Messages

Dude, just say "I hate Nike."

Dude, I hate Nike - always have, always will.

There, I said it.

How about the Valparaiso Spartans?

Must be unique. We might as well call ourselves the Bulldogs. Why Spartans (Michigan State, Izzo, confusion for Brandon Wood, are we now Greek?)

Valpo Virus? Maybe not.

  Kidding! 

The Harres moved in next door to us, when they came to Valpo.  More down to earth people you wouldn't find anywhere.  They were just good people.  Condolences to Diane and family and R.I.P. Alan.

How about the Valparaiso Spartans?

To read that Rod has dementia is so sad.  He was such a big part of VU athletics for a long time.  Back in the day, when I was playing softball, rod was an umpire.  What a nice man.

I have never understood why teams wear any color but their school colors, especially gray.  Gray is such a blah color.  As for VU, I voted for brown, because it is unique.

I think even up until a few years into the Jordan era the Blue Demons were more popular in Chicago than the Bulls. Is that true?

During the late 70s and early 80s, DePaul was an NCAA championship contender, and head coach Ray Meyer was the toast of the town, while the Bulls were truly stinking up the joint.

As a VU undergrad back then, I was there when -- believe it or not -- DePaul traveled to play VU at Hilltop gymnasium. They had two future NBA stars in forwards Mark Aguirre and Terry Cummings, and an excellent point guard in Clyde Bradshaw. Valpo played them pretty close in 1st half, but the 2nd half DePaul ran away with it and won easily. Still, it was a great thrill to have what was the No. 1 ranked team at the time in our modest little home court.

My wife and I also were at that game.  Thanks for kindling the memory.

[Just Ducky said:And yes, I have forgiven him for jumping ship.]

Just Ducky said:
And yes, I have forgiven him for jumping ship.

So DS finally jumped.

Happy birthday, Paul. I enjoy your stories and podcasts.

Rowdy just can't catch a break.  Here's hoping that he gets picked up by a team that actually plays him.

At the time of the game it was still snowing in lots of places and the roads(or the drivers on said roads) were horrible. There were accidents all over. I would definitely not have driven to the game in that condition, especially since the weather reports were saying we could get up to six inches

We drove to the game without even a skid.  There were no problems, and no accidents seen.

Hey Valpo fans look who is mopping up the court in Peoria.....you guessed it a kid!

Probably a middle school age boy, NOT a 5 year old girl.

Maybe it's just me, but I believe I have seen kids doing the mop duty at NBA games, let alone mid major D1 Basketball . So I would imagine it's not uncommon. Also I'm sure we have all seen situations in high profile games where the "Mop Boy" just can't seem to figure out how to clean the wet spot on the floor and the ref has to keep redirecting him to clean it up. That being said, if the people chosen are not able to do the job, whether it be they are not paying attention, too young, can't handle the mop... yes it is a problem and should have been addressed. But to act like this is some huge scandal and embarrassment that we had kids handling mop duty is a bit of an over reach. There are plenty of other things we as a fan base should be embarrassed about as it pertains to the ARC and the gameday experience before we get to kids and mops.

But you haven't seen 5 year old's mopping.  The school hires students, as do must schools, to do various jobs at athletic events, so why not use them for mop duty.  Heck Volleyball games have students cleaning the floor, and mopping sweat.  No one is calling this a scandal, but it is just another embarrassment that takes place at the ARC. 

You may want to include the kids keeping the floor clean also.  As for helping the kids with the floor it looks to me like we have many "old farts" wearing the fancy VU "event" shirts that like to stand around and and do nothing.  I think that there is a lot of "dead wood" in  that group, however there are also a number of those staff people who work  hard and try to do a good job.

I think you are mixing up two different groups: One is ARC Event Staff, which I believe is made up of students. The other that you hatefully referred to as old farts and dead wood, are ushers, who are volunteers from the Lion's Club.  I presume that the biggest part of their job is standing around offering crowd control.  I submit that you owe them an apology.

The VU "event" guys are volunteers from the Lions Club. I think their only job is to assist with seating.

Read my words again.  I said "ARC Event staff".  There was a yellow shirted female Event Staff person (presumably a student) who was around that backboard all game.  She watched the girls struggle with the mops, and forget to deliver water to the refs.  I never saw her step in and take over.  Now I am not positive that she was there for that purpose, but she was there all game, mostly hiding behind the stanchion, so it is a good presumption.
I know it isn't the job of the Lion's Club volunteers, and didn't intend to give that impression.

