I think you have to call this an exceptional day and a dramatic turn around from the first meeting. Second chance points was 17-11 in Hope's favor. About 70% of the point difference between the two games can be explained by turning around the rebounding.
Moments or Keys to the Game:
There were so many:
Chase DeMaagd keeping Hope in the game with his end of first half effort.
Hope establishing a lead in the first 5 minutes of the second half.
The sequence of 4 straight 3's by Seiler, Brink, Snuggerud, Brink
Nate VanArendonk's left hook shot to take the lead with under a minute to play.
Grant Neil knocking the ball of a Calvin players leg to gain possession of the ball with the lead under a minute to play.
Making all the ft's in the last 5 minutes of the game.
My Game Ball Goes To:
Everyone, from Ben Gardner and Nate VanArendonk's great play all the way down the bench to Chris Ray being the first one up to lead the cheers. This whole team was in tune to prove to others and themselves they could do this. It was an inspiring thing to see from a Hope team.
Standings
Snuggerud - 5
Overway - 4
VanArendonk - 2
Eidson - 2
Seiler - 2
Gardner - 2
Byers - 1
DeMaagd - 1
Benson - 1
Neil -1
Everyone -1
Going Forward:
Its really impossible for me to put into words what this win meant for this team, I can only see what I observe from my seat way across the gym. But I have no idea I can only imagine and I bet it felt great. Prior to this, Hope's biggest win was probably beating Adrian when they were still 11-1, otherwise this season's been full of lots of close but disappointing losses to good teams. And of course the mother of all beat downs in this rivalry only 3 1/2 weeks ago. Since then they've appeared to improve, appeared to make changes to make themselves a better team. All of that was validated yesterday in a small 2 hour window of a much larger season.
The incredible effort and confluence of things that had to happen for Hope to win and only win by 3 is a testament to just how good I think Calvin really is. I expect Calvin to wrap up their Championship rather easily this week, so while Hope's 'in it' I really don't think they are. Hope's week brings chapter 2 of the 'redeem our embarrassment tour'. As bad as the first Calvin was the first Olivet game wasn't much better. Yesterday's win brings things back into play that seemed distant dreams only a couple weeks ago. Now its about continuing to improve and push towards that conference tournament. As good and as hard as Hope played yesterday they'll need to be even better 10 days from now in the MIAA Tournament.
Olivet comes to Holland Wednesday with the plain and simple need of having to win to keep their MIAA tournament hopes alive. This team beat Hope once and they could do it again. Wednesday 6 Sr's take their ceremonial last walk onto the DeVos Fieldhouse floor, its going to be emotional for those guys and not the easiest game to play.
Up Next: Me vs the inevitable crash coming from the lowering of my serotonin levels
Wed. February 13 Olivet at Hope, DeVos Fieldhouse
(I know you're disappointed there were no slaying the lion references, you can only go to that well once)
Hope started Gardner, Seiler, Eidson, Snuggerud, VanArendonk. Pretty short bench today with Neil and DeMaagd grabbing 14 and 17. Denham spelled Gardner a couple times, Byers and Benson played small parts. Hope got some big time minutes from Van Arendonk, Seiler and again Gardner.
Game Recap: (apparently this Calvin game required a novel)
Leaving Olivet's gym on Jan. 19 I was sure I had seen a Hope team that might not recover from the blows taken in the previous two games. Routed on the road at your rival, letting that rival beat you twice losing at Olivet. Hope was down, way down. Things had to be fixed, and fast or the season which was already maybe lost could never be recovered.
Over the next few games I watched intently for those positive signs that this team could get to a point they could give Calvin a legitimate run for its money. On both ends of the floor things started to improve, it was harder to score against them, easier to score on the other guys. Minutes were changing, those who could play defense were seeing more, those who couldn't less. Then I watched a Sr. point guard go down with an injury, surely the death blow right?
Apparently Fr. point guards from Indiana come with super hero blood coursing through their veins. Gardner took the wheel confidently and said 'I got this'. It took less than two games for me to realize this wasn't the problem I thought it might be. But still in the back of my mind 'maybe by the tournament' was all I could muster for a positive thought.
Wednesday night at Kalamazoo a young women who's been a part of our little basketball clan asked me point blank in her always cheery way 'so do they have a chance Saturday'. And I said bluntly, because I sometimes lose all tact, 'No!!'. I had crushed her soul. I somehow gathered enough sense to say 'well maybe, if they clean up the bad habits that crept back into this one' or something stupid like that, but I really believed 'no'.
Between then and Friday I tried really, really, really hard to not think about it. To just go into Saturday with an open mind. But Friday I started looking at stuff, stats, efficiencies, replaying the last game in my head, thinking about whats changed since then. Over and over it really didn't look good to me, I didn't think they had come far enough yet. But, I started to lay it all out, 'ok here's what has to happen' and I wrote this crazy preview.
Saturday morning as I was ready to leave about 100 Canadian geese flew overhead, because I notice crap like that. It was a gloriously sunny February day and thought, at least its a nice day. Once inside DeVos some old friends from that other school stopped by, I tried to convince them but more myself, that yes I thought Hope had gotten better. I probably didn't sound too convincing because I wasn't really sure myself.
(Actual game recap starts here)
Hope started off nicely, early baskets by Snuggerud and VanArendonk put Hope in front, defensively Hope caused a couple turnovers and things looked positive. By the 14 minute mark it was Hope leading 11-5. Calvin's defensive noose started to tighten and things began to look quite a bit like that horrible Wed. night in January. By the 5 minute mark Calvin had seized control and led 24-17, the only real difference had been Hope's defense staying a little stronger, they competed on the boards. Nothing was really coming easy for them, shots that went in the last time, weren't this time. With so little time remaining in the half it was so important to break this death grip of defense Calvin had on them, just find some way, anyway, to keep this margin close and regroup at halftime.
Chase DeMaagd, the 6-3 F from Woodland, played at tiny Barry County Christian. Woodland is about as out in the middle of nowhere you can get between Grand Rapids and Lansing. This Sr. is usually asked to guard bigger players with more accomplished basketball backgrounds, sometimes the butt of opposing fans catcalls and jokes, then they see he can play and they shut up. Chase DeMaagd rubbed two sticks together and lit his own personal fire. First it was one basket then another with a ft to boot. Then it was drawing a foul on a rebounded ft, then a simple put back on a Ben Gardner miss, followed by another in the first half's final minute. This Sr., possibly playing in his last Hope/Calvin game had made a halftime score that probably should have been 22-34 or something, 31-34. 10 points, 2 offensive rebounds in 6 minutes, the games leading scorer. Chase made his team believe, Chase made me believe.
