MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[realist]

Unfortunately, after many opportunities to watch lots of hs hoops, as well as last season in the MIAA, iI would say with confidence that Hope has a decidedly favorable edge in both quality and quanity the past 2 recruiting classes.

You may very well be correct.  However, when I look at the stats sheets, minutes played, and contribution of the Hope fr. from last year I am not as impressed as most Hope fans apparently are.     Of course that is probably just me, and the fact the yardstick I use for comparing fr. on a team is the 2000 Calvin team that started two fr's. and won a national championship.  A fr. starting on varsity in his first college game, and making all MIAA as a fr. impresses me.  Granted Hope has loads of talent, but none of the newer ones has dominated a game yet.   Does Hope have a fr. that is going to start in the Wheaton game?

[oldknight]

It's nice to see that KII is no longer MIA. Welcome back. 8)

[Flying Dutch Fan]

Unfortunately, after many opportunities to watch lots of hs hoops, as well as last season in the MIAA, iI would say with confidence that Hope has a decidedly favorable edge in both quality and quanity the past 2 recruiting classes.

You may very well be correct.  However, when I look at the stats sheets, minutes played, and contribution of the Hope fr. from last year I am not as impressed as most Hope fans apparently are.     Of course that is probably just me, and the fact the yardstick I use for comparing fr. on a team is the 2000 Calvin team that started two fr's. and won a national championship.  A fr. starting on varsity in his first college game, and making all MIAA as a fr. impresses me.  Granted Hope has loads of talent, but none of the newer ones has dominated a game yet.   Does Hope have a fr. that is going to start in the Wheaton game?

You are correct that none of the "newer ones" have dominated a game yet - but then they haven't needed to or had the opportunity to do that.  Such is the curse of having year after year of good recruiting   

even if some of the recruiting doesn't yield results until the transfer occurs

[Knight In The Stan]

Anybody going to the Calvin game @ Unity Christian tonight? I hear that the admission is free?

[Flying Dutch Fan]

So now Calvin is playing HS teams?   

[calvinite]

Veldhouse, Roolts, Smith, Veltema, and Mantel started. Salo saw a lot of playing time (and I thought played well). I was also impressed with Campbell. Zoerhof didn't play at all (although I left early); is he possibly injured? Roolts in foul trouble early. I thought Calvin's defense was decent for the most part. I was less impressed with the offense, but the Athletes in Action team's defense may have had something to do with that (big, athletic, strong team).

[Knight In The Stan]

Veldhouse 15-all in the first half
Mantel 16 and 11
zoerhof out with sprained ankle

I guess this team beat trine the other night by 40 and most of there players will be playing professionally within the next couple weeks wether it Europe or the NBA D league. Nice to get a scrimmage in regardless of the Win and Loss column.

[oldknight]

Calvin lost to Athletes in Action, 85-81 in the Knights' first exhibition game. AIA has several former D1 players on their roster including players from schools such as Missouri, Houston, Bradley, and Belmont. They're led by 6'11" Boomer Herndon, who must go 275 and who actually made Mantel look small. Like KII, I also heard that AIA beat Trine by 40 and I'm not surprised. I think Calvin did well to make this a competitive game, especially considering KVS played everyone (except for Zoerhof).

Like most early exhibitions, Calvin's play was occasionally ragged, and they went through streaks where they missed several open jumpers, but they only trailed by 6 at half. As KII mentioned, Veldhouse had all his 15 in the first half and he looked every bit the preseason All-American he has been named. Based on tonight's affair, it looks like Caleb will be playing the 2 spot vacated by Griffin and I don't envy MIAA defenders who will have run through an assortment of baseline screens trying to keep up with Veldhouse.

Caleb didn't score in the 2nd half primarily because he played so little--I suspect partly by design but also partly due to foul trouble. KVS obviously wanted to see some of the other players play at the beginning of the 2nd half and the absence of Mantel and Caleb from the first several minutes showed as Boomer made his presence known, blocking several shots and generally having his way in the paint on offense. It wasn't hard to see why Herndon was a double digit scorer at a D1 institution. He has a great touch and soft hands. A quick internet check showed me his 15th seed Belmont squad lost to Roy Hibbert and 2nd seed Georgetown in the 2007 NCAA tournament.

