2013 Season in Review: Calvin

2013  26-4,  13-1  1st
2012  13-13,  8-6  3rd tie

win that made you raise an eyebrow:  Calvin 67, at UW-Stevens Point 58
loss that made you raise an eyebrow:  Carthage 74, Calvin 63

Seniors:  Tom Snikkers, Bryan Powell, Dave Rietema, Matt DeBoer

Coming off an injury riddled 2012 in which Calvin struggled to reach .500 the Knights were picked to finish 3rd way back in November.  That seemed a bit ridiculous then and even more ridiculous now.  But it made sense until it didn't make sense anymore which was sometime around the time Calvin was busy drubbing Hope in the middle of January.

Backtracking on the non-conference a little, Calvin killed everyone except the only someone's they played.  Those someone's were Wheaton and Carthage.  That particular bad weekend of basketball hurt their perceptions within the D3 world and it was a long slow climb up the polls.  Somewhere on this blog I said something along the lines that Calvin's non-conference schedule should show the improvement over last season, and it did.  By the time January rolled around I think Calvin was probably an even favorite with Adrian.

Tyler Kruis, Calvin's first MVP in 9 years?

Calvin's had a bit of a hex when it came to beating Adrian the last couple years so their early MIAA win over the Bulldogs was probably both a positive sign and just a relief.  An escape from Kresge followed by easy work of Kalamazoo and Alma set up the big showdown with Hope where Calvin dismantled the Dutchmen is every way possible.  Mid-January and all signs pointed to Calvin winning the league and maybe rather easily.  Its never like that though as they won on a late Bryan Powell three pointer at Adrian, took a close hard fought loss to Hope and survived a Trine rally just  one game later, then put the finishing touches on their outright crown by beating Olivet.

Where this Calvin team really shined was in the post-season.  In the MIAA Tournament they flattened Adrian and Hope spending most of those two games leading by, or close, to double-digits.  The relief in winning the MIAA Tournament and gaining a first NCAA bid in 6 years was palpable.  The Knights went on the road in the first round of NCAA Tournament and beat an equally good defensive Rose-Hulman team by 20 points.  The following week saw them beat D3 powerhouse UW-Stevens Point on their home floor.  In the Sweet 16, their first in 8 seasons, Calvin lost to pre-tournament favorite and #1 ranked St. Thomas with a valiant late come back that fell one point short.

The difference between Calvin of 2013 and Calvin of the last couple years was winning the close games.  By my estimation Calvin won 3 close MIAA contests that in the last couple years they probably would not have won.  Ultimately they avoided defeat to anyone besides Hope and this played a large factor in their holding the MIAA trophy by themselves.  They were also kind of good.


Statistics Corner

Calvin's season is pretty easy to define, they were hard to score against.  On the D3 statistics scene the Knights show up highly ranked in a lot of good defensive categories most notably scoring defense at #6, scoring margin at #3, FG% defense at #2, and rebound margin at #3.  These are a lot of good statistics to be in the top ten and being really good at these led to a lot of easy wins.

Just in case you thought Calvin was all about defense, the Knights also put up a top 100 ranking in just about all of the offensive statistics and were in the top 50 in FG%,  assists, blocked shots.  The two dings in Calvin's armor are really just annoying scratches you really can't even see.  They ranked #235 in 3 pointers made, and #204 in steals per game.  In short Calvin was a really good team at both ends of the floor, their overall record and post-season performance should not have surprised anyone.

Thing they did better than anyone else in the league:  anything that involved rebounding and defense
Thing they did worse than anyone in the league:  ?

Calvin's league championship was won on the back of good sound defense and near complete domination of the boards.  When the dust settled they had escaped the pitfalls of recent seasons,  and when the chips were down at the end Calvin reached another level of competency that only the #1 ranked team in D3 at the time could take down.  A different tournament draw and it might have been Calvin in Salem vying for Atlanta.

