At the Tipping Point

In sports it often seems that our favorite players and teams are at a tipping point. Sometimes we're actually at that point, but mostly it's just something we say as we build sports narratives in our minds. Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford, for example, is in his third-straight make-or-break season (at least, I haven't really looked back further).

Calvin's potential tipping point is different than that of Stafford, feeling more severe. Will the program bounce back and return to national renown and MIAA dominance, or was last season a harbinger of lean years to come?

Calvin's 10-15 finish in 2016 was the program's first sub-500 season since 1984. That's not great. 2017 will be a different season, that much is for sure, but it's not clear how much different it will be in terms of wins and losses.

What is clear (or should be clear) is that this upcoming season isn't likely to set the tone of the next decade of Calvin basketball. Another substandard season isn't going to (necessarily) usher in a run of mediocrity (or worse!).

The situation was similar just four years ago when the Knights finished 13-13. Any sixth grader with a straight edge could draw a downward trendline from 19-9 (2010) to 16-12 (2011) to 13-13 (2012). Tipping point tipped. Calvin was doomed.

Except they weren't doomed. The Knights immediately rebounded to go on one of the better three-year runs in recent program history: a 24-win per season average, two league titles, three league tournament titles, three trips to the NCAA Tournament, and two runs to the Sweet Sixteen.

It was just the third time Calvin had ever won 20+ games in a stretch of three or more consecutive seasons, and the first time they did it without winning a National Championship.

This season might not go well for the Knights -- who knows exactly -- but either way it's unlikely to be part of an actual downward trend for the program. The tipping point is not real. At least probably not.

The race for MIAA Tournament spots should be an interesting one. Hope appears to be the favorite and Olivet will probably finish last, but spots 2-7 are very much up for grabs. Our expectation, as always, is for Calvin to compete at the top of the conference. And they'll be back there soon enough.

Tipping Off The Season vs. Anderson

Calvin tips off their regular season tonight in Anderson, IN as they take on the Anderson Ravens. Two years ago Anderson won the inaugural meeting by a 73-60 margin, but they’ve since had a coaching change and were in full-on rebuilding mode when Calvin won 98-56 at Van Noord Arena last year. Former Wheaton (Ill.) assistant Owen Handy is in his second year at the helm of the Ravens.

Anderson has played two games already and has taken two relatively bad losses. They lost 70-64 on opening night to perennial UAA also-ran Case Western Reserve and then by a 80-68 score the next night in the same CWRU Tournament to Otterbein (who was voted to finish 8th of 10 teams in the OAC by the coaches). We don’t really with certainty how good any of these teams are so early in the season, but those are both games that good teams win. Anderson was voted to finish 9th in the HCAC by the coaches.

Projected Lineup

G – Jordan Daley

G – Jordan Brink

F – Tyler Dykstra

F – Mickey DeVries

C – Tyler Kruis

Kyle MacDonald started the exhibition game vs. Ferris State, but Jordan Daley was the one in the game during crunch time, and then he also started in the Alumni scrimmage. I’m guessing he’s the nominal starter at this point.

Projected Rotation Players

Dan Stout

Kyle MacDonald

Jordan Mast

BJ Van Loo

Austin Parks

TJ Huizenga had played as sort of the 11th man and may be still in the mix, but coach Vande Streek is probably looking to pare down the rotation to 10 guys. I think, for now, Parks is in and Huizenga is out, but that’s just me guessing. If you’re looking to go 12 deep, Brad Visser is probably the man there.

The final margin of this game might be wide enough that at least 11 or 12 players will get into the game anyway. We’ll see how coach Vande Streek treats this game if it gets out of hand though. More than anything this Calvin team needs time for the rotation players to gel together – mostly the second five – so perhaps he stays away from the deep bench unless it gets really ugly.

Prediction

Massey’s still-too-early rankings give Calvin an 84% chance of winning, and projects the final margin to be 11, but I’d guess something closer to 15. Calvin lost to Ferris in the exhibition game because they lost the battle on the offensive glass. They won’t lose that battle in this game. At the risk of hubris, anything less than a 10 point win would be concerning.