As the early 2nd half played out Hope opened strong scoring points on all but a couple possessions. By the end of those critical first 5 minutes of the half mark, a thunderous VanArendonk dunk had put Hope ahead by 5. Calvin answered right away and the game seemed on. Back and forth it went with neither team grabbing a foothold on the game or momentum. The under 8 media timeout came at 6:56 with Hope leading by 2. Yeah, this qualifies as having a chance late to win it.
Billy Seiler curled off a high screen and banged in a 3 with a man in his face, Brink answered with a 3 of his own, Snuggerud banked in a 3, Brink answered again. Torture man, glorious torture. We ended up tied two more times until with less than one minute to play Nate VanArendonk, this mountain of a kid who has received far more criticism than most should receive floats in a beautiful lefty hook to give Hope the lead. Now comes the tricky part, surviving the Calvin 3. Many Hope teams have tried, many have spectacularly failed. But not today, the damn thing stayed out. Then free-throws those hate inducing 15 foot shots, all of them went in.
Cue the celebration.
12 years in a row now Hope has won at least one game against Calvin. Surely the longest such streak in school history. Series stands at 96-88 with Hope winning 8 of the last 10 and with the ridiculous point total between them now at 108. Since Calvin swept the regular season in 2009, the two have split each year except last.
NCAA you ask? Well its complicated of course and probably actually better to just wait things out but.....yesterdays win actually made an at-large bid a possibility. Teams have received bids into the NCAA's with 7 and 8 in-region losses and an in-region win% north of 70% with a strong strength of schedule. With 2 wins next week and a win in the MIAA semi-final and the Pool C making loss in the championship game puts Hope 15-6 or .714 and a relatively strong but not CCIW strong strength of schedule. You would at least think they'd be in the conversation. As always I'd recommend winning the tournament and the auto-bid. Next week is really important to finish strong.
Speaking of MIAA tournaments, things have become a little crazier with Olivet beating Trine and Hope's win. Officially nothing is settled except Calvin and Hope will host a semi-final while Olivet, Trine and Adrian sort out the final two spots. Calvin and Hope will play a big role in determining tournament fates as each play Olivet and Trine next week. The inside tracks still probably belong to Trine and Adrian with Olivet needing to win one and hope Trine doesn't. What was kind of a boring straight forward looking season suddenly has an interesting finish.
Scoring and Interesting Stats:
Rebounding: has to be top of the list, the Knights came into this with the best margin in D3. Hope outrebounded them 41-33. I think I heard this was only the 2nd time that had happened this year.
Free-throw shooting: Calvin hurt themselves by going just 8-16 while Hope had a just slightly above their avg day of 19-26. Those 11 points were huge of course.
Turnovers: Not great, finishing with 18. Considering it was 11 at the half though Hope did a much better job keeping that under control the second half. After reviewing this a second time, many turnovers were the result of getting stuck with the ball in the middle of Calvin's defense. Still some shaky passing at times.
Ben Gardner: 16 points, 4 rebounds, 2 steals.........seriously I think he has super hero blood in his veins, he's been pretty incredible these last few games
Nate VanArendonk: 12 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists.......outstanding, many different things have made Hope better but none bigger than this guy.
Chase DeMaagd: 12 points, 3 rebounds.......kept Hope in the game with his late first half play
Nate Snuggerud: 11 points, 7 rebounds.....relatively quiet but knocked down those really big ft's that I couldn't watch in the games waning minutes.
Billy Seiler: 11 points, 9 rebounds......what doesn't show up here is defensive work, 37 grueling minutes
Alex Eidson: 11 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists.......also hit the first set of 'clinching' ft's, no pressure freshmen
You might notice these 6 guys add up to 73
Efficiency:
Estimated number of possessions: Hope 73 Calvin 71
No more than a handful each more than last time. Kind a weird one where the first half had more possessions but less scoring, while the 2nd half had more scoring, fewer possessions.
Offensive Efficiency: 99.52
Not great and the lowest since those back-to-back losses 3 weeks ago. However its quite an improvement over the first game which was an eff of 74. For this game the first half was 80 which looked an awful like the game in Grand Rapids while the 2nd half was a 120 rate. There's a good chance that 2nd half was the highest rate anyone has scored on Calvin this year in a half.
Defensive Efficiency: 99.15
This is an improvement over the 112 up at Calvin and just a touch above Hope's season average. First half was 92, second half 106. Feels weird to say it but the defense scraped out enough stops in the first half to keep this game from getting away like the first one.
Rebounding Efficiency:
Hope: 41.9% of available offensive rebounds
Calvin: 33.3% of available offensive rebounds
This is right around Hope's avg, maybe above it by only 1 rebound, this is below Calvin's season avg.
Really I think you have to call this an exceptional day and a dramatic turn around from the first meeting. Second chance points was 17-11 in Hope's favor. About 70% of the point difference between the two games can be explained by turning around the rebounding.
Moments or Keys to the Game:
There were so many:
Chase DeMaagd keeping Hope in the game with his end of first half effort.
Hope establishing a lead in the first 5 minutes of the second half.
The sequence of 4 straight 3's by Seiler, Brink, Snuggerud, Brink
Nate VanArendonk's left hook shot to take the lead with under a minute to play.
Grant Neil knocking the ball of a Calvin players leg to gain possession of the ball with the lead under a minute to play.
Making all the ft's in the last 5 minutes of the game.
My Game Ball Goes To:
Everyone, from Ben Gardner and Nate VanArendonk's great play all the way down the bench to Chris Ray being the first one up to lead the cheers. This whole team was in tune to prove to others and themselves they could do this. It was an inspiring thing to see from a Hope team.
Standings
Snuggerud - 5
Overway - 4
VanArendonk - 2
Eidson - 2
Seiler - 2
Gardner - 2
Byers - 1
DeMaagd - 1
Benson - 1
Neil -1
Everyone -1
Going Forward:
Its really impossible for me to put into words what this win meant for this team, I can only see what I observe from my seat way across the gym. But I have no idea I can only imagine and I bet it felt great. Prior to this, Hope's biggest win was probably beating Adrian when they were still 11-1, otherwise this season's been full of lots of close but disappointing losses to good teams. And of course the mother of all beat downs in this rivalry only 3 1/2 weeks ago. Since then they've appeared to improve, appeared to make changes to make themselves a better team. All of that was validated yesterday in a small 2 hour window of a much larger season.
