On to BYU for the championship. Up early and thought it good to start this right away for Wednesday Night.
I will go with a 76-73 Valpo victory!
Well we'll be playing on Thanksgiving Day, so that's something!
Right now KenPom has us losing 79-74 (32% chance of winning) as they are the #43 team in the country.
They have a 6'10" kid, Eric Mika, who is returning from something, as he hasn't played since 2014 but is still listed at a sophomore. He's averaging nearly 21 points a game and 11 rebounds. Against Princeton, their best opponent this season, he had 9 OFFENSIVE rebounds. He's an all inside player, but he's also a good FT shooter, so Hack-A-Mika won't work to slow him down. He's also pretty good on the defensive side of the ball too.
Their guard Nick Emery returns from last year's game. He's still a bit of a slashing guard, if you remember from last year, we did a good job on him inside the 3 point line. He's only hitting 27.3% of his threes this season, but he went 3 for 6 in the semifinal last year. A 1-7 game against Princeton is bringing him down.
Against St. Louis, senior forward Kyle Davis has a career game. I trust Alec to shut him down again as he did a good job in the semi-finals, holding him to 5 points.
Keeping them off the offensive boards will be the key to this game. They shoot well, but they also do well getting Oboards. Also winning the free throw "battle" will go a long way to winning this game.
If we sweep Vegas, we could be looking at two potential top 50 RPI wins at the end of the season. This one will be tougher. We've not seen their best player, but the 3 guys who are his sidekicks (and it really looks like they are mostly his sidekicks) have been seen and handled by Valpo.
https://twitter.com/sbncollege/status/801079886009942017
"The Men Who Speak Up Main Event field has had mid-major fans craving for the potential BYU-Valparaiso final since before the season began. Luck was on their side in Las Vegas late Monday night as both BYU and Valparaiso took care of business to set up that match.
It was relatively smooth sailing for the Cougars, as BYU put away Saint Louis by a final of 92-62. The Billikens kept things close in the first half but were worn out by BYU's dominant forwards Kyle Davis and Eric Mika. Davis led all Cougars in scoring with 22 points on 10 of 13 shooting from the floor. Mika chipped in 20 points of his own with 10 rebounds for a double-double and threw in three blocks for good measure. It was that dominant interior presence that lifted the Cougars to the win on a night where they struggled from distance, shooting just 3 of 13 from three point range. BYU is now 4-0 to start the year.
Valparaiso was met with much heavier resistance. The Crusaders battled Alabama from start to finish with the largest lead by either team only reaching 10. Valparaiso finally began to show signs of shaking off their team-wide three point shooting slump, hitting on 7 of 18 attempts from long distance. Turnovers hurt the Crusaders and allowed Alabama to stay in the game. Two big three-point plays from Alec Peters in the final minutes helped solidify the Valparaiso win. Peters led all scorers with 24 points, grabbed 10 rebounds, and was a perfect 7-7 from the free throw line. Jubril Adekoya also played a big role on offense for the Crusaders, knocking down three shots from long distance. The Crusaders improved to 4-1 on the year with the win.
This sets up a battle of titans on Wednesday night. BYU and Valparaiso are expected to be among the best teams mid-major basketball has to offer this season. A win on Wednesday could also go along way on Selection Sunday, depending on how the rest of the season shakes out. Neither team wants to end up in the NIT again, where they met in the semifinals last year."
Mika likely went on a Mission Trip for 2 years, a common occurrence for BYU athletes. They come back as a 2 year older, more world experience person. Like a 2-year redshirt without the training though. Guess Mika hasn't missed anything from his frosh year!
http://www.espn.com/blog/collegebasketballnation/post/_/id/64988/new-mission-policy-could-change-byu-recruiting (http://www.espn.com/blog/collegebasketballnation/post/_/id/64988/new-mission-policy-could-change-byu-recruiting)
[url]http://byucougars.com/m-basketball/dastrup-haws-and-mika-play-cougars-2016-17]http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865596950/Eric-Mika-TJ-Haws-receive-mission-calls.html?pg=all[url]
[url]http://byucougars.com/m-basketball/dastrup-haws-and-mika-play-cougars-2016-17 (http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865596950/Eric-Mika-TJ-Haws-receive-mission-calls.html?pg=all%5Burl)
QuoteLets not overreact it was a good win but I haven't seen anything that would suggest that Alabama is going to be anything close to a top-50 RPI team. SEC is not very good.
