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Who are the 4 returning players?  Barrett, Palm, DeAveiro and ?

Only those three are returning. Everyone else is going to be new.

I thought that Joe Vick was returning -- he's a walk on but still a player.

Matt Lottich goes to Missouri as Special Assistant to the Head Coach.

Glad to see he landed on his feet.

Great point.  Find people who want to strive upward with a big vision.  Turf-guarders with petty grievances can't get in your way.  Love the band, orchestra, and choir.  But the TV news stations don't report their scores.

So the approach to recruiting a pep band should continue to be what it has been? Who are these people who want to strive upward and how are you going to find them?  To have a good pep band, the section needs to be filled with people with a particular skill set. I was suggesting ways of finding musicians that might want to contribute to the atmosphere on game nights and convincing them that its worth their time to do so. 

I support the athletic department, but I hope that the vision is a basketball team that supports the vision of the university not the other way around.

The pep band is not student led.  When I suggested to Dr. Small last year that he visit the music fraternity, he told me that the leader of the band, a staff member in IT, was going to be getting the band together. The eventual $500 stipend offered for students to play did not create a robust group full of enthusiasm.

This administration does not have a positive relationship with the music department (which can be said of many departments), and there is much can be done to improve it. Appearing to make the music department a vassal of the athletic program certainly won't help.

Do athletes ever show up for concerts?

In his first year, I saw Padilla at one event, but I haven't seen him since.

Has anyone had a respectful conversation with Dr. Doebler about the practice schedule?[/li][/list]


I recognize that cuts around the university are necessary as students academic choices have evolved and enrollment has declined. The resulting morale issues require extra sensitivity from the non-academic athletic program which is being (relatively) showered with investment.

I'm not terribly upset about this transfer.

As much as Ibra demonstrated athleticism, his lack of maturity and volatility was a detriment this past year -- he did not represent the team and university well on the court.  I'm not sure how much of that could be cured by coaching even over the long run. Although I don't know how he performed in practice and off of the court, but his attitude could have required a great deal of coaching time that can be used more productively.

Thank you historyman! Is Depauw, IN the same Depauw where Depauw University is located

Depauw College is in Greencastle in west-central Indiana.

Who is Kaspar Sepp?  From where?  Size?  Position?  Transfer?

https://www.ncsasports.org/mens-basketball-recruiting/florida/orlando/fairmont-sports-academy/kaspar-sepp

 6'9 Bosco Forward Lucas Scroggins received an offer https://twitter.com/DonBoscoHoops/status/1652800241127632899

Re: Ola Ojiboye. A promising genuine PF with 3 years remaining is a good start, and the fact that he took VU's late-in-the-process offer over many other suitors says something about Coach Powell's recruiting pitch.

I see that other schools showed interest, but was Valpo the only school that actually offered?

I expect to see a bunch of Ibra Bayu types who hopefully can shoot just a little better!

One of my thoughts for success would be if The Rev would be able to help Ibra control his emotions, so his behavior won't be a liability.

By my count we have more coaches than players. Not completely certain if this new approach will be successful in the MVC.

But the four players  we have are "fabulous!" 

St. John's was 8-11 in 21-22 which is the season referred to. Their issue was not offense. It was defense. They led the Big East in scoring but were towards the bottom in points allowed.

It's clear that St. John's opponents would have had many more possessions per game than against teams who held the ball longer; therefore, it would be expected that their (St John's opponents') total would be higher.  The stat that is important isn't points per game; rather, it would be points per possession.  If the Beacons have a run and gun offense as seems to be the plan, we should keep that stat in mind.

Were they any players at the press conference other than Ibra? 

He is the only one they showed from the stream. 

He was the only one that I saw.

I'm sure that Roger can choose anyone whom he wants (although we've heard about salary limitations).

Who is likely to go?  Will he hold onto Luke,  a former colleague?

What about the others?

No one has talked about religion.

Over the past three decades, Valpo has been coached by someone who has worn religion on his sleeve, and it seems that has increased with each coach -- not a trait associated with Lutheranism.  The coaches seem to have been the most fundamentalist group on campus.  While the entire football team has a special service at the beginning of their season at the chapel (and it's clear that many have never darkened the door of a church before), even with its Christian bent, I can't remember seeing an athlete in one of the pews.