The absence of a pep band was not the only strange thing inside the ARC today, at the basketball game against Evansville.  No, a much stranger thing took place under the west backboard.  There were two toddlers that were assigned there to mop sweat from the floor.  I say toddlers, because I estimate that they were no older than 5 years old.  They were cute little girls, but they had no business doing that job as they were physically unable to handle the mops.  Of course it certainly was not their fault, but rather that of whoever is in charge of filling that activity.  There was a member of the ARC Event staff stationed near that backboard all game, who did absolutely nothing to help the kids and make sure that the floor was taken care of.  Young children should not be used for this activity.  It was so bad that late in the game, an Evansville team manager ran over, grabbed a mop, and dried off the floor prior to his team shooting a free throw - how bad is this?  I, and the people around me were embarrassed. 

2018 non conference home game average attendance was 2,365 over 6 games.
2019 non conference home game average attendance 2,405 over 4 games.
This season up by an average of 40. 
40 spectators not 40%.

[/quote

2018 non conference home game average attendance was 2,365 over 6 games.
2019 non conference home game average attendance 2,405 over 4 games.
This season up by an average of 40. 
40 spectators not 40%.

Regarding the Central Michigan game student attendance, I believe the students were just starting finals, or hopefully preparing for them.  I guess the handful of Pep Band members is better than none but those few are sure a let down from what it used to be. I will say they are consistent...still playing music 20 years old, or at least it seems that way.  There just has to be a way to improve that particular game-day experience.  I wish I knew what is would be.

2018 non conference home game average attendance was 2,365 over 6 games.
2019 non conference home game average attendance 2,405 over 4 games.
This season up by an average of 40. 
40 spectators not 40%.

At least it is up.

Smits played in his first game of the season today...against Micah!

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/boxscore?gameId=401168295

They scored a combined total of 3 points. 

Has this question been asked:  Is Valpo recruiting a different type of student than in the past?

Correlated question:  In 10 years since those pics, have kids in general changed so much that they have no school spirit?

Question correlated to the correlated question: Has the term "school spirit" gone the way of the Dodo Bird,  and white rhino,  board games, "going steady," a written thank you note, actually having a driver license, thinking independently without having to seek support from a helicopter parent, or caring about things that are not self-focused?

Oops, did I just think out loud?  Sorry.

In the past few years, I have noted a definite reduction of the student section at Valparaiso High School, and last year they had a great team.  In fact, a couple of years ago, I snapped a photo to show my kids (students there in the late 70s, early 80s) how bad it had gotten.  So it's not just at VU.

I was listening to the radio broadcast of the Illinois at Grand Canyon game in the car the other night. GCU has a deafening extended pregame extravaganza that works the fans into a frenzy, the likes of which the IL broadcasters said they had never seen before. Here it is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVYDSnBMQoo

The IL guys said it was the  best pregame atmosphere they had ever seen.  Complete with a live rock band. Goes to show what can be created when people think outside the box.   

You need a student section to start with.  We don't get that many in three games total.
20,000 enrollment helps.

VU VB had their home opener tonight - unfortunately a 0-3 sweep to powerhouse UNI.  But I digress.  I want to report on the 2019-2020  ARC experience.
The video board showed live player stats for players on the floor.  This is a first for VB.  When I say live I mean LIVE.  Unlike what we've been used to for BB games, Updates were virtually instantaneous.  In addition, there is a much better interface. There were even replays.
  For the concession haters, You'll be happy to know that there was no floor level concession stand open (none open anywhere).  Of course that meant that those of us in the hot gym, were not able to buy even a bottle of water.
No change to the historically horrible PA system.

Got to be honest: the non-con home schedule is pure crap. Only three D-1 team games, one is on a Sunday afternoon during NFL season, another is after classes end and the day before final exams. Another game is Thanksgiving eve when students are away. No Friday or Saturday games except the 5 p.m. exhibition against a D-2 team in October. If you wanted to assure apathy from the student body, this is the schedule you'd create. 

Not to mention that the last 2 home games of the year are Nov. 27 & Dec 8.  3 weeks without a home game.

The money should immediately go toward the ARC, 200k doesn't fix everything but it's a good chunk toward the LED lighting so the court doesn't look awful on TV.

FIX THE DARN PA SYSTEM FIRST.

There is a VU school planning athletics renovations. Sorry...couldn't resist.

Vandy announces upgrades to Vanderbilt Stadium, Memorial Gym & Hawkins Field ... and hints at more to come. https://t.co/4A904tGrEy via @tennessean


Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Tapatalk

If you've ever been to a BB game at Vandy, you know that the ARC is actually nicer.  Theirs is the strangest arena I've ever been to.

too slow, too turnover prone, and in reality not that huge a loss for Valpo hoops. Move on.

He was very frustrating. Had so much potential, some great offensive moves at times, decent vision and made some great passes, good jump shot. But was often slow to move around, made some real bad turnovers/sloppy ball handling, went quite for whole half's at a time on the offensive end, and was not aggressive on rebounds.

Not that I think it will happen, but one real good year fixing some of those issues in the right system could at least get him some looks.

Not to mention his lack of dunking ability.  Too often, IMHO, he missed a layup, when an easy dunk was available.