MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[RFMichigan]

I remember reading an article a long time ago about when Bear Bryant was looking through his Alabama rosters (when they had a JV team as well as their varsity) and he said that, upon seeing that the sophomore class on his varsity team had a large amount of JV team experience, (imagine a Bear Bryant - 'Bama drawl here) "Coaches did a bad recruiting job that year".

My point is that it seems to me that if a program like Hope (or any other quality dIII school for that matter) has more than a few call-ups from their JV roster per year, that means they didn't bring in enough varsity-ready freshmen in the prior year or two. 
I'm just looking at the math:
1) Hope has four freshman on their varsity roster this year although I'm guessing that two or three per year is more the norm. 
2) I'm further figuring that on average one of those freshman per year doesn't continue playing for whatever reason but that they get an average of one incoming transfer a year, so that's a wash. 
3) So you wind up with about 8-12 members of your varsity roster who are either transfers or were playing on the varsity as freshmen. This only leaves you with one or two spaces per year on the varsity roster to be filled with JV callups. Let me know if I'm off target in any of my number figuring here.

It seems that a good goal would be about four contributing seniors per year on the roster.  I would think that the purpose of a JV team at the level of a school like Hope would be twofold: a) bring in a ton of big men and see which ones develop, and b) to have a little reserve of depth in case of injury, transfers, or a large amount or players not returning in a particular year.

Here are a couple questions on a slightly different tack for those in the know regarding MIAA hoops:
1) Do they always have only freshmen on the JV rosters as Hope does? (Based on what I've read on earlier posts, I'm thinking not.)
2) Do they have cuts after open tryouts at these schools? For example, do more than 30 go out for men's basketball at Hope?

Fill me in. Thanks for the help!
 

[RFMichigan]

Oops, I forgot to mention that my bottom line is that I agree with sac! Four JV callups for Hope seems like alot.

[hope81]

Hope had an excellent JV team last year.  It is not surprising that they had four on the varsity this year.  If the kid from Sweden (Nystrom) had come back to school, they might have had five.

[RFMichigan]

Hope81:
Thanks for the reply. Did Hope have an unusual amount of rosters spaces to fill this year? If so, why? Is 3-4 JV callups per year par for the course for Hope?

[sac]

1) Do they always have only freshmen on the JV rosters as Hope does? (Based on what I've read on earlier posts, I'm thinking not.)
2) Do they have cuts after open tryouts at these schools? For example, do more than 30 go out for men's basketball at Hope?

Fill me in. Thanks for the help!
 

1) No......Hope had 4 Soph's on last year's JV, the '08 team had 5

2) Yes.......I think the number I heard this year was 40.


Different schools do different things with their JV, for certain 1 or 2 per class on most varsity's have spent a year on JV.  Hope and Calvin are kind of unique in the MIAA because they get so many kids trying out, they can fill a JV roster and have to make cuts.  Not every MIAA team or D3 can do that.

I always thought Fr on the Hope varsity was rare.......

10  Snugeruud, Holwerda, Mysliwiec

09  Krombeen, King
08  Bowser, Tanis, Carter, Sharples
07  Kratz
06  Reimink
05  ---
04  Cramer, Richardson, P. Overbeek
03  J. Carlson, Phillips
02  Griffeth, Immink, Veldt, Spaman, Kleersnyder
01  Taylor
00  C. Carlson, Bauman, Hoogewind

...not so much lately, but in the 90's.

99  Doty
98  Sporck
97  Canaan, Bray
96  Davelaar, Stegeman, Vander Slice
95  Holstege
94  Whitford, Brown,Gortsema
93  Bosma

Note that the Fr. had verying degress of success, some only play 1 or 2 on varsity, some were never more than roll players.......others were solid 4 year contributers, all-league performers and a few went on to win MIAA MVP and a couple were all-americans.


The high for Fr. on varsity was 2002, Hope's been on a really good run since then by the way.  3 on this years varsity seems about the average recently.

[Flying Dutch Fan]

Oops, I forgot to mention that my bottom line is that I agree with sac! Four JV callups for Hope seems like alot.

