Topics

Heading into the final day of the HL championship, we are in first place by 2 strokes!  It would be cool to get an NCAA bid in yet another sport!

Darn it!  We lost 5-4 to WMU today, which is our 11th one run loss this season.  On the positive side, we aren't getting blown out by anyone, but we really need to start winning some of these close ones for our team's mental psyche!!

Pretty cool!

Glad to see Katie get into the VU HOF, as she was an excellent basketball player during my Valpo years, and friendly person.  In regards to Floyd Henderson, wth is the Evansville All-Opponent team?  Were they that good, that they determined who were the best people they played against???

Katie Boone

http://www.valpoathletics.com/wbasketball/news/2012-13/12376/katie-boone-set-to-be-inducted-into-valpo-hall-of-fame/

Floyd Henderson

http://www.valpoathletics.com/football/news/2012-13/12379/henderson-to-be-inducted-into-valpo-hall-of-fame/

This also sounds like a great class, and an important one in losing Taylor Root after this season.  We have had some good liberos since the position was 'invented' and it sounds like the replacement will get 4 years to try and break what Taylor has done on the digs side. 

http://www.valpoathletics.com/volleyball/news/2012-13/12212/valpo-volleyball-bringing-in-five-newcomers-for-2013/

This sounds like the best class of men's tennis players we have ever gotten.  Admittedly, I don't know much about our men's tennis history, but these players sound like real 'gets' for us:

http://www.valpoathletics.com/mtennis/news/2012-13/12211/crusader-mens-tennis-signs-trio-of-highly-ranked-recruits/

One heck of a game for De'Andre...

http://scores.espn.go.com/ncb/recap?gameId=323242124

I am surprised that no one started this yet, so close to game day.  I see us winning fairly comfortably at home against Georgia Southern, regardless of their improvement.  It won't be enough to overcome our own improvement, but I look forward to the Eagles fan from last year coming on here and trying to prove us wrong, since they are so much better than us  .

Valpo 79
Georgia Southern 64

I thought I would relay a quick conversation I had with my new knee doctor today, when he learned I went to Valpo for undergrad.  I don't know if it goes in this section, but it does involve Valpo basketball. 

I saw Dr. Keith Meister today for the first time to get a cortizone shot in my knee, and during the 15 minutes he spent with me, he complimented Valpo a few times.  If you don't know him, just google his name, as if a guy like this knows us, it is a huge positive for how our name is thought of outside of the Midwest (Rangers surgeon, also many other MLB and other sports stars, most recent fame due to Ben Sheets' resurgence in Atlanta)! 

He asked where I played baseball, and when Valpo came up, his mood shot right up.  'Oh yeah, you guys make the tournament just about every year in basketball.'  When I corrected him that it had been a few years, he mentioned that, 'well, it still seems like it with how much I have seen you on TV.  All that Butler talk over the last few years didn't mean much to me, as I will always consider Valpo the country's favorite Cinderella.  I have watched a few games when you are on, especially the game against Butler each year.  It is a good school too from what I have heard.'  I couldn't stop laughing when he mentioned the Butler part.  I seem to get this type of reaction from people down here often, but not really the Butler part.  I figured it was worth sharing as it shows we are still in people's minds (my age and older at least) 

Sounds like 6 more solid recruits!  I still love the CA and TX flair to this team next year  .  Any time you get two guys who had at one point signed with UC-Irvine, you are doing well

http://www.valpoathletics.com/baseball/news/2012-13/11871/crusader-baseball-adds-six-players/

I would have to think that Chris Manning is the first Valpo baseball player to play in the Cape??  What an accomplishment for him, but also for all our other players.  We are represented in some solid leagues: Cape Cod, Jayhawk, Northwoods, and Prospect. 

http://www.valpoathletics.com/baseball/news/2011-12/11855/crusader-baseball-players-competing-on-summer-league-teams/

I really wish this league was around (Midwest Collegiate League) when I was in school, as it looks like it has a lot of good college players, though we had a good amount in the league I played in.  I played my last 2 summers in Indiana (Michigan City Stars), but don't remember the name of the league.  I played with several of my teammates at VU, as well as players from Butler, Eastern Illinois, St. Joe's, Southern Indiana, Purdue, and a few others.  I believe the league is still around, but it seems to have become less college-focused, and more after-college. 

http://www.midwestcollegiateleague.com/

Some of my best memories were of summer ball while in college, my first two years in the Texas Collegiate League (was known as the Southwest Collegiate Baseball League back then), last two in Indiana.  Getting to play against and do well against guys from Arkansas, Alabama, LSU, Missouri, UT, TCU, UTA, Texas Tech, Baylor, Notre Dame, Purdue, Ball State, Butler, etc, was a nice respite from my lack of production while at VU lol.

