MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[realist]

The Calvin daily sports report is showing a video link for tonights vball showdown at http://hope.edu/live   Perhaps this is a sign that more video may be coming.


To quote Sac: "Being tall and deep at being tall is not a bad thing in D3."  Point well made.

[maroonandgold]

goodknight

Today at 11:06:13 am »

The freshman "good enough" to make the varsity this year have been anointed, according to my sources:

Michael Welch, a 6-7 wing from Stevensville-Lakeshore
Danny Leach, a 6-0 point guard from Timothy Christian in Elmhurst, IL
Brad Visser, a 6-3 shooting guard from Calvin Christian in Grandville

The varsity and JV rosters have not yet been posted on the Calvin website, but the cuts have been determined.

Assuming this information is accurate, are Jordan Brink, Brad Visser, Austin Parks, and Danny Leach the options at the point guard position?  If Jordan Brink is not able to play until November, the options at point guard seem fairly limited.   

[oldknight]

goodknight

Today at 11:06:13 am »

The freshman "good enough" to make the varsity this year have been anointed, according to my sources:

Michael Welch, a 6-7 wing from Stevensville-Lakeshore
Danny Leach, a 6-0 point guard from Timothy Christian in Elmhurst, IL
Brad Visser, a 6-3 shooting guard from Calvin Christian in Grandville

The varsity and JV rosters have not yet been posted on the Calvin website, but the cuts have been determined.

Assuming this information is accurate, are Jordan Brink, Brad Visser, Austin Parks, and Danny Leach the options at the point guard position?  If Jordan Brink is not able to play until November, the options at point guard seem fairly limited.

Fresh off being tabbed to work as a case evaluator in a lawsuit filed by that lightening rod of a lawyer, and erstwhile Michigan gubernatorial candidate Geoff Fieger—easily the most fascinating two hours of my professional career—I'm ready to weigh in on issues that really matter. I understand the questions about who will handle the point for Calvin this year, and share some of them. No matter how you cut it, the point position is going to be manned by someone with precious little (or no) varsity experience. Jordan Brink will occasionally fill in at point but I think he's too valuable at the 2 spot.  I can't say I'm ready to bet the house on it, but I do believe Austin Parks is ready to take over. He's a fine athlete, has an excellent first step, some range and reliability on his jump shot, and a year in the system. Most importantly though, he gets to play with a very talented and experienced cast of characters which makes his job far easier than it would be if Calvin was facing major front line losses.

Last season Calvin had one of its best shooting teams of recent years, going .471 from the floor. Calvin's website has season stats going back to 2001-02 and last season's shooting percentage is better than any Knights team except the one that lost in the national semifinal game. The 2004-05 club shot .475, just barely higher than the one for 2012-13. I expect the 2013-14 team to shoot better than that. It's easy not to notice this but the departing players weren't a great shooting bunch. Of the six players who have left campus, only one (De Boer) had a shooting percentage higher than the team average, with Matt coming in at .490 last year. If you subtract the shooting stats for all the departed players, last year's team shot just over 50% and it is these returning players who will do the bulk of the shooting this year. Given Calvin's front line size, talent and experience, this should be an ideal year to have your inaugural starting season at point for Knights basketball. If I'm Parks, I'm excited to have the opportunity play with a team as tall and as deep as Calvin's.

[sac]

I was hoping to squeeze in another fine chapter in our great Hope/Calvin rivalry but I couldn't make a trip over to Holland work to see tonight's  #1 Calvin vs #2 Hope volleyball game.  Might want to head over to DeVos at 6:30 if you're into tension, elevated heart rates and mental anguish. 

[KnightSlappy]

Last season Calvin had one of its best shooting teams of recent years, going .471 from the floor. Calvin’s website has season stats going back to 2001-02 and last season’s shooting percentage is better than any Knights team except the one that lost in the national semifinal game. The 2004-05 club shot .475, just barely higher than the one for 2012-13. I expect the 2013-14 team to shoot better than that. It’s easy not to notice this but the departing players weren’t a great shooting bunch. Of the six players who have left campus, only one (De Boer) had a shooting percentage higher than the team average, with Matt coming in at .490 last year. If you subtract the shooting stats for all the departed players, last year’s team shot just over 50% and it is these returning players who will do the bulk of the shooting this year. Given Calvin’s front line size, talent and experience, this should be an ideal year to have your inaugural starting season at point for Knights basketball. If I’m Parks, I’m excited to have the opportunity play with a team as tall and as deep as Calvin's.