Agreed. I thought we looked better overall but I also think Alabama isn't a great team. BYU is going to be a much tougher match up.
Quote from: VU2014 on November 22, 2016, 09:43:14 AM
QuoteLets not overreact it was a good win but I haven't seen anything that would suggest that Alabama is going to be anything close to a top-50 RPI team. SEC is not very good.
Agreed. I thought we looked better overall but I also think Alabama isn't a great team. BYU is going to be a much tougher match up.
I probably should have said top 100. Either way, in the long run, it will be in the top 5 of our wins this season.
Quote from: valpo84 on November 22, 2016, 09:40:52 AMMika likely went on a Mission Trip for 2 years, a common occurrence for BYU athletes.
Anybody know how it works for eligibility? Normally it's "five years to play four", right?
Luke, on the post game, mentioned one of their players who took his mission before his first year, so was roughly a 21 year old freshman.
Quote from: agibson on November 22, 2016, 11:27:10 AM
Quote from: valpo84 on November 22, 2016, 09:40:52 AMMika likely went on a Mission Trip for 2 years, a common occurrence for BYU athletes.
Anybody know how it works for eligibility? Normally it's "five years to play four", right?
Luke, on the post game, mentioned one of their players who took his mission before his first year, so was roughly a 21 year old freshman.
I know that BYU's players have the ability to not count up to two years on a mission against the 'five years to play four rule'. However, this rule applies to any Mormon at any school - my daughter has a friend that is Mormon and plays for Harvard and he got the same exemption with a two year mission. My guess is that the religious exemption applies beyond Mormons, but I am not exactly sure how the exemption is defined.
It normally is five years to play four unless a player is granted a medical exception and is allowed to play a sixth year. Greg Tonagel is an example of a player that received the sixth year of eligibility.
Quote14.2.1.2 – Service Exceptions to the Five-Year Rule.
Time spent in the armed services, on official religious missions or with recognized foreign aid services of the U.S. government is excepted from the application of the five-year rule.
Apparently the Peace Corps works, or the Army. Maybe Lutheran Volunteer Corps.
So far this season, Valpo has played to form on wins and losses (though the performance was not solid against some weak foes). Last night was a good win against a decent team with Valpo playing good, but not exceptional. Valpo can beat BYU with an exceptional game. BYU won big over Saint Louis, but I do not believe that Saint Louis is that good of a team. However, BYU has quality size and multiple offensive options.
BYU 85
Valpo 76
Quote from: agibson on November 22, 2016, 11:47:07 AM
Quote14.2.1.2 – Service Exceptions to the Five-Year Rule.
Time spent in the armed services, on official religious missions or with recognized foreign aid services of the U.S. government is excepted from the application of the five-year rule.
Apparently the Peace Corps works, or the Army. Maybe Lutheran Volunteer Corps.
It is great that they allow that flexibility, but I wonder if there have ever been issues defining 'official religious missions'. Religious would certainly have some degree of ambiguity and who makes it official? If someone belonged to a church that did not have some form of national governing body and decided to take a mission, who would deem it official?
Sorry for digressing. Regardless, BYU is a big game for Valpo on Wednesday.
Quote from: vu84v2 on November 22, 2016, 11:53:32 AMIt is great that they allow that flexibility, but I wonder if there have ever been issues defining 'official religious missions'. Religious would certainly have some degree of ambiguity and who makes it official? If someone belonged to a church that did not have some form of national governing body and decided to take a mission, who would deem it official?
The IRS seems to manage to live with a similar amount of ambiguity. I suppose here the NCAA would make the determination.
Maybe not too big of a deal until AIA or smeone starts running two-year basketball-training intensive service trips/basketball camps with substantial stipends.
Tough one to call. Just like when we played St. Mary's and BYU last year, we aren't going to be blown away by their athleticism. It will come down to how hot they are shooting-wise on both sides.
