And can we acknowledge the huge shift in dynamic between the coach, team, and student section. As a die hard fan and student section cheer leader from 2010 - 2014 the team would come thank us once in a while, with Vashil almost always coming to thank us. But to see the coach leading the charge into the student section would have been another story.
How do we think about this:
1) The house that Homer Built
2) The respect that Bryce rebuilt
3) The culture that Powell built?
I'm probably getting ahead of myself of course.
A few more posts from the Bradley forum to relish this win a bit more, I placed the relevant comments in red. There are haters over there, however a few of their fans understand CBB better than most and are correct to state the facts.
Start:
This is just sour grapes. Sorry, but every single one of you would love it if we A. actually had a student section and B. Wardle got so excited that he was jumping around with the students.
This is not the first time Powell has done it and he's got a great rapport with the students. Sorry, but not burying him for being happy - Valpo played really well last night and we still could have won if we finished the game well. On to the next - this really didn't hurt us other than making it more important to win the remaining games.
We still control our own destiny to the two seed with three games left. Anyone who would have known that before the season (when most thought we'd be 3rd-5th) would have been ecstatic.
That's exactly why Wardle should have gone with a smaller lineup sooner. Our big clods were getting their asses beat by f'in freshmen. That's just unacceptable!
Timo couldn't guard him either. No one could.
Meta and Thomas - senior bigs - 48 minutes. 8 points. 5 rebounds.
Freshman JT Pettigrew and junior NAIA transfer Shon Supuola - 57 minutes. 33 points. 12 rebounds.
That is totally embrassing but something we knew was this teams Achilles Heel all season.
BTW - Roger Powell is a clown.
They had more students engaged tonight than Bradly has probably all year. He’s not paid to console Bradly fans when they beat us.
END
I will defend our forum culture against either of the Bradley forums. Banter is fun, encouraged, and part of the game, but over there you see more than a few fans who seem genuinely bothered by the idea that Bradley might not automatically win simply because they’re playing Valpo. There’s a noticeable level of disrespect toward a fellow Valley conference member.
That said, not all of their fans are bad apples. Some are willing to call it out and do a bit of self-policing, which I respect. Still, that attitude is exactly why I’m going to enjoy this win all day today.
Bradley is a tough team. They’re well coached, their fans travel well, and they have a lot going for them. They’ll be a tough out at Arch Madness.
This win has me thinking about a potential postseason tournament. I don’t see any reason we can’t make another deep run in the Arch Madness. Besides 15 bad minutes at Illinois State, we could have won 5 straight.
If we don’t win Arch Madness, let’s say we win out (5 or 6 more games) and reach the MVC Championship game. That puts us at 20/21-14. 5 teams with 14 or more losses made the NIT last year. I feel like winning 9/10 would at least put us in the conversation for an at-large NIT bid.
If we don’t win out, and win only 2 of our next 4, I still feel like we’re in strong contention for a postseason tournament. Valpo strikes me as a team that would be willing to play in the CBI. The CBI ends about 2 weeks prior to the transfer portal opening. The CBI might not be a premier postseason tournament, but what this team has done to put some respect back on our program deserves to be celebrated. Let’s keep this train rolling.
This win has me thinking about a potential postseason tournament. I don’t see any reason we can’t make another deep run in the Arch Madness. Besides 15 bad minutes at Illinois State, we could have won 5 straight.
If we don’t win Arch Madness, let’s say we win out (5 or 6 more games) and reach the MVC Championship game. That puts us at 20/21-14. 5 teams with 14 or more losses made the NIT last year. I feel like winning 9/10 would at least put us in the conversation for an at-large NIT bid.
If we don’t win out, and win only 2 of our next 4, I still feel like we’re in strong contention for a postseason tournament. Valpo strikes me as a team that would be willing to play in the CBI. The CBI ends about 2 weeks prior to the transfer portal opening. The CBI might not be a premier postseason tournament, but what this team has done to put some respect back on our program deserves to be celebrated. Let’s keep this train rolling.
I can get on board with this—why not be optimistic today? If anything, the CBI feels like the most realistic opportunity, though I don’t think anyone would turn down the NIT if it became available. Valpo won’t make the College Basketball Crown Tournament, but there’s a chance they could fill a spot in the CBI if a team ahead of them opts out.
If I’m remembering correctly, last year four MVC teams played postseason basketball: Drake (31–4) in the NCAA Tournament; UNI (20–13) and Bradley (28–9) in the NIT; and ISU‑r (22–14) in the CBI. Valpo currently sits at 15–13 with three games left in the regular season.
If they were to win all three, they’d be 18–13 heading into the MVC Tournament. That’s a tough ask, so let’s say hypothetically they go 2–1—that puts them at 17–14 to close the regular season. Add two wins at Arch Madness, and suddenly you’re looking at a 19‑win team. Even in a best‑case scenario this is far from easy, but it’s not impossible if the dominoes fall the right way.
