MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[KnightSlappy]

Britton Angell  6-3 G  Big Rapids Crossroads will attend Olivet  Class D 4th team

My guess is he was on Calvin's radar as well. Probably most MIAA's radar.

[sac]

Britton Angell  6-3 G  Big Rapids Crossroads will attend Olivet  Class D 4th team

My guess is he was on Calvin's radar as well. Probably most MIAA's radar.

Had a lot of MIAA, NAIA and D2 interest

BCAM Best  http://www.bcam.org/sites/default/files/19BoysBestWeb%20Sheet1.pdf
Several of your favorite MIAA recruits made these lists.  Still a couple more that could land at MIAA schools.

Britton was one the "couple more",  Josh Palo(Albion) was the other of the guys I know about.

[HoopsCoach]

I think the full time assistant thing is big. A lot of ways that helps. Hope sure could benefit from that more assured stability as even in D3, the assistants are often closest to the players.

Will be interesting to see how Sall does with the limited class and loss of two of his bigs, Carson Meulenberg, and even Amoros-Gutierrez. Has some nice pieces left but those are big shoes to fill in the same vain as those Hope needs to fill.

[HopeConvert]

I think the full time assistant thing is big. A lot of ways that helps. Hope sure could benefit from that more assured stability as even in D3, the assistants are often closest to the players.

Will be interesting to see how Sall does with the limited class and loss of two of his bigs, Carson Meulenberg, and even Amoros-Gutierrez. Has some nice pieces left but those are big shoes to fill in the same vain as those Hope needs to fill.

Vein. 

[Gregory Sager]

I think the full time assistant thing is big. A lot of ways that helps. Hope sure could benefit from that more assured stability as even in D3, the assistants are often closest to the players.

Having a full-time assistant is not a guarantee of stability. Most often the full-time guy who sits second chair is a younger coach who is looking to move up the coaching ladder. Conversely, part-time coaches often stick around for many years if they have the sort of outside jobs and/or lifestyle that allow them sufficient off-hours to devote to a D3 basketball program.

[almcguirejr]

OK, then, so what am I missing here?
Even though Coach Sall apparently had earlier turned down a Calvin offer and then changed his mind after Calvin had subsequently sweetened that offer...

I'm not sure that was the case. No more sugar was added to the pot–maybe a stronger, more durable pot was offered.

This is not what I've heard. And it's apparently not what MaroonKnighty heard, either, since he corroborated my post early this morning.

The sequence of events, as I was told, was this:

1) Calvin made an offer to Sall.
2) NMU gave Sall a raise in response; Sall chose to stay in Marquette.
3) Calvin moved on to Plan B, continuing with the job search and narrowing it down to a current D3 head coach and a local public high school coach.
4) The D3 coach didn't like Calvin's offered compensation package, and the high-school coach, for whatever reason, didn't take the job, either.
5) Calvin came back to Sall with a new offer that included a full-time assistant coach, which apparently Calvin hasn't had before.
6) Sall took the job.

All of my info is at least secondhand, possibly thirdhand or even fourth-hand, so if you or someone else has evidence that contradicts this narrative, please share it.

I heard (from what I consider a good source) the overriding factor to Bill Sall becoming the Calvin head coach, is because he and his family decided this is where they want to be.  NMU had more money.  I think for Bill Sall, Calvin was a destination job.

[pointlem]

Will be interesting to see how Sall does with the limited class and loss of two of his bigs, Carson Meulenberg, and even Amoros-Gutierrez. Has some nice pieces left but those are big shoes to fill in the same vain as those Hope needs to fill.

Wow . . . so that's what was alluded to earlier. Are they transferring, or just not playing BB?

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Just something to keep in mind per the convo about full time assistants. As I understand it after having several in-depth conversations with those who would know ... Calvin has NOT had a full-time assistant at least through the KVS era. That was one of the major drawbacks, I feel, with what KVS could ultimately do with the program. Consider he was teaching (basically full time), coaching, and having to recruit along with any other projects he was interested in, asked to do, or whatnot on and off campus.

I know not having a full time assistant was a challenge for the program. It doesn't mean those assistants KVS had were not helpful. I am sure John Ross assisted in a major way, but he too had his own responsibilities like teaching and coaching the women's tennis program. The part-time assistants had other responsibilities they had to be a priority as well.

