Valpo at Southern Illinois 2/21 4 pm cst

[vu72]

Great defensive adjustments in the second half.  Gutsy win and great effor that might just keep us out of Thursday.  A win tomorrow would do it.  I doubt anybody is going to want to play us in the tourney.  And JO?  What a game!

[IndyEIT777]

JO needs to be starting over Mileek from now on...Period! He looks so much more calm and collected on offense and he alters several shots on defense without fouling.

[valpotx]

Good win for our team, but I do feel a bit lucky. That last offensive possession was absolutely terrible, and SIU got a pretty strong look at the end. We'll take it, but I have a feeling a split is coming tomorrow.

I actually think that SIU will be disheartened after this one, as this was one of their better performances since Domansk went out.  I believe we win by 10+ tomorrow.

[tjjvalpo]

Escaped is right! Great defense down the stretch. It was missing a good part of the game though. I think we can play better than today. I think SIU gave us there best shot and we will win tomorrow, as well.

[valpopal]

Difference in the game: better play on the boards led to a 12-5 advantage in offensive rebounds and a 15-3 edge in second-chance points

[justducky]

we got extremely lucky in those last 2 minutes

Without their star (Damask???) we should beat that team 70% of the time. Very fortunate to get a win today and I hope for a better showing tomorrow.

JO got badly out muscled around the basket. I don't want to see him bulked up much but even 8 or 10 lbs  might be a big help for his defense.

[valpo64]

Why is it that coaches fall in love with the theory that you hold the ball until 9 or 10 seconds remain on the shot clock then only end up with a lousy forced shot from the outside or from somewhere else on the floor, or maybe even a shot clock violation?  And so many coaches use that approach.

Best thing that has happened to us lately is that Sackey is not getting minutes.  Great win on the road today. Pretty well played except when SIU hit that streak of threes in the first half.  Love to see the youngsters continue to improve, especially Jacob.  We still always need to remember that this is a young team and they will have their ups and downs but they are sure fun to watch when clicking on all cylinders.  Let's get another road win tomorrow.  GO CRUSADERS!  (sorry)             GO VALPO!

[wh]

Today's win combined with Drake's 85-7- win over Evansville's blowout moves us into a tie for 5th place. A win tomorrow and Evansville loss with put us alone in 5th with 2 games to play. Tomorrow is huge. Eville will be big underdogs against Drake.

[wh]

JO got badly out muscled around the basket. I don't want to see him bulked up much but even 8 or 10 lbs  might be a big help for his defense.

We killed them on the offensive boards, so I assume you're referring to how easily his man scored on him underneath. Which I would agree. Ben seemed to have the same problem. Both guys let their man get way too deep in the post. In fact, they missed probably 3 bunnies the shouldn't have. I'm not certain, but Mileek and Donovan may have been backed down a couple of times themselves. One thing that made it tougher is that when we doubled down on their bigs they kept making us pay with open 3's.

[AB]

Team was not locked in on D in the first half. Both teams looked exhausted last 4 minutes. A win is a win. Loyola game could have gone the other way, so could have this one. Interesting to see how the team responds Monday night. 2nd game at Aces and NIU wasn't a good response.

[may know]

Critical win. Chances shot up to 78% of avoiding Thursday.

https://twitter.com/mjhackman/status/1363651096326070275

[VUGrad1314]

Gotta have this one tomorrow. We keep winning we avoid Thursday. It's really that simple. Everyone from Loyola and Drake down to us and those we are fighting for position like Evansville and Bradley: our task is in front of us, Just keep winning. The goals may be different for the top two (playing for tournament bids rather than simply avoiding Thursday) but the object is the same. Keep winning to accomplish the goal. I'd consider not being a Thursday team during this hectic COVID plagued season a step forward for this program even if the record won't necessarily reflect that. And hopefully if we can do that it will be a rallying cry for the players on this team to want to come back and build on it next year. Go Valpo! 

[justducky]

I'd consider not being a Thursday team during this hectic COVID plagued season a step forward for this program even if the record won't necessarily reflect that. And hopefully if we can do that it will be a rallying cry for the players on this team to want to come back and build on it next year. Go Valpo! 

