They are 11-0 at home
They have Tucker Devries, Darnell Brodie
Be Fun to watch the Schwieger vs Overton game-within-the-game.
In the last matchup,
Overton (6'5") with 10 points, 3 boards (2OR, 1DR), No assists, No Turnovers, No Blocks, one steal, 25 minutes, 2 fouls
Schwieger with 13 points, 6 boards (3OR, 3DR), two assists, no turnovers, no blocks, no steals, 29 minutes and 4 fouls
Vs. UNI, DeVries went for 29, Brodie went for 11 and 8 boards (foul Trouble only played 23 minutes); Overton went for THREE points and 7 boards in 29 minutes.
They went 11 of 27 from 3pt range and 18-23 from the line (UNI was 14 of 28)
The other thing Drake had? 6,424 people on the Knapp Center... at 5pm on Saturday. (they had over 4,000 vs. Indiana State on a Wednesday a few weeks ago)
Our hope for this game: They are looking ahead to Saturday @ Indiana State. The Syc's may try for another sellout at Hulman (they sold out Hulman yesterday-8,223-thanks to some corporate block-purchase-ticket-giveaway)...
Anyway... they beat us 83-65 back in December at the ARC. We are a better team than we were back then. They haven't missed a beat.
oh, the forecast is 39 and sunny in Des Moines on Wednesday
I just want to come out in first five minutes of each half and play competitively. We competed with Drake at home. After yesterday - rebound, defense, rebound.
Drake 82
Valpo 72
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Drake: 83
Valpo: 65
Stafford scores 30.
I will be there!
83-64 Drake.
Drake 78
Valpo 60
Drake 89
Valpo 51
What has Valpo done to make that score different really?
I hope the Beacons play better than before but Drake will play at home in the Knapp Center and even if challenged will want a big win.
Quote from: historyman on January 29, 2024, 04:00:10 PMDrake 89
Valpo 51
What has Valpo done to make that score different really?
We have 62 days of additional maturity which is enormous for a team like ours. With nothing to lose and knowing the opponent may want to run up the score I'm thinking we battle to the wire to keep it within 10 points.
Valpo 61
Drake 82
Who's going to the game? I will likely be at Lucky Horse.
Quote from: justducky on January 29, 2024, 04:19:29 PM
Quote from: historyman on January 29, 2024, 04:00:10 PMDrake 89
Valpo 51
What has Valpo done to make that score different really?
We have 62 days of additional maturity which is enormous for a team like ours. With nothing to lose and knowing the opponent may want to run up the score I'm thinking we battle to the wire to keep it within 10 points.
Okay, but what did that gain us against Southern Illinois & Missouri State?
Do you think Valpo got better outcomes? Better than last year, yes. Better than expected, no.
Drake is currently favored by 20.5 pts. We will cover.
Drake 78
Valpo 63
whelp line opens as -20.5. Close to most folks predictions.
The Saab 2000 got the team to Des Moines on Tuesday evening... so the "Travel Plans" worked well this time.
The 20.5 spread, with a 145.5 o/u sounds about right. For the year... we are 12-7 Against the Spread... so we're doing better than the odds makers are thinking we will...
We are 9-11 on covering the o/u.
Drake is 11-9 against the spread and 10-10 on covering the spread.
I'm hoping we don't get jazzed by the rambunctious crowd ... It would be great if we can keep this to single-digits.
Des Moines finest 85
Crusaders 62
I predict a massive upset...probably won't happen but I do believe this team has the "grit". We're do for some magic. A win would inject so much confidence into this team and this message board. Let's do it!
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The odds makers must have read truth219 post... the line has fallen to 19.5
Drake 75
Beacs 59
Our defense and overall effort has been on point. We can not put the ball through the rim.
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Our season turnover ratio is good. It appears when I'm looking at in game stats that we are always behind in points off of turnovers. Is there a season stat for that anywhere?
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Going 0-400 from three will not win games.
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Quote from: truth219 on January 31, 2024, 07:34:51 PM
Our defense and overall effort has been on point. We can not put the ball through the rim.
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I'm counting 8 shots in a row missed. Make it 9
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Team gritty needs to go on a run
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Lose by 11. Out rebounded by 20. 12-2 in offensive rebounds, with our 2 coming in the last minute. Too many fouls.
Getting this game under 9 was tough. Never seemed close like the previous game.
On to Evansville
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I missed the game, dammit. Lost by 11. Covered the spread easily.
Checked the stats and Isaiah crushed it - 32 points and great %. Coop and Spoon big foul trouble. Once again we just don't have anyone to lock down the paint.
Palm played alright but having somebody inside battling Brodie would be nice. Didn't see the whole game or the stats yet so I might say more later.
