MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[Happy Calvin Guy]

Quincy Winkle of Potter's House has committed to Calvin University. He's the son of NCAA Division III 2000 Player of the Year Aaron Winkle. Never can have too many Winkles.

It seems that we keep getting more of them as we age.

Don't we already have a Winkle who can light up the board -- although he "is still learning to play defense," according to Sall? Is Trevin Winkle related to any of the other Winkles?

I believe the short answer is yes, though some more directly than others. Jeff Febus kind of went through the Winkle family tree during a recent broadcast and apparently Marcus Bult's mom is part of it too.

If I'm not mistaken Quincy and Trevin would be second cousins.

[sac]

This has literally been Dutch Bingo.

[ziggy]

Quincy Winkle of Potter's House has committed to Calvin University. He's the son of NCAA Division III 2000 Player of the Year Aaron Winkle. Never can have too many Winkles.

It seems that we keep getting more of them as we age.

Don't we already have a Winkle who can light up the board -- although he "is still learning to play defense," according to Sall? Is Trevin Winkle related to any of the other Winkles?

I believe the short answer is yes, though some more directly than others. Jeff Febus kind of went through the Winkle family tree during a recent broadcast and apparently Marcus Bult's mom is part of it too.

If I'm not mistaken Quincy and Trevin would be second cousins.

Yeah I think it is something like this. Add in former Calvin women's basketball star Lisa Winkle and I think they are all related but not as closely as you might expect from sharing a last name.

[sac]

Hope 74  Adrian 60 F

Hope took care of the Bulldogs with a gradual pull away from midway first half or so.  Adrian made a couple decent runs to get the score around 7 but this one was played in double-digit territory for the majority of the last 30 minutes.

Adrian is a struggling team and they were tonight what they've been all year, a bad 3-pt shooting team, just 4-18 on the night and that will barely damage their 26% season showing.  Personnel wise Adrian is alot like Hope, they've had to deal with injuries all year and they look way behind the development curve.  Kendal Bellamy has a big brace on one knee and isn't the same bouncy ouncy fun fun fun player of a couple years ago.  For some reason Kendall Crisman only gets 15 minutes of playing time, Victory Sheffey just didn't look right and De'Ovian Price just can't do everything. 

For Hope's part, weird kind of night collectively played pretty well as a team, but no one really stood out.  Some nice individual plays here and there that will make a highlite reel or two.  But, I look at this and think how did they only win by 14 and only score 74.  Just weird.   Hope practically nailed all of their season averages.   Hope went a bit deeper into the bench again, still playing without Wiegerink, Nocek or Schoonveld.

Hope:  Thomas 19, McKenzie 15, Wourman 12
Adrian:  Price 18, Crisman 11

In the basketball is weird category, Hope had something like a  1-22 3pt shooting stretch from the entirety of the Calvin game through the first part of the Albion game, and then went on a 12-16 stretch through halfway of the first half of this one.

Hope's Ben Wagar is now 8-11 on the season and 7-8 in MIAA play from behind the 3pt line.   



Hope's next 5 games are Alma, @Kzoo, Albion, @Alma, @Adrian before Trine comes to DeVos on Feb 8.  The Thunder have to play @Hope and @Calvin that week.   If Hope can get to 8-2 for those final two weeks and let the chips fall where they may I'd be fine with that.

[HOPEful]

Hope's next 5 games are Alma, @Kzoo, Albion, @Alma, @Adrian before Trine comes to DeVos on Feb 8.  The Thunder have to play @Hope and @Calvin that week.   If Hope can get to 8-2 for those final two weeks and let the chips fall where they may I'd be fine with that.

I have a voice on both shoulders telling me opposite information, and I can't disagree with either.

On one shoulder, I'm reminded of how high hopes were in November and how bad things have gone. 9-7 was certainly not the goal for this point in the season. Embarrassing losses to Hanover, Manchester, Babson, and most obviously, Calvin have to have one questioning everything surrounding this team...

On the other shoulder, I'm reminded that the team was without their pre-season All-American much of this year and that even upon his return, is slowly getting back to the form they were in before his injury. They should have won at Trine. And the game against Calvin was a statistical anomaly that will not be repeated (Calvin could certainly clobber Hope next month, but I'm willing to bet it won't be by shooting 76% from the field and 80% from 3 in the first half or by holding Hope to 24% and 0% respectively. As bad as things may have gotten, this team still appears to be at worst the third best team in the conference. If Evan can continue to improve and get back to his old self while the rest of the offense improves around him, there is a glimmer of hope that this team could still make a run in the MIAA tournament and beyond.

At this point, the only way Hope is making it to the NCAA tournament is by winning the MIAA tournament. There's a lot of basketball between now and February 22nd. As you said, if Hope can get to 8-2 for those final two weeks and let the chips fall where they may, I too would be fine with that.

