You won't find more underclassmen in a JV game. Actually, you would, but it seems like there were an awful lot of young players in last night's game. For Calvin, 56% of the team's minutes were played by freshmen and sophomores; for Aquinas, that number was 51%.
The inexperience showed. The two teams combined for 41 turnovers and only 10 assists, but really the difference in the game came down to field goal shooting. The Knights didn't shoot particularly well, with an eFG% of .451, but it was even worse for the Saints. Aquinas effectively shot only .305 for the game, which is very very terrible.
Game Chart
| Player | %MIN | %Shots | eFG% | PPWS | FTr | Ar | Orb% | DRb% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Powell | 0.78 | 0.20 | 0.375 | 0.85 | 0.38 | 0.15 | 0.000 | 0.056 |
| Rodts | 0.75 | 0.13 | 0.200 | 0.89 | 1.20 | 0.00 | 0.000 | 0.058 |
| Brink | 0.65 | 0.18 | 0.833 | 1.67 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.096 | 0.100 |
| Snikkers | 0.58 | 0.31 | 0.444 | 1.06 | 0.33 | 0.12 | 0.109 | 0.151 |
| Haverdink | 0.55 | 0.18 | 0.200 | 0.40 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.057 | 0.119 |
| Schuster | 0.50 | 0.27 | 0.571 | 1.14 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.063 | 0.043 |
| Schnyders | 0.40 | 0.29 | 0.833 | 1.48 | 0.50 | 0.00 | 0.000 | 0.109 |
| Kruis | 0.38 | 0.10 | 0.000 | 0.68 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 0.167 | 0.348 |
| DeBoer | 0.28 | 0.14 | 0.000 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.000 | 0.079 |
| DeYoung | 0.15 | 0.13 | 0.000 | 1.03 | 2.00 | 0.00 | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Team | 0.451 | 1.02 | 0.37 | 0.14 | 0.281 | 0.630 |
Some pretty good numbers from the Knights. We know the AQ offense isn't very good, but their defense did rate well going into Friday's game. Not overly impressive as a team, but good enough to win, especially against another young team.
Tyler Kruis is going to see his playing time continue to increase. He's a difference already a difference maker on the glass, and he's shown a nice ability to block shots. He's long and versatile, and looks to have a high ceiling.
Sticking with the freshmen, this is a pretty bold statement, but I think Jordan Brink is going to be a much better D3 player than Caleb Veldhouse was. Scoring efficiency never was Caleb's strong suit, but Brink has been an effective scorer with relatively few shots per game. We'll have to wait a couple of years to see if that changes once he's counted on to be one of the team's top offensive weapons, but that's my prediction for now, and I'm not trying to knock Caleb at all.
Offensively, no one player really had a big game, but they spread the ball around well. That's really what this team has to do, and they're probably tougher to defend that way. They have seven guys who can all score in different ways.
Feels good to get a big win, but Aquinas just doesn't look to be very good at all this year. We'll get them again in December at the VNA.
Next up: Cornerstone tonight. I'll write up more about this weekend's games afterward.
