MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[Stinger]

As a side note I would very much like to be in the room when Kzoo AD Kristen Smith explains to Jay what it takes to earn an NCAA bid at this level after having spent the last 30 years of his coaching career in D1 and D2.

Take a coach with no prior experience at the D3 level either as a coach or as a player, and add to that the fact that he has prior experience as a head coach at both the D1 and D2 levels on his résumé (together with a certain amount of success at both), and you can't help but wonder what's going on in the back of his mind as he accepts this job. Given the disdain in which D3 is regarded by the scholarship levels, and the general sense that D3 is a coaching steppingstone rather than a destination (unless you're D3 born and bred, as it were), does he feel as though he's been relegated to the minor leagues in his mid-'50s?

Perhaps he's one of those coaches for whom basketball is basketball, regardless of the level, and he views this as simply an opportunity to sit first chair again for a college program. For Kalamazoo's sake, I hope that this is the case. On the other hand, for a lot of coaches with that kind of a career path the sentiment behind this move might be akin to the opinion expressed by Satan in Book One, Line 263 of Milton's Paradise Lost. 

Or could it be that of Achilles in Homer's Odyssey 11.489-91?

Both of which could explain his quick departure from GVSU?

http://www.mlive.com/chippewas/index.ssf/2009/01/excmu_coach_jay_smith_resurfac.html

"He still stomps to get his players' attention..."  Yeah, but does he flop on the floor on his back waving his arms and legs in a Haklin-esque manner?    This could be a fun season!  I kinda miss Joe.

We all miss Joe. 

[sac]

Article from this past January about Jay Smith and his playing days at Mio-Au Sable.  http://www.mlive.com/sports/bay-city/index.ssf/2016/02/all-time_greats_mios_jay_smith.html

I get a kick out of the poll at the bottom asking who the best Bay City area basketball player of all-time was.  The "winner" I guess is from Mio which is 74 miles away from Bay City and it isn't Jay Smith.   Eric DuFort's name makes an appearance on that list, he played at Albion a number of years ago.

[Stinger]

Article from this past January about Jay Smith and his playing days at Mio-Au Sable.  http://www.mlive.com/sports/bay-city/index.ssf/2016/02/all-time_greats_mios_jay_smith.html

I get a kick out of the poll at the bottom asking who the best Bay City area basketball player of all-time was.  The "winner" I guess is from Mio which is 74 miles away from Bay City and it isn't Jay Smith.   Eric DuFort's name makes an appearance on that list, he played at Albion a number of years ago.

Ty McGregor was a great HS player.  Mio won the '89 Class D title on his back.

[Knight2Day]

Kevin Vande Streek has been replaced as the head coach of the Calvin Knights' softball team.

It's because he couldn't do as many substitutions as he would have liked, he decided it wasn't for him

[sac]

Albion's schedule
http://www.gobrits.com/sports/mbkb/2016-17/schedule


Sneaky tough I'll call it.

[TUAngola]

Tristan Upchurch 2016 6'1 PG Maryville, TN commits to Trine.  Ranked #31 Sr. in state of Tennessee.

[SBell]

So Trine's two highest rated recruits are both point guards?

[sac]

Doug Bradfield of Alma is playing in the Lansing area's Moneyball Pro-Am this summer.   DeShae Doll a local kid attending Albion but did not play last year is also playing.   New this year is a number of guys from the Univ. of Michigan are playing joining the usual mix of Michigan State players and other local college players and graduates.   Rosters and schedule http://moneyballsportswear.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Rosters-color-2.pdf

Thursday nights at Aim High on Lansing's Southwest side just past I-96/I-69 interchange at Lansing Rd.  Free basketball if you get bored.


Here's MSU bound Freshmen Miles Bridges clowning around, apparently he put on a show tonight.   
https://twitter.com/MilesBridges01/status/748714972247711744

[KnightSlappy]

Ken Pomeroy has an interesting look at how coaches treat players in various levels of foul trouble. The halftime divide is very strange. Coaches treat players with 2 fouls in the first half much more conservatively than they do players with 3 fouls early in the second half.

http://kenpom.com/blog/foul-trouble-as-defined-by-coaches/

The visual representation is terrific.

[sac]

I wouldn't mind seeing data for guys who have two first half fouls, don't sit and at what point in the game they pick up their 3rd.   Does sitting them earlier give them a higher probability of being available late in the game, ie "crunch time", or does it not matter?



Very hard for Kenpom to quantify how much of a defensive liability a player in foul trouble becomes.  Wouldn't it be just as bad for your team to leave a player in the game who is going to back off on defense to avoid a 3rd foul and doesn't that defensive liability justify sitting a player over keeping him from getting his 3rd?

[pointlem]

Ken Pomeroy has an interesting look at how coaches treat players in various levels of foul trouble. The halftime divide is very strange. Coaches treat players with 2 fouls in the first half much more conservatively than they do players with 3 fouls early in the second half.

http://kenpom.com/blog/foul-trouble-as-defined-by-coaches/

The visual representation is terrific.