[Flying Dutch Fan]

I think there is also a learning curve Hope is going through which has brought a lot of new* players to the floor and in some cases to the forefront. 

* - by new I'm referring to freshman, as well as a number of sophomores who averaged less than 3 minutes per game last season (Wagar, Cheaney, Quillan, Nocek) and even senior Harris Hawkins (who had a total of 24 min prior to this season)

So these so called new players, have logged 45% of the floor time for Hope.  And yes, as the season goes on they become "less" new as they gain experience - like the old saying "they aren't frehman anymore".  But some of them - Wagar for one example - have been "thrown" into new roles of late due to the continuing injury issues (what Hope fan wasn't holding their breath through halftime with what looked to be an ankle issue for Quillan - but he played well in the 2nd half).  Wagar has played 65 minutes this season, 40 of those in the last 2 games which he has started.

Hope has had 9 different players start 2 or more games, and only 2 of them (Dykhouse and Quillan) start all 16 games.  I guess my point is that with all of those changes/injuries/"new" players/changing lineups it is not surprising to see Hope where they are record wise.  It would appear that this team is gradually creeping back toward what they aspired to be in November.

[wiz]

I think there is also a learning curve Hope is going through which has brought a lot of new* players to the floor and in some cases to the forefront. 

* - by new I'm referring to freshman, as well as a number of sophomores who averaged less than 3 minutes per game last season (Wagar, Cheaney, Quillan, Nocek) and even senior Harris Hawkins (who had a total of 24 min prior to this season)

So these so called new players, have logged 45% of the floor time for Hope. And yes, as the season goes on they become "less" new as they gain experience - like the old saying "they aren't frehman anymore".  But some of them - Wagar for one example - have been "thrown" into new roles of late due to the continuing injury issues (what Hope fan wasn't holding their breath through halftime with what looked to be an ankle issue for Quillan - but he played well in the 2nd half).  Wagar has played 65 minutes this season, 40 of those in the last 2 games which he has started.

Hope has had 9 different players start 2 or more games, and only 2 of them (Dykhouse and Quillan) start all 16 games.  I guess my point is that with all of those changes/injuries/"new" players/changing lineups it is not surprising to see Hope where they are record wise.  It would appear that this team is gradually creeping back toward what they aspired to be in November.

Calvin's freshmen and sophomores have accumulated 56% of the total minutes played so far this season.

[wiz]

https://www.westmichiganballers.com/news/calvin-university-trio-of-freshmen-play-more-like-veterans?fbclid=IwAR3rZRvDNSB7FzBjo6WF0XswagUuBkPhj2hKiHl7OeHSr22Hmf6ViA9Yh2k&mibextid=Zxz2cZ

[oldknight]

Probably not Calvin's best game of the season Wednesday night in their 74-65 win, but I must say Kalamazoo looked better than a win 3-win team to me. After a ten point half-time lead, followed by equal play between the two squads the opening five minutes of the second frame, Matt Ambrose exploded to score the next 14 points for the Knights, providing his team with a 20 point cushion going into the final 10 minutes of play. Calvin's youth and inexperience showed down the stretch as they never really put the game away, but credit to the Hornets. Ambrose led with 21, followed by Ressler and Overway netting 14 and 13 respectively. Kalamazoo's zone defense did an excellent job of keeping Egekeze under control, as he was limited to 4 points. On to Angola.

[Flying Dutch Fan]

I think there is also a learning curve Hope is going through which has brought a lot of new* players to the floor and in some cases to the forefront. 

* - by new I'm referring to freshman, as well as a number of sophomores who averaged less than 3 minutes per game last season (Wagar, Cheaney, Quillan, Nocek) and even senior Harris Hawkins (who had a total of 24 min prior to this season)

So these so called new players, have logged 45% of the floor time for Hope. And yes, as the season goes on they become "less" new as they gain experience - like the old saying "they aren't frehman anymore".  But some of them - Wagar for one example - have been "thrown" into new roles of late due to the continuing injury issues (what Hope fan wasn't holding their breath through halftime with what looked to be an ankle issue for Quillan - but he played well in the 2nd half).  Wagar has played 65 minutes this season, 40 of those in the last 2 games which he has started.

Hope has had 9 different players start 2 or more games, and only 2 of them (Dykhouse and Quillan) start all 16 games.  I guess my point is that with all of those changes/injuries/"new" players/changing lineups it is not surprising to see Hope where they are record wise.  It would appear that this team is gradually creeping back toward what they aspired to be in November.

Calvin's freshmen and sophomores have accumulated 56% of the total minutes played so far this season.

True - but Calvin's FR & SO have been playing those minutes more consistently since the start of the season, where Hope (due to continupous injury issues) has had to elevate players this late in the season - that really was my point

[HOPEful]

So these so called new players, have logged 45% of the floor time for Hope...