The incredible effort and confluence of things that had to happen for Hope to win and only win by 3 is a testament to just how good I think Calvin really is. I expect Calvin to wrap up their Championship rather easily this week, so while Hope's 'in it' I really don't think they are. Hope's week brings chapter 2 of the 'redeem our embarrassment tour'. As bad as the first Calvin was the first Olivet game wasn't much better. Yesterday's win brings things back into play that seemed distant dreams only a couple weeks ago. Now its about continuing to improve and push towards that conference tournament. As good and as hard as Hope played yesterday they'll need to be even better 10 days from now in the MIAA Tournament.
Olivet comes to Holland Wednesday with the plain and simple need of having to win to keep their MIAA tournament hopes alive. This team beat Hope once and they could do it again. Wednesday 6 Sr's take their ceremonial last walk onto the DeVos Fieldhouse floor, its going to be emotional for those guys and not the easiest game to play.
Up Next: Me vs the inevitable crash coming from the lowering of my serotonin levels
Wed. February 13 Olivet at Hope, DeVos Fieldhouse
(I know you're disappointed there were no slaying the lion references, you can only go to that well once)
Friday, February 8, 2013
Calvin Preview
The what and where:
Calvin at Hope
3 p.m. DeVos Fieldhouse Holland, Michigan
This is the big satellite beaming game, it will be broadcast on WGVU and World Harvest Television. There are many gatherings around the country, I've heard these are a good time. You can find locations here.
It will probably look something like this inside, which is not what about 200 other D3 locations will look like Saturday. Probably.
Calvin sits atop the MIAA at 11-0, 2 games clear of Hope with a magic number of 1. They can clinch the MIAA Championship Saturday. Hope has clinched an MIAA Tournament spot and are 2 games clear of Trine, a win Saturday almost clinches the 2 seed and raises the hopes on tying for the title. A win also validates my efforts to follow this team more than I probably should.
Last meeting:
Calvin 75, Hope 49
box score
So what the hell happened?
Calvin's kind of good. One of the really unique things that has developed in this rivalry in the past decade is that these two teams spend a lot of time in the same gym watching each other or competing against each other. It affords an opportunity to watch the other guys more than you would any other opponent. This is basically the same Calvin team as the last couple years with additions and subtractions here and there, but the main characters are primarily the same. At no point in the last couple years had I seen Calvin play with such a focus and energy as that Wed. night in Grand Rapids. They were pretty close to unbeatable. From the moment the first basket went in the net to the final buzzer it was really all Calvin and they weren't going to lose that night.
What went well:
From my seat it looked as if everyone was able to get their jersey's on properly and all of their shoes were tied, hopefully without help. The bus didn't crash on the way to or from the game. But otherwise really nothing went well for Hope that night.
Offense vs Calvin:
Calvin is tall. I haven't actually looked into it but I would guess Calvin is one of the top 5 or 10 tallest teams in D3 and they play like it. Its been really hard for teams to score against them because you don't get much of anything close to the basket and very few second chances. Unless you are bombing jump shots in at a 60% clip or you can compete with them on the interior you probably aren't going to find much offensive success.
That's where these 3 guys come in: Nate Snuggerud, Nate VanArendonk, Brock Benson. The 3 of these guys combined for 5 points and 6 rebounds the last time they played, I called it embarrassing then and......well, yeah. Doubling this production would still be embarrassing. Simply put these 3 guys need to produce or it will probably be another long day.
Since the last game the two Nate's have re-entered the starting 5 and there isn't much doubt that Hope has had a much more pronounced focus of getting the ball in the paint to these 3 guys. If you've followed this blog or watched the games you've noticed Hope's been shooting the ball consistently over 50%, mostly because it isn't hard to do so when you take a lot of shots from 2 feet. Putting pressure on the interior has opened up the rest of the floor. Calvin will counter this by doubling the post which makes interior passing and passing out of the interior, critical.
Along with being tall, Calvin is also very long, those interior passes have a much narrower window. Passing has been somewhat hit or miss for Hope this year, they've had great passing games and terrible passing games. Lately its been good, but bad habits crept into the last game at Kzoo resulting in several poor turnovers. Hope has to protect the ball, the margin of error vs this team is pretty small you can't waste opportunities and help them out defensively.
Guard play. Hope got smoked here last time. Colton Overway did his very best super-hero effort to keep Hope in the last game. Colton was the guy in the movie who yells charge with the sword in hand and runs through the smokey forest only to get into the clearing and look behind him and no one followed him. He'll be in street clothes Saturday, which isn't a great thing. Since his injury Ben Gardner has been really good in his place so this is less of a scary thing than 2 weeks ago. Hope will be using 2 Freshmen point guards in the rivalry game, its at this point that I recommend increasing your charitable gift giving and hopefully the right basketball gods will take note.
Combined last time Seiler, Gardner and Eidson scored 8 points while just two of their opposing counterparts, Brink and Powell, combined for 29. That's a pretty large chunk of the final margin. If you want to add Tom Snikkers who's part guard mostly forward it was 42 points and that is your margin plus some.
Summary:
Cracking the 60 point barrier would be a pretty good target I think, that's happened 9 times for Calvin opponents but only 3 times in competitive games. They are 2-1 in those competitive games. That also might be somewhat of a pipe dream if Hope has trouble scoring on the interior.
Defense v Calvin:
I recommend it.
If you take anything even remotely positive from the last game which is excruciatingly difficult to do its that Hope was at least somewhat competent defensively in that last game. Now in order to believe that you have to believe that being somewhat competent meant holding a team to a relatively defensively decent 37% shooting in the second half of a game that really was not all that competitive.
That's it, that's all I have.
Brink, Snikkers, Powell. These are the 3 guys Hope should key on because the last game was Hope 49 these guys 42. In order for Hope to have a chance to win they're going to have to keep at least one of these guys in single figures. When that's happened this year, Tyler Kruis, Tyler Dykstra, Mickey DeVries and others have stepped in to fill that void and provided the missing offense. So they can't fall asleep in other areas. These guys are tough to stop if you provide little resistance.
Hope's been hit or miss defensively this year with most games being one good half, one bad half. The good half has to be incredibly good and the bad half has to be not so bad Saturday. I think the defense has improved a little bit though still vulnerable to some spectacular breakdowns. So far Calvin has had only 4 league games where they were controlled by their opponent. Twice vs Adrian who can play solid defense, once at Albion because of their Kresg mojo, and once at Trine because Trine really is a pretty decent defensive team. You might note 3 of those happened on the road. Calvin won all of those games because its a lot harder to stop them than it is for them to stop you. When Hope's good they're somewhere in between Adrian and those other two's good efforts, when they're bad they're hanging out with Alma.
