MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[almcguirejr]

Tonight was similar to the Ferris game because not all 5 starters were ready to play at game time.  It was 28-10 before Calvin thought maybe they start playing. There wern't a whole lot of positives.  Veltema was solid for a while.  Schuster looks like he may be able to help, he was active when he came in at least.  Calvin cut the lead to 1 a couple times but Grace always responed with a run to stretch it out.  Grace has a good team and Allen Durham ate our lunch inside and #13 was also very good.

I had to check if Urban Meyer was coaching when the Grace coach called time out with 45 seconds to go up 14.

[goodknight]

A great night to be a Calvin fan if soccer is your passion.
Couldn't make it to the VNA to see the Knights' opener, but this certainly was a signature win for Grace Bible. 
Congrats to the Tigers, and maybe we're in for some growing pains with the Knights.  Danny Rodts with 0 points and 3 fouls?  Ouch.  It's all uphill from here.

[oldknight]

A great night to be a Calvin fan if soccer is your passion.

The talk of Calvin fans at the conclusion of the game was "Things can only get better." Little did we know the solace would quickly come in the form of two huge wins on the soccer pitch.

The Grace Bible Tigers handed Calvin breakfast, lunch and dinner all rolled into one meal, purring (rather than growling) their way to a well deserved 15 point win. It wasn't surprising to see Grace in midseason form in this, their ninth game since their opener on October 28. Make no mistake about it, Grace is a well coached, veteran team that finished last season at 30-8 including a win over D2 Ferris State. What was mystifying was the dear-in-the-headlights look from a player as talented and experienced as Rodts, a 0 for 6 free throw perfomance by Mantel, and 4 for 23 from the arc by Calvin players whose last name was not Veltema.

Calvin repeatedly got beaten to loose balls, and was outrebounded 43-36, a performance that surely must gall KVS who often expresses the opinion that rebounding is the single most important statistic in basketball. My opinion has long been that shooting percentage is more important and Grace won that stat too, out shooting the Knights 49% to 39%. To me, shooting percentage is largely a measure of the quality of the shots being taken and Grace--using an offense reminiscent of Princeton's high post with a variety of back door cuts--often found the defender just a half step behind the play. It was actually a pleasure to watch Grace run an offense as well as they did.

A couple of Calvin's least experienced players seemed to be the most game ready hoopsters KVS had tonight. Snikkers was solid and Powell--who struggled against Ferris last week--looked terrific on offense despite going 0-3 from the arc. He easily broke down his defender off the dribble, penetrated the lane and then either hit a tough floater or dished to an unguarded defender. The one to Mantel in the second half was a thing of beauty and the kind of play you don't often see made by a Calvin player.

[sac]

Finishing off the scores

Wheaton 54 Trine 39


League starts out 3-8.......<sigh>, interesting matchup tommorrow, Albion vs DePauw

[Happy Calvin Guy]

Grace Bible really came to play tonight.  Quite a different team than the one we played last year at the Christian High gym.  I give their offense credit more than I blame our defense--their ball movement was great, the backdoor cuts were crisp, and the shooting was stellar. 

I actually have a different reaction than everyone who seems so disappointed in the Calvin effort tonight.  I see great promise and depth on this Calvin team, something I wasn't so sure about going into the season.  Big steps forward tonight for Schuster, Powell, and Haverdink.  Schuster seemed more assertive and Powell had some (3?) great floaters that went down.  Other than two out of control turnovers late in the second half, Brad Schnyders continues to impress.  Quick, aggressive, great finisher and still the biggest pleasant surprise on the team so far.  Veltema is just a great shooter and showed it again tonight.  We know Mantel's a better free throw shooter than 0-for-6, not worried there. 

Now, what can be improved?  Discipline on offense--when Grace went out to a quick double digit lead, we started throwing up threes early in the shot clock.  There were still 36 minutes left in the game!  And toughness on the boards.  I'd like to see us develop some nasty there.  Overall, I just give credit to Grace tonight.  Kudos to the Knights for fighting back from 16 down to pull within 1.  GBC just seemed well coached and played better as a team.  Hopefully we can salvage one tomorrow in the consolation game.  Go Knights!

[oldknight]

Grace Bible really came to play tonight.  Quite a different team than the one we played last year at the Christian High gym.  I give their offense credit more than I blame our defense--their ball movement was great, the backdoor cuts were crisp, and the shooting was stellar.  