Calvin's freshmen and sophomores have accumulated 56% of the total minutes played so far this season.

Perfectly valid rebuttal. The biggest difference I would contend is that Calvin had been gearing up for this transition since last season ended. They knew when their super-seniors/graduate transfers walked out the door that there was a whole heap of minutes that would be taken by underclassmen. My guess is the day he signed, Coach Sall knew Overway would be starting for the Knights and started game planning accordingly.

Hope's been plagued by injuries and with the exception of Quillan and Wourman, their underclassmen were simply not expected to see this much playing time this season. It's easy to play "what if" and imagine where this Hope team would be right now had Thomas, Dykhouse, Wourman, Schoonveld, Wiegerink, McKenzie, and Quillan all stayed healthy, and all been able to develop together as this season has progressed. Perhaps in the end it works out for the better, and players like Wagar get minutes they otherwise may not have and by late February the team is all the better for it. Of course, the other possibility is the lack of consistency produces much of the same and the team never gets "right", and the season ends in the MIAA tournament semi-finals.

[KnightSlappy]

I think there is also a learning curve Hope is going through which has brought a lot of new* players to the floor and in some cases to the forefront. 

* - by new I'm referring to freshman, as well as a number of sophomores who averaged less than 3 minutes per game last season (Wagar, Cheaney, Quillan, Nocek) and even senior Harris Hawkins (who had a total of 24 min prior to this season)

So these so called new players, have logged 45% of the floor time for Hope. And yes, as the season goes on they become "less" new as they gain experience - like the old saying "they aren't frehman anymore".  But some of them - Wagar for one example - have been "thrown" into new roles of late due to the continuing injury issues (what Hope fan wasn't holding their breath through halftime with what looked to be an ankle issue for Quillan - but he played well in the 2nd half).  Wagar has played 65 minutes this season, 40 of those in the last 2 games which he has started.

Hope has had 9 different players start 2 or more games, and only 2 of them (Dykhouse and Quillan) start all 16 games.  I guess my point is that with all of those changes/injuries/"new" players/changing lineups it is not surprising to see Hope where they are record wise.  It would appear that this team is gradually creeping back toward what they aspired to be in November.

Calvin's freshmen and sophomores have accumulated 56% of the total minutes played so far this season.

True - but Calvin's FR & SO have been playing those minutes more consistently since the start of the season, where Hope (due to continupous injury issues) has had to elevate players this late in the season - that really was my point

Like the 2nd game of the season when they beat a veteran UW-Oshkosh team without most experienced player Uchenna Egekeze.

[sac]

Probably not Calvin's best game of the season Wednesday night in their 74-65 win, but I must say Kalamazoo looked better than a win 3-win team to me. After a ten point half-time lead, followed by equal play between the two squads the opening five minutes of the second frame, Matt Ambrose exploded to score the next 14 points for the Knights, providing his team with a 20 point cushion going into the final 10 minutes of play. Calvin's youth and inexperience showed down the stretch as they never really put the game away, but credit to the Hornets. Ambrose led with 21, followed by Ressler and Overway netting 14 and 13 respectively. Kalamazoo's zone defense did an excellent job of keeping Egekeze under control, as he was limited to 4 points. On to Angola.

Kalamazoo plays a fun style,  pleasing to watch, though it is not exactly sound defensively and can look pretty ugly when the shots aren't falling.   Somehow the very young Hornets team of a year ago managed to get almost younger this year and have now played a few games without their best player Lukas Broadsword. 

[HOPEful]

Like the 2nd game of the season when they beat a veteran UW-Oshkosh team without most experienced player Uchenna Egekeze.

Jalen had 34 points and 11 rebounds that game while Jonah Rindfleisch fouled out of the game. Seeing as Calvin had only played Grace Christian and an exhibition against Ferris at that point, it was clear from the get-go that OshKosh was unprepared for the freshman phenom. Heck, most Calvin fans were unprepared for Jalen to be that good right away. If OshKosh came to Grand Rapids tomorrow, I doubt they'd be as unprepared. Calvin has exceeded most people's expectations so far this season, and not to diminish the minutes given to Ressler, Vernudo, Harvey, etc., but the Knights are absolutely carried by the three headed monster of Egekeze, Overway, and Bult.

Still, the point that Calvin looked a heck of a lot better without Egekeze than Hope looked without Evan Thomas hits the mark. A significantly different sample size from each, but one would think the team with Dykhouse, McKenzie, and Quillan would have absorbed the blow a little better than the squad with Bult, Sensenig, and a bunch of underclassmen.

[wiz]

Like the 2nd game of the season when they beat a veteran UW-Oshkosh team without most experienced player Uchenna Egekeze.

...one would think the team with Dykhouse, McKenzie, and Quillan would have absorbed the blow a little better than the squad with Bult, Sensenig, and a bunch of underclassmen.

One might think that but most of us would not.