Very interesting, KnightSlappy.

Note that, with 19:59 remaining in a game, a player with three fouls is much more likely to be playing than is a player with two fouls with but two more seconds remaining.  The 20-minute mark looms large in coaches' mind (thanks to our base 10 number system, yes?)

And consider: Imagine that basketball, like hockey, had three periods. Would we then see players with two fouls brought back into the lineup at the start of the second period (i.e., after 13.3 minutes instead of 20 minutes of play)?

[TUAngola]

So Trine's two highest rated recruits are both point guards?

...that is my concern...not much height at all in this years recruiting class.  Small ball is all the rage now but golly we're going to get pounded on the defensive end.

[KnightSlappy]

I wouldn't mind seeing data for guys who have two first half fouls, don't sit and at what point in the game they pick up their 3rd.   Does sitting them earlier give them a higher probability of being available late in the game, ie "crunch time", or does it not matter?



Very hard for Kenpom to quantify how much of a defensive liability a player in foul trouble becomes.  Wouldn't it be just as bad for your team to leave a player in the game who is going to back off on defense to avoid a 3rd foul and doesn't that defensive liability justify sitting a player over keeping him from getting his 3rd?

This a chicken and egg question that's hard to answer right now. Would players act like they're in foul trouble with 2 in the first half if coaches stopped treating it that way with the automatic benching?

I mentioned to Pomeroy on the twitters that I'd like to see the same graph with foul-out expectancy on the y-axis and he responded saying that he's going to get to stuff like that in the series. That's the kind of information that would actually tell us what "foul trouble" is.

[sflzman]

Alma's press release on their recruiting class:

http://goalmascots.com/sports/mbkb/2015-16/releases/20160707crccwz

[sac]

Pretty sure recruiting is wrapped up, there's always a straggler or two late in the summer but we rarely hear about them.  I went back and looked at the last 3 classes using Steve Bell's All-State teams.

2014
Dante Hawkins, Hope  Class A 4th team
Jason Beckman, Alma  Class C 3rd team
Luke VanBoxel, Calvin  Class C 3rd team
Brooks Hyble, Alma  Class D 3rd team
Kevin Gamble, Alma  Class D 5th team

Bell didn't have Alma's Doug Bradfield on any of his Class A teams.  VanBoxel's only played in one varsity game, Hyble none.  Hawkins, Beckman and Gamble are important pieces of those teams.

2015
DeShae Doll, Albion   Class A 9th team**
Alex Dykema, Kalamazoo  Class A 10th team
Darek Ditto, Trine  Class A 11th team
TraVon Johnson, Adrian Class B 3rd team
Jaylin Fordham, Albion Class B 5th team
Dennis Towns, Hope  Class B 7th team
Preston Huckaby, Calvin  C  3rd team

Doll is enrolled at Albion but didn't play this past season, haven't heard if he'll play this Winter.  All but Hope's Dennis Towns saw some varsity action this year with Johnson and Fordham playing bigger roles as Fr. 


2016
Luke Lamereaux, Alma Class A 5th team
Jason Bur, Albion  Class A 7th team
Ben Ritsema, Hope Class A 10th team
Riley Lewis, Hope  Class B 1st team
Steve Harvey, Alma  Class B 7th team
Aquavious Burks, Albion Class C 2nd team
Shae Somers, Trine Class C 3rd team
Tony DeWitte, Calvin Class C 5th team
Jared Long, Alma Class C 6th team
Preston Laketa, Alma Class C 6th team
Derrick DeVries, Calvin  Class C 6th team
Aaron Saenz, Alma Class C 9th team

Not included in 2016 is Mitch Takens Class B 7th team who will be attending Calvin but not playing basketball.

Fair to say probably half these guys will see significant time this Winter,  Bur and Burks will play for Albion, Burks probably a lot as he might slide into the "Trevelle Oaks" roll.  DeVries and DeWitte will absolutely dePlay for deCalvin.  I can't see a scenario where Lewis doesn't play a lot for Hope, I don't know enough about Ritsema but Hope has open spots for 6-4 wings.   Somers might get a seat on the bench for Trine but few minutes given Trine's depth chart at PG, he'd really have to impress to play a lot which he just might do.  Alma doesn't need a lot of immediate help but I'd expect 2 or 3 of these guys to play some.  The departure of Jason Beckman leaves a pretty big hole to be filled and a Fr. just might fill it.   With 5 players on Bell's all-state Alma had a very solid class.


We've gone from 5 players to 7 players to 12 players on Steve Bell's All-state lists ending up at MIAA schools.  Its one reason why I'm optimistic the next couple years are going to continue to be very competitive around the league.  The only real thing missing though is size, and that will make it hard to compete outside the league maybe.