I actually have a different reaction than everyone who seems so disappointed in the Calvin effort tonight.  I see great promise and depth on this Calvin team, something I wasn't so sure about going into the season.  Big steps forward tonight for Schuster, Powell, and Haverdink.  Schuster seemed more assertive and Powell had some (3?) great floaters that went down.  Other than two out of control turnovers late in the second half, Brad Schnyders continues to impress.  Quick, aggressive, great finisher and still the biggest pleasant surprise on the team so far.  Veltema is just a great shooter and showed it again tonight.  We know Mantel's a better free throw shooter than 0-for-6, not worried there.  

Now, what can be improved?  Discipline on offense--when Grace went out to a quick double digit lead, we started throwing up threes early in the shot clock.  There were still 36 minutes left in the game!  And toughness on the boards.  I'd like to see us develop some nasty there.  Overall, I just give credit to Grace tonight.  Kudos to the Knights for fighting back from 16 down to pull within 1.  GBC just seemed well coached and played better as a team.  Hopefully we can salvage one tomorrow in the consolation game.  Go Knights!

I agree with your assessment. There is not a talent deficit at Calvin--only an experience deficit, something reflected in VandeStreek's post game comments:

"We're just inexperienced as a group," Calvin coach Kevin Vande Streek said of his teams 0-1 start to the year.  "The only way we can get that experience is to come out and play, and unfortunately we played a good team, and they were better than us."

[calvin66]

Inexperienced?  Mantel, Rodts, Veltema, Salo.  That looks like experience to me.

[Dark Knight]

Inexperienced?  Mantel, Rodts, Veltema, Salo.  That looks like experience to me.

If those four could play all 200 minutes, we'd have an amazing team.

[oldknight]

Inexperienced?  Mantel, Rodts, Veltema, Salo.  That looks like experience to me.

There's a reason my prior post highlighted VandeStreek's limiting statement "as a group" when he mentioned a lack of experience.  The implication of those three words is that the 2009-10 edition of the Calvin Knights has little experience in playing together. Several new players have been thrust into roles of importance. By contrast, Grace's 2009-10 team (which has already played 9 games this year) is virtually the same team, playing the same roles, as the one that played 38 games together last year. Looking at last night's game on that level, the difference in the two teams was striking.

[KnightSlappy]

Grace is a really well coached team. They ran their offense perfectly, and were active on defense, but Calvin still doesn't have an excuse for losing that game, especially by that score. I'm sure this team will get better as the season goes on, they still have several players still learning the offense and defense.

I agree with the others, Calvin has lots of talent, but they don't have lots of experience, especially experience playing together. I remarked to ziggy during the game that it looked like the Knights were playing 1 on 5 on offense for much of the game. It did look like the defense stepped it up in the second half, at least for certain stretches, and that was encouraging to me.

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[fire3rain3]

Grace definitely came to play and the fact that they were already in full season swing was very apparent as Calvin came out very "flat" in their first official game.  As others have stated, I believe that they will get better from this point gaining experience as a group. Perhaps it will be similar to last year when Calvin seemed to be playing its best basketball at the end of the year (until the last tournament game...). Let's hope the Knights can pull out a big W today!

[AlwaysHope]

Inexperienced?  Mantel, Rodts, Veltema, Salo.  That looks like experience to me.

By contrast, Hope's 14 varsity players have a grand total of 10 years of varsity experience, including a total of 2 years in a starting role for an entire season (Bunn and Bowser last year)!   Relative to Hope, Calvin has the much more experienced team.  That's why I was surprised that they were tied for first place in pre-season predictions.

Also, Hope's two seniors have a total of 2 years varsity experience with 0 games started, in limited roles last year.  Six of the players have never played at the varsity level, including three freshmen and three who played on the JV team last year.

[Knight In The Stan]

Any insight into today's Calvin game from those who were there?

[realist]

Calvin 85 Lake Forest 75.
Learned some lessons yesterday, and made some changes today. 

[Dark Knight]

Any insight into today's Calvin game from those who were there?

I was at the game, but I only got a glance at the box score before it changed over to the Grace Bible - Davenport game. However Calvin did shoot over over 50% from the floor and 56% I think from three point-range. (They would apparently have improved their point total by stepping back behind the arc on free-throws.)  

Lake Forest also shot a high percentage, thanks in part to a number of layups and points in the paint. Calvin's suffered a number of defensive slip-ups and breakdowns typical of having so many inexperienced players in the rotation. But they played hard, scored lots of points, and won the game.

Mantel was pretty quiet during the first half, but he really stepped up in the second and took it to the hoop a number of times. He was the game's leading scorer with 23. Rodts and a couple of other knights also drove to the hoop a number of times, and between them they got a number of Lakers in foul trouble.

Lake Forest looked like a pretty decent team, with good offensive flow, passing, rebounding, etc. Calvin looked like a team with potential but a work in progress.