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Earlier today, the NCAA's Leadership Council decided not to adopt a proposal that would require all transfers to sit out for one season after changing schools. Although no change was approved, that proposal, and recommendations specifically for undergraduate and graduate transfers, are still under consideration.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/2014/01/16/ncaa-convention-college-athlete-transfer-rule/4524209/

Anyone with an opinion? My preference is simply for consistency with how transfers get or don't get waivers. Midseason transfers seem to be the most confusing for me when players come out with different eligibility in seemingly similar cases.

Tuesday marks the 25th anniversary of the "Lutheran Miracle" (for anyone that might not know, it's Valpo's 71-68 OT win vs. Notre Dame at the ARC on December 17th, 1988 - http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1988-12-18/sports/8802250783_1_irish-coach-digger-phelps-valpo-valparaiso-coach-homer-drew)

Paul Oren tweets these awesome details about he and the Times are covering the anniversary:

Excited to say I'll have a story on 25th anniversary of Valpo's "Miracle on Union Street" win over Notre Dame in Sunday's NWI Times #VUND25

The story will be accompanied by an online-only oral history of the game featuring the thoughts of many of the key participants. #VUND25

Interviews were conducted with Mike Jones, Scott Anselm, Homer Drew, LaPhonso Ellis and Tommy Lasorda among others. #VUND25

The highly-skilled @fredv21 also worked on a video project that will compliment the stories featuring highlights and interviews. #VUND25

Finally, on Tuesday night, the 25th anniversary of the game, I'll be "live-tweeting" the contest beginning at 7 p.m. #VUND25

A look back at Homer Drew from the Miracle on Union Street. #VUND25

In the words of Hawk Harrelson, he gone!

http://www.valpoathletics.com/football/news/2013-14/13130/carlson-relieved-of-duties-as-head-coach-of-valparaiso-football-program/

Is there any progress towards a track around Brown Field?

One of my high school teammates was just announced as a new assistant track and field coach and it reminded me of this. The Master Plan itself (http://www.valpo.edu/masterplan/assets/docs/VU%20MP%20Exec%20Summary_final.pdf) only has a mention in a "Football with Track" label on one of its images while the Future Campus Map (http://www.valpo.edu/masterplan/assets/docs/Masterplan_Map_poster.pdf) suggests we should have a track by 2032. Might we see it any sooner than that?

Amin is the lead announcer on ESPN Radio for Cardinals/Braves. Game underway on http://espn.go.com/espnradio/play?s=espn and the ESPN Radio app.

Saw a couple newspaper sources indicate Tabitha Gerardot will continue her college education and her basketball career at Indiana.

Tab was a fun person to cover for the Valpo women's basketball. Don't have any updates on her numbers, but I'm sure her play over the last three years has her ranked fairly high on our all-time charts. On top of that, she's a double language major with a GPA near 4.0 and very active off the court. Balancing all of that and graduated from VU in three years... just, wow!

Best of luck to her and the other Valpo women's players taking a step to a new school or even a new phase in life. Hope the players on the court for 2013-14 have a good season, too!

Game about to begin on HLN. Good news: winner advances to the quarterfinals. Bad news: winner has to play undefeated Green Bay http://horizonleague.org/live/8592

Have listened to some of the pre-game. Richards starting even though she has reportedly been suffering from a minor illness. Also, Paul Oren battling a sore throat on the call just a day after his birthday. Belated birthday wishes on the forum to pgmado!

If I recall correctly, UIC and Valpo split during the regular season and the home team won each contest. In other notes, Tabitha Gerardot received 2nd Team All-League accolades earlier today. Final home game for our seniors tonight as well!

First the game. #6 Kansas defeated Iowa State 108-96 @ Hilton Coliseum in Ames in overtime in another failed upset bid for ISU against KU. The loss breaks a 22-game home win streak for the Cyclones. The game did feature some controversy, including a questionable foul call that gave the Jayhawks game-tying FTs near the end of regulation and a Ray McCallum-esque dunk in the final seconds of OT from Elijah Johnson when the game was easily over.

But before the game, an Iowa State student got this photo with Brent Musburger, adding a little more intrigue to the seemingly never-ending Katherine Webb saga
http://www.awfulannouncing.com/2013/february/brent-musburger-signed-a-giant-photo-of-katherine-webb-at-iowa-state-tonight.html I actually know this student. He is a graduate of my high school. I even was a classmate of his older sister.

