BOTM: 2017 March

March Baller of the Month: Ben Tubergen – GVSU

After leading Grand Valley State University to yet another Michigan Dodgeball Cup title, along with a strong showing at GVSU’s Blast from the Past tournament, Ben Tubergen earned himself “Baller of the Month”.  Ben has emerged this year as one of the most dangerous players in the league with a strong and accurate throw, to go along with good catching skills.  He has been a catalyst for GVSU’s offense so far this season, and will be a key to their success in a few weeks when they compete at Nationals 2017 in Lexington, KY.

I had the chance to chat with Ben after he won Baller of the Month.  Our conversation touches on a number of topics, from his mindset heading into Nationals, to his dodgeball career outside of the NCDA, to the controversy over what grade he is actually in.  I even ask him the ever-important question: “Chipotle or Qdoba?”.  Here is my interview with GVSU’s Ben Tubergen. Continue reading “BOTM: 2017 March”

MSU vs. GVSU Doubleheader Recap

Today in East Lansing, two Michigan schools took part in a double header that will likely be the last Michigan v. Michigan games prior to the Michigan Dodgeball Cup (MDC).

Michigan State played host to Grand Valley in the second doubleheader of the season for these two teams.

The results from the doubleheader are as follows:

MSU def GVSU 2-1 (OT)

GVSU def MSU 3-0

Here are my picks for the most notable players from today’s matches:

Continue reading “MSU vs. GVSU Doubleheader Recap”

Guess Who’s Back? Doubleheader Preview

The two top ranked teams in the NCDA square off in East Lansing this Saturday for a doubleheader showdown. Currently, GVSU leads the season series 2-1 (we don’t need to talk about the all-time series lead, just go read Kevin Bailey’s most recent article if you want to witness the bloodbath). This will likely be the only time any Michigan schools face off this semester before the Michigan Dodgeball Cup, so a strong performance Saturday for either team could make them a strong favorite to take home the cup on February 19th. Here’s a preview of the two teams and some predictions for who will come out victorious.

Continue reading “Guess Who’s Back? Doubleheader Preview”

GVSU’s victories in 1000 Matches

The data covered here only covers ranked matches played through the seven seasons of 2011 to 2017, specifically 2010-09-25 to 2016-10-10. In that time we’ve played 1002 ranked matches and recorded 1084 line item events. For the purposes of these articles, we’ll only cover those 1002 matches.

Of the 1002 ranked matches we’ve recorded, GVSU has won 89% of the time, going 146-18 including going 9-4 in Overtime. Whenever GVSU loses, it’s 90th percentile news.

I should note this winning tradition basically begins from their first year back in 2006, one of the most successful of any first year team. GVSU did have an undefeated season prior to complete record keeping started on 2010-09-25. Interestingly, GVSU’s winning tradition spans almost all member teams that have ever participated in the NCDA. They have recorded wins on all Member Teams save just a few:  Continue reading “GVSU’s victories in 1000 Matches”

MVEC Preview

     

Oh man, what do I even say about this tournament? It feels like ever since JMU hit the national scene about five years ago that the players between these two conferences have been clamoring for a regular season blowout tournament. Ok, maybe not a blowout, but people have been hoping that as the East Coast Conference has risen the teams over here would be able to face their Midwest counterparts during the regular season. There have been some regular season matchups before (BEAST and other various tournaments), but this marks the first time I can remember that multiple teams from either region have travelled the distance to the other. Saturday looks to be a barometer for a lot of teams heading into April and Nationals. Let’s take a look at the matchups.

Continue reading “MVEC Preview”

Mark Your Calendars for March 26th

Sean Smith and the Towson Tigers will play host to many of the top teams in the country on March 26th in the first ever "MVEC" tournament.
Sean Smith and the Towson Tigers will host many of the top teams in the country on March 26th in the first ever “MVEC” tournament.

In less than a month Towson will play host to one of the most anticipated East Coast tournaments in NCDA history.  The first ever MVEC (Michigan Versus the East Coast) will take place at Towson University on Saturday, March 26th. This tournament will come only a few weeks prior to Nationals, and it should be very telling of where teams stand leading up to the season’s final event.  Below I have listed the attending teams, a few storylines to follow, and the recently released tournament schedule.  Take a look:

 


Teams in attendance at MVEC:

#1 Grand Valley State
#3 Michigan State
#5 James Madison
#8 Towson
#11 Maryland
#17 Virginia Commonwealth

Continue reading “Mark Your Calendars for March 26th”

Reviewing the 2016 MDC

Grand Valley State University won the 2016 Michigan Dodgeball Cup with a 3-0 record.
Grand Valley State University won the 2016 Michigan Dodgeball Cup with a 3-0 record.

