We left 3 open scholarships this year so we began practice with 12 plus a walk on (kudos for that). 2 players are transfers and will not play this year. 3 more are hurt and 2 of those are apparantly out for the year. 1 is recovering from a concussion. We were down to 7 for the Illinois game. This is sounding hauntingly familiar to 2 years ago.
Sad to see, but hopefully we get at least one person healthy to get to a rotation of 8. Having 7 players really limits what you can do, especially with NCAA refs under a mandate to call more fouls this season.
All very good points. I remember that win at Ball State two years ago when we started the game with 7, dropped to 6 when Shaquira Scott tore her ACL, and finished with 5 after Tabitha Gerardot fouled out (side note: watch her play tonight when Indiana beat Indiana State, 11 and 8...and she fouled out).
Hopefully we can get some people back. Numbers are good to get through games, the experience will be good to hopefully get through some wins down the road!
A bit of good news on the injury front: Elizabeth Hamlet is expected to play - albeit limited minutes as she progresses back to 100% - today vs. Notre Dame.
As long as Hamlet can play meaningful minutes in Act II, I mean, the second half.
That's always where the denouement is.
Live video stream on Notre Dame's site http://watchnd.tv/#!/games/1739205?liveVideo=NwNTI5ZDoAUQrURaq_KYgJqz2_o_RPMj (http://watchnd.tv/#!/games/1739205?liveVideo=NwNTI5ZDoAUQrURaq_KYgJqz2_o_RPMj)
Paul Oren tweets that:
@ValpoWBB adds track athlete Jazmin Taylor to roster. Rock Island native is a junior guard. Taylor drove to Champaign and dressed after foul concerns plagued Crusaders in season opener against St. Louis.
https://twitter.com/NWIOren
...IS AWFUL. Just watched the first half against IUPUI and they are down by 20!! This is at home. We got nothing!! Just heaving 3's up and then getting outrebounded. Defense doesn't have a clue. Otherwise, pretty solid. :(
This team was going to struggle before Carr got hurt. Now, honestly I am not sure there is a win on the schedule. Does anyone know how long Issacs is out?
Final: 84-51 IUPUI
Btw, vu72's analysis reminded me of one of my favorite John McKay quotes (former national champion as USC's head coach wound up coaching the winless 1976 Buccaneers)
Quote"We can't stop a pass or a run... otherwise, we're in great shape."
McKay's best quote came in response to the question - What do you think of your teams execution? McKay "I'm all for it."
Quote from: chef on November 21, 2013, 09:28:25 PM
McKay's best quote came in response to the question - What do you think of your teams execution? McKay "I'm all for it."
LOL!! :rotfl:
Man, a 33 point loss to IUPUI. Good to see that we at least have 8 playing now, but hopefully they start playing better. I really hope we are doing the right things in women's basketball, as that program has been in the past and can easily be one of our better athletic programs.
Oren's recap (http://www.nwitimes.com/sports/college/valparaiso-university/iupui-reserves-do-in-valparaiso-women-s-basketball-team/article_b4c3d6ba-9287-5f4f-889e-782c0210d54d.html) and follow-up (http://www.nwitimes.com/blogs/sports/valparaiso-university/wrapping-up-iupui-wbb/article_33c31328-5336-11e3-8c01-0019bb2963f4.html) are good reads from the contest and where this team is at.
I have uploaded a set with 16 of my photographs from the women's basketball game against IUPUI, including the ones below, at the following link, and I invite everyone to check them out:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/96208998@N05/sets/72157637931113563/with/10990491783/ (http://www.flickr.com/photos/96208998@N05/sets/72157637931113563/with/10990491783/)
(http://i39.tinypic.com/281fwvs.jpg)
(http://i44.tinypic.com/p61d3.jpg)
(http://i40.tinypic.com/whnnes.jpg)
Looking back on the last pre-season, last season, and the past pre-season going into this season, I am wondering why this program has had a difficult time attracting top shelf talent and depth in the first two recruiting classes. Jack, and a number of you who are closer to the program, you might have some insight into this. Usually, when a new coach is brought in to rejuvenate a program, one of the first things that occurs is a flurry of recruiting activity. Without question, talent and depth are keys to wins. Seems like we are short in both departments and the long-term outlook doesn't seem too bright either. I also recall that some of the previous regime's players were encouraged to leave and wound up doing quite well in other programs while we seem to be becoming even less competitive as Freeman's players graduate or leave. Just wondering. Maybe I'm ultra sensitive to this because of my loyalty to Valpo FB, hate to say this, and could be all wet on this speculation, but I kind of zeroed in on one post game quote "(Our players) are in (the locker room) figuring out a way to grow up and be the basketball players they came to Valparaiso University to be" and can't help thinking about the criticism that was leveled at Carlson in this board, almost from the beginning, about the perception that the fault lay with the players, not the coaching.
Quote from: VULB#62 on November 22, 2013, 10:26:25 AMJust wondering. Maybe I'm ultra sensitive to this because of my loyalty to Valpo FB, hate to say this, and could be all wet on this speculation, but I kind of zeroed in on one post game quote "(Our players) are in (the locker room) figuring out a way to grow up and be the basketball players they came to Valparaiso University to be" and can't help thinking about the criticism that was leveled at Carlson in this board, almost from the beginning, about the perception that the fault lay with the players, not the coaching.
Those same thoughts were starting to creep into my head, VULB#62. I'm not going to give up on Dorow at this time but some critical thinking must go into this situation. Maybe Dorow pointed the finger at herself and the coaching staff also but she sure does level a finger at the players. That always sends off an alarm in my head. I'm hoping MLB has learned a great deal from the situation with Carlson and after giving the WBB situation what most would deem a reasonable amount of time, would be ready to pull the plug if this WBB team doesn't show any signs of improvement. One thing Carlson was able to do is recruit better. We have not seen that yet from Valpo's women's bb coach.
I highly doubt that anything would happen with Dorow this season, regardless of how bad a season we might have. You typically won't see a 2 year stint as head coach at a school like Valpo, unless someone gets plucked away from us.
Quote from: valpotx on November 22, 2013, 12:09:13 PMI highly doubt that anything would happen with Dorow this season, regardless of how bad a season we might have. You typically won't see a 2 year stint as head coach at a school like Valpo, unless someone gets plucked away from us.
I agree about this season. I just hope that MLB has a shorter leash with Dorow then he had with Carlson, IF, and that is a huge IF, there is absolutely zero improvement in the WBB.
I'm going to politely disagree on your recruiting suggestions for the time being. Dorow inherited the previous class last year and didn't have much time to add to it. Lexi Miller came aboard only because there was a preexisting relationship. Wiedemann, Dean and Godwin were already signed to LOIs when Dorow came in. As for this incoming class, Karungi was a vital piece for size in the middle. The jury is still out on Issac as she's been hurt. Dorow could've rushed things with this class and gambled on freshmen, but instead she chose to take her lumps this season and bring in transfers that will spend a year getting better and then slide into important roles. While many of you are blasting her recruiting, she went out and signed a strong four-member class and already has a verbal from a strong downstate Indiana player for the following class. Recruiting is like chess. You just don't start by moving your queen all over the board, you've got to setup the rest of the pieces. (Poor analogy perhaps, but you see where I'm going with this). Yes, this team will likely struggle. The biggest mistake they can make is to rush Carr back. Take lumps this season and get things turned around going forward. Before you accuse (or excuse I suppose) me of being a homer, remember that I was as big of a Freeman supporter as there was and hated seeing a change made. That said, give the new regime some time.
Quote from: Pgmado on November 22, 2013, 12:17:37 PM
I'm going to politely disagree on your recruiting suggestions for the time being. Dorow inherited the previous class last year and didn't have much time to add to it. Lexi Miller came aboard only because there was a preexisting relationship. Wiedemann, Dean and Godwin were already signed to LOIs when Dorow came in. As for this incoming class, Karungi was a vital piece for size in the middle. The jury is still out on Issac as she's been hurt. Dorow could've rushed things with this class and gambled on freshmen, but instead she chose to take her lumps this season and bring in transfers that will spend a year getting better and then slide into important roles. While many of you are blasting her recruiting, she went out and signed a strong four-member class and already has a verbal from a strong downstate Indiana player for the following class. Recruiting is like chess. You just don't start by moving your queen all over the board, you've got to setup the rest of the pieces. (Poor analogy perhaps, but you see where I'm going with this). Yes, this team will likely struggle. The biggest mistake they can make is to rush Carr back. Take lumps this season and get things turned around going forward. Before you excuse me of being a homer, remember that I was as big of a Freeman supporter as there was and hated seeing a change made. That said, give the new regime some time.
Wise words. Thanks for the input. I like what I'm seeing for years 3, 4 and beyond.
Quote from: Pgmado on November 22, 2013, 12:17:37 PM
I'm going to politely disagree on your recruiting suggestions for the time being. Dorow inherited the previous class last year and didn't have much time to add to it. Lexi Miller came aboard only because there was a preexisting relationship. Wiedemann, Dean and Godwin were already signed to LOIs when Dorow came in. As for this incoming class, Karungi was a vital piece for size in the middle. The jury is still out on Issac as she's been hurt. Dorow could've rushed things with this class and gambled on freshmen, but instead she chose to take her lumps this season and bring in transfers that will spend a year getting better and then slide into important roles. While many of you are blasting her recruiting, she went out and signed a strong four-member class and already has a verbal from a strong downstate Indiana player for the following class. Recruiting is like chess. You just don't start by moving your queen all over the board, you've got to setup the rest of the pieces. (Poor analogy perhaps, but you see where I'm going with this). Yes, this team will likely struggle. The biggest mistake they can make is to rush Carr back. Take lumps this season and get things turned around going forward. Before you excuse me of being a homer, remember that I was as big of a Freeman supporter as there was and hated seeing a change made. That said, give the new regime some time.
Good comments Paul, and I do agree she deserves more time. I am hopeful that her prior success will bear fruit at Valpo. Also, the Packers still suck, and Broncos rule :)
Quote from: Pgmado on November 22, 2013, 12:17:37 PM
I'm going to politely disagree on your recruiting suggestions for the time being. Dorow inherited the previous class last year and didn't have much time to add to it. Lexi Miller came aboard only because there was a preexisting relationship. Wiedemann, Dean and Godwin were already signed to LOIs when Dorow came in. As for this incoming class, Karungi was a vital piece for size in the middle. The jury is still out on Issac as she's been hurt. Dorow could've rushed things with this class and gambled on freshmen, but instead she chose to take her lumps this season and bring in transfers that will spend a year getting better and then slide into important roles. While many of you are blasting her recruiting, she went out and signed a strong four-member class and already has a verbal from a strong downstate Indiana player for the following class. Recruiting is like chess. You just don't start by moving your queen all over the board, you've got to setup the rest of the pieces. (Poor analogy perhaps, but you see where I'm going with this). Yes, this team will likely struggle. The biggest mistake they can make is to rush Carr back. Take lumps this season and get things turned around going forward. Before you accuse (or excuse I suppose) me of being a homer, remember that I was as big of a Freeman supporter as there was and hated seeing a change made. That said, give the new regime some time.
I hope you are correct about next years recruiting class. Their announcement was light on actual statistics. I would like to know what they did as juniors.
I agree about Carr, this season will be bad with her or without. I am guessing that 3 of our better players are in street clothes.
Very good points made here. I think Dorrow is heading in the right direction in trying to attract talent, but the one thing that bothers me is size. Freeman had the same issues of late. In the league we compete in, you have to have size inside to compete well. I'm talking 6-2, 6-3, etc. We just can't seem to attract the size we need to bang it around inside. Karungi is a big help, but when you've only got one Karungi, it isn't too dificult to work a defense around stopping her.
I have to agree, it would be a huge mistake to bring Carr back too early. All indications are, if she does make it back this season, and that looks like a big IF, it would only be at the tail end of the season, and then we lose a year of elgeability with her, that i don't think we can afford at this point. One thing we miss with her on the sidelines is her floor leadership. watching these ladies play, they just don't have anyone that seems to be a floor leader out there.
You also may be right in that, our best 3 may be on the sidelines right now. This is a time to get some experience for the younger players. I really like what I see in Dean. I think she will get better and better as time goes on.
We absolutely choked away a game we should have won. Up for most of the game until 10 minutes left in the game, then went down 11. Fought back to go up by 4 with under 2 minutes left, and made some dumb plays down the stretch, losing 84-78.
1) Up by 4, they miss a shot and we get the rebound, but away from where the ball was going, we had a defender push off on another player that was not even close to it. The result is 2 FTs to get them within 2.
2) We were up 2 with 1 minute left, grabbed an offensive rebound, and instead of kicking it out to milk another 30 seconds off the clock, shot a contested inside shot right away. They get the ball on the fast break and get fouled, resulting in 2 FTs, making 1.
3) Still up 1, we missed a shot with around 40 seconds left, and push the rebounder when we had no chance at getting that ball, resulting in them taking the lead with 2 FTs.
4) Down by 3 with 25 seconds left, take a quick 3, when we could have either tried a driving layup to get it to 1 with time left to foul and get another chance, or get a much better 3 point attempt off.
Hopefully we clear these mistakes up as the season moves along, as that game should have been won. TTU had lost by 47 (Akron) and 45 (Mississippi State) in their previous 2 games, so it was a game of equals.
Got to have leadership. Our senior won't grab the reigns. Our best floor leader is Carr, and she's sidelined right now.
We played much better today. We did, however, finish the game like a team that did not know how to win. Which by the way, is where we are at.
I was pretty sure I would have to eat my "no win" on the schedule post from earlier this week. I was hopeful, but.....perhaps vs. Chicago State who gave IUPUI a better game than we did today.
Can anyone who has had more time to watch this team explain our defensive strategy or at least why give up so many points? I looked up this fact (disclaimers: near midnight after a long week and I'm tired but hopefully it's accurate, plus I decided to do this Dan Patrick style because I love the DP Show and its near midnight after a long work week and I'm tired)
STAT OF THE DAY! STAT OF THE DAY! ... STAT OF THE DAY! STAT OF THE DAY! HERE COMES THE STAT OF THE DAY!
This year, the Valpo women's basketball team has allowed at least 78 points in its first five games, all losses. The last five-game stretch that Valpo allowed 78 or more came in late January through mid February of 1994 under head coach Dave Wolter in the final season before the Keith Freeman era.
STAT OF THE DAY! STAT OF THE DAY! ... STAT OF THE DAY! STAT OF THE DAY! HERE COMES THE STAT OF THE DAY!
Defensively, we aren't stepping out on their shooters. TTU had far too many uncontested 3's in this game. Offensively, at times it looks like there is no plan. It's pretty helter skelter. There were several times where we had Karungi and Horton in together, and we would put up a 3 with both of them 12ft out, and Miller the only player underneath to try an rebound a miss. What the heck kind of offensive scheme is that? We just go through long stretches where we don't play smart at all. Luckily, we were knocking down some 3s or this one would have been as ugly as the past 3 have been.
When the team only shoots 35% from the field and turns it over 20 times a game, you're going to give up a lot of fast breaks which leads to more points. But even in the half court the defensive looks bad, Richardson may be the worst defensive player I have ever seen. Which is sad because she has the ability to be good on that end of the court but does not try hard enough. Offensively, the scheme is fine. You should see this offense ran against the Men's team by St. Louis in a couple weeks here, I also remember seeing a successful New Mexico team run this offense. So don't question the scheme at all. You just need good players to do it, and we just don't have very good players (thanks Freeman). And when that's the case, you need to be smart, which doesn't seem to be the case based on the previous game. This year is just going to be a struggle, next year when Tracey has 6 new faces and the majority of the team is "hers", then you can judge her. But as of now, the players just aren't getting it done.
You're implying that a scheme suited for the men's squad should be equally suited for the women's squad. That just isn't so. The women's squad doesn't have the horses to play the same scheme. I see no scenario in the women's game where, your 2 biggest players are miles away from the basket when your chucking up 3s, which leaves your smallest player on the floor underneath to try and rebound. Please explain this logic to me.
The women's squad is depleated right now, with no true floor leader out there. The coaching staff has got to implement a plan to maximize what they do have, which shouldn't include both Karungi and Horton being out passed the free throw line when we're chucking up 3s. This didn't just happen once, but several times. I've put my time in on the floor, and on the bench, and see no scenario where this would equate to success.
I have to agree with jack on this one. If you don't have the players for your offensive scheme then it's time to change the offensive scheme.
Guys or Girls, basketball is still the same sport. There's just a difference in athletic ability. It doesn't matter if you're a guy or a girl, a ball screen is a ball screen. In my opinion, changing offensive scheme at this point in the season does not make sense. You're going to look bad no matter what you do turning it over 20 times a game. Trying to teach something new to the players after a year and a half of learning would make things even worse than what they are right now. We all knew this team was going to struggle, so why not stick with it, learn from it, and get better?
Seems like a bit of a defeatist approach. You have to adapt to the hand you are dealt. Again, please explain a scenario where your 2 biggest players are the 2 farthest from the bucket when you are chucking 3s. Just one example of how this fits into your scheme. And to clarify, there is absolutely no comparison between the mens and ladies games. Coached both. Not even close.
Quote from: KL31NY on November 24, 2013, 11:41:01 PMCan anyone who has had more time to watch this team explain our defensive strategy or at least why give up so many points?
This one is pretty easy, we are not very good on defense in part because we have little size. Our forwards, Weidemann, Dean and Hamlet are guards playing out of position defensively. Not a lot we can do about that.
Quote from: jack on November 25, 2013, 06:52:22 AMOffensively, at times it looks like there is no plan. It's pretty helter skelter. There were several times where we had Karungi and Horton in together
I am sure that happened but most of the time we seem to try to feed Karungi inside if possible. If not take a 3 or more likely drive. I do not really have a problem with this as we appear to be an very good FT shooting team with the possible exception of Karungi.
Quote from: IndyValpo on November 26, 2013, 08:23:09 AM
Quote from: KL31NY on November 24, 2013, 11:41:01 PMCan anyone who has had more time to watch this team explain our defensive strategy or at least why give up so many points?
This one is pretty easy, we are not very good on defense in part because we have little size. Our forwards, Weidemann, Carr and Hamlet are guards playing out of position defensively. Not a lot we can do about that.
Quote from: jack on November 25, 2013, 06:52:22 AMOffensively, at times it looks like there is no plan. It's pretty helter skelter. There were several times where we had Karungi and Horton in together
I am sure that happened but most of the time we seem to try to feed Karungi inside if possible. If not take a 3 or more likely drive. I do not really have a problem with this as we appear to be an very good FT shooting team with the possible exception of Karungi.
A bit confused by this one. I wouldn't clasify Hamlet as a guard, Carr isn't even playing, an since she's been here, I have never seen her playing the forward position. Am I missing something here?
Quote from: jack on November 26, 2013, 11:12:24 AMA bit confused by this one. I wouldn't clasify Hamlet as a guard, Carr isn't even playing, an since she's been here, I have never seen her playing the forward position. Am I missing something here?
Sorry meant Dean...
Congratulations to Lexi Miller on her selection to the FIU Thanksgiving Classic all-tournament team!
(http://i39.tinypic.com/2hh2lw8.jpg)
They straight up blew another game, unfortunately. Up 14 with 10 minutes left in the game
Quote from: valpotx on December 02, 2013, 12:26:07 AM
They straight up blew another game, unfortunately. Up 14 with 10 minutes left in the game
I'm afraid until one of our active players decides to take the leadership roll out on the floor, we will see more games like this. We got up 14 and instead of playing to win, we played not to lose. That won't get it done. It's like these ladies are out there waiting for someone to take charge of the floor. So who's it going to be??
Quote from: jack on December 03, 2013, 02:46:45 PMI'm afraid until one of our active players decides to take the leadership roll out on the floor
i sherwood like to see that!
(http://media.naplesnews.com/media/img/photos/2012/01/09/0110_NCSP_LS_FGCUMENSBB(5)_t607.jpg)
feelsbetter.gif
Quote from: LaPorteAveApostle on December 03, 2013, 03:34:21 PM
Quote from: jack on December 03, 2013, 02:46:45 PMI'm afraid until one of our active players decides to take the leadership roll out on the floor
i sherwood like to see that!
(http://media.naplesnews.com/media/img/photos/2012/01/09/0110_NCSP_LS_FGCUMENSBB(5)_t607.jpg)
feelsbetter.gif
That kind of reminds me of when Gilligan used to tumble out of his hammock on that island. Only one couldn't see up his schwartz. Sherwood make one laugh.
Friday could be the day...0-7 Valpo vs. 1-6 Chicago State played at Toledo. We are 34-6 lifetime against the CSU.
Lord help us if we lose to Chicago State...
I'm hoping the underclassmen are learning something about leadership so that it can be applied to next season. We seem to have a bunch of really smart students. Let's hope they use that to spin this season in a positive direction.
This would be a great year for the underclassmen to get some valuable experience under their belts. Even though we are losing, I can see some improvement in some players that saw little floor time last year. That will benefit us well next season.
Experience is great, and hopefully a couple wins will help things along. Especially after the Montana State loss, some positive results in the near future could build some great positive momentum.
Food for fought, two former Valpo forwards are doing very well at other schools. Tabithia Gerardot is a big part of the 8-0 Indiana Hoosiers (best start in about two decades). Mallory Ladd is the MVC's rebounding leader at Evansville and is in the top ten for scoring, free throw shooting. That led me to think of how our list of true post players has significantly dwindled...
2011-12 forwards/centers: So. Stefanie Lang, So. Tabitha Gerardot, So. Liz Horton, Jr. Gina Lange, So. Maegen Callaway, R-Sr. Ashley Varner, Fr. Mallory Ladd
2012-13 forwards/centers: Jr. Tabitha Gerardot, Jr. Liz Horton, Sr. Gina Lange, R-So. Maegen Callaway
2013-14 forwards/centers: Sr. Liz Horton, Jr. Sharon Karungi, So. Haylee Thompson (redshirt)
Quote from: KL31NY on December 05, 2013, 04:34:14 PM
Experience is great, and hopefully a couple wins will help things along. Especially after the Montana State loss, some positive results in the near future could build some great positive momentum.
Food for fought, two former Valpo forwards are doing very well at other schools. Tabithia Gerardot is a big part of the 8-0 Indiana Hoosiers (best start in about two decades). Mallory Ladd is the MVC's rebounding leader at Evansville and is in the top ten for scoring, free throw shooting. That led me to think of how our list of true post players has significantly dwindled...
2011-12 forwards/centers: So. Stefanie Lang, So. Tabitha Gerardot, So. Liz Horton, Jr. Gina Lange, So. Maegen Callaway, R-Sr. Ashley Varner, Fr. Mallory Ladd
2012-13 forwards/centers: Jr. Tabitha Gerardot, Jr. Liz Horton, Sr. Gina Lange, R-So. Maegen Callaway
2013-14 forwards/centers: Sr. Liz Horton, Jr. Sharon Karungi, So. Haylee Thompson (redshirt)
As I haven't really followed the women's team I may be way off, but I was friends with Keith Freeman. It just seems like this situation is eerily similar to the football team. We bring in a new coach because the old one wasn't performing sufficiently well. The old one was burdened with injuries in his last year which didn't help. So here comes the new one with what must be considered very solid talent left over by Keith. What happens? Players leave, more injuries and in her second year people must start to be worried. I am.
Keith was an excellent recruiter as he was consistently bringing in Indiana All Stars and out of state people from Minnesota and other states. Wonder how much rope the new coach will be given.
Quote from: VULB#62 on November 22, 2013, 10:26:25 AM
Looking back on the last preseason, last season, and the past preseason going into this season, I am wondering why this program has had a difficult time attracting top shelf talent and depth in the first two recruiting classes. Jack, and a number of you who are closer to the program, you might have some insight into this. Usually, when a new coach is brought in to rejuvenate a program, one of the first things that occurs is a flurry of recruiting activity. Without question, talent and depth are keys to wins. Seems like we are short in both departments and the long-term outlook doesn't seem too bright either. I also recall that some of the previous regime's players were encouraged to leave and wound up doing quite well in other programs while we seem to be becoming even less competitive as Freeman's players graduate or leave. Just wondering. Maybe I'm ultra sensitive to this because of my loyalty to Valpo FB, hate to say this, and could be all wet on this speculation, but I kind of zeroed in on one post game quote "(Our players) are in (the locker room) figuring out a way to grow up and be the basketball players they came to Valparaiso University to be" and can't help thinking about the criticism that was leveled at Carlson in this board, almost from the beginning, about the perception that the fault lay with the players, not the coaching.
72, we seem to be reading from pages of the same book. It's eerie. However, the difference might be that, in football, the level of recruits seemed to improve, but the on-field performance never reflected the talent. Yet some parallels exist -- especially the handling of players , regardles of talent, left over from the previous recruiting classes. [Acknowledged qualification: From many miles away and only superficially familair with actual game scenarios] I don't sense a great coach-to-player/player-to-coach chemistry. I'm not saying you always must have a coach/player bond, but in tough times it can make the difference in close games. Time will tell, but I'm still unconvinced that this staff can recruit players for this level of play.
Quote from: VULB#62 on December 05, 2013, 07:40:44 PMQuote from: VULB#62 on November 22, 2013, 10:26:25 AMLooking back on the last preseason, last season, and the past preseason going into this season, I am wondering why this program has had a difficult time attracting top shelf talent and depth in the first two recruiting classes. Jack, and a number of you who are closer to the program, you might have some insight into this. Usually, when a new coach is brought in to rejuvenate a program, one of the first things that occurs is a flurry of recruiting activity. Without question, talent and depth are keys to wins. Seems like we are short in both departments and the long-term outlook doesn't seem too bright either. I also recall that some of the previous regime's players were encouraged to leave and wound up doing quite well in other programs while we seem to be becoming even less competitive as Freeman's players graduate or leave. Just wondering. Maybe I'm ultra sensitive to this because of my loyalty to Valpo FB, hate to say this, and could be all wet on this speculation, but I kind of zeroed in on one post game quote "(Our players) are in (the locker room) figuring out a way to grow up and be the basketball players they came to Valparaiso University to be" and can't help thinking about the criticism that was leveled at Carlson in this board, almost from the beginning, about the perception that the fault lay with the players, not the coaching.
72, we seem to be reading from pages of the same book. It's eerie. However, the difference might be that, in football, the level of recruits seemed to improve, but the on-field performance never reflected the talent. Yet some parallels exist -- especially the handling of players , regardles of talent, left over from the previous recruiting classes. [Acknowledged qualification: From many miles away and only superficially familair with actual game scenarios] I don't sense a great coach-to-player/player-to-coach chemistry. I'm not saying you always must have a coach/player bond, but in tough times it can make the difference in close games. Time will tell, but I'm still unconvinced that this staff can recruit players for this level of play.
I say give Coach Dorow a chance to recruit better players because I do think she hasn't had the players she really wants. If in 1 or 2 more years there is no improvement in both quality of players and overall record, ZERO improvement, then VU needs to make the tough decision no one wants to make. They gave Carlson 4 years, and it was probably one too many.
Quote from: vu72 on December 05, 2013, 04:47:45 PM
Quote from: KL31NY on December 05, 2013, 04:34:14 PM
Experience is great, and hopefully a couple wins will help things along. Especially after the Montana State loss, some positive results in the near future could build some great positive momentum.
Food for fought, two former Valpo forwards are doing very well at other schools. Tabithia Gerardot is a big part of the 8-0 Indiana Hoosiers (best start in about two decades). Mallory Ladd is the MVC's rebounding leader at Evansville and is in the top ten for scoring, free throw shooting. That led me to think of how our list of true post players has significantly dwindled...
2011-12 forwards/centers: So. Stefanie Lang, So. Tabitha Gerardot, So. Liz Horton, Jr. Gina Lange, So. Maegen Callaway, R-Sr. Ashley Varner, Fr. Mallory Ladd
2012-13 forwards/centers: Jr. Tabitha Gerardot, Jr. Liz Horton, Sr. Gina Lange, R-So. Maegen Callaway
2013-14 forwards/centers: Sr. Liz Horton, Jr. Sharon Karungi, So. Haylee Thompson (redshirt)
As I haven't really followed the women's team I may be way off, but I was friends with Keith Freeman. It just seems like this situation is eerily similar to the football team. We bring in a new coach because the old one wasn't performing sufficiently well. The old one was burdened with injuries in his last year which didn't help. So here comes the new one with what must be considered very solid talent left over by Keith. What happens? Players leave, more injuries and in her second year people must start to be worried. I am.
Keith was an excellent recruiter as he was consistently bringing in Indiana All Stars and out of state people from Minnesota and other states. Wonder how much rope the new coach will be given.
the last three years of freeman were a disaster with an average of less than 9 wins. His recruiting had slowed way down and his player development was probably worse. There was not very solid talent leftover. Dorow's has struggled with recruiting but hopefully the four on board for next year plus the two transfers will lead to improvement.
Keith Freeman lost a lot in recruiting when Steve Bruce left for the IUSB coaching job. That took a lot of talent evaluation and coaching experience away from Freeman's bench. We just have to give Coach Dorow and her staff some time to develop D-I talent.
Quote from: valporun on December 06, 2013, 10:41:48 AMKeith Freeman lost a lot in recruiting when Steve Bruce left for the IUSB coaching job. That took a lot of talent evaluation and coaching experience away from Freeman's bench. We just have to give Coach Dorow and her staff some time to develop D-I talent.
