| SR | JR | SO | FR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| G | Austin Parks | Nick Kronemeyer | Tony Canonie | Carlos Amoros |
| G | Brad Visser Nate Drews | Nate Meppelink | Preston Huckaby | |
| F | Jordan Daley | Seth Van Engen | Michael Wilks | Luke VanBoxel |
| F | Cameron Denney | Mike Siegel | Jacob Ray | |
| C | Michael Welch | Nick Goeglein |
(Bolded players have started at least one game for Calvin in their respective careers).
A few observations:
- 17 players is a lot.
- No Connor VanderBrug is obviously a huge blow to the team's 2015-16 prospects, but this is what you get with Division III when student athletes are actually that. Sometimes they decide to simply be students. This needs be neither celebrated nor grieved.
- Precious few players have experience at this level. Parks and Daley have been mainstays for a couple of years. Denney, Welch, and Vissser were rotation players off the bench last year. Kronemeyer and Canonie each were in the rotation for half the year. That's it for returning players.
- Nate Meppelink has transferred to Calvin from Biola University (NAIA-I) in California. He redshirted his freshman year in 2013-14 (you can do that in NAIA) then appeared in eight games (25 minutes) last year. This will be his third year in college but he retains Sophomore eligibility. According to the famed Massey Ratings, Biola's last four seasons have been equivalent in absolute quality to a third or fourth place MIAA squad.
- Van Engen and Goeglein spent last season on the end of the bench with very little playing time. Goeglein also played JV ball with Drews, Wilks, and Siegel. Wilks began last season on the roster and appeared briefly in the early stages before he was moved to JV (because playing time wasn't going to be there on varsity).
- Amoros, Huckaby, and Ray are new as Freshmen. VanBoxel (I believe) was on campus last year but elected not to play. He retains Freshman eligibility in hoops.
I tried to project out a 10-man rotation but couldn't do it. There are far too many unknowns (and players I know zero about) to make that exercise worthwhile.
I would guess KVS will go with experience in the starting lineup and go with Parks, Visser, Daley, Denney, and Welch. With 10 guards on the roster, I'm guessing they'll play smaller than they have in years.
Here's some stuff on the new guys.
Meppelink
Amoros
Senior Year Highlight Video
VanBoxel
Luke VanBoxel 2013-2014 from Coach Lindquist on Vimeo.
Ray
It's tough lose the conference MVP in back-to-back years and stay on top of the league without some major reloading. I'm not sure if Coach VandeStreek has pulled that off this year or not.
I think it would be appropriate to temper expectations from the onset -- maybe third or fourth in the MIAA -- but there's a scenario (90th percentile or so) in which two or three of the new guys turn out to be players and Calvin somehow wins the league or sneaks into the NCAA tournament.
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