Anderson Preview

A raven

	Game Preview
Who	Anderson Ravens
What	Hopefully a beat down
Where	Van Noord Arena
When	Tuesdya, Nov 20 - 7:30 PM
Audio	Calvin Stretch Internet
Video	Calvin Live Stream
Live Stats	Calvin Live Stats

When we last met

True story: my wife, our (then) two-year old daughter and I went on a family “vacation” to Indianapolis* last year for really the sole purpose of attending the Calvin at Anderson game on the return trip. Also a true story: the game sucked.

*Priceline’s Name Your Price or Negotiator (or whatever it is exactly that William Shatner advertises) is really the way to go for every hotel stay. We ended up with a very nice room in the downtown Indy Hilton for under $50. This is not a paid advertisement.

The final margin was only 13 and, though the deficit was greater for much of the game, there was a perpetual feeling that Calvin was one run away from making the game interesting. But no such sustained run came, and the Knights trailed by double figures for the final 29:32 of the game (that's most of it). Watching it was sort of like banging your head against the wall, but not so fast that you're knocked out quickly. More like a slow, relentless thud. But I'm probably over exaggerating things somewhat.

I don't like myself when I get worked up about sports (because it's, like, sports), but there's nothing more frustrating than not being able to hang with these guys when it's like "you can/should be able to hang with these guys".

Also, their student section was fairly good (ahem).

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Calvin Tip-Off Tournament Preview

	Game Preview
Who	Grace Bible Tigers (NCCAA-II)
	North Park Vikings
	Cairn Highlanders
What	Calvin Tip-off Tournament
Where	Van Noord Arena
When	Friday 5:30 PM,  7:30 PM Saturday 1 PM, 3 PM
Audio	Calvin Stretch Internet
Video	Calvin Live Stream
Live Stats	Live Stats
Tickets	$5 at the door or online

When We Last Met
Last year's Tip-Off Tournament marked the first time in three years that Calvin had won the title. Having lost to the Grace Bible Tigers the two years previous, Calvin eked out a double-over time win against a Grace team that probably "should have won" in regulation and in the first overtime. No one on the current Calvin team has beaten Grace in regulation. We're all getting itchy.

It's been a number of years since Calvin has played North Park. More than 15, and perhaps many more than that. They're in-region, so it would be a good game for Calvin to play (and win).

Cairn (known alias: Philadelphia Bible) came to the Calvin Tip-off Tournament in 2004-05, but they lost their opening game versus Eastern (PA) and didn't meet up with Calvin.

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Previewing The MIAA For Opening Weekend

Thursday, November 15 marks the official start for Division III basketball, but none of the MIAA teams will tip off their respective seasons until Friday. Everyone is in action on Friday except Kalamazoo who doesn’t begin their season until Friday the 24th for whatever reason.

Here’s a (brief) look at this weekend’s games:

Friday, November 16

Hope vs. College of Faith (at North Central (IL)), 3:30 PM

We (sports fans in general, not you, the reader, and me specifically) often make jokes with cupcake teams being referred to as “The Little Sisters of the Poor” (or whathaveyou), but this may really be one of those instances:

College of Faith is a Bible based, Christ-centered, online religious institution of higher education.

So, yeah, I guess it’s not a Catholic school for women, but it is an ONLINE Bible college that is, apparently, just beginning an athletics program. None of that sounds like “good at basketball” to me. They played a five-game football schedule this fall and were outscored 241-12 in four losses (I can’t find a score for their game against the Chattahoochee Tech club team, however).

Hope wins – the only question is by more or less than 100 – but I’m not sure the NCAA even “counts” this as a game because College of Faith will play most of their games against NJCAA teams (Junior College).

Adrian vs. Otterbein (at Wooster), 6:00 PM

THIS IS A REGIONAL GAME SO IT IS VERY IMPORTANT!

