Messages

[if Junior leaves for the NBA next season]

So is it going to be a while before we get back to the tourney? It seems like our time in it has come and gone pretty fast. And it will be strange indeed to not see Ryan in a Valpo uniform anymore.

We definitely have a chance if Junior leaves for the NBA next season. If he leaves, I'm going say we're the 3rd best team in the league which gives us a good shot at making the tournament with a conference tourney run.

Even if he doesn't leave, I doubt they will be the issue, but they will be pretty good.  They lose Minnerath and Anderson. They had no bench.  The teams to beat will be Wright State, Cleveland State, Green Bay and YSU.

I agree. Considering the year that Wright State had this year, that definitely puts them in that top tier. Green Bay just has some great talent with Sykes and Brown, and Cleveland State had lots of young talent that will be more mature. The question is if our recruiting class is going to be ready to compete at this level and be solid contributors right away. Or maybe they won't need to be relied upon so heavily because of the few we have returning and a couple of transfers? Is it too early for this conversation? Haha.

So is it going to be a while before we get back to the tourney? It seems like our time in it has come and gone pretty fast. And it will be strange indeed to not see Ryan in a Valpo uniform anymore.

POY snub for Ryan, but McCallum is a beast (with the numbers to show for it). Still nice accolades for the team, and I believe that making the NCAA tourney will far outweigh not being the conference player of the year.

While I'm no Dority basher, he certainly was making me have second thoughts about what kind of player he is for us. But after tonight, I think I can see that he can be efficient and will be ready to handle the point guard spot for us by next year pretty solidly. This was a much needed win tonight to try to get some wind back in our sails.

Easy now! It's already bad enough that this two year old thread is at the top again. It's especially ridiculous when you consider that we are in the middle of the conference season!

Sorry about that, 04.  VU72 comes creeping around and I can't resist feeding him from time to time.  LOL 

Side note:  How come you never used the avatar I made you?

You have to get used to valpo04. He is a tough mod, but absolutely fair. We need that kind of presence perusing our board.

I like GB and think that Cerroni and Sykes are the guys we need to be concerned with, more so then Brown (who will be in foul trouble 7 mins into the game).

brown seems to always have good games against us - i'd be wary of what he might do this time around. we're going to need good shooting and a willingness to keep brown from getting to the rack. that said, i think we win this game by 9-13 or so when it's all said and done. close until free throws at the end.

I agree. A 7 foot big man with finesse is something that we usually have no answer for. Needless to say, Capo might get some more minutes trying to contain him. I hope he can move his feet enough to try to equalize that matchup a little more.

Yeah, like Apostle is the one who needs to loosen up! Just read his posts.

what happened to this "dcvalpo"?

Apostle, it is kind of a long story....

Matt Kenney really did step up, but the clutch performance has to go to Broekhoff! He put the team on his back at the end. I'm sure koala feels immensely proud to watch her son play like that!

I think we will be fine without bobby. Kvw is the real deal...and if him, rowdy, buggs, and kenney do their thing...should be a blow out.
Valpo 80
Wright st 65

Well, it looks like somebody is starting to change their tune.

Clearly, Anderson created the impression of a more flagrant foul when he pulled the ball back in an effort at showboating with a windmill dunk. Bobby was going to commit the foul, but he was swiping at where the ball should have been had Anderson simply gone straight up for the dunk. Unfortunately, the contributing factor of the hotdog action by Anderson didn't fit into the analysis by the officials.

Let's hope that this doesn't effect the outcome of the Wright State game. Kevin has got to be exhausted and sore after last night's game, and he is going to need some help off the bench from Vashil tomorrow.

I know! Capo was just going to foul legitimately, and maybe get the flagrant 1 at worst. But of course Anderson, being the showboater he is, goes for a windmill dunk. In that sense, I feel he got what he deserved. He could have gone for a normal dunk and not gotten hurt as badly.

- Boggs/Bogan have been rendered ineffective by their lack of shooting (and rebounding, for that matter).
- Why is Ryan not touching the ball on every possession?
- Dority shoots a lot, and I question some of his shot selection. But it beats Erik Buggs shooting.
- KVW has simply not played like a Horizon first teamer, or even a second teamer for that matter. His flaws (namely not having post up moves, just barreling his way to the basket) have been exposed and he continually gets his shot blocked, misses layups, or commits an offensive foul.
- It seems like only Buggs has been playing consistent defense, and even he continues to have his foul issues.
- I totally agree with Capo playing small. I really thought he was going to bring a lot to the table, but so far he has underwhelmed my expectations.

*Sigh*.....I thought we had something going for us with this team. If we don't regroup fast, we will have a disappointing season.

I'm sure Gonzaga will be the new number 1 with their win at Oklahoma State last night. They have had a stellar season thus far.