Does 19 wins get us anywhere in the post season? Probably not. But either way, it would be widely considered a successful season in Powell’s third year, especially given that the roster has been rebuilt year after year. In my opinion, the true postseason win would be keeping 50% or more of this team together heading into next season.
It’s fun to think about, though realistically it probably takes a deep run at Arch Madness—likely a trip to the finals—to really put Valpo in position. That could potentially lead to an NIT bid depending on how things shake out. I’m not fully certain on the current NIT format; I know at one point the conference tournament runner‑up received an automatic bid or maybe it was the regular season champ, though I’m not sure if that’s still the case. Either way, the path—while narrow—is at least visible.
And if we really let ourselves dream for a moment: if Valpo were to win out, reach the finals, and win it all, we’d be sitting at 22–13 and heading to the NCAA Tournament. Wow—wouldn’t that be something? The best part is that this team actually has the potential to do it, even if it’s never been done before from a Thursday start.
I won’t get my hopes up, but I’ll still believe that anything is possible. Every now and then, a dream really does come true.
@iyellatgames I saw that as well in Bradley forum, in my defense I have some connections to Bradley. Strange there seemed to be some jealousy for the Valpo Student section. I always thought Bradley games were well attended (have been to a few).
My OP is because of how Powell operates (interacting with and thank students) and because the team is winning students are making their way to games. My student athlete had several obligations yesterday but made it to the game after. At Bradley thats not happening.... Ever. The men playing off campus nixes the students wandering in, they have used to a shuttle. Not sure if they still do... But still you are asking college kids to plan to catch a bus, where at Valpo and most places if we get wrapped up they can just walk in.
I have heard positive things about how the players act and interact on campus as well which helps. Winning of course always helps..
@mwsportsfan I know earlier in the year there was some discussion about walkable off-campus arenas. Carver arena in Peoria is certainly NOT on that list. I don't know why Carver is held in such high regard in a lot of Valley spaces. It is a hockey rink that the city of Peoria takes little to no effort in converting into a basketball arena. Whole sections of seats are tarped off with bleachers on the floor leaving major gaps in the floor. Or for high capacity events, untarp those sections of bleachers and leave spectators with horrid sight lines of the Court. Having a hockey rink is fine, but if you aren't going to bother to put in some effort to convert that hockey rink into a respectable basketball viewing experience. Why even bother playing in the hockey rink in the first place. There are colleges that actually do have full conversions like St. Thomas and UMass. It's not that difficult to do.
Kudos to your student athlete though. Whoever they are certainly did play a massive role in getting the win over Bradley last night. Especially since they definitely got into Brian wartle's head as Brian Wardle was jaw-jacking with the student section on multiple occasions
A number of years ago almost all of our games had 6 pm start time. I believe it coincided with huge drop off in attendance back then. Destroyed the Valpo club in the Hilltop Gym. I know I was quite annoyed with it. I typically take employees or clients to games and 6 pm start does not leave time to grab dinner first. This will be my issue tomorrow night. I hope I’m wrong, but I don’t see that we will have big turnout tomorrow.
Unfortunately, you'd be hard pressed to find a lot of games outside of that time frame anywhere in the country. A majority of games for CBB are 6pm sharp. Games that start later are few and far between or west coast games starting at 6pm local time.
I will say that I expect a decent bit of attendance as there is was a promotion for 30% off tickets
There's a 7pm Eastern and 9pm Eastern TV window. Occasionally an 8pm Eastern window. Those are your start times these days.
A few more posts from the Bradley forum to relish this win a bit more, I placed the relevant comments in red. There are haters over there, however a few of their fans understand CBB better than most and are correct to state the facts.
Start:
This is just sour grapes. Sorry, but every single one of you would love it if we A. actually had a student section and B. Wardle got so excited that he was jumping around with the students.
This is not the first time Powell has done it and he's got a great rapport with the students. Sorry, but not burying him for being happy - Valpo played really well last night and we still could have won if we finished the game well. On to the next - this really didn't hurt us other than making it more important to win the remaining games.
We still control our own destiny to the two seed with three games left. Anyone who would have known that before the season (when most thought we'd be 3rd-5th) would have been ecstatic.
What other schools have a home court advantage tied to just how shitty their home court actually is? Syracuse, maybe?
That's exactly why Wardle should have gone with a smaller lineup sooner. Our big clods were getting their asses beat by f'in freshmen. That's just unacceptable!
Timo couldn't guard him either. No one could.
Meta and Thomas - senior bigs - 48 minutes. 8 points. 5 rebounds.
Freshman JT Pettigrew and junior NAIA transfer Shon Supuola - 57 minutes. 33 points. 12 rebounds.
That is totally embrassing but something we knew was this teams Achilles Heel all season.
BTW - Roger Powell is a clown.
