MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[Gregory Sager]

If memory serves correct the NAIA schools give out the equilvalent of 6 full ride scholarships.

Not exactly. NAIA-1 schools are allowed to give out eleven full-ride basketball scholarships. NAIA-2 schools (e.g., your neighbors in the WHAC) are allowed to give out six full-ride basketball scholarships. In addition, schools are allowed to divvy up their scholarships in any way that they see fit; they aren't forced to merely hand out six (or eleven) full rides. They can give out partials instead of full rides, or mix the two.

[oldknight]

KVS on the Calvin Tonight show. 

http://youtube.com/watch?v=yGIsCAkUrJk

Good stuff. +K to KVS if he posted here. I probably should simply donate it to someone else--maybe Knight In Iraq.

[realist]

GS:  Thanks for the followup.  I forgot to add the 2 after my NAIA in the post.  A friend who follows CU indicates that Elders gives what he thinks he needs to get a player, and is known to keep a little in reserve to "reward" good performance.  A kid may come in with 50% and get another 5 or 10% each year.  This year (with all the turmoil/turnover) CU probably has more $$ than normally would be available to splash around.

[Knight In The Stan]

KVS on the Calvin Tonight show. 

http://youtube.com/watch?v=yGIsCAkUrJk

Good stuff. +K to KVS if he posted here. I probably should simply donate it to someone else--maybe Knight In Iraq.

oldknight-
appreciate the karma points, maybe everytime that calvin wins i should get more then too is anyone going to watch the calvin lake state scrimmage? hopefully someone can get some info after that on saturday. rumor has it that kvs was pleased with their performance against grcc a little while back.
GO KNIGHTS

[Dark Knight]

oldknight-
appreciate the karma points, maybe everytime that calvin wins i should get more then too is anyone going to watch the calvin lake state scrimmage? hopefully someone can get some info after that on saturday. rumor has it that kvs was pleased with their performance against grcc a little while back.
GO KNIGHTS

Does anyone know the time?

[goodknight]

oldknight-
appreciate the karma points, maybe everytime that calvin wins i should get more then too is anyone going to watch the calvin lake state scrimmage? hopefully someone can get some info after that on saturday. rumor has it that kvs was pleased with their performance against grcc a little while back.
GO KNIGHTS

Does anyone know the time?

I've been told it's a 2 p.m. tipoff, and I intend to make the drive to see the Knights' final tuneup for the season against Steve Hettinga's boys.

[oldknight]

I got a chance to observe the 07-08 Knights at the Fieldhouse against LSSU this afternoon. The squads scrimmaged for two 20 minute halves plus an extra 10 minutes at the end. Calvin won the first 20 minutes by 7, LSSU the second 20 by 10 and then LSSU hit a buzzer beater in the lane to win the extra session by 1. It's always risky to make quick judgments based on one early scrimmage but OldKnight has rarely been afraid to walk where angels fear to tread, so here are some early thoughts.

When Calvin played what you would expect to be their starters and first rotation of subs (the first 20 minutes) they looked very good. LSSU plays hard on defense and doubles the ball a lot in the corners but Calvin's ball movement and shot selection was excellent most of the first 20 minutes. More importantly (to me) Calvin's defense looked much better than it did the early part of last year when they rotated too slowly and gave up too many wide open looks. If they play defense this year like they did most of the first 20 minutes the Knights will be a very good team. The rest of the scrimmage was more uneven for Calvin, probably because KVS went to a lot of player rotations you are not likely to see during the regular season.

Griffin was solid. He looks to be in midseason form already and I saw nary a mistake from him all afternoon. He hit several early 3s and took it to the hole more than once to draw contact and a foul. He looked very confident and under control. Caleb seemed willing to play the role of a playmaker for purposes of this scrimmage, presumably by design. He took very few shots but I imagine he will return to his role of the scoring point guard we have been accustomed to seeing the last two years. Mantel definately has bulked up and was the biggest man on the floor. I think those added pounds will be an asset to the team this year. Late in the contest he made a couple of those drop step moves which made Dan Aultman famous and if John continues to perfect that he will be a load to guard at the D3 level.

Veltema had a spectacular scoring afternoon off the bench, drilling shot after shot from all angles. Like Griffin he pulls the trigger quickly and with confidence. Matt's been compared by some to a left-handed version of Andy Draayer and with good reason. He's really instant offense off the bench. I was also very impressed with Engelsma's play. He's one of those guys who plays bigger than his listed height and weight and made an outstanding hustle play shortly after his first entry to the scrimmage, by diving for a loose ball and tapping it to Griffin for an easy layup. Like Veltema, he will see a lot a playing time in the first rotation of subs.

The Knights are still a work in progress but considering they took on a D2 opponent from the GLIAC (which has already won two pre-season games against Big 10 competition), I can say I'm encouraged.

[scottiedawg]

The Dutchmen also participated in an exhibition today vs Ferris State.  47-29 FSU in the first 20 minutes.  I can't remember exactly, but about 45-24 Dutchmen in the second 20 minutes.  And I wasn't around for the final eight minutes.  All sorts of things can be mentioned here, but overall the Dutchmen looked solid.  This was in spite of some below average performances, which shows the vast potential that this team has.  Minor observations:

Both Klein and Kratz looked bigger and should be forces defensively and rebounding.

Let's hope Marcus is alright after sustaining what looked like a concussion. (pure speculation, but he walked off gingerly)

Both Tanis and Sharples played well, scoring, being aggressive, and not making many mistakes.

Carter had his second straight poor game.  No penetration, very few assists, multiple turnovers.  Let's hope he gets comfortable and straightened out before January. 

This team has some jumping jacks, as Glaser, Klein, and Bowser dunked multiple times in warmups.  (Jesse also tried to dunk on a fastbreak, but was fouled). 

