Game #5 - Samford Bulldogs @ ARC 11/21/17 7PM Savannah Invitational #2

[FWalum]

Please excuse the fact that this is a little choppy, using a new video capture software and need to tweak the settings but didn't really have time to do the required trial and error checks.  Really wanted to show those that were unable to see the game the sequence by Marcus and Mileek that started the VU break out.  A really exciting 90 seconds of basketball by Marcus Golder.

[valpopal]

Answer: Don't charge $12 for bleacher seats.

..... or replace with good chairbacks and stay at $12 

I felt the university missed an excellent opportunity Tuesday night. Because the local schools were all closed on Wednesday, I would have had a grand strategic promotion advertised to all community school students, encouraging attendance and allowing them in for free. Obviously, most would be accompanied by an adult or two (paid), and the kids would contribute economically with the concession sales. The upper decks and the student sections were basically empty, and unoccupied seats do not contribute financially or vocally. (Remember when the university allowed visitors to the Lutheran tournament into the NIT game, filling the place with loud fans.) In addition, the promotion would create a positive feeling for all about returning to attend future games, especially with Tuesday's anticipated win. Additionally, I wonder why VU doesn't reach out to local high schools for pep bands or cheerleaders to help when our students are away on Thanksgiving, Christmas, or Spring breaks. Is there any NCAA rule against this? Those students would also likely bring paying family members and friends. 

[valpo64]

We need to start running the MBB game support  program in a much more professional manner...starting with promotions.  It shouldn't matter if school is in session or not,  try some things to get butts in the seats as previously stated.  And the "ushers"...put them in some kind of uniform, shirts, or whatever.  Last Sunday the guy checking tickets for the chairback section looked like some "Joe" off the streets, dressed in jeans and as sloppy t-shirt.  Then of course the ARC renovations.  Some talk or long-range plans need to be put forward in this area.  While our team compares to the best of the MVC, it all ends there.  Let's start running the total program like a member of the MVC and not  the laughing stock of the League.  Our cozy little ARC can be a tremendous advantage for us as a home venue but upgrades are past overdue and need to be addressed.  At this level, excuses like school not in session, it's still early in the season, it's a week-night game, it's only a pre-conference schedule game, etc.,  the PA is improved but more needs to be done, etc.  We need to get with it!  We did a great job in the video upgrade for ESPN 3 but the doesn't improve the game time environment and it doesn't upgrade the overall program for those attending or thinking of going to watch.

[wh]

How about in the first half when the scoreboard operator shorted Valpo a point, and the score remained wrong for several minutes before finally getting changed. Another amateur hour moment.

[craftyrighthander]

Long-time visitor, first time poster.   Valpo grad, but couldn't convince either of my kids to go to Valpo.  Couldn't agree more with statements about improvements to the ARC and improvements to the game day experience.  My kids have gone to Butler and Dayton.   I've been to multiple basketball games at both of those schools.    I've seen firsthand what happens when mid-sized, private, Midwest schools decide to make basketball the front door to the school.  Good things happen on the basketball court, and great things happen at the school in general.    This isn't a call to abandon academic standards.  To the contrary, spending more money on basketball will pay off in all areas.  I know that I am preaching to the choir.

Hope to meet some of you at ARCH Madness in March.

[VU2014]

the promotion of the team NEEDS to step up. Try new things! It's okay to have a new promotion that is a dud, but they need to try to hit on something. Valpo Basketball & the University should be actively trying to get the community involved. I hate to be so harsh but they're have been mediocre results thus far.

I'm not sure if its a budget issue or a creativity issue. We have the product but we need to build the excitement. Maybe the strategy should be to go for volume by selling bleacher tickets for $7.50 (roughly the price of 1 movie ticket) instead $12 for the non-d1s and lesser known opponents. I'm not sure the pricing is the biggest deal though.

The folks in the Athletics Department have a budget and have more access to information/data then us so I feel somewhat bad being so critical but its about time we start thinking outside the box when it comes to marketing and promotion to boost attendance.

[vu84v2]

I completely agree with all of the posts regarding the need for a consistently professional game day experience. Frankly, I don't think that these are really cost issues - they're management issues that can be solved with a little money or better use of existing money.

[a3uge]

As someone mentioned earlier, Valpo and Loyola beat Samford by identical scores.  The difference is Valpo shot 52% from the field and 30% from 3; Loyola shot 62 and 48.  They probably won't shoot that well again this season.  Our numbers were much more typical of our norm.  Interpretation: Valpo is probably about 10 points better than Loyola on a neutral court on a typical shooting day for both teams. 

I'm kind of  , kind of not.