I have often wondered about the religious chatter and its impact on recruiting. Clearly there was a recruit from Sheboygan who came here because of it (and left because Valpo wasn't conservative enough), and it may be of comfort to parents sending their kids off to college.  I wonder how much that has been used to make Valpo stand out in recruits minds either positively or negatively.

I personally don't understand why we bring a player in, give him a first rate education, and get basically nothing in return. As an example, (I certainly am not taking shots at the person here, just trying to understand the unethical comments). Emil (and maybe not a great example because of his health issues), but, nonetheless, he has scored a total of 30 points in four years.  At the same time he has gained a degree in civil engineering from one of the top undergrad engineering schools in the US.  Would we be unethical if we told him the type of player we were now looking for wasn't a 6'10" back to the basket guy but rather a 6'5" guy who could shoot from beyond the 3.  Just wondering...

Of course, he could have stayed in Denmark and gotten his degree for free.

64 - the ARC is a generic dump and it doesn't even have any character, unlike Fordham or other schools.

Complete dumpster...lacrosse high school which holds maybe 1000 people and from the 1800s has way more character.


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Sadly, there will no longer be opportunities to see high school games at the LaCrosse gym as the district is consolidating its schools in Wanatah.

There are now over 500 division one men's basketball players who have entered the portal. Cam is the only Beacon to submit his intent.

This is pure speculation, but I would surmise that none of the others have the intention of transferring. I presume that the coaching staff hasn't conducted end-of-season interviews, and after those interviews, we'll see more names in the portal.  I've got to believe that it's evident to the staff that the roster is filled with players that cannot contribute nor have the potential to contribute at the MVC level.

The only exception would be Ben -- I would presume that he won't make any decision until he is evaluated by the NBA.

Cam is in the portal.

Staying here has no benefit if he wants to improve his game,

Didn't he make it onto the MVC Most Improved Team this year?  It seems he has shown that he can improve at VU.  He'd certainly be guaranteed plenty of playing time.

Meanwhile, I have had continual problems with my ESPN+ subscription

Thanks for the reminder.  I always cancel my subscription after Arch Madness.

Let's have a thread that doesn't devolve into a coach conversation (PLEASE!) or previous years' favorite -- facilities.

Watching the tournament, it has been so clear that the talent of the winning teams was a level above what we put on the court this year.

Given  that we have 6' 9" center Zane Doughty, 6'6" shooting guard Yanis Bamba, and 6'1" point guard Jahari Williamson committed, what would you say to the veteran players.

I see two projects on the team (both Dutch) who have promise to be impact players in the MVC, but I'm not sure about anyone else (other than Ben)  who would break into a starting lineup on any of the top eight teams in the Valley. 

Am I too hard on the bench?

Bryce was an anomaly for the University in modern sports. First coach to take a successful program over and use it to further career.

Have you forgotten about Scott? 

An argument could be made (and has been on this forum) that Valpo's success under the Drews was due to his ability to recruit -- a skill that he took with him to Baylor.

Valpo is trying to stay afloat by selling artwork. How much impact does this really have on faculty morale?
- does Valpo need upgrades on residential facilities to remain competitive?
- does Valpo need to pay competitive salaries to faculty members?
- how important is the flagship athletic program at Valpo? If it is, how do we address it?
- what is the importance of Valpo providing degrees in art, theatre and creative writing to a selective few?
- should Valpo focus on strengths and double down on those instead of trying to meet everyone's needs?
-  if Valpo cannot grow or even sustain operations, what is the purpose of keeping art?

Time to prioritize gang. And BTW, to the theatre and creative writing majors marching to the presidents office over the possible art sale, there's nothing negative about being portrayed as a tech school. MIT is a technical school, and they also have outstanding humanities education.

Even MIT recognizes the importance of the arts: 

https://arts.mit.edu/

Tucker backed by two guys from the region expect to thump the Beacons at the ARC.

We played them tough in Des Moines, and many of their nine conference wins have been by a small margin.  They have lost twice to MoSt, and like VU, come off an overtime game this past Wednesday (of course they won theirs in a double overtime while Valpo ran out of gas and collapsed in OT). I look for a competitive game and hold out hope that this will be a game when our streaky shooters will find the basket.

Will Sturtz again prove himself to be the pest that makes the little plays that sting on both ends of the court?