Adam Amin called yesterday's Rutgers-Villanova game... dressed as George Washington in honor of Presidents Day. His partner, LaPhonso Ellis, was Abraham Lincoln while Joe Lunardi served as Benjamin Franklin (not a president) http://www.awfulannouncing.com/2013/february/espnu-announcers-get-into-the-presidents-day-spirit.html



After Beth Mowins dug up the following picture of Amin in his freshman year, it's not surprising to see how well Amin portrayed our first president. This photo is apparently in the VUCA in case you want to see it on your next Valpo visit.

[@NWIOren]

With Valpo on the verge of clinching at least a tie for the regular season title, we should have a thread to keep track of tiebreakers, seeding possibilities, scenarios and other what-not.

Here's a tweet from Paul Oren of the Times: @NWIOren Valpo can't clinch No. 1 seed with only a win over Detroit. Need a loss from Green Bay on either Friday or Sunday OR a Youngstown loss Fri.

A loss from Green Bay eliminates the chance of a 1st place tie with them. Worst that could happen then is a 3-way tie with UDM and WSU which we'd win on head-to-head. I assume the YSU note matters only for a potential 1st place tiebreaker if GB is included.

Just the first of hopefully many posts as things shake out through the end of the regular season. Stay classy, NWI!

Keep an eye on CBS and your local listings. "The Shot" may be coming to a TV near you soon...

As I'm typing, CBS is airing a "Top 10 Coaches" show under the "75 Years of March Madness" series. Next Saturday, CBS will show "Top 10 Improbable Heroes. Next Sunday, "Top 10 Buzzer Beaters." I'd hope we see Valpo and some other shows in this series beyond next week...

Also, since this series is part of the NCAA's 75th anniversary celebration where the top 15 players, one team, one moment will be honored at this year's Final Four, here's another reminder to vote for Valpo and Bryce Drew: http://www.ncaa.com/75-moments

Just noticed the new banner. That is tight! Good work!

http://www.valpoathletics.com/media/miscellaneous/2012-13/Valparaiso%20Athletics%20Strategic%20Plan.pdf

Thoughts?

Here's one angle to view which players in the conference are the best and which players are the most valuable. I'm using Player Efficiency Rating, specifically a shorthand PER formula since the full formula for PER is a little more complicated in NCAABB than NBA.

Below I have a link to the first report. I hope to have at least one update every week within this thread. The players in this report are separated by team, ordered based on average scoring, and include (by request) Valpo's top players with reference to PER, Detroit's five starters, Keifer Sykes and Alec Brown of Green Bay, Ben Averkamp of Loyola, and Damian Eargle of Youngstown State. I also added Kendrick Perry of YSU after reviewing his PER compared to Eargle, one of the requested players.

Here you go! http://tinyurl.com/012713PER

What are your thoughts? Good, bad, questions, criticisms, more players, less players, whatever. Let it begin!

For the Valpo sports fan that still doesn't know the remarkable story on Tanner Vavra of the Crusader baseball team, here you go

http://www.valpoathletics.com/baseball/news/2012-13/12335/against-all-odds-vavra-retains-focus/

[Player Efficiency Rating (PER)]

Between HC and his PPS statistics and LAA and his BPI posting, I've been seeing more basketball metrics coming up on this board. I had my own recent project with another metric that gave me an idea to introduce here... Player Efficiency Rating (PER) is primarily an NBA statistic created by ESPN.com columnist John Hollinger that "sums up all a player's positive accomplishments, subtracts the negative accomplishments, and returns a per-minute rating of a player's performance." It rewards a player for made shots, made free throws, steals, blocks, rebounds, and assists. It penalizes for misses, turnovers and fouls. It even adjusts for a player's minutes and the pace his team plays at. It's actually a pretty nice stat if you want to evaluate players head-to-head with a single number.

I created an Excel spreadsheet that calculates PER for every WBB player in the Missouri Valley to help my job prep (I'm working at Northern Iowa). Would anyone be interested if I did something similar for the Horizon League?

I wouldn't want to do the whole league, just enough top players who might be up for postseason honors. I could update a couple times a week and post the results in this thread. You can nominate whatever players you want me to keep track of. What do ya say?

Crusader goalkeeper Kyle Zobeck was taken with the 26th overall pick in the MLS Supplemental Draft by FC Dallas.