Valpo 77
BYU 72
Quote from: valpotx on November 22, 2016, 12:22:07 PM
Tough one to call. Just like when we played St. Mary's and BYU last year, we aren't going to be blown away by their athleticism. It will come down to how hot they are shooting-wise on both sides.
Valpo 77
BYU 72
Agree. They beat Princeton by 9 at BYU. Although Princeton is picked to win the Ivy, they play small ball for the most part and chucked up 35 3's in the game only to hit 10. The box score would indicate some "home cookin" as BYU took 41 free throws and made 30 while Princeton was 9 of 12. That's a 21 point advantage and were tied with 7 to go. If we play decent defense and hit a few shots we clearly can win this one.
Quote from: Kyle321n on November 22, 2016, 09:12:27 AMThey have a 6'10" kid, Eric Mika, who is returning from something, as he hasn't played since 2014 but is still listed at a sophomore. He's averaging nearly 21 points a game and 11 rebounds. Against Princeton, their best opponent this season, he had 9 OFFENSIVE rebounds. He's an all inside player, but he's also a good FT shooter, so Hack-A-Mika won't work to slow him down. He's also pretty good on the defensive side of the ball too.
Eric Mika was on his Mormon mission from 2014-2016. Because of it being a "religious/life changing experience", Mika is considered to be on a "leave of absence", but doesn't lose any eligibility for it. This is why he's still listed as a sophomore.
I only saw a little bit of the BYU/SLU game, but it didn't look like they were running as much of their 1-3-1 zone that was giving valpo fits last year. Maybe our increased pace will match up better this time. If they run that zone, Valpo has to be ready to finally make some shots.
I have only been to one game this year and that was Coppin State. I saw some good things but saw a lot from what we are missing from last year. It's already been said enough but 3 point shooting and Peters doing too much to make up those differences.
Skara, D Walker and most importantly Vashil and Keith Carter are gone. The first 2 we kinda replaced but the latter 2, very, very hard to do so. What we had last year was experience and even with hockey type line changes...chemistry. We don't have that yet. And I say yet. I think that will come and we will be fine but when you have a non con start like we have, you need that early on. We beat BYU tomorrow and we are ahead where I thought we'd be.
Surprised at Juame's abilities and touch near the hoop. He will be a presence and someone we are going to be happy that Valpo made their home. Smits is disappointing as I thought he'd be more of an inside presence offensively at least. His defense interior wise against Coppin State was okay but his offense game needs work, a lot of work. That is the surprising part. Micah is only a freshman and looks like he's in 8th Grade but can handle the Rock and has some really good awareness. His minutes should be limited as he is limited at this juncture but Joseph and Williams are big time pleasant surprises and Alec will be fine. Looks like he's finding himself these past 2 games. Good to see Jubril have a good if not great game yesterday. And Hammink looked like the most polished player on the court at least at the Coppin State gsme. It's hard to comment when all you're reading is the stat lines and only saw one game in person.
I like the rotations even they frustrate sometimes as they will lead to greater things down the road.
Winning tomorrow and beating Bama will help us as well. Here's to Valpo, here's to you guys and here is to one more great season with greater things to come especially with some of the recruits and transfers we have coming or have come in.
Quote from: VULB#62 on November 22, 2016, 07:09:11 AM
On to BYU for the championship. Up early and thought it good to start this right away for Wednesday Night Thursday morning.
Thursday morning prediction:
Valpo 59
BYU 76
Quote from: a3uge on November 22, 2016, 05:02:11 PM
I only saw a little bit of the BYU/SLU game, but it didn't look like they were running as much of their 1-3-1 zone that was giving valpo fits last year. Maybe our increased pace will match up better this time. If they run that zone, Valpo has to be ready to finally make some shots.
And if you were BYU and saw what Valpo has been shooting from three what would you do?
SLU is horrible and BYU wasn't leading by much after 3 quarters. That win doesn't mean much.
I get to watch the team for my first time. Hoping the poor shooting and weak inside play doesn't continue in the way you guys are describing.
Weird to see Oregon going up and down. They got beat badly by Georgetown who in turn got crushed by Wisconsin.
Quote from: crusadermoe on November 23, 2016, 11:57:43 AM
Weird to see Oregon going up and down. They got beat badly by Georgetown who in turn got crushed by Wisconsin.