Coach Dorow doesn't have a bad relationship with her players, I believe. I tend to think she is level headed. I just don't believe she has the players she needs to win. That doesn't mean Valpo doesn't have some pieces that could fit into the winning team puzzle. She just needs to find more pieces. And it also doesn't mean that the peices she has couldn't play to a higher level which would help their progression for next season.
I am really confused to how anyone on here can criticize Dorow's recruiting. There is a very small sample size to look at. She has really only had 2 of "her" players this season, Lexi and Sharon, and those two both average double figures accounting for over a third of the whole team's scoring. They both are actually the teams two leading rebounders as well. We can't really judge Hamlet or Issac yet because they have missed a lot of time due to injuries. Give her time and stop comparing this program to the football team. You can do that if in 2 and a half more seasons if there is no improvement at all. But I doubt that will be the case.
http://www.valpoathletics.com/wbasketball/news/2013-14/13221/balanced-attack-vaults-valpo-over-chicago-state/ (http://www.valpoathletics.com/wbasketball/news/2013-14/13221/balanced-attack-vaults-valpo-over-chicago-state/)
Win #1
:thumbsup:
Watching these women's game recently, I forgot how aggravating it can be to watch your players leave the ball in the front of their face, and let people tie them up often. That aspect, as well as plenty of missed lay-ups, and letting the ball go through your hands.
Edit: I forgot about all of the really dumb passes too. I like watching in general, but these things really make it difficult in the women's game.
Chance to win it on our last possession here, 61-61 with 10.5 seconds and the ball
We win 63-61 on a basket by Karungi with 3 seconds left, on a missed lay-up by one of our players, putting it back from near the FT line. Good to see us get a win, but there was a ton of turnovers in this game.
Congrats to Sharon Karungi on selection of her as Horizon League Player of the Week!
(http://i44.tinypic.com/301q07p.jpg)
:thumbsup: :thumbsup: ;D
Great to get a win over Toledo.....
Where is Richardson? 23 against Montana State then doesn't play the next two....injured? sick? And these are the two games we won....
I think people need to realize that Toldeo was a very solid win, a team that was 29-4 last year! Also, they had 3,000+ fans at the game!
Good luck tonight ladies. Show the Bulldogs who's porch they came to play on! :P
Quote from: jack on December 13, 2013, 07:25:38 AM
Good luck tonight ladies. Show the Bulldogs who's porch they came to play on! :P
Butler expected to be pretty good but is off to a tough start. Now might be the time to get them.
Any win over Butler will make Crusader Nation happy :)
From what I've seen of Butler this season, and our efforts in the last two games, this one is certainly winable.
Quote from: vu72 on December 05, 2013, 04:47:45 PM
As I haven't really followed the women's team I may be way off, but I was friends with Keith Freeman. It just seems like this situation is eerily similar to the football team. We bring in a new coach because the old one wasn't performing sufficiently well. The old one was burdened with injuries in his last year which didn't help. So here comes the new one with what must be considered very solid talent left over by Keith. What happens? Players leave, more injuries and in her second year people must start to be worried. I am.
Keith was an excellent recruiter as he was consistently bringing in Indiana All Stars and out of state people from Minnesota and other states. Wonder how much rope the new coach will be given.
I'm glad someone else said what I have been thinking. Instead of always thinking the grass is greener elsewhere, maybe we need to water our own grass. Keith's hands were tied in his last two years and "his" lack of success got him ousted. Will the same treatment be given to Dorow, or will the Title 9'ers be sure to fight for a free pass? Time will tell. ml, can you chime in on this?
Quote from: ARCInsider on December 13, 2013, 11:54:13 AMI'm glad someone else said what I have been thinking. Instead of always thinking the grass is greener elsewhere, maybe we need to water our own grass. Keith's hands were tied in his last two years and "his" lack of success got him ousted. Will the same treatment be given to Dorow, or will the Title 9'ers be sure to fight for a free pass? Time will tell. ml, can you chime in on this?
I love a little revisionist history.....since he was the head coach he is measured by "his" success. In his 5 years in the HL we won at a 36% clip, under 30% in the last three years. His hands were tied with a program all his doing. If you throw out the last year which had all the injuries he still won at under 40% in the remaining 4 years.
If we continue at a similar W/L rate, this coach will get the "same treatment".
Winnable game Sunday at home vs. 3-7 Western Michigan, hopefully we come to play at the start.
Then a quick turnaround to play 7-6 South Dakota on New Year's Eve. The "KI-yoats" will be tough to handle defensively
This team is bad, losing by 29 with 11 minutes left to a 3-7 WMU team. We are being outscored 21-2 in the second half so far!!
Meanwhile at the Hall of Doom at Cincinnati, Ohio, former Crusader Tabitha Gerardot and the Indiana Hoosiers improved to a program-best start of 13-0 by defeating Xavier 62-55. Gerardot led IU in the game with 19 points and is leading for the season in rebounding (6.8 RPG, 44/44 offensive/defensive split).
Also found this feature on Gerardot recently - http://www.news-sentinel.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20131225/SPORTS/131229925/1002 (http://www.news-sentinel.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20131225/SPORTS/131229925/1002) Knew she was a double language major at VU, but she can speak five languages!
She was a big loss for us, but it truly did sound like the reason for her move was education-based, not basketball. It's amazing to see their turnaround, as that is a team that lost to us last year...
Quote from: valpotx on December 29, 2013, 02:59:27 PM
This team is bad, losing by 29 with 11 minutes left to a 3-7 WMU team. We are being outscored 21-2 in the second half so far!!
Unfortunately, we only have 2 bigs, and neither appear to know how to get possition and block out underneath. WMUs guards were out-rebounding them. Teaching ladies how to block out seems to be a lost art at Valpo.
It didn't help that our shooters weren't taking smart shots either. Richardson had a nice scoring output, but then gave up 8 or 9 turnovers which negated that. They need to work with Weideman on her inside game. I know it isn't her strong suite, but with only 2 bigs, we need the help inside. We have to be able to bring Horton in off the bench and not start her inside. Both her and Karungi have to stop the silly fouls. Ticky tacky reach in fouls drive coaches nuts!
The only bright spot was seeing Carr come in and contribute, knocking down a 3 for her first shot of the season. I hope she is healthy enough to give us the minutes we need from her.
We need a better effort from everyone or tomorrow will be just more of the same.
I watched today's game against South Dakota, and this was a winnable game for us. USD was an equal opponent to us today. What I saw as some huge problems were offensively, we don't move without the ball at all. I saw some sad sack attempts at setting screens/picks, and all five of our players were camped around the perimeter for a good five seconds waiting to see where the ball was going. No one was making anything happen. It was just pass to the open shooter and hope the 3 ball falls. We were rushing some major shot attempts just because we were open. We had zero sets that were effective. Horton is too soft for the 5, and doesn't seem to like to be near the rim at all. Weidemann should be a 4 with an occasional 3-point attempt. Right now, she's having to play the 3, but it seems like we're not in the proper roles for the offense to work appropriately for the Valpo game plan to work efficiently. Yes, I know Carr just got back on the court after time away, but her floor leadership isn't there yet, and Abby Dean is having to do too much work defensively because so many of our other players don't want to risk breaking a fingernail to be a strong defender. We give up way too much on the inside playing a perimeter zone or small man-to-man defense. Richardson, I'm tired of watching her just get the ball and jack a three. She should be driving inside to get a high percentage layup. Why isn't she doing that? Karungi just seems like she's trying to be a floor leader, but she generally can't find what she's supposed to be doing on the floor herself.
This was a winnable game for the ladies, but they blew it because they are just running around like lost sheep being sacrificed to the slaughter because they aren't playing in the right spots for either their ability or skill set. When our 4 and 5 don't get near the rim enough to be effective for their height and role, you know that we're going to get outrebounded, and not get enough points in the paint from the two positions where layups should be a fun thing to watch go in the basket. Makes me miss the days of Marlous, Schober, Braun, Stricklett and such who played at the rim, not trying to be the 3-point shooting hero.
Do the ladies still practice against a team of guys? One thing that stuck out to me while in school, was that Amber Schober, Marlous, Suzie Hammel, etc, would come to open gym and play against us to 'toughen' up.
Quote from: valpotx on December 31, 2013, 03:47:54 PMDo the ladies still practice against a team of guys? One thing that stuck out to me while in school, was that Amber Schober, Marlous, Suzie Hammel, etc, would come to open gym and play against us to 'toughen' up.
Yeah there is still a scout/practice team made up of guys that they practice against. Saw them in there a few times towards the beginning of the year
It was definitely a winnable game, but the players have to show up and want to win. We lost this one due to a lack of effort from our post players inside. Even the game commentary eluded to it. They appear to be clueless as to how to get position to block out. Karungi had 3 boards and Horton had 2. That's ridiculous, and will never get it done. That was your difference today. If I were the coaching staff,those two would work on nothing but positioning and blocking out at most every practice . I hate to say it, but they're the worst on the team at this. Not a winning trait when that's your primary job. I thought the other players did their best knowing we haven't got any post players that know how to post up, create space, and score. Sadly, another one gets away.
The difference in the game was the inability to get key rebounds, especially late in the game. In fact, the coaches were livid as South Dakota got a follow-up basket with 4 minutes left when the score had been cut to 68-64, which turned out to be the turning point in the game. However, the rebound was pulled in by SD's Harrington, a huge force inside Valpo had difficulty matching. (In fact, Valpo almost got a fortunate break as Harrington was sick throughout much of the first half and was vomiting when she was on the bench.)
It didn't help Valpo's cause that Karungi sat out the first half due to a disciplinary reason, and she appeared out of sync in the second half. In addition, Lexi Miller and Aliyah Isaac apparently sat out the game because of injury. Consequently, the team basically played only a six-man rotation (with Dean, Richardson, and Wiedemann playing nearly the whole 40 minutes) and there were definitely signs of fatigue in those last four minutes of the game.
Otherwise, the team played fairly well and those on the court seemed to me to offer a strong effort. Wiedemann looked especially good as she put up a career-high 17 points, and Jessica Carr appeared remarkably fit in her first start of the year after the terrible injuries she'd had, as she scored 12 points and had 4 assists in her 26 minutes of play.
Here are a couple of my photos of Wiedemann and Carr, and I will post a set of others at the following: http://www.flickr.com/photos/96208998@N05/sets/72157639271215554/ (http://www.flickr.com/photos/96208998@N05/sets/72157639271215554/)
(http://i41.tinypic.com/2aeqv7d.jpg)
(http://i44.tinypic.com/2iwahs4.jpg)
More of the same vs YS. This team is going backwards and fast. I know we are looking at a 2nd year coaching staff but at some point, they need to be held accountable. How do you get this far into a season without 1 single player that knows how to block out? We aren't just getting out coached in these games, we are getting out coached in practices. What are we working on? Nothing is apparent at this point. We have no one wanting to take the floor leadership roll, terrible passing, lazy defense, and poor execution, though the last one is questionable as it isn't even apparent what it is we are trying to execute. Karungi was having her way down low in the first half so what do we do? We take her out of the game plan in the second half and start chucking up 3s. We have 1 player shooting and 4 watching. No one crashing the boards at all. There were several plays where we had 3 players under the basket so deep if it would have gone in, it's anyone's guess which one would have been hit in the head with the ball. I feel for these players. They have no one directing them that appears to have a clue. Sorry if this seems harsh, but again, these are opinions I heard, and agree with, from someone watching that doesn't have an interest in the outcome. I would be embarassed if I were on this coaching staff. They are letting these players down.
We didn't score a second half point until around 9 minutes had gone by...
I'm sorry but no one should be blaming coaches when the players are have a 38.5% field goal percentage and 27.3% 3 point percentage. I don't think anyone would be successful with those kind of season numbers. And I honestly don't believe we were "out-coached" in the YSU game. We were "out-playered". We had no one even close to the level of player that #14 or #15 were for YSU. The YSU coaches figured out that if they packed in the lane like crazy on defense and force anyone else besides Karungi to do something that we wouldn't be able knock down shots from the outside. Which as been the theme for the whole season, not being able to make shots.
You don't appear to know a lot about coaching. Having been involved in coaching for many years, I can say with a great sense of confidence that, these coaches are not putting these players in the best situations to be successful. Say what you wan't about shooting percentages and blame the players all you want. Thats crap. We can't block out worth a crap. And our D sucks. Thats coaching, period.
Quote from: jack on January 11, 2014, 08:55:19 PM
You don't appear to know a lot about coaching. Having been involved in coaching for many years, I can say with a great sense of confidence that, these coaches are not putting these players in the best situations to be successful. Say what you wan't about shooting percentages and blame the players all you want. Thats crap. We can't block out worth a crap. And our D sucks. Thats coaching, period.
Come on Jack, stop being so shy, quit pussy footin around, allow yourself to be blunt, abandon your restraint and tell us what you really think. :clap:
Quote from: jack on January 11, 2014, 08:55:19 PM
You don't appear to know a lot about coaching. Having been involved in coaching for many years, I can say with a great sense of confidence that, these coaches are not putting these players in the best situations to be successful. Say what you wan't about shooting percentages and blame the players all you want. Thats crap. We can't block out worth a crap. And our D sucks. Thats coaching, period.
This problem is not just coaching and it is not just the players. The coaching is average at best. The players are a collection of average players many playing at a position they are not suited for. Kurangi is really the only 4-5 on the roster. Horton and Weidemann are wings trying to be bigger than they play. Their rebounding shows this.
I predicted this group might not win a game so at 2 wins we may be ahead of the game.
Where is Lexi Miller? As usual the game previews provide us no information...
My problem with our roster is that it looks like a D-II roster on a D-I basketball roster. None of our players look fit to the right position in the lineup/rotation. I can't really blame that on coaching as much as recruiting. We just recruit roster fillers, like some high school coaches have to do just to have a playable roster. Yes, I'm still trying to get a grasp on some of the players on our roster in terms of what type of game they have or what they are doing on the court, but some of them just seem like Coach Dorow threw darts in recruiting, or maybe played quarters with the recruiting, and if the quarter hit the target, the girl was getting recruited, and if it happened in one shot, they got a scholarship too! This roster is just a mess, and I hope it plays out that after some of these players are gone, we'll start to see a roster of players in the right spots on the floor and coming in at the right point of a game, whether a starter or off the bench.
I'll give you the fact that our roster is weak for a DI school, but there are certainly issues that can be targeted in practice to improve on our play, and it just isn't happening. The squad is what it is. No changing that this season. The mark of good coaching is getting the most out of these players, regardless if we are undersized, under-talented, etc. That isn't happening. Each and every player on this squad certainly has something to offer, when put in the possition to do so.
Again, I have never seen such a poor display of blocking out as I did against YS. It was pathetic. Many of these players didn't concentrate on blocking out in high-school because they played the 1 - 2 possitions. We basically have a squad of guards, with one 4-5 player, and maybe one 3. This is the hand we are dealt. It's high time to conduct a practice of nothing but block out drills. Our smallest players seem to be the best at blocking out, even though they are under sized. Concetrate on this next game and you will see what I'm talking about. Our bigger girls don't seem to have a clue how to get a body on someone and push them out of possition. That, in itself, would improve our chances of winning. We spent the evening chucking up 3s to no avail, with the majority being one and done as we couldn't block out to get a rebound.
We don't talk out on the floor to the help defense. YS was blowing by the defenders with no one rotating over to help out. Again, this is something that should be emphasized in practice. They can spend all the time they want to on shooting drills in practice, but they have to play to the expectation that the shot is not going in, and be in a possition to block out and rebound. It just isn't happening.
I only see a couple of players that know how to properly pass into the post. The others don't seem to understand how to set up the defender to create space to do so. How many times did we throw the ball away telegraphing the inlet pass by looking right at the post player before passing to them?
Our offense is way to vanilla. We do the same thing each and every time we come up the court on offense. We dribble to the same spot, make the same pass, rotate to the same possition, etc. A good high school squad could shut us down. We have to mix it up.
There is only so much you can blame on these players. They all have skill sets. They need the proper direction to get the most out of the skills they have. We need to be put in better possitions to be successful. At times these coaches look absolutely lost on the sidelines. We come out of timeouts, only to turn the ball over on the very next play. That can't happen.
We need a floor leader. Granted, that is up to the player to get out there and take charge. I wonder what kind of signals these players get from the coaches, to make them feel that they are expected to get out there and take charge. Who is it supposed to be? Horton? If so, get her out there early and work with her to assert herself underneath. We have to quit palying soft. Is it Carr? A point guard would be a logical choice, and she appears to be the only true point out there. if it's her, why doesn't she start against YS? What are you telling her by keeping her on the bench? Is it Richardson? She starts, but doesn't appear to want anything to do with leading, or even playing point for that matter.
These players need an identity and to know what there roll is. Weidemann is one of our better shooters, and defenders, but we also need her help blocking out to give us a better opprtunity to rebound. We just need to get the most out of the hand we are dealt, and for me, that job falls squarely on the coaches shoulders.
As for Miller, I believe she is still suffering the affects of a concusion last month.
Wow, a 33 point loss to a 7-9 mid-major. We have BIG problems. Wonder how ML will react to a 2-a bunch season??
I imagine that he will ride it out another 2 seasons, as I believe that she received a 5 year contract? We need to give her another season or two to see how her own recruits perform with age, as Keith can still be heavily attributed to our results this season. Tabitha G leaving after last season really hurt, as we could have at least been average with her and Karungi in the middle.
That sounds fair. We still have a pretty new team based on younger players and transfers, and she deserves some time to really have her own group and build them up. If I understand our current roster and NLIs, we could have 15 players next year with all eligible players returning and our newcomers, which can hopefully help us worked towards real depth at forward.
Gerardot would've been great to have around for another year. Can play the 4, 5 positions, great enthusiasm and leadership qualities. Going a little further back, Ladd would've been great between her playing ability and our lack of true inside depth, too. Those are two players who can shoot the three but are more than good enough inside to back someone down, battle for the ball off the glass, and came ready to make significant contributions since their respective freshman seasons.
Anyone watch enough of last night's game to see what we were doing defensively? I had it up in the background and saw us play some 2-3, which you really have to play well when your opponent is content to shoot and knock down the three.
Quote from: valpotx on January 16, 2014, 01:55:14 AM
I imagine that he will ride it out another 2 seasons, as I believe that she received a 5 year contract? We need to give her another season or two to see how her own recruits perform with age, as Keith can still be heavily attributed to our results this season. Tabitha G leaving after last season really hurt, as we could have at least been average with her and Karungi in the middle.
The body's been in the ground for two years now...when does Keith stop taking the blame for this mess?
Quote from: ARCInsider on January 16, 2014, 11:28:37 AMThe body's been in the ground for two years now...when does Keith stop taking the blame for this mess?
Here is the current make-up:
Freeman (6): Horton, Richardson, Carr, Weidemann, Dean, Godwin
Dorow (4): Miller, Kurangi, Issac, E Hamlet
Transfers (2) A Hamlet, Thompson
Walk-ons (2): F Miller, Taylor
Next year, it will be Freeman (4), Dorow (10)....I think he escapes blame next year.
I'm sorry, but you cannot any longer blame this mess on Freeman.
The players are going to remain who they are for the remainder of the season so there is no reason to discuss current player changes. It is up to the coaches to go back to basics, create a game plan that takes advantage of the roster strengths and limits the exposure of their weaknesses, drive home some form of fundamentally sound play, and get the players to understand their roles. These are the things coaches are supposed to do. Any players that don't buy in and act and play accordingly should sit on the bench.
It is difficult to watch these games, I just hope the coaches can find a way to turn the season around. At least with past teams I could watch a game and understands what was trying to be accomplished by the game plan or in game adjustments, currently that is impossible. Good luck to the girls. They need all the help they can get.
Our current coach can essentially claim the FR this year, as well as Karungi and transfers. How can we hold her accountable for working with our subpar upperclassmen, if she didn't recruit them? Our upperclassmen have such terrible shooting percentages, as well as constant turnovers. It'd be like expecting a Manager in MLB to turn around the Miami Marlins in 2 seasons, when all they have is role players at the moment. You can only coach a bad team so much, in order to gain victories. You can have the best plan in the world, but if you have people shooting around 30% overall, and 20% from 3, you can only do so much. The fact that Wiedemann has attempted 92 3-pointers while shooting around 20% is alarming, especially when most of what she takes is WIDE OPEN when I watch. Freeman's recent recruiting put us in this position, which can be hard to dig out of.
Quote from: ARCInsider on January 16, 2014, 11:28:37 AM
The body's been in the ground for two years now...when does Keith stop taking the blame for this mess?
Assistant coach at Wright State is far from six feet under, especially with its fine start to this season.
Quote from: valpotx on January 16, 2014, 12:05:40 PM
Our current coach can essentially claim the FR this year, as well as Karungi and transfers. How can we hold her accountable for working with our subpar upperclassmen, if she didn't recruit them?
It makes sense not to hold a coach personally accountable for certain issues with players they inherited from a previous coach or program. At the same time, whether it's a new(er) coach with a different team, a program affected by injuries or sanctions, or whatever similar scenario you want, it's up to any coach and the rest of its staff to play with the team that's available and try to put it in the best situation to succeed. As I see it, this does not seem like just a coaching thing, not just a recruiting thing, or not just a playing thing, but as a whole, we have been struggling to provide a consistent, balanced, and successful team. I don't know the right mixture or the right answer that will turn this program around, but with a second-year staff and a young team, the rebuilding and "re-branding" process (it's Valpo, couldn't help myself) is still in the early stages and will take some work to produce better results. I wish them all the best as the season continues and hope we have more fun notes to discuss in the next couple months.
Is it possible that Valpo's women's team has suffered because in the HL it is too hard for Valpo to maintain two good basketball teams? After all, this slide did pretty much coincide with switching conferences.
Quote from: StlVUFan on January 16, 2014, 04:16:44 PMit is too hard for Valpo to maintain two good basketball teams
in what possible sense? financial? attention-span-related?
As mentioned in a previous, (though long winded) post, we have major issues in the coaching department. Did anyone concentrate on our efforts to block out last night? Another pathetic effort. These coaches have got to get back to the basics with these players and work on BLOCKING OUT! Period. I can take an off shooting night, but to watch these games and our lack of blocking out and weak defense is frustrating at best.
I also watched the coaching from the sidelines, and our actions after coming off of a timeout. If they have to honor a 5 year contract with this staff, you will see more of the same for 3 more years.
Say what you want about Freeman's recruits, but that's a copout. There were several times last night where 4 of the 5 players on the floor were Dorow players - kids she brought here. And would you know it, not one knew how to block out. As a whole the best players we have at blocking out are the ones Freeman brought here.
This team has an identity crisis. It isn't clear to any of them what their actual role should be. We are beyond the halfway point of the season and our coaches are still clueless about what their roles should be.
They need more input from Helm. He seems to be the only one on the sidelines that really understands the game.
Sorry. Back off the soapbox. Carry on.
Quote from: LaPorteAveApostle on January 16, 2014, 04:24:05 PM
Quote from: StlVUFan on January 16, 2014, 04:16:44 PMit is too hard for Valpo to maintain two good basketball teams
in what possible sense? financial? attention-span-related?
Financial, and dare I say Title IX sense as well...
Just spit-balling, no more. Maybe attention-span as well, I don't know.
Just taking a macro view: in the Mid-Con during my tenure as a serious fan, both teams were always fun to watch. I still remember 2003 and 2004 winning the auto-bid both years on last second plays. Both years gave power conference teams fits before bowing out in the first round. 2002 team went to WNIT Final Four.
Both teams have faced upgraded competition. Just can't help wondering if there was only enough of <whatever-it-is> for one of the teams to scale the new heights and not enough left over for the other to keep up.
I have no idea what <whatever-it-is> might be, really.
Quote from: jack on January 16, 2014, 04:58:51 PM
As mentioned in a previous, (though long winded) post, we have major issues in the coaching department. Did anyone concentrate on our efforts to block out last night? Another pathetic effort. These coaches have got to get back to the basics with these players and work on BLOCKING OUT! Period. I can take an off shooting night, but to watch these games and our lack of blocking out and weak defense is frustrating at best.
I also watched the coaching from the sidelines, and our actions after coming off of a timeout. If they have to honor a 5 year contract with this staff, you will see more of the same for 3 more years.
Say what you want about Freeman's recruits, but that's a copout. There were several times last night where 4 of the 5 players on the floor were Dorow players - kids she brought here. And would you know it, not one knew how to block out. As a whole the best players we have at blocking out are the ones Freeman brought here.
This team has an identity crisis. It isn't clear to any of them what their actual role should be. We are beyond the halfway point of the season and our coaches are still clueless about what their roles should be.
They need more input from Helm. He seems to be the only one on the sidelines that really understands the game.
Sorry. Back off the soapbox. Carry on.
THIS. This guy gets it. Anyone blaming Keith needs to wake up...regardless of who recruited the players, we should be seeing improvement throughout the season and basic fundamentals being executed.
Keith is currently in a sweet situation and has helped turn his program around and meanwhile we are cellar-dwellers. Is it too late to bring Keith back?
Yes, we should be seeing improvement throughout the season, that I can agree with. I also agree that basic fundamentals can be taught and executed better currently. However, that doesn't mean we should be winning the games we are losing, with the talent we have. All it means is that these 20-30+ point losses we are seeing would be cut to 10-20 point losses. We just don't have the talent leftover from the previous regime, to immediately be competitive in this league. Give it another year, and if we are still doing the same things, then it needs to be looked at more. Even big schools give any coaches a few years to turn things around, because they are playing with a previous coach's talent.
Quote from: valpotx on January 17, 2014, 01:40:32 AM
Yes, we should be seeing improvement throughout the season, that I can agree with. I also agree that basic fundamentals can be taught and executed better currently. However, that doesn't mean we should be winning the games we are losing, with the talent we have. All it means is that these 20-30+ point losses we are seeing would be cut to 10-20 point losses. We just don't have the talent leftover from the previous regime, to immediately be competitive in this league. Give it another year, and if we are still doing the same things, then it needs to be looked at more. Even big schools give any coaches a few years to turn things around, because they are playing with a previous coach's talent.
Success breads success. Cutting these losses down to single digit losses would go a long way in instilling confidence in these players, but you won't see that until there is a major coaching philosophy change. We were down by 25 pts to a 6 and 9 Oakland squad at the half. We came out after the break with more of the same. These players came out defeated before the buzzer sounded to start the second half. These players don't have confidence in their coaches, because their coaches don't have confidence in them. That is overwhelmingly apparent when you see our starting line up. The players, I assume, they want to grab the reigns and be team leaders are sitting on the bench. Noone in the starting line up the other night showed any signs, or interest, in stepping up to the leader role. They don't talk, direct traffic, control the pace, nothing. You send your team out with a defeatest attitude from the start. They will never understand the importance of a floor leader. Freeman understood this. His downfall was the injury plagued squads he had to deal with his last 2 years, and the loss of Ladd, which he was grooming the team to work around.
As for giving these coaches a free pass until they get through the "other" recruits, that's just plain bunk. It is actually an indication of their ability, or lack of it, to identify strength's and weaknesses, and play these players to their strengths. Instead, we are going backwards. They don't see the need to get back to the basic fundamentals of the game.
Andy Reid went to Kansas City - a 2 and 14 team last year, and utilizing mostly the same players, got them to the playoffs this season. He went their, changed the philosophy, and instilled confidence in his players. He wasn't expecting a pass for a few years because he was playing with someone elses players. I too think Dorow deserves time to instill her philosophy, but if it doesn't include instilling confidence, and showing signs of improvement, then I'd have to say her philosophy is flawed. The sign of a good coach is knowing when something isn't working, admitting so, and making some changes. The only change I see is further discouragement for the players you need to count on to turn this thing around.
Quote from: jack on January 16, 2014, 04:58:51 PM
As mentioned in a previous, (though long winded) post, we have major issues in the coaching department. Did anyone concentrate on our efforts to block out last night? Another pathetic effort. These coaches have got to get back to the basics with these players and work on BLOCKING OUT! Period. I can take an off shooting night, but to watch these games and our lack of blocking out and weak defense is frustrating at best.
I also watched the coaching from the sidelines, and our actions after coming off of a timeout. If they have to honor a 5 year contract with this staff, you will see more of the same for 3 more years.
Say what you want about Freeman's recruits, but that's a copout. There were several times last night where 4 of the 5 players on the floor were Dorow players - kids she brought here. And would you know it, not one knew how to block out. As a whole the best players we have at blocking out are the ones Freeman brought here.
This team has an identity crisis. It isn't clear to any of them what their actual role should be. We are beyond the halfway point of the season and our coaches are still clueless about what their roles should be.
They need more input from Helm. He seems to be the only one on the sidelines that really understands the game.
Sorry. Back off the soapbox. Carry on.
And sometimes we see what we want to see. I just went through the entire play-by-play for the Oakland game an at no point, repeat no point were 4 or 5 Dorow players on the floor at the same time. 7 minutes in the 1st, 10 minutes in the second there were three.
Look there is plenty of blame to go around here. The prior coaches recruited a group capable of winning 8-12 games based on the last several years. The current coaches has done nothing to make them better. Basically everyone invloved is responsible except for us fans.
Quote from: IndyValpo on January 17, 2014, 08:30:15 AM
And sometimes we see what we want to see. I just went through the entire play-by-play for the Oakland game an at no point, repeat no point were 4 or 5 Dorow players on the floor at the same time. 7 minutes in the 1st, 10 minutes in the second there were three.
Look there is plenty of blame to go around here. The prior coaches recruited a group capable of winning 8-12 games based on the last several years. The current coaches has done nothing to make them better. Basically everyone invloved is responsible except for us fans.
