Those 3rd stringers should not be getting a bad rap for Saturday's game.  GVW has a history of treating his 3rd string like crap and when he puts them in rough situations and yanks them when making one mistake, its no wonder they never seem to gain confidence.  The 3rd string (minus Snuggs) made a big run in the first half, showing that these kids are quite capable if given a chance.  Beyond Bunn, the rest of the players on this team are not THAT much different in talent level. Bowser and Nelis have more experience, Krom had a good year last year, and Venema is just one large human being. Coincidentally, those players are allowed to do whatever they want without much more than an occasional stomp of the foot from GVW.  When a guy like Jungling throws a bad pass, it appears to be the end of the world. Hope as a lot of untapped talent and athleticism, I pray for the day that GVW opens up the offense and lets some of these kids create!

just because the man has won so many games, which is very impressive, he isnt above criticism! the point made about how gvw treats different players is very insightful. ive seen krom make some unbelievable turnovers this year that gvw just claps for and ignores..at the same time jungling comes in and maybe throws the ball away once on a good look and gvw blows a gasket and pulls him. those two freshman with tanis and bowser were good as freshmen then as sophomores looked scared to move. if he recruits these players he has to have some amount of faith in them...the team is strong, not just the starting 5 players.

as far as the comment made by a hope player..you can tell the guys are frustrated out there. they look robotic on the court. it is definitely not the coach's fault that they lost, as olivet picked up who knows how many offensive rebounds. BUT maybe gvw needs to re-evaluate his direction with this team?

first post,  i would like to thank all of you for putting up game summaries for the hope team as this is where i always check to see an assessment of the games!

while i realize gvw deserves respect for his wins and prolonged prowess as a d3 coach, sometimes his wins are due to the talent he has and not his coaching. although this years team is struggling, they have a different type of talent not characteristically seen in hope teams, and gvw needs to abandon some of his "traditions" and use it.  they have athleticism, not a bunch of relatively slow 3 point shooters.  bunn needs some space to operate, as does krombeen, as does bowser. with his offensive sets, there is no room in the lane, which makes no sense seeing how they dont have a guy in the post that plays very well with his back to the basket.

maybe more of a drive and kick offense for the hope team? it looks like these guys are locked down physically and mentally, and the bench looks scared when they get in. gvw may need to open it up a little bit, as he has failed to effectively use a few very talented players in the past few years. great game last night, the online coverage was fantastic. must give some props to that rodts-mantel play, an unbelievable turn of events that first appeared to be a key turnover for hope, then morphed into a energy deflating key basket for calvin