It's almost as if some teams play well one game, and then poorly in the next
Announcer's just said AP has the flu tonight
This is a disconcerting start. Can they miss from 3 or...
Happy Thanksgiving Day everybody!
Just not in
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ir1doPUM5_c
yet.
Really good job hanging in there and giving a strong effort to cut the deficit from 12 to 2 at the half. Have not seen Williams play this well since his Freshman year. Peters hanging tough with the flu has 11 points (all inside). Defense is going to win this game, since BYU seems to get frustrated if they are not running up and down the floor.
This is a good game. I'm enjoying it. I have most of tomorrow to catch up on sleep.
64-62 Valpo now...Hopefully, BYU's foul issues will propel the Crusaders to victory!
Great win!! It wasn't really defense, but clutch offense again and again. Great second half. So many players came up big - especially Walker's clutch three, Hammink's numerous great driving baskets, and Peters' great drive for Valpo's last basket.
Great game, Crusaders!!!
Great game! Hung in there after every blow that BYU dealt!!
That was a fun game, and our guys really stepped up. It was back-and-forth, and we never caved in the second half. If we play that way more often than not, we are going to have another special season. You can tell that BYU fans are used to getting a lot of home-cooking foul calls, as they protest EVERY...SINGLE...CALL :). Lexus is looking really good, and appears to be primed for getting more minutes, as he has separated himself from Max. Shane is now 1/18 from 3, and it seems like each is in-and-out in some form or another.
A great "signature" win for our new coach against a team with obvious "inbreding" or at least bad haircuts!! Nice to see Alec playing with flu still dominating the game and our much reduced rotation playing so well against a bigger lineup. A VERY BIG WIN!!!! :thewave:
Very good win. Much, much better play from the Crusaders. Not perfect but a very solid performance. In the end Alec makes a play and Mika doesn't. Hoooowsa!
Nice way to start off Thanksgiving Day! Anybody putting their Turkey in the oven now?
Super win😂
Great win! Way to gut it out after being down early. I thought we were going to get blown out.
Whew, what a nail biter! :o This was a hard fought, well deserved win against a very good team. I hope they're able to build off of the success they've had at this tournament.
Quote from: swiftmutiny on November 24, 2016, 01:34:19 AM
Whew, what a nail biter! :o This was a hard fought, well deserved win against a very good team. I hope they're able to build off of the success they've had at this tournament.
Aka not drop an after Thanksgiving matchup to ball state...
Quote from: a3uge on November 24, 2016, 01:35:10 AMQuote from: swiftmutiny on November 24, 2016, 01:34:19 AMWhew, what a nail biter! :o This was a hard fought, well deserved win against a very good team. I hope they're able to build off of the success they've had at this tournament.
Aka not drop an after Thanksgiving matchup to ball state...
Yes. No slouching on Ball St!! And then find a way to beat Rhode Island at the ARC!!
In Lottich We Trust!! Love the poise the team exhibited. Looked really overmatched, smaller, slower, less prepared, and every bit the 6 point underdog in those first ~10 minutes. Great composure chipping away to nearly even at half, and then mostly controlled the game throughout the second half. And this while committing too many turnovers and missing countless bunnies at the rim. Hopefully this propels the team to play with confidence against Ball St and Rhode Island.
I did not expect we would win playing BYU's high-scoring game. But 92-89 ... 181 combined ... shattered the over-under!
https://www.twitter.com/NWIOren/status/801693526043955202
https://www.twitter.com/NWIOren/status/801693739676680192
https://www.twitter.com/NWIOren/status/801693847117926400
>> "I'm going back to Valpo to shoot 100 free throws."
Said with sincerity or jokingly in post-win relief?
100 percent sincerity. Said he was glad Valpo won, but was really troubled by missing free throws.
