2014 Season in Review: Kalamazoo

2014:  10-15,  5-9  6th place
2013:  8-17,  5-9  6th place
2012:  8-17,  3-11  7th place

Best win of the year:  at Albion 60-58
Worst loss of the year:  Olivet 79-82

Seniors:  Mark Ghafari, Keaton Adams, Grant Carey

Mark Ghafari had an excellent Senior season

Kalamazoo had a pretty good year and the guy in that photo was the main reason.  Ghafari scored over 40 points three times on the year and over 30 three other times, becoming the first Hornet to lead the MIAA in scoring since 1991 (Ron Barczak).  The Hornets were right in the thick of the MIAA Tournament chase until Ghafari went down with a knee injury against Hope on Feb. 3.  He missed the next 3 games, all losses, and finished out the season at less than 100% with the team dropping 6 of their last 7 games.

They weren't that far from being a .500 club dropping 5 very winnable games by less than 5 points and combined with the late season slide its not far fetched to think Kzoo could have won 14 or 15 games.   


click to read more


Statistics Corner 
Nationally Kalamazoo was #118 in scoring offense built on a slightly better than average shooting percentage combined with a higher than average pace of play.   Where things go south a bit is a scoring defense ranked #360 and Fg% defense ranked #366.  Most of their other stats fall right in the middle range with nothing remarkable standing out.

Efficiency 

Offense:   105.70       Defense:   112.74        Total Eff Rating:   192.96

Team rank out of the last 10 years:   #4
League rank out of the last 10 years:  #57

Its been 8 years since Kzoo recorded 10 wins so its not surprising this group rates as one of their better teams in the last decade.  The defensive rating of 112.34 is a little inflated because IPFW, Calvin(twice), Hope and Trine really clobbered the Hornets, most of the time they were under this 112 mark.  Other than a good stretch of defense to begin league play though the Hornets struggled to stop teams from scoring pretty regularly.   That 112.74 is the 2nd worst defensive rating in the league for the last decade.

2014-2015

Key returnees:  Adam Peters, Adam Dykema, Chase Baysdell, Josh Whitney, Carter Goetz, Carl Ghafari, Aaron Schoenfeldt, Josh Miller

Year 3 around the corner.

What many probably don't realize is that of the 8 names above in the 'key returnees' 4 were Freshmen who saw significant playing time this past season.  Dykema, Baysdell, Whitney and Miller will make up the nucleus of the next 3 Kalamazoo teams.  

For next year Adam Peters returns as the workhorse and he'll be surrounded by what looks like a pretty young team overall.  What has to concern any Kzoo fan is what happens without the proficient scoring of Mark Ghafari.  The only sample size we have is the seven game finish this year, basically next years team without Ghafari went just 1-6 and that's a legitimate concern.  Kalamazoo will adapt, but  how successful will they be is really the question.

Range of Finish:  Kalamazoo might be hard pressed to be better next year yet probably could be with the right development of young players.  I'm not sure I see is a roster that can unseat any of the current top 4 from the top 4.  I can see this team making a push for a top 4 spot but falling short, I can also see them really struggle to remain competitive without Mark Ghafari.  5th to 7th.