The Knights were not afraid. They weren't afraid of the (sold out) hostile crowd. They weren't afraid of their youth. They weren't afraid of the Dutchmen.
The MIAA coaches picked Hope to win the league this year, but Calvin didn't roll over and play dead on Hope's home floor. Sure, the Dutchmen have had some injury and attrition issues (may be an understatement) this year, but they've been dealing with those issues all year, and they've been having success.
According to the Massey ratings, Hope was the 24th best team in D3 coming into the game (Calvin was 63rd), and they were expected to have a 70% chance of winning. Didn't happen.
Calvin flat-out outplayed Hope for most of the game, and that particularly shows in the 46-21 rebounding advantage (69% to 31%).
It was as close to a complete game as we've seen out of this young group all season. Maybe the DePauw game was "better", but that was on a neutral floor, and that was against a (probably) worse team, and they still were battling major ups and downs in that contest.
Even considering that two starters -- Bryan Powell and Tom Snikkers -- had 'poor' games, they still were dominant. Calvin was a pretty freaking good D3 team last night. Sure there's room for improvement, especially in the turnover category, but it's a testament to what this team can still become this season. They showed they're not afraid of tough competition.
Game Chart
| Player | %Min | %Shots | eFG% | PPWS | FTr | Ar | TO% | Rb% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rodts | 0.75 | 0.29 | 0.962 | 1.89 | 0.46 | 0.07 | 0.13 | 0.08 |
| Snikkers | 0.65 | 0.23 | 0.222 | 0.58 | 0.33 | 0.21 | 0.28 | 0.11 |
| Schuster | 0.65 | 0.26 | 0.850 | 1.70 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.23 |
| Powell | 0.65 | 0.18 | 0.286 | 0.57 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.30 | 0.09 |
| Brink | 0.60 | 0.06 | 0.500 | 1.65 | 3.00 | 0.38 | 0.51 | 0.05 |
| Haverdink | 0.40 | 0.08 | 1.250 | 2.05 | 2.00 | 0.00 | 0.20 | 0.07 |
| Schnyders | 0.48 | 0.28 | 0.438 | 1.11 | 0.50 | 0.25 | 0.00 | 0.03 |
| Kruis | 0.48 | 0.18 | 0.700 | 1.28 | 0.20 | 0.08 | 0.29 | 0.19 |
| DeBoer | 0.13 | 0.27 | 0.000 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.25 | 2.00 | 0.48 |
| DeYoung | 0.23 | 0.15 | 1.000 | 2.00 | 0.00 | 0.19 | 0.50 | 0.13 |
| Calvin | 1.00 | 1.00 | 0.625 | 1.33 | 0.40 | 0.56 | 0.27 | 0.69 |
Lots of good numbers here, especially from senior starters Danny Rodts and Brent Schuster, who had two of the best games that we've seen from Calvin players all year, but the bench stepped up nicely as well.
Brian Haverdink made his shots, Brad Schnyders scored the ball and made his free throws (and a three pointer!!!!!!!1!!!1!!!), and Tyler Kruis who got heavily involved on offense, defense, and rebounding (7 points, 6 boards, 2 blocks in 19 minutes). Again, a complete team game.
A 1.33 team PPWS while grabbing 69% of the rebounds is RI.DIC.U.LOUS.
I haven't run any numbers, but Calvin will be very highly ranked in my Monday Regional Rankings. Still, there's 14 long games in conference play. This only counts as one.