I was a bit concerned at half time that Loyola beat this team by 20+... But then I looked at the MVC scoreboard and noticed Loyola was actually trailing a SWAC team by 3 at halftime.  It's important to remember that sometimes teams have good days and bad days, and we shouldn't overreact to a single game performance.



What I like about this team is that it's pretty deep, so we can get away with one of our starters having a terrible game (Bakari vs Samford or Burton vs SIUE). One of the bench players will have a hot game and jump start the team, and Lottich can just give the bench guy more minutes in the second half. I've come around to the big rotations; Lottich is willing to trim the rotation in the second half based on first half production, and it seems to have been working out really well. This does mean it's been hard to get in a rhythm in the first half, but each game has featured a pretty big run later in the game spurred by rotation players.



One last point... While the bench linup of Joseph, Golder, McMillan, and Bradford really turned the game around, I thought Lottich left them in a tad too long after their initial run. Once Samford called a timeout, Lottich should have went back to more of the starting rotation. The small ball lineup is great at forcing turnovers and scoring in transition, but once Samford calmed down after the timeout, they weren't nearly as effective.

[agibson]

The audio problems continue for the ARC. When I went to school I feel like we had these problems or at least I didn't notice them.
https://twitter.com/NWIOren/status/933135456207646720

I'd like to say that should be an isolated incident, since it probably related to no pep band. But, it'll be similar for all of winter break. Maybe someday the alum/staff pep band tradition will be resurrected.

[bbtds]

How about in the first half when the scoreboard operator shorted Valpo a point, and the score remained wrong for several minutes before finally getting changed. Another amateur hour moment.

I noticed it was Aaron Leavitt that realized the error and notified the scorers' table vehemently. After a few minutes of double checking the scorebook they corrected the scoreboard. Everyone in the crowd knew the scoreboard operator had missed the made FT (first of two by Bakari Evelyn, he missed the second FT) and were trying to yell to the scorer's table to add a point for Valpo. At first they added a point to Samford's score, which tells how it happened in the first place and then corrected it.

[valpo64]

So far this year the game's experience has been like a bad act on "The Voice", and there have been a number of those too.

[bbtds]

Long-time visitor, first time poster.   Valpo grad, but couldn't convince either of my kids to go to Valpo.  Couldn't agree more with statements about improvements to the ARC and improvements to the game day experience.  My kids have gone to Butler and Dayton.   I've been to multiple basketball games at both of those schools.    I've seen firsthand what happens when mid-sized, private, Midwest schools decide to make basketball the front door to the school.  Good things happen on the basketball court, and great things happen at the school in general.    This isn't a call to abandon academic standards.  To the contrary, spending more money on basketball will pay off in all areas.  I know that I am preaching to the choir.

Hope to meet some of you at ARCH Madness in March.

Welcome to the board, craftyrighthander!

[VUCPB alum]

Seeing as I'm probably one of the more qualified members on this board to speak regarding the pep band I can definitely say that it is difficult to "get the band back together." I know there is at least one person in the band this year who is an alumni but the main issue is that hardly any of the alums live in the area any more. During my four years I can count on my hand the number of times alums came for to play for a game. For me I won't be back for any games this year because my weekends are swamped and I'm living in central Michigan  (I also haven't touched my instrument in ages so I'm out of practice but that is neither here nor there )

This is in response to agibson's quote above, I don't quite have the quoting function figured out yet

[bbtds]

I don't quite have the quoting function figured out yet

You either click on the "quote" button Quote (selected) and quote the whole post or you highlight the part of the post you want to quote and then click on the "quote" button Quote (selected).

[Valpower]

I don't quite have the quoting function figured out yet

You either click on the "quote" button Quote (selected) and quote the whole post or you highlight the part of the post you want to quote and then click on the "quote" button Quote (selected).

It may work that way for some browsers or apps, but in Safari, on an iPad or iPhone, clicking the "Quote (selected)" button will just open a blank reply window (where I would expect the message from which the button was clicked would appear).  I need to get the reply window to appear first, select within the text box to make it the active control, and THEN click the button of the message I want to quote. 

[oklahomamick]

I would like to echoe the above comment, a lot of the band alumni don't live in the area.  That's one of the issues with our small private university, our alumni are scatter s across the nation. 

I have watched valpo against Missouri State at the Arc and I'm springfield.  I can say we had more fans at the away in Springfield game than missour State had at valpo. Despite being drastically smaller size school. 

I remember watching valpo at central Florida a couple years ago and seeing several hundred alumni at the game.  There was even a pregame pep rally.  You think Oakland (again drastically larger school) would have more alumni watching the game in Orlando?

This is why it's even more important to get the community to support the crusaders