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I had posted a while back that we'd be taking a spring break trip to Detroit to watch the tourney. That didn't happen due to the disappointing loss Saturday night. We ended up going to Kalahari waterpark in Sandusky, and we had a great time. Saw some YSU fans there after their loss.

I'm planning on going next year to see it.  Here's hoping Valpo manages to win a game. I think Valpo should schedule a game at the Little Caesars arena, either preseason, late-season neutral court game, or convince Oakland to play their home game there.

Congrats to NKU. Hope they shock someone.

It's a joke that good mid-majors can't make it to the dance because of RPI issues. There's no way an at large-bid should go to a power conference school with a losing conference record.  Having at least a .500 conference record should be a requirement for an at-large bid. The major schools won't allow that to happen, but it would at least make the regular season more meaningful to them. Even a weak school that gets to host top 100 RPI teams is going to win a few of those games. Even the Cinderella NC State team was 8-6 in the ACC that year. And the 85 Villanova team had a winning conference record.

Another option I'd like to see is expand the NCAA Tournament by 32 teams so that regular season champions automatically qualify. That would be 32 teams with auto-bids in addition to the conference tournament champs. Have a bunch of play-in games to reward success during the regular season. That would allow the conferences to have tournaments in whatever format they wanted without penalizing top seeds.

The big schools won't want to give up their piece of the pie, so it probably won't happen, but a guy can dream.

[special]

I went to Miami (OH), but I've become a big Valpo fan over the last couple years since my daughter is a student there.

I'd prefer that the conference tournament be held on a campus site. For mid-major conferences, I think it's needed to generate the crowds and enthusiasm that a chance to go to the NCAA Tournament represents.

That being said, if Valpo wins on Saturday of the tourney, I'll be heading from Indy to Detroit with my wife and daughter on Monday. We'll buy tickets as soon as Saturday's game is final.

It's a spring break trip for us. Not many people go to Detroit on spring break, but we are going to go and have a good time. We'll stay in a downtown hotel, have fun as a family, do some sightseeing, and cheer on Valpo to the NCAA Tournament. We figured that since my daughter isn't going anywhere else on spring break this year, we'd have a nice mini getaway. 

Sure it's a little pricey, but going to the NCAA Tournament is special.  Don't overlook that. This team needs and deserves our support. They should have been invited to the tournament last year, but this year they'll have to earn it.  There are plenty of excuses you can make about why you shouldn't go to Motor City Madness, but if a team has as good a shot as this year's team does, it's worth making the sacrifice.

About a month I ago, I coordinated a road trip from Indy with some friends and happened to pick Sunday's game. I picked a great game to make a road trip to!

We're doing a double-header this weekend. Going to the Butler game Saturday at DePaul and the Valpo game Sunday.

humbleopinion - If you can make it out of the ARC with no Packers updates, I'll be impressed. Be sure to record extra time.

I haven't seen anything about tickets for the Kentucky game being sold by Valpo, but if you want to go through Ticketmaster, tickets go on sale at 5:00 eastern, 4:00 central today.

Here's the link
http://www.ticketmaster.com/kentucky-wildcats-mens-basketball-vs-valparaiso-lexington-kentucky-12-07-2016/event/1600513BE8B75B08?artistid=838134&majorcatid=10004&minorcatid=7

Not sure about Valpo's deal, but this site has details about many contracts.  Big schools get their gear free and get paid. Smaller schools have purchase requirements and get the gear at reduced rates.
http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/blog/threads_and_laces/2015/09/nike-adidas-under-armour-ncaa-apparel-deals-2015.html

Eastern Michigan student government and faculty think they should drop D-1 football and move to the Horizon League to save expenses:
http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2016/04/25/emu-faculty-students-drop-out-division-football/83493156/

Pitt beating Syracuse today is helpful. 

It looked to me like the guys went to the boards to rebound but didn't box anybody out.  If they looked first for the man to box out, then went to the ball, I think they would've done better.

Of course they dominated the glass all season, so they probably know what they're doing more than I do.

Nice win to finish the regular season.  On to Detroit!

Dakich was talking very positively about Valpo on his broadcast the other night. One of his sleeper teams for the tournament.

Someone mentioned it earlier, but I think the structure of the tournament makes it a tough sell in a neutral environment.  Since the 1 and 2 seeds get the double bye, those fans are less likely to buy full packages. And the other teams are less likely to buy the full package because there's a good chance they won't be playing on Monday or Tuesday.

That being said, I like the double bye for conferences like the Horizon League who are traditional one-bid conferences.  I feel teams should be rewarded for their regular season efforts, not getting hot and winning a couple games in the conference tournament.  The double bye is a good solution.

Not sure if I'll go to the tournament for the finals (I'll be out of town on Monday), but Detroit can be a fun place to visit.

I don't think schools are going to leave the Big East, so I count that one out. 

I think the Atlantic 10 would be a good fit based on the size of the schools, and it's not a football conference, but they have an even number of teams (14) and I don't see them wanting to expand.

The American conference for basketball only would make some sense to me. They have 11 teams for basketball (Navy makes 12 for football), and they don't have a team in the Chicago area. Lots of well-known teams, but very spread geographically. Travel would be expensive.

I think the best solution is grab Belmont and go to the MVC.

Per @ValpoBasketball on Twitter, Skara stayed home.

If you're going to the game, be aware that traffic patterns will be different due to the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon.

I'm not allowed to post external links yet, but if you Google the marathon, you can see the course map.

Looking forward to meeting some of you there!

[REALLY]

I've lived in Indy for 20 years and have become a casual Butler fan during that time. (Heresy around here, I know.)  I went to Miami of Ohio, so I needed someone to root for.  My daughter will be a freshman at VU in 2 weeks, so I haven't paid a whole lot of attention to Valpo until last season when it became clear that Valpo was the right school for her.

Last year, I watched a lot of Valpo games and attended a lot of Butler games.  I agree with others that Valpo would beat Butler this year.  Butler is a good team and has become a consistently nationally relevant team, but right now they don't have the height and depth that Valpo does.

I've learned what you all know and the rest of the country will see soon - this year's Valpo team could be REALLY special.

P.S. From my jaded perspective, many of the issues that Valpo faces are similar to what Miami OH faces.  They are both academic leaders in their conferences, fans would like to have better facilities (ironically, many Miami fans would love an intimate facility like the ARC), nobody wants to play them on their home court, and fans expect the teams to be competitive every year.  But at least Valpo has won lately and is likely to win in the future.