The only thing that has to be considered is that maybe these players would be performing better in Keith's system. They were recruited by him to play his style...maybe Dorow needs to watch some old VU film and put some of that stuff into practice.
In regards to Andy Reid, he also has Alex Smith as his QB, versus the crappy combination of Matt Cassel/Brady Quinn from the year before. A decent QB can make or break a team, and the only thing KC had going for them last year was a great defense (crappy offense). Completely different than our situation, where a FR or transfer in women's basketball won't typically lead to 10 additional wins.
Quote from: IndyValpo on January 17, 2014, 08:30:15 AM
Quote from: jack on January 16, 2014, 04:58:51 PM
As mentioned in a previous, (though long winded) post, we have major issues in the coaching department. Did anyone concentrate on our efforts to block out last night? Another pathetic effort. These coaches have got to get back to the basics with these players and work on BLOCKING OUT! Period. I can take an off shooting night, but to watch these games and our lack of blocking out and weak defense is frustrating at best.
I also watched the coaching from the sidelines, and our actions after coming off of a timeout. If they have to honor a 5 year contract with this staff, you will see more of the same for 3 more years.
Say what you want about Freeman's recruits, but that's a copout. There were several times last night where 4 of the 5 players on the floor were Dorow players - kids she brought here. And would you know it, not one knew how to block out. As a whole the best players we have at blocking out are the ones Freeman brought here.
This team has an identity crisis. It isn't clear to any of them what their actual role should be. We are beyond the halfway point of the season and our coaches are still clueless about what their roles should be.
They need more input from Helm. He seems to be the only one on the sidelines that really understands the game.
Sorry. Back off the soapbox. Carry on.
And sometimes we see what we want to see. I just went through the entire play-by-play for the Oakland game an at no point, repeat no point were 4 or 5 Dorow players on the floor at the same time. 7 minutes in the 1st, 10 minutes in the second there were three.
Look there is plenty of blame to go around here. The prior coaches recruited a group capable of winning 8-12 games based on the last several years. The current coaches has done nothing to make them better. Basically everyone invloved is responsible except for us fans.
I believe at one point there was Karungi, Miller, issac, and Hamlet on tge floor at one time. Maybe not, but that wasn't really the point. I guess we will just continue to make excuses for 3 more years.
Carry on.
Quote from: valpotx on January 17, 2014, 11:14:04 AM
In regards to Andy Reid, he also has Alex Smith as his QB, versus the crappy combination of Matt Cassel/Brady Quinn from the year before. A decent QB can make or break a team, and the only thing KC had going for them last year was a great defense (crappy offense). Completely different than our situation, where a FR or transfer in women's basketball won't typically lead to 10 additional wins.
That he did, but he also figured out what he had, and how develop a plan to best use all the other talent that was already there. Our problem isn't our "quarterback". It's our plan. It isn't about an expectation of instant wins. It's about steady and tangible improvement. If you claim to see that, then we are watching 2 different programs for sure. Lets revisit this after the Detroit game. This will be a good yardstick to see what we have learned.
No matter what side of the debate you are on, I think we can all agree that we are just looking for some kind of improvement over the rest of the season. We saw a glimpse of it yesterday against a Wright St. team who has easily the best player in the league and tons athleticism (especially compared to our team). Despite the 23 turnovers and giving up 19 offensive rebounds, we still fought all game long and looked pretty good offensively and defensively for stretches. Yes, it's still a loss. But it's a baby step forward that everyone wants to see.
Quote from: jack on January 19, 2014, 10:22:17 AM
Quote from: IndyValpo on January 17, 2014, 08:30:15 AM
Quote from: jack on January 16, 2014, 04:58:51 PM
As mentioned in a previous, (though long winded) post, we have major issues in the coaching department. Did anyone concentrate on our efforts to block out last night? Another pathetic effort. These coaches have got to get back to the basics with these players and work on BLOCKING OUT! Period. I can take an off shooting night, but to watch these games and our lack of blocking out and weak defense is frustrating at best.
I also watched the coaching from the sidelines, and our actions after coming off of a timeout. If they have to honor a 5 year contract with this staff, you will see more of the same for 3 more years.
Say what you want about Freeman's recruits, but that's a copout. There were several times last night where 4 of the 5 players on the floor were Dorow players - kids she brought here. And would you know it, not one knew how to block out. As a whole the best players we have at blocking out are the ones Freeman brought here.
This team has an identity crisis. It isn't clear to any of them what their actual role should be. We are beyond the halfway point of the season and our coaches are still clueless about what their roles should be.
They need more input from Helm. He seems to be the only one on the sidelines that really understands the game.
Sorry. Back off the soapbox. Carry on.
And sometimes we see what we want to see. I just went through the entire play-by-play for the Oakland game an at no point, repeat no point were 4 or 5 Dorow players on the floor at the same time. 7 minutes in the 1st, 10 minutes in the second there were three.
Look there is plenty of blame to go around here. The prior coaches recruited a group capable of winning 8-12 games based on the last several years. The current coaches has done nothing to make them better. Basically everyone invloved is responsible except for us fans.
I believe at one point there was Karungi, Miller, issac, and Hamlet on tge floor at one time. Maybe not, but that wasn't really the point. I guess we will just continue to make excuses for 3 more years.
Carry on.
Pointing out facts really isn't making excuses but whatever. Dorow has plenty of problems without making stuff up.
69-51 L at UIC. Still winless in league play and now eight consecutive defeats overall.
9+ minutes without a bucket to close the game. Until a made free throw from Charae in the closing seconds, we were in line to finish the game with nearly eight scoreless minutes while the Flames scored 19 straight. Led for most of the first half, did a good job defensively w/ UIC mostly going for 3's and deep 2's. Flames were much better getting inside and grabbing rebounds and loose balls during the second half.
Also fwiw, mlb in attendance with the short trip to the UIC Pavilion. Always liked the trip myself, especially if you could bring back a W
BIG win tonight for the ladies.
Good job ladies, hopefully a sign of better things to come as the conference season progresses. The 3 ball has been our weakness all season, and it looks like it actually helped us out in this one.
Good effort in this one. The D was one step ahead of them the entire game. I think the starting 5 played well together. They all seemed to communicate much more then in previous games. We have to build from this one.
A much needed victory! Interestlingly realtimerpi.com had last night as our only victory the remainder of the season...
Anyone remember that 80-28 win over Youngstown State four years ago? That's what last night felt like. Amazing effort and execution. We kept Detroit without a field goal for a 17-minute stretch between halves.
Between that and the men pulling out a tough win at Youngstown State, yesterday was a great day to be a Crusader.
I guess I was surprised that there's someone in the HL who could play worse than Valpo (and not for nothing, but the Lady Titans are the reigning WBI champs). I tuned in with about 14 minutes to go in the game and could not believe my eyes when I saw the score. Actually, I noticed the halftime score on twitter and thought it was a typo.
At one point, Todd or Dave announced the halftime score was 43-13, and I was shocked by that.
Quote from: StlVUFan on January 24, 2014, 04:28:27 PMthe Lady Titans are the reigning WBI champs
I watched some of it, and saw some of their players, so I would venture to guess it isn't in the featherweight class
I guess Detroit's team has the leading scorer in the HL, and she was held to 10 points.
Though the team lost to Cleveland State last night (76-66), I thought they played fairly well and displayed a bit more confidence following the win over Detroit. The women shot well (52% fg, 43% 3pt) and they fought throughout the contest. Unfortunately, they resembled the men's team in some of their losses. Turnovers (23) led to a disparity in points off turnovers (20-3), and as the men have done a couple of times, they were victimized by unusually good three-point shooting by the opponent: Cleveland State made 15 3-pt shots, with one player making 7 in the best game of her career. Like the men also seem to do sometimes, the women got in a hole, falling behind by 10 points at the half, and they played much better the second half.
Therefore, despite the loss, I felt the team exhibited some noticeable improvement. Here are a few of the photos I took:
(http://i41.tinypic.com/9u7l2p.jpg)
(http://i39.tinypic.com/2v2e63l.jpg)
(http://i43.tinypic.com/i4odmv.jpg)
They were up against a great 3 pt. evening by CS. I felt they could have still pulled it out though, if not for the turnovers, and poor shot selection coming into the final 7 minutes of play.
What stood out to me:
* CS scored 20 pts. off of our 23 turnovers.
* Karungi struggled holding on to the rock underneath.
* I may be wrong, but I don't recall any bounce passes. This squad has gotten away from any bounce passing. I think the majority of our turnovers came with ill advised, or poor execution of some over the top passing.
* A little better job of blocking out, but we still go through stretches where we don't work to get a body on a defender and gain possition. Too many times, the shot goes up, and our 5 on the floor become spectators. We just aren't hungry for the ball inside on rebounds.
* Based on the D we were playing, we were challenging them to beat us from outside - and they answered the challenge. I think the coaching staff doesn't feel we are quick enough to switch off into a man to man and mix it up a bit. I think even a box in 1 would have been more effective with what they were trying to do offensively.
I have now posted a set of 22 photos from the game against Cleveland State, including the one below of Jessi Wiedemann, who had a career night with 21 points. I hope you enjoy the photos, which can be viewed at the following: http://www.flickr.com/photos/96208998@N05/sets/72157640248715476/ (http://www.flickr.com/photos/96208998@N05/sets/72157640248715476/)
(http://i62.tinypic.com/dxgqpu.jpg)
Quote from: jack on January 28, 2014, 02:02:45 PMThey were up against a great 3 pt. evening by CS. I felt they could have still pulled it out though, if not for the turnovers, and poor shot selection coming into the final 7 minutes of play.
What stood out to me:
* CS scored 20 pts. off of our 23 turnovers.
* Karungi struggled holding on to the rock underneath.
* I may be wrong, but I don't recall any bounce passes. This squad has gotten away from any bounce passing. I think the majority of our turnovers came with ill advised, or poor execution of some over the top passing.
* A little better job of blocking out, but we still go through stretches where we don't work to get a body on a defender and gain possition. Too many times, the shot goes up, and our 5 on the floor become spectators. We just aren't hungry for the ball inside on rebounds.
* Based on the D we were playing, we were challenging them to beat us from outside - and they answered the challenge. I think the coaching staff doesn't feel we are quick enough to switch off into a man to man and mix it up a bit. I think even a box in 1 would have been more effective with what they were trying to do offensively.
I think you meant to post this under "Men's Team".
Also you misspelled "Vashil".
Quote from: LaPorteAveApostle on January 28, 2014, 07:03:00 PM
Quote from: jack on January 28, 2014, 02:02:45 PMThey were up against a great 3 pt. evening by CS. I felt they could have still pulled it out though, if not for the turnovers, and poor shot selection coming into the final 7 minutes of play.
What stood out to me:
* CS scored 20 pts. off of our 23 turnovers.
* Karungi struggled holding on to the rock underneath.
* I may be wrong, but I don't recall any bounce passes. This squad has gotten away from any bounce passing. I think the majority of our turnovers came with ill advised, or poor execution of some over the top passing.
* A little better job of blocking out, but we still go through stretches where we don't work to get a body on a defender and gain possition. Too many times, the shot goes up, and our 5 on the floor become spectators. We just aren't hungry for the ball inside on rebounds.
* Based on the D we were playing, we were challenging them to beat us from outside - and they answered the challenge. I think the coaching staff doesn't feel we are quick enough to switch off into a man to man and mix it up a bit. I think even a box in 1 would have been more effective with what they were trying to do offensively.
I think you meant to post this under "Men's Team".
Also you misspelled "Vashil".
Nope, but if they are having the same issues, maybe it's an overall philosophy that needs to be adressed in the basketball program. We need to realize our strengths, and work the programs around that. The personnels of these squads are what they are. We need to taylor a plan to put them in the best situations to be successful, consistently. That plan will need to cater to the opponent at hand. easier said than done, but it can be done.
The CSU loss was tough to swallow because of how they did what they wanted to defensively. Shut down #1 (averaging 25 and 11 in conference play), we held her to 13 and 7. So you look at that as a win, but when #4 (3 for 20 from three point land in conference play) goes 7 for 14, she more than made up for it. Offensively, they are finally hitting some shots. It's funny how that helps. Just need to stop turning the ball over so much and not have those classic Valpo 4 or 5 minute stagnant stretches. We're not quite there yet, but incredibly improved ever since the bad Oakland loss.
We're up by two points at halftime in Green Bay
2nd was, uh, not so good
Quote from: HC on February 03, 2014, 10:18:55 PM
2nd was, uh, not so good
You blew it! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZ9N215ieKs#)
70-42 L; Scoreless in 10:27 stretch bridging halves (8 misses, 8 turnovers), allowing 15 unanswered in the process
Just looked at the girls' schedule and I realized we are 3-18...wow. Two of those wins are against Chicago State and Detroit, so do they really count? We're looking very seriously at a 4-26 season. I just don't see how we can go into next season with the same staff if this is the case. Not saying TD is gone, but maybe assistants get run?
REALLY makes you re-think the whole "Keith has gotta go" thing.
Quotes coming, first a historic one that came to remind reading ARCInsider, then older ones from the forum. Hope you enjoy
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. -Albert Einstein
Quote from: VULB#62 on April 23, 2012, 02:33:54 PM
It appears from the year-by-year record attached to the release that she only had three sub.500 seasons and two of those were consecutive. And with that exception, whenever the record dropped below .500 it was immediately followed by progressively stronger winning seasons. That suggests recruiting youngsters and developing them into winners and then starting over again. Hopefully, at Valpo she can reach the re-load level. Best wishes to her.
Quote"We've had some games where we competed well when we found ourselves in a hole and came back, but still lost. We have to get this team to invest themselves fully in the game. They have to realize that if they want to be champions, losing has to hurt, and they need to find ways to win," Dorow said. -Torch article, 2013
Quote from: valpotx on January 17, 2014, 01:40:32 AM
Yes, we should be seeing improvement throughout the season, that I can agree with. I also agree that basic fundamentals can be taught and executed better currently. However, that doesn't mean we should be winning the games we are losing, with the talent we have. All it means is that these 20-30+ point losses we are seeing would be cut to 10-20 point losses. We just don't have the talent leftover from the previous regime, to immediately be competitive in this league. Give it another year, and if we are still doing the same things, then it needs to be looked at more. Even big schools give any coaches a few years to turn things around, because they are playing with a previous coach's talent.
The coaching staff, minus 1, came from DII. say what you want, but the game is played and coached differently in DI. I think we have the talent, but lack the direction, and ability to adjust a game plan when needed. We should be seeing marked improvement as the season goes on. So much of it is confidence in what you are trying to accomplish. Granted, we've had momments, but let's not confuse some of these with the fact that our apponents were having a really bad off night. Sometimes you just have to chalk things up to biting off more than you can chew.
Still not ready to put this on the coaches until I see how we start next season. If you miss wide open shots like we do, don't block out, and shoot less than 30% from 3, it's on the players...
Lexi Miller has been named an Horizon League "Top Performer of the Week": Congratulations!
(http://i59.tinypic.com/1tla8k.jpg)
Quote from: valpotx on February 10, 2014, 10:39:12 AM
Still not ready to put this on the coaches until I see how we start next season. If you miss wide open shots like we do, don't block out, and shoot less than 30% from 3, it's on the players...
Granted, we have missed a fair amount of 3's, but not blocking out, lack of bounce passing into the paint, and forcing issues we shouldn't be are all things they should be working on in practice, and coached up heavily. Are there player error issues? Certainly. Are there coaching errors in both practices and games? Absolutely.
Starting next season, we lose Richardson, Horton, and Hamlet. Who do you see currently on the roster that will be stepping in next season to improve our possition beyond where we are now? What freshmen do you see coming in that will make an emmediate impact? Unfortunately, the past 2 seasons have hurt our stock when it comes to recruiting an instant impact player. Given that, we need to look at what we are doing with the players we have. Are we putting them in the best possitions possible to be successful? Are we changing up anything to try and play to their strengths? Are we making game time adjustments that are needed based on the changes our apponents are making? Are we emphasizing the importance of blocking out, and working hard on it in practice?
82-73 loss to UIC. Better shooting than the first match-up (we actually outshot UIC, FG% 3% FT%). Otherwise, not so pretty. Specialty points all go to the Flames: Points in the paint-UIC 46,VALPO 32. Points off turnovers-UIC 24,VALPO 11. 2nd chance points-UIC 24,VALPO 8. Fast break points-UIC 12,VALPO 0. Cue jack once again talking about not blocking out.
Attendance was listed at 244. The only lower home attendance total we have had since joining the Horizon League was South Dakota (239) on December 31 earlier this season.
We missed some lay ups tonight that would have won the game, if they had fallen. I agree with jack about fundamental box outs and physicality to win the rebounds that should lead to 2nd chance points keeping this team in several games this season that could have been W's, like tonight. We weren't outshot or outplayed, just looked like we didn't either want to win, or do the things to get rebounds and 2nd chance points. The coaching staff has some work to do in figuring out the right pieces to fit into next season, as the whole team will be their recruits. If they don't get wins next season, then it is time to return to the coaching search.
Are the Sophomores on the team (non-transfers) really counted towards this coaching staff? It would be my belief that since TD was hired during April before their FR year, that this coaching staff's role was just to keep our current commits at that time, committed to our school. I wouldn't think that they truly recruited them, just maintained, right? That's a big reason I believe she should truly be judged next season, as she will have 2 classes of players that she recruited, with the transfers as well.
Quote from: valporun on February 10, 2014, 10:58:39 PM
We missed some lay ups tonight that would have won the game, if they had fallen. I agree with jack about fundamental box outs and physicality to win the rebounds that should lead to 2nd chance points keeping this team in several games this season that could have been W's, like tonight. We weren't outshot or outplayed, just looked like we didn't either want to win, or do the things to get rebounds and 2nd chance points. The coaching staff has some work to do in figuring out the right pieces to fit into next season, as the whole team will be their recruits. If they don't get wins next season, then it is time to return to the coaching search.
Another dissapointng loss. It was good to see our shots were falling much better this game. Probably one of our better offensive outputs this season.
Again, the boxing out, or lack there of was our undoing. This coaching staff needs to spend an entire practice doing nothing but boxing out drills. Teams don't needs size to rebound. They need to be taught how to get possition and push the defender out of the block. It truly is as fundamental as any other aspect of the game.
As for next season, we will still have a few players left over from the Freeman era that were either recruited, or lured here by him. I believe Carr, Dean, and Weidemann are were brought here by Freeman.
I still think I isn't going to matter much who we get to come here if we don't adjust our philosophy to maximize our efforts.
Case in point: I noticed this during the game last night but wanted to confirm with the box score and play by play. Carr, even though she didn't contribute a lot in scoring (5pts), dished out 5 assist. Not a great outting, but a decent one. 3 of these assist came in the second half in a 68 second span with 7 minutes to go which contributed to 8pts by our shooters. We certain needed points at this juncture. Then, at the 4:37 mark, Dorow took her out, and she never returned. Looking at her stats, she only had 1 TO and 1 PF, so I am at a loss to understand this move. She inserted players who she felt could come in and score, but at this point, UIC had a much better chance of stopping the shooters, than a player who is finding the open shooters when needed. There were some other late substitutions tht got me scratching my head as well.
I realize we all can watch the same game and see things differently, but this was one of a few things that stuck out in last night's game that I was able to confirm wit the box score.
Good effort ladies. If we can get our boxing out woahs worked out, we could be a decent team I feel.
Quote from: jack on February 11, 2014, 07:48:48 AMThen, at the 4:37 mark, Dorow took her out, and she never returned.
Good find--observed/spoken like an ex-coach if ever there were one. Puzzling for sure! 3 dimes in just over a minute is impressive, no matter what level you're on.
82-74 L in a close game at Cleveland State. Any win would have been nice; this could have been a BIG road win since Cleveland State is just out of first place right now. Compared to our first encounter w/ the Vikings, we did a much better job controlling the basketball and we shot well, mainly due to some fantastic looks in the paint where we scored the majority of our points. Karungi scored 25 points and went 12-of-14!!! We even won the overall rebounding battle again.
That being said, it's frustrating that our offense can do so well (50% FG, only 14 turnovers) only to have a poor defensive output negate it. CSU has the best three-point percentage in our league (which we saw firsthand w/ 15-33 shooting (46%) in the first meeting), and we give up 17-33 shooting (52%) this time.
Wish we could get a game like that to go our way. Next chance is at Youngstown on Saturday. Anyone up that way needs to pick up some Handel's http://handelsicecream.com/ (http://handelsicecream.com/)
Tough loss. Nice effort.
Had the run, and great momentum, and 3 quick and sloppy turnovers at the 9 minute mark in 2nd half turned the tide. Great game by Karungi, and a nice job of our guards finding the bigs inside. Still struggling to block out but a bit better job, and some lucky breaks underneath. Good effort ladys! Good momentum going into YS.
It seems like we are playing much better and competitive basketball. It's a good sign for next year, hopefully, when we can pull these games out!
Time to change up our zone strategy. We've been torched by 30 - 3 pointers in 2 games. Doesn't matter how well we play offensively. When you give up 90 points in 2 games from outside the arch, there isn't much chance of a "W".
Good win against Oakland today, and a solid game from Karungi!
Attendance was up to 800+....much better than the 245-400 we've been getting. Buuuuuut, still awful. Changes need to be made.
Quote from: ARCInsider on February 23, 2014, 03:05:03 PM
Attendance was up to 800+....much better than the 245-400 we've been getting. Buuuuuut, still awful. Changes need to be made.
I have no idea what is typical for a women's game in the Horizon, but 800 is more than the typical D3 men's game.
Quote from: vu72 on February 23, 2014, 03:54:10 PM
I have no idea what is typical for a women's game in the Horizon, but 800 is more than the typical D3 men's game.
Valpo's Current + Past Six Years Home Attendance:
2013-14: 406
2012-13: 522
2011-12: 454
2010-11: 590 (1877 for #17/16 Notre Dame)
2009-10: 606
2008-09: 853 (1374 for #23/21 Purdue (WE WON), 2046 for #8 Notre Dame)
2007-08: 608
BTW, how 'bout that win against Oakland? I remember being completely frustrated watching our loss to OU earlier this season on HLN, so getting a win in the rematch is so sweet!
I would say that 800 is very good for a mid-major women's basketball team. I would agree that we should be closer to 600+ in average though, so hopefully we will get back to that and success as well!
I imagine some of the crowd was due to the earlier men's game with people that stuck around.
Great effort in this one. Much better job in all aspects of the game. I thought we did well, and made some smart decisions with the ball when they were pressing. We got the ball up the floor too quick many times before they could set up the press. Our inside game was solid. It helps when the outside shot is falling. Karungi probably played her best qame yet. her no quit attitude inside was huge. Need more of it. She's holding up well without the help from Horton right now. We need to get her back and healthy.
Great effort ladies. Let's see more of the same Wed.
81-79 L
I only saw the first few minutes online, when UDM's defense was porous & we were hitting all of our shots. So how did we let our big lead slip away?
This game was ours to win. My thought is, when we came out in the second half, we should have switched up to man to man. They were shreading our zone as the half went on. We still have some players that don't quite understand the "help" in help defense. It's unfortunate to lose a game like that when we are shooting so well. Carr had a career night behind the arch. Karungi was big again underneath. We needed to put a spy on Shearer in the second half and deny her the ball. That should have been our number one goal. Force ther others to beat us, because they couldn't have. Everyone in that gym new Shearer was going to turn it lose at some point in the second half. We needed to be in her Jersey.
Great effort again ladies. We know what to do when we face them in the tourney.
Quote from: jack on February 27, 2014, 06:26:32 AMWe needed to be in her Jersey.
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A positive sign in the last 10 games or so is that we keep the games much closer. Hopefully good things to come in the next few, as well as next season
We fell apart somewhere in the first half. I know we had a huge lead then, and by halftime, the Titans had narrowed that lead severely. After that, we looked like a team that didn't know how to get the lead back. We have the fight, but it just didn't work for us against the Titans when we needed it most.
Another close loss, in what looked to be a low shooting % game. Karungi should be good next year if she gets some support. I didn't realize that Richardson averages over 4 turnovers per game, and Wiedemann is around 3+ as well. What does Faith Miller do in these games, mainly defense? She has played in just about all games, but doesn't have any stats to speak of.
F. Miller plays very limited minutes,and yes, she's inserted for defensive reasons. I haven't seen her individual stats, but I don't recall her taking many shots at all.
Another tough loss vs Green Bay. We gave ourselves a chance. We played much better in this one. It's refreshing to see them play down to the wire and actually be in a possition to win. I guess if there is a silver lining, we are much more competitive coming into the tournament than I anticipated we would be. We just need to learn how to close the deal.
I didn't see the women's game from Saturday, but with it being so close, and Green Bay not being the usual dominant team of the past few years or more, who could make noise on the women's side of the HL tourney? YSU or CSU? Who?
Green bay, though not as dominate in years past, is still in the drivers seat. Let's face it, the rest of us didn't belong in the same league as Green Bay for several years. I see this one as fairly open. It all comes down to who wants it the most. If we can get past Detroit, I don't think we will get to the promise land, but we can spoil it for others I think.
Quote from: jack on March 03, 2014, 02:28:49 PMGreen bay, though not as dominate in years past, is still in the drivers seat. Let's face it, the rest of us didn't belong in the same league as Green Bay for several years. I see this one as fairly open. It all comes down to who wants it the most. If we can get past Detroit, I don't think we will get to the promise land, but we can spoil it for others I think.
I almost forgot which thread this was and started to type "what do you mean Green Bay dominated for years!" Then I remembered that the GB women have been dominate in previous years. You have to give credit to UWGB for being able to recruit basketball players to a town known for football and being frozen in winter. Good to see that the women's teams have evened things out and that both HL tournaments will be wide open.
Women win by 14 over UWM! This team is playing much better over the last 1 month+. How about Karungi again, with 23 and 8 on 11/14 shooting in 21 minutes! Charae with 24 as well. Imagine how much better we would be with Karungi and Tabitha in the game at the same time...
Plus, Jessica Carr is in mid-season form now, so we have a good ball handler to bring the ball up the court. We also had a size advantage, but not sure if that was due to UWM's suspended players or lack of bench for this game.
Agreed. It makes a big difference having a natural point that's comfoftable bringing the ball up. Other players do it, but it's clear they are out of their comfort zone doing so. Carr does a nice job anticipating, and avoiding the trap.
We need a good game at WS to end the regular season, and keep some momentum going into the Tourney.
Tournament time! Looks like we're heading to Detroit for Monday's #8/#9 game. 7pm eastern, 6pm central.
Speaking of tournament time, I rediscovered former Crusader Raegan Moore (2009-10 season), who is wrapping up her final season at Duquense with a WNIT bid likely coming next week. Good tall guard off the bench for us, but followed her redshirt year with two seasons of limited reserve play. This season, she's a regular starter and second in scoring with 14.2 PPG!!! Should Duquesne make the WNIT this season (and it should), it'll be the Dukes' sixth straight appearance in that tournament.
Nice win at Detroit last night. If you would have said we'd get the W with Kanrungi netting 2pts, I would have called you crazy. What a great evening for Horton to shoot lights out. We truly needed that. I thought Carr had another good night controlling the ball and the pace, and knocking down 14 of her own. The contributions came from everywhere in this one, with Dean, who's battling an illness, coming in to pitch in 5. I thought our defense, as a whole, did a nice job of disrupting what they were trying to do. Our guards did a good job of breaking the trap all night.
Congrats ladies. You earned this one! Off to Green Bay.
Quote from: jack on March 11, 2014, 06:56:10 AMOff to Green Bay
off WITH green bay! :)
would winning this game erase all the bad taste of the season?
Winning this game would be epic, and why not us? 9-22 Denver is playing for a Summit League title against South Dakota as we speak, er, type!
Absolutely. Why not? We gave them fits last game. Anything can happen any given game.
I came across a really good article about Carr in the NWI paper yesterday. I never really realized the battle she fought to get back to playing this season. She stated she knew they could beat Detroit. We have the talent. If they all can find her confidence, who knows?
Thanks for the tip on the article. Here's the link: http://www.nwitimes.com/sports/basketball/college/carr-has-crusaders-ready-for-horizon-league-tournament/article_16d564de-aaa0-574a-85b2-014919b145b0.html (http://www.nwitimes.com/sports/basketball/college/carr-has-crusaders-ready-for-horizon-league-tournament/article_16d564de-aaa0-574a-85b2-014919b145b0.html)
Heads up, before I could read the article, I had to watch a sponsor video to access the site. How new is this for the Times?
Quote from: KL31NY on March 11, 2014, 05:45:32 PMHeads up, before I could read the article, I had to watch a sponsor video to access the site. How new is this for the Times?
Hm...I didn't, and I've not run into that yet on the site.
4:45 to play at the Kress Center...GB 66 VU 41... Carr leading the way with 15 pts and 6 rebs...
Season over. Tough way to end it. You hate to see it end on that note, but it sure highlighted what we need to work on. First, I want to say, hats off to Carr. 6 3s tonight, along with the same in boards, and maybe the same in assist. We appreciate the battle you fought to even be playing this season.
Now then, where the hell was everyone else tonight? Not how you want to end a season. With an average game from everyone else, we get a "W". Have to be hungry and want to win, or you are wasting your time. This one isn't on the coaching. They did their part. The returning players need to look within and decide if this is really what they signed on for.
A note of appreciation to the seniors who played their final game in a Valpo uniform: Charae Richardson, Liz Horton, and Elizabeth Hamlet. Thank you!