Otterbein wasn’t very good last year (9-17, 6-12 in the OAC), and I would like to call this game for Adrian, but after seeing their attrition-riddled roster that was posted this week, I’m not so sure. The MIAA coaches voted Adrian #2 in the preseason poll, but we’ve since found out their roster doesn’t include four would-be seniors, three would-be juniors (including All-MIAA Richaud Pack), and three would-be sophomores. They instead have 10 freshmen on their varsity roster which is a lot considering they had ZERO seniors a year ago and didn’t need to replace anyone (necessarily).

With Sean Gallant, Eric Lewis, Adam Meier, and Cody Barnes returning they can put together a pretty good starting lineup, but any sort of depth might not exist at this point. Everyone else on the roster is either (1) new or (2) was a non-scoring role player last seaon. They probably (hopefully) have one or two freshmen that can play pretty well, but not 10 of them.

Olivet at Central Michigan, 7:00 PM

LOL

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Expectations, And How To Get There

The season starts on Friday(!). This much we know because it says so on the schedule, but we don’t know how the actual win and loss things will go. We also know that the last time that Calvin made the NCAA Tournament was in 2007 (!!!!1!!?) which is far too long ago. Five full seasons have come and gone, and Calvin hasn’t played into March*. Sure, they probably should have received an at-large bid in 2009, and they could have received one in 2010, but they didn’t, which means two graduating classes have come and gone without witnessing Mad Marchness up close and in person. No wonder student participation had suffered in recent years.

*Except that one time in 2008 when the MIAA Championship game was played on March 1.

There have been excuses – some good, most bad – young rosters, injuries, Kevin Kooiker, that darn non-transparent selection process, and whatever else, but the fact remains that it’s high time – well past high time, in fact – to re-emerge as a national power and not simply a “pretty good team”. Calvin has won two of the last four MIAA regular season titles, a fact that shouldn’t be dismissed, but that’s only one out of four benchmarks (20 wins, MIAA Championship, MIAA Tournament Championship, NCAA Tournament berth).

There’s a great deal of overlap between those benchmarks, an MIAA Tournament win means an automatic NCAA Tournament bid and 20 wins (through the MIAA Tournament) likely means three out of four (if not all four), but the point stands. These are four achievements that represent what Calvin basketball should be (or, at least, what we think Calvin basketball should be), but the attainment level hasn’t been there in recent years. Now would be a good time to start attaining, and it would appear that Calvin has the roster to do it.

Unfortunately, it’s easier to predict 20 wins than actually win 20 games (in a 27 game schedule). I mean, we could play the schedule game:

Calvin Tip-off Tournament – 2 out of 2 (likely Grace Bible and North Park)

Anderson – Win

GRSHOF Tournament – 1 out of 2 (Cornerstone and Aquinas)

at Manchester – Win

MIAA-CCIW Classic – 1 out of 2

at Finlandia – Win

Elmhurst Bluejay Classic – 2 out of 2 (Wabash then either Elmhurst or Ripon)

MIAA Regular Season – 11-3

MIAA Tournament – 2 out of 2

Those are very aggressive predictions which would total 22 wins. You could maybe squeeze out win number 23 with a 12-2 conference record, but that’s best case scenario. Calvin could realistically drop both GRSHOF games over Thanksgiving, a second MIAA-CCIW game (MIAA teams never play well across the dreaded pond), and/or an MIAA Tournament final. That would make for 19 or 20 wins without really suffering a bad loss. And that’s assuming the Knights can top HCAC foes Anderson (iffy) and Manchester (more likely) without much of a problem and then waltz into Elmhurst after Christmas and sweep the Tournament.

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Ferris State Exhibition Preview

	Game Preview
Who	Ferris State Bulldogs (NCAA Div. II)
What	Exhibition Game
Where	Jim Wink Arena -- Ferris State
When	Tuesday Nov. 6, 7:30 PM
Audio	Calvin Stretch Internet
Video	Ferris Stretch Internet ($7.95)
Live Stats	Ferris Stretch Internet
Tickets	$7 at the door or online
Last Year	Calvin 79, Ferris 72

When We Last Met
The Knights hosted the Bulldogs for last year’s exhibition game (I’m glad they’re now both agreeing to play this game during the exhibition season), and promptly won (for the first time in some time) by a 79-72 score.

