MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[SKOT]

The Hope roster says that the roster is subject to change after fall sports end.  Is there someone playing a fall sport right now that could make a roster that we know of, or is it a holdover from the Logan Neil days?

[almcguirejr]

The Hope roster says that the roster is subject to change after fall sports end.  Is there someone playing a fall sport right now that could make a roster that we know of, or is it a holdover from the Logan Neil days?

Grant Neil

[Civic Minded]

The Hope roster says that the roster is subject to change after fall sports end.  Is there someone playing a fall sport right now that could make a roster that we know of, or is it a holdover from the Logan Neil days?

Rumor has it there is a potential candidate in another fall sport (besides Grant Neil), but I know little to nothing about him or the rumor's validity.

[Galahad]

One other thing I find interesting is Hope has 7 players from out of state.  I'm pretty sure this is the most by far Hope's ever had.  Last year was probably the previous most with 4.

It's nice to see Hope becoming more 'international'.

Counting Jordan Denham, Hope has 8 guys from outside of the typical 'West Michigan' area.

Literally international with a Bulgarian on the JV...now that's recruiting!

[gohope]

Did I miss info on this person, if so my apologies, but can someone give me some insight on Calvin's new JV coach, Peter Zigterman. Thanks in advance!

[Happy Calvin Guy]

Did I miss info on this person, if so my apologies, but can someone give me some insight on Calvin's new JV coach, Peter Zigterman. Thanks in advance!

I was wondering the same thing.  Quick Google search reveals that he played basketball at Timothy Christian HS and Trinity Christian College, and also did some assistant coaching at Trinity. 

[goodknight]

Did I miss info on this person, if so my apologies, but can someone give me some insight on Calvin's new JV coach, Peter Zigterman. Thanks in advance!

Don't have much on Peter, other than the fact that he played basketball at Trinity Christian College under ex-Calvin assistant Tim Walker, graduating in 2008.  Recently, he served as an assistant coach at Trinity.  Peter's father, one of my closest friends during my elementary school days in Lansing, Illinois, is an attorney in Chicago. Peter has a sister who attended Calvin and played basketball for the Knights, as well.

[HopeConvert]

Did I miss info on this person, if so my apologies, but can someone give me some insight on Calvin's new JV coach, Peter Zigterman. Thanks in advance!

Don't have much on Peter, other than the fact that he played basketball at Trinity Christian College under ex-Calvin assistant Tim Walker, graduating in 2008.  Recently, he served as an assistant coach at Trinity.  Peter's father, one of my closest friends during my elementary school days in Lansing, Illinois, is an attorney in Chicago. Peter has a sister who attended Calvin and played basketball for the Knights, as well.

BINGO!

[devossed]

Did I miss info on this person, if so my apologies, but can someone give me some insight on Calvin's new JV coach, Peter Zigterman. Thanks in advance!

Don't have much on Peter, other than the fact that he played basketball at Trinity Christian College under ex-Calvin assistant Tim Walker, graduating in 2008.  Recently, he served as an assistant coach at Trinity.  Peter's father, one of my closest friends during my elementary school days in Lansing, Illinois, is an attorney in Chicago. Peter has a sister who attended Calvin and played basketball for the Knights, as well.

BINGO!

I've often tried to play the Dutch version, but usually only hit for B-I-N before I give up and start watching old Kevin Bacon movies...

[Happy Calvin Guy]

In my point of view, 2012-13 presents some unique opportunities for Calvin due to the depth of experience and talent on the roster.  This happens to fall in the same year in which Hope does not have near the same depth of experience beyond 5 guys or so.  How then should Calvin shape its team identity?  I believe we need to go to a 12 man rotation, as opposed to the typical 9 man rotation that KVS has traditionally fallen into by the time league play begins.  This would enable the Knights to evolve to an up-tempo style, possibly including full court pressure defense.  The raw ingredients to make this successful are a bunch of long athletic guys plus roster depth and we've got both.  If we do this, the disturbing trend we've seen in recent seasons of being outscored in the second halves of games could reverse in a staggering way as we wear the opposition down.  In addition, we also have the flexibility of going huge (for example a Brink-DeBoer-Snikkers-Dykstra-Kruis lineup) or small (for example Rietema-Powell-DeBoer-Snikkers-DeVries) depending on matchups.  I wouldn't even be opposed to expanding the rotation to 13 or 14--I've liked Nadeau quite a bit in the limited time we've seen him, and while I don't know anything about him, I'm sure Daley must be a quality player to be on the varsity roster as a freshman. 