(http://i59.tinypic.com/mhzvp2.jpg)
(http://i62.tinypic.com/2qcqgbq.jpg)
(http://i58.tinypic.com/2ijndwy.jpg)
Absolutely. I wish them the best in where ever life takes them. Thank you for your dedication to Crusader Basketball.
It'll be interesting to see what's in the works for next year. I've heard some grumblings, but nothing solid, or verifiable.
Quote from: jack on March 17, 2014, 12:04:55 PMI've heard some grumblings, but nothing solid, or verifiable.
Jack, grumblings would suggest bad things, I hope that is not the case.
Interesting to see that Wright State dethroned Green Bay to advance to the NCAAs. Congratulations to them and to their asst coach, Keith Freeman.
Quote from: FWalum on March 17, 2014, 12:40:42 PM
Quote from: jack on March 17, 2014, 12:04:55 PMI've heard some grumblings, but nothing solid, or verifiable.
Jack, grumblings would suggest bad things, I hope that is not the case.
I guess I should have said "rumblings", but then, based on ones' perspective, grumblings could still work.
Quote from: vu72 on March 17, 2014, 01:27:46 PM
Interesting to see that Wright State dethroned Green Bay to advance to the NCAAs. Congratulations to them and to their asst coach, Keith Freeman.
This doesn't surprise me. I felt that Wright State was the better team. We played GB tight the first match up, and if Carr could have gotten some help the second time, it could have been a different outcome. Congrats Wright State, and coach Freeman. he deserved some success to come his way.
No small feat when GB has taken 12 out of the last 17 NCAA bids from the HL
Wright State beat Green Bay 88-69 so it was a pretty convincing win on Green Bay's home court.
What a disappointing HL tourney run for both Green Bay basketball teams.
Quote from: jack on March 17, 2014, 01:33:41 PM
Quote from: FWalum on March 17, 2014, 12:40:42 PM
Quote from: jack on March 17, 2014, 12:04:55 PMI've heard some grumblings, but nothing solid, or verifiable.
Jack, grumblings would suggest bad things, I hope that is not the case.
I guess I should have said "rumblings", but then, based on ones' perspective, grumblings could still work.
I guess this is where you can decide if it's a "rumbling" or a "grumbling"
I notice on the site today that Coach Helm's name has been removed from the list of coaches. Anyone know anything about this?
Quote from: jack on March 19, 2014, 03:23:31 PM
Quote from: jack on March 17, 2014, 01:33:41 PM
Quote from: FWalum on March 17, 2014, 12:40:42 PM
Quote from: jack on March 17, 2014, 12:04:55 PMI've heard some grumblings, but nothing solid, or verifiable.
Jack, grumblings would suggest bad things, I hope that is not the case.
I guess I should have said "rumblings", but then, based on ones' perspective, grumblings could still work.
And then........Crickets!
I guess either mum's the word, or no one in the know is talking.
I guess this is where you can decide if it's a "rumbling" or a "grumbling"
I notice on the site today that Coach Helm's name has been removed from the list of coaches. Anyone know anything about this?
Yes, Helm has been fired. School isn't saying anything official.
...saying anything official YET or EVER?
Who knows. The current regime doesn't do a lot of "PR" stuff. Very insular.
Quote from: Pgmado on March 21, 2014, 06:42:08 PM
Yes, Helm has been fired. School isn't saying anything official.
In my opinion, this was a huge mistake. Not only did Helm have a great relationship with these players he also has the most basketball knowledge of anyone on that staff.
My guess is, with the lousy season they had, someone needed to be the sacrificial lamb, and Helm was the last hold over from the Freeman regime. Personally, I think the wrong choice was made. We shall see. If I were a bettor, I'd say this isn't a popular decision with the players, and others.
[tweet]465933961202393088[/tweet]
This next season will determine a lot in regards to whether she is the HC of the future. Here's hoping that we have some great incoming recruits, and that our underclassmen develop A LOT in the offseason!
Justin will be a tremendous addition to the staff, especially in terms of recruiting. This guy is special and really is the piece the staff has been missing (no offense to Helm...he's a super guy).
Quote from: jack on March 17, 2014, 12:04:55 PMIt'll be interesting to see what's in the works for next year. I've heard some grumblings, but nothing solid, or verifiable.
I have seen nothing as of yet, are we expecting everyone back? Will Faith Miller get a scholarship?
Not official yet, but a third Hamlet sister, Meredith, committed to Valpo today. She is a 2015 recruit:
"It's safe to say that McBain junior guard Meredith Hamlet was destined to be a standout basketball player. Older sisters Elizabeth and Annemarie both starred for McBain in their time as Lady Ramblers and now, Meredith is taking her turn, having scored over 1000 career points and this year averaged 21.3 points, 8.2 rebounds and 6.8 assists a game and now has been named the Marion Press Girls' Basketball Player of the Year...."
Here is the rest of the article.
http://www.marion-press.com/2014/03/mcbains-hamlet-is-presss-player-of-the-year/ (http://www.marion-press.com/2014/03/mcbains-hamlet-is-presss-player-of-the-year/)
Hopefully she can help us turn the program around, as we definitely need some scorers!
we now have a village of hamlets
The 14-15 roster is out, only Issacs plus track walk-on Taylor are not listed. All others plus 4 recruits appear to be in.
13 players: 10 guards and 3 forwards
Quote from: VULB#62 on July 03, 2014, 09:19:16 AM13 players: 10 guards and 3 forwards
and we thought the men's team was too guard heavy
I believe that 3 Forwards are better than what we played with last season!
that's awfully forward of you.
maybe if we had taller women, clay yeo would still be a crusader today ;)
Quote from: LaPorteAveApostle on July 03, 2014, 01:36:05 PM
that's awfully forward of you.
maybe if we had taller women, clay yeo would still be a crusader today ;)
Maybe if Clay was better looking he would be the "center" of attention of the women's team. ::)
not to steal Tex's line in advance (ok, it is), but there's always the volleyball team.
Looks like another year of getting beat up in the paint for the ladies...I think the Dorow experiment may be on its last leg.
Quote from: VULB#62 on July 03, 2014, 09:19:16 AM
13 players: 10 guards and 3 forwards
Kind of misleading, more like 4 guards, 3 posts and 6 wings.
Quote from: IndyValpo on July 07, 2014, 09:47:32 AM
Quote from: VULB#62 on July 03, 2014, 09:19:16 AM
13 players: 10 guards and 3 forwards
Kind of misleading, more like 4 guards, 3 posts and 6 wings.
Unfortunately, VULB#62's asessment is more accurate. The majority of these women played the guard possition in highschool. We need a good coaching staff to teach them how to roll out to the wing and play the possition right. Do we have that?
It's tough recruiting size when you continue having the seasons we have had, and your staff isn't know to work well with tall, inside players. It's a catch 22 really. We don't have size, and we don't win cosistently, so players of size look elsewhere. You're right, it looks like another year of taking a beating in the paint. I think we had a few guards out-rebound what little size we did have last season. Unless something changes, the 2015 - 2016 season isn't looking any better. Not only are we a guard heavy squad, we only have 1 true point guard in Carr, and she's gone after this season.
[tweet]496304735331561472[/tweet]
Very interesting, and congrats to her!
Congrats to her. She will be missed this season. Liz has some great potential to make some noise in Germany. I wish her all the best!
Quote from: jack on August 05, 2014, 07:00:24 AMLiz has some great potential to make some noise in Germany.
(http://us.cdn4.123rf.com/168nwm/dvarg/dvarg1209/dvarg120900420/15312898-megaphone-or-bullhorn-with-red-not-allowed-sign-or-symbol.jpg)
(http://www.stupidedia.org/images/thumb/e/e8/Alles-verboten.jpg/300px-Alles-verboten.jpg?filetimestamp=20100711182729)
Actually should be
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(http://d1.stern.de/bilder/wissenschaft/2006/17/ruhe_fitwidth_489.jpg)
I think you're showböten.
Women received a verbal commitment from Claire Marburger, a 5'10" senior from Perry, Iowa.
Verbal commitment for what year?
Quote from: valpopal on August 23, 2014, 05:55:06 PM
Women received a verbal commitment from Claire Marburger, a 5'10" senior from Perry, Iowa.
CLAIRE MARBURGER - G/F - 2015 - KINGDOM HOOPS
5-10 - PERRY H.S. - PERRY, IA
Marburger is a gritty left-hander with abilities to play inside with strength and quick moves, as well as the ability to play the perimeter and knock down sweet looking three-pointers. Marburger hit a great one in their initial game from the corner that was smooth as could be and hit a couple more treys in another contest he finished with 17 points.
- See more at: http://ny2lasports.com/article_one.aspx?articleid=1397#sthash.eeBUovpW.dpuf (http://ny2lasports.com/article_one.aspx?articleid=1397#sthash.eeBUovpW.dpuf)
Class 4A POY according to the Des Moines Register. Iowa has five classes. Perry is a town of about 10,000 to 12,000 in central Iowa. Perry doesn't normally play the big schools from Des Moines or Iowa City since they are in the largest (5A) class. To be the POY as a junior is pretty impressive.
Paul
Looks like a good pick up. 5'-10" with an inside / outside game is always good!
Does anyone remember about when the schedule finally came out last season?
I believe they are just waiting on the conference schedule to be given to them. Then it will be released.
It's out today.
http://www.valpoathletics.com/wbasketball/news/2014-15/13880/crusaders-release-2014-15-schedule/#.VBrq8UsXKgE (http://www.valpoathletics.com/wbasketball/news/2014-15/13880/crusaders-release-2014-15-schedule/#.VBrq8UsXKgE)
OOC opponents include:
Butler
@Indiana
@ NIU
Louisville
Tulsa
@Miami (O)
Illinois
Quote from: VULB#62 on September 18, 2014, 09:28:06 AM
It's out today.
http://www.valpoathletics.com/wbasketball/news/2014-15/13880/crusaders-release-2014-15-schedule/#.VBrq8UsXKgE (http://www.valpoathletics.com/wbasketball/news/2014-15/13880/crusaders-release-2014-15-schedule/#.VBrq8UsXKgE)
OOC opponents include:
Butlerhttp://www.facebook.com/ValpoFanZone
@Indiana
@ NIU
Louisville
Tulsa
@Miami (O)
Illinois
Very impressive. If only the men could get such a schedule!! :(
It looks like a tough schedule indeed. It's good to see they go after some talented apponents. Let's hope those 11/30 and 12/13 matchups on a Sunday and Saturday vs Loiusville and Illinois put some butts in the bleachers.
I See the Women's game with Butler game tips at 5pm on 11/14 and the Men's game with East Tennessee State scheduled for 7:30(ish).
and these same-day-in-the-ARC games... women start at 1:35,Men at 7:05
Saturday 12/6 - Women Vs. Tulsa; Men Vs. New Mexico
Saturday 12/13 - Women Vs. Illinois; Men vs. Ball State
Saturday 1/10 Women Vs. UIC, Men Vs. Cleveland State
Saturday 2/21 Women Vs Youngstown, Men Vs. Wright State (Senior Night)
The Women are also home on 11/22 against Tennessee Tech at 1:35. Interesting, since the Football team kicks off at 1pm against Davidson about 100 feet north of the ARC.
and their last regular season game is at Youngstown on March 7th... they scheduled the game for 1pm so as not to conflict with (cough cough) YST's possibly hosting the HL Semi-Finals as the #1 seed.
I'm not sure of the feasibility issues, but I would think that on the days where both women and men play at the ARC, it would make sense to schedule the games closer together to maybe help the attendance out for both.
It would make sense to do that, jack, but for the OOC games, there might have been some travel issues that didn't work in the opponents' favor based on where their next game might be, or if they are just going back to campuses.
The odd one is the tip off at virtually the same time as the KO against Davidson. A 3-4PM tip off would guarantee more than just players' parents. There's plenty of time to make that correction.
Has anyone heard of any other commits to the class of 2015?
Quote from: VULB#62 on September 19, 2014, 12:25:38 PMThe odd one is the tip off at virtually the same time as the KO against Davidson. A 3-4PM tip off would guarantee more than just players' parents. There's plenty of time to make that correction.
I worry about the Band! Playing the National Anthem at both of these events may be an issue...but, this is the first Saturday of Thanksgiving Break.... Plenty of tickets are still available for both games. 1-877-my-vu-tix.
Don't they usually have a student or faculty member sing the National Anthem at basketball games, even during academic breaks? If so, Problem Solved!
Good pic Dutch, as evidenced by the VU Shield in the photo
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The women lost to a seemingly weak Wisconsin-Parkside 69-52 in an exhibition this afternoon. The first half was a disaster, but the team came back to outplay their opponent 27-21 in the second half, especially looking good on defense when they held Parkside to 5-27 shooting. The big differences in the game proved to be turnovers and fouls. Valpo committed 22 turnovers, while Parkside took 32 free throws to the Crusaders' 8. Indeed, the difference in free throws made was 18 points.
Valpo was missing a number of players who are injured, and Karungi had a particularly tough game as she shot 0-11. However, if there was a bright spot, the freshmen (Walker, Franklin, and Hamilton) looked good. In fact, frosh Dani Franklin led the Crusaders in scoring. Dean and Hamlet (below) also played well much of the game.
(http://i62.tinypic.com/51sf8n.jpg)
I have posted a gallery of 16 photos from the exhibition game vs Wisconsin-Parkside at the following link: https://www.flickr.com/photos/96208998@N05/sets/72157649075427891/ (https://www.flickr.com/photos/96208998@N05/sets/72157649075427891/)
Quote from: valpopal on November 01, 2014, 07:03:50 PMThe women lost to a seemingly weak Wisconsin-Parkside 69-52
[/b].
As I posted under a separate thread, this is a D2 team picked 5th in their conference. A disaster way to start. Why are there so many injuries this early??
I'm sure the ladies were looking forward to playing someone else besides themselves. I wouldn't read too much into this loss. Unfortunately, as it seems with most years, the pre-season injuries hurt us both during practice and games. It was important to get the newbies out there and going and out of their comfort zone. This game spotlighted the issues we need to work on:
1. Foul trouble. Some fouling can be acceptable if you're battling inside, but too many of ours were silly fouls.
2. Leads to the next - lack of aggressive play underneath. When you're outsized, as we almost always are, you have to block out and fight for possition. Unless you're shooting lights out, you need to be able to pull down some offensive boards.
3. Some sloppy passing. We must take care of the ball. We also had some nice passing that we couldn't get a handle on. We lacked concentration at times.
4. Speaking of concentrating, we have to focus and finish. We missed too many shots that should have been easy 2's.
It was good to get out and mix it up to get started. We have plenty to work on before Butler. I like our talent, though young, but I feel we will see improvement game to game. Need to get everyone healthy soon.
The women will face a tough challenge on Friday with Butler, especially if the team continues to have key players out due to injuries. I hope they stay close in the first half and get a bigger home crowd for support in the second half as part of a doubleheader with the men's team.
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Butler is in their worst position in years. 3 starters and 3 subs left the programs either during or immediately after the season. New coach, only 9 on scholarship with 3 additional wallk-ons one of which is a VB player who has not joined yet. If we can't beat these guys at home it does not bode well.
Add to this the game preview says that 2 probable staters for Butler will sit this game out....
Let's not under estimate how far our Valpo program has fallen.
OTOH, I'll give this women's team a huge PLUS for the year
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if they can knock off the Bulldogs. I don't care if BU had to recruit in the dorms the day before the game, much like Chicago State. ;D
In wake of tonight's opener, I figured I would mention that the Women's team had 4 girls sign their NLI yesterday. Allison Schofield, Meredith Hamlet, Hannah Schaub, and Claire Marburger.
Marburger is rated as a 90 on ESPN and the #19 Forward in the nation. Schaub is rated as a 88 and the #91 Point Guard. Schofield is considered a 3 star recruit according to prospectsnation.com Hamlet was 1st team All State in Class C as a junior averaging 21.3 points, 8.3 rebounds, 7.1 assists and 3.8 steals.
Seems like a pretty good group and leaves one scholarship remaining for what you would think would be a big girl, more than likely a JUCO or foreign player as it's late in a game to grab a quality big still uncommitted in high school.
Maybe not actually on having a 5th scholarship available. Either way I would suggest to whoever made the scholarship chart for the Women's team adjust to Aliyah Isaac not longer being with the program and Sarah Godwin being on the 2015-2016 docket twice.
Thanks for the heads-up--would you like editor privileges?
Also answers the question as to whether Sharon Karungi will get a fourth year of eligibility, since VU doesn't think so--all 15 are given away for next year already.
Valpo currently up 10 on Futler but...NO VIDEO YET!!! Let's hope this screw up doesn't carryover to the men's game!
91-57 Valpo!!! Buck Futler continues :)
That's quite a thumping. In which conference does this Butler team play?? :crazy:
Quote from: valpo4life on November 14, 2014, 12:43:35 PM
In wake of tonight's opener, I figured I would mention that the Women's team had 4 girls sign their NLI yesterday. Allison Schofield, Meredith Hamlet, Hannah Schaub, and Claire Marburger.
Marburger is rated as a 90 on ESPN and the #19 Forward in the nation. Schaub is rated as a 88 and the #91 Point Guard. Schofield is considered a 3 star recruit according to prospectsnation.com Hamlet was 1st team All State in Class C as a junior averaging 21.3 points, 8.3 rebounds, 7.1 assists and 3.8 steals.
Seems like a pretty good group and leaves one scholarship remaining for what you would think would be a big girl, more than likely a JUCO or foreign player as it's late in a game to grab a quality big still uncommitted in high school.
Worth noting that Hamlet is the younger sister of our recent Hamlet transfers! All because they didn't like Oakland, and apparently like our school. After today's beat down of Butler, things appear promising to start the season. This is why we wait to judge a coach until year 3...
(http://mt-st.rfclipart.com/image/big/f3-8b-18/set-of-colourful-pluses-Download-Royalty-free-Vector-File-EPS-31757.jpg)
Huh??
bbtds: "PLUSSES!"
'72: "nonplussed"
I know that Butler has some personnel issues, but I really didn't think this game would be a 34 point beat down. This has the makings of a very long season for the Lady Bulldogs. On the flip-side this is just what the doctor ordered for our women's team!!!
Best the team has looked since the Freeman era...still a long way to go to reach those heights, but it's a great start!
While we wait for the men to play later today, I have posted a gallery with more than 20 photos from the women's win over Butler for all to enjoy: https://www.flickr.com/photos/96208998@N05/sets/72157648904471820/ (http://www.flickr.com/photos/96208998@N05/sets/72157648904471820/)
Quote from: FWalum on November 14, 2014, 08:31:20 PM
I know that Butler has some personnel issues, but I really didn't think this game would be a 34 point beat down. This has the makings of a very long season for the Lady Bulldogs. On the flip-side this is just what the doctor ordered for our women's team!!!
Let's hope the momentum carries over to tomorrow night's game vs IU. I know that Butler had their issues, but for once it seems it's someone else and not us. We actually had 13 dressed and ready. Could be a record! :P I was very impressed by the young talent we have. We have more size inside than we had in past years. This team seems to be built for speed. That could be big as the season progresses. Our guards were crashing the boards with some impressive numbers also.
I agree, we needed to get out of the gate this way.
Check out IU's freshman guard Tyra Buss. She is the best recruit they have ever signed. A four year starter in HS with a career average of 38 points per game...nearly 46 a game her last two. She was also 89-0 in tennis and qualified for the state track meet in 5 different events. She scored 18 in their opener.
http://www.tyrabuss.com/ (http://www.tyrabuss.com/)
She's from Mt, Carmel, IL. Their HS plays in a conference in Indiana.
http://indianagirlsbasketball.homestead.com/files/girlslogs413.htm (http://indianagirlsbasketball.homestead.com/files/girlslogs413.htm)
http://indianagirlsbasketball.homestead.com/files/girlsconf2.htm (http://indianagirlsbasketball.homestead.com/files/girlsconf2.htm)
And yowser! What a looker!
She's the Hoosiers' Ace now!
Looks, smarts, athletic beyond comparison.......plays tennis and her high school uses the nickname Aces........how did she not end up at Stanford, Harvard, Northwestern, Valpo............ ;D
Our job will be to contain and deny her, and force the others to beat us. We have the speed to keep up, and we need to keep throwing fresh legs at her.
Quote from: jack on November 18, 2014, 07:01:03 AM
Our job will be to contain and deny her, and force the others to beat us. We have the speed to keep up, and we need to keep throwing fresh legs at her.
Can you get any fresher legs than Tyra has? I mean, honestly. Tyra sure is Banking on her future in the WNBA!
I'd never get tired of looking.......I mean I don't think Valpo will tire out Tyra.
Suddenly it's not that far to Bloomington.
(http://www.tyrabuss.com/DSC_0028__2_.jpg) (http://www.tyrabuss.com/DSC_0010__2_.jpg)
Sure. attack her by committee. Granted, she certainly has stamina, but we have some pretty quick guards that can run with her, and switch off when needed. It'll take more than her to get the W. We have to play smart, hit our bunnies, block out, and run our offense. Need to be smarter with the clock also. We rushed to many shots once we built a lead with Butler. With IU, the clock will be our friend I believe. We need to work it down and play offense. My guess is we will be facing a full court press a lot tonight. We need to be ready for it, and spread the floor for outlets. Buss is a great player, but we can't focus too much on that and not enough on what we need to do to beat this TEAM.
Well, I'm all for Valpo keeping the momentum going and defeating IU by shutting down the marvel from Mt Carmel. Unfortunately I won't be in Bloomington by 7:00 p.m. tonight.
Salivating over pictures of a high school girl competing in track and field? Umm...
Quote from: bbtds on November 18, 2014, 09:50:39 AM
Well, I'm all for Valpo keeping the momentum going and defeating IU by shutting down the marvel from Mt Carmel. Unfortunately I won't be in Bloomington by 7:00 p.m. tonight.
I was able to parlay a late meeting down there with the game so I think I'll be able to catch the action. I'll fill you in on how it goes.
It seems that we need to get some of the D2 players off the floor.
Beating this IU squad was certainly a tall order, but I thought it would be a closer contest. Some of our girls looked a little "star struck" to start the game. The guards were doing a decent job containing Buss out on top, but when she did get buy our bigs weren't sliding over and picking her up. We made it too easy for her. There are certainly things we learned and need to work on. it was probably a good outing for our newbies to see what we will be up against this season. We will never be the bigger team so we have to figure out ways to get it done. I spent most of the night watching our inside game on offense and defense. I hope when the coaches watch this one they see the following.
Our footwork inside on both sides of the ball is horrendous. Our block out technique is terrible. many times we would get position, with our weight shifted to the foot farthest from the basket. it was way to easy to push us of the spot. On offense, we were missing inlet passes because our feet weren't planted and balanced. I would like to see a coach take the bigs and spend an entire practice working on footwork. It has to improve or we will not get any better.
Our guards were doing a good job of moving the ball, but our bigs out on top were telegraphing their passes, and when they were passing it in down low, they were getting the ball in at terrible angles to be able to do anything with it.
We just need to play smarter. We have some very young talent but it seems some are developing some bad habits.
Much to work on here. We can get it done though. Games like this are a learning experience for the entire team.
The first year head coach sure did inherit a superior star player and complete team. Here are the highlights from IUHoosiers.com
http://www.iuhoosiers.com/sports/w-baskbl/recaps/111814aab.html (http://www.iuhoosiers.com/sports/w-baskbl/recaps/111814aab.html)
Well, see if this IU team commands the Big Ten. They certainly will be near the top.
I think it's more a case of IU has greatly progressed, rather than we've regressed, since we last beat them.
Tyra Buss is going to be the next Skyler Diggins, not just athletically but culturally, I'll bet.
I know what you mean about it being weird about ogling a college girl, but it's still somehow less creepy to me than the guy who kept making comments about Coach Dorow.
Up 40-13 on NIU at the half. Miller with 13, Franklin with 10 and 8.
I was just about to post that as well. These 'D2' players are beating the crap out of another D-1 school.
Valpo wins 65-50, despite 20 turnovers, and only 5 for NIU!
11 of the 20 turnovers came from 2 players. 5 came from Carr along with no assists, as a senior PG you would figure outings like this were behind her but not tonight. Hopefully she can pick things back up after a slow start to the season compared to how she ended last season.
Either way it's nice to see the Women's team above .500 no matter what part of the year and with what appears to be a much improved offense and some winnable games coming up.
I wish there were some easy way to track "games won by 15+ when losing turnover battle by 15+" except I somehow bet it would be this game only.
It is a truly remarkable stat. Someone should find out...get that guy Elias on it!
Why isn't Sharon Karungi playing?
She was riding the bike for the majority of the first half at the end of the bench. My guess would be some kind of nagging injury or maybe even sickness.
Karungi went down with an injury in the IU game. It appeared to be a leg injury. The fact that she was riding a bike is a good sign.
The first half of last night's game went well. I think it'll take some time for the newbies to learn how to play with a nice lead. putting a team away when you have them on the ropes comes with experience.
The second half stats were a bit concerning. This game shouldn't have been this close. We got sloppy with the ball and all but quit playing defense the final 5 minutes. Probably some residual runover from the IU beatdown.
Carr didn't have one of her better games. I believe she ended with 6 pts., 5 turnovers, 0 assit., and 4 fouls. Some of the turnovers were lack of concentration. The assist were 0, but could have been 5 if the players she was getting the ball to could have finished. I follow the assist, but since they take 2 to complete, I don't put a bunch of stock in them for individual numbers. I felt she was getting the ball where she needed to at times. That's all the guards can do. I felt our guards played well overall. Our bigs need to position and clear out underneath and give them lanes to pass to.
The first half we defended about as good as we can I think.
It got ugly, but it was still a W. Like mentioned, we are 2-1, which we haven't seen in a while. Hopefully they can take the positives and build on them for tomorrow nights game.
The team looked great in the first half last night, but struggled in the second half. In fact, it seemed that they were rattled as the score became close. As has been mentioned, there were far too many turnovers, but they overcame that with some good defense and excellent 3-pont shooting. Tomorrow's game will be difficult since the team hasn't had long to rest, especially if Karungi's ankle problem keeps her from playing again. Tennessee Tech beat Florida International by 17 but lost to Wake Forest by 17; Valpo is somewhere between the two. Therefore, the main question: Will we see the Crusaders' team from last night's first half or from the second half?
(http://i60.tinypic.com/35a4nzo.jpg)
Another solid first half so far against Tennessee Tech. We are shooting lights out from 3 this season, and I hope that it keeps up! We are up 48-34, on 10 of 18 shooting from 3!
Speaking of great 3pt shooting...we were prominently featured on espnW highlights the other night after NIU.
(i know, i know)
http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=11912450&ex_cid=espnapi_public (http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=11912450&ex_cid=espnapi_public)
Fast forward to 1:43--the last 50 seconds is all us.
When you shoot 54% from the 3 you probably will win! :o Nice win. Keep it going!!
Ask and ye shall receive. Carr with a much improved performance all around tonight which is what I believed to be one o,f it not the main factor in tonight's impressive showing. Tennessee Tech had a lot of athletes and some solid size on the court, they should be a quality team this year. Probably the best win this regime has had since it's win over IU on the opening game 2 years ago.
The next three home games are Louisville, Tulsa and Illinois. If the women can shoot near that well against the tough opposition I think they could upset one or two of those teams.
It would be a great time to get out and see the women's team play against this stiffer competition. That was no easy Tenn Tech team they beat handily.
Quote from: valpo4life on November 22, 2014, 10:24:57 PM
Ask and ye shall receive. Carr with a much improved performance all around tonight which is what I believed to be one o,f it not the main factor in tonight's impressive showing. Tennessee Tech had a lot of athletes and some solid size on the court, they should be a quality team this year. Probably the best win this regime has had since it's win over IU on the opening game 2 years ago.
[/quote
I have to agree, this was one of their bigger wins. Carr showed why she's one of the team leaders. Much of what she did in this contest doesn't show up on any stat sheet. She kept her teammates engaged, directed traffic, and did a great job of handling the press. Kudos to her.
I thought the newbies played more focused and with confidence. They are improving with each game. That is key. We have a better shooting group than we've had in some time. It was good seeing Jessie W. get out there and drop 3 - 3's. We need that contribution from her. We are making ourselves tough to defend with our outside game right now. I know it's early, but if we are picked to finish 8th in this league, there must be some very, very good teams in the Horizon league this year.
Keep it going ladies!
It seemed that if Haylee from Hailey (Idaho how that happened) would gain some strength and get help under the basket from Karungi and Franklin we might be able to challenge Louisville and Illinois. I don't really know if Tulsa is in the top tier or not. I don't believe we'll shoot that well against the Cardinals and Illini but with some good crowds and spirited team play there is a chance to get this Valpo team an unprecedented turn-a-round that almost no program in Valpo history has ever experienced. Tennessee Tech isn't quite the strong team that I thought they were but they did have many very athletic ladies, especially the point guard.
I believe TT is a better ball team then they appeared to be last night. One, I felt our D was at a level they weren't used to seeing yet this season. Two, when you face a team that's hitting from outside by multiple players, it takes some time to make the needed adjustments. I believe knocking down that first 3 after they jumped out to a 2 - 0 lead was huge in setting the tone for the game.
Whatever this year's women's team does will bring about a turnaround that will most likely match the turnaround made by the 2001-2002 team. If you remember, the 2000-2001 team lost a lot of players to graduation the previous year, and were 7-21, then came back in 2001-2002 and not only won a lot of games, but made the WNIT, and made it to the Sweet 16 of that tournament, and then followed it up with consecutive appearances in the NCAA tournament. I can't say this team will have the same progression, but I will be excited to see how competitive they stay.