The Bulldogs were a young bunch last year, but they finished their season above the .500 mark and tied for the GLIAC North Division crown. Massey rated them as the third best team Calvin saw all season (Hope and Wheaton both rated just a bit better). Exhibition caveats aside, this was – by far – the best offensive game Calvin played all year, posting an offensive efficiency rating of 108.9 (a mark they only bested versus the likes of Finlandia, Trinity, Olivet, and Kalamazoo). Ferris State traveled to Ann Arbor three days later to take on Michigan at Crisler Arena, and there they held the Wolverines to an offensive efficiency rating a shade above 95.

These two data points, unfortunately, meant nothing to the Knights going forward. They stumbled through their least efficient offensive season in well over a decade, and we learned that one game – no matter how good or bad it appears – is still just one game. And an exhibition is just an exhibition. Sometimes shots just go in, and sometimes they just don’t.

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MIAA Tournament Preview: Hope Flying Dutchmen

	Game Twenty Six (13-12, 8-6)
Who	#1 Hope Flying Dutchmen (24-1,14-0)
What	MIAA Tournament Semifinal
Where	DeVos Fieldhouse, Holland, MI
When	Wednesday, February 22 -- 7:30 PM
Audio	Stretch Internet
Video	None
Stats	Live Stats, MIAA Gameday

When We Last Met
Calvin lost 83-70 just eleven days ago at the Van Noord Arena. A thirteen point loss to the #1 team in the country isn't terrible, especially considering David Rietema (among others) was out for that game, but Hope had a double-digit lead pretty much the entire second half. Calvin really never was able to pull within "striking distance". Still, they didn't embarrass themselves. A better second half shooting performance (it was only 37%), and it could have been interesting. Story of the year, though.

Highlight of the game was definitely Bryan Powell's dunk over Logan Neil.


Bryan Powell Dunk vs. Hope from Calvin College on Vimeo.

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Alma Preview

	Game Twenty Two (11-10, 6-4)
Who	Alma Scots (7-14, 3-7)
Where	Van Noord Arena
When	Wednesday, February 8 -- 8:00 PM
Audio	Stretch Internet
Video	Stretch Internet, MIAA Gameday
Stats	Live Stats, MIAA Gameday

When We Last Met
Calvin recorded their first win away from home with an 85-77 win over the Scots in January. The win came before Calvin's string of improved shooting percentage arrived (the effective field goal percentage for the game was just .426), but the Knights were +10 on the boards, and +5 in the turnover column.

Tom Snikkers had 25 points, but he had limped out to something like a 1-7 start, so his shooting efficiency numbers left something to be desired, but Alma had no answer for him in the second half. Bryan Powell was the offensive hero of the game. He dropped 24 on the Scots and used the game to introduce us to his new-and-improved mid range jumper. Brian Haverdink also reached double figures with 13 points.

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Adrian Preview

	Game Nineteen (9-9, 4-3)
Who	Adrian Bulldogs (12-5, 5-2)
Where	Van Noord Arena
When	Wednesday, January 28 -- 3:00 PM
Audio	Stretch Internet
Video	Stretch Internet, MIAA Gameday
Stats	Live Stats, MIAA Gameday

When We Last Met
Calvin lost by seven out in Adrian in this season's MIAA opener. It was the first game the Knights played without Mickey DeVries, and just the third game following Mitch Vallie's injury. Both teams shot under 40% for the game, but Adrian lead pretty much the whole way. The real killer for the Knights was their 3-17 performance on three point field goals.

The Bulldogs currently hold a three game winning streak over Calvin, whose last win in the series came back in February of 2010. Freshmen Tom Snikkers and Bryan Powell combined for ten points.

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Olivet Preview

	Game Eighteen (8-9, 3-3)
Who	Olivet Comets (3-14, 1-5)
Where	Van Noord Arena
When	Wednesday, January 25 -- 8:00 PM
Audio	Stretch Internet
Video	Stretch Internet, MIAA Gameday
Stats	Live Stats, MIAA Gameday

When We Last Met
Olivet (un)officially ended Calvin’s hopes for an at-large NCAA Tournament bid last year with a 71-69 victory over the Knights at the Cutler Events Center in lovely Olivet, Michigan in early February. Calvin allowed Olivet to mount a nine point lead with six or seven minutes left in the game, and although the Knights fought to cut the lead to a single possession a couple of times in the final minute, they never possessed the ball with an opportunity to tie or take the lead.