They had more students engaged tonight than Bradly has probably all year. He’s not paid to console Bradly fans when they beat us.
END
I will defend our forum culture against either of the Bradley forums. Banter is fun, encouraged, and part of the game, but over there you see more than a few fans who seem genuinely bothered by the idea that Bradley might not automatically win simply because they’re playing Valpo. There’s a noticeable level of disrespect toward a fellow Valley conference member.
That said, not all of their fans are bad apples. Some are willing to call it out and do a bit of self-policing, which I respect. Still, that attitude is exactly why I’m going to enjoy this win all day today.
Bradley is a tough team. They’re well coached, their fans travel well, and they have a lot going for them. They’ll be a tough out at Arch Madness.
Wins like this are always sweeter when they come against expectation and entitlement, and this one was fully earned. Respect the league, respect the opponent, and let the results speak for themselves—this one certainly did.
What a collection of putzes. What does JT being a freshman have to do with anything? Does this poster think Arizona is complaining because a freshman put up 35 against them last night? I'd guess not.
Also, I've been to Bradley's arena once non Valpo related and been to the ARC many times. The ARC being referred to as shitty is laughable compared to Bradley's place.
@jd24 I think you'll find that a lot of the MVC fan bases measure your worth in the amount of seats you have. To them Bradley having more seats = better arena and more worth in arguments
@jd24 I think you'll find that a lot of the MVC fan bases measure your worth in the amount of seats you have. To them Bradley having more seats = better arena and more worth in arguments
I agree with this. More seats means more empty seats usually. I am actually coming around to enjoying the ARC again. I think it represents what Valpo is currently and it gives us an advantage. We all know the advantage it provides when it is near capacity and I think that is what we are building towards. I would much rather play in the ARC with 2500 fans than a beautiful new 8000 seat stadium with 2500 fans.
The best Bradley comment is "BTW Roger Powell is a clown" with no other context. There are a lot of goofy basketball coaches out there but Powell couldn't be further from that. We are happy and lucky to have him.
@backagain2024 I don’t really understand the hate for the ARC. Personally, I like it. It has charm.
Are there areas that need updating? Sure. But at the end of the day, it feels like home. It provides better access to the game than most multi-purpose arenas. As a fan, I feel like I’m a part of the action instead of just watching from a distance.
My old seat back in Section G even has history. Someone held that seat through a lot of ups and downs — now I’m just adding to that story.
There are a lot of things I enjoy about college basketball that aren’t necessarily tied to wins and losses. The ARC represents some of that tradition and connection for me.
Of course, this is just my perspective. I don’t expect everyone to see it the same way.
@jd24 I think you'll find that a lot of the MVC fan bases measure your worth in the amount of seats you have. To them Bradley having more seats = better arena and more worth in arguments
I agree with this. More seats means more empty seats usually. I am actually coming around to enjoying the ARC again. I think it represents what Valpo is currently and it gives us an advantage. We all know the advantage it provides when it is near capacity and I think that is what we are building towards. I would much rather play in the ARC with 2500 fans than a beautiful new 8000 seat stadium with 2500 fans.
The best Bradley comment is "BTW Roger Powell is a clown" with no other context. There are a lot of goofy basketball coaches out there but Powell couldn't be further from that. We are happy and lucky to have him.
He thinks Powell is a clown because of what happened last year during the semi finals to Darius.
Large arenas (especially non-basketball-specific arenas) with few fans are just as much of an eyesore, if not more so. If Valpo decides to renovate the ARC, I hope they decide to keep the seating capacity close to 5,000. Loyola Chicago’s arena would be a good comparison in terms of size.
@jd24 I think you'll find that a lot of the MVC fan bases measure your worth in the amount of seats you have. To them Bradley having more seats = better arena and more worth in arguments
I agree with this. More seats means more empty seats usually. I am actually coming around to enjoying the ARC again. I think it represents what Valpo is currently and it gives us an advantage. We all know the advantage it provides when it is near capacity and I think that is what we are building towards. I would much rather play in the ARC with 2500 fans than a beautiful new 8000 seat stadium with 2500 fans.
The best Bradley comment is "BTW Roger Powell is a clown" with no other context. There are a lot of goofy basketball coaches out there but Powell couldn't be further from that. We are happy and lucky to have him.
He thinks Powell is a clown because of what happened last year during the semi finals to Darius.
Ah when he almost got thrown out of the game because his senior point guard who stuck with the program for 4 years got his knee blown out in a 4 point game and somehow got called for the foul. What a “clown” for loving and protecting his player in literally the last seconds of his career. This the type of hate that you only get when you are doing things so right that competitors start to get concerned. Again, we should take it as a complement.
It seems as if a lot of media attention has come from the Bradley win. Powell is now being mentioned as a candidate for some open coaching positions of teams decide to move on. Most notably be is being mentioned for Loyola Chicago
