MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[oldknight]

Calvin opens up with an exhibition game tomorrow night (Tuesday) against Ferris St at 7:30pm in the VanNoord Arena.  Just reminded everyone...

Ferris is just off an exhibition game of their own against Dayton, a quality D-I team (ranked 22nd by USA TODAY/ESPN coaches' poll) that finished last season at 27-8, won its first round NCAA tournament game and returns 10 of its top 11 players. Ferris is the preseason pick to finish second in the GLIAC North Division (behind GVSU) and features Justin Keenan, a preseason All-America pick. With the Bulldogs giving the Flyers a competitive 88-73 game last week, Calvin needs to be ready to play well tonight.

[Civic Minded]

Alas, FDF and I will not be making the trip to Oakland.  SOMEONE had to ruin the day by getting H1N1.  Ah well...    First time we've missed a game of any sort in a really, really long time. 

[Flying Dutch Fan]

Oh the shame I feel....

[Mr. Ypsi]

FDF, get well soon!

But, truth now, is it really the flu or did your recent pickems performance make you sick?

[Flying Dutch Fan]

FDF, get well soon!

But, truth now, is it really the flu or did your recent pickems performance make you sick?

Definitely not my football pickems - anything over 50% right for the year is my goal

[Knight In The Stan]

Calvin trails Ferris at half 40-36.

FG %
Ferris 46%
Calvin 28%

Sounds like Calvin has missed a lot of easy opportunities in the paint. Lots of early turnovers and mistakes that are typical with the first exhibition game of the year. Veltema leads all scorers with 14. Mantel hasn't been a real offensive threat at this point.

[KnightSlappy]

So it's officially bball season. You can tell becuse the (older) Calvin supporters are in true form here at the arena... grumbling about bad plays and ignoring the positive signs.

I've been impressed with Schnyders' assertiveness. Veltema and Rodts playing well. Mantel has been a non factor. Pretty good sign so early in the year hangin well with Ferris.

[KnightSlappy]

Justin Keenan on the floor with an ankle injury. Barely can hobble off under his own power. Maybe Mantel can step up on his absence?

[Knight In The Stan]

Just heard that Hope is trailing by 30 in the second half. I wonder how much Oaklands starters are playing. Oakland is supposed to have a great year.

[hope81]

Hope loses 97-62.  This one was never in doubt as Oakland went out early and took a good lead.  They shot over 50 percent for the game, led by 20 at halftime and kept it going.  Hard to know exactly what was going on watching game tracker, but it looks like Bowser had a solid game with 17 points.

Interestingly enough, Venema never appeared in the game, and of course Bunn did not either.  No one else in double figures for Hope, Oakland had at least 5 guys in double figures.

Result as expected, but at least they got some game time in.

[hope81]

***Correction***
Josh Holwerda also made double figures with 11 points.  4 for 5 from the floor and 3 of 4 from the line.  Not a bad first game.

[Knight In The Stan]

Ferris 88 Calvin 68

Best part of the game...Doug Wentwourth didn't call it!

[GoKnights68]

I happen to stay for the whole game.

Calvin did a pretty good job at getting some open looks on offense.  They missed some real easy shots down low, but hopefully that doesn't happen often this season.  On defense I think Calvin as a lot of work.  Ferris St got too many offensive rebounds.  Calvin would not box out well enough or a Calvin player would get the ball knocked out of his hands right when he tried to grab it.  Ferris St was sure aggressive tonight, which I was glad they were in an exhibition game.  Calvin didn't quite defend the post as well as I had hoped, but they did force some nice turnovers.  Ferris St just had too much depth for Calvin to hang around at the end and started to pull away halfway through the second half.

Veltema and Rodts led the way with 19 and 13 points each.  Mantel had some foul trouble early, so he wasn't much of a factor on offense until the second part of the second half.  He finished with 10 points.

As expected in an exhibition game, the bench got a lot of minutes.  Nobody really stood out, but it looks like Calvin will have some bench players that should contribute nicely to the team this season.  Snikkers I was impressed with the most off the bench.  He had confidence out there and looks like a smart player.  Powell was more quiet than I expected, but I expect him to get a lot of playing time this season at the PG position.  Schuster had some bright moments, but he wasn't much of a factor offensively has I had hoped.  He also needs to be more aggressive when grabbing rebounds.

[almcguirejr]

Ed Douma is an assistant coach for Ferris.  

Through the first 30 minutes of the game the Calvin center postion combined for 8 fouls and 2 points.

Calvin's bench has very little varsity experience.  Starters were Salo, Rodts, Schnyders, Veltema, and Mantel.

[AlwaysHope]

To answer an earlier question, the Oakland starters averaged 22 minutes for the game.

Hope got killed on the boards, especially in the second half.  Also, the team only had 12 assists vs. 20 turnovers.  
Wonder why Venema didn't play, especially when we so out-sized.  Nate Snuggerud started, and picked up five fouls in only 6 minutes of play; he also had 3 rebounds and one block in that short time span!  Welcome to college ball!  By the way, Logan Neil also did not play, along with Peter Bunn.

While I don't consider this game against a quality D-1 team a true test, I have to confess that I don't share the optimism of the rest of the league that had Hope tied with Calvin as the pre-season favorite.  Hope only has 8 returning letterman, and only Bowser and Tanis have played two years.  The other 6 have only one year experience, and everyone else is playing their first year of varsity ball.  Jugling and Nellis are the two seniors, both with one year under their belt.

We will just have to see how this very young team jells, especially with their lack of size.  But then, there's Always Hope!