Zobeck joins Stefan Antonijevic (2012, 43rd overall in Supplemental Draft, Sporting Kansas City) as the only Crusader soccer players ever drafted by Major League Soccer.

Huzzah!

Travis Lucian, Valpo Sports Radio Network color commentator and studio producer for the school year, is now the new Media Relations Director/Play-by-Play Broadcaster for the Myrtle Beach Pelicans.

http://staatalent.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4764&sid=b127f2e43dfcb3a64cf310ca5a4feaeb#p23950

Myrtle Beach is in the High-A Carolina League. Travis was play-by-play for South Bend (Low-A, Midwest) last season and worked with the St. Cloud River Bats in 2011 (Summer college, Northwoods). Seems like Travis is really working his way up nicely. As a broadcaster and one of the many who applied for the Pelicans job and fell short, congrats to Travis!

[ESPN2 Saturday, February 9th at 3pm CT]

Here's today's news referencing "The Worldwide Leader in Sports."

The Valpo men are playing Cleveland State on ESPN2 Saturday, February 9th at 3pm CT. This was just announced as a wildcard selection to the college basketball schedule.

Also, there's a chance the women's team might have a game on some ESPN format on the same day. I know someone who freelances as a sports producer for ESPN, Mediacom, etc. We talked earlier today about Valpo and he mentioned that a Crusaders-Titans WBB game could be on some ESPN format. The first VU-UDM women's meeting this year is February 9th at 1pm CT. While I don't have anything else to confirm this game, I don't know why anyone would lie about putting our women's team on some ESPN channel (with all due respect).

Could we really have both our basketball teams on some ESPN venue more-or-less back-to-back next month? How cool would that be?

Don't know if anyone else has talked about this anywhere else on the forum, but are full games going to be available on the Horizon League website?

I want to say they've had archives available in the past couple seasons, but I'm not seeing any archives on the site (this year, past years, basketball, other sports, pretty much skimmed it all).

While the men's basketball team made a huge splash in the 2012 Valparaiso University athletics calendar year, many other amazing things happened. Aaron Leavitt posted a year-in-review post (featuring story links) to the athletics website that is definitely worth a look

http://www.valpoathletics.com/news/archives/2012-13/12280/valpo-athletics-a-look-back-at-2012/

Is the "recent posts" feature gone? I'm not currently seeing it on the forum page

Saw a post on facebook that mentioned the Crusader women's basketball team has a nice new recruiting website: http://athletics.valpo.edu/wbasketball/

Also, this year's intro video for home games is on the home page. I've posted it here for the added convenience.

2012-2013 Valpo Women's Basketball Intro Video

First game, albeit an exhibition, to open the 2012-13 women's basketball season tonight vs. Holy Cross (Ind.). How well do you think we'll do this season? In case you'd like some info before voting, here's some quick hits...

Last season: 10-21 overall, 5-13 league (T-8th/10 Horizon), HL First Round win @ No. 8 UWM, HL Quarterfinal loss @ No. 1 Green Bay

Notable losses from last year: 5th/Sr. F Ashley Varner (double figure scorer, led team in rebounds, charges taken); Sr. G Ashley Timmerman (Off guard, team's leading 3-point shooter); G Betsy Adams, C Stef Lang, F Mallory Ladd (mid-season) transferred; HC Keith Freeman & AHC Greg Kirby

Notable returners: Jr. F Tabitha Gerardot (Preseason 2nd Team All-Horizon League, 13 PPG, 6.8 RPG last year); Sr. F Gina Lange (Starting post, roughly 9 PPG); Sr. G Laura Richards (Point guard, 4.7 PPG, 3.6 APG); G Jessica Carr (Main reserve) and Shaquira Scott (December ACL injury)

"New"comers: R-Jr. G Charae Richardson (Vincennes transfer ruled ineligible for last season before offseason trip to China); Freshmen guards Abby Dean, Lexi Miller, Sarah Godwin, Jessi Wiedemann

Big non-conference games: Indiana (regular season opener, home), Duke (road), Louisville (road), Michigan (road)

Preseason Poll results: 9th/9 46 points, trailing Youngstown State (8th; 77) *Note: assuming my match is correct, unanimous last would be 27 points if it makes a difference

Time to talk another type of football on the forum

Valpo women's soccer finished 3rd of 8 teams in the regular season standings and is the 3 seed in this year's tournament. They host #6 Loyola at Eastgate today at 3pm with the winner playing #1 Milwaukee in 'Sconsin for the semifinals.