[tweet]537036311321116673[/tweet]
Good for her. It's great to watch her confidence grow with each game. We have some quality young talent to compliment our veterans. The vets are playing better too it seems, knowing they have some help, and players are getting healthy. This might be the most talent we've had in some time.
Anyone going to the Akron game tonight?
I look forward to this Akron game. I also look forward to the person who stated that we were putting 'D2' talent on the floor, eating their words this season :)
Just remembered this game was on. The Lady Crusaders are trailing the Lady Zips of Akron, 41-29. Our leading scorer is Dani Franklin with 7 points. Looks like we haven't been able to get anything going so far.
Also, did some searching around the Akron website, and found some FREE video for this game: http://gozips.sidearmsports.com/watch/?Live=39 (http://gozips.sidearmsports.com/watch/?Live=39)
Quote from: valpotx on November 25, 2014, 03:41:51 PM
I look forward to this Akron game. I also look forward to the person who stated that we were putting 'D2' talent on the floor, eating their words this season :)
Looks like you might be eating your words in this one. The way we are playing tonight, a D2 team would work us over. Why Dorrow hasn't sat her starters and clear the bench is beyond me. Even the announcers are laughing at us. Was considering making it to the Louisville game, but probably time to reconsider. This is the worst I have seen us play in 2 years. We totally have given up on defense. Going to be a fun ride home I am sure. No one is taking charge on the floor or the bench. Total breakdown by all.
We weren't ready for prime time.
jack, our biggest issues seem to be that Akron can't miss, we can't make shots, and when Akron has the ball, they run on us. Their transition has been blinding us, then they get the ball back to the perimeter, and the 3 ball falls. I don't think anyone on our roster is built for that. They just have to take their lump on this one. It wasn't anything we did right or wrong, just nothing we could do to counter their attack.
That's a copout. Granted, they were hitting lights out, but saying it wasn't anything we did wrong is being disingenuous to this team. We did plenty wrong. We weren't rotating on defense, we panicked when we got down and were taking ill advised shots, we continue digging ourselves a hole with our inability to hold onto the ball, and we are telegraphing our passes. We weren't talking out on the floor, and our vets weren't picking up our rookies. I could go on, but I think I made the point I was after. This was a breakdown in all aspects of the game. How you go from Saturday's outing to this is a mystery to me. Akron is good team, but not IU good. We never tried to assert ourselves in any phase of the game. We gave in very early on and started playing the game they hoped we would play. Beating this team was a tall order, but being embarrassed by them shouldn't be acceptable.
This team has a lot to talk about before Louisville comes to town.
I wasn't saying that we would beat Akron, I was talking about after the season is over. We are going to have a much improved season within conference, and overall.
I hope you are right. I was replying to your comment that it wasn't anything we did wrong. If we are to have an improved season, we need to realize we did many things wrong and work to correct them. We have a couple of tough games ahead, and win or lose, we must keep improving as we worked towards conference play.
I attended that Akron game and deserve some sort of "pin" to add to watching some of our men's and women's most lopsided losses.... Notwithstanding, we are a half-full kind of analyst. Looked like we were sluggish (not excuses but long bus ride, thanksgiving, blah blah). We had our chances in 1st half and we failed repeatedly. Too many missed bunnies, too many missed open jumpers 2s and 3s. Akron outphysicaled us from the start and we accepted it. (Refs didn't help early either). We had a chance to cut half time lead to 4 or 6 from 10, but had empty possessions 3 straight times. Poor rebounding, no serious box outs and allowed their beef to exploit inside. And did we mention Akron shot lights freaking out. #12 hit like 4 3s off the bench and all were nylon. Look at our shooting % 20/70. Ugly. We did not aggressively attack the basket. When we run inside out and swing the ball (ball movement emphasis point) we looked solid and can see that we will be effective. Akron's #15 was the best athlete on the court, reverses, hangers, jump shots. #42 is a beast especially when she can indiscriminately go over the back but again got to have better position. Akron is well-coached and trapped/doubled us high, and we did not release ball soon enough to make them pay. Foot slow and need to toughen up. First half was a decent game. 2d half not so much. One certain -- even as well as Akron played, if we are a D2 team then so is the rest of the mid-majors. We have enough D1 talent to compete at D1 level. But, we need more every year. Akron had players from Michigan that we should be in on. We should be able to outrecruit schools like Akron for talent.
What will it take to be improved in HL play for this year? Last year we won 3 games in HL play, plus another in the HL tournament. The previous year we won 5, then one more in the HL tournament. Would 5 HL wins, plus another in the HL tournament, and a few other close games indicate that this team is heading in the right direction?
Quote from: valpo84 on November 26, 2014, 09:52:52 AM
I attended that Akron game and deserve some sort of "pin" to add to watching some of our men's and women's most lopsided losses.... Notwithstanding, we are a half-full kind of analyst. Looked like we were sluggish (not excuses but long bus ride, thanksgiving, blah blah). We had our chances in 1st half and we failed repeatedly. Too many missed bunnies, too many missed open jumpers 2s and 3s. Akron outphysicaled us from the start and we accepted it. (Refs didn't help early either). We had a chance to cut half time lead to 4 or 6 from 10, but had empty possessions 3 straight times. Poor rebounding, no serious box outs and allowed their beef to exploit inside. And did we mention Akron shot lights freaking out. #12 hit like 4 3s off the bench and all were nylon. Look at our shooting % 20/70. Ugly. We did not aggressively attack the basket. When we run inside out and swing the ball (ball movement emphasis point) we looked solid and can see that we will be effective. Akron's #15 was the best athlete on the court, reverses, hangers, jump shots. #42 is a beast especially when she can indiscriminately go over the back but again got to have better position. Akron is well-coached and trapped/doubled us high, and we did not release ball soon enough to make them pay. Foot slow and need to toughen up. First half was a decent game. 2d half not so much. One certain -- even as well as Akron played, if we are a D2 team then so is the rest of the mid-majors. We have enough D1 talent to compete at D1 level. But, we need more every year. Akron had players from Michigan that we should be in on. We should be able to outrecruit schools like Akron for talent.
Think "Lonesome Polecat"
Covufan -- that lonesome polecat game is indelibly etched in my brain. So cold, snow and such a big beat down.
The women will have one fewer player the rest of the season as Faith Miller has left the team.
It's hard keeping the Faith sometimes.
She was a walk-on, correct? Games against the top 15 teams in women's basketball always show the difference between mid-major and high majors. The disparity is always massive between the top women's teams, and the rest of D-1.
Louisville 86-59. Not so bad, when you consider that teams like Louisville routinely beat mid-majors by 40+. We missed many uncontested layups in the time I watched. That has nothing to do with coaching, or having 'D2' talent, but jitters in playing against top teams. It makes it hard to watch women's games, in watching so many uncontested misses by every team, but I keep on watching!
Though attention Sunday certainly belonged to the men's team, the women's team faced a test in their game against #12 ranked Louisville. The team was apprehensive at the beginning. In fact, before the game our players were heard commenting in awe on the size of the Louisville players. In appearance, the lack of size and speed in our players when contrasted with those on the Louisville team made it seem almost as if a middle school team were playing against a university team. Nevertheless, the women played with grit and gave full effort throughout. The start of the game saw Valpo hanging tough with Louisville, trailing only 7-6 after the first 5 minutes. However, by halftime the gap had grown to 48-24. Yet, rather than give up, the women played well and only lost the second half by a margin of 38-35.
Valpo shot 44% for the game, but the size of Louisville (especially with Sharon sidelined with a foot injury) caused a 48-30 difference in rebounds, and their speed led to 13 steals by Louisville. In the post-game conference, Coach Dorow and the players justifiably maintained their confidence and even seemed heartened by the performance against such elite competition.
(http://i57.tinypic.com/21kw7es.jpg)
I didn't want to say it, but several of Louisville's bigs could play against men on a daily basis. One Cardinal, in particular, was jacked like a guy...
Quote from: valpopal on November 30, 2014, 11:03:34 PM
Though attention Sunday certainly belonged to the men's team, the women's team faced a test in their game against #12 ranked Louisville. The team was apprehensive at the beginning. In fact, before the game our players were heard commenting in awe on the size of the Louisville players. In appearance, the lack of size and speed in our players when contrasted with those on the Louisville team made it seem almost as if a middle school team were playing against a university team. Nevertheless, the women played with grit and gave full effort throughout. The start of the game saw Valpo hanging tough with Louisville, trailing only 7-6 after the first 5 minutes. However, by halftime the gap had grown to 48-24. Yet, rather than give up, the women played well and only lost the second half by a margin of 38-35.
Valpo shot 44% for the game, but the size of Louisville (especially with Sharon sidelined with a foot injury) caused a 48-30 difference in rebounds, and their speed led to 13 steals by Louisville. In the post-game conference, Coach Dorow and the players justifiably maintained their confidence and even seemed heartened by the performance against such elite competition.
(http://i57.tinypic.com/21kw7es.jpg)
A couple of things of note: To only get outrebounded by 18 against that team, in my opinion, was a victory in that respect. Having 8 players at 6ft + against our ladies, they should have doubled up on the boards. Having said that, we still struggled with the bunnies. That can not happen in league play, period. It's about concentration. We have to get that under control. And finally, the turnovers. We made their numbers look good with our sloppy passing. The passes were slow, telegraphed, and all of them high. I don't know what it is, but women's teams never seem to want to bounce pass. We have a few players that are pretty decent at it, but for the most part, the rest treat it as a foreign concept. Bounce passing is critical, especially against a long armed team such as Louisville.
All and all, I'd say we showed a lot of grit in this contest. We need to keep working hard and correcting the missed bunnies and turnovers. Next up; Miami. These guys are struggling this season. They are 1 - 3, and took it on the chin vs Oakland. This should be a winnable contest for us. Go Lady Crusaiders.
Quote from: valpopal on November 30, 2014, 11:04:14 AM
The women will have one fewer player the rest of the season as Faith Miller has left the team.
Sorry to see her go but her PT was going to be much, much less than last year. As a walk-on last year she may played a lot of minutes last year.
Tex--like the East German women's olympians?!?
I would have liked to have seen Sharon in there against them (as would all)...I bet that would have made it a little more even.
(Not saying we would have won, just...)
If Franklin and Walker are any indication of the type of recruits we've already got lined up for next year, the WBB program is improving.
Quote from: LaPorteAveApostle on December 01, 2014, 09:24:31 AM
Tex--like the East German women's olympians?!?
I would have liked to have seen Sharon in there against them (as would all)...I bet that would have made it a little more even.
(Not saying we would have won, just...)
Yes, this player: http://www.gocards.com/sports/w-baskbl/mtt/emmonnie_henderson_861524.html (http://www.gocards.com/sports/w-baskbl/mtt/emmonnie_henderson_861524.html)
She would have pushed Sharon around like a rag doll...
Yikes probably.
(I know it's good grammar, but the period on the end of your sentence renders the link useless ; )
I actually put a space before the period, but it still lumped it all together. I blame the Forum :).
I have uploaded a set of 20 photos from Sunday's game against Louisville at the following link: enjoy! https://www.flickr.com/photos/96208998@N05/sets/72157649516715476/ (https://www.flickr.com/photos/96208998@N05/sets/72157649516715476/)
After 20 minutes of play, the Lady Crusaders have a 40-39 lead against the RedHawks of Miami of Ohio. Wiedemann has 9pts and 2 boards, Dean with 7pts, 2 boards, and 4 assists. Karungi also has 6pts and 4 boards. Has Wiedemann become more of a role player, than a #1 or 2 look to score points for this team?
Came out of the locker room to start the second half FLAT...Dani Franklin not on the floor to start the second half due to an undisclosed injury. We're down 52-42 with 17:09 to play. Have given up 21 points to Hannah McCue so far. We need to break their press. We just don't seem to have the legs to break the RedHawk press right now, leading to turnovers and mistakes in traffic.
We need a deeper bench philosophy. The main 8-9 players are just getting worn thin by playing time and the defenses they aren't quick enough to beat to the rim. We make too many mistakes because we don't seem to be playing with fundamental ball handling, control, or basketball IQ. We haven't been in the game at all in the second half. It is real discouraging to see this team play a good/great first half, then come out of the second half FLAT. What does Coach Dorow do during halftime? Feed the women cookies and milk? We came out lacking energy and are making the same mistakes with no adjustments or benching of players who are making too many of the mistakes with the ball, like not paying attention to the shot clock. Hamlet just turned it over on a 30-second violation off a throw-in with 3 seconds left. We have ZERO basketball IQ during the game action apparently. This needs to be fixed, or we'll be showing Coach Dorow the door out of the ARC and NW Indiana after this season.
Final score: Miami(OH) 82, Valpo 57. We were FLAT!!! Also, looking at the stats, we had 10 assists and 10 turnovers!! How do you expect to score when you turn the ball over as equally as you get the ball to a teammate to make a basket? A 1:1 assist-to-turnover ratio is not good. Yes, Miami came out of the locker room with intensity, but where were we coming out of the break? We didn't have anything to match the intensity, experience or not, this is something we should be able to adjust to, even if it has to be cranked up after the first media timeout. Do we have a TRUE floor leader on this roster that can put this on her shoulders and get this team tougher and active at all times? Sure, we have Jessica and Abby who can bring the ball downcourt to start things, but are they really the two players that we should be expecting to get the rest of the team going?
Well, that's unfortunate, an 82-59 loss after leading at halftime.
Quote from: valpotx on December 03, 2014, 01:31:04 PM
Well, that's unfortunate, an 82-59 loss after leading at halftime.
Ouch, was thinking the same thing.
Quote from: valpotx on December 03, 2014, 01:31:04 PM
Well, that's unfortunate, an 82-59 loss after leading at halftime.
This was almost like the men's Murray State game.... in reverse.
We came out FLAT, and the girls didn't adjust their play to keep themselves in the game. Even if the coaching staff says things were good, I pin this loss on those who played the game, not the ones making the decisions from the bench.
That was a team loss, not a player loss. The players struggled with aspects of the game they shouldn't have. For one, when a team is pressing full court, why do we not have an outlet player center court? They were able to trap use by just waiting to see which side of the floor we dribbled up, and then pounce. We don't put an outlet player center court to counter this. Is that the players fault? And it's not like it happened just once. We never adjusted. I'm not sure what game film we broke down for this one, but in the second half it appeared we were playing a team we had never seen before. We never adjusted to their outside shooters. It certainly appeared that Miami did their homework on us.
We could breakdown all aspects of this game and see where it got away from us, but at the end of the day, we just weren't prepared physically, or mentally, to come out in the second half and play with a lead. That is very disheartening. As I said, this was a team loss, not just a player loss.
I bet the film on Miami showed that they were a very poor 3 point shooting team entering the game. They had made 15 3's all season and then come out and hit 14 against us. And our press break work pretty well in my opinion against Louisville, so you would think they would have been very prepared for this game. Who knows, it was just one of those games. Like how people mentioned earlier the men's game against Murray State. Are we 35 points better than them? No. Just hit a lot of shots in the second half while they did not. I'd call that 2nd half from the women's team more of a fluke than anything. Right now the team is 3-4 which is right about where you would expect them given the schedule they had. Maybe even better.
Miami has struggled from 3 so far this season, but it was a given this wasn't going to continue for ever. Even with that, we never made any adjustments to what they were having success with. It's like we go into a game with a plan with no counter plan if things aren't working. We have to be able to adjust what we are doing both offensively and defensively to get the opponent out of rhythm. We didn't seem to be trying anything different. And when you're down 15, 17, 20+ in the second half, the clock is not your friend. We repeatedly worked the clock down on our offensive possessions. We played like we had the lead. Another telling issue - We have the ball, coming in off of a timeout, 3 seconds to shoot, and we get a clock violation. We weren't even looking to put it up. Wouldn't that be the last thing the coaches tell the players before they come out on the floor? That one truly baffled me.
As for the press break, it did work well against Louisville. Miami saw this too and knew what they needed to do create issues. Our outlet players were out of position most of the game. Another adjustment that didn't take place.
We have the talent to be competitive in the HL this season. We just need to shore up our plan.
Like a broken record. This coaching staff has no clue how to adjust to the game they faced in the first half. Exactly the same outcome as Miami. We didn't step out on the 3s, and we didn't crash the boards. Good night Valpo. Thanks for playing.
This is a matter of the girls' executing. I guarantee the coaches were preaching those things to the girls. All you have to do is watch the bench reaction before a shot is even taken. They are yelling before the pass even goes to the shooter. This was 5 point game half way through the 2nd half. And that is when we subbed back in Abby, and I hate calling anyone specifically out, but she was awful yesterday. After that substitution the lead went to 14 like a snap of a finger. She is arguably our best player, and best defender. When she doesn't show up it doesn't bode well going against a team like Tulsa they way they shot the ball.
This game was closer than the score says. Much like the men's game last night, we were down by double figures and started to panic taking bad shots.
The Tulsa game was a disappointment, as Coach Dorow made clear in the post-game press conference. The main difference in the game came at the 3-point line, where Tulsa made 15 and Valpo only made 4. However, despite the loss I see a lot of promise in the players who will determine the team's future, especially Walker, Franklin, Thompson, Miller. Though Dean, Hamlet, and Hamilton had a poor shooting game, they also are displaying some development for down the line. This team is only scheduled to lose two seniors next year: Carr and Karungi (who hasn't played much this season because of her injury). Plus, three players currently injured may be healthy: Donchetz, Wiedemann, and Godwin. We will need to add a rebounder next year to replace Karungi; however, I compare this year's team to the football team in that I see a turnaround beginning to occur.
I have posted a gallery with the photo below and 25 others from the Tulsa game at the following link for all to check out:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/96208998@N05/sets/72157649234803619/ (https://www.flickr.com/photos/96208998@N05/sets/72157649234803619/)
(http://i60.tinypic.com/sytoq9.jpg)
Quote from: valpo4life on December 07, 2014, 10:50:47 AM
This is a matter of the girls' executing. I guarantee the coaches were preaching those things to the girls. All you have to do is watch the bench reaction before a shot is even taken. They are yelling before the pass even goes to the shooter. This was 5 point game half way through the 2nd half. And that is when we subbed back in Abby, and I hate calling anyone specifically out, but she was awful yesterday. After that substitution the lead went to 14 like a snap of a finger. She is arguably our best player, and best defender. When she doesn't show up it doesn't bode well going against a team like Tulsa they way they shot the ball.
This game was closer than the score says. Much like the men's game last night, we were down by double figures and started to panic taking bad shots.
Execution was only a part of the problem. There is an issue with the philosophy, and what target areas they need to concentrate on as well, in my opinion. We are rarely in position to block out, and we don't rotate to step out on their shooters. We have no one slashing into the lanes to the basket on offense. We are too vanilla and easy to defend.
We you get beat exactly the same way, by the same margin, 2 games in a row, something needs to change. When your point guard is the second leading rebounder in a contest, something needs to change. We have a lot of talent with this group, they just need more direction. Tulsa will not be the last team we face this season that can rain 3s. Look at the tape if you have access and see how many of their shots were uncontested.
You are right, execution has been an issue, but it certainly isn't the only issue.
I take the rebound numbers by position with a grain of salt when the past two games have been 3 point shooting fests. Longer shots lead to longer rebounds hence why the guards are grabbing about the same amount of rebounds as our posts are. And overall the rebound numbers were skewed from the Tulsa game because we missed more shots than they did. They only had one more offense rebound (11) than us (10) which lead to only 4 second chance points from them. I'll take that any day of the week. Also, when a girl from Tulsa comes in having scored a total of 14 points all year and puts up 16, that's something you cannot prepare for.
As far as my execution comment, that includes rotation on defense. The girls have to be able to get out to the shooters and were continually caught too far in help side and were not able to recover. And regarding players slashing into the lane, not every offense is suited for that. This team's isn't, same goes for our men's team. In our women's offense a random player making a cut will either add a defender to the lane to clog it up for our posts or will hinder a guard making a move towards the lane off of the ball screen.
Here are next year's recruits....only our crack staff can make an announcement with no indication of size or points scored last year. My favorite comment:
Coach Dorow on Schofield: "Allison is a knock-down three-point shooter. Nobody gets up more shots than her. She's used to winning, she's a fiery competitor, and epitomizes a team player. Allison committed early because she loves Valpo."
Based on this comment I would assume she must have averaged 20-25 points per game. Unfortunately, I think it was somewhere around 6. Doesn't mean she isn't good as Heritage has 6-7 D1 potential players. Still the comment implies a scorer.
http://www.valpoathletics.com/wbasketball/news/2014-15/14188/crusader-women-sign-four-to-nli/#.VIdh_bl0y2w (http://www.valpoathletics.com/wbasketball/news/2014-15/14188/crusader-women-sign-four-to-nli/#.VIdh_bl0y2w)
Quote from: IndyValpo on December 09, 2014, 03:02:32 PM
Here are next year's recruits....only our crack staff can make an announcement with no indication of size or points scored last year. My favorite comment:
Coach Dorow on Schofield: "Allison is a knock-down three-point shooter. Nobody gets up more shots than her. She's used to winning, she's a fiery competitor, and epitomizes a team player. Allison committed early because she loves Valpo."
Based on this comment I would assume she must have averaged 20-25 points per game. Unfortunately, I think it was somewhere around 6. Doesn't mean she isn't good as Heritage has 6-7 D1 potential players. Still the comment implies a scorer.
http://www.valpoathletics.com/wbasketball/news/2014-15/14188/crusader-women-sign-four-to-nli/#.VIdh_bl0y2w (http://www.valpoathletics.com/wbasketball/news/2014-15/14188/crusader-women-sign-four-to-nli/#.VIdh_bl0y2w)
Looks more like 15. At 5'10" she could be a tough matchup for some.
http://www.ncsasports.org/womens-basketball-recruiting/in/indianapolis/heritage-christian-school/allison-schofield (http://www.ncsasports.org/womens-basketball-recruiting/in/indianapolis/heritage-christian-school/allison-schofield)
Looks like we aren't adding much height. Marburger is a SF and listed at 5'10. The aforementioned Schofield is a 5'10" guard and Maredith Hamlet is a 5'8" guard as well. The "star" msy be Hannah Schaub, who is only 5'5" but ESPN has her as a three star, rated an 88 and the 93rdbest at her position nationally. We better hope for some great shooters who seldom miss. If they do, who will rebound??
Quote from: valpo4life on December 09, 2014, 01:22:42 PM
I take the rebound numbers by position with a grain of salt when the past two games have been 3 point shooting fests. Longer shots lead to longer rebounds hence why the guards are grabbing about the same amount of rebounds as our posts are. And overall the
rebound numbers were skewed from the Tulsa game because we missed more shots than they did. They only had one more offense rebound (11) than us (10) which lead to only 4 second chance points from them. I'll take that any day of the week. Also, when a girl from Tulsa comes in having scored a total of 14 points all year and puts up 16, that's something you cannot prepare for.
As far as my execution comment, that includes rotation on defense. The girls have to be able to get out to the shooters and were continually caught too far in help side and were not able to recover. And regarding players slashing into the lane, not every offense is suited for that. This team's isn't, same goes for our men's team. In our women's offense a random player making a cut will either add a defender to the lane to clog it up for our posts or will hinder a guard making a move towards the lane off of the ball screen.
[/quote
Unfortunately the coaching staff takes the rebounding stats, apparently as you do, with a grain of salt. Are you watching the SD game? First half - down by 20 - 1.5 min. To go - we need points bad - our two leading scorers are on the bench - neither in foul trouble. Alright then. Granted, we have players that didn't come to play, but we also have some that did. Not fair to put all the blame on the players as you seem to do.
I'm just happy that the turnovers have been reduced quite a bit over the last few games. Our shooting has been poor, which can happen, but we are at least getting more shots up now.
Quote from: vu72 on December 09, 2014, 03:32:49 PMLooks more like 15. At 5'10" she could be a tough matchup for some.
I did a little more research and the 15 must be her AAU stats because the IHSAA program from last year's finals showed 8.9 points per game. Either way the comment 'Nobody gets up more shots than her" is bizarre.
As much as I detest Butler here is how a release should be made on incoming recruits:
http://www.butlersports.com/sports/w-baskbl/2014-15/releases/20141113n8ywu9 (http://www.butlersports.com/sports/w-baskbl/2014-15/releases/20141113n8ywu9)
Simple.... name, school, height and somewhere a reference to statistics from prior year. Then the coach-speak.
Quote from: IndyValpo on December 10, 2014, 02:44:23 PM
Quote from: vu72 on December 09, 2014, 03:32:49 PMLooks more like 15. At 5'10" she could be a tough matchup for some.
I did a little more research and the 15 must be her AAU stats because the IHSAA program from last year's finals showed 8.9 points per game. Either way the comment 'Nobody gets up more shots than her" is bizarre.
As much as I detest Butler here is how a release should be made on incoming recruits:
http://www.butlersports.com/sports/w-baskbl/2014-15/releases/20141113n8ywu9 (http://www.butlersports.com/sports/w-baskbl/2014-15/releases/20141113n8ywu9)
Simple.... name, school, height and somewhere a reference to statistics from prior year. Then the coach-speak.
Indy, Bedford (maybe the Damon Bailey influence), Evansville and South Bend...........hmmmmmmm.
Quote from: IndyValpo on December 10, 2014, 02:44:23 PMAs much as I detest Butler here is how a release should be made on incoming recruits:http://www.butlersports.com/sports/w-baskbl/2014-15/releases/20141113n8ywu9Simple.... name, school, height and somewhere a reference to statistics from prior year. Then the coach-speak.
Agreed, better write-up from that school down in Indy.
When I saw the other day that Butler had signed a top player, I was wondering how, especially with all of problems Butler has had with the women's team the last few years.
From what I can tell, the coach for Butler, Kurt Godlevske, was a girls HS coach at Bedford North Lawrence just two years ago. His assistant was one Damon Bailey. Godlevske became an assistant at Butler in May of 2013, then Head Coach in May of 2014. Damon is now one of his assistants. I'm guessing that incoming recruit Alexa Bailey, also from Bedford, is Damon's daughter.
In a short time, Godlevske is doing a good job with in-state recruiting.
Quote from: IndyValpo on December 10, 2014, 02:44:23 PMI did a little more research and the 15 must be her AAU stats
i thought the 15 must be her AGE stats
Quote from: LaPorteAveApostle on December 10, 2014, 05:00:47 PM
Quote from: IndyValpo on December 10, 2014, 02:44:23 PMI did a little more research and the 15 must be her AAU stats
i thought the 15 must be her AGE stats
Typically a player has better high school stats than AAU stats as they are playing with better talent and aren't needed to be the workhorse like they are in high school. Just saying.
Quote from: jack on December 11, 2014, 07:27:13 AMTypically a player has better high school stats than AAU stats as they are playing with better talent and aren't needed to be the workhorse like they are in high school. Just saying.
In her defense, Heritage Christian is probably better than most AAU teams in Indiana.
'72, clear it up for us, please: were you saying she looked 15? that's how I took it.
Quote from: LaPorteAveApostle on December 11, 2014, 09:20:30 AM
'72, clear it up for us, please: were you saying she looked 15? that's how I took it.
Why doesn't that surprise me! She looks 14 but averaged (per an article in a newspaper--don't ask me which one at this point!) 15 points per completed basketball game played on a regulation size high school court. Better?? ;)
:lol:
43-19 Illinois at the half. Yikes. Here's to hoping the two PG's coming in next year being an upgrade athletically on the offensive and defensive sides of the ball.
I will say after Illinois' 18-0 run to start the game with a barrage of 3's and Valpo turnovers, it has been fairly competitive.
It doesn't matter, but we won the second half 39-37 in this 80-58 loss.
Quote from: valpo4life on December 13, 2014, 02:18:29 PM
43-19 Illinois at the half. Yikes. Here's to hoping the two PG's coming in next year being an upgrade athletically on the offensive and defensive sides of the ball.
Not a fair assessment. I felt our starting PG played as well as she could given the apponent. The many of the Turn overs credited to her were in fact passes not handled by her teammates.
This game may have been a closer contest if we didn't have players out with injuries and if all who participated came to play. Taller more active PGs wouldn't have won this one. We won the second half vs their starters. That showed a ton of grit.
Quote from: jack on December 14, 2014, 10:06:21 AM
Quote from: valpo4life on December 13, 2014, 02:18:29 PM
43-19 Illinois at the half. Yikes. Here's to hoping the two PG's coming in next year being an upgrade athletically on the offensive and defensive sides of the ball.
Not a fair assessment. I felt our starting PG played as well as she could given the apponent. The many of the Turn overs credited to her were in fact passes not handled by her teammates.
This game may have been a closer contest if we didn't have players out with injuries and if all who participated came to play. Taller more active PGs wouldn't have won this one. We won the second half vs their starters. That showed a ton of grit.
I do think Carr kind of gets a raw deal having to run the point when she is a set shot 3 point shooter. But my reasoning for hoping for an upgrade next year is because our guards do not handle pressure very well when they have the ball and aren't quick enough to put any pressure on the other team. Guard play is where the team needs to improve as the bigs are holding their own and improving game by game.
I think our guards are about as fast as any we face to be honest. I also think one on one, they do a decent job with the ball while being pressured, and apply decent pressure on the defensive end. The fact that we don't get out on the shooters is more about the defense we run, and not the speed. The issues we have with the press, in my opinion, are because our outlet receivers always seem to be out of position to receive the ball. Watch this aspect the next contest where a team chooses to press. You can't be successful in breaking a press if you don't have an outlet in position.