Frustrated Cougars fall to Valpo
http://www.heraldextra.com/sports/college/byu/basketball/men/byu-men-s-hoops-frustrated-cougars-fall-to-valpo/article_7c959012-0388-5952-9569-c3f36a72f9af.html
The game appeared to calm any concerns about point guard as both Lexus and Max played very well. Really good game from a very tight lineup with only Sorrolla getting more then 3 minutes of action beyond the starting five and Max. Alec was off the charts good considering how sick he was. Really unbelievable. Won the rebounding battle by 9! Just a great game all around!!
http://www.sltrib.com/blogs/byusports/4628861-155/byu-basketball-cougars-lose-another-wild
Quote from: wh on November 24, 2016, 07:21:45 AM
Frustrated Cougars fall to Valpo
http://www.heraldextra.com/sports/college/byu/basketball/men/byu-men-s-hoops-frustrated-cougars-fall-to-valpo/article_7c959012-0388-5952-9569-c3f36a72f9af.html
Eric and Trevonn really came up big...
Great effort and no quit. When you see something like that it speaks to the coaching staff and the kids response to them. If they don't believe or have confidence in the staff that early 12 point deficit turns to 20 fast. Seen it with other teams. I think the hiring of Lottich is already bearing fruit.
Also great to see the guys we need to step up stepped up. The starting 4 minus Peters were all big time last night / this morning. We know what Alec is going to do but we need solid efforts from Walker, Hammink and Adekoya especially on a game by game basis. If Williams and Joseph contribute as well, look out. Also, you basically had a 6 man rotation with 4 of 6 playing 30 minutes or more. All of those 4 had plenty of gas left in the tank at the end of the game. While it may go unnoticed, these kids stamina helped win that game. Hats off to the Conditioning of this team. I think that's a part that will play big as our next 4 games are against KenPom rated 4-155. Easiest is Ball State at 155, we know KY and RI but we have to go down to Springfield and play 129 MO St. I saw them last night against DePaul and they look much improved over the team I saw the Cru blow out in the Arc last year. I think the 6 man with sprinkles of time for Sorolla and a minute for Smits is going to be par for the course the next couple of weeks.
Great great win. I don't care what anyone says...BYU is a P5. Two gutty wins in Vegas against big time opponents.
We need to get BYU on the schedule next year. We can't kill this series. Two fantastic games separated by five points in championship environments. Go to Provo next year and then get a neutral return game in Chicago or Indy. Get it done.
Happy Thanksgiving.
Can we call this Alec Peters' "Michael Jordan" game?
Quote from: crusaderjoe on November 24, 2016, 09:50:30 AM
Great great win. I don't care what anyone says...BYU is a P5. Two gutty wins in Vegas against big time opponents.
We need to get BYU on the schedule next year. We can't kill this series. Two fantastic games separated by five points in championship environments. Go to Provo next year and then get a neutral return game in Chicago or Indy. Get it done.
Happy Thanksgiving.
As usual it takes two to tango. If you were BYU would you play Valpo next season? It depends on if you view your program as above Valpo or not. Many in Provo probably see themselves if not above Valpo at least very differently.
Quote from: agibson on November 22, 2016, 11:47:07 AMMaybe Lutheran Volunteer Corps.
Too late but do you think Alec would have held off on two years of pro basketball to serve in the Lutheran Volunteer Corps. I doubt it because of his love for basketball but Alec is a very unique individual.
Quote from: bbtds on November 24, 2016, 09:54:25 AM
Quote from: crusaderjoe on November 24, 2016, 09:50:30 AM
Great great win. I don't care what anyone says...BYU is a P5. Two gutty wins in Vegas against big time opponents.
We need to get BYU on the schedule next year. We can't kill this series. Two fantastic games separated by five points in championship environments. Go to Provo next year and then get a neutral return game in Chicago or Indy. Get it done.
Happy Thanksgiving.
As usual it takes two to tango. If you were BYU would you play Valpo next season? It depends on if you view your program as above Valpo or not. Many in Provo probably see themselves if not above Valpo at least very differently.
BYU plays one road game this year. I'm assuming they're not going to fly out to Indiana to play Valpo any time soon, but it would be great to catch them in some neutral court tournaments again.
Lexus/Max = combined 8 assists / 2 turnovers in 60 minutes of action. If they keep this up, Micah will only get serious minutes if they are both in foul trouble.