Also, five Crusaders received Horizon League honors. MFs Rachel Hoaglin and Luisa Desario made the All-League team, and freshmen Rita Craven, Jenny Fassbinder, and Sarrah Ludwig made the All-Newcomer Team. Also of note IMO, GK Kristen Manski did not receive any accolades despite leading all conference netminders for the season in goals against average (GAA), shutouts, wins, and winning percentage. She also led in GAA and save percentage in league matches only.

I became a big VUWSO follower while in college, especially when covering the side for radio and newspaper. It'd be great to see this team make a run like it did in 2009 when it made the conference finals. Go Crusaders!

As a Packer fan, I've had about 15 full shares of video, audio, reactions, etc. about last night's ending to the Packers-Seahawks game. Given the impact of the game, which clearly was influenced greatly by the refs, a lot of people are hopeful that this game was the last called by replacement refs. I'd hope so, but I don't think it's realistic. It'll likely be weeks if not next season before we get the real refs back. Anyone else have thoughts?

Valpo's Tanner Vavra won the batting title for the Northwoods League during this summer. Vavra (.381 AVG) narrowly beat out James Ramsay of USF by less than four-tenths of a batting average point. Vavra was also voted a mid-season and postseason league all-star along with his younger brother Trey. Tanner was playing with the Alexandria (MN) Beetles while Trey was playing with the Duluth (MN) Huskies. I've been announcing for the Waterloo (IA) Bucks the past couple summers so I've been keeping tabs on the Vavra clan.

Valpo usually has a couple players each year play in the "NWL." It's a summer league right behind the Cape Cod League in terms of prestige and quality of top prospects. Teams play 70 games in 75 days during the regular season in a schedule and playing experience fairly similar to low-A minor league teams.

For the third year in a row, I helped with a WVUR end-of-the-sports-year award show. Although the sports year isn't over (baseball and softball of course), it's really the last chance the students still on campus can rehash all the great moments from the past seasons.

We hand out awards to various individuals and groups for their great highlights and seasons and interview the winners on the air. Hopefully between nine awards and some final thoughts at the end you can enjoy.

Here's a shortcut to the link: http://tinyurl.com/2012YCSS If for whatever reason it doesn't work, go to valpo.edu/wvur and click the "Sports" tab

The final game of today's women's basketball tournament slate is Phoenix vs. Wildcats in Ames, Iowa. Green Bay led for nearly every second of its win over host team Iowa State whereas Kentucky had to hold off a feisty McNeese State. Still should be a good game.

What makes this match-up intriguing is the defense of each team. Kentucky and Green Bay are the top two teams in the country in creating turnovers and turnover margin. GB's "Buzz" defense and the intensity that it brings proved very beneficial against the Cyclones, and it will be needed to earn the school's and the conference's 2nd-ever Sweet 16 appearance.

Game on ESPN2, but anyone in NWI or Chicago will get DePaul/Tennessee for its duration (reference: http://www.greenbayphoenix.com//pdf8/834145.pdf). Also available on ESPN3.com

Noticed that only one "upset" happened on the opening day of the women's tournament yesterday; #11 Gonzaga beat #6 Rutgers, but the game was played at the 'Zags home court. I went through the bracket and noticed that nearly every subregional site features the team that plays at each site's arena, including 10th seeded Iowa State hosting 7th seeded Green Bay yesterday (Phoenix won 71-57).

Questions for discussion: does anyone think it's fair to assign home games for different teams in the tournament? How important is this feature to attendance and revenue? Any comments on the subject are appreciated...

If it's any consolation, there's still a chance for a Valpo basketball team to win a conference tournament title...

Valpo WBB hoping to upset #10 Green Bay (No. 1 seed in the tourney) and ruin the HL's plans of keeping the tournament in "Titletown" through the weekend. Phoenix swept the regular season series, allowing only 73 total Crusader points over two games.

Win or go home again for the Crusaders. Hope it's a good game to watch.

Figure this deserves its own thread before it becomes all we're taking about on the Valpo vs. Detroit game thread...

Who wouldn't be excited in that situation, but who could have handled it better? He was really geeked up tonight, and while I want to respect his passion and be objective about this... I mean wow. Pounding on our logo at halfcourt, directing his celebrations to the camera, and dunking in an 18-point game in the final seconds?!?!?!? (They didn't show it on ESPN, can anyone explain what kind of dunk it was?)