Drake showed it's experience, timely three point shooting, Devries drawing fouls and 8th year senior Brody. Our offense will come and go in spurts every game, and Stafford was unconcious but Lacking too much interior defense most nights this season. Cooper shows nice instincts on offense, but he allows his opponent to get to his spot way to easily. Off season weight room will do him some good. Darius is on my all time Valpo improvement award with Erik Bugs from one season to the next. I don't know what anyone else thinks, but I come away more optimistic most games this year than the last two seasons with King, Krikke, Kavion & co. I think we can all see the upside of the pieces we have now and the ones we will add.
Only 5 minutes for Sepp? Did something happen?
Quote from: justducky on January 31, 2024, 09:22:17 PM
Only 5 minutes for Sepp? Did something happen?
Darnell Brodie happened.
Quote from: Pgmado on January 31, 2024, 10:05:27 PM
Quote from: justducky on January 31, 2024, 09:22:17 PM
Only 5 minutes for Sepp? Did something happen?
Darnell Brodie happened.
So Sepp is in a full body cast after being run over by a truck?
First half - down by 11
Second half - even
We know our obvious deficiencies in the paint, but we played in the house of one of the two MVC elite teams. Dismissing long runs and big gaps along the way, -11 and even say something positive about our young players.
It will be an interesting offseason, to say the least. Who would have thought that we would be worried if Darius was going to leave after his JR year? It wasn't a thought of mine until the last few games. I truly hope we can keep him around. Kudos to him on the improvements to his game. Good to see Palm and Connor contribute meaningful minutes. It is so sad to see Connor struggling to see the ball go in. Just about every shot of his this season has rattled in/around/out, but never drops down.
I was at the game and the atmosphere at the Knapp Center was semi electric, including a student "Blue Out". I was impressed with Valpo's work ethic throughout. These guys are learning and I saw some positive stuff. Bradford played out of his mind and DeAreivo was penetrating better with control. This team will get better with better talent and Powell and his staff is proving to be solid for the long term.
I wonder what the total combined minutes are for not scoring. I know we didn't score til the 16:00 minute mark. So there is at least 4 minutes. We lost this game because we couldn't score. Which is actually a good thing, because you can improve on that. If we would have shot 10% better from the field we win this game. It's very encouraging because realistically big wins are not far away. Our defense out of the paint is outstanding. Also for as short of a team as we have the number of blocks we have is insane. Terrible at rebounding but the blocks are there.
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Brodie could have scored 60 if they just fed him the ball every play. We just do not have anybody on this team who can compete with a guy like him.
I will reiterate that we need to add at least one upperclassmen big guy, preferably a 5th year senior type, for next season. It's still a youth movement overall, but we need experience at the 5 and allow Schweiger to be more of a stretch 4 while we develop some other big guys for the following seasons.
I'm not saying we are going to find our own "brodie" in the transfer portal. But if we can get a guy that is 65% of his talent think about how many more games we would have won this season.
Yeah I think we are in a pretty good place if with as young a team we are we go toe to toe with someone at the top of the standings with the preseason player of the year living up to that billing and the difference between a win and a loss is one big old guy who has to be gone next year. Brodie is a beast but apart from him we did not look to be out skilled last night.
Valpofamfan - DeVries is pretty good. And we need more than a big man, we obviously need better overall talent, which will come. Valpo MBB is in the right direction and I like the attitude of the coaches and team.
It will be interesting to see how we look after adding Manyang (6'10")and Scroggins (6'9") to the active group. Manyang is a shot blocker who is a mess health wise and Scroggins is a kid they have very high hopes for but aren't playing, as he is healthy but they think he will be more valuable after another year in the gym. PO's writeup on him a while ago said he had already put on like 20 pounds.
Add a mature 250# guy to these two and our team looks entirely different.
Teams with strong bigs expose the weakness of our softer inside game, as we've seen in the past two games, losing on rebounds 96-66 and points in the paint 74-38! Also, I like Sepp but his reluctance to shoot or threaten to score when he gets the ball is frustrating. He could be a better scorer than he shows or at least draw the defense to him more. His field goal percent for the year is a fine 56.5% (35-62). He's even shooting 50% (3-6) from the 3-point line as a starter in conference play. However, most times when he receives a pass he doesn't fake a shot or even look up towards the basket and the defense sags back. He is minimizing his effect as a scorer the way Darius used to do and helping the opponents' defense. In conference play he is averaging just over 3 shots per game despite playing starter minutes, and he has taken only 6 3-point shots in 10 games, again while making half of them, a very respectable percent. I am hoping with experience he will develop more aggressiveness and become a Kevin Van Wijk type of player.
