Messages

Quote:  My Gritty sign was going to be a one and done, But I guess I'll bring it back at least one more time. It would be awesome if a few more showed up. It would be even more awesome if the crowd would also chant  "We are Gritty (stomp) (stomp) (stomp)" with me. (Stomp)  = stomping your feet or kicking the bleachers.

I appreciate VUBB's commitment and willingness to be a sign bearer.  Perhaps we can also help by chanting "Let's Get Gritty" when the team needs a reminder.  Instead of Let's Go Valpo, it becomes Let's Get Gritty.

Except via the computer, WVUR can't be received west of the Lake-Porter county line and WJOB has long been the region station that carries sports broadcasts of local interests.  Probably the best opportunity to get Lake County listeners and, as pointed out, one step in a process of developing new interests among them.

I believe the Fazekas T was for verbal activity, not physical!

Freeman is a very very solid freshman.  Has a great basketball IQ and court awareness.

Fazekas seems to get easily frustrated, something I didn't see watching him on TV with Providence.  Perhaps he's putting too much pressure on himself.  We also need Golder to quit trying to do too much and stop posing/trying to intimidate and missing an acrobatic move when a simple layup would work.  We looked baffled by the full court trap. They get instant offense and we work like heck.

Have picture and sound.  Good quality both.   On the floor, UNLV quickness is an issue but they've made enough TOs that we're staying even with them.  Clearly won't get any breaks from the officials.

I don't know current regulations, but at one time colleges had to file an annual report of crime on campus using a Unified Crime Reporting form that include definitions of crimes that may have been a bit different than many people would use.  This information was made available to parents and prospective students.  In the past, Valpo fared no worse, and in some years better, that most colleges in crime reported.

Maybe someone can do a little digging, but I believe we may have tried to recruit Lavender (or a teammate) out of high school.  If true, perhaps a memory of those days stimulated the signing.  But, if he "signed" with Maryville, even though a DII school, can he change his mind and sign with someone else?  Aren't LOIs binding or is that only the case within the division of which the school providing the LOI is a memb er.

From Mavs web site:
Owner Mark Cuban and coach Rick Carlisle said the Mavs have agreed on a contract with Australian guard/forward Ryan Broekhoff. The 6-7 player was an honorable mention All-American and the Horizon League Player of the year while playing for Valparaiso in 2012. Broekhoff, now 27 years old, played for Valparaiso from 2009-'13, but went drafted. He also made the All-EuroCup First Team in 2015 while playing for Lokomotiv Kuban. "He's the best shooter in Europe," Cuban said. "He played at Valparaiso, the alma mater of Shawn Marion, and was a knock down shooter there. His game has improved, he's a good rebounder for his position, he's 6-7 with a 6-10 wingspan, so he knows now to play." Carlisle said of Broekhoff: "He's a shooter and a tough kid who had a great year this year in Europe. We like him as a shooter and a guy that can space the floor.".

From a Corey Smith tweet:
UW-Milwaukee grad transfer Brock Stull (@Brock_Stull) said NC State, Xavier, Minnesota, LSU, Boston College, Wichita State, Butler and Valparaiso were among the teams that have reached out.

4:03 PM - Apr 25, 2018

Ryan Taylor headed to Northwestern:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/college/

Loyola to host Nevada:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/college/ct-spt-loyola-nevada-basketball-20180406-story.html

I believe Skara has another year of eligibility.

Truman State will be far from a walk over based on their history.  For 100 years they played in the Missouri Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, which almost annually had a team in contention for the DII championship, most notably Northwest Missouri State.  In 2013-14 they switched to the GLVC, mostly due to geographic/travel considerations they say, but also because they were consistently near the bottom of the MIAA in football.  They've never had less than a .500 record in the GLVC and were co-champs as recently as 2016.  Playing on the road against a team closer to our level than Youngstown, this will be another good test along with Duquesne to see how much we're progressing.

No question that he can take the ball to the rim and seems to have a quick first step with decent elevation.  As we learned this year, dribble penetration for layups can be good but it's even better if someone can score jump shots from the perimeter.  That's where he needs to spend his focus this summer.  His minutes next year may be dictated by his defense, though.  It appears he has the tools but things to learn about on-the-ball defense and never taking a minutes off.  Despite the areas that need work, I agree that he's a steal for us and has a bright future.

Loyola President says they want to pay competitively to keep good people.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/college/ct-spt-loyola-porter-moser-haugh-20180316-story.html

I also agree with FWalum's comments and observations.  They've been a great pair.  Tevonn's defense was impressive from day one -- perhaps the best of any freshman in recent history -- and earned him immediate playing time as well as a reputation he never lost.  Let's hope the next Canadian has similar impact as these two did.

We're lacking experience and our confidence was shaken if not destroyed at Purdue.  We're playing a comparable if not superior team on the road.  BSU by 16.  Hopefully we'll be more than a .500 team by the time we play at Bradley to start 2018.

Don't know if someone advised Valpo to not respond or if no one was available to do so, but I don't like the image that a lack of response allows:

courier-journal.com/story/sports/college/louisville/2017/10/05/fbi-hoops-investigation-indiana-university-kentucky/731441001/

Not sure this link has been posted.  If it has been, forgive the duplication:

http://www.azcentral.com/story/sports/nba/suns/2017/06/23/suns-grab-shooters-davon-reed-alec-peters-second-round-nba-draft/422643001/

Big time news. Former Valpo star Alec Peters confirms that he's been cleared for individual basketball workouts. "The reigns are off."

Or is it the "reign is over" and the "reins are off"?  Perhaps, in a sense, both are true.

Perhaps you've seen it by now, but I believe VUGrad1314's speculation will prove correct about Terry Johnson following Butler's announcement that Jordan is returning to the Bulldogs as HC.  Not good news for Milwaukee.

Here's a theory I don't believe anyone has posed; if so, I apologize for having missed it.  If we can believe the original report that the issue relates to another student allegedly doing academic work for an athlete and this was brought to the attention of the university, it is likely that the university self-reported it to the NCAA. Then, the NCAA launches an investigation, not only of this alleged event but also a more thorough investigation to determine if this is an isolated incident or if there have been other such instances among student athletes which would show a lack of institutional control.  Such an investigation, crossing across all sports, obviously would be lengthy so perhaps the delay has nothing to do with punishment but is really a delay brought about by the complexity of the investigation.  Perhaps this is the type of case we've read about where a judgment is handed down on misdeeds that occurred more than a year earlier.  Perhaps the university has no control over the amount of time this is taking and is being wise to not comment if it would have to acknowledge an NCAA investigation is taking place which might foster a belief among the public that the university is guilty until proven innocent.  If the university is guilty of NCAA violations, I'm confident it will be admitted, but only after the NCAA completes its investigation (which I hope and believe it will find is an isolated case).

Good story about UIC in today's Chicago Tribune.  Includes some positive comments about Peters.

Based on his facial expressions, Smits has never been guilty of the fouls called on him.  Similarly, Hammink shows a lot of negative expressions toward calls against him.  This is not helpful, maybe even detrimental because refs are watching, and I don't remember that being a characteristic of our teams in the past.  A sign of the target on our back?

If I'm reading the HL schedules correctly, only three teams in the league have three-games-in-five days in league plays such as we're in the middle of today.  The other two are Youngstown and Cleveland State.  Along with having to play several league games at home when there are no students, this appears to be another imbalance in conference scheduling.  Blame it on TV or lack of work to get it better balanced?