We don't even have a problem with the press. Pass it back and forth a couple times between the guards then hit somebody flashing up the sideline or in the middle. The problem is when we're pressured in the half court. The offense gets pushed out too far and the entry passes are from further away than you would want because of the other teams pressure. Teams average 6 fewer turnovers and 5 more steals a game, those numbers should tell you that being "decent" isn't getting anything done at the moment.
I wish we didn't go under ball screens, but I also don't know if we're capable of going over them and being able to stick with the guard. We just try and pack it in and hope that the other team doesn't go off from 3, which they all have lately.
[tweet]544595963055448065[/tweet]
Quote from: valpopal on December 15, 2014, 02:57:38 PM
[tweet]544595963055448065[/tweet]
Also leading scorer, and within 1 rebound of tying for leading rebounds, but still isn't starting.
Freshman of the week Interview: Dani Franklin Interview: Dani Franklin on Vimeo (http://vimeo.com/114896493)
Congrats to Franklin. She seems to be getting better and stronger with each game. It's tough to take a loss like we did in Edwardsville with the game she and Carr had. They needed a little more help from the others to get this one. Hopefully with this break we can get some others healthy and get ready for league play.
Merry Christmas to all.
In honor of us putting up 109 last night. Figured I'd share the incoming recruit Meredith Hamlet put up 48 points in her last game a couple days ago. Offense! Lol.
Great effort tonight. Hopefully the suspended players realize how there absence hurt their team tonight, and are ready to go come conference start.
Our post need to work on squeezing the orange. We missed some great opportunities inside because of turnovers. Unfortunately the players feeding the balls inside get the credit for the turnovers.
J.W. had a nice outing as did Hamilton. Carr did a nice job of running things for the full 40 without a blow. This game may have been a different outcome if we had the services of Dean and Miller.Lessons learned.
Time for league play.
Why did we pick this game to use as part of their suspensions? I forget when the drinking incident happened, but I would have done SIU-E and Purdue-Calumet, not a home game against Stetson.
The coaching staff didn't want to play with only seven players available (one of which was Donchetz, who plays limited minutes coming off an injury of her own). They held off on the second game of the suspensions hoping that Sharon Karungi would be ready to return from injury in time for the Stetson game, but they still ended up having to play with seven in uniform against Stetson since Karungi was not ready to come back.
You have to feel for Sarah Godwin. Her only contribution in over a year is to get arrested and she isn't even listed as having to miss games. In reality there is no mention of her on any release except the roster. She played a few minutes 2 years ago and never since. What is her story?
[tweet]552200573047824384[/tweet]
Quote from: IndyValpo on January 05, 2015, 12:11:32 PM
You have to feel for Sarah Godwin. Her only contribution in over a year is to get arrested and she isn't even listed as having to miss games. In reality there is no mention of her on any release except the roster. She played a few minutes 2 years ago and never since. What is her story?
Good question. Does anyone know if she is injured?
Quote from: covufan on January 05, 2015, 03:03:28 PM
Quote from: IndyValpo on January 05, 2015, 12:11:32 PM
You have to feel for Sarah Godwin. Her only contribution in over a year is to get arrested and she isn't even listed as having to miss games. In reality there is no mention of her on any release except the roster. She played a few minutes 2 years ago and never since. What is her story?
Good question. Does anyone know if she is injured?
How about Sharon? What is the situation/injury there?
Sarah tore her meniscus early this year after tearing her ACL the two previous seasons. Terrible breaks for her, but she wouldn't see the court if healthy. Honestly don't know how she ever got a D1 scholarship. And I believe Sharon is dealing with a foot issue. Hopefully they have just been holding her out until conference play. Luckily our posts have been showing good signs lately.
Sharon was one of our better players in regards to rebounding and paint presence, and is very much missed. She had a few off games in regards to shooting, but seemed to be a bright spot last season. Hopefully she can come back soon.
Sarah has been a question since Freeman brought her in. She's all but been relegated to a practice squad role. Great D1 education she got for being available.
I believe Sharon is available to start the Horizon League Season. Probably held her out vs Stetson to not risk an injury.
Not the game we were hoping for to start off league play. I just don't understand why our inside players struggle so much to block out, and hold on to the ball. They just competed against one of the smallest teams in the league and got handled. Once again our guards were doing a good job of getting the ball inside, only to have it fumbled and lost. It's a shame they have to be credited with the turnover. Doesn't seem fair. And what the heck is up with Karungi? I know she's been out a while but that was brutal. It's seems the concentration and effort just isn't there. We need Dean to get rolling again also. This was probably one of the more winnable games we'll play this season. Got to learn how to put teams away or it's going to be a very long season.
I watched the whole game and I did not see our posts struggling to catch entry passes whatsoever. Maybe one or two drops but that happens in every game you see really. The rebounding struggles were a team issue in the second half, with the switching defense that we were running (which I thought was pretty effective) gave them some mismatches where are guards were being asked to block out bigger players which was ineffective in the 2nd half. They were so much more athletic that if we didn't get a body on them they were able to jump higher and at least keep the ball alive. Only girl we had who really can compete with them jumping wise for rebounds was Walker, who is becoming this teams best player as a freshman. And I agree with the Abby point, she was been no where to be found but being the other teams best player at times. This team looked pretty good at the beginning of the year when she was playing well. Hopefully she can pick it up here tomorrow at home against UIC. Also, what are the odds Lexi Miller hits another half court shot at the buzzer heading into halftime tomorrow? She's made one in each home game against UIC the past two seasons :o
If I had the energy, I'd go back and find all the 1st halves we've won this year (and all the 2nd halves we've been bombed in)
(http://www.troll.me/images/asdasdasdasdasdasd/im-just-saying.jpg)
In the women's game, it is all about positioning on rebounds. There aren't many Tamra Braun's or Zane Teilane's that are bypassed by the bigger schools, and can reach over everyone else. You see the ball hit the ground a lot in the mid-major women's games, so it is all about who is quicker.
Quote from: valpo4life on January 09, 2015, 02:17:45 PM
I watched the whole game and I did not see our posts struggling to catch entry passes whatsoever. Maybe one or two drops but that happens in every game you see really. The rebounding struggles were a team issue in the second half, with the switching defense that we were running (which I thought was pretty effective) gave them some mismatches where are guards were being asked to block out bigger players which was ineffective in the 2nd half. They were so much more athletic that if we didn't get a body on them they were able to jump higher and at least keep the ball alive. Only girl we had who really can compete with them jumping wise for rebounds was Walker, who is becoming this teams best player as a freshman. And I agree with the Abby point, she was been no where to be found but being the other teams best player at times. This team looked pretty good at the beginning of the year when she was playing well. Hopefully she can pick it up here tomorrow at home against UIC. Also, what are the odds Lexi Miller hits another half court shot at the buzzer heading into halftime tomorrow? She's made one in each home game against UIC the past two seasons :o
Wow. You apparently didn't watch the same game I did. I counted 7. Karungi lost 3 herself.
Happens every game. Make a point to track it. Happened again many times vs UIC. Being a former coach, I looked for this specifically.
Quote from: jack on January 10, 2015, 07:43:00 PM
Quote from: valpo4life on January 09, 2015, 02:17:45 PM
I watched the whole game and I did not see our posts struggling to catch entry passes whatsoever. Maybe one or two drops but that happens in every game you see really. The rebounding struggles were a team issue in the second half, with the switching defense that we were running (which I thought was pretty effective) gave them some mismatches where are guards were being asked to block out bigger players which was ineffective in the 2nd half. They were so much more athletic that if we didn't get a body on them they were able to jump higher and at least keep the ball alive. Only girl we had who really can compete with them jumping wise for rebounds was Walker, who is becoming this teams best player as a freshman. And I agree with the Abby point, she was been no where to be found but being the other teams best player at times. This team looked pretty good at the beginning of the year when she was playing well. Hopefully she can pick it up here tomorrow at home against UIC. Also, what are the odds Lexi Miller hits another half court shot at the buzzer heading into halftime tomorrow? She's made one in each home game against UIC the past two seasons :o
Wow. You apparently didn't watch the same game I did. I counted 7. Karungi lost 3 herself.
Happens every game. Make a point to track it. Happened again many times vs UIC. Being a former coach, I looked for this specifically.
I have to agree with jack on this one. The post players are losing the ball way too much.
Today was overall a poor effort, but we do realize we're complaining about a couple bobbled balls. I'm seeing girls fighting for position and not getting the ball at the right time most of the time. Or it being forced in when the look isn't there. I just felt bad watching them out there today, when your point guard is in reality a spot up jump shooter who should be playing about 15 minutes a game because there isn't anyone else it's just hard to watch. Carr and Dean should not start the next game so that a message can be sent to them that they need to play much, much better. The team actually had some moment cutting it to 15 until Carr checks back in and blows a defensive assignment and then can't get the ball up the court. She also got lucky, she threw a dirty elbow at the UIC player but the officials didn't feel the need to look at it. I had a good look and it was a flagrant 1 minimum. At this point we just need to keep feeding Walker because she's the only one out there who can do anything at the moment. Because watching any of our 4 guards try to make a play never goes well.
Quote from: valpo4life on January 10, 2015, 11:51:20 PM
Today was overall a poor effort, but we do realize we're complaining about a couple bobbled balls. I'm seeing girls fighting for position and not getting the ball at the right time most of the time. Or it being forced in when the look isn't there. I just felt bad watching them out there today, when your point guard is in reality a spot up jump shooter who should be playing about 15 minutes a game because there isn't anyone else it's just hard to watch. Carr and Dean should not start the next game so that a message can be sent to them that they need to play much, much better. The team actually had some moment cutting it to 15 until Carr checks back in and blows a defensive assignment and then can't get the ball up the court. She also got lucky, she threw a dirty elbow at the UIC player but the officials didn't feel the need to look at it. I had a good look and it was a flagrant 1 minimum. At this point we just need to keep feeding Walker because she's the only one out there who can do anything at the moment. Because watching any of our 4 guards try to make a play never goes well.
Spoken like a non-student of the game.
Quote from: jack on January 11, 2015, 09:01:05 PM
Quote from: valpo4life on January 10, 2015, 11:51:20 PM
Today was overall a poor effort, but we do realize we're complaining about a couple bobbled balls. I'm seeing girls fighting for position and not getting the ball at the right time most of the time. Or it being forced in when the look isn't there. I just felt bad watching them out there today, when your point guard is in reality a spot up jump shooter who should be playing about 15 minutes a game because there isn't anyone else it's just hard to watch. Carr and Dean should not start the next game so that a message can be sent to them that they need to play much, much better. The team actually had some moment cutting it to 15 until Carr checks back in and blows a defensive assignment and then can't get the ball up the court. She also got lucky, she threw a dirty elbow at the UIC player but the officials didn't feel the need to look at it. I had a good look and it was a flagrant 1 minimum. At this point we just need to keep feeding Walker because she's the only one out there who can do anything at the moment. Because watching any of our 4 guards try to make a play never goes well.
Spoken like a non-student of the game.
What would you like me to say? Our 4 guards that play almost every minute at the position, they are shooting a respectable number of 35% from 3. But are shooting the exact same percentage when they are inside the ARC, which is not good. Hence my point of when they try to make a play, it typically doesn't go well. Don't think it's time to send Dean a message by benching her? She averages 14 a game in wins, 5 a game in losses. When she plays well, the team plays well. Have to light a fire somehow. Carr is averaging almost 6 turnovers a game the past 6 games and was always been a defensive liability on the perimeter. She's a competitor, so I think she would respond well to not being named a starter for a game or two. But a message needs to be sent that your senior, leader point guard struggling in those two major portions of the game for her position isn't acceptable. The reason I say we need to feed Walker a lot, is simply because she's had 20, 16, 18, and 19 in the past 4 games as an undersized post player. I cannot have stats for our post entry issues, would need a Synergy account for that one. But I would contribute that to an overall team issue, sometimes its an entry feed, or timing issue. Sometimes the posts just get to anxious to make a move to fast and start it without gaining possession.
So there ya go, a more detailed reasoning for my previous thoughts.
Quote from: valpo4life on January 12, 2015, 11:41:30 AM
Quote from: jack on January 11, 2015, 09:01:05 PM
Quote from: valpo4life on January 10, 2015, 11:51:20 PM
Today was overall a poor effort, but we do realize we're complaining about a couple bobbled balls. I'm seeing girls fighting for position and not getting the ball at the right time most of the time. Or it being forced in when the look isn't there. I just felt bad watching them out there today, when your point guard is in reality a spot up jump shooter who should be playing about 15 minutes a game because there isn't anyone else it's just hard to watch. Carr and Dean should not start the next game so that a message can be sent to them that they need to play much, much better. The team actually had some moment cutting it to 15 until Carr checks back in and blows a defensive assignment and then can't get the ball up the court. She also got lucky, she threw a dirty elbow at the UIC player but the officials didn't feel the need to look at it. I had a good look and it was a flagrant 1 minimum. At this point we just need to keep feeding Walker because she's the only one out there who can do anything at the moment. Because watching any of our 4 guards try to make a play never goes well.
Spoken like a non-student of the game.
What would you like me to say? Our 4 guards that play almost every minute at the position, they are shooting a respectable number of 35% from 3. But are shooting the exact same percentage when they are inside the ARC, which is not good. Hence my point of when they try to make a play, it typically doesn't go well. Don't think it's time to send Dean a message by benching her? She averages 14 a game in wins, 5 a game in losses. When she plays well, the team plays well. Have to light a fire somehow. Carr is averaging almost 6 turnovers a game the past 6 games and was always been a defensive liability on the perimeter. She's a competitor, so I think she would respond well to not being named a starter for a game or two. But a message needs to be sent that your senior, leader point guard struggling in those two major portions of the game for her position isn't acceptable. The reason I say we need to feed Walker a lot, is simply because she's had 20, 16, 18, and 19 in the past 4 games as an undersized post player. I cannot have stats for our post entry issues, would need a Synergy account for that one. But I would contribute that to an overall team issue, sometimes its an entry feed, or timing issue. Sometimes the posts just get to anxious to make a move to fast and start it without gaining possession.
So there ya go, a more detailed reasoning for my previous thoughts.
Dean is in a slump and needs to play through it. Sitting on the bench won't help her. We need her speed on the floor as speed is about all we ever have an advantage on, and then, sometimes not. I believe she's still shaking off the situation she found herself in that warranted 2 games off.
60 to 70 percent of Carr's turnovers are due to our inside players mishandling the passes. We have never had a good Bigs coach to teach these inside players how to get position. Watch the footwork. It's terrible. You need to pay close attention to that. All of our guards get credit for mishandled inlet passes. That's a fact. Unfortunately, the passer always gets credit for the TO. Carr also seems to be the best ball handler, and floor general we have. She's constantly directing other players to the positions they are supposed to be instead of where they are. By no means are her numbers great, but right now she's the best at running the offense than any other player we have. The others better get with the program and soon as they won't have her to lean on next season. Right now I see no one to replace her at point. Let's hope the coaching staff has a plan in place for next season.
I don't see Karungi being much help any time in the near future. The injury aside, it just doesn't appear that she has the fire anymore. She lost 3 good passes inside the other night. Hamlet and Carr got credited for the TO's. That's why I have never put much stock in the TO numbers. They don't reflect what's going on always.
So in your plan to "keep feeding Walker" who is doing the feeding? I assume it's one of the four guards you feel that can't make a play. I think our guards are doing their best considering the circumstances. 90% of our players are guards. Many of the issues we have are a byproduct of trying to build a team with guards. We've been guard heavy for as many years as I can remember. They have Godwin listed as a Forward. Even if she played she wouldn't be a forward. We're asking some shooting guards to run point. In my opinion, the positions aren't as interchangeable as they'd like to think. Maybe for a play or so, but not for long stretches. There just isn't a comfort or confidence level out on the floor right now.
I went as far back in the ESPN 3 archives as I could go, being 1/12, I'm watching the Illinois game, partially because I missed it due to work, and didn't have time to catch up. The offense doesn't create any kind of spacing to give an open lane. None of our "forwards" sets a screen to open up a shot, and the ball control, whether dribble or pass, is a mess because Carr is having to do too much dribbling. The only thought I have about anything with our guard play, not that she's probably the best option, but switch Dean with Carr. Keep both on the court, but let Carr direct things without the ball. Have Dean bring it up, especially since Dean will probably be the point next season, unless a transfer/grad student comes in that can run the point better. Also, get Thompson, Hamlet, Walker, Franklin, and the rest setting some screens to get more pick and rolls/screen and go setups. We aren't a team should live and die by the arc. We have quick guards, but no confidence in setting picks and doing the necessary things to get points in the paint. jack, I'm up for your opinion on these options.
With the offense this team runs, the guard positions are interchangeable as well as the posts. So I agree with valporun mixing up who brings it up the court could benefit everyone. When you're being pressured the full length of the court all game long like against UIC it's a good idea to do that. And when the offense is ran properly, the ball is moving a lot more side to side rather than getting caught up on the first ball screen action and thinking the play as to be made then. When the parts are moving the spacing comes as well, when we get stagnant, the lane gets clogged up by defenders in help position. We know the system works, we saw it early this season, just gotta get back to playing freely as we were then. As far as next season, I've seen the youngest Hamlet girl play. She would probably start on this team, if not be the first one off the bench. I'm not worried about future seasons with the recruiting class coming in to go with the freshmen we have contributing now.
And I just want to be clear with my viewpoint on the guard play with this team, when I say "can't make a play". I mean if you told them I need a bucket go get it. I don't have any confidence that any of them could get it done. Dean would be the best bet but she hasn't been playing well. And I don't suggest "benching" her or Carr. All you do is not start them for a game or two, give them around the same minutes. It's just a message sender. Coaches do it all the time.
Quote from: valpo4life on January 12, 2015, 11:41:30 AMSometimes the posts just get to anxious to make a move to fast and start it without gaining possession.
So now you are admitting the post players are
sometimes the cause of the turnovers and problems scoring because they "get to (sic) anxious to make a move to (sic) fast and start it without gaining possession."
Is this not what jack has been trying to say all along?
If you think about it, Not starting either Dean or Carr for a game or two would look like they were being "benched", even if they were coming into the game around the first media timeout. I do understand what you're saying, but to some here, "benching" and "not starting" are almost one in the same.
I would agree with starting Franklin, but I liken her role on this team to that of Matt Kenney. Everyone wanted Kenney starting, but he played best off the bench. I see Franklin the same way. She can adapt to a pace that she can see before she actually gets involved, and I like that about a bench player. She comes in to give someone a breath or two, and she makes it seem like she was ready immediately. She didn't need the pace to come to her or slow down, she saw how things go, and adapted accordinglly.
Yea I understand that. I personally see "benching" as I'm pulling you out of the game and you're not coming back in. "Not starting" is as simple as it sounds to me. You didn't start. We can agree to disagree if need be. Just saying what I believe. Either way my main point was to light a fire underneath Dean and Carr because we need them to perform better to win. I've seen work before and who knows, maybe one of them plays better off the bench as Kenney seemed to do.
And back to the post entry debate, I just believe it's being blown way out of proportion. If the post defender is able to get a piece of the pass as much as they are, it's not all on the post players as it's being portrayed. There are numerous times where I find myself saying, "it's not there don't throw it" or "you had her, but didn't see it in time". I just watched the whole 1st half of our most recent game so see if I am way off, but that sample size proves me right. There were a total of 2 bobbles by out post players, both caused by the defense being able to get their hand in on the low pass. Trying to blame 60 to 70 percent of someone's turnovers on someone else is absurd.
I don't see benching both of them at the same time. Bench one or the other, but can't bring them both to the bench at the same time. We don't have anyone else strong enough to bring the ball downcourt, if they are both benched.
In terms of the post players, they are practically statues. There needs to be a set to open up a post player coming across the paint to get the ball, not just go to a spot and post up. None of our posts can do that effectively, which leads to turnovers in the paint.
On the plus side, this is the biggest debate involving the most people on this board regarding women's basketball since i've been here (almost 3 years, I think). So, enthusiasm is still there.
Quote from: valporun on January 12, 2015, 07:14:34 PM
I don't see benching both of them at the same time. Bench one or the other, but can't bring them both to the bench at the same time. We don't have anyone else strong enough to bring the ball downcourt, if they are both benched.
In terms of the post players, they are practically statues. There needs to be a set to open up a post player coming across the paint to get the ball, not just go to a spot and post up. None of our posts can do that effectively, which leads to turnovers in the paint.
You don't bench your coach appointed and team appointed leader leader and for issues that really are out of her control. I've said it before and I'll say it again. Our offense is far too vanilla. These ladies are playing in a system they are asked to play in. As you point out there are no high screens, pick and rolls, slashing to the basket, etc. We do the same thing up the court on every possession. Dribble up to the key, pass it around a few times, dribble it around, and take a shot with no one already working for position for an offensive board. Or we feed it inside and hope the bigs can handle the pass. Anyone scouting us only has to watch a handful of plays to know our game and how to defend us. Let's be real here. Have you seen us try one thing this season that you haven't seen before? I am all for trying something different. If that means another guard running point and letting Carr spot up let's try it. A lot of our points come from these guards thinking outside of the box and not staying on script.
I still feel our success will come with positioning inside and holding on to the damn ball. I don't know what game others here are watching but our lack of catching and finishing inside is where we are losing the battle.
there are no high screens, pick and rolls, slashing to the basket, etc.
[/quote]
I really enjoy going back and forth debating and everything. But points like this make me really scratch my head. This offense is about 90% ball screens so I have absolutely no clue what you are watching out there. Your point about the guards not staying on script to get points is somewhat correct. The point of this offense is to give players the freedom to make their own plays. So when they, in your mind, are going against the script I see a girl making a play within the offense. The problem that seems to happen in the women's game is the players think they need to do exactly as what coach says and become robots out there. Hence the statues point made, which I agree with.
Quote from: valpo4life on January 12, 2015, 06:45:10 PMAnd back to the post entry debate, I just believe it's being blown way out of proportion.
I don't know why you want to bring this up again because you simply are wrong. How can you say when Valpo's best post scorer, Dani Franklin, is scoring much of her points from three that it's not that important. Valpo may not be missing all the post entry passes but when they do catch them the posts eventually fumble it out of bounds, travel with the ball, or get blocked and lose the ball. It happens more than once or twice and really kills the Valpo scoring. If you really think it's being blown out of proportion you are simply not a very good observer of basketball. If you lose possession of the ball as many times as Valpo does under the basket against good teams it's a momentum killer and a huge reason this team loses.
Quote from: valpo4life on January 12, 2015, 11:08:22 PM
there are no high screens, pick and rolls, slashing to the basket, etc.
I really enjoy going back and forth debating and everything. But points like this make me really scratch my head. This offense is about 90% ball screens so I have absolutely no clue what you are watching out there. Your point about the guards not staying on script to get points is somewhat correct. The point of this offense is to give players the freedom to make their own plays. So when they, in your mind, are going against the script I see a girl making a play within the offense. The problem that seems to happen in the women's game is the players think they need to do exactly as what coach says and become robots out there. Hence the statues point made, which I agree with.
[/quote]
I can see where you'd be scratching your head. If what you are watching is what you call proper ball screening and pick and rolls, then there's not much sense in debating with you any further. Just reading the above statement you made, you contradict yourself, as you have with most of your statements. You claim that 90% of what you are watching are ball screens, and then you go on to agree with someone else that our bigs are just statues out there. So which is it? You're all over the place.
At the end of the day, we need to learn the PROPER way to screen, pick, and roll. Our bigs need to work on their footwork, get position, and squeeze the orange. Our blocking out technique needs a lot of work. And our guards need to work on creating their own shots.
You and I can agree to disagree. I've been involved in the game long enough to trust what I'm seeing.
Have a great day.
It saddens me to see the women's team struggle the way they have over the last several years. The only fix for this situation is a total rebuild of the program. As the father of a former player, I would suggest that as long as the players are giving maximum effort that we don't saddle them with the circumstances created by decisions out of their control. Players should attempt to do things as directed by the coaching staff, if the players are not doing the things we all think they should, it is likely because they are doing what they are being told to do. The players don't recruit, coach, or administer the program. End of story. Encourage and back the girls, they deserve it.
I'll be short and sweet. I agreed that posts are statues when they are in the post. I never said anything about how good of ball screens are being set, just that they are being set a high majority of possessions. I never said our posts aren't struggling after they get an entry pass, just that they're aren't bobbling "60 to 70" of passes they receive. I agree that every player needs to work on putting a body on someone, anyone when a shot goes up. Yes, the guards need to work on being able to create for themselves and others.
Quote from: LaPorteAveApostle on January 12, 2015, 08:15:41 PM
On the plus side, this is the biggest debate involving the most people on this board regarding women's basketball since i've been here (almost 3 years, I think). So, enthusiasm is still there.
Most enthusiasm I have seen since Saderfan.
Quote from: Girlsbbfan on January 13, 2015, 11:45:36 AM
It saddens me to see the women's team struggle the way they have over the last several years. The only fix for this situation is a total rebuild of the program. As the father of a former player, I would suggest that as long as the players are giving maximum effort that we don't saddle them with the circumstances created by decisions out of their control. Players should attempt to do things as directed by the coaching staff, if the players are not doing the things we all think they should, it is likely because they are doing what they are being told to do. The players don't recruit, coach, or administer the program. End of story. Encourage and back the girls, they deserve it.
I have to agree. Their struggles didn't start with this regime. I too have watched their struggles for many years now. When you follow a team long enough you get used to the Ebbs and Flows from season to season. We've been in the Ebb mode for quite some time. We are in a catch 22 of sorts. You have to have some success to recruit the talent you need, and you have to have the talent you need to have some success. I honestly feel these players are giving it all they have given what is asked, and not asked of them. It's their effort I applaud and will continue to support. For some I'm sure it's a conflict to buy into a system they aren't seeing improvement in.
I'm also not a big fan of loading up the front end of the schedule with several teams that will be on the move this season. IU, Illinois, and Louisville shouldn't be in our schedule until we can start having some success with squads that match our talent level. Nothing good came from any of those games. In fact, we lost a player or two for a time after these contest. Loss of players is another battle we seem to be fighting too frequently.
Oakland will be a good test for us this week. Win or lose, we just need to make some progress in areas we are lacking in.
Go Crusaiders!
Unfortunate 71-54 loss at home to Oakland, when we were down 2 at half. Our 3 point shooting was horrific, to say the least, going 1/15. Not much you can do when you shoot that poorly, many of them being wide open shots, and then you have 19 turnovers (12 steals for Oakland). We outrebounded Oakland 55-39.
Quote from: valpotx on January 16, 2015, 02:02:14 AM
Unfortunate 71-54 loss at home to Oakland, when we were down 2 at half. Our 3 point shooting was horrific, to say the least, going 1/15. Not much you can do when you shoot that poorly, many of them being wide open shots, and then you have 19 turnovers (12 steals for Oakland). We outrebounded Oakland 55-39.
I watched the last five minutes or so and noticed only a couple of extra players on the bench (maybe I'm wrong on this). Once again no Sharon. I also noticed a lack of coaching. By this I mean no timeouts. No, let's stop the bleeding. I agree with tx that you can't be blamed as a coach for awful shooting. Still, the overall trend sucks and the losses are piling up.
We got anything we wanted pretty much the whole game offensively just couldn't throw it in the well. If we could have made anything in the first half especially we would more than likely been up by 10-15. Open 3's all game long that didn't go in and open layups were being missed as well. We played the best defense that I've seen from us in a while in that first half. Then come out in the second half and they don't act like they wanted anything to do with playing defense. And when something goes wrong with this team, the girls seem to start to turn on each other as sad as that sounds. Carr was knocked to the floor twice in that 2nd half and not one girl even thought about helping her up. That speaks volumes to me.
And I agree Tracey probably should have used her last timeout to help somewhat stop the bleeding. But down 18 with 2:00 minutes to go there isn't a whole lot you can do. The game plan she used was working about as good as a coach could hope for, at least in the first half. Under the balls screens on everyone except Popkey worked well and we were very prepared for their dribble weave motion. This was one that we needed. Ugh.
In the first half, we looked ready to play, but were missing shots left and right, inside and out. We kept the game close in hopes that momentum would change. Coming out for the second half, we looked the same, but more shots weren't falling, and we were turning the ball over in traffic a lot. We'd practically hand them the ball, or throw poor overhand passes that the Grizzlies could pick off. I was getting fed up with the lack of drive from this team. I hate to say it, but it looks like these girls are just giving up if they don't have a lead going into the second half. Yes, we had chances all over, but we were just not making shots or doing the fundamental things, like creating openings or communicating on screens. We looked like a low level high school girls team, instead of a D-I college program. All in all, the attitude of the players and coaching staff was rather depressing in the closing minutes of the game.
"Low level high school girls team" seems a bit harsh. The biggest issue last night was that the shots weren't falling from any of the players. No one got going. That doesn't happen often, but it happens unfortunately. There seems to be some players that don't play with heart, and drive. This got worse as the deficit increased. We do have a few players that play hard from whistle to buzzer. We also have players that just don't seem to have the fire. Heart, drive, and fire isn't something that can be learned or coached. You either have it, or you don't. This may be our biggest detriment. No need to name names. Those that watch, play, and coach know. The only way to change this is to weed out some, and get to know your recruits and their make up much better before bringing them on board. Back in the day when I was scouting talent, I spent as much time studying the players on a losing effort than I did when they were winning. I still believe you learn a lot more about a player when they lose, than when they win. We're lucky to have a few players that play just as hard if were up by 20, or down by 20. It'd be nice if they all were on this same page.