Michael McClary lead the Comets with 29 points and 9 rebounds. Tom Snikkers and Danny Rodts each recorded a double-double for Calvin with 19-and-10 and 18-and-10 (points-and-rebounds) respectively. As a team, the Knights made just 3 of their 18 three point attempts.

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Hope Preview

	Game Sixteen (7-8, 2-2)
Who	#7 Hope Flying Dutchmen (14-1, 4-0)
Where	DeVos Fieldhouse, Holland, MI
When	Wednesday, January 18 -- 8:00 PM
TV	WGVU ( Over-the-air Channel 35 & 35.1, Comcast Channels 6 & 240)
Audio	Stretch Internet
Video	Stretch Internet (WGVU feed), MIAA Gameday
Stats	Live Stats, MIAA Gameday

**I have one general admission ticket available for tonight's game. Send me an email (use the email/letter icon on the sidebar) if you'd like to claim it.**

When We Last Met
Hope won last year’s MIAA Tournament Championship game in Holland by five points, but it wasn’t really a close game. The Dutchmen lead by twelve points for most of the second half, and although the Knights fought back to cut the lead to only three with thirty seconds left (courtesy of Hope only scoring four points between the 7:54 mark and the 0:30 mark), they never had the ball while trailing by only a single possession.

Tom Snikkers was Calvin’s best player that night; he scored 20 points on 16 shots, but the rest of the team shot putridly. The 3-19 that the Knights shot from three point range was the real killer. It was just one of those really bad nights.

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Alma Preview

	Game Fifteen (6-8, 1-2)
Who	Alma Scots (4-10, 0-3)
Where	Art Smith Arena, Alma, MI
When	Saturday, January 14 -- 3:00 PM
Audio	Stretch Internet
Video	Ustream, MIAA Gameday
Stats	Live Stats, MIAA Gameday

When We Last Met
Calvin trounced Alma 115-65 at the Van Noord Arena on Senior Day last year. Five Knights reached double figures in the scoring column but, unfortunately, none of those players are playing this year (last year’s four seniors plus Jordan Brink)

About Alma
Alma's a little bit of a weird case. They're the second best shooting team in the league (their .540 eFG% is just .007 below that of Hope), but they don't rebound well, they turn the ball over a little too much, and they don't get to the free throw line all that well. Consequently, their offense ends up looking only average.

As far as defense goes, Alma's never heard of it. They've allowed nearly 84 points per game this season, and while that's inflated a bit due to their relatively fast pace, it's backed up by their league worst 108.6 defensive efficiency rating.

Throw an average offense and a really bad defense into a hopper, and out comes a 4-10 Alma squad.

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Kalamazoo Preview

	Game Fourteen (5-8, 0-2)
Who	Kalamazoo Hornets (6-7, 1-1)
Where	Van Noord Arena
When	Wednesday, January 11 -- 8:00 PM
Audio	Stretch Internet
Video	Stretch Internet, MIAA Gameday
Stats	Live Stats, MIAA Gameday

When We Last Met
It was Calvin winning a three point squeaker in Kalamazoo in early February of last year. This game was back-and-forth early on, but Calvin wouldn’t lead from the 10:00 mark in the first half until the 10:00 mark in the second half. The game was tight from this point on, but Kalamazoo was ultimately undone by their inability to make shots down the stretch. The Hornets managed just five points (2-10 from the field) in the final seven minutes of the game. This would be Calvin’s only win in a four game stretch that included home losses to Hope and Adrian and a road loss at Olivet.