I am curious if Calvin has considered or has added a full-time assistant. The fact new head coaches of teams are no longer teachers (at least for new hires; coaches under the former policy are still teaching) is a HUGE benefit for any program at Calvin. However, the full-time assistant is also an important factor in my opinion. Not all programs have full-time assistants and it isn't a clear path towards success (there are just as many programs without full-time assistants who are successful as there are those with several full time assistants who are not successful) ... but I think it would help Calvin in a major way.

[KnightSlappy]

Walter, Bykerk, and Amoros-Gutierrez are all graduating. Meulenberg is rumored to be leaving school, not seeking a transfer. I'm sure he could change his mind about either.

[Grutte Dirk]

Calvin has NOT had a full-time assistant at least through the KVS era.

Wasn't Christner full-time faulty while a men's assistant?

Consider he was teaching (basically full time),

What do you base that on?

The fact new head coaches of teams are no longer teachers (at least for new hires; coaches under the former policy are still teaching)

All faculty/ coaches teach, some staff/ coaches teach. All staff/ coaches have additional duties. No one at Calvin is a full-time coach.

[Jameswys]

Taking it further Olivet had a Director of Basketball Operations during Ernst's tenure, I do not believe they have re-hired for that roll or dropped it altogether.

I know the first year the DBO was a student (a graduating senior who was also an RA). I'm not sure what the arraignment for compensation was but I can't imagine it was very much. As for last years DBO, I'm not sure what else he did but he wasn't a student to the best of my knowledge.

[Gregory Sager]

I wasn't even aware that there was a D3 basketball program that had a DOBO. I thought that DOBO was strictly a scholarship-level position.

[Jameswys]

I wasn't even aware that there was a D3 basketball program that had a DOBO. I thought that DOBO was strictly a scholarship-level position.

I know In the first year the DBO was mostly doing the advertising around campus of home games and stuff like making sure players got to meetings and busses. Not sure what that job looks like in D1 but I was friendly with the guy at Olivet and I gathered this is the types of stuff he did.

[Gregory Sager]

In D1 the DOBO (an acronym that is pronounced "dough-boe") breaks down the film and sets it up for the coaching staff to review, does a lot of the paperwork, arranges the academic tutorial schedules -- stuff like that. It's a little bit of everything, except that the DOBO doesn't sit on the bench or get involved with any of the actual hands-on coaching. A DOBO is often a young guy trying to break into the coaching ranks who has yet to land an actual coaching gig; DOBO work is sort of a foot-in-the-door way of getting into coaching.

[almcguirejr]

Given the quality hire of an experienced college coach for the Calvin women's program, one has to think there will be a big-time hire on the men's side of things as well.

What would a big-time hire be for Calvin? I think VanderWal is the only realistic answer for that, and that is not happening.

IMO, Bill Sall would be considered a big-time hire if that were to occur.

He has 8 winning seasons in 17 as a head coach and a career record under .500

Recent history tells us Ferris State is capable of being a player on the national stage.

FWIW, I think he's the next coach of the Knights.

I posted this before, and am still genuinely curious why Bill Sall is a "big-time hire" for Calvin. My knowledge of Calvin hoops only goes back 15-20 years, so maybe there's some history I'm unaware of.

My question is genuine, and not meant to be aggressive or overly-critical...I see a coach whose sub-.500 career record indicates to me a "mediocre-at-best" hire. Why is this move so exciting to many Knights fans?

As an outsider and someone who's only read his NMU bio, he sounds like a guy who has taken bad programs and made them good. He in place Ferris's program before he left and it sounds like he fixed NMUs program from bad to decent. If he can do that at schools without a strong basketball tradition and a bad history, imagine what he can do at a school with a good history and program.

Exactly. He took programs that were struggling and turned them into quality, competitive programs.

These are not the words I would use to describe 15-13 and 17-12 seasons.

There's an argument to be made that things were better at Ferris, but since he left they've won 140+ games and a national championship in 6 seasons... going from average to great. To me, there's a huge difference in taking a bad 5 win program to 15 wins and taking an average 18 win program to 25 wins.

To be clear, I'm not saying Coach Sall isn't the right hire... I just don't see it as a home run. Perhaps I was unrealistic in my expectations of who this job might attract.

More positively, I was able to catch the replay of the press conference this afternoon. I was impressed by the love and commitment Coach Sall expressed toward Calvin and appreciate his stated approach toward building young men and what I believe is his commitment to using basketball to accomplish the mission of the school.

Article detailing what Bill Sall accomplished at NMU:

http://prosportsextra.com/bill-sall-leaves-nmu-to-become-head-mens-basketball-coach-at-calvin-college/