First Game of the year folks. Valpo will take on Brescia University from just beyond the border in Kentucky for an exhibition match on Tuesday.
START TIME : 7PM CST
BROADCAST: RADIO ONLY
For perspective, they lost to our friends at St. Mary of the Woods 93-57 to end their season last year.
I'm excited to see how this team performs against non-intersquad competition. It should be a valuable opportunity to identify areas for improvement and build momentum heading into non-conference play. Regardless of the result, I’ll be happy if we can begin to establish team chemistry and rhythm in a real game scenario.
The bad news 
: Valpo enters the exhibition game ranked by Sports Illustrated at 216.
The good news 
: SI predicts Valparaiso will edge ahead of Evansville (223) for 10th place in the MVC.
The bad news
The good news
As far as I’m concerned, with the roster volatility across all of college basketball, predictions mean nothing. Impossible to tell who is going to fit in what system, what roll player is going to turn into a star elsewhere, etc. I am going into this season with the optimism that Valpo can finish anywhere in the standings.
The bad news
The good news
As far as I’m concerned, with the roster volatility across all of college basketball, predictions mean nothing. Impossible to tell who is going to fit in what system, what roll player is going to turn into a star elsewhere, etc. I am going into this season with the optimism that Valpo can finish anywhere in the standings.
Most of these metrics heavily favor returning players anyway. According to a lot of metrics. Joe Vick is the best player on the Valpo roster....
Man, I haven't paid enough attention this summer. I have no idea who most of these players are. Time to study up, I guess.
@vok22 I’m with you! Who knows what can happen. I believe Roger is figuring out what we need to compete and his energy and reputation is attracting better and better players every year!
@valpopal that’s not quite as bad news as KenPom having us at 283, but completely agree that the preseason rankings are fairly useless. Not quite as bad as Rez said of Joe Vick being our number one in the rankings anymore, but it’s still bad - Torvik for instance has no mention of Shon Tupuola, has Jayden Watson (out for year) playing 20 minutes per game, and thinks we have two players named Carter Hopoi.
Do we have boots on the ground for the exhibition?
I agree that predictions are useless at this point although sight unseen I seem to feel better about this roster than last year's. No idea why.
PFW is ranked approximately 80 spots ahead of Valpo in most polls and Valpo beat them by 8 in the recent secret scrimmage. PFW beat Ball State by 14 who is in the 220’s. Pre-season rankings are difficult to create especially when many teams are recruiting from multiple levels of competition. Brescia should be a breeze, but expect different rotations than a normal game.
I’m not expecting us to win the MVC regular season title, but we will be leaps better than year 1 Powell based on the level of talent we’re starting to bring in. We have a really tough non-conference schedule. I would feel pretty good going into conference play if we beat UNCW at home.
@jd24 I will be at the game tonight. I am excited to get this season started, my daughter and I will have our foam fingers ready to motivate the guys and hopefully see them get after it in this warmup game. I will try and give my thoughts on the game performance in the next few days.
Wish they would have at least provided LiveStats.
Paul had a nice piece on Shon this morning. 6’10” and 245 — he’s no one to mess with and should be able to hold his own down low in the MVC. We haven’t had a rim protector since Vashil left. Hope he’s the one. Between Carter (6’11”) and Shon we should be able to grab some boards at both ends.
@jd24 I will be at the game tonight. I am excited to get this season started, my daughter and I will have our foam fingers ready to motivate the guys and hopefully see them get after it in this warmup game. I will try and give my thoughts on the game performance in the next few days.
I know this...we need more parents taking their kids to Valpo games with everyone having foam fingers!
This is probably part of the reason why Powell gives away so many tickets to his charity. Gotta start a fan base from somewhere