About Kalamazoo
The Kalamazoo Hornets are 6-7 on the year. They don’t have any wins that would be considered “signature”. They’ve beaten most of the really bad teams on their schedule (Earlham, Northland, and Olivet), but they haven’t beaten anyone of even marginal quality all year (their best two wins are against Bluffton and Denison). But as I need to keep reminding myself, Calvin might not be considered to be “of marginal quality” right now themselves, so Kalamazoo’s suspect results versus a suspect schedule should not be cause for extreme optimism for Knight fans.

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Albion Preview

	Game Thirteen
Who	Albion Britons (5-7, 1-0)
Where	Van Noord Arena
When	Saturday, January 7 -- 3:00 PM
Audio	Stretch Internet
Video	Stretch Internet,, MIAA Gameday
Stats	Live Stats, MIAA Gameday

When We Last Met
The last Calvin-Albion meeting of the season last year was a 15 point Calvin victory in the MIAA Semifinals at the DeVos Fieldhouse in Holland. Calvin swept the three-game season series with the Britons by margins of 31, 6, and 15. Albion couldn’t really do much offensively against the Calvin defense -- their high-score in the three games against the Knights was only 53, and their average actually came in below 50.

It’s kind of surprising considering the history of these two teams, but Calvin currently holds an eight (!) game winning streak versus Albion, with the last defeat being a one-point loss at (historic) Kresge Gymnasium back in February of 2008. Only Trine and Alma have longer losing streaks versus the Knights.

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Adrian Preview

	Game Twelve
Who	Adrian Bulldogs (7-3, 0-0)
Where	Merillat Center, Adrian, MI
When	Wednesday, January 4
Audio	(Calvin) Stretch Internet
Video	(Adrian) UStream
Stats	Live Stats

When We Last Met
The Adrian Bulldogs hold a two game winning streak over the Calvin Knights. The latest of which was an excruciating 75-63 home loss in February of last year. As was the case often last season, Adrian clamped down hard on defense, holding Calvin to under 36% from the floor. Adrian shot 54% themselves (57% on three pointers), and never really allowed Calvin to get much closer than 10 points in the second half.

About Adrian
Adrian is a really interesting team. They just recently received a transfer from DI Florida International in 6-4 sophomore forward Richaud Pack. He appeared in nine games at FIU earlier THIS SEASON, averaging 8.3 minutes per game. In his two games with the Bulldogs, he's averaged 21 points in 24.5 minutes. Pack and freshman guard Eric Lewis (6-2) may be Adrian's best two players as underclassmen. With zero seniors on the team and a 7-3 non-conference record, the future is definitely bright for coach Mark White and the Adrian Bulldogs.

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Whitman Preview

	Game Eleven
Who	Whitman Missionaries, 7-3, Northwest Conference
Where	Lynden, Washington
When	Friday, December 30, 10 PM (EST)
Audio	Stretch Internet
Video	none
Stats	Live Stats

When We Last Met
This will either be the first meeting between the two schools, or the first in a long time. I don't have any record of them playing. Then again, my records don't go back all that far.

About Whitman
Whitman's a good team, but I'm not yet sure how good they are. Good enough to beat Calvin? Definitely. Good enough to dominate them the way Whitworth did last night? Hopefully not.

They have one common opponent with the Knights; they suffered a 10 point loss at the hands of Wheaton on a neutral floor in Texas. That single data point would match them up very well with Calvin, who lost by five to Wheaton at home.

Whitman can claim solid wins against Chapman and Lewis and Clark (though the jury's still out on L&C in my opinion), as well as a solid 37 point drubbing of Buena Vista. Their nine point home loss to George Fox looks pretty bad though.

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Whitworth Preview

	Game Ten
Who	#8 Whitworth (8-2)
Where	Mercer Island HS, Seattle, Washington
When	Thursday, December 29, 8:30 PM EST
Audio	Stretch Internet
Video	none
Stats	Live Stats

When We Last Met
Whitworth made the trek from Spokane, Washington to take part in the Calvin Tip-off Tournament back in November of 2005. The two schools met in the championship round which ended as an 82-67 Calvin victory.

Whitworth actually lead the game by 8 points heading into the final ten and a half minutes, but Calvin roared back to finish the game on a 33-10 run. Andy Draayer and Kyle Trewhella combined for 47 points, making 9 of their 14 three point attempts. As a team, Calvin was a very respectable 24-24 from the free throw line.

