MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[Gregory Sager]

Classes in session (or soon to be for most schools) and yet no word on the open coaching spot at Kalamazoo.  Interestingly enough, they do already have their 19-20 roster posted (very early as they always do).

https://hornets.kzoo.edu/sports/mbkb/2019-20/roster

1. Might any of the listed freshmen "jump ship" considering that the coach they thought they would be playing for suddenly did a vanishing act.

2. What about prospects for the assistant coach being elevated to the head spot?

3. Why is it necessary to list the AAU team that the roster members played for? Is this common with MIAA teams? Do area AAU coaches have much influence on what colleges their players end up at?

* I'm asking for a couple reasons. First, I just don't know that much about the MIAA and how the teams operate in general so I'm looking for a little education from the knowledgeable MIAA fans/posters. Second, let's just say in the Chicagoland area a good percentage of people involved with college D3 level basketball often find it difficult to say many favorable things about many AAU coaches. Thanks.

Welcome to 2019, Mark. Like it or not, the influence and power of AAU is only getting stronger with each passing year. It's already supplanted high school varsity athletics as the main driver of college sports prep in other sports (soccer and volleyball leap to mind), and it's well on its way to doing the same in basketball for both boys and girls.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Classes in session (or soon to be for most schools) and yet no word on the open coaching spot at Kalamazoo.  Interestingly enough, they do already have their 19-20 roster posted (very early as they always do).

https://hornets.kzoo.edu/sports/mbkb/2019-20/roster

1. Might any of the listed freshmen "jump ship" considering that the coach they thought they would be playing for suddenly did a vanishing act.

2. What about prospects for the assistant coach being elevated to the head spot?

3. Why is it necessary to list the AAU team that the roster members played for? Is this common with MIAA teams? Do area AAU coaches have much influence on what colleges their players end up at?

* I'm asking for a couple reasons. First, I just don't know that much about the MIAA and how the teams operate in general so I'm looking for a little education from the knowledgeable MIAA fans/posters. Second, let's just say in the Chicagoland area a good percentage of people involved with college D3 level basketball often find it difficult to say many favorable things about many AAU coaches. Thanks.

Welcome to 2019, Mark. Like it or not, the influence and power of AAU is only getting stronger with each passing year. It's already supplanted high school varsity athletics as the main driver of college sports prep in other sports (soccer and volleyball leap to mind), and it's well on its way to doing the same in basketball for both boys and girls.

You're also looking to appease those AAU coaches who often have access to and influence over far more potential recruits than any HS coach.  Good relationships with big AAU programs can be really beneficial for recruiting, especially at the d3 level.

[Gregory Sager]

Classes in session (or soon to be for most schools) and yet no word on the open coaching spot at Kalamazoo.  Interestingly enough, they do already have their 19-20 roster posted (very early as they always do).

https://hornets.kzoo.edu/sports/mbkb/2019-20/roster

1. Might any of the listed freshmen "jump ship" considering that the coach they thought they would be playing for suddenly did a vanishing act.

2. What about prospects for the assistant coach being elevated to the head spot?

3. Why is it necessary to list the AAU team that the roster members played for? Is this common with MIAA teams? Do area AAU coaches have much influence on what colleges their players end up at?

* I'm asking for a couple reasons. First, I just don't know that much about the MIAA and how the teams operate in general so I'm looking for a little education from the knowledgeable MIAA fans/posters. Second, let's just say in the Chicagoland area a good percentage of people involved with college D3 level basketball often find it difficult to say many favorable things about many AAU coaches. Thanks.

Welcome to 2019, Mark. Like it or not, the influence and power of AAU is only getting stronger with each passing year. It's already supplanted high school varsity athletics as the main driver of college sports prep in other sports (soccer and volleyball leap to mind), and it's well on its way to doing the same in basketball for both boys and girls.

You're also looking to appease those AAU coaches who often have access to and influence over far more potential recruits than any HS coach.  Good relationships with big AAU programs can be really beneficial for recruiting, especially at the d3 level.

Indeed. Posting the names of their former AAU teams with the players on D3 rosters is already a commonplace in men's and women's soccer and men's and women's volleyball.

[Flying Dutch Fan]

Classes in session (or soon to be for most schools) and yet no word on the open coaching spot at Kalamazoo.  Interestingly enough, they do already have their 19-20 roster posted (very early as they always do).

https://hornets.kzoo.edu/sports/mbkb/2019-20/roster

1. Might any of the listed freshmen "jump ship" considering that the coach they thought they would be playing for suddenly did a vanishing act.

2. What about prospects for the assistant coach being elevated to the head spot?

3. Why is it necessary to list the AAU team that the roster members played for? Is this common with MIAA teams? Do area AAU coaches have much influence on what colleges their players end up at?

* I'm asking for a couple reasons. First, I just don't know that much about the MIAA and how the teams operate in general so I'm looking for a little education from the knowledgeable MIAA fans/posters. Second, let's just say in the Chicagoland area a good percentage of people involved with college D3 level basketball often find it difficult to say many favorable things about many AAU coaches. Thanks.