IMHO - at first it seems to be just simple math.  Only 8 returning players, means you have a lot of slots to fill.  Having the luxury of some really talented JV players, who have a year of experience playing college ball as well as promising freshman is exciting.  And if you look forward, next year you have nearly the entire team back with a year of experience with each other under their belt. 

[jfebus]

Going back to the mid 1980's, Calvin has had several notable players play a year of JV ball.

Some of the names include:

Kevin Van Duyn
Jim Timmer
Todd Hennink
Matt Harrison
Mike LeFebre
Mark Lodewyk
Matt Rottman
Darrell VanLaare
Russ Iwema
Sam Hargraves
Nate Karsten
Nate Burgess
Kevin Broene
Andy Draayer
Josh Meckes
Kyle Trewhella
and just a few years ago Danny Rodts.

Just because a player is on the JV team does not mean the player will not pan out as a varsity contributor.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Playing JV should not be seen (necessarily) as a 'knock' on a player.  Sometimes there is so much talent at that position that a coach would prefer the player get plenty of JV pt rather than 'garbage minutes' on varsity.

Case in point: Keelan Amelianovich at IWU.  JV as a freshman, CCIW MOP as a soph!  (And 1st team AA as a junior and senior.)

[sac]

Going back to the mid 1980's, Calvin has had several notable players play a year of JV ball.

Some of the names include:

Kevin Van Duyn
Jim Timmer
Todd Hennink
Matt Harrison
Mike LeFebre
Mark Lodewyk
Matt Rottman
Darrell VanLaare
Russ Iwema
Sam Hargraves
Nate Karsten
Nate Burgess
Kevin Broene
Andy Draayer
Josh Meckes
Kyle Trewhella
and just a few years ago Danny Rodts.

Just because a player is on the JV team does not mean the player will not pan out as a varsity contributor.

Nice list..........I stopped after the 3rd name.  (Actually I fell off my chair and hit my head on the floor, probably only a mild concussion)  .......for my own personal safety I've decided I should not read the rest of the list.


.....Alma roster   http://www.alma.edu/athletics/mbb/roster

I'll look at Alma's roster more closely when the swelling goes down.

[KnightSlappy]

Going back to the mid 1980's, Calvin has had several notable players play a year of JV ball.

Some of the names include:

Kevin Van Duyn
Jim Timmer
Todd Hennink
Matt Harrison
Mike LeFebre
Mark Lodewyk
Matt Rottman
Darrell VanLaare
Russ Iwema
Sam Hargraves
Nate Karsten
Nate Burgess
Kevin Broene
Andy Draayer
Josh Meckes
Kyle Trewhella
and just a few years ago Danny Rodts.

Just because a player is on the JV team does not mean the player will not pan out as a varsity contributor.

Josh Meckes shows up in 4 years of box scores. Did he split time with JV and Varsity as a freshman?

[jfebus]

Meckes did indeed split time between the JV and varsity. Nate Burgess also split time his freshman year.

[GoKnights68]

One random chime-in I'd like to add in to this discussion.  Brad Sall spent his freshmen AND sophomore of his Calvin career on the JV team.  His senior year, 2004-2005 season, he was a major factor in helping the Knights reach the NCAA final four, as he got quite a bit of playing-time throughout the entire season.

[Flying Dutch Fan]

Article in the Sentinel today about the Hope team.  Kyle Hoffmaster will not be playing this year??

http://www.hollandsentinel.com/sports/x1914246344/Flying-Dutchmen-set-basketball-roster

Strange to have a guy make varsity one day, and leave the team the next day.   Hope everything is well for Kyle - I was looking forward to his contribution to the team.   Wonder if he will be replaced - I suspect he will, given how "early" it is.

NOTE - Accordin to the article, the opneing game has been moved to the 17th - a double header with the women.

[realist]

FDF;  Thanks for posting the link.  Looking at the roster it wasn't surprising GVW indicated he will let the guys run. 

[GoKnights68]

I'm kind of confused about the Calvin vs Hope games this year.  Is there a reason why the first one is played on a Wednesday at Calvin at 7:30pm (January 6).  Isn't the first game usually always on a Saturday?  Hope hosts the Saturday game again (January 30th).

What one will have all the satellite watch parties?

http://www.calvin.edu/sports/mens/basketball/schedule.htm