My early thoughts, yours?

03 = a kid in a candy store w/ these videos in every new post 

Checking the board before the men's game and noticed no one mentioned the Crusader women...

http://www.valpoathletics.com/wbasketball/news/2011-12/11428/valpo-wins-at-butler-for-first-time-since-1983/

Last time Valpo defeated the Bulldogs at Hinkle Fieldhouse, current head coach Keith Freeman was a teenager and the first-year skipper of the Huntington women's team. Solid shooting game in all areas. Gerardot w/ a CH 26, plus 8 boards. Great win short-staffed.

If I do this right, here's the video played before today's game about former VU/UCLA/UAB coach Gene Bartow who died a couple weeks ago.

2012 Gene Bartow Tribute

As mentioned by sectionee on the IUK Game Thread, senior walk-on Nathan Stegelmann is officially a full member of the team. He even has a roster bio (currently blank at last check) on the athletics site that can be found here: http://www.valpoathletics.com/mbasketball/roster/

Freshman walk-on Griffyn Carpenter also was just added to the page. Congrats to both, but especially to Nate who I've been familiar with since our early days on campus. Wonder how much we'll see of them in Columbus. Love me some walk-ons!

PS: The title comes from a nickname of another friend of mine named Nathan. Just a fun rhyming nickname.

Well done and very professional-looking on the new banner. The blue background around the chapel sticks out pretty well. The photo box and text line are also nice touches.

At the beginning of the football game today, Ickow said that WAKE was the only station covering the game. For those of us who haven't paid attention, what's the history of the Valpo Sports Radio Network and the reasons why it's shrinking? I want to say it had 4 or 5 stations not too long ago, and now it's just WAKE on a regular basis...

Former Oakland Raiders coach and owner Al Davis died today at the age of 82. Wanted to start this thread and see what everyone thought of this maverick since ESPN is going into this mode for the next 24-48 hours...

My thoughts: Never could stand the guy. He was a crusty old fart whose handling of the early rounds of the 2009 NFL Draft was the most perplexing thing I have seen in any draft in my lifetime. However, he was instrumental in the AFL's development in the 1960s and the NFL would probably not be where it is today w/out his help with the merger and his influence as an owner. For that he had my respect, as painful as it was.

Our fourth year of Horizon League competition is over, and still no champions. Of course, it's not a given right that we should have a title, but as anyone knows, we have been so close:

Baseball: 2011 Horizon League Championship Game (Lost first of potentially two games to Wright State)
Men's Basketball: 2010-11 Regular Season (Fourth place finish, just one game back of a four-way tie for the title)
Softball: 2nd Place Finishes in 2008 and 2011 (the latter by just half a game to Loyola)
Volleyball: 2nd Place Finishes in 2008 and 2009, Horizon League Championship Game appearances in 2007 and 2010
Women's Soccer: 2009 Horizon League Championship Game (Lost 4-0 to Milwaukee)

Believe it or not, we are now less than 3 months away from the start of the 2011-12 Valpo athletics season. Thinking ahead, who do you think has Valpo's best chance to win a Horizon League regular season or tournament championship? Let the debate begin...

NOTE: The picks are the five who have been the closest so far and do not necessarily represent the five best teams next year. They were just easy to pick. 

Not sure how many people will care, but the Green Bay Phoenix women's basketball team just defeated Michigan State to advance to the school's and the conference's first Sweet 16! Speaking as a Horizon League fan, it's great to see these ladies represent the conference so well and have a fantastic season, and hopefully it means some extra respect for them and the HL in the future.

As an example, the game's announcers (who I did not care for, shocker!) called Green Bay's win an upset. At 33-1 and facing an at-large selection that was picked higher than them (GB's a 5 seed, MSU a 4), Green Bay has not been given the respect it deserves. Now, with Butler's success on the men's side added, I hope that everyone out there is realizing just how strong we, the Horizon League, are.

Side note: Michigan State won the Big Ten regular season title at 13-3. Green Bay is now 4-0 against the conference (Wins against 1st Michigan State, 2nd Penn State, T-3rd Wisconsin, and 9th Minnesota). It's almost like the Phoenix are actually the ones winning the Big Ten lol

I wish them the best of luck against Baylor. Certainly no easy game there.