What does this require? Something that some posters on this board have called on for years--flexibility from KVS.  He needs to depart from his traditional 9-man rotation, and also be more flexible in exploiting mismatch potential intra-game. 

I am very optimistic for this season.  And I love it that as we speak, Hope is ranked #7 in the country and we aren't even receiving a single vote.  Go Knights!

[oldknight]

In my point of view, 2012-13 presents some unique opportunities for Calvin due to the depth of experience and talent on the roster.  This happens to fall in the same year in which Hope does not have near the same depth of experience beyond 5 guys or so.  How then should Calvin shape its team identity?  I believe we need to go to a 12 man rotation, as opposed to the typical 9 man rotation that KVS has traditionally fallen into by the time league play begins. 

  I wouldn't even be opposed to expanding the rotation to 13 or 14

The timing of your comments caught my interest because just yesterday I had a conversation with a former Calvin starter from years gone by about this season's prospects. He doesn't follow the Knights or the MIAA quite as closely as some of us, but he knows the make-up of the current team, is generally familiar with the coaching staff, and is a keen observer of basketball. He mentioned how it would be a huge mistake for Calvin to try and utilize their players in such a way as to include 12 players in a rotation. He said that to try and incorporate that many people in a rotation would make it impossible to put your best players on the floor 25-30 minutes as any good team needs to do, and would also make it impossible for those players to capture any sort of rhythm for the game. I completely agree.

No doubt there will be some pre-conference lineup juggling as the coaching staff attempts to determine the best rotation to use but by the time the conference season starts in January, the number really shouldn't be more than 8-9 players. My fellow converationalist said that trying to use 12 players in a game with only 200 available player minutes would be a recipe for disaster. Calvin's top three most important players are Brink, Kruis and Snikkers and those guys have to be playing at least 75-80 productive minutes in most games for the Knights to have a chance to be the top team in the conference. Those players in the 10-12 range of the roster simply have to be willing to accept their roles and, if needed, play a more prominent one when called upon.


P.S.:  As an aside, I was also told (warned?) to watch out for Wittenbach at Hope. I never saw Wittenbach play in high school but I was advised that he could turn out to be a very good MIAA player.

[sac]

Found another weird transfer.....

Brandon King 6-6 F is listed on the Central Michigan roster, Brandon played 2 minutes for Adrian last year. 

http://www.cmuchippewas.com/SportSelect.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=10500&SPID=4210&SPSID=46438

[Happy Calvin Guy]

In my point of view, 2012-13 presents some unique opportunities for Calvin due to the depth of experience and talent on the roster.  This happens to fall in the same year in which Hope does not have near the same depth of experience beyond 5 guys or so.  How then should Calvin shape its team identity?  I believe we need to go to a 12 man rotation, as opposed to the typical 9 man rotation that KVS has traditionally fallen into by the time league play begins. 

  I wouldn't even be opposed to expanding the rotation to 13 or 14

The timing of your comments caught my interest because just yesterday I had a conversation with a former Calvin starter from years gone by about this season's prospects. He doesn't follow the Knights or the MIAA quite as closely as some of us, but he knows the make-up of the current team, is generally familiar with the coaching staff, and is a keen observer of basketball. He mentioned how it would be a huge mistake for Calvin to try and utilize their players in such a way as to include 12 players in a rotation. He said that to try and incorporate that many people in a rotation would make it impossible to put your best players on the floor 25-30 minutes as any good team needs to do, and would also make it impossible for those players to capture any sort of rhythm for the game. I completely agree.