Summary:
Hope must keep Calvin in the low 60's at minimum, anything above that and the probabilities of being able to score that many points on them really starts to decline. This is going to take nothing short of one of Hope's best defensive efforts of the year to do that. Anything above 60 and you start getting into having to have an unbelievable offensive day to beat them.
Rebounding:
These are the two best rebounding teams in the league, Calvin is one of the best rebounding teams in D3. Hope's not going to win this battle but they sure as heck have to be better than last time to have any chance. I'd recommend boxing out Mickey DeVries who grabbed 11 in the last game. Like all good teams it seems, Calvin's guards also find their way into some rebounds. Gardner and Eidson have been better at this lately, but keeping those guys from helping out could be key. Also need more than 6 from Hope's big guys, like a lot more than 6. Keeping this something less than a definitive win for Calvin would be good.
Intangibles:
If ever there was a game where home court environment had to play a part, this is probably it. The kids in this picture haven't had much to cheer about this year, most of them are on break this weekend. The Dew Crew up in Grand Rapids was like watching a litter of puppies getting a bath wondering what they had done wrong. 'A' game required, if this bunch even has an 'a' game
Summary, summary:
If you look at the MIAA standings this game has some important meaning, Calvin can clinch the outright MIAA championship with a win Saturday. If you have any competitive spark in your soul as a player you don't want that to happen on your home floor. A Hope win would at least make the final week of league play somewhat interesting and put some pressure on those other guys. Pressure they probably haven't felt.
The bigger picture would be a win changing the perspective on what's been a disappointing and kind of crazy season. A win validates the improvement, sets the stage for the league tournament, a loss just adds to the pile of disappointment.
Massey predicts a 71-70 win for Calvin. Kenneth nor his formula saw the first game. The result of that game should have been embarrassment enough for Hope to have a better more focused effort on Saturday. Yet there is a chance this one looks much like the last one, especially if Hope doesn't get better interior play and better defensive guard play.
I think I'd be happy here if Hope were in a position to win late in the game. A loss, well a loss to these guys always hurts, but it wouldn't be the worst thing to happen, it only closes the book for good on the MIAA Championship. Hope's NCAA Tournament chances are slim at best and are probably going to ride on winning the MIAA Tournament. A competitive close game would be ideal, win or lose.
Calvin at Hope
3 p.m. DeVos Fieldhouse Holland, Michigan
This is the big satellite beaming game, it will be broadcast on WGVU and World Harvest Television. There are many gatherings around the country, I've heard these are a good time. You can find locations here.
It will probably look something like this inside, which is not what about 200 other D3 locations will look like Saturday. Probably.
 |
| Best home game of the year, always |
Calvin sits atop the MIAA at 11-0, 2 games clear of Hope with a magic number of 1. They can clinch the MIAA Championship Saturday. Hope has clinched an MIAA Tournament spot and are 2 games clear of Trine, a win Saturday almost clinches the 2 seed and raises the hopes on tying for the title. A win also validates my efforts to follow this team more than I probably should.
Last meeting:
 |
| Very close to the view from my seat |
Calvin 75, Hope 49
box score
So what the hell happened?
Calvin's kind of good. One of the really unique things that has developed in this rivalry in the past decade is that these two teams spend a lot of time in the same gym watching each other or competing against each other. It affords an opportunity to watch the other guys more than you would any other opponent. This is basically the same Calvin team as the last couple years with additions and subtractions here and there, but the main characters are primarily the same. At no point in the last couple years had I seen Calvin play with such a focus and energy as that Wed. night in Grand Rapids. They were pretty close to unbeatable. From the moment the first basket went in the net to the final buzzer it was really all Calvin and they weren't going to lose that night.
What went well:
From my seat it looked as if everyone was able to get their jersey's on properly and all of their shoes were tied, hopefully without help. The bus didn't crash on the way to or from the game. But otherwise really nothing went well for Hope that night.
Offense vs Calvin:
 | |
| It might actually look that that. |
That's where these 3 guys come in: Nate Snuggerud, Nate VanArendonk, Brock Benson. The 3 of these guys combined for 5 points and 6 rebounds the last time they played, I called it embarrassing then and......well, yeah. Doubling this production would still be embarrassing. Simply put these 3 guys need to produce or it will probably be another long day.
Since the last game the two Nate's have re-entered the starting 5 and there isn't much doubt that Hope has had a much more pronounced focus of getting the ball in the paint to these 3 guys. If you've followed this blog or watched the games you've noticed Hope's been shooting the ball consistently over 50%, mostly because it isn't hard to do so when you take a lot of shots from 2 feet. Putting pressure on the interior has opened up the rest of the floor. Calvin will counter this by doubling the post which makes interior passing and passing out of the interior, critical.
Along with being tall, Calvin is also very long, those interior passes have a much narrower window. Passing has been somewhat hit or miss for Hope this year, they've had great passing games and terrible passing games. Lately its been good, but bad habits crept into the last game at Kzoo resulting in several poor turnovers. Hope has to protect the ball, the margin of error vs this team is pretty small you can't waste opportunities and help them out defensively.
Guard play. Hope got smoked here last time. Colton Overway did his very best super-hero effort to keep Hope in the last game. Colton was the guy in the movie who yells charge with the sword in hand and runs through the smokey forest only to get into the clearing and look behind him and no one followed him. He'll be in street clothes Saturday, which isn't a great thing. Since his injury Ben Gardner has been really good in his place so this is less of a scary thing than 2 weeks ago. Hope will be using 2 Freshmen point guards in the rivalry game, its at this point that I recommend increasing your charitable gift giving and hopefully the right basketball gods will take note.
Combined last time Seiler, Gardner and Eidson scored 8 points while just two of their opposing counterparts, Brink and Powell, combined for 29. That's a pretty large chunk of the final margin. If you want to add Tom Snikkers who's part guard mostly forward it was 42 points and that is your margin plus some.
Summary:
Cracking the 60 point barrier would be a pretty good target I think, that's happened 9 times for Calvin opponents but only 3 times in competitive games. They are 2-1 in those competitive games. That also might be somewhat of a pipe dream if Hope has trouble scoring on the interior.