Quote from: jack on January 16, 2015, 12:49:29 PM
"Low level high school girls team" seems a bit harsh. The biggest issue last night was that the shots weren't falling from any of the players. No one got going. That doesn't happen often, but it happens unfortunately. There seems to be some players that don't play with heart, and drive. This got worse as the deficit increased. We do have a few players that play hard from whistle to buzzer. We also have players that just don't seem to have the fire. Heart, drive, and fire isn't something that can be learned or coached. You either have it, or you don't. This may be our biggest detriment. No need to name names. Those that watch, play, and coach know. The only way to change this is to weed out some, and get to know your recruits and their make up much better before bringing them on board. Back in the day when I was scouting talent, I spent as much time studying the players on a losing effort than I did when they were winning. I still believe you learn a lot more about a player when they lose, than when they win. We're lucky to have a few players that play just as hard if were up by 20, or down by 20. It'd be nice if they all were on this same page.
Agreed. Which is seeming more and more like this teams downfall. Chemistry and effort don't seem to be there. Oakland's bench was loud and very supportive. Lots of silence from our bench.
I might add that the mental/emotional side of the game, which many posters are citing, comes largely from the coaching staff. They are the ones who set tone, foster team relationships, bring 12 different kids from different playing backgrounds and mold them into a team. We have a great case in point just this fall -- football. With virtually the same players from the 2013 team that had won 3 games in four years, Dave Cecchini molded the 2014 team into one that was constantly competitive and won 4 games and were down to the wire in three more. Feedback I got from some of the players' parents indicated that Dave and his staff did three things different from the past -- two of them on the mental side: (1) got the players to believe in them as a staff and what the staff was trying to do, (2) got the players to care more about each other, and (3) coached them up in O and D systems that used the players' talents to the optimum. Sounds like those three are what most of us are seeking in WBB.
Difference is, say 2 or 3 girls don't buy in and are "bad apples" it can effect the whole team. With the football team if there were a couple guys who fit into the "bad apple" category, they aren't going to bring down the whole team. The basics I agree with, getting players to buy in and act like a team on and off the court are essential and seem to be needing some work. But there are just too many different dynamics to truly compare the two sports in my opinion.
Quote from: valpo4life on January 16, 2015, 10:20:09 AMBut down 18 with 2:00 minutes to go there isn't a whole lot you can do.
Down 18 with 2:00 to go the game has been statistically over for about a minute.
More so than the men's squad, there are always "drama and chemistry" issues that factor into the dynamics. Dorow, being female, would be in tune with this. You have to get players to buy in to what you are trying to do. I can see where a female head coach with 2 male assistants would create a who different, and maybe a counterproductive environment. The male "ego" can add a layer of difficulty I'm sure.
Quote from: valpo4life on January 16, 2015, 02:50:31 PM
Difference is, say 2 or 3 girls don't buy in and are "bad apples" it can effect the whole team. With the football team if there were a couple guys who fit into the "bad apple" category, they aren't going to bring down the whole team. The basics I agree with, getting players to buy in and act like a team on and off the court are essential and seem to be needing some work. But there are just too many different dynamics to truly compare the two sports in my opinion.
Wasn't trying to draw a 1 to 1 comparison, just trying to make a point about the impact a coach can/should have (which you got BTW). And in a BB situation the job should be easier IMO because you only need to knit 12 players together, not 100. We have other models that come to mind as well -- MSO and VB, for instance. And the Avery's are great at building cohesive teams. Bryce has created a place where kids feel comfortable (see comments about Smits' reasons for signing).
Again, in my opinion, one of the greatest draws for a recruit in any sport (and their parents too) is that when a player enrolls at Valpo he/she is moving from their nuclear family to an extended family that cares about them like mom and dad do. The coaches that don't succeed here (again in my opinion) are those who don't understand that.
Going back 5 decades that is why coaches like Gene Bartow, Darrell Zimmerman and Walt Reiner were able to draw the best out of us.
Quote from: jack on January 16, 2015, 05:24:44 PM
More so than the men's squad, there are always "drama and chemistry" issues that factor into the dynamics. Dorow, being female, would be in tune with this. You have to get players to buy in to what you are trying to do. I can see where a female head coach with 2 male assistants would create a who different, and maybe a counterproductive environment. The male "ego" can add a layer of difficulty I'm sure.
Very good point Jack, but a good HBB coach has the skill to temper/optimize/blend those characteristics to also build a staff team with a common approach that pushes toward the same goals. Carin Avery has 3 male assistants but seems to be competitive every year. Doesn't it come down to the individual regardless of gender? I think that's called leadership.
Quote from: StlVUFan on January 16, 2015, 04:42:14 PMI watched the last five minutes or so and noticed only a couple of extra players on the bench (maybe I'm wrong on this). Once again no Sharon.
Karungi rides the bike when she is not playing so you might not have seen her on the bench. Godwin and Wiedemann are hurt and therefore not dressed and on the bench. Carr, Dean, Thompson, Walker, Hamlet, Franklin, Karungi, Hamilton and Miller all played. Donchetz I don't remember seeing and she didn't play.
Quote from: StlVUFan on January 16, 2015, 04:42:14 PMQuote from: valpo4life on January 16, 2015, 10:20:09 AMBut down 18 with 2:00 minutes to go there isn't a whole lot you can do.
Down 18 with 2:00 to go the game has been statistically over for about a minute.
I'm not sure calling time out with 3 minutes to play would have been better than time out with 2 minutes to play. Even though Valpo may not have been statistically out of the game with 3 minutes remaining they were just going through the motions by that time.
I hate to single anyone out, but I hope that Hamlet really takes this offseason to heart. If she can train with her younger sister that is coming in, great. Her shooting percentage is 28% (35/125) overall, and 22/79 (27.8%) from 3. If you are going to take that many shots, you need to make a minimum of 35% overall (absolute minimum), otherwise it is a major drag on the team.
[from the Tracey Dorow thread]
Opposite of the usual "stay close until the 2nd half" happened today. Valpo got behind by 17 in the first half. Another very bad shooting performance by the Crusaders. Then in the second half they stayed much closer (for the half) and only lost by 18.
They shot just over 50% from the FT line (16 for 28) and 35% from the field (22 for 63). The rebounds were totally even (44-44) and the FT attempts were the same (28-28). The big difference was WSU hit 20 FTs and 28 for 65 from the field. WSU made 4 threes while Valpo only had 2 threes. Neither team did well from beyond the arc.
It is time to think about a coaching change at this time. I feel that Coach Dorow is giving it her all but something is missing and if you don't win you haven't earned more time to keep coaching the team.
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We looked good in the first half. Were only down about 43-38 at half. Came out and had no energy to start, down 10, 48-38 with 18:14 remaining. Dani Franklin got her 1st career start, but hasn't been as huge a factor. She's definitely one to be the first woman off the bench, not a starter, yet. The Panthers are on a 21-3 run since the first half, and Dorow has 1 timeout left FOR THE GAME!!
The women kept up until the last 2 minutes. Once they had to start fouling on every Panther possession, it was over. The final score was 90-79. Better showing than some of the blowouts. Shots were falling, but the Panthers capitalized on the free throw line and on our turnovers. We played a good game tonight, and with a bench to put into the game, the Crusaders may have pulled this game out tonight.
Miller 21. Franklin 22. Walker 10. Carr 13 AND 11 assist. (Nice game Carr) and we got beat. Why?? Because this coaching staff is lost. Why in the Hell would you play Karungi those kind of minutes in a game like this? She adds no value to either side of the ball right now. She can't score, rebound, or hold on to the ball. She can't block out or get up the floor. This was a huge game for us to win and we had it. The coaches decisions in this one costs us the game. There were other players, any of them really, that gave us a better chance to win. Karungi isn't ready to play at this level. Not yet. The coaches should absolutely realize this. Shame on them. We wasted some great efforts by others. I feel terrible for the girls. This one in no way was on them.
Quote from: jack on January 21, 2015, 09:19:34 PM
Miller 21. Franklin 22. Walker 10. Carr 13 AND 11 assist. (Nice game Carr) and we got beat. Why?? Because this coaching staff is lost. Why in the Hell would you play Karungi those kind of minutes in a game like this? She adds no value to either side of the ball right now. She can't score, rebound, or hold on to the ball. She can't block out or get up the floor. This was a huge game for us to win and we had it. The coaches decisions in this one costs us the game. There were other players, any of them really, that gave us a better chance to win. Karungi isn't ready to play at this level. Not yet. The coaches should absolutely realize this. Shame on them. We wasted some great efforts by others. I feel terrible for the girls. This one in no way was on them.
I can't blame the coaches. They had no choice but to play Karungi (still not fully healthy) who did have a poor game. The Crusaders had only 8 players dressed, and Karungi was the only inside player on the bench. Hamilton, Thompson. Godwin, and Wiedemann were all sidelined with injury. In addition, Walker was in foul trouble and then fouled out. Thompson most likely would have gotten the minutes Karungi had to fill.
Nevertheless, as you mention, there were some great efforts. Lexi Miller had a career-high 21. Carr had a double-double in points and assists. Walker had a double-double in points and rebounds. Also, Dani Franklin started for the first time ever and showed why she will be a star in the league, scoring 22 points to go along with 6 rebounds and 2 blocks. As a whole, the team shot 46% from the field, 57% from the 3-point line, and 86% from the free throw line. They were under-manned and on the road, yet they hung in the game until the very end, getting as close as 84-79, then they had to begin fouling in the last minute of play.
We had better talent on the floor regardless of injuries. We've been beaten several times this season with better talent on the floor. Quit making excuses. At some point something needs to change in the direction this talent is being led. Karungi not withstanding, we are losing to lessor teams while having better talent on the floor. Wake up.
Quote from: jack on January 21, 2015, 11:20:24 PM
We had better talent on the floor regardless of injuries. We've been beaten several times this season with better talent on the floor. Quit making excuses. At some point something needs to change in the direction this talent is being led. Karungi not withstanding, we are losing to lessor teams while having better talent on the floor. Wake up.
I don't recall making any excuse. I agreed with you that Karungi played poorly, and I agreed that there were a number of "great efforts." However, I disagreed with your conclusion that the coaches were to blame for playing a not-fully healed Sharon, explaining that they had no choice and a healthy Thompson normally would have gotten the minutes Karungi did, but Thompson was out with an injury. You said "there were other players, any of them really, that gave us a better chance to win." I looked at the bench, and I didn't see any other players to put in the paint. The bench consisted only of Hamlet, Donchetz, and Karungi.
Valpo lost because of the difference in offensive rebounds and points in the paint, as well as the best talent on the floor being Milwaukee's senior Ashley Green, second best scorer and fifth best rebounder in the league. In the future, a couple of our freshmen should be recording numbers like hers.
Karungi showed last year that she is a good player, and very worthy of a D-1 roster spot. I don't know if you are saying that she is not good enough for this level, but if you are, you are wrong. She had some really dominant games last year, when healthy.
Karungi s issues started last season long before any injuries. The issues last night were with her hands. She can't hang on to the ball. Has nothing to do with her injury. Early last season she played with passion. Don't see it this year. She shouldn't have been on the floor last night. We have played and had success with fewer players.
As others have mentioned, we have talent, just lack direction. It's time to quit giving this staff a hall pass and hold them accoutable for their record. The games have been there to win. They aren't getting it done.
Quote from: jack on January 22, 2015, 06:24:40 AM
She shouldn't have been on the floor last night.
You didn't answer my question. You fault the coaches for putting Sharon in the game. Who would you have substituted for the inside players? There were only three on the bench: Hamlet, Donchetz, and Karungi. Normally, Thompson and Hamilton would get the minutes. In the recent Wright State game those two combined for 50 minutes while Karungi played 7. In this game, the coaches had no other choice with Hamilton and Thompson joining Wiedemann and Godwin on the injured list, and with three of the starters in foul trouble. You can't blame the coaches for putting in the only player they have available.
In my opinion, Hamlet would have done far better inside than Karungi. She's quick, active, and has a nose for the ball. She has better hands. Karungi struggled to even get her hands on the balls, and when she did, several times she got it taken away by smaller players. She's able to get up and down the floor, so her injury isn't why she's struggling. She's getting pushed off the block on almost every play. We played several games last season and before with 6 to 7 players. Karungi was a huge liability in last nights game. She doesn't have the drive or confidence to be on the floor right now. Unfortunately for her, there is no next year with Valpo. We need her now. It just isn't happening. My point about the coaching is one that has been made here by others as well, and has been a point well prior to last nights game. When you have the talent we have, we can't settle for the win / loss records we've recorded the past 3 years. Year one is understandable. New coach. New system. We should be seeing marked improvement each year. I believe we have more talent now than we had in Freeman's last 2 seasons. He played one year with 6 available players several games and we managed some wins. We go in 2 down vs Wright State at the half and lose by 20. We've gone into the first several minutes of many games this season and found ourselves down by 10+. At some point this can't be acceptable. Our coaches have not shown they can make needed adjustments when we need to. You want to keep blaming the players so be it. If you want to accept losses from lessor teams, so be it. I hate to think what our lack of success these past few years has cost us in player recruits. We will never have a strong inside game until we can show we know how to coach and play the bigs. We are squandering much of our talent because we are not using them, and teaching them how to play big.
I am not trying to single out Karungi. This isn't just about her. We are getting beat by teams that are getting more out of less. Something needs to change.
Saying Hamlet is a better option inside is laughable. She's a small guard, why on Earth would you suggest she's a better post player than Karungi. I think this game showed the value of Thompson inside, however. As frustrating as she can be sometimes making a post move, she battles harder than anyone in the paint every game. And her rebounding (or at least contesting for rebounds) and defense inside were missed.
The something that needs to change is we need to take care of the ball and defend. I think we can all agree the offense has been getting us good looks a majority of the time the past couple games. We just give up way too many easy looks when we're on defense. Until we improve on that side of the ball, we aren't going to win too many games. We get beat off the drive a lot so maybe a switch to zone would help. Pack it in and force them to hit shots from the outside. Gotta try something different.
As far as the coaching, you cannot bash them for playing someone due to injury of another player. Their hand was forced and they simply had no choice. If we have Thompson we win this game pretty easily in my opinion. If Dean and Walker aren't in foul trouble we might even win without her. Dean just needs to stop getting early fouls every single game. She gets 2 fouls in the first 5 minutes then messes up any kind of rotation. She started this game well then got into foul trouble, but when she's on the court and playing confident she makes us a much better team. Just look at the first couple games of the season.
Never said she was a better post player. Read what I said. I said she was a better option last night. She always manages to get to the ball. that's what we needed.
Again you're contradicting yourself. You say it isn't the coaches, and then say they need to try something different. Which is it?
Our problem isn't talent. It's philosophical.
I just disagreed with your statement about her being the better option. The way you went on about how poor Karungi is for multiple sentences made it seem as if you thought Hamlet could be a better post player. But either way the shortest player on the roster isn't a replacement for a post. I said you can't bash the coaches for playing someone due to the injury of another player. Their hand was forced. Never mentioned anything else regarding them besides agreeing we should try something different defensively. That's not a contradiction.
Suggesting you would have put Hamlet, the shortest player on the team, in the post diminishes your credibility. In addition, even if you wanted, Hamlet wasn't available to play in the post unless you were going to clone her since she was needed to sub for the guards throughout the game.
I understand your frustration, but we have to be realistic and acknowledge this team simply is not as strong as others in the league, especially some that have senior all-stars. Our post player is not fully healthy, and we are under-manned because of other injuries. There were only 8 players dressed for the game last night. The subs were two freshmen, one coming back from surgery, and a hobbled Karungi. The best players on the team are freshmen. In fact, we often have four freshmen on the court.
Franklin and Walker will be future stars in the league, and I look forward to their growth. The team is also getting at least one more very good player in next year's class. If someone can eventually step into the post as a presence, Valpo will be a contender in the future. Until then, I am pleased by the strong effort and fine performances as seen by most of the players in last night's game, even if it was a loss.
Quote from: valpopal on January 22, 2015, 12:06:27 PMThere were only 8 players dressed for the game last night. The subs were two freshmen, one coming back from surgery, and a hobbled Karungi.
I'm not going to question whether a player is hurt or not but it does seem that every time I read stories about this team there are far more injuries than on the opposition team. Valpo seems to always play short-handed. This goes back to when Keith Freeman was the head coach.
Quote from: bbtds on January 22, 2015, 12:31:39 PM
Quote from: valpopal on January 22, 2015, 12:06:27 PMThere were only 8 players dressed for the game last night. The subs were two freshmen, one coming back from surgery, and a hobbled Karungi.
I'm not going to question whether a player is hurt or not but it does seem that every time I read stories about this team there are far more injuries than on the opposition team. Valpo seems to always play short-handed. This goes back to when Keith Freeman was the head coach.
Maybe it's time we stop blaming the coaching staff and start blaming the training staff*
*Please note I'm entirely joking, don't know anything about the women's team or women's basketball
How can Hamlet be the better option when she is shooting 27.5% from the floor? I understand taking care of the ball, but someone shooting that low of a % is also considered a liability on offense. I'll admit that I haven't seen Karungi play this year, as the games I caught were before she came back, but she was better last year than you are giving her credit for. I understand that she had a few off nights shooting last season (rare), but her play for the majority of the year kept us in games. Her stats:
11 ppg, 7.6 rpg, .532 Fg, .689 FT, 0.8 bpg, 1/3 Asst/TO ratio. Where in the world are you getting that we haven't had good inside players? Karungi was fantastic last year, and obviously has the ability to play at this level when healthy. Before transferring/graduating, Tabitha Gerardot was fantastic as well. Now, we haven't had good post players aplenty, but it has been shown that we can have successful post players in the program.
The comment was made somewhat in jest but the point was, anyone else available and sitting on the bench would have done a better job underneath protecting the ball and running down rebounds that Karungi did that night. When you center ends up with 0 points and 4 boards in 20 minutes, there's an issue.
I'm done with the subject. Most here want to blame the players for the vanilla, non-creative offenses we run, and the lack of adjustments we make to match what the opponents are doing to beat us. So be it. Next year will just be more of the same.
Quote from: valpotx on January 23, 2015, 03:33:51 AMI'll admit that I haven't seen Karungi play this year, as the games I caught were before she came back, but she was better last year than you are giving her credit for. I understand that she had a few off nights shooting last season (rare), but her play for the majority of the year kept us in games.
Since coming back from injury Sharon Karungi has been pretty bad. If any of our posts could hang onto the ball when receiving passes or making moves to the basket we would be much better.
Jack may have been exaggerating about putting in Hamlet instead of Karungi but he is pretty much spot on about the coaching staff.
I'm not sure what is going on with Abby Dean. She seemed like her athletic skills were going to lead this team to many victories but somehow she just disappears during games. With Hamlet and Carr's shooting, the posts inability to hang on to the ball, the coaching staff's inability to make smart, in game, adjustments, some of the very tough non-conference competition we have faced
and the problems with being short-handed, this season has gone from fair/good to poor.
What happened to Hamilton? Is Wiedemann done for the season? Perhaps it is time to find Jazmin Taylor again as we need healthy bodies.
Interestingly, Butler who we pounded oh so many games ago added a volleyball player (who starts) and is playing better. We would probably not beat them today.
15pts in first half?? 15?? Not sure anymore if this can be considered a D1 team. 0 inside game. Feel bad for the kids that are really giving effort. Coaches are clueless. Nuf said.
On a whim, I decided to pull up WVUR and listen to the game tonight. I wish I hadn't. UIC wins 60-42.
When you have a scoring drought of nearly 11 minutes, miss about 20 layups (at least what the stats call layups), and allow roughly as many offensive boards to your opponent as your own defensive rebounds, it's gonna be a tough night. And yet, there were still hanging around until UIC started to pull away in the middle of the 2nd half. Also didn't help that Anne Hamilton took an elbow to the nose and sat out the 2nd half.
This is now 14 straight losses to DI opponents. Also (no surprise) a season-low for scoring. Yuck.
Also, anyone else catch the live pregame interview with Dorow? Weird to have that from a head coach about 30 minutes before tipoff, but it was kinda fun to have it.
out rebounded by 15 and 20 turnovers. Um...
Quote from: jack on January 27, 2015, 07:57:41 PM
15pts in first half?? 15?? Not sure anymore if this can be considered a D1 team. 0 inside game. Feel bad for the kids that are really giving effort. Coaches are clueless. Nuf said.
Our posts combined to score over half of the teams points. That's more than 0 inside game. What kills us is our PGs turning the ball over way too many times. Carr literally threw a pass off the backboard tonight and twice while bringing the ball up the court either fell over one time and dribbled it out another. Miller also had a couple poor passes. You simply can't win with bad guard play. Also doesn't help when your best player, Walker in my opinion, has her worst game in college. And I thought Sharon looked the healthiest she's been all year. But credit to the girls for competing the whole 40. That was nice to see.
As far as the coaches, they weren't the ones shooting 29 percent from the field. They weren't the ones driving to the basket to chuck up a bad shot and then be the last one down the court. And they clearly came in with a new game plan for the second meeting. And it clearly worked. UIC put up 86 points at the ARC so we adjusted defensively and held them to 60 points. That's a big improvement. UIC is just so much more athletic than we are that they are able to make difficult to run any kind of offense. It was a mismatch at every single position besides maybe at center. They were always going to win because they were going to kill us on the boards and turn us over.
My guess is you're somehow involved with the coaching staff. No matter. We clearly don't watch the same games, or you don't watch them in their entirety. If you only have 15pts in the first half, you have no inside game, or anything else working for that matter. The pass you state that Carr threw off the backboard looked to be a lob pass that walker wasn't ready for and mistimed her jump. It appeared to be a pretty decent pass to me. The only statement you make that I would agree with is our guards had a bad night. I have no idea where Dean was at but she wasn't at this game. She is really struggling to get back in the saddle. Without her presents, it puts more pressure on the other guards.
We did absolutely nothing different on offense or defense. I have no idea what game you are watching. We didn't hold them to 60pts. they held themselves. 1 for 9 from 3 in the first half and 3 for 9 in the second. 28% shooting in the first half. If they would have hit their average in the first half this one would have been over then. We ran the same vanilla offense and defense as always, and expected different results. We continue to be out of position for rebounds when a shot goes up. When we do get our hands on the ball, we can't hang on. It's just a broken record that isn't going to change. same philosophy, same results.
That's Ok though. Just keep blaming the players. In your eyes the coaches can do no wrong. It's that kind of thinking that leads to seasons like this.
Quote from: valpo4life on January 27, 2015, 09:31:11 PMAs far as the coaches, they weren't the ones shooting 29 percent from the field. They weren't the ones driving to the basket to chuck up a bad shot and then be the last one down the court. And they clearly came in with a new game plan for the second meeting. And it clearly worked. UIC put up 86 points at the ARC so we adjusted defensively and held them to 60 points. That's a big improvement. UIC is just so much more athletic than we are that they are able to make difficult to run any kind of offense. It was a mismatch at every single position besides maybe at center. They were always going to win because they were going to kill us on the boards and turn us over.
You didn't watch the same game I watched. You are clueless when it comes to evaluating coaching staffs.
Do you think that Bryce Drew would be satisfied with 29% shooting? The only game plan that worked was letting UIC miss more shots and turn the ball over more. Yes, UIC is more athletic but that basically comes down to their 6'3" starter Campbell. If Valpo could ever take care of the ball and take better shots they would have a chance to win.
Quote from: jack on January 27, 2015, 07:57:41 PM
15pts in first half?? 15?? Not sure anymore if this can be considered a D1 team. 0 inside game. Feel bad for the kids that are really giving effort. Coaches are clueless. Nuf said.
Milwaukee scored 16 in the first half against our men's team. Stuff happens. Just sayin...
Quote from: vu72 on January 28, 2015, 07:18:57 AM
Quote from: jack on January 27, 2015, 07:57:41 PM
15pts in first half?? 15?? Not sure anymore if this can be considered a D1 team. 0 inside game. Feel bad for the kids that are really giving effort. Coaches are clueless. Nuf said.
Milwaukee scored 16 in the first half against our men's team. Stuff happens. Just sayin...
Sure it happens. Rarely in most instances. When it keeps happening, and nothing is done to change things, something needs to give. Perhaps our players aren't being put in the best positions to be successful. When the shots aren't falling you can't put that on coaching. When you run the same unsuccessful vanilla offense and expect different results however, that can be. Pay close attention to where our other 4 players are at when we put a shot up. Take a look at the footwork underneath. Watch how play after play we get pushed out of position. These are all coachable corrections. I haven't seen this change all season. We are trying to be successful with players that aren't being coached about the simple basketball 101 basics that every player needs when going from prep to college hoops. Most of our players are playing slightly different rolls then they did in high school. These different rolls require a change in skill sets. You can't move kids out of their comfort zone without showing them the changes they need to make to be successful. I just don't see a whole lot of in game coaching going on with this staff. They don't appear to be working on the basics in practice either as witnessed by what transpires in games. I'm sure some here think I don't know what I am talking about. I've been around the game, both men and womens, for a long time and trust what I'm watching. The philosophy I see may work at some level, but I don't see it at the D1 level.
For comparison sake, we went to a super packed in zone and said we don't think you can shoot from there. Which is what happened, they missed a lot of shots. If anyone watched Duke beat Louisville in men's this season, Coach K did the same thing. Knew they would have a tough time guarding them man to man so went zone and basically said we don't think you can shoot well enough to score. And he gets tons of praise for that move. But when we get make that move it's just seen as nothing but the other team just didn't shoot well. But comparing the two coaches whatsoever, just the defensive strategy change for the specific opponent. To say we did absolutely nothing different defensively is plain ignorant. We even started the game in man and made an in game switch to zone after a couple easy buckets for UIC.
Our offense can been seen ran by many teams across the country, is it fairly vanilla? Yes I definitely agree with that. But it's set up in a way to let your players have some freedom and make some plays. Just gotta make the plays. As a player you have to love that opportunity.
You don't get it, and you never will. We don't have the type of players that want the freedom to create their own plays. Wake up. We just don't have the system in place that plays to their strengths. As for your comment about the players "loving the opportunity." Yeah. I'm sure they are loving getting their @sses handed to them night in and night out.
Can't reason with your type of logic.
Carry on.
Talk to players anywhere, and I guarantee they would enjoy being a part of an offense that let's you run ball screens and have the chance to make a play. The men's team balance offense solely revolves around the ball screen action. I have a hard time believing a player wants to be a part of an offense where all they do is run set after set after set. If we have players that don't want the freedom to make their own plays then they don't belong on the court. Let someone who wants to make a play get some/more minutes. Bet you they would "love the opportunity".
Even with the last few seasons, at least some still have passion for the Women's Team.
I was thinking the same thing...except unfortunately the two with the MOST passion say "to-ma-to/to-mah-to".
I just want to see us get back to the level we were when we had Tamra Braun and Betsy Rietema leading the team. Those teams were fun to watch and always competitive.
The one thing I don't see our women's team do on offense is set effective screens to create anything. We just run to a spot, and we camp out. I haven't seen an effective hard ball screen from the women's team in awhile. Heck, it's even been a long while since I saw anyone "pick the picker"... Our women's team just doesn't do it. They only seem to pick when they want to do something, but never set a pick for the ball handler, or even the person intended to be the backdoor cutter. We live and die by the 3, and we 96% of the time die because of it. We need to be doing more of the fundamental things to open up spaces to drive or get the ball handler open for a better shot or pass. Name the last ball handler to start an effective pick and roll on the women's team.
Quote from: valporun on January 28, 2015, 04:46:38 PM
The one thing I don't see our women's team do on offense is set effective screens to create anything. We just run to a spot, and we camp out. I haven't seen an effective hard ball screen from the women's team in awhile. Heck, it's even been a long while since I saw anyone "pick the picker"... Our women's team just doesn't do it. They only seem to pick when they want to do something, but never set a pick for the ball handler, or even the person intended to be the backdoor cutter. We live and die by the 3, and we 96% of the time die because of it. We need to be doing more of the fundamental things to open up spaces to drive or get the ball handler open for a better shot or pass. Name the last ball handler to start an effective pick and roll on the women's team.
Finally. Someone who gets it! Every player that has the opportunity to play at this level has gotten to do so because they have exibited the talent and coachability to be there. Most players that play at the D1 level have the God given talent to succeed and excel at this level. It all comes down to coaching and preparation. If your coaches don't know how to develop your necessary tools then you don't stand a chance. Personally I feel the programs that fail do so because either they are too lazy to work with quality players or they don't have the skill set to coach the talent.
Quote from: valpo4life on January 28, 2015, 03:38:44 PM
I just want to see us get back to the level we were when we had Tamra Braun and Betsy Rietema leading the team. Those teams were fun to watch and always competitive.
I agree with this one! I had many friends on the women's team while in school (Knoester, Hammel, etc), and it was fun to see us be successful.
The banter between Jack and 4Life is fun to follow. Neither is completely right or wrong.
This coaching staff has given no one confidence that they will be able to right this ship. Our inside people are limited. Our 4 main guards are wildly inconsistent. This is a combination that is doomed to fail I am afraid.
It is funny that Jack intimated that he thought 4Life must be on the coaching staff because I have always had the impression that Jack is the father of one of our guards. I won't say who but if you follow his posts, you can make the same guess.
