Game #22, MVC #11, @ Drake 7pm Wednesday - hoping the travel plans work out

[justducky]

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.

[AB]

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.

[justducky]

Only 5 minutes for Sepp? Did something happen?

[Pgmado]

Only 5 minutes for Sepp? Did something happen?

Darnell Brodie happened.

[justducky]

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?

[VULB#62]

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.

[valpotx]

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.

[usc4valpo]

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.

[truth219]

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.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[SanityLost17]

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.

[Valpofamfan]

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.

[usc4valpo]

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.

[vu72]

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.

[valpopal]

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.

[wh]

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.

[usc4valpo]

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!

[valpopal]

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.

[AB]

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?

[historyman]

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?

[Bumbo]

Darius isn't going anywhere

[Bumbo]

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.

[David81]

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).

[valpopal]

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).

[valpo64]

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.