Defense v Calvin:
I recommend it.
 | |
| Not actually a picture of Hope's defense, it only felt like that |
That's it, that's all I have.
Brink, Snikkers, Powell. These are the 3 guys Hope should key on because the last game was Hope 49 these guys 42. In order for Hope to have a chance to win they're going to have to keep at least one of these guys in single figures. When that's happened this year, Tyler Kruis, Tyler Dykstra, Mickey DeVries and others have stepped in to fill that void and provided the missing offense. So they can't fall asleep in other areas. These guys are tough to stop if you provide little resistance.
Hope's been hit or miss defensively this year with most games being one good half, one bad half. The good half has to be incredibly good and the bad half has to be not so bad Saturday. I think the defense has improved a little bit though still vulnerable to some spectacular breakdowns. So far Calvin has had only 4 league games where they were controlled by their opponent. Twice vs Adrian who can play solid defense, once at Albion because of their Kresg mojo, and once at Trine because Trine really is a pretty decent defensive team. You might note 3 of those happened on the road. Calvin won all of those games because its a lot harder to stop them than it is for them to stop you. When Hope's good they're somewhere in between Adrian and those other two's good efforts, when they're bad they're hanging out with Alma.
Summary:
Hope must keep Calvin in the low 60's at minimum, anything above that and the probabilities of being able to score that many points on them really starts to decline. This is going to take nothing short of one of Hope's best defensive efforts of the year to do that. Anything above 60 and you start getting into having to have an unbelievable offensive day to beat them.
Rebounding:
These are the two best rebounding teams in the league, Calvin is one of the best rebounding teams in D3. Hope's not going to win this battle but they sure as heck have to be better than last time to have any chance. I'd recommend boxing out Mickey DeVries who grabbed 11 in the last game. Like all good teams it seems, Calvin's guards also find their way into some rebounds. Gardner and Eidson have been better at this lately, but keeping those guys from helping out could be key. Also need more than 6 from Hope's big guys, like a lot more than 6. Keeping this something less than a definitive win for Calvin would be good.
Intangibles:
If ever there was a game where home court environment had to play a part, this is probably it. The kids in this picture haven't had much to cheer about this year, most of them are on break this weekend. The Dew Crew up in Grand Rapids was like watching a litter of puppies getting a bath wondering what they had done wrong. 'A' game required, if this bunch even has an 'a' game
Summary, summary:
If you look at the MIAA standings this game has some important meaning, Calvin can clinch the outright MIAA championship with a win Saturday. If you have any competitive spark in your soul as a player you don't want that to happen on your home floor. A Hope win would at least make the final week of league play somewhat interesting and put some pressure on those other guys. Pressure they probably haven't felt.
The bigger picture would be a win changing the perspective on what's been a disappointing and kind of crazy season. A win validates the improvement, sets the stage for the league tournament, a loss just adds to the pile of disappointment.
Massey predicts a 71-70 win for Calvin. Kenneth nor his formula saw the first game. The result of that game should have been embarrassment enough for Hope to have a better more focused effort on Saturday. Yet there is a chance this one looks much like the last one, especially if Hope doesn't get better interior play and better defensive guard play.
I think I'd be happy here if Hope were in a position to win late in the game. A loss, well a loss to these guys always hurts, but it wouldn't be the worst thing to happen, it only closes the book for good on the MIAA Championship. Hope's NCAA Tournament chances are slim at best and are probably going to ride on winning the MIAA Tournament. A competitive close game would be ideal, win or lose.
Thursday, January 17, 2013
Calvin 75 Hope 49
Box Score
Hope started Overway, Seiler, Eidson, Byers, Benson. Bench minutes were pretty equal at around 10 minutes between Ray, Gardner, Snuggerud, Holwerda, Wittenbach, Neil, VanArendonk. Really isn't much more to say is there.
Game Recap:
Somewhere on this blog thingy when talking about MIAA predictions I mentioned something about maybe seeing a little history made. This was not what I had in mind.
Hope got punked last night in a way I'm not sure I've ever seen, this was Hope's worst loss to Calvin since 1990. That day it was Steve Honderd, Bill Sall and bits and pieces of a future National Championship team a couple years away destroying all Hope (I kill me) 95-68 in an NCAA game. I was there and it was as much fun as it looks. The 49 points was the fewest Hope's scored against Calvin since 1952, that's 61 years. My mom was 7. Also the first year Queen Elizabeth of England was actually a Queen.
Calvin had a laser like focus tonight you usually don't see until the post-season. It began on the defensive end where Calvin stoned Hope for the first 6 1/2 minutes with zero fg's. Colton Overway finally hit one to make it 14-5, 40 seconds later Nate Snuggerud hit a 3 to cut the lead to 9, that was the last time it was under double-digits with 12 minutes still to play in the first half.
The Knights defense was so good every first-half Hope fg almost felt like a mistake, between those mistakes were numerous multiple possessions where Hope got nothing but shots blocked, balls stolen, turnovers and missed shots. Before to long the route was already on and the scoreboard revealed the painful truth, 43-19 and might have, should have been worse.
I'm not sure what you say to a team at halftime that's been so thoroughly whipped, it seems about all you can do is challenge your guys to compete, which Hope did. Hope came out the 2nd half and really pressured Calvin, trapping them a little and finally forcing some difficult shots. Hope's brightest, and only bright moment of play was a 12-2 run to start the half which brought the deficit down to 14. Within a couple minutes though it was back above 20 and really the last 10 minutes became about playing out the clock.
For a 20 point game there was still lots of good play, Tom Snikkers and Bryan Powell stroked shots with confidence and abandon like I really haven't seen them do in their 3 previous years at Calvin. Both teams seemed to take personal offense to anyone trying to score near the basket, there were several good blocks by both teams and good hard physical play. Remarkably Hope had to score the final 8 points to get the deficit to 26.
This one should sting.
There are only about maybe 5 D3 teams that could have competed with Calvin's first half. As if the stifling defense wasn't enough to contend with the Knights simply shot lights-out hovering around 60% for most of the half. I'm really not sure it had much to do with how Hope was or wasn't defending them. Sometime teams just have it and Calvin had it.
Hope's front-line was pretty much m.i.a. in this one. Between Snuggerud, Benson and VanArendonk it was 5 points and 5 rebounds combined. Only 6 shots attempted and one of those was a 3 pointer. Even if I'm generous and throw in Caleb Byers it was 9 and 9. If there's anything that could torpedo Hope's season its this, its a little embarrassing.
