MIAA Coaches Pick Calvin to Win League, Coach Vande Streek Addresses Injury Situation

The annual MIAA pre-season coaches poll was released today with your Calvin Knights sweeping the vote, picking up all seven possible first place votes. Coaches don't include their own team in the vote, so Coach Vande Streek cast his ballot in favor of Hope (who was the unanimous second-place votee).

Michael Applegate of the Holland Sentinel has recorded the vote totals, so check it out there because they'll probably soon disappear from the altogether awful MIAA website*.

*It's a sad state of affairs when one reasonably (and necessarily) directs readers away from your own website and to the Sentinel. Take note MIAA.

But more interesting than the poll -- which offers entertainment value but relatively little in the way of hard-hitting analysis -- is the quote that Applegate gets in his writeup from Vande Streek regarding his perception of the state of the team.

Depsite the vote of confidence, Vande Streek said on a league-wide conference call after the poll was released that his team is struggling with injuries in the preseason.

Daniel Stout, a 6-foot-9 center, is hurt as is guard T.J. Huizenga. Both are seniors.

"I look at our squad and I see a lot of holes," said Vande Streek, in his 19th season at Calvin. "That’s a far cry from a good basketball team at this point."

My understanding via (multiple) second-hand reports is that Dan Stout's injury is considered to be relatively minor. He may be limited early in the season (and miss the exhibition game), but until I hear otherwise, I'm betting on him seeing action in the season opener against Anderson. But injuries -- even those that are ostensibly minor -- are never fun and can have lingering effects, so we'll have to wait and see how it all plays out.

Calvin will certainly need him to come around eventually because the biggest hole on the squad is in the frontcourt where they lost Tyler Kruis, Mickey DeVries, and B.J. Van Loo from last year's team. Until such a time as Stout is 100% (and possibly beyond), we will likely be seeing some of Tyler Dykstra -- who started at the nominal small forward position last year -- at center.

This is the first I've heard of an injury to T.J. Huizenga. That's not great news. But, assuming it's not something that will keep him out for the year (or a chunk of the year), the Knights can weather that storm. If there's one spot on the floor where they're deep, it's the at the 2/3 wing. Jordan Daley, Jordan Brink, and Brad Visser could swallow 70-75 of the 80 available minutes at those spots. That might create a bigger hole behind Austin Parks at the point guard position (if Brink or Daley were to be used at all in that capacity), but they have some options there in sophomores Danny Leach and Nick Kronemeyer as well as freshman Tony Canonie.

UPDATE: The above quote -- or at least a similar one -- is framed a bit differently in a since-posted MLive piece.

"We have a versatile group of players this year," said Vande Streek.  "I think the biggest challenge will be mixing our newcomers in with our veterans because some of our newcomers will be a part of our rotation. That type of mix usually takes some time to jell. We've got a few holes to fill right now so it may take some time for us to become the team we would like to be."

An Audio Interview With Coach Vande Streek

Hidden on the Calvin Sports main page is an audio interview with head coach Kevin Vande Streek conducted by SID Jeff Febus (hat tip Dark Knight). We don't necessarily hear a lot from the coach, so it's always good when we get some actual insights. Click on the "play" icon above to give it a listen.

Some of the highlights:

• Brian Haverdink is going to be "right in the thick of things" and has "solidified himself in the ten-person rotation".
• Bryan Powell can "play the point or play the two". He's a point.
• David Rietema may be the "best athlete I've had play the point since I've been here".
• Tyler Kruis "will be our anchor defensivly" and will "hold down the middle for years to come".
• Mitch Vallie will be "one of the top two or three players" on the team.
• Tyler Dykstra is a "freaky athlete kid" and "will get into the rotation at some point".
• Mickey DeVries is a "very versatile player" and figures to "play a lot of time for us as well".

I fully expected  coach to declare Haverdink a starter, so his response to him underwhelmed me a bit. From the sound of it, he's still waiting to figure out if Rietema can handle big, big minutes. If he is, we might see Powell and Rietema start at the guard positions. I still think that if they had to suit up tomorrow, we'd see Haverdink and Powell at the guard positions to start the game with Rietema off the bench.

It's awesome to hear coach so high on Mitch Vallie. I compared him to Danny Rodts in my thoughts on the men's roster because I thought that he had that same potential to go from the JV team one year to being one of the better players in the program the next year. Danny played one minute on varsity in his freshman year and then went on to start for the next three years. Mitchell sounds very much in the running for the starting lineup.

I haven't listened to it yet, but there's also an audio interview with women's coach John Ross.

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Coach Vande Streek On Coaches Corner

Looks like Jeff Febus, Calvin SID, is beginning a nice series called "Coaches Corner". He talks with Coach Vande Streek.

Lots of coach speak, and lots of stuff that we've already heard, but good nonetheless. Some interesting thoughts:

"We probably have a win or two more than I may have thought we would have had at this point."

I think this is about right. In my Calvin Season Preview, I predicted five wins in the preseason, and although I didn't predict individual games, I was feeling like they'd have three of those wins at this point. So far, so good.

Then some nice things about Trinity. Sounds like Coach really likes this game and really like the folks at Trinity. Sadly, it doesn't sound like it's going away any time soon. If you're going to drive to Chicago anyway, why not play one of the million D3 teams that are in that area?

On Dave Rietema:

"He's going to help us out in practice."

Finally word on Jake Greene. It's mono.

On Trent Salo:

"I would love if he could play in the Elmhurst Tournament, even just a little bit". "I would say a more realistic guess might be that first week of conference before he's back".

Sounds like Jake and Dave won't be appearing in games any time soon. The good news on Trent is that he's more or less on schedule for his return. Hopefully the x-rays bring good news. I wouldn't be shocked to see him come off the bench for a little while. I also wouldn't be surprised if his return to the starting lineup shifts Bryan Powell, and not Jordan Brink, to the bench. Guesses.

"Don't even get me started on the whole NCAA in-region thing. That's so ridiculous. I don't even know about how to go about trying to schedule that kind of thing."

Amen. Wheaton, Carthage, Benedictine. What isn't regional about these teams? Just scrap the system and count ALL games versus D3 opponents. Makes too much sense, doesn't it? It's not like Calvin (or any other D3 team) will start rushing to play every game in California or New York or Florida if D3 removed the "regional emphasis."

They finish with some crap about Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl. I thought the Gator Bowl was the top bowl game this year? No? Oh well.