About Whitworth
The Pirates are 8-2 on the season with their losses coming to NAIA-I Montana Tech and #16 UW-Whitewater.

Whitworth will be one of the few teams that match up well with the roster height of Calvin. They have five players listed at 6-7 or taller, but two of those players (Adam Wilks and Taylor Farnsworth) seem to play in reserve roles, and one is probably more of a role player (Michael Taylor is averaging about 10 minutes per game). Felix Friedt (6-8, 240 from Germany) appears to be a train in the post; he's their top scorer and rebounder with a 17 and 8 average. Jack Loofburrow, a 6-7 transfer from Eastern Washington, is one of their starters, but he hasn't played in the last three games. The word on the street is that he had a stress fracture and was wearing a walking boot, although the initial thought (from two weeks ago) was that he may be able to play by tonight.

Whitworth also has two guards that can shoot the lights out from long range. Idris Lasisi and Wade Gebbers both average more than 12 points per game, and both are shooting great than .475 on their three point shots this season (about 6 attempts per game for each of them).

Calvin obviously will catch a big break if Loofburrow is unable to play (or if he's less than effective), but Whitworth probably still has enough weapons to cause a lot of problems for the Knights. I'm sure that Coach Vande Streek will have the Knighs double down low on Friedt, but they're going to have to be ready to completely close out on the wings if/when the ball gets kicked outside. The Whitworth shooters will knock it down if they get an inch.

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Trinity Preview

	Game Nine
Who	Trinity Christian Trolls (6-7, NAIA-II)
What	Not a rivalry game
Where	Van Noord Arena, Calvin College
When	Saturday, 3:00 PM
Audio	Stretch Internet
Video	Stretch Internet
Stats	Live Stats

When We Last Met
Calvin won the matchup last year in Palos Heights 90-79. Six Knights reached double figures in scoring, three of which are still on the team this season – Bryan Powell (13), Tom Snikkers (12) and Matt DeBoer (11).

Calvin coulda/woulda/shoulda possibly won the game by a larger margin. They had a double-digit lead only eight minutes into the game, but Trinity came back to tie the game by halftime. The Knights spent the second half rebuilding the lead.

About Trinity
Trinity and Calvin are not rivals. We care 0% about them, and we never want to see them on the schedule ever again.

The Trinity Christian Trolls stand at 6-7 on the year, but I think that record paints their season in a more positive light than it should. Their wins have come against St. Louis Christian (currently 0-10), IU-Northwest (2-8), St. Ambrose (5-5), Roosevelt University (Chicago) (2-5), Holy Cross College (2-8), and Moody Bible Institute (0-7). Another way to put it: they lost to Kuyper.

Their losses haven't been blowouts, for the most part, so I don't think they'll be a super-duper pushover, but it's clear that this isn't a great team. It looks to be an excellent opportunity for Calvin to flex a little muscle.

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MIAA-CCIW Classic Preview

	Games Seven and Eight
Who	Carthage and #13 Wheaton
What	MIAA-CCIW Classic
Where	Van Noord Arena
When	Friday -- 8:00 PM
	Saturday -- 5:30 PM
Audio	Stretch Internet
Video	Stretch Internet
Stats	Live Stats

When We Last Met
Calvin went 0-2 last year in Kenosha. The Friday night game was an embarrassing 22 point loss to the Wheaton Thunder, and Saturday saw an eight point loss to the host Carthage Red Men (although Calvin had the deficit down to two points with under two minutes to play. Calvin is 2-6 versus these CCIW rivals in the last full four-year rotation of the MIAA-CCIW Classic, with both wins coming against Carthage in West Michigan.

Calvin's last win against Carthage: 2009-10
Calvin's last win against Wheaton: 2005-06
Calvin's last CCIW sweep: 2005-06

Calvin hasn't lost to Carthage in West Michigan since this series started in 2004-05.

I believe the host conference has yet to lose a Friday game in the seven-year history of this series.

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