That 17 game road winning streak came to an end, I still believe no one has ever done that. It's 19 wins counting the two MIAA semi-final wins at Calvin in 2010.
The two most comparable losses that came to mind were the 2009 UW-Platteville NCAA game when Hope lost by 24 in a terrible mis-match and mis-seeding. In 2005 Hope lost at home to Albion 68-44 in the last time those two teams would play at the Holland Civic Center. Neither one of those two games saw a 24 point halftime deficit.
Big losses are pretty few and far between for Hope, in the 23 years I've been watching I can only recall maybe a handful.
Scoring and Interesting Stats:
FT's: Hate'em. It reared its ugly head in this one again with Hope going just 14-23. Seven of those misses came from guys who shoot 80 and 78 percent even after tonight. Evidence that some nights its just not yours.
About the only positive from this ugly box-score is that the 2nd half was mostly even, that is if you completely ignore that Hope had to score the last 8 points to make it so.
Colton Overway: 15 points, 3 rebounds, 4 assists........seemed to be the only guy able to get loose and get open for a shot.
air
well almost,
Josh Holwerda: 8 points, 3 rebounds..........had a nice put-back dunk off a missed layup. For having not played much this year he played well in his 10 minutes.
Efficiency:
Estimated number of possessions: Hope 66 Calvin 67
Calvin controlled the pace throughout this one, it was probably heading for the mid 70's but the Knights used most of the last 10 minutes to run the shot-clock. The first half was pretty deliberate with just 30 possessions each. Hope tried, with some success, to force the 2nd half pace.
Offensive Efficiency: 74.33
Hope's lowest output of the year beating their opening night performance at North Central. The first half was in the 60's which is just brutal. Second half only 80, which is also actually brutal. Calvin's done something like this to 5 other teams this year, Grace Bible, North Park, Kzoo, Wabash and Anderson, not great company.
Defensive Efficiency: 112.78
This is the 2nd highest of the season (Cornerstone), the first half was 135, the second 91. I really didn't see much about Hope's defense that was the first half culprit, Calvin just shot the ball great.
Rebounding Efficiency:
Hope: 27.3% of available offensive rebounds.
Calvin: 48.4% of available offensive rebounds.
I was really hoping Hope could be more competitive on the boards. I expected them to lose this battle because Calvin really is an excellent rebounding team. They really had their way in the first half which was 62-22, so Hope did sort of better the 2nd half. Second chance points was a whopping 19-5 advantage to Calvin.
That was all kind of depressing.
Moments or Keys to the Game:
Everything Calvin did pretty much turned to gold, but the first 5 minutes laid the foundation for their great first half. They just kept feeding off the defensive success and it eventually snowballed into something Hope couldn't control.
My Game Ball Goes To:
Colton Overway played really hard and gave a great effort. I don't know how many times he hit the floor but it always seemed to be hard.
Standings
Overway - 4
Eidson - 2
Snuggerud - 2
Seiler - 2
Byers - 1
DeMaagd - 1
VanArendonk - 1
Benson - 1
Gardner - 1
Going Forward:
I suppose in the long history of this rivalry Hope's been way overdue for something like this. In 23 years of seeing most of these I'm not so sure I've seen a Calvin team play so well at both ends of the floor for one half. I don't think I'm kidding when I say it could have been worse, they had 9 turnovers and still scored 43 with a 24 point lead.
This creates clear division between the leader and 'the rest' in the MIAA, a category Hope falls into with last nights performance. Hope can still make this interesting by winning their next 6 and making the return visit to Holland a chance to tie for the league lead. That seems a lot less likely after last night, Hope is clearly the more vulnerable team to the odd loss to someone else.
Saturday the next 'someone else' is Olivet and it won't be easy. Hope should be battered and bruised mostly in the ego and I think the Comets might give them more than they'd like. I've watched Olivet twice, Hope should physically pound them but coming off a loss like this and my memory of last years near debacle in that same gym, I'm really not sure that will happen. This could be a dangerous game, more dangerous than I'd like.
Up Next: In the perfect timing category, a 30 pack of Hamm's Special Light is on-sale at Meijer's this week....."From the clear blue waters". I won't lie, it was tempting.
Saturday, Jan 19 Hope at Olivet
Hope started Overway, Seiler, Eidson, Byers, Benson. Bench minutes were pretty equal at around 10 minutes between Ray, Gardner, Snuggerud, Holwerda, Wittenbach, Neil, VanArendonk. Really isn't much more to say is there.
Game Recap:
Somewhere on this blog thingy when talking about MIAA predictions I mentioned something about maybe seeing a little history made. This was not what I had in mind.
Hope got punked last night in a way I'm not sure I've ever seen, this was Hope's worst loss to Calvin since 1990. That day it was Steve Honderd, Bill Sall and bits and pieces of a future National Championship team a couple years away destroying all Hope (I kill me) 95-68 in an NCAA game. I was there and it was as much fun as it looks. The 49 points was the fewest Hope's scored against Calvin since 1952, that's 61 years. My mom was 7. Also the first year Queen Elizabeth of England was actually a Queen.
Calvin had a laser like focus tonight you usually don't see until the post-season. It began on the defensive end where Calvin stoned Hope for the first 6 1/2 minutes with zero fg's. Colton Overway finally hit one to make it 14-5, 40 seconds later Nate Snuggerud hit a 3 to cut the lead to 9, that was the last time it was under double-digits with 12 minutes still to play in the first half.
The Knights defense was so good every first-half Hope fg almost felt like a mistake, between those mistakes were numerous multiple possessions where Hope got nothing but shots blocked, balls stolen, turnovers and missed shots. Before to long the route was already on and the scoreboard revealed the painful truth, 43-19 and might have, should have been worse.
I'm not sure what you say to a team at halftime that's been so thoroughly whipped, it seems about all you can do is challenge your guys to compete, which Hope did. Hope came out the 2nd half and really pressured Calvin, trapping them a little and finally forcing some difficult shots. Hope's brightest, and only bright moment of play was a 12-2 run to start the half which brought the deficit down to 14. Within a couple minutes though it was back above 20 and really the last 10 minutes became about playing out the clock.
For a 20 point game there was still lots of good play, Tom Snikkers and Bryan Powell stroked shots with confidence and abandon like I really haven't seen them do in their 3 previous years at Calvin. Both teams seemed to take personal offense to anyone trying to score near the basket, there were several good blocks by both teams and good hard physical play. Remarkably Hope had to score the final 8 points to get the deficit to 26.
This one should sting.
