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An in-depth look at Division III Posted March 14, 2000 |
Notables Nov 23: Griffin pours in 51 for SeahawksNov 21: Smith joining 700 club; Hixon hits No. 600 Nov 21: IWU gets past top- ranked Bears |
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By Greg Chandler GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- For the Knights of Calvin College, the road to this year's Final Four in Salem began one year ago in the semifinals of the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association tournament.
Game over. Season over. No NCAA bid for the Knights. "It hit us very hard," Calvin coach Kevin Vande Streek said. "After that, our guys focused very hard on not letting that happen again." This season, the Knights were focused. They stormed through the MIAA regular season and postseason tournament without a loss, beat several high-profile non-league opponents, and enter the Final Four as the No. 1 team in Division III at 28-2, winners of 20 consecutive contests. Calvin appears to be a team with few weaknesses. It has a strong front line, anchored by two-time MIAA most valuable player Aaron Winkle, and a solid backcourt. It also can go deep into its bench, with Vande Streek likely to give as many as 10 players at least 10 minutes of playing time a game. It also has an interesting blend of youth and experience. Seniors Winkle and Nate Karsten provide the leadership, while freshmen Jeremy Veenstra and Bryan Foltice have provided the spark to help elevate the Knights to the rank of national title contender. In the NCAA tournament, Calvin survived a second-round scare from Franklin (Ind.), rallying for a 10-point second half deficit to nip the Grizzlies 92-90 in overtime. Reserve guard Nate Burgess, the smallest player on the Knights' roster at 5-11, tipped in the winning basket with 3.6 seconds remaining. Then last weekend, Calvin hosted what had been hyped as the toughest sectional in the tournament. Besides the Knights, the tournament featured No. 3 Wooster, No. 4 McMurry and Maryville (Tenn.), which had stunned No. 2 Hampden-Sydney to reach the sectionals. "We knew going in that we had to play two very good games to get out of the sectional," Winkle said. Calvin opened the sectional against Wooster, which had become the first team in North Coast Athletic Conference history to go through both the regular season and conference tournament unbeaten. The Fighting Scots scored the game's first four points, then Calvin took over. The Knights scored the next 12 points and never trailed again. The Calvin defense completely took Wooster out of its offense, limiting the Fighting Scots to 34 percent shooting from the field and forcing 20 turnovers. The Knights also controlled the boards by a 52-36 margin, with 18 rebounds coming on the offensive end. When it was over, Calvin was on top 82-53, holding Wooster 30 points below its season average. Veenstra and Karsten each scored 17 points for the Knights, while Winkle had 16 points and 13 rebounds. On Saturday night, the Knights battled No. 4 McMurry, which entered the game with a 27-1 record and a ferocious full-court press. After some early struggles, Calvin figured out the Indians' press and turned the contest into a fast-break clinic. By halftime, the Knights had 64 points on the board and led by 20. They hit the 100-point plateau with eight minutes left in the game. When the buzzer sounded, they had dismantled McMurry 115-79 in the biggest blowout of the tournament. Six Knights scored in double figures, led by Winkle's 30 points. Veenstra fell one assist shy of a triple-double with 12 points, 14 rebounds and nine assists. Foltice fired in 21 points, while Brian Krosschel added 18. For all the Knights' offensive firepower in the sectional final, Vande Streek believes their success all started on the defensive end. "I think the difference (in the sectionals) was that we really tightened up our half-court defense," he said. "I thought that we were very sloppy against Franklin .... and I think we made a lot of defensive errors, in letting the ball go places that we didn't want it to go." Over the course of the season, Calvin has shown the ability to beat teams in a number of ways. In their league opener, the Knights blew away Defiance, the same team that had beaten them in the conference tournament the year before and was considered to be their strongest threat, 104-74. They also put 101 up on the board against Olivet, and scored 90 or more points nine other times. However, Calvin also showed the ability to come from behind. The Knights were 8-1 this season in games in which they trailed at halftime. In three key contests -- an early road game at Hope, in the MIAA tournament championship game against Defiance, and in the second-round NCAA game against Franklin -- Calvin faced a double-digit deficit, only to come back and win. Statistically, Winkle leads the Knights in nearly every major category, including scoring (17.5 points per game), rebounding (7.6 per game), assists (102) and steals (49). Veenstra sparkled as a freshman, averaging 15.1 points and 7.6 boards a contest. Karsten, a sharp-shooting guard, averages 13.2 points a contest. Krosschel, the Knights' starting center, is solid with 8.8 points and 7.3 rebounds per game. Calvin is making its third appearance in the Final Four. In 1990, the Knights dropped both games in the Final Four, but two years later, Calvin defeated Jersey City State 81-40 in the semifinals, then Rochester 62-49 for its first national championship. As of Monday, Vande Streek said he hadn't seen a scouting report on the other three teams that will be in Salem. He didn't seem particularly worried about it -- he's more concerned with what his own team will have to do to win. "I really think that in the big games, the more it gets down to doing what you want to do, what you have to do (to win)," he said. "I think it will come down to our half-court defense and rebounding ... You have to be fundamentally sound." Winkle agrees that defense and rebounding will be the keys for Calvin this weekend. "I think those are the things we can control," he said. "Adjusting to a new arena, shooting can be a little suspect, but you can still play defense, and you can still box out and get rebounds." While the Knights are happy to be back in the Final Four, the feeling among the players and coaching staff is that their work isn't done yet. "Everyone has the feeling that there's business to be taken care of," Vande Streek said. Deja vu all over again?: When Calvin meets Franklin and Marshall on Friday night, the Diplomats might have that feeling that they've seen this situation before -- only in reverse. In 1996, F&M entered the Final Four as the No. 1 team in the country, but the Diplomats were stunned in the semifinals by Calvin's archrival, Hope. Hope would lose to Rowan in the finals the next night. Who did F&M beat to get to the Final Four this year? Why, it was Rowan. |
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