After a slow start against Boomer, I thought Mantel played quite well against him in the second half. John struggled getting off a good shot in the first half, but after the break, Mantel displayed a nice baby hook over the big guy, and then helped cut into AIA's double digit lead by hitting back to back 3's to make it a 6 point game with less than 5 to play.  Calvin got as close as 2 with 3 seconds left after a Veltema triple, but 2 AIA free throws closed out the scoring.

It seems that Dustin Smith and Trent Salo are destined to share duties at the point. Salo seems even smaller than Smith but is lightening quick, a pest that drives ball handlers nuts. I would hate to have him guarding me all game. Of the guys off the bench, the player who impressed me most was the person I profiled in a recent post--Brad Schnyders who scored 8. I was wondering if he might have a slow adjustment to a new team and a new school, but I think it is likely he will play significant minutes off the bench. He looked very confident, made several nice defensive plays by interrupting the passing lanes and he even picked the pocket of one of the AIA veterans.  Brad's performance was all the more impressive when you consider he broke his wrist July 26 and wore a cast for 7 weeks.

One thing seems obvious--this year's version of Calvin hoops has more overall footspeed than last year's. They covered the perimeter skip passes much more quickly than we've seen in recent years. Considering the high quality of the competition, and the fact that this was their first game experience after only two weeks of practice, I came away quite encouraged by what I saw.

[Flying Dutch Fan]

Sounds like a good debut by the Knights. 

One thing seems obvious--this year's version of Calvin hoops has more overall footspeed than last year's. They covered the perimeter skip passes much more quickly than we've seen in recent years.

If you're assessment is right (and it ususally is), this would be bad news for the rest of the MIAA. IMHO Calvin's biggest problem the last couple of years has been a lack of speed, especially on defense.

[northb]

So now Calvin is playing HS teams?   

yes, but they go by the name Alma Scots

[hopehoopfan]

So now Calvin is playing HS teams?   

yes, but they go by the name Alma Scots

I now root for Hope, but I am an Alma alum, and that I must admit is funny

[Dark Knight]

Calvin lost to Athletes in Action, 85-81 in the Knights' first exhibition game. AIA has several former D1 players on their roster including players from schools such as Missouri, Houston, Bradley, and Belmont. They're led by 6'11" Boomer Herndon, who must go 275 and who actually made Mantel look small. Like KII, I also heard that AIA beat Trine by 40 and I'm not surprised. I think Calvin did well to make this a competitive game, especially considering KVS played everyone (except for Zoerhof).

I want to say that this sounds encouraging, but my better judgment is telling me not to put much stock in this exhibition game. I can't believe a pre-(pre-)season Calvin team playing the whole bench could give a collection of soon-to-be-pro DI and DII players a run for their money. Any chance that since Athletes in Action is an evangelistic outreach kind of group they wouldn't be playing with the passion and intensity they might have brought to the regular season?

[MItwoA]

Sounds like a good debut by the Knights. 

One thing seems obvious--this year's version of Calvin hoops has more overall footspeed than last year's. They covered the perimeter skip passes much more quickly than we've seen in recent years.

If you're assessment is right (and it ususally is), this would be bad news for the rest of the MIAA. IMHO Calvin's biggest problem the last couple of years has been a lack of speed, especially on defense.

I think their troubles in the last couple of years comes from two different things!  1) KVS is always changing their offensive system, looking for the next best thing and which has proven ineffective and 2) their defensive scheme is one of the hardest to pick up on in any level of college ball (especially for incoming fresh and first year varsity players).  Its a defensive system that over commits on help side, leaving a skip pass wide open!  Hense the first Calvin/Hope game from last year with Tyler Wolfe being left un-guarded.

Also....good to hear Calvin kept it close with AIA but remember what they did to Wash U last year and look how the season turned out after that.

[GoKnights68]

Thanks for the summary, oldknight.  I am glad to read about the positives, but like a couple of posters noted, I am not going to put too much stock in these games due to what happened last season.  I am most concerned with what the new players can do to contribute to this team, and defense defense DEFENSE.


So when do the coaches have their meeting?  Any predictions on who they'll predict to win the league?  It's a toss-up to me.  Hope returns only 1 starter of course, but we all saw how loaded their bench was last season.

[KnightSlappy]

Hope returns only 1 starter of course, but we all saw how loaded their bench was last season.

I heard that blue blazers were sold out throughout Holland for months!