There are only about maybe 5 D3 teams that could have competed with Calvin's first half. As if the stifling defense wasn't enough to contend with the Knights simply shot lights-out hovering around 60% for most of the half. I'm really not sure it had much to do with how Hope was or wasn't defending them. Sometime teams just have it and Calvin had it.
Hope's front-line was pretty much m.i.a. in this one. Between Snuggerud, Benson and VanArendonk it was 5 points and 5 rebounds combined. Only 6 shots attempted and one of those was a 3 pointer. Even if I'm generous and throw in Caleb Byers it was 9 and 9. If there's anything that could torpedo Hope's season its this, its a little embarrassing.
That 17 game road winning streak came to an end, I still believe no one has ever done that. It's 19 wins counting the two MIAA semi-final wins at Calvin in 2010.
The two most comparable losses that came to mind were the 2009 UW-Platteville NCAA game when Hope lost by 24 in a terrible mis-match and mis-seeding. In 2005 Hope lost at home to Albion 68-44 in the last time those two teams would play at the Holland Civic Center. Neither one of those two games saw a 24 point halftime deficit.
Big losses are pretty few and far between for Hope, in the 23 years I've been watching I can only recall maybe a handful.
Scoring and Interesting Stats:
FT's: Hate'em. It reared its ugly head in this one again with Hope going just 14-23. Seven of those misses came from guys who shoot 80 and 78 percent even after tonight. Evidence that some nights its just not yours.
About the only positive from this ugly box-score is that the 2nd half was mostly even, that is if you completely ignore that Hope had to score the last 8 points to make it so.
Colton Overway: 15 points, 3 rebounds, 4 assists........seemed to be the only guy able to get loose and get open for a shot.
air
well almost,
Josh Holwerda: 8 points, 3 rebounds..........had a nice put-back dunk off a missed layup. For having not played much this year he played well in his 10 minutes.
Efficiency:
Estimated number of possessions: Hope 66 Calvin 67
Calvin controlled the pace throughout this one, it was probably heading for the mid 70's but the Knights used most of the last 10 minutes to run the shot-clock. The first half was pretty deliberate with just 30 possessions each. Hope tried, with some success, to force the 2nd half pace.
Offensive Efficiency: 74.33
Hope's lowest output of the year beating their opening night performance at North Central. The first half was in the 60's which is just brutal. Second half only 80, which is also actually brutal. Calvin's done something like this to 5 other teams this year, Grace Bible, North Park, Kzoo, Wabash and Anderson, not great company.
Defensive Efficiency: 112.78
This is the 2nd highest of the season (Cornerstone), the first half was 135, the second 91. I really didn't see much about Hope's defense that was the first half culprit, Calvin just shot the ball great.
Rebounding Efficiency:
Hope: 27.3% of available offensive rebounds.
Calvin: 48.4% of available offensive rebounds.
I was really hoping Hope could be more competitive on the boards. I expected them to lose this battle because Calvin really is an excellent rebounding team. They really had their way in the first half which was 62-22, so Hope did sort of better the 2nd half. Second chance points was a whopping 19-5 advantage to Calvin.
That was all kind of depressing.
Moments or Keys to the Game:
Everything Calvin did pretty much turned to gold, but the first 5 minutes laid the foundation for their great first half. They just kept feeding off the defensive success and it eventually snowballed into something Hope couldn't control.
My Game Ball Goes To:
Colton Overway played really hard and gave a great effort. I don't know how many times he hit the floor but it always seemed to be hard.
Standings
Overway - 4
Eidson - 2
Snuggerud - 2
Seiler - 2
Byers - 1
DeMaagd - 1
VanArendonk - 1
Benson - 1
Gardner - 1
Going Forward:
I suppose in the long history of this rivalry Hope's been way overdue for something like this. In 23 years of seeing most of these I'm not so sure I've seen a Calvin team play so well at both ends of the floor for one half. I don't think I'm kidding when I say it could have been worse, they had 9 turnovers and still scored 43 with a 24 point lead.
This creates clear division between the leader and 'the rest' in the MIAA, a category Hope falls into with last nights performance. Hope can still make this interesting by winning their next 6 and making the return visit to Holland a chance to tie for the league lead. That seems a lot less likely after last night, Hope is clearly the more vulnerable team to the odd loss to someone else.
Saturday the next 'someone else' is Olivet and it won't be easy. Hope should be battered and bruised mostly in the ego and I think the Comets might give them more than they'd like. I've watched Olivet twice, Hope should physically pound them but coming off a loss like this and my memory of last years near debacle in that same gym, I'm really not sure that will happen. This could be a dangerous game, more dangerous than I'd like.
Up Next: In the perfect timing category, a 30 pack of Hamm's Special Light is on-sale at Meijer's this week....."From the clear blue waters". I won't lie, it was tempting.
Saturday, Jan 19 Hope at Olivet
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Milk Jug: Adrian 62 Siena Heights 40
Box Score
When I finally arrived about 5 minutes before the tip at Siena I was greeted with a near full parking lot at the generically named Siena Heights Gymnasium. Once inside it was apparent that yeah, this was probably a big deal to these people. A nice section of maybe 100 Siena students wore white t-shirts with the words "Our Town" written on them. While there were lots of Adrian students and fans there they sat all over the place and didn't coordinate to make any sort of opposing fan section.
The setting was kind of cozy, with all four sides surrounded by bleachers, I would estimate the crowd at between 1000 and 1200 with many people standing in the corners. There were open seats, I had no trouble finding one at mid-court even being late, but not many, I guess they prefer standing. For the most part though they'd probably consider this full.
The game itself tipped with Adrian and Siena trading missed shots, it was apparent early that both teams came to play defense and that scoring would be difficult. Adrian finally scored with an Adam Meier jumper 3 minutes into the game, they would never relinquish that lead. Adrian set a strong defensive tone and despite being a touch smaller began dominating the glass.
The rest of the first half had its moments of good play but it was mostly ragged and sometimes a little ugly. Had Adrian shot the ball just a little bit better it would have been no contest, but with a 3 pointer at the first half buzzer for Siena there was at least a small glimmer of hope for the Saints.
Siena hung on for a couple possessions in the second half before Adrian slammed the door with 3 straight baskets to go up 10, Siena would only get it under 10 one more time. With a combination of stifling defense and terrific rebounding Adrian just kept building the lead and it was pretty apparent with 10 minutes to play this wasn't happening for Siena. Adrian was just plain better at everything.
Rivalry?