Avoiding Thursday may mean a 3-6 match against MSU and I would in general rather play ISUb in the 4-5. Problem with that is it would require 3 straight games against Indiana St!  Talk about a coaching chess match!  After watching Valpo vs ISUb followed by Valpo vs ISUb resulting in Valpo vs ISUb we might know the Sycamores better than Greg Lansing does. 

[bbtds]

Drake's 85-7- win over Evansville's blowout

Wow! How many shots did Evansville miss? That is some great Bulldog D! 

[bbtds]

NIU wasn't a good response.

University of Northern Iowa which is located in eastern Iowa. https://www.google.com/maps/place/University+of+Northern+Iowa/@42.5121556,-94.7058577,7z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x87e5531ad005042d:0x75e1c3b96c004522!8m2!3d42.5121517!4d-92.4646469

I wish us to be the highest I.Q. and smartest athletics message board on the internet.

[wh]

Drake's 85-7- win over Evansville's blowout

Wow! How many shots did Evansville miss? That is some great Bulldog D! 

NIU wasn't a good response.

University of Northern Iowa which is located in eastern Iowa. https://www.google.com/maps/place/University+of+Northern+Iowa/@42.5121556,-94.7058577,7z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x87e5531ad005042d:0x75e1c3b96c004522!8m2!3d42.5121517!4d-92.4646469

I wish us to be the highest I.Q. and smartest athletics message board on the internet.

Interesting (if not disheartening) to learn that a relationship exists between I.Q. and typos on a message board. Presumably, you're referring to an inverse relationship between two variables such that a higher frequency of typos is associated with a lower I.Q. All I can say is that I'll try to do better, but there's only so much I can do.

[wh]

"We gotta do a better job just securing it," SIU coach Bryan Mullins said. "They're long, they're athletic, and without (Daniel) Sackey they play 6-4 and above, so it's one of the longer, bigger teams in our league. We gotta go out-to-in on our blockouts and be physical, and go pursue the ball."

[bbtds]

Drake's 85-7- win over Evansville's blowout

Wow! How many shots did Evansville miss? That is some great Bulldog D! 

NIU wasn't a good response.

University of Northern Iowa which is located in eastern Iowa. https://www.google.com/maps/place/University+of+Northern+Iowa/@42.5121556,-94.7058577,7z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x87e5531ad005042d:0x75e1c3b96c004522!8m2!3d42.5121517!4d-92.4646469

I wish us to be the highest I.Q. and smartest athletics message board on the internet.

Interesting (if not disheartening) to learn that a relationship exists between I.Q. and typos on a message board. Presumably, you're referring to an inverse relationship between two variables such that a higher frequency of typos is associated with a lower I.Q. All I can say is that I'll try to do better, but there's only so much I can do.

The I.Q./smartest message board comment was not directed at you at all. I do make fun of my own typos at times and realize it was just a typo of the score. That Drake/E'ville score would have been more reflective of last year's Purple Aces team.

One thing I wish to emphasize is that Valpo fans don't like it when the school name is pronounced Val-par-I-so. When Northern Iowa is referred to as NIU that is disrespect for a fellow conference member. I think we should be smarter and more respectful of our fellow conference members. 

[vu72]

Anybody else notice the stats on the game?  We had only 6 turnovers versus 14 assists while they also had 6 turnovers but 17 assists.  Only 19 fouls between the two team and we got to shoot THREE free throws! Weird.  But I do like our team without Daniel--great kid but teams take advantage of his size and slack off given his 13.9% shooting from deep.  I really like having Zion playing with his top notch defense and even hitting some shots from time to time.

Their coach is right in that we are a pretty big team with Daniel not in the game.  We were playing Ben, Donovan and JO together at times.

[vu84v2]

Combined, the two teams had 31 assists and 12 turnovers. That is really rare.

I really like Clay playing the 3 with JO and Krikke up front. Besides JO needing to be on the floor, Clay creates major matchup problems when the other team's 3 has to guard him.