Welcome to 2019, Mark. Like it or not, the influence and power of AAU is only getting stronger with each passing year. It's already supplanted high school varsity athletics as the main driver of college sports prep in other sports (soccer and volleyball leap to mind), and it's well on its way to doing the same in basketball for both boys and girls.

You're also looking to appease those AAU coaches who often have access to and influence over far more potential recruits than any HS coach.  Good relationships with big AAU programs can be really beneficial for recruiting, especially at the d3 level.

Indeed. Posting the names of their former AAU teams with the players on D3 rosters is already a commonplace in men's and women's soccer and men's and women's volleyball.

For basketball and the MIAA, Kazoo is the only school that has posted AAU teams to date.  I believe they did that for the first time last season, and it raised some eyebrows (or at least caused some conversation I know). 

[Gregory Sager]

There's more resistance to listing AAU programs in college basketball, because on the college level basketball is a more established sport with a longer tradition than other college sports, and it has a very fixed way of doing things. AAU in a lot of respects pushes up against the deeply-ingrained conservatism of this sport. But that's where the money is going, and that's the route that parents are choosing for their sons and daughters who want to eventually play college ball. I'm pretty sure that the day will come when listing AAU programs on college basketball rosters will be routine at this level.

[Flying Dutch Fan]

Per the Alma MBB Twitter account  - TJ Edwards - 6-2 G Flint Power (Tyler's younger brother) going to Alma.  He is a transfer from SVSU, but does not appear to have been on the bball team there.

[Knight2Day]

Looks like Calvin vs. Olivet games are going to get a whole lot spicier for the next four years.

Hey, can't turn down a full scholarship and a bag full of money.

Any proof?

Let's put it this way, with the players that have suddenly picked to go to Olivet in the last 2 years, I don't think anyone will be surprised if an ncaa violation comes out.

[KnightSlappy]

Looks like Calvin vs. Olivet games are going to get a whole lot spicier for the next four years.

Hey, can’t turn down a full scholarship and a bag full of money.

Any proof?

Let’s put it this way, with the players that have suddenly picked to go to Olivet in the last 2 years, I don’t think anyone will be surprised if an ncaa violation comes out.

I would be rather surprised if Sammy jumped at the job knowing that things weren't on the up and up. I get the sense that Olivet does a lot more for students' financial aid than Alma did (athletes and non athletes). Still probably not cheap though.

[sflzman]

Looks like Calvin vs. Olivet games are going to get a whole lot spicier for the next four years.

Hey, can't turn down a full scholarship and a bag full of money.

Any proof?

Let's put it this way, with the players that have suddenly picked to go to Olivet in the last 2 years, I don't think anyone will be surprised if an ncaa violation comes out.

I would be rather surprised if Sammy jumped at the job knowing that things weren't on the up and up. I get the sense that Olivet does a lot more for students' financial aid than Alma did (athletes and non athletes). Still probably not cheap though.

When you look at it that way everything's a better option than Alma, which is pushing towards $50k a year right now with little financial help without very very high GPA/test score combinations.

[sac]

Without getting to in depth, the basic philosophy of D3 is you're not supposed to offer athletes more than you offer your general student population. 

Olivet has lots of scholarships and are very good at finding scholarships that help reduce tuition significantly for everyone in their student body.  The scholarship catch is you have to maintain GPA's etc etc.   This is one of the reasons Olivet has a very high turnover rate both among student athletes and the general student body.  I don't know if they still do but they also had reduced tuition for students within a certain geographic area and for those who "commuted".

Its definitely not bags of money.

My friends daughter recently graduated from Olivet, her final tuition bill was roughly 1/3 the listed cost due to scholarships, and there were many.  She was recruited heavily by another MIAA school (and oddly continued to be recruited all 4 years at Olivet), where her final tuition cost would have been significantly higher, to the point she probably would not have been able to stay 4 years.  Her final tuition bill she was responsible for was still a pretty significant sum, one she'll be paying off for years to come. 


The first sentence here is the reason Kalamazoo was reprimanded by the NCAA and later hammered by the MIAA.

[WUPHF]

Yeah, the average tuition discount is close to 50% and is higher on average for liberal arts colleges.  Chances are high that Alma and Olivet have similar discount profiles.

In most cases, if you are paying more than 40-50% of the sticker price, you need to go negotiate.

[Knight2Day]

Here's a debate for us. Worst referee in the MIAA? I'll open with Geerlings, change my mind.

[hopefan]

Knight2day.. suggestion... might be interesting to put out a list of say 10 refs that MIAA fans are familiar with and rate them 1 to 10... would be interesting to see if voting was somewhat uniform, or if one school thought a particular ref was outstanding, whereas an opposing school though he was just awful....

[sac]

I don't think Geerlings has done many, if any, D3 games in the last couple years at least.

[MaroonKnighty]

2 votes for Geerlings