St. Thomas officially tossed from the MIAC for being too good. "The MIAC Presidents' Council cited athletic competitive parity in the conference as a primary concern."

https://www.d3sports.com/notables/2019/05/tommies-tossed-from-miac

Kevin Vande Streek Retires as Calvin Men's Basketball Coach

http://calvinknights.com/sports/mbkb/2018-19/releases/20190228vfjft0

Quote from: Knight2Day on January 25, 2016, 02:40:15 PM

Quote from: KnightSlappy on January 25, 2016, 09:56:25 AM

Quote from: Knight2Day on January 24, 2016, 05:35:24 PM

Quote from: knightyknight on January 23, 2016, 11:26:13 PM

Quote
7-7 with the availability that Calvin has for recruiting is absolutely disgusting. Calvin should never finish below 3rd in the league with the resources they have available. No disrespect to any MIAA team, but with the the facilities Calvin has at its disposal, not making the tourney is not an option. Anything less than 3rd is an utter disaster and most of the donors agree with me. This season is cause for concern.

"Availability that Calvin has for recruiting...."  What does that mean?  Asking parents to shell out $38,000 a year so their kid can come and try out for the team?   But hey,  they'll have a really nice gym to play in if they make it. 

You seem to have no clue as to the state of small college recruiting these days.  Virtually every college player has played AAU ball.  The minute they join an AAU program all they hear about is "scholarships."  They're told that their club will help their kid pay for their college education.  And the kids and their parents fall hard for this.   It's  a badge of honor to be "offered", and have that national letter of intent signing day.

And quite frankly,  it's real.  I can think of 5 quality players off the top of my head, all 6'6  or bigger from west Michigan Christian schools ( historically typical Calvin feeder schools), that are currently playing college ball under scholarships at NAIA schools.  Two of them have fathers that has good careers at Calvin .  The program, the history, the academics, and  the facilities cannot compete with what can amount to 10's of thousands of dollars over the course of 4 years.

With that logic, the overall talent level of D3 basketball should be falling and Calvin should be able to maintain its position as a national power. Unfortunately your logic fails. Trust me, I'm not only familiar with playing D3 and the expenses that come with it but also the decision to play or not play based on those financial questions and the role AAU is playing (some of us on this board aren't in our 40-50's and have played in the AAU circuit). The thing that people like you want us to believe (us being individuals who believe Calvin basketball deserves better) is that mediocrity is just a sign of the times and we should accept it. If finances were the only issue for Calvin, then Hope would be in an equally poor position as well as many other D3 institutions. It's poor coaching that is the problem and is pushing athletes away, as much as you want to put your head in the sand and think otherwise.

OK, I'll bite. I too would love to see Calvin have a UWSP type run -- win a few national championships and make the tournament every single year -- but it's just not true that Calvin is "mediocre" or in a "poor position" when it comes to men's basketball.

Under KVS, Calvin has been quite a good Division III basketball team. It might be true that they've come up short against some of our lofty standards, but there's a difference between being an objectively middling program and not quite where we wish they were.

I mean, for goodness sake, Calvin's present graduating class is on a streak of reaching three-straight Rounds of 32 and two-of-three Sweet Sixteens in the NCAA Tournament. They won two MIAA titles and all three MIAA Tournaments. They're 6-3 vs. Hope. Those streaks will probably end soon, but it feels like we're jumping the gun on this discussion.

You never cease to amaze me KS. Im just going to leave it at that. Spend some time in the locker room and inside the program and not just in the stands and writing on your blog and then come talk to me.

K2D, my understanding is that you believe Calvin should be a perennial top-10 Division 3 program.  Albeit a lofty goal, for reasons you have suggested this could be a reasonable view to have.  While you may disagree, it is also justifiable for Calvin fans to be happy with the recent success of the program.  As it stands, it is a down year compared to recent Calvin teams by many (most?) objective standards.  However, I have to agree with KS and Dave McHugh (and respectfully disagree with you) in that you are overstating the current status of the program to argue your beliefs. 

Quote from: bballfan13 on March 02, 2015, 09:26:07 PM
Can someone give me a quick description of how you come up with the percentages of a team advancing from a pod based on Massey?

Assuming one does it by hand, it would become quite tedious the more complex a scenario one considers as you have to multiply the probabilities of all possible scenarios for a desired outcome.  For the sake of relevance:

Neumann @ Mt. Union (5% and 95% chances of winning according to Massey, respectively)
Calvin vs. Oswego St. (69% and 31%)

The chances of Calvin winning the pod are: [0.69 (Calvin's likelihood of beating Oswego St.) * 0.29 (Calvin beating Mt. Union @ Mt. Union) * 0.95 (probability of Mt. Union beating Neumann)] + [0.69 (Calvin over Oswego St.) * 0.87 (Calvin over Neumann) * 0.05 (Neumann over Mt. Union)] = 22.0%

The same rationale applies for each school.

Quote from: Happy Calvin Guy on March 10, 2014, 09:30:08 AM
New Massey ratings are out:

IWU #3 (up 1)
Wheaton #6 (up 3)
Calvin #9 (up 8)
Dickinson #25 (up 16)

Probabilities of going to Final Four:

IWU 49.2%
Wheaton 32.5%
Calvin 12.0%
Dickinson 6.3%

Wisconsin-Stevens Point (1)   67.8%
Wisconsin-Whitewater (2)   24.3%
Texas-Dallas (10)   5.9%
Emory (34)   2.1%

Amherst (7)   52.1%
Richard Stockton (12)   30.3%
Plattsburgh State (11)   17.0%
Morrisville State (177)   0.6%

Mary Washington (14)   43.1%
Williams (17)   21.9%
Virginia Wesleyan (21)   17.8%
Albertus Magnus (18)   17.1%

I think there is validity to the argument that Calvin was too predictable against Hope last night.  In my opinion, this is largely due to the fact that Calvin lacks individual play-makers. Perhaps not in ability, but at this point certainly in mentality.  From the Calvin side, Tyler Kruis was the only player who seemed to assert himself and rise to the occasion.  When many in your rotation are "system-type players" (to quote VandeStreek), it is crucial to integrate a clever and dynamic system.  The only nuanced adjustment I noticed was the back door cut to Dykstra, which as one poster noted was "too little, too late".

As to VandeStreek not having the team mentally prepared, I just don't buy that argument.  As collegiate players, if battling your biggest rival at their place for the conference lead doesn't motivate you, your coach's pregame speeches certainly won't either.

The word going around was that the Alumni beat the Varsity by 1 point on a buzzer-beating bucket at the end of 3 periods.  Ironically, no one playing or watching knew at the time what the score was other than the student scorekeepers.  I was told the Alumni were up 3 after the 2nd period as well.  I'm not sure what the relative scores were after the first period, but in my estimation the Alumni won the first period easily and the Varsity won the 2nd and 3rd periods (perhaps due to fatigue ).  I don't know why they weren't utilizing the score function on the scoreboard as the game clock, shot clock, and team fouls were all being shown.

I also saw Rob Dykstra, Josh Tubergen and Nate Burgess on the floor for the old guys.