On Feb. 27th, Michigan State University hosted the annual Michigan Dodgeball Cup.  In attendance were all four Michigan schools: Central Michigan, Grand Valley State, Michigan State, and Saginaw Valley State.  The stakes were higher than ever, as all four teams were positioned in the top six of the NCDA Standings.  In fact, the schools had a combined record of 51-21 heading into the event, with exactly zero of those 21 losses coming at the hands of a team outside the state of Michigan.

The dominance of the Michigan Region is still alive and well, and anyone who may try to dispute that should take a look at that fact I just mentioned.  Michigan schools this season are a combined 30-0 against teams from other regions.  And there is a very real chance that at the end of the year, no non-Michigan team picks up a win over a Michigan Region team.  I highly doubt that has ever happened before. Continue reading “Reviewing the 2016 MDC”

Chaos Continues…

Who Benefits Most from the MDC & BEAST?

 

GVSU Dodgeball won the Michigan Dodgeball Cup on Feb. 27th.
GVSU Dodgeball won the Michigan Dodgeball Cup on Feb. 27th.

Anyone who follows the National Collegiate Dodgeball Association closely knows that saying this season has been confusing is an understatement.  There have been huge shifts in the NCDA Standings throughout the year, and as we prepare for them to come out on Tuesday, March 1st, there are certain to be some big changes in store.

This past weekend, the Michigan Region teams competed in the annual Michigan Dodgeball Cup hosted by Michigan State.  Over on the East Coast, the second half of their season finally kicked off, as five teams took part in the rescheduled BEAST V tournament held at James Madison.

Both of these tournaments involved some exciting match-ups, and both had upsets.  While we all are trying to recover from another stellar weekend of dodgeball, let me help pick up the pieces from this confusing set of tournaments by giving you my list of five teams that benefited most from this weekend of chaos:

Continue reading “Chaos Continues…”

2016 MDC Gonzalez Exchanges

The oldest collegiate dodgeball event is the Michigan Dodgeball Cup. This MDC will feature #1, 2, 4, 5 in the Gonzalez Standings.

Let’s start by comparing averages.

League Rating Average: 42.091 and a spread of 25.848
MDC Rating Average: 55.526 and a spread of 9.402
GVSU/CMU/MSU Rating Average: 57.690 and a spread of 1.272.

That top three is a huge fight of the top percentile; all Gonzalez ratings are relatively close and this triumvirate is fighting for 1/2/3 in the overall NCDA Ranking. The “predicted exchanges” do not have a high degree of predictability here, because there certainly is a difference between a technical upset and a statistically influential upset. GV/CMU, GV/MSU, CMU/MSU could go either way with the ratings being so close. There is a lot to gain and lot to lose. but events are rarely this influential.

Continue reading “2016 MDC Gonzalez Exchanges”

The Michigan Region’s Undeniable Parity

On Feb. 27th, four schools will battle it out in the most anticipated Michigan Dodgeball Cup of all-time.
On Feb. 27th, four schools will battle it out in the most anticipated Michigan Dodgeball Cup of all-time.

It is no secret that the Michigan Region has been the best region in the country for a long, long time.  In fact, the national champion has been a team from the Great Lakes State each of the past nine seasons.

In a way, I want to simply state that this season should be no different; as there is a chance the title game features two Michigan schools.  Historically, the Michigan Dodgeball Cup winner enters April as the favorite to win it all.  The difference between this season and seasons in the past is that there is an unbelievable level of parity surrounding the NCDA’s top region.  The Michigan Dodgeball Cup will take place on Feb. 27, and if you have been following the league at all this season, you know that it is going to be impossible to predict.

Here is an inside look at the incredibly confusing 2015-16 NCDA season in the Michigan Region:

 

Continue reading “The Michigan Region’s Undeniable Parity”

King of the Mountain Recap

This weekend Central Michigan University hosted the King of the Mountain dodgeball tournament.  At this event we saw schools from Michigan, Ohio, and even Wisconsin in attendance.  There were a lot of questions heading into the event, and I came away with quite a bit of insight on the teams that made the trip to Mt. Pleasant for a great tournament.  Below I have the scores from the tournament and some of my takeaways from the event as a whole: Continue reading “King of the Mountain Recap”