From what I hear about the Detroit game, and what I saw in the Ferris State game, this team is starting at a good point, yet has very much to improve upon and iron out. 

[GoKnights68]

Thanks for the summary, oldknight.  I couldn't make the scrimage.

[Dark Knight]

It's always risky to make quick judgments based on one early scrimmage but OldKnight has rarely been afraid to walk where angels fear to tread, so here are some early thoughts.

If no less august a personage than Oldknight is willing to tread this path, perhaps I can add a few comments.

The rules of the contest were that non-shooting fouls were taken in from out of bounds, so though there were about 40 fouls called on LSSU in the first 40 minutes of play, there were very few free throws. In a real game, if LSSU had played defense as aggressive as that, Calvin would have had about 40 free throw attempts. (Players with five fouls were not ejected either, so there was really almost no penalty for fouling a non-shooter.)

Given the aggressive defense by the athletic D-II opponents, it was good to see that the knights didn't have any trouble putting the ball in the bucket, scoring 45 in the first 20-minute period, to LSSU's 38.  In the first two periods, I had Veltema with 28, Griffin with 15, Mantel with 14, and Engelsma with 10.

I agree with OK that the defense looked quite a bit further along this year than at the beginning of last year.

N.B. last year Ferris St. finished 5th in the GLIAC, at 8-10, and LSSU finished 6th, at 6-12.

[sac]

Thanks for the reports guys.

Just looking at rosters for LSSU and FSU, 1 Senior for each team.   9 underclassmen for LSSU. 9 Freshman for Ferris.

A few names that have been kicked around in the MIAA recruiting notes I've seen.  2 Intersting names were the Boylan twins from Grayling.  Mike ends up at LSSU, Jim to Ferris State, both listed at 6-10.

(topic for another time, but how does Class C Grayling with two 6-10 kids not advance past the districts?)

I'm going to take a wild guess that Holland's CJ Van Wieren didn't play for the Bulldogs on the hardwood.  I'm nearly 99.9% sure he was QB'ing the Bulldogs today.

Last year Ferris St. finished 5th in the GLIAC, at 8-10, and LSSU finished 6th, at 6-12.

This year,
FSU was picked 4th, LSSU 6th in the GLIAC North, granted its the tougher division of the GLIAC but rosters alone suggest these two teams will struggle this year.

What in the devil is Ferris State doing scheduling Grace Bible and Kuyper College?

[bulldogalum]

It will be interesting to see how Adrian stacks up tomorrow against Oakland.  Not sure what Oakland has coming back, but this Adrian team comes in with higher expectations than in the previous seasons.

[goodknight]

In the FWIW department, Calvin put the following five players on the court at the opening of the first two 20-minute periods yesterday:

Veldhouse
Griffin
Schuster
Katt
Mantel

Based on what I saw against LSSU, I'd swap Engelsma for either Katt or Schuster in that rotation.  Engelsma is going to be a force as he continues to grow and mature as a player.

Only one of the freshmen played yesterday -- Jimmy Strunk in the 10-minute overtime period.  He seemed a bit wide-eyed and his first several shots were off the mark, but he hit a huge 3-ball from the left corner in the Knights' final possession to give them a short-lived lead. 

[HopeConvert]

Oldknight: Thanks for the report. I expect Calvin to be much better this year, in no small part because their teamwork on defense is likely to benefit from being more experienced. That's where we're likely to see a big difference between last year's team and this year's. In addition, it sounds like Mantel and Engelsma are simply going to be bigger offensive threats than Snoeyink and Meckes were (whether either will be as good defensively as Meckes is another question). I'm afraid that Hope will have no answer defensively for Calvin's guards (even with an experienced Cramer last year, they couldn't contain Griffin), especially if Mantel and Engelsma make it impossible to cheat defensively. I'm not sure why Hope is projected ahead of Calvin. This Knights squad looks awfully dangerous to me, and Hope's freshmen, while talented, are still freshmen. Given Calvin's interior size and perimeter quickness and shooting ability (especially with Veltema off the bench) I just don't see the matchups being in Hope's favor. Unfortunately.

[hoopdreams]

In response to the review of hope-ferris, I believe the score difference after the 1st half was 9 not 19.  Even though the starting group struugled a bit, I don't remember them being down 20ish.

Justin keenan from ottawa hills was dominant in the post for ferris, which should concern hope fans because "dominant" was never a term used on him in HS.  Believe he broke the 20 point barrier once was a senior last year.

DVS looked more comfortable and seemed to have his legs underneath him for those DEEP jumpers.  Was impressed again at his willingness to talk to the frosh during the entire process.  What was said, i don't know but at least he was interacting with them which can't be said about all the other upperclassman.


several others looked alittle off, some main contributors, some not so much, carter being 1 of them.  My thinking is that the transition to college ball will be the hardest for him.  Tanis comes in the score, sharples the rebound abd use his athletic ability for mismatches.  kelvin is being asked to run the show and lead, not score which he is accostomed to.  He will naturally do better in a transition setting , but hopes inability to rebound so far stiffles that thought.  he'll be fine.

I thought Bowser played well and has showed that he is quite versitile and long.  Sharples was aggressive attacking the basket, but has a strong tendency that teams will pick up on, and tanis was for the most part, very good.  Aside from all the shots he made, I was most impressed with the passes he made ( pick and roll with Holt).  He seems to have bought into the team concept.  The pullup 3 in transition was nice too!

I'm sure that it has been frustrating for most to see hope get killed on the glass, but you have to look at their effort as far as boxing out.  Most of them made good efforts to and that will pay dividends in the future.  Rebounding will have to remain a focus because I think calvin and others have a distinct advantage right now