Yes I'm sure. You can't share the same small town without being rivals of some kind. I probably just attended the least competitive Siena/Adrian game in the last 10 years. Here's the last few results:
Siena and Adrian are two programs on different plains of existence. Mark White is in year 4, with kids he recruited and a team that has established a tough defensive identity, they are looking to win the MIAA. Siena Heights is in year one of the Joe Pechota era and have been a struggling WHAC program for the better part of the last decade. They are a long way from the WHAC Championship teams of the 90's and early 2000's. This year they're heading for the bottom half of that conference again and that's a pretty ugly neighborhood to be hanging around in.
I left being a bit disappointed in the total lack of crowd interaction but I'm sure the score had much to do with that, it was really 1100 people watching this thing going on in front of them with almost total indifference. It was weird. About the only moment of the game that brought sparks was when Siena's Donovan Campbell, who plays tight-end on the football team, body checked Adrian's Cody Barnes into, on top of and over the scorer's table earning himself a well earned technical foul. Other than the refs, no one seemed to see it or what led up to that moment. It was really the only time in the game with any hint of animosity.
At the end I expected at least some kind of joyous Adrian celebration but it was really the team just sort of sauntering to center court after the handshakes where they were presented with the Milk Jug, the traveling trophy awarded to the winner of this game. They posed for a couple team pictures and that was it, off to the locker room lugging that thing on Sean Gallant's shoulders.
When I finally arrived about 5 minutes before the tip at Siena I was greeted with a near full parking lot at the generically named Siena Heights Gymnasium. Once inside it was apparent that yeah, this was probably a big deal to these people. A nice section of maybe 100 Siena students wore white t-shirts with the words "Our Town" written on them. While there were lots of Adrian students and fans there they sat all over the place and didn't coordinate to make any sort of opposing fan section.
The setting was kind of cozy, with all four sides surrounded by bleachers, I would estimate the crowd at between 1000 and 1200 with many people standing in the corners. There were open seats, I had no trouble finding one at mid-court even being late, but not many, I guess they prefer standing. For the most part though they'd probably consider this full.
The game itself tipped with Adrian and Siena trading missed shots, it was apparent early that both teams came to play defense and that scoring would be difficult. Adrian finally scored with an Adam Meier jumper 3 minutes into the game, they would never relinquish that lead. Adrian set a strong defensive tone and despite being a touch smaller began dominating the glass.
The rest of the first half had its moments of good play but it was mostly ragged and sometimes a little ugly. Had Adrian shot the ball just a little bit better it would have been no contest, but with a 3 pointer at the first half buzzer for Siena there was at least a small glimmer of hope for the Saints.
Siena hung on for a couple possessions in the second half before Adrian slammed the door with 3 straight baskets to go up 10, Siena would only get it under 10 one more time. With a combination of stifling defense and terrific rebounding Adrian just kept building the lead and it was pretty apparent with 10 minutes to play this wasn't happening for Siena. Adrian was just plain better at everything.
Rivalry?
Yes I'm sure. You can't share the same small town without being rivals of some kind. I probably just attended the least competitive Siena/Adrian game in the last 10 years. Here's the last few results:
- Adrian 77 Siena Heights 67
- Siena Heights 71 Adrian 65
- Siena Heights 48 Adrian 45
- Siena Heights 78 Adrian 71
- Siena Heights 72 Adrian 67
Siena and Adrian are two programs on different plains of existence. Mark White is in year 4, with kids he recruited and a team that has established a tough defensive identity, they are looking to win the MIAA. Siena Heights is in year one of the Joe Pechota era and have been a struggling WHAC program for the better part of the last decade. They are a long way from the WHAC Championship teams of the 90's and early 2000's. This year they're heading for the bottom half of that conference again and that's a pretty ugly neighborhood to be hanging around in.
I left being a bit disappointed in the total lack of crowd interaction but I'm sure the score had much to do with that, it was really 1100 people watching this thing going on in front of them with almost total indifference. It was weird. About the only moment of the game that brought sparks was when Siena's Donovan Campbell, who plays tight-end on the football team, body checked Adrian's Cody Barnes into, on top of and over the scorer's table earning himself a well earned technical foul. Other than the refs, no one seemed to see it or what led up to that moment. It was really the only time in the game with any hint of animosity.
At the end I expected at least some kind of joyous Adrian celebration but it was really the team just sort of sauntering to center court after the handshakes where they were presented with the Milk Jug, the traveling trophy awarded to the winner of this game. They posed for a couple team pictures and that was it, off to the locker room lugging that thing on Sean Gallant's shoulders.
Last years Milk Jug game
So, Adrian?
I think they are good. This team won at Wooster on Saturday, Wooster went out and kind of validated that win by beating one of the OAC favorites Baldwin-Wallace. For a team with 10 Freshmen, several who play quite a bit, they play Mark White's defense as if they've played it forever. I'm sure Mark would disagree.
Daryl Flemister and Sheldon Clay are almost clones to the departed Delano Collins and Dennis Mason from last year. Drew Torey brings good quickness and a nice 3 point shot, Ricky Jackson, Brad Hohman add depth on the blocks. They won't wow you, but they all seem to fit nicely into what Mark White is trying to do.
Offensively everything will go through Cody Barnes, Eric Lewis and Adam Meier. To me all 3 look improved from year ago and if Barnes and Lewis get loose the ball is likely going in the basket or at least towards the basket. As the year goes on I would think they'll try and establish more offense from some of the other guys, for now about 60% of the shots and 75% of the points are coming from these 3 guys. An off night or well defended night for any of the three will make things difficult but those 3 are going to carry this team as far as they can.
Defensively they looked in mid-season form, they just get it and always seem to be in good position. No shot ever seems to be uncontested and if it is the guilty party is coming out of the game quick. They dominated this team on the glass to the tune of 53-34 with 19 offensive rebounds on 41 misses. Holding any team to 40 points isn't all that easy, even bad offensive teams like Siena, you still have to be doing something good at that end of the floor to get there.
Between now and January Adrian has a bunch of games just like this. Teams they will be better than, teams they can defensively impose their will against, teams they should beat. I fully expect the crew I saw last night to be 11-0 or at worst 9-2 when they make their MIAA opening night trip to Calvin on Jan. 3. By then Calvin will likely be a top 20 team and will easily be the best opponent they've played outside of maybe Wooster. Two days latter they host Hope, those two games will define how involved the Bulldogs will be in the MIAA race. Come tournament time, yeah, these guys are going to be a pain in the neck again.
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