Traditional field goal percentage undersells the value of Bryan Powell -- his 43% rate on three pointers will be missed. Accounting for the value of a three point shot, using effective field goal percentage, I have him as the only departing Knight who shot above the team average.

The sentiment of your argument holds true though. The returning Knights were, on the whole, more efficient scorers than the departing Knights. These returners will be asked to shoot more -- Snikkers and Powell in particular handled much of the shooting load -- but I'm not finding evidence that suggests shooting more leads to worse percentages (at the individual year-to-year level).

[oldknight]

Last season Calvin had one of its best shooting teams of recent years, going .471 from the floor. Calvin's website has season stats going back to 2001-02 and last season's shooting percentage is better than any Knights team except the one that lost in the national semifinal game. The 2004-05 club shot .475, just barely higher than the one for 2012-13. I expect the 2013-14 team to shoot better than that. It's easy not to notice this but the departing players weren't a great shooting bunch. Of the six players who have left campus, only one (De Boer) had a shooting percentage higher than the team average, with Matt coming in at .490 last year. If you subtract the shooting stats for all the departed players, last year's team shot just over 50% and it is these returning players who will do the bulk of the shooting this year. Given Calvin's front line size, talent and experience, this should be an ideal year to have your inaugural starting season at point for Knights basketball. If I'm Parks, I'm excited to have the opportunity play with a team as tall and as deep as Calvin's.

Traditional field goal percentage undersells the value of Bryan Powell -- his 43% rate on three pointers will be missed. Accounting for the value of a three point shot, using effective field goal percentage, I have him as the only departing Knight who shot above the team average.

The sentiment of your argument holds true though. The returning Knights were, on the whole, more efficient scorers than the departing Knights. These returners will be asked to shoot more -- Snikkers and Powell in particular handled much of the shooting load -- but I'm not finding evidence that suggests shooting more leads to worse percentages (at the individual year-to-year level).

Fair point about Powell. Nearly 43% from the arc made him very effective, especially when you take into account the fact that he took more shots than anyone on the team--by far--from three point range. Interestingly, his shooting percentage from inside the arc was lower than it was from outside. Guess he should have stepped back before taking that final shot at St. Thomas.

[almcguirejr]

Handchecking may actually be a foul this year:  http://www.pennlive.com/sports/index.ssf/2013/10/ncaas_officials_director_john.html

[wwjjdd]

10/18
Women's Volleyball
2 Calvin
3 at Hope
Attendance: 3051

[oldknight]

Kalamazoo roster is up:

http://hornets.kzoo.edu/sports/mbkb/2013-14/roster

[HopeConvert]

Attended the volleyball game last night and caught up with OK - both enjoyable activities. Here's the point of relevance for this board: Calvin's student section last night was out in large force, spirited, organized, and engaged. It's the loudest I've heard a Calvin student section in a long time. In fact, a neutral observer - and goodness knows I'm not one - might opine that the Calvin section outperformed the vaunted Dew Crew. My guess is that this could be a portent of things to come once basketball starts, which will make Van Noord a difficult test for any team.

[oldknight]

Attended the volleyball game last night and caught up with OK - both enjoyable activities. Here's the point of relevance for this board: Calvin's student section last night was out in large force, spirited, organized, and engaged. It's the loudest I've heard a Calvin student section in a long time. In fact, a neutral observer - and goodness knows I'm not one - might opine that the Calvin section outperformed the vaunted Dew Crew. My guess is that this could be a portent of things to come once basketball starts, which will make Van Noord a difficult test for any team.