Caution = 6 man rotation works in the short term, but won't hold over a 30+ game season. Will need some a few bench players to improve as the season goes on and be trusted for 8-10 minutes a game. Overall, great win! BYU has the potential to be a top 50 RPI team by the end of the season.
While the loss of Vashil is huge defensively, Jubril is a much greater threat offensively. When he drifts outside, his man has to go with him, which opens up the middle for easier penetration.
They can come to Valpo and we will play them in Salt Lake City...forget giving some other high mid (that we've beat twice in a row) a neutral court return game. Ha!
What an exciting game! Did they have a bucket for AP on the sideline?
Going to need to add some guys in the rotation. We are an undersized team. Going for a lot of height last year, we don't have bigs.
The technical foul on byu should have been an ejection, correct? Technical for the elbow above the head plus a technical for throwing the ball in Lexus face. Should have been gone
Quote from: oklahomamick on November 24, 2016, 07:22:06 PMThe technical foul on byu should have been an ejection, correct? Technical for the elbow above the head plus a technical for throwing the ball in Lexus face. Shoulda hit foul have been gone
No. The elbow would be considered a flagrant foul, but was not deemed as such. And it didn't really seem like an elbow, so much as a push
with the forearm. They changed this a few years ago to give officials leeway to not just automatically have to call a flagrant any time there was contact.
The second instance is a dead ball contact technical. Basically, any contact that isn't just two guys bumping past each other can be deemed as such.
Even if both were called, there would not have been an ejection.
Got it.
Since we won the tournament, we get automatic invite next year?
If I could use only 1 word to best describe BYU, here it is:
in·dig·nant
inˈdiɡnənt/
adjective
feeling or showing anger or annoyance at what is perceived as unfair treatment.
"he was indignant at being the object of suspicion"
synonyms: aggrieved, resentful, affronted, disgruntled, displeased, cross, angry, mad, annoyed, offended, exasperated, irritated, piqued, nettled, in high dudgeon, chagrined;
Offended is especially good, as in offended that we would have the audacity to get up into their grill on defense, offended that we didn't submit after they hit their first 4 3's, offended that they couldn't get separation despite hitting 10-22 3's, and offended that all of their whining, crying, head shaking and eye rolling on "unfair" foul calls never seemed to get through to 3 thick-headed refs.
Quote from: oklahomamick on November 24, 2016, 07:22:06 PM
Going to need to add some guys in the rotation. We are an undersized team. Going for a lot of height last year, we don't have bigs.
The technical foul on byu should have been an ejection, correct? Technical for the elbow above the head plus a technical for throwing the ball in Lexus face. Should have been gone
I wouldn't consider the team undersized - just that we choose to start a small ball lineup by playing Jubril at center. J and Smits have size at backup center. Peters is still pretty tall, Shane and Tevonn gave size at 2/3. Like wh said, we have a Jubril spreads the floor on offense and allows us to break the zone much easier.
Wh, thanks for the vocabulary lesson, well played sir, very well,played sir.
As far as 6 man rotation goes, I don't expect us to utilize it in the long term but we are going to endure a stretch of 4 quality opponents. We more than likely can get away with 8-9 against BSU but things will change against URI. That's 2 days later. Then we don't play for 8 days so we can reload physically when we go against KY and on to Mizzou St. Agree or agree to disagree, our next 4 games are 2H/ 2A they are against #4 KU on the road and the rest of the teams are within KP top 155. MSU sits at 129 currently via KP and we get them on the road and 155 and 34 at home. We need to go at worst 2-2. 0-4 and we need to win the Horizon. 1-3 see last statement. 2-2, let's see the season play out with our OOC opponents and maybe we get in the NCAA through the back door. 3-1, man our hopes for and at large are big even if we falter, within a great HL season couldn't be better. 4-0 and we a nationally ranked.
I think Dad just set a record for commas used in an opening sentence that did not have a list! 🏆🎖🏅(I didn't see a championship belt or I'd have picked that one)
M, I always thought comma placement was so underrated. Especially, when you, are, out of, shape like me. You tend to write to what your diaphragm tells you.
I'm a math teacher and know little about proper comma use. The more the merrier!