No doubt there will be some pre-conference lineup juggling as the coaching staff attempts to determine the best rotation to use but by the time the conference season starts in January, the number really shouldn't be more than 8-9 players. My fellow converationalist said that trying to use 12 players in a game with only 200 available player minutes would be a recipe for disaster. Calvin's top three most important players are Brink, Kruis and Snikkers and those guys have to be playing at least 75-80 productive minutes in most games for the Knights to have a chance to be the top team in the conference. Those players in the 10-12 range of the roster simply have to be willing to accept their roles and, if needed, play a more prominent one when called upon.


P.S.:  As an aside, I was also told (warned?) to watch out for Wittenbach at Hope. I never saw Wittenbach play in high school but I was advised that he could turn out to be a very good MIAA player.

I certainly wouldn't advocate giving all 12 guys equal minutes.  out of the 200 minutes, it could be allocated something like:

Top 3 players:  25+ minutes each (mission accomplished)
Next 4 players:  15-20 minutes each
Next 5 players:  10 minutes each
Last 2 players:  3-5 minutes each

Total:  200 minutes

In that scenario, you are reducing average minutes only slightly for the "top 9" that would ordinarily get 100% of the minutes.  That is enough to eliminate the need for players to "pace" themselves when on the floor or risk finding themselves with tired legs in crunch time. It also expands the options for strategy--e.g. full court press, etc.  Also, I'm not proposing that the last 2-5 players get near as many minutes as Brink, Snikkers, or Kruis, but the luxury of having quality talent at the end of the bench is that we can effectively use those players for quality minutes without too much of a dropoff in talent on the floor.   

Regarding the "rhythm" that the players are in, the status quo is that we substitute according to a pre-set pattern, regardless of the momentum on the floor.  I don't think my ideas would disrupt anything that exists currently. 

I'd also like to know, in a key tournament game, if we decide for example that putting Kruis/Stout on the floor at the same time has matchup advantages, that we aren't calling on a guy that's only seen 30 minutes of total mop up time all season, but a guy that has consistently contributed in real game situations. 

In terms of Starting 5, Hope and Calvin are competitive with each other.  In terms of 6-14, I feel we're significantly better, and I'd hate to waste that competitive advantage.

[KnightSlappy]

In terms of Starting 5, Hope and Calvin are competitive with each other.  In terms of 6-14, I feel we're significantly better, and I'd hate to waste that competitive advantage.

But it wouldn't be Calvin's 6-14 versus Hope's 6-14, it would be Calvin's 6-14 versus Hope's 6-9/10.

And if you feel Calvin's 6-9/10 are better than Calvin's 10/11-14, and you feel that Calvin's 6-9/10 are better than Hope's 6-9/10, then going 14 deep instead of 9 or 10 deep would be the strategy that wastes the competitive advantage.

[Happy Calvin Guy]

In terms of Starting 5, Hope and Calvin are competitive with each other.  In terms of 6-14, I feel we're significantly better, and I'd hate to waste that competitive advantage.

But it wouldn't be Calvin's 6-14 versus Hope's 6-14, it would be Calvin's 6-14 versus Hope's 6-9/10.

And if you feel Calvin's 6-9/10 are better than Calvin's 10/11-14, and you feel that Calvin's 6-9/10 are better than Hope's 6-9/10, then going 14 deep instead of 9 or 10 deep would be the strategy that wastes the competitive advantage.

My theory only holds water if you believe that playing fewer minutes and having more frequent rests enables a player to play at a higher intensity/performance level.  This has to be true to some extent, otherwise you would just play your starting five for the full 40 minutes apiece every night and there would be no reason to ever even go as deep as the "sixth man".  It's also why, in baseball, sometimes you see a starting pitcher converted to a closer, and all of a sudden increase velocity on their fastball and increase their K/IP ratio drastically.  When you go out there knowing that you can give it your all for 2 min on the court (or 1 inning), you can perform at a higher level than if you think you're going to be out there for 8 minutes (or 9 innings).  My approach is akin to using a starting pitcher for 6 innings, then a 3-4 fireballing specialists for anywhere from 1 batter to 1 inning, and closing out the game, if you've got the arms in the stable to do so at a high level. 

Just a theory--It sounds like a couple of you (who frankly know a whole lot about Calvin basketball and whose opinions I respect) disagree.  Either way, I believe that Calvin has unusually great talent and depth this year and hope we can wring as much success out of it as possible.