Efficiency:

Offense:  110.14   Defense:  85.22   Total Eff Rating:  224.92

Team rank out of last 10 years:  #1
League rank out of last 10 years  #1

Offense and defense were both top team rankings for Calvin in the past decade.  Offense ranks right in the middle of most of the MIAA Championship and NCAA teams while defensively they performed at the highest level of any MIAA team edging out Hope's terrific 2006 defense.

Overall Calvin also edges out Hope's 2008 team that went to the Final Four by a narrow few tenths of points.  Given the same bracketing Hope had that year, Calvin wouldn't have played St. Thomas until the final four instead of the Sweet 16.  In essence they were very similar teams.  2013 ends up ranked well ahead of the 2005 Calvin outfit that went to Salem.  It's at this point that I bring in the schedule, it was poor and I don't think there's anyway around saying that.  The numbers above are a little inflated but not enough that it probably makes much of a difference in team rank and only a slot or two in league rank.  Either way this was a good team statistically and performed very well on D3 basketball's biggest stage.


2013-2014

Key Returnees:  Tyler Kruis, Mickey DeVries, Tyler Dykstra, Jordan Brink, Daniel Stout, Mitch Vallie and others

Probably going to look like that again

Calvin returns 3 starters in Brink, Kruis, Dykstra and I'm slotting DeVries as a 4th starter.  I would be shocked if Tyler Kruis doesn't end up the main focus of Calvin's offense.  While he's been a bit passive for my tastes at times, he possesses all the skills necessary to become a league MVP type player.  For the first time in his career at Calvin he won't be taking a back seat to anyone on his team in the pecking order of who takes the big shots.  Spelling Kruis will be Daniel Stout who turned into a pretty good 10 minutes per game guy with solid offensive and rebounding numbers.  Calvin's pretty set in the middle of the paint.

Along side Kruis will be Tyler Dykstra and Mickey DeVries, two guys who at times looked to be just itching to break out into being really good D3 basketball players.  Both of these guys shot over 50% but only had less than 1/2 the chances of their other main weapons.  Each played significant roles on the boards and in Calvin being exceptionally good on the glass, stepping up the offensive part of the game is the next step.  Backing these guys up will be Mitch Vallie and Jordan Mast.  Depth isn't a problem on the front-line which will be tall, probably control the paint and the glass much like last year.

Mickey DeVries, enjoying a Toni Basil song?

Jordan Brink is the only guard with significant experience returning.  Brink shot slightly under 40% from 3 and received limiting minutes because his teammate Bryan Powell had such fine season.  Next season I think Brink figures to be option #2 in the offense and should get both more opportunities and more minutes.  Calvin has better options than people probably think in backing up Brink such as Jordan Daley and one or two JV guys.  Depth isn't apparent but its Calvin, they'll reload.

Point guard is at the moment nobody.  If worse came to worse I'm sure Jordan Brink could pick up the slack here without much trouble.  I'm sure Calvin doesn't want to have to do that though but its an option that's available.   Ryan Nadeau was on the roster but played in mostly mop-up minutes so its difficult to see where he fits in here.  After that you're looking at a JV call-up or a Freshmen.  Honestly neither should be too bad of an option with so much experience and depth already on the floor.

Jordan Brink

has a twin that plays baseball for Fresno State with the same name.

Calvin should be good again and it should mainly be because of their formidable front line.  It will hard to score easy baskets on them and hard to rebound again.  Its a good formula, especially when it works.  The Knights were 11 deep consistently last year and even moving guys up the ladder a couple spots leaves them with plenty of returning depth and experience to expect another good season.

Range of Finish:   I think you have to make them the very early favorites.  The only two drawbacks I see are no established returning point guard and losing 4 quality Seniors that provided great leadership.  I might actually be underselling their value to the team a little.   If those things can be replaced even a little though this returning group of players should be a good team again.  Maybe a step back from a top 10 D3 team, but still good enough to win the MIAA.  1st.  2nd if the leadership isn't there and they lose those close ones they won this year.