Congrats to Spencer!

http://www.valpoathletics.com/baseball/news/2011-12/11849/valpos-mahoney-named-to-louisvile-slugger-freshmen-all-american-team/

With Butler now gone, our men's basketball head coaching position is the top-rated job in the HL according to ESPN:

http://espn.go.com/blog/collegebasketballnation/post/_/id/59777/ranking-the-coaching-jobs-the-others

Anyone see this ongoing incident in dear old Valpo??  I saw this story and thought the intersection looked familiar in the picture, but never thought it would be in Valpo!

http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/25/11881035-gunshots-confirmed-at-scene-of-indiana-hostage-situation-no-injuries-reported?lite/

It looks like this was a fun game to watch in regards to offense!  We came back in the top of the 9th with 4 runs to win 11-8, on a 3-run HR by Grant Yoder (tied 8-8 at the time).  Great comeback guys!

[The recruiting issue being associated with Scott Drew is just like Republicans saying all the things that are killing our economy, and costing the taxpayers, are Obama's fault, when some of the stuff that we're paying for now are result of bills that President Bush 43 signed before he left office, but because President Obama is in office, he inherits the wrath of the GOP swinging the blame to the sitting president, rather than the President some of the problem is really associated. Yes, I admit I am a liberal, but I'm not a fool to let the media tell me that all of this is President Obama's fault because it makes a good soundbite. All you have to do is read some of the bills that are being used against him and find out what the original language said, and not what some researcher's translation says. Scott is getting this thrown on him because the casual college basketball fan doesn't know who the assistant coaches are, unless they went to the school or follow the team.]

Thought I would create this after Run's post listed below:

The recruiting issue being associated with Scott Drew is just like Republicans saying all the things that are killing our economy, and costing the taxpayers, are Obama's fault, when some of the stuff that we're paying for now are result of bills that President Bush 43 signed before he left office, but because President Obama is in office, he inherits the wrath of the GOP swinging the blame to the sitting president, rather than the President some of the problem is really associated. Yes, I admit I am a liberal, but I'm not a fool to let the media tell me that all of this is President Obama's fault because it makes a good soundbite. All you have to do is read some of the bills that are being used against him and find out what the original language said, and not what some researcher's translation says. Scott is getting this thrown on him because the casual college basketball fan doesn't know who the assistant coaches are, unless they went to the school or follow the team.

I hate to disagree with you here run, but I just have to speak up.  I am sure you know this, but a lot of people don't realize that these ups and downs in the economy are cyclical, though this last down was pretty bad.  Many factors contributed to this last downturn outside of Bush practices (price of oil, real estate companies taking advantage of those who couldn't afford the variable rate mortgages they signed up for, etc).  You can no more blame Bush for this downturn than you can reward Obama for the uptick in the economy currently, just because they were the sitting presidents at the time it happened.  I am going to have to turn off the TV every time Obama claims to have saved the economy in this upcoming election.  Saving the auto industry companies and real estate organizations from bankruptcy DID NOT start this upward trend, it happens over history after a recession due to consumer confidence.

Regardless of what side someone is on, you do have to realize that most politicians switch their positions on key issues to the public, depending on who has the majority of people in office.  Since getting outside the college bubble, it is ridiculous to see how much flip-flopping and disagreement happens in our government.  Neither side wants to be the one who approved or canceled something that the public might not be fully behind, even if it is for the betterment of the country, so nothing gets accomplished.  Look at all the budget talk that comes up every few months, and it takes some miraculous 'last minute' session to even get that done each time...

I very much like this match-up.  There is absolutely no mystique about Miami.  This is a team we should play well against

Looks like we just picked up our second tournament win of the season today in our own tourney, beating a few more top 10 teams!  Congrats ladies!

In looking at their website, they are a VERY young team with only 1 Jr and 2 Sr players.  They have their top returning scorer (Drayton, Sr, 15.8 ppg last year), but other than that it looks to be a lot of turnover from last year in their better players.  They were 5-27 last year, including a loss to Chicago State, with only 2 wins against D-1 competition (The Citadel & Georgia State in OT).  I am thinking:

Valpo 76
Georgia Southern 61

Very early in the year to hear about it, but it is always pleasant 

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/7181471/top-3-point-shots-ncaa-history-college-basketball

Great win on the road tonight at WSU to top the conference table!  How about that Texan connection to score the winner? 

Good to see him getting a chance at such a thing.  I really hope he can make the step up to the NBA before he is done, as he seems to have put many good seasons together in the NBDL.

http://www.valpoathletics.com/mbasketball/news/2011-12/11071/former-crusader-howard-invited-to-pan-am-games-training-camp/

I guess that I haven't seen an aircraft carrier in person for about 25 years, but I just can't picture a basketball game with 7,000 spectators on the flight deck!

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/6793377/deal-north-carolina-tar-heels-vs-michigan-state-spartans-november-aircraft-carrier-game-signed