The BYU win will end up being very important as those guys are going to win a bunch of games. As with Alabama, their roster is filled with highly regarded kids. Mika, for example, was ranked #28 in his class by ESPN and he is joined by six other guys ranked in the top 100 by ESPN. Their coach has won 20 games for something like 11 straight years or some such stat if I remember correctly from the broadcast.
Quote from: vu72 on November 25, 2016, 08:55:30 AMThe BYU win will end up being very important as those guys are going to win a bunch of games. As with Alabama, their roster is filled with highly regarded kids. Mika, for example, was ranked #28 in his class by ESPN and he is joined by six other guys ranked in the top 100 by ESPN. Their coach has won 20 games for something like 11 straight years or some such stat if I remember correctly from the broadcast.
The win helps a resume, for sure. But I think it does wonders for the team confidence and experience.
Quote from: vu72 on November 25, 2016, 08:55:30 AM
The BYU win will end up being very important as those guys are going to win a bunch of games. As with Alabama, their roster is filled with highly regarded kids. Mika, for example, was ranked #28 in his class by ESPN and he is joined by six other guys ranked in the top 100 by ESPN. Their coach has won 20 games for something like 11 straight years or some such stat if I remember correctly from the broadcast.
Haws (the guy with the b-b gun biceps who forearmed Alec in the face and threw the ball at Lexus) has a highly impressive HS resume, as well.
http://byucougars.com/athlete/m-basketball/tj-haws
Quote from: wh on November 25, 2016, 11:34:14 AM
Quote from: vu72 on November 25, 2016, 08:55:30 AM
The BYU win will end up being very important as those guys are going to win a bunch of games. As with Alabama, their roster is filled with highly regarded kids. Mika, for example, was ranked #28 in his class by ESPN and he is joined by six other guys ranked in the top 100 by ESPN. Their coach has won 20 games for something like 11 straight years or some such stat if I remember correctly from the broadcast.
Haws (the guy with the b-b gun biceps who forearmed Alec in the face and threw the ball at Lexus) has a highly impressive HS resume, as well.
http://byucougars.com/athlete/m-basketball/tj-haws
He's going to be great for BYU in 8 years.
Quote from: valpotx on November 24, 2016, 01:19:01 AM
That was a fun game, and our guys really stepped up. It was back-and-forth, and we never caved in the second half. If we play that way more often than not, we are going to have another special season. You can tell that BYU fans are used to getting a lot of home-cooking foul calls, as they protest EVERY...SINGLE...CALL :). Lexus is looking really good, and appears to be primed for getting more minutes, as he has separated himself from Max. Shane is now 1/18 from 3, and it seems like each is in-and-out in some form or another.
Not only did the BYU fans protest every foul, but some BYU players protested almost all of the fouls called on them (don't know if that was evident on TV, but it sure was in person).
P.S. Many VU fans also protested EVERY...SINGLE...CALL also.
I think BYU may well have gotten royally screwed on one over-the-back call in the 1st half, and Valpo may have gotten royally screwed on that Adekoya "Ghost foul" (per Reggie Williams) with less than a second to go in the 1st half. There were probably a few other questionable ones that weren't all that aggregious. By the way, the BYUTV guys on Friday were whining about the fouls too, though they are doing their best to fulfill their wager with our own Adam Amin to appear on screen for a future broadcast wearing Valpo T-shirts ;)
My assessment: a lot of fans (in Valpo too - I lost count how many times I corrected Valpo fans sitting behind me who were screaming about a foul call) still have not gotten the news that the rules against interference are going to be enforced. "Let 'em play!!!!" Actually, folks, the refs *are* letting them play - by calling the rulebook fouls.
I thought it was fairly well officiated. When I watched the replay on Thursday, I had to admit that Mika or Davis might have made contact with the Valpo player on their end of the court, though I still thought it should have been a non-call. In person, watching the replay on the big screen, I thought there was a slight chance Jubril pushed off a bit on that play at the end of the half, though it probably wouldn't have been horrible if that was a no-call.
I was thoroughly impressed with how the team played both nights. It was just a real treat to be there, plus the banquet Tuesday night was pretty good as well. I didn't count how many people were there, so all I got is a wild-ass guess of maybe 100? Maybe 75-100?
BYU followed up our game by laying an egg at home against Utah Valley