You're right; that was about as good as I've seen the Calvin students in many years. The student section was supplemented by a nice showing from the men's hoops team who seemed to be out if full force. When the guys are playing on the hardwood I trust they will get similar support in return.

Congrats to the ladies from Hope on their win over the previously undefeated no. 1 in D3 volleyball. I can think of no sport you can watch--other than volleyball--that makes it so immediately and obviously apparent which team is making fewer errors. Hope made fewer than did Calvin Friday night and that's the primary reason they won. My sorrow at the loss could only be dulled by a post-match visit to Curragh's and the appropriate anodyne libation.

[KnightSlappy]

Attended the volleyball game last night and caught up with OK - both enjoyable activities. Here's the point of relevance for this board: Calvin's student section last night was out in large force, spirited, organized, and engaged. It's the loudest I've heard a Calvin student section in a long time. In fact, a neutral observer - and goodness knows I'm not one - might opine that the Calvin section outperformed the vaunted Dew Crew. My guess is that this could be a portent of things to come once basketball starts, which will make Van Noord a difficult test for any team.

You're right; that was about as good as I've seen the Calvin students in many years. The student section was supplemented by a nice showing from the men's hoops team who seemed to be out if full force. When the guys are playing on the hardwood I trust they will get similar support in return.

Congrats to the ladies from Hope on their win over the previously undefeated no. 1 in D3 volleyball. I can think of no sport you can watch--other than volleyball--that makes it so immediately and obviously apparent which team is making fewer errors. Hope made fewer than did Calvin Friday night and that's the primary reason they won. My sorrow at the loss could only be dulled by a post-match visit to Curragh's and the appropriate anodyne libation.

This seemed to be the case last year too. The men's basketball players were front and center for the Volleyball games (who got excellent crowd support a year ago as well), but then when they hit the court themselves, no one stepped up to lead the ring.

[sac]

Kalamazoo roster is up:

http://hornets.kzoo.edu/sports/mbkb/2013-14/roster

Interesting that 4 of the 5 Fr are 6-5 and taller, I cannot remember the last time Kzoo had 7 guys on the roster 6-5 or taller.

[goodknight]

Calvin's 2013-2014 Varsity Men's Basketball Roster is in the public domain. As a wise man once noted, it's really good to have some length in D3.  There are two at 6-9, three at 6-8 and a lone 6-7.  There are three freshman, four sophs, five juniors and three seniors.

4   Mac Donald, Kyle   JR   5-11   170   Jackson CC   Hillsdale, MI
10   Parks, Austin      SO   6-0   185   Niles         Niles, MI
12    Brink, Jordan      JR   6-3   185   Illiana Chr      Dyer, IN
14   Leach, Danny      FR   6-1   165   Timothy Chr   Elmhurst, IL
20   Visser, Brad      FR   6-3   170   Calvin Chr      Grand Rapids, MI
22   Huizenga, TJ      JR   6-4   205   Randolph      Randolph, WI
24   DeVries, Mickey      SR   6-7   235   Lansing Chr   Lansing, MI
30   Welch, Michael      FR   6-8   210   Lakeshore      Stevensville, MI
32   Dykstra, Tyler      JR   6-8   200   Holland Chr   Zeeland, MI
34   Daley, Jordan      SO   6-3   185   GR Chr           Grand Rapids, MI
40   Stout, Dan              JR   6-9   230   Calvin Chr      Escondido, CA
42   Kruis, Tyler      SR   6-9   235   Calvin Chr      Grand Rapids, MI
44   Van Loo, BJ      SO   6-6   205   Hudsonville         Hudsonville, MI
50   Brower, Eric      SO   6-8   275   Unity Chr      Jenison, MI
52   Mast, Jordan      SR   6-5   200   Holland Chr   Zeeland, MI

[calvin_grad]

Calvin's 2013-2014 Varsity Men's Basketball Roster is in the public domain.

4   Mac Donald, Kyle   JR   5-11   170   Jackson CC   Hillsdale, MI

Anyone know anything about what type of player Kyle is?  I haven't been paying too much attention in the off-season, but don't remember seeing his name previously mentioned on this board.