Valpo 74
Loyola 68

Excuse me, but did somebody mention something about us running the table in the Horizon? We are not THAT good. Remember, Gordon Hayward's Butler team did that last, and they went to the National Championship game. Which by the way, that one was a game for the ages. So let's forget about this whole at large thing. The only reason a resumé means something now is so that if we win the conference tournament, we can get a better seed. We lost to Oakland and Nebraska - can we let go of this fanatical world in which you still have at large hopes with those losses?

Finally, we finished off a big game on the road! It's confusing to think we beat Murray State, but lose to Nebraska. I guess it makes more sense if you think about it in terms of being more cohesive at this point of the season. Plus, we also have Dority now.

[free throws]

'72,  the whole point is that nothing makes a great deal of sense out of context.  It is the shooting at home that makes the shooting on the road seem poor.  If we weren't a whole lot better at home, then we wouldn't be wondering why we struggle on the road--because we would know we just weren't very good.


So--'Haze has the great point that instead of looking at why are we so bad on the road, look at the flip side of the coin--why are we so good at home?  The Occam's Razor answer would be the difference in the level of competition--and as far as "open looks", well, those happen at quite different rates for good teams and bad teams.


Probably the only "control" group that could substantiate a claim that "we don't shoot as well on the road" would be to compare free throws--as the level of defense is the same regardless of opponent--but even then you'd have to control for who was shooting the shots--i.e. a road game in which Buggs had more attempts and Rowdy fewer would obviously look worse than a home game with the reverse, but then, is that really a function of the road, either?

So with all that said, is being on the road more indicative of what kind of team we really are as opposed to how we are at home?

I don't think the key to this game is Isaiah Canaan, but instead I think Ed Daniel holds the key to a Valpo Victory. http://cbbpps.wordpress.com/2012/12/26/murray-state-vs-valpo/

Love the analysis, way over my head. Can't wait for the game!

Thanks.  I heard one time that the WSJ is written at an 8th grade reading level, so I try to use to fancy of words (my vocabulary doesn't have fancy words in it even if I wanted to use them). Fancy (well not really) formulas though are another thing.  As long as what I write isn't too long I'm happy.  As soon as things I post get too wordy I'm done!

Yeah, I can be bad about the fancy words thing sometimes....

[97%]

I miss Ben Wallace.  (obviously a pistons fan, not a bulls fan.)

RPIForecast says MSU by 8; VU a 25% chance of the upset--interestingly the exact same spread/percentage as the us at UIC game...

(On the plus side, 97% chance of beating UWM at home!:) (!!!)

RealTimeRPI says MSU by 13--also MSU's RPI rank!  Interestingly, not the worst loss we are predicted to take--that's by 15 at UIC...

Obvious observation is obvious:  This is the big-time win we need.

I know UIC is up this year, but we are predicted to lose to them by 15 points? What happened?

[and they try to keep the traveling cost to a minimum.]

does anyone know what their "formula" for the matchups is?  obviously they eschew repeats of conference matchups and rematches of non-con; they also try to match like vs. like.

but are there other criteria--at least that are public?

Whatever match-ups look good on TV (evenly matched, close contests) and they try to keep the traveling cost to a minimum. That's about it.

Valpo played at Loyola Marymount last year, which is near Los Angeles. I don't see that as an austere way to schedule if they take that criterion seriously.

[By the way this Valpo at Murray State game is an ESPN 3 exclusive next Saturday.]

If your looking to scout Murray State and have ESPN 3 you can watch their game against Arkansas State at Jonesboro, AR on Wednesday:

http://espn.go.com/watchespn/player/_/source/espn3/id/737911/size/condensed/


Also the Sunday, 12/16/12 game against Western Kentucky in Murray, KY:

http://espn.go.com/watchespn/player/_/source/espn3/id/688401/size/condensed/


By the way this Valpo at Murray State game is an ESPN 3 exclusive next Saturday.

And to this - 

I've watched Murray play twice, and I can't wait to see KVw bang against their big guy with the fro! We will need to contest those 3s closely and grab up those long rebounds.

They still have the fro guy?! I thought he graduated. Ed Daniel I think is his name.

Do you guys think Dority adds enough offense to supplement Ryan? In other words, if both of those guys have a good game, Kevin has at least a decent game, and then you get a few triples here and there between guys like Boggs, Kenney, and Bogan, is that a good enough recipe to beat Murray State? I certainly have not looked into how good they are this year, so I have no idea.

I know I'm jumping the gun by starting this thread, and I'm sure there will be a different, more official one than mine, but I still wanted to start talking about this now. What do you guys think about our chances at Murray State? Our performance against Nebraska and St. Louis was plagued by poor shooting. Against New Mexico, we had improvement, but still we lacked firepower as Rowdy was really the only one who brought his offensive game that night. Assuming we roll over Purdue-Cal (as if there is a scenario where it won't happen), how do we look going into the game?