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Credit to Stafford over the last 5 minutes, as he played like dog sh!t for the first 3/4 of the game, and has righted himself

Terrible defensive series by Edwards on that Rivera basket.  He was jumping at every fake...

Double bonus for the last 10:40...go inside!

The biggest difference in most of our losses this season, is that our opponents hit their wide open 3s, while we miss ours.  This is a big area that our most successful teams have thrived, in always making sure to hit those wide open looks, which we had a bunch in the first half (Stafford). 

We need to hammer the ball inside for most of the rest of this game, as they are already at 6 fouls.  It is a huge failing in this game, if we don't take advantage at this point.  Let's see how this turns out.

Why the heck is Cooper passing up wide open 3's to get it to Stafford, when he sees that Stafford is 1/11 today?  There is a certain point where you just need to realize that he doesn't have it today, and someone else needs to take that open shot.  He was wide open and passed it up...

Valpo 71
UIC 65

Congrats to JFL!  Never had an ill feelings towards him leaving, since it seemed to be driven by those around him.

I like Edwards overall, but he needs to be held to one 3 point shot each game.  If he makes it, he can try another, to see if he has a hot hand.  However, he is very much like Donovan Clay, where he is athletic as heck, and can shoot well from inside the 3 point line, and should live in more of the mid-range. 

Even though I am not a betting man, I've always loved that part of the show, as you see just how crazily accurate the bookmaker math is on most of these games, which often come down to one play as you see in that clip.

I am glad that I am not the only one who has noticed how little most players follow their shots nowadays.  It irks the hell out of me to see our jump shooters immediately start the opposite direction of our basket after the ball leaves their hands, as if their job is done.  This is all while the ball eventually lands about 2 feet from where they were previously standing.

The player is doing his job. The proliferation of 3 point shooting means many long rebounds. Long rebounds lead to run outs for the opponent. The 3 point shooter, assuming it's not from the corner, is often the first line of defense vs. a runout and his responsibility is to stop the ball if he can get into position to do so. Shots that get followed are typically 15 feet and in.

The jump shots that I am speaking about, are still within the 3 point line.  They start fading away without any attempt at rebounding the area near where they shot.  These are often still within the 15 feet that you are speaking about. 

I am glad that I am not the only one who has noticed how little most players follow their shots nowadays.  It irks the hell out of me to see our jump shooters immediately start the opposite direction of our basket after the ball leaves their hands, as if their job is done.  This is all while the ball eventually lands about 2 feet from where they were previously standing. 

It sucks to lose 10 of 11 against any team

I think it began as a reference (wink) to hispanic immigrants from south of the border who could inflate VU's enrollment numbers. 

Correct, the comment above mine.  I knew that it was off topic, but had to reply to that link.

If their solid player is out, we win:

Valpo 72
Evansville 66

If he is playing:

Valpo 65
Evansville 72

If we had enough depth to keep Stafford at around 8-10 shots per game, he would be pretty solid.  Unfortunately, he's being tasked with taking the lion's share of shots, as we don't have a lot of others that can create off the dribble.  I don't fault Stafford for it, as he has likely been afforded this freedom, but think that if we end up with more shooters next season, his shooting % will increase with more quality shots that he doesn't have to bail out his teammates as often.

Good win, and hope for a winning streak of 2!

I'm sure that everyone has their personal opinion on my state's undocumented worker/illegal immigrant (whichever word you choose to use) busing to other states, but if the Federal government is responsible for protecting our borders, and Texas bears the brunt of the costs in the government failing to do so, just because we are on the border, I've always felt it very fair that all other states need to support such folks equally.  Is it inhumane to bus folks to random spots that they might not want to go?  Yes.  Should all 50 states share the costs and crisis equally, versus just the border states?  Absolutely. 

He should use such things as ammo for future seasons.  He gets a complete pass from me on this year and at least half of next season, as he is likely needing to replace almost the entire roster, to get his guys.  He will have a full year of recruitment under his belt, and will scour the transfer portal, so even if Cooper or any of our young guys leave, I am confident in the folks that he will bring in with that much time to get his true fit for his playing style.  I do hope that Jahari, Cooper, and Kasper stay, but if they don't, I trust that Powell will have some dawgs ready to replace them.

ISUr 76
Valpo 58

Valpo 70
SIU 77

Good for them if they make the move to FCS Scholarship.  I know that it will never happen, but it would be fun if Valpo joined one day, after figuring out our enrollment issues.

I don't think that I paid attention to such a thing when I was at Valpo, but does Valpo also entertain Professors from other schools that are doing a 'residency' at Valpo?  I don't remember if he referred to it as a residency, but when I was doing my MBA at TCU 15-16 years back, one of my Economics Professors had mentioned that he was staff at some Ivy League school, but was essentially on loan to TCU for a few semesters. 

Part of "being nimble" for universities is to replace tenured faculty who retire (or depart for other reasons) with faculty who are on one, two or three year contracts (which the university can choose or decline to renew). These positions are typically referred to as professors of practice or clinical faculty and usually are filled by people with Masters degrees who also have a some (or a lot of) professional experience. Individual colleges in universities cannot do this to the nth degree, as accreditation requirements include a certain percentage of courses being taught by tenured/tenure track faculty. I wish this was not so necessary (though some professors of practice can bring tremendous and unique value), but the reality is that a business can't have excessive fixed costs (which is what tenured faculty are) when enrollment might not create the necessary level of revenue.

Exactly, this was my main point.  I don't know the % requirement for accreditation, and I get the difference in potential quality in tenured versus professors of practice, but having a large amount of tenured faculty is not going to be the way to go for smaller universities.  I have no idea how many tenured staff Valpo traditionally carries, but it wouldn't surprise me if smaller universities take a hard look at these fixed costs.  I'm trying my best to put aside my bias against union environments and how it can make firing someone nearly impossible, so this is simply my take in a school trying to become more nimble as enrollment declines  . 

I know that getting tenure at the academic level is very important/feels more permanent for staff, and it has its pros and cons to a university, regardless of your personal viewpoints.  However, that locks in costs for a school that you wouldn't ordinarily have in the business world.  It wasn't a big deal when college was the expected path for a large portion of the younger generation, but when those numbers changed, universities are going to need to be more nimble moving forward.  As much as we can tease and laugh at the verbiage utilized, Bradley's PR group is very correct, in that with the yearly business and societal changes, schools are going to need to adapt much quicker than they have historically.  AI and what it means for a lot of professions, in particular, which leads to the degrees that you should and should not be offering. 

That was a really bad last 10 minutes, but we didn't give up.  We did have some terrible bunny-hop misses, dumb turnovers, and missed defense in that time period, but it at least remained close throughout the game.