Quote from: usc4valpo on February 01, 2024, 08:12:24 AM
Valpofamfan - DeVries is pretty good. And we need more than a big man, we obviously need better overall talent, which will come. Valpo MBB is in the right direction and I like the attitude of the coaches and team.
I think several of our freshmen and sophomores are better to much better players than Darius was as a freshman or sophomore. Every team we play is top heavy with 3rd, 4th, and 5th year players, and yet we have been within striking distance in nearly every game. I don't think we have a talent gap, per se, but a huge age/experience/development gap that should reverse course over time.
wh - regarding talent, I disagree completely based on the rebounding numbers. Also in reality, Valpo has not been in almost every game, and this team has lost several in double figures. Powell will have a heads up in recruiting this year which he has not when he was hired. Despite a poor record, this team with limited talent and experience has improved compared to November. Honestly, they are progressing better than I thought!
Quote from: usc4valpo on February 01, 2024, 11:35:29 AM
wh - regarding talent, I disagree completely based on the rebounding numbers. Also in reality, Valpo has not been in almost every game, and this team has lost several in double figures.
True. Valpo has 9 conference defeats by a total of 88 points, a difference of 9.8 points or only 2 points from a double-digit average in all losses.
Each Freshman has some type of significant flaw as alluded to, Sepp nothing offensively. Sherman IV, Cooper getting eaten alive on defense.
Most games we've never really been in or really out of. Enough talent and work ethic to stay in the game. I mean, last night Drake took the foot off the gas in the last 2 minutes and we hit a bunch of three's. To our credit we play to the final bell. Effort and sticking with it better than last year. Depending on who we add or loose, we could take a nice leap next year with everyone getting older.
How would anyone compare Cooper's freshman year to Krikke ? Fair question. Did anyone think that Krikke would have progressed like he did after his Freshman year?
How many of you thought that Drake played against Valpo at it's top form? Would the Bulldogs have played at the same skill level against Indiana State, Bradley, Murray State or Belmont?
Darius isn't going anywhere
This was one of the only games all season where I thought Valpo got hosed by the refs. It was a poorly officiated game with plenty of missed calls and then timely makeups for the home side to level off the foul count which was I think 7-0 in the second half at one point.
While Cooper was completely dominated by the 8th year guy, I thought Coach did cooper right by leaving him out there to guard that load. It will make cooper mentally stronger and more confident next time and throughout his career. Another sly move by the Rev
With Sepp, I think he just didn't have it mentally last night. Out of position on a couple of pick and pops, missed some box outs, fumbles a pass - all early - and once again Rev showed his game coaching skills by showing confidence in Jerome who held his own.
We need more out of Weathespoon and Edwards on the glass
We also got killed in transition but that is a really good team which didn't need the refs help.
Also notice Drake didn't go under ball screens with Darius. The rest of the league is starting to notice. Which should make him and the team stronger and better.
This team is closer to a respectable place in the conference standings than the W-L record indicates. Most importantly, VU's best players -- guys who have had some outstanding games -- have yet to reach their ceiling, in some cases not even close. This is especially the case with players who have 2 or more seasons of eligibility. I don't know if Stafford and Darius have huge upsides, but their shooting percentages should improve next year.
A good number of the losses against middle-of-the-conference teams have been very close. Some of the big losses have included a half of very good basketball. Even at 6-16, the scoring margin deficit is only 72.7 to 68.1. Granted, that includes a blowout win over Trinity Christian (+39), but it also includes bigger losses to Illinois (-23), Drake (-18), Virginia Tech (-21), Samford (-18), and Bradley (-25).
Quote from: David81 on February 01, 2024, 09:40:26 PM
This team is closer to a respectable place in the conference standings than the W-L record indicates. Most importantly, VU's best players -- guys who have had some outstanding games -- have yet to reach their ceiling, in some cases not even close. This is especially the case with players who have 2 or more seasons of eligibility. I don't know if Stafford and Darius have huge upsides, but their shooting percentages should improve next year.
A good number of the losses against middle-of-the-conference teams have been very close. Some of the big losses have included a half of very good basketball. Even at 6-16, the scoring margin deficit is only 72.7 to 68.1. Granted, that includes a blowout win over Trinity Christian (+39), but it also includes bigger losses to Illinois (-23), Drake (-18), Virginia Tech (-21), Samford (-18), and Bradley (-25).
The Trinity Christian non D-1 game doesn't count. Valparaiso currently ranks #297 in scoring margin at -6.6 (66.6-73.2).
Experience and strength are the 2 biggest problems we currently have. I am excited and look forward to next year and beyond. Constantly playing against bigger, stronger guys takes its toll on our young players. I think we all can see the improvement in this young group of guys and I expect that improvement to continue, even having an off-night now and then is part of the process.