MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[sac]

As the de-facto Olivet expert by simply being one of the dozens who attends games at Olivet every now and then, let me lend my thoughts on the Comets.

Olivet graduates:   Lee Gardner

Gardner is a huge loss, to me the glue that held a rickety ship together.   An irreplaceable talent. 


Olivet returns 7 players who will be Seniors next year.  Zach Walker, Eric Ewing, Chris Chrzan, RJ Haas were regular rotation guys all year.  Walker was the only player on the team who started every game. Jacob Vanvliet was just kind of there, not sure I ever saw him play.  Kevin Woodson was injured all year, and I'm not positive but think Aaron Washington suffered the same injury fate.  I would think they both can return.

The Comets young guys were plenty, a couple that stood out to me were Quinten Way and Kyle Emory.   But thats kind of where it ends, after that its a collection of about 15 other guys that were in and out of the varsity roster and many are just no longer with the program.

If all of these guys mentioned here return next year you can put together some kind of team.  It probably won't be a very good one though, being brutally honest this years team was really bad on defense.  After this past week I'm pretty sure Olivet will finish dead last in the Great Lakes for defensive efficiency.  "All of those guys returning" is kind of the trick though as Olivet has had  pretty high attrition for a few years running now.  Coles will find a transfer or a JUCO or two and boat loads of Freshmen some who will be able to play very well.  Without a serious infusion of talent, the Comets look anchored to the bottom of the standings.

The trajectory here is......well, not good.
2013  11-14
2014    5-20
2015    4-21
2016    3-22

The last guy lost his job for much less regression.  Olivet has a different AD this time and his own chair is barely warm.  A change doesn't look likely but it wouldn't be surprising either.

So the real answer to what Olivet has returning is probably a question mark.

[HopeConvert]

On another note, I assume HC and family enjoyed their seats in the upper end zone amidst the watchful eyes of the Calvin faithful. Brave of them to wear their Hope gear there. I trust seating was satisfactory and the HC fam wasn't expecting to be treated to a danish and coffee at halftime.

We did. At one point I turned to the Calvin person sitting to my left, well known to this board, and commented that the seats around us were an interesting oxymoron: an empty sellout. "You're an empty sellout!" he suggested. But we were grateful for the seats, happy with the outcome, and were treated kindly by the people around us (although the Calvin fan a row in front of me to my right did shoot me an occasional disapproving glance).

I hadn't expected danish and a coffee (maybe some speculaas), but it would have been nice if someone had given me his parking spot for the day.

[oldknight]

Calvin's season certainly a disappointment but I see they weren't the only respected basketball program that scuffled for wins this year. Wheaton was probably the gold-plated program with the most shocking fall from grace as the Thunder finished a miserable 5-20 (1-13 in conference). I think that's the first 20 loss season in Wheaton history. Other traditionally strong basketball schools with less than average years included Illinois Wesleyan at 13-12 (7-7) and WashU at 14-10 (6-7). Wittenberg had a pedestrian 14-11 (9-9) record which is actually an upgrade from 2014-15 when the Tigers were 10-16. In addition, the normally dominant WIAC schools looked quite ordinary this season as the conference champs--UW Lacrosse--won the league at 10-4 but their overall record was 16-9 and no one else had fewer than 9 losses.

[almcguirejr]

Calvin's season certainly a disappointment but I see they weren't the only respected basketball program that scuffled for wins this year. Wheaton was probably the gold-plated program with the most shocking fall from grace as the Thunder finished a miserable 5-20 (1-13 in conference). I think that's the first 20 loss season in Wheaton history. Other traditionally strong basketball schools with less than average years included Illinois Wesleyan at 13-12 (7-7) and WashU at 14-10 (6-7). Wittenberg had a pedestrian 14-11 (9-9) record which is actually an upgrade from 2014-15 when the Tigers were 10-16. In addition, the normally dominant WIAC schools looked quite ordinary this season as the conference champs--UW Lacrosse--won the league at 10-4 but their overall record was 16-9 and no one else had fewer than 9 losses.

I just saw on the CCIW board, thunder2day, was calling for a coaching change.

[wiz]

Calvin's season certainly a disappointment but I see they weren't the only respected basketball program that scuffled for wins this year. Wheaton was probably the gold-plated program with the most shocking fall from grace as the Thunder finished a miserable 5-20 (1-13 in conference). I think that's the first 20 loss season in Wheaton history. Other traditionally strong basketball schools with less than average years included Illinois Wesleyan at 13-12 (7-7) and WashU at 14-10 (6-7). Wittenberg had a pedestrian 14-11 (9-9) record which is actually an upgrade from 2014-15 when the Tigers were 10-16. In addition, the normally dominant WIAC schools looked quite ordinary this season as the conference champs--UW Lacrosse--won the league at 10-4 but their overall record was 16-9 and no one else had fewer than 9 losses.

I just saw on the CCIW board, thunder2day, was calling for a coaching change.

Well, it's about time they dump Schauer.  In his 8 seasons at Wheaton his teams have only made it to the NCAA tournament 4 times.  He's so predictable and everyone has him figured out.

[KnightSlappy]

MIAA should bring back the 8-team tournament starting this year. 

[almcguirejr]

An excellent video featuring Calvin seniors Austin Parks and Jordan Daley.

http://youtu.be/mMhW3q7T6MQ

[arena]

An excellent video featuring Calvin seniors Austin Parks and Jordan Daley.

http://youtu.be/mMhW3q7T6MQ

Interesting what was not said I that video.

[Happy Calvin Guy]

An excellent video featuring Calvin seniors Austin Parks and Jordan Daley.

http://youtu.be/mMhW3q7T6MQ

Kudos to Bryan Powell for a nice job on the video production. One 1,000 point scorer highlighting another.

[sac]

Alma College has put out a high quality look at this weekend with everything you'd want to know about the Scots.
http://goalmascots.com/sports/mbkb/2015-16/files/MBB_Game_Notes_Wk_15_MIAA.pdf

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Final public regional rankings are out: http://www.d3blogs.com/d3hoops/2016/02/24/third-ncaa-regional-ranking/

[HOPEful]

Final public regional rankings are out: http://www.d3blogs.com/d3hoops/2016/02/24/third-ncaa-regional-ranking/

The lack of a response to this post is all you need to know about Hope's fan response to still being ranked behind OWU and JCU... 

[sac]

You aren't going to get many polling breaks with an SOS of .500

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Final public regional rankings are out: http://www.d3blogs.com/d3hoops/2016/02/24/third-ncaa-regional-ranking/

The lack of a response to this post is all you need to know about Hope's fan response to still being ranked behind OWU and JCU... 

I agree with sac... not sure what you want to do when the SOS is so low in comparison.

[Fifth and Putnam]

I know Hope and Calvin have their arrangement every year it seems with Cornerstone and Aquinas to play each other. Not being in the know on this, has there every been any discussion of moving away from those games and adding Division III games? Have to think Hope would love to have had an extra couple D3 games here to help the SOS.