Varsity/JV Scrimmage Part II

The Varsity and JV had another scrimmage this morning, here are a few bullets:

• This team is very young.
• Starters were Brent Schuster, Tom Snikkers, Danny Rodts, Bryan Powell, and Jordan Brink.
• Subs entered in the following order: Brad Schnyders, Brian Haverdink, Adam DeYoung, Matt DeBoer, Mitch Vallie, and Tyler Kruis.
• This team is very young.
• I can only recall one instance in which two of the three centers (Schuster, DeYoung, and Kruis) were on the floor at the same time.
• Tom Snikkers may be the best player on the team.
• The previous bullet is by no means a knock on Danny Rodts.
• This team is very young.
• Michael Fabiyi dressed with the JV's. He probably hasn't spent much time with the varsity yet.
• Free throw shooting will be huge on offense as several players showed good ability to drive and draw the foul.
• Gotta finish better though.
• Tom Snikkers is an excellent finisher in traffic.
• We'll get frustrated with the offense at times, especially early in the year.
• A lot of players can score, but I don't know if there's a go-to scorer in the group yet.
• This team is very young.
• This team is very young.

Trine's Glenn Alfieri Can't Destroy The System, and AQ Hoops Has A New Home

Glenn Alfieri hasn't been playing basketball at Trine University forever--it just seems that way. I remember perusing the Trine roster a year ago and being shocked to learn that he was just entering his senior year. Imagine my surprise when his name was included on the newly released 2010-2011 Thunder team roster late last week. The world was out to get me.

Because I tend to worry incessantly about such things and I needed relief from my torment, I tweeted my concern to Trine's official athletic Twitter account (@TrineAthletics). They had responded to me by the next morning:

I think he's been taken off the roster page now. Thanks for bringing this to our attention.

OK, so their response message wasn't anything special, but I like the maroon and gold blockquote and I wanted to use it. And it did confirm, to my delight, that Alfieri will not be playing for Trine this year. Eligibility rules do indeed apply to him as well.

My pestering must have broken their website, because ever since they responded to me the roster page has been replced by a "Coming soon!" note.

Elsewhere, WZZM13.com has a small article on the opening of Aquinas' new Sturrus Center. The article suggests that the newer facilities at Calvin (and Hope and Cornerstone) were a motivating factor for the upgrade. The new basketball gym appears to be fully lit. That's upgrade enough for me. Calvin will play at Aquinas for the Grand Rapids Sports Hall of Fame Tournament on November 26 and 27 (Thanksgiving weekend). Video below:

Thoughts From the Varsity/JV Scrimmage

I got a chance to catch some Saturday's scrimmage between the Varsity squad and the JV team. No official score was kept, but from my count Varsity "won" 44-15. To be expected I suppose.

Starters:
Trent Salo (2 points)
Bryan Powell (6 points)
Tom Snikkers (11 points)
Danny Rodts (4 points)
Brent Schuster (4 points)

1st Subs:
Brian Haverdink (12 points)
Adam DeYoung
Brad Schnyders

2nd Subs:
Tyler Kruis
Jordan Brink
Jake Greene
Mitch Vallie (5 points)

Matt DeBoer was in street clothes, and David Reitema was MIA.

I don't know if we can read anything into the subbing pattern yet or not. I'm guessing the starters are the nominal starters at this point, but the first wave of subs was the rest of the returning players and the second wave was the new guys. I'm sure their respective roles are still in the process of being defined.

Three point shooting was a concern of mine heading into this season, but they were hitting this afternoon. Tom Snikkers nailed three (I think he was 3-3), Brian Haverdink made four (he may have been 4-4), and Bryan Powell added two more (2-4).

The freshmen didn't really make much of an impact, but they didn't play poorly either. Mitch Vallie showed some nice touch on his shot.

The Knights still need to find an offensive presence in the post. DeYoung was active, but he still doesn't seem like a polished offensive player. In general, the team wasn't able to finish many shots in traffic. That won't always be the case, but I'm getting the feeling that they'll live and die with their mid-range and longer shooting.

May I Recommend?

If your home/family life is like mine, then you're probably better off getting games on the calendar well in advance. That way, your wife can't spring some bogus dinner, or something of the like, on you at the last minute forcing you to miss a sporting event. If she still won't let you go to a game that you want to attend, just start a blog on the subject and then say you "have to." Works every time.

In that vein, here are a couple of local "D-III quality" early season college basketball games that you may be interesting in scheduling/attending.

Saturday November 6 - Davenport Tournament Championship - Davenport University - 3:00 PM
The preliminary games on Friday feature Grace Bible vs. Kuyper College and Davenport vs. Great Lakes Christian College. I fully expect both Grace and DU to win snoozers, so expect them to match up with each other in the tournament final (but check the interwebs on Friday night or Saturday morning for scores before you assume). The hook? These are the first two (regular season) opponents that Calvin will face, so you'll be able to get some advanced scouting in.

Tuesday November 9 - Cornerstone at Grace Bible - 7:00 PM
Grace knocked off Cornerstone a year ago (it wasn't just Calvin, so don't feel too bad). It's the second year in a row that C'stone travels to Grace for a game, which seems odd to me. I always thought of them (until last year) as one of those cupcake type schools that always traveled when they played the "big boys." Perhaps not. Either way, I don't think Grace will be as good as they were last year, but they are to be taken seriously from now on. Cornerstone, meanwhile, is a potential second-day matchup for the Knights in the Grand Rapids Hall of Fame Tournament.

The three teams above (Davenport, Cornerstone, and Grace) should serve as a good early season barometer for the Knights. Even if they don’t end up playing Cornerstone head to head they’ll end up playing three common opponents, so we should be able to determine some sort of relative ability.

I got the wife to sign off on the Grace-Davenport game last night (I have a Tuesday night Bible study, so no dice for me on the Cornerstone game), so I'll be able to provide a write up (with video?) later that day (or the next day, or the next day after that). Anyhoo, this is still all well into the future, but I tend to get overly excited about such things.