Quote from: IndyValpo on January 29, 2015, 11:18:48 AM
The banter between Jack and 4Life is fun to follow. Neither is completely right or wrong.
This coaching staff has given no one confidence that they will be able to right this ship. Our inside people are limited. Our 4 main guards are wildly inconsistent. This is a combination that is doomed to fail I am afraid.
It is funny that Jack intimated that he thought 4Life must be on the coaching staff because I have always had the impression that Jack is the father of one of our guards. I won't say who but if you follow his posts, you can make the same guess.
If only you were right about that. That would make me much younger than this old body is! :'( Back in the day I actually had a young relative that laced them up for the brown and gold, but that was many moons ago.
4life and I can agree to disagree, but like me I'm sure he's wanting them to get back to their winning ways.
Just saw the espn3 schedule of broadcast games for tonight, and tonight is the dreaded Green Bay-Valpo matchup at the ARC. This will honestly be a game that if I miss any of the action, I won't feel horribe about it.
Valpo women win over Detroit 74-68 for their first conference win.
Congrats to the ladies for a well deserved win over a Titan women's team that battled them right to the end.
My favorite stat from the game: Valpo's bench outscored Detroit's bench 37-0.
Obviously, the bench was the difference in the game. Dani and Anne came off it to lead us to a much, much needed win. Dani shot lights out and Anne filled up the stat sheet. Lexi ran more of the point in the game which worked well has she had 7 assists to 3 turnovers and didn't let a poor shooting night get to her. Sharon is looking healthier and healthier each game which is a definite plus in the defense and rebounding department. Jess did what she does best and hit a couple spot up 3's along with Annemarie. Jaz had a somewhat off night but still played hard as always even though she had some foul trouble. Overall just great to see this team win and to be led by two freshmen. They're only going to get better.
All around good team effort. Our bench came up big in this one. I felt our D in this game was a deciding factor. The players did a much better job of knowing where to be and where the zone help was supposed to come from. It was good to see Karungi step up and play to her size. We needed that. Can't say enough about Franklin. Forget she's a freshman. She's growing into one of the premier players in the league. I thought our guard play was solid, but we still have to do better at protecting the ball. The coaches came in with a solid plan in this one and the players executed well.
Hope we can build on this. It's going to take our best game Saturday at Wright State.
Quote from: jack on February 06, 2015, 06:19:24 AMAll around good team effort. Our bench came up big in this one. I felt our D in this game was a deciding factor. The players did a much better job of knowing where to be and where the zone help was supposed to come from. It was good to see Karungi step up and play to her size. We needed that. Can't say enough about Franklin. Forget she's a freshman. She's growing into one of the premier players in the league. I thought our guard play was solid, but we still have to do better at protecting the ball. The coaches came in with a solid plan in this one and the players executed well. Hope we can build on this. It's going to take our best game Saturday at Wright State.
me quoque, jack, me quoque
Wow, we are up 42-40 at half against WSU. Jessica Carr just split 2 defenders to swish a half-court 3 at the buzzer.
Then we proceed to get our butt kicked 95-66.
tx, it looked like a butt kicking in the end, but that trouncing didn't happen until the last half of the 2nd half. We were outscored 55-24, but most of that didn't happen until WSU decided it was time to stop playing around, and put the game away. Karungi has butter fingers/rough hands. How many years did she play basketball prior to playing college? She might still be behind the curve on her abilities for the position she's playing.
Credit to Wright State. In the last part of the second half everything the Raiders put up went in. I'm not sure any HL women's team, even GB, would have beaten them on Saturday. Mingo is for sure a WNBA player who will, in my view, get picked in the first round. She must have gotten 2 or 3, old style three point plays. Her teammates were also prolific with the old style three point play.
Sometimes you just don't have the guns to win the fight. Our best game would have come up short vs Wright State. You have to credit the ladies for putting up a good fight in the first half. The stat that sticks out in the first half was our rebounding. we were handling them on the boards. We had 23 boards in the first half, to their 16. Unfortunately they bettered us by 11 in the second half. Mingo was the difference in this game. 27pts to go along with 11 assist. Not many teams in this league would have an answer for her. Going into the half down 2 probably made their locker room attitude pretty intense. I'm sure their coaching staff lit a fire under their butts. They came out with a whole different intensity level in the second half. They went from 1 offensive board in the first to 12 in the second. Again, we just didn't have the guns to stay in the fight.
We did some really good things in the first half. Hopefully we can build on that and keep improving.
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Pretty sure we're getting closer to giving Dani the FOY award for the conference. Her, along with Jaz and Anne, have been pretty impressive for it being their first season in D1 basketball. Jaz has kind of hit that "freshman wall" but was on a tear before these past couple games. I kind of wish Georgi would have been redshirted this season coming off her ACL injury. But she has still shown some promise in what minutes she does get. And with next year's freshmen class being more hyped than these girls, the future appears bright.
Quote from: valpopal on February 09, 2015, 03:32:55 PM
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Quote from: valpo4life on February 09, 2015, 04:46:10 PM
Pretty sure we're getting closer to giving Dani the FOY award for the conference. Her, along with Jaz and Anne, have been pretty impressive for it being their first season in D1 basketball. Jaz has kind of hit that "freshman wall" but was on a tear before these past couple games. I kind of wish Georgi would have been redshirted this season coming off her ACL injury. But she has still shown some promise in what minutes she does get. And with next year's freshmen class being more hyped than these girls, the future appears bright.
Congrats to Dani! She is our leading scorer, but has only started two games. She is also 7th in mpg - is there a reason she isn't out on the floor more? She doesn't seem to be foul prone.
Agree that the first year contributors are playing well, and with the incoming class next years things are looking better. The one thing I see from the stats is that we are -6.5 in TO margin. That is too many possessions to be giving up to the other team.
Turnovers are what kills this team almost every game so you're right about that. But I think the reason she doesn't see more minutes is she's still behind defensively. That should improve as she becomes stronger and quicker with off season workouts. Despite being 7th in minutes she still leads us in shots by a pretty wide margin. She's like a post version of Jamaal Crawford, comes off the bench and can put up the points. But other areas are still lacking.
Based on her defense, I wonder how often she really had to try on defense in high school or AAU? I always wonder that with recruits that have high numbers on offense, because it usually means they weren't strong on defense, so they come in with a bad habit that continues being a handicap throughout their college careers.
It's a sweep for the Walkers: Tevonn & Jasmyn both named Horizon League Freshman of the Week:
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We should have the Valpo crowd bring these to the game at Detroit.
(http://www.chicagoreader.com/binary/f922/1352404548-walker_rental_orlando.jpeg)
Half the Valpo crowd will already be equipped for this.
Where was Franklin last night?
Karungi breaks her nose, Thompson still hurting.....Donchetz, Weidemann, Godwin all out. Almost inpossible to believe until you remember the Freeman year of 6 players....
Quote from: IndyValpo on February 20, 2015, 09:59:17 AM
Where was Franklin last night?
Karungi breaks her nose, Thompson still hurting.....Donchetz, Weidemann, Godwin all out. Almost inpossible to believe until you remember the Freeman year of 6 players....
Franklin had suffered a concussion in practice. She will also miss tomorrow's game due to a death in the family.
Quote from: valpopal on February 20, 2015, 10:11:19 AM
Quote from: IndyValpo on February 20, 2015, 09:59:17 AM
Where was Franklin last night?
Karungi breaks her nose, Thompson still hurting.....Donchetz, Weidemann, Godwin all out. Almost inpossible to believe until you remember the Freeman year of 6 players....
Franklin had suffered a concussion in practice. She will also miss tomorrow's game due to a death in the family.
This team needs to heal.
On the upside - our two leading scorers and rebounders are Freshmen. With another good recruiting class coming in, maybe things will be looking upward next year.
Which season has been crazier from a roster perspective: 2011-12 or 2014-15? I wish I had more time and patience to follow this year's squad, but my senior year was absolutely bananas! Here's what I have written down from that season:
QuoteJessica Carr Played all but thrice, battled hip injury, also had illness late in season
Shaquira Scott Appeared in first 10 games, tore ACL in first half at Ball State in December
Betsy Adams 16 minutes in opener at SIUE, dealt with knee, also foot & heel injuries
Stefanie Lang Missed entire season, suffered leg & back injuries
Laura Richards Started all but once, missing Montana State game (altitude sickness at CU)
Tabitha Gerardot One of three players to start, play every game of the season
Ashley Timmerman Appeared in all but four games, nursed injuries in shins
Charae Richardson Ruled ineligible (Vincennes transfer) right before team trip to China
Liz Horton Just 12 appearances, suffered midsesaon concussion, also missed final games
Gina Lange One of three players to start, play every game of the season
Ieva Jansone Played 19 of 20 possible games, ineligible pre-HL (Miles CC transfer)
Maegan Callaway 3 minutes in opener at SIUE, missed rest of season with back injuries
Ashley Varner One of three players to start, play every game of the season, returned from ACL tear
Mallory Ladd Appeared in first six games, transferred to Evansville due to homesickness
Valpo dressed 9 players in the opener, 8 or less afterwards; The Crusaders even managed to win at Ball State with just five players after Scott's ACL tear and a foulout from Gerardot, finishing 10-21 for the year (5-13 HL, T-8th) with a quarterfinal berth; Valpo was also without early departures Skyler Gick (did not return due to back injuries) and Erika Lang (former walk-on rarely played the year before, went on China trip but left team before regular season)
Quote"I have been coaching for 28 years, and I have never, ever, ever, ever experienced anything like this," said VU head coach Keith Freeman.
Pretty pathetic performance today. Good for Sharon to get a double double on her Senior Day. Worth pointing out Jaz had her 5th straight double double. Guard play killed us as it has all year long. Can't win without good guards. But I'm sure someone will question this and my knowledge of this team ;D
If only Karungi was this healthy all year, you never know if we could have squeaked out a few extra wins, maybe 2-3. She is a good player when healthy. Someone has commented that she turns the ball over a lot, but she only has 20 TOs in 18 games...
Wait is someone agreeing with me that our posts are the better players on the team?!? But seriously, Sharon being hurt set this team back. She brought a physical presence no one else could. And with Haylee being a bit of a disappointment. The load was put on two freshmen for a majority of the year and even though they both played well. It would have been nice to her and her voice out on the court.
Quote from: valpo4life on February 28, 2015, 09:46:02 PMAnd with Haylee being a bit of a disappointment.
Thompson played in the post. You state that Valpo's post players were the better players yet then go and state that one of the post players who started more games was a "bit" of a disappointment. Which way is it? I think that points back to the coaching staff being at fault for not playing the better players.
Jaz and Dani were our best two players all season. I feel like everyone can agree on that. Sharon when healthy is a good player, like tx said and as she showed last year. So having one player being a bit of a disappointment in the entire position group doesn't change that the posts were the better players.
As far as minutes, there were only a couple games where we had all 4 in uniform. Let alone all 4 100% healthy. So it's pretty tough to comment on that because we never got to see what kind of rotation we would have gone with. If I had to guess we would start Sharon and Jaz, Dani first off the bench, and Haylee playing some minutes to give someone a little extra break when needed.
I just noticed the women's team is an abysmal 6-21, which is obviously not acceptable. What is going on with this program?
usc, bad guard play. Never had a true floor general. Sure, Jess Carr showed that she could coach on the floor, but she was having to do too much of that, and it affected her play. Abby Dean is looking like she knows how to play, but needs the freedom to shoot from where she's most comfortable, not where Coach Dorow means for her to shoot from. Lexi Miller needs to play less like she's going to lose her scholarship, and more like the game is meant for her. Franklin and Jaz Walker will be built around soon enough. We definitely need a true center, and I hope we have one in next year's class, plus we need some players who don't have to be told how to play basketball by having their hands held. Our post play is tough because either they were out of position or having to do too much with very little true coaching. I'd like this team to show they are coachable, but I think Coach Dorow is not getting through to them by holding their hands, giving them cookies and punch after practice, or being "Mom". She needs to be tough on them, as long as the injury bug isn't a glaring factor in how this team can play.
run, thanks for the explanation. Considering how well the men's team is playing, it would be nice to see the women's team follow.
Just add one note to that, we're giving up 76.6 points per game. That's terrible.
We don't play defense well at all. We look just as lost on defense as we do on defense, plus we're generally slow compared any team trying to fastbreak on us, which I haven't seen a fundamental fast break team I like watching in years.
Quote from: valporun on March 01, 2015, 03:54:25 PMWe look just as lost on defense as we do on defense,
....and just as lost on offense as we do on offense.......... ;)
(http://api.ning.com/files/qMuCtUZzsl2fXuaYDYJizX2eSMhNLNJSDYoSaVZ5wsp8E5jshE1*5vbFwq9fKyIXXy5HxM1myZR6bPEGfXQNlptcwE2bveR0/tautologyClub.png)
Anyone who thinks our lack of success has anything to do with our talent hasn't a clue about the game. This program will only see success when the coaching philosophy changes. I have coached and been involved in the sport for 40+ years and have never seen a program get so little from the talent they have. I feel for these players. they deserved so much more.
What are you specifically speaking about? I have only watched a few games this year on the women's side, and it seems like our lack of shooting talent is a big cause for our losses. When you shoot sub-.400 overall as a team, you won't win many games. In these games I have seen, these are wide-open shots too, so it isn't like they are always in our face.
We certainly have been in a shooting slump. Unfortunately, our shooting woes are affected by the rest of our lackluster game. Rather than rehashing the specifics which I, and others have pointed out before I will leave it at this. This squad does not play good fundamental basketball. We are at a disadvantage every time we step out on the floor, and it has less to do with skill sets, and more to do with fundamentals.
Quote from: IndyValpo on January 29, 2015, 11:18:48 AMThis coaching staff has given no one confidence that they will be able to right this ship. Our inside people are limited. Our 4 main guards are wildly inconsistent. This is a combination that is doomed to fail I am afraid.
This was my comment back in January and it remains true. We have two players who can be counted on for reasonable consistency (Franklin and Walker) everyone else is a crap shoot every night out.
We spent this year with only three players who could remotely be called a "big" and one of those is graduating and amazingly we added no one of size in the early signing period. Three is not enough and two is a joke. We only have one scholarship remaining and it is has to be a center. We need to be at the JC National Tourney next weekend.
And the AD needs to decide if he has seen enough to make a move. Let's be honest we get outcoached on a nightly basis. Not necessarily out prepared, but outcoached.
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I wouldn't be surprised to see Keith Freeman brought back.
WHATEVER SADERS
Now for the HL...um...if they're going to do that, why don't they make it "Freshperson of the Year"?
What's wrong with Sixth Woman of the Year?
In typical fashion we play a good first half and get overwhelmed in the second. Oh well, there is always next year.
Another season comes to an end. Can't be surprised by the outcome. Lost to a team with lessor talent. Par for the course. Even when we were hitting our shots, we played with no control. No other game this season depicts the flaws of a program more so than this one. This staff has no idea how to prepare for the second half of a contest. Our track record is clear in that respect. We have never been coached on how to finish a game. These players are not coached on how to block out. The stats don't lie. How many offensive rebounds did they get in the second half. We got beat by the second worst fundamentally sound team in the league. Unfortunately, we are the worst. Until this team gets back to the fundamentals, they will never have success. I feel bad for the seniors. As for Sharon, if she plans on playing beyond this year, she needs to work on her footwork, and grabbing the ball. too many lost opportunities down low from lost passes, and lack of position underneath. I would find a good mentor that knows the inside game. She got very little direction at Valpo. They just don't have a good bigs coach. That's why they will never had good bigs. For Carr, I thought she did well considering. She struggled at times shooting but I thought her floor presence will be missed. So many passes fumbled inside, and the shooters just weren't consistent this year. I thank her and Sharon for their contributions this season, and haven't really seen anyone who could fill either of their shoes going into next year. As someone else mentioned, we have no bigs, and none coming in. My assessment of the players returning:
Franklin - keep playing your game, but work on your D. This will be huge next year.
Hamilton - Play summer ball - somewhere - you must get better and be more consistent.
Walker - you are a star. It'll be up to you to make the players around you better. As you go, the team goes.
Dean - disappointing season - I honestly thought you'd be the X factor. Time for a heart to heart with yourself. You have the talent - do you really want to put in the work? I wonder.
Hamlet - Learn the game - the clock can be your friend - no place next season for Ill timed shots. need to work on the mental aspects of the game. your emotions get the best of you too often.
Miller - It's starting to come around - you have good instincts - need to see the floor better. Have to anticipate better.
Coaching Staff - If you remain, you MUST find help working with the inside game. I've been at this a while, 10+ following Valpo, and another 17 coaching elsewhere, and I don't think I've seen a poorer display of footwork and positioning on the inside as I have with this team. If you don't do anything else, do yourself a favor and watch this final game and concentrate only on the inside footwork and positioning. That will shed much light on why this game was your last this year.
You Must Get Back to Fundamental Basketball or You Will Never Enjoy Success.
presented with minimal comment, your valparaiso lady crusader season, by halves.
entitled I Now Agree With Jack, It's Gotta Be the Coaching
subtitled Or Lack Thereof
sub-subtitled In Case You Were Missing My Sarcasm
(http://s3.postimg.org/dcg0e2edv/Screen_Shot_2015_03_10_at_1_18_45_PM.png)
mlive. michigan sports. reports Meredith Hamlet ave. 25.2 ppt 8 reb. per and 6 .3 assist per game. scores 1868 in her career was the All Time Leading Scorer at McBain and the All Time leader in Rebounds and Assist!! please don't screw this up!!!!
Quote from: LaPorteAveApostle on March 10, 2015, 12:25:11 PMpresented with minimal comment, your valparaiso lady crusader season, by halves.
should have added more comment:
--the yellow colors are 1st halves we won;
--the orange are 2nd halves
--the red are wins.
The light green are all the cases where there was more than a dozen point swing from the first to the second half.
if that's not coaching, what is?
The coaching staff has received to verbal commits for 2016-17:
Marlee Profitt 6-1 C-F Medina, OH' 17 points, 7 rebounds as a junior
Grace Hales 6-0 G-F Westview HS in Indiana, 17 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists as a junior
There is also a young lady from iowa (can't recall her name) who was the player of the year in her class. I believe her school is in the second biggest class.
Claire Marburger 2015. Two time 4A player of the year. 23 pts a game led 4A, 7.8 rbds a game top ten in the class , top ten in steals in the class.
This would be great news if it was all about the talent. Something's going to give.
We have apparently signed a 6-4 Center from Elk Grove Village, IL Amber Lindfors. Not sure of her stats but she was an early commit to Southeast Missouri who went through a coaching change.
Some much needed height, and our tallest player since Tamra Braun (6'5")? We had some good FR this year, so if they stay and this C can contribute, maybe it is a turning point?
Claire Marburger
(http://theperrychief.com/sites/theperrychief.com/files/article/687912_web_claire-on-floor-with-ball-l-r.jpg)
(http://theperrychief.com/sites/theperrychief.com/files/article/728495_web_claire-breaks-career-pts-record.jpg)
(http://www.sportsspotlight.com/images/Photos/High%20School/Basketball/Girls/Claire-Marburger1.jpg)
Also a volleyball player
(http://raccoonvalleyradio.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/47a4ce09b3127cce9854860547440000001510wAbs2jZu5aMmbWw.jpg)
(https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/582319615922999297/f6eoAuM6.jpg)
https://www.google.com/search?q=Claire+Marburger&biw=1366&bih=643&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=5fo3VeXyF8OwyASh6YDwCw&ved=0CCMQsAQ#imgrc=ko4xMWl_LKLnYM%253A%3BOnnM9IBEaKsfYM%3Bhttps%253A%252F%252Fpbs.twimg.com%252Fprofile_images%252F582319615922999297%252Ff6eoAuM6.jpg%3Bhttps%253A%252F%252Ftwitter.com%252Fcburgs12%3B400%3B400 (https://www.google.com/search?q=Claire+Marburger&biw=1366&bih=643&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=5fo3VeXyF8OwyASh6YDwCw&ved=0CCMQsAQ#imgrc=ko4xMWl_LKLnYM%253A%3BOnnM9IBEaKsfYM%3Bhttps%253A%252F%252Fpbs.twimg.com%252Fprofile_images%252F582319615922999297%252Ff6eoAuM6.jpg%3Bhttps%253A%252F%252Ftwitter.com%252Fcburgs12%3B400%3B400)
Grace Hales--Westview HS (near Shipshewana, LaGrange, Middlebury--east of Goshen/Elkhart in the Northeast Corner Conf)
(http://www.elkharttruth.com/image/2015/02/19/850x850/Grace-Hales-Westview.JPG)
(http://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/goshennews.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/b/ec/becf7e0b-c686-5706-80a7-a8e7edca282c/54dc2ffd22c1f.image.jpg?resize=300%2C218)
(http://www.elkharttruth.com/image/2014/01/16/800x800_b0/0116-SPT-GBK-WVFF-LRT-9.jpg)
(http://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/goshennews.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/0/2e/02e8f0ad-db92-56e7-9b30-306fd8aaed09/54c3198fda900.image.jpg?resize=300%2C200) (http://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/kpcnews.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/4/8f/48fe5cda-c8aa-11e4-b1de-c782f99e1872/5501776f91e38.image.jpg)
Looks like we have confirmation on the post player, and then another much needed 3-pt specialist! Our shooting was dreadful last season, so hopefully these two can play a good part in a resurgence of our program!
http://valpoathletics.com/wbasketball/news/2014-15/14680/womens-basketball-adds-two-more-for-2015-16/#.VUjjW_lViko (http://valpoathletics.com/wbasketball/news/2014-15/14680/womens-basketball-adds-two-more-for-2015-16/#.VUjjW_lViko)
Two potentially good additions. This puts us at 16 players so someone is out. I am assuming Godwin who has been injured her entire career.
Thompson's college website has her averaging 22.4 points per game. Our release says 16. I have no idea the level of competition she played at (JUCO D2) but she scored over 30 points several times. She also played over 36 minutes for a team that only had 7 players but won 22 times last season.
http://www.dakotacollege.edu/athletics/womens-basketball/ (http://www.dakotacollege.edu/athletics/womens-basketball/)
Quote from: valpotx on May 05, 2015, 10:40:22 AM
Looks like we have confirmation on the post player, and then another much needed 3-pt specialist! Our shooting was dreadful last season, so hopefully these two can play a good part in a resurgence of our program!
http://valpoathletics.com/wbasketball/news/2014-15/14680/womens-basketball-adds-two-more-for-2015-16/#.VUjjW_lViko (http://valpoathletics.com/wbasketball/news/2014-15/14680/womens-basketball-adds-two-more-for-2015-16/#.VUjjW_lViko)
What am I missing? We had twelve players (assuming all scholarship) at the end of this season. Carr and Karungi will graduate. That leaves 4 open scholarships, and we have 6 incoming players. Who will be leaving?
If the new players are anything like Franklin and Walker, this team might improve enough to save the coaching staff.
Quote from: IndyValpo on May 05, 2015, 11:50:09 AMTwo potentially good additions. This puts us at 16 players so someone is out. I am assuming Godwin who has been injured her entire career.
Quote from: covufan on May 05, 2015, 12:15:34 PMThat leaves 4 open scholarships, and we have 6 incoming players. Who will be leaving?
OK. I was thinking it was 14 scholarships for the women, vice 13 for the men. It is actually 15 for the women. I'm sure IndyValpo is correct with the Godwin guess. If she is a good student, I'm sure they will take care of her.
Quote from: covufan on May 05, 2015, 12:24:13 PM
Quote from: IndyValpo on May 05, 2015, 11:50:09 AMTwo potentially good additions. This puts us at 16 players so someone is out. I am assuming Godwin who has been injured her entire career.
Quote from: covufan on May 05, 2015, 12:15:34 PMThat leaves 4 open scholarships, and we have 6 incoming players. Who will be leaving?
OK. I was thinking it was 14 scholarships for the women, vice 13 for the men. It is actually 15 for the women. I'm sure IndyValpo is correct with the Godwin guess. If she is a good student, I'm sure they will take care of her.
Godwin will leave team but stay at Valpo. Anne Hamilton is going to transfer.
Quote from: valpopal on May 05, 2015, 02:24:56 PM
Quote from: covufan on May 05, 2015, 12:24:13 PM
Quote from: IndyValpo on May 05, 2015, 11:50:09 AMTwo potentially good additions. This puts us at 16 players so someone is out. I am assuming Godwin who has been injured her entire career.
Quote from: covufan on May 05, 2015, 12:15:34 PMThat leaves 4 open scholarships, and we have 6 incoming players. Who will be leaving?
OK. I was thinking it was 14 scholarships for the women, vice 13 for the men. It is actually 15 for the women. I'm sure IndyValpo is correct with the Godwin guess. If she is a good student, I'm sure they will take care of her.
Godwin will leave team but stay at Valpo. Anne Hamilton is going to transfer.
I expect that Jessi Wiedemann has played her final game as well, due to lingering injury issues.
I see from an Indy Star story posted about Derrik Smits playing in an exhibition game at the famous Hoosiers Gym in Knightstown (from this thread http://www.valpofanzone.com/forum/index.php?topic=2176.msg59236;topicseen#new (http://www.valpofanzone.com/forum/index.php?topic=2176.msg59236;topicseen#new) ) that Allison Schofield, a Valpo women's recruit from Heritage Christian School in Indy, will be playing in the girls' game of the Hoosiers' Reunion Classic for the Hickory Huskers team.
Per Twitter we received 2 verbals yesterday. Anyone know who?
I think 4 total for 2016 now. Not sure who they all are.
Marlee Profitt
Grace Hales
Caitlyn Morrison
Some impressive height out of some guards and forwards.
On paper it would appear that the additions to next seasons team could improve this squad enough to place them in the top 3 or 4 teams in conference. It will be interesting to see if the coaches can meld together all of this young talent.
Quote from: Dutch55 on June 03, 2015, 08:54:07 AM
Marlee Profitt
Grace Hales
Caitlyn Morrison
Some impressive height out of some guards and forwards.
Yeah, two at 6'1" and one at 6'2". Caitlin Morrison's dad, Scott Morrison apparently played at Valpo in the early 90's (from a newspaper article)
I had heard that the girl from Iowa had a change of heart and has left the campus. Anyone else hear that?
Quote from: vu72 on June 03, 2015, 10:39:56 AM
Quote from: Dutch55 on June 03, 2015, 08:54:07 AM
Marlee Profitt
Grace Hales
Caitlyn Morrison
Some impressive height out of some guards and forwards.
Yeah, two at 6'1" and one at 6'2". Caitlin Morrison's dad, Scott Morrison apparently played at Valpo in the early 90's (from a newspaper article)
Quote from: historyman on April 22, 2015, 04:49:06 PM
Grace Hales--Westview HS (near Shipshewana, LaGrange, Middlebury--east of Goshen/Elkhart in the Northeast Corner Conf)
(http://www.elkharttruth.com/image/2015/02/19/850x850/Grace-Hales-Westview.JPG)
(http://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/goshennews.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/b/ec/becf7e0b-c686-5706-80a7-a8e7edca282c/54dc2ffd22c1f.image.jpg?resize=300%2C218)
(http://www.elkharttruth.com/image/2014/01/16/800x800_b0/0116-SPT-GBK-WVFF-LRT-9.jpg)
(http://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/goshennews.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/0/2e/02e8f0ad-db92-56e7-9b30-306fd8aaed09/54c3198fda900.image.jpg?resize=300%2C200) (http://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/kpcnews.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/4/8f/48fe5cda-c8aa-11e4-b1de-c782f99e1872/5501776f91e38.image.jpg)
Quote from: Dutch55 on June 03, 2015, 08:54:07 AM
Marlee Profitt
Grace Hales
Caitlyn Morrison
Some impressive height out of some guards and forwards.
Quote from: ValpoFan101 on July 22, 2015, 12:02:42 PM
Quote from: vu72 on June 03, 2015, 10:39:56 AM
Quote from: Dutch55 on June 03, 2015, 08:54:07 AM
Marlee Profitt
Grace Hales
Caitlyn Morrison
Some impressive height out of some guards and forwards.
Yeah, two at 6'1" and one at 6'2". Caitlin Morrison's dad, Scott Morrison apparently played at Valpo in the early 90's (from a newspaper article)
Quote from: historyman on April 22, 2015, 04:49:06 PM
Grace Hales--Westview HS (near Shipshewana, LaGrange, Middlebury--east of Goshen/Elkhart in the Northeast Corner Conf)
(http://www.elkharttruth.com/image/2015/02/19/850x850/Grace-Hales-Westview.JPG)
(http://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/goshennews.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/b/ec/becf7e0b-c686-5706-80a7-a8e7edca282c/54dc2ffd22c1f.image.jpg?resize=300%2C218)
(http://www.elkharttruth.com/image/2014/01/16/800x800_b0/0116-SPT-GBK-WVFF-LRT-9.jpg)
(http://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/goshennews.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/0/2e/02e8f0ad-db92-56e7-9b30-306fd8aaed09/54c3198fda900.image.jpg?resize=300%2C200) (http://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/kpcnews.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/4/8f/48fe5cda-c8aa-11e4-b1de-c782f99e1872/5501776f91e38.image.jpg)
Hales's dad was an IU football/ basketball player
Quote from: Dutch55 on June 02, 2015, 07:49:54 PM
I think 4 total for 2016 now. Not sure who they all are.
Quote from: IndyValpo on June 02, 2015, 05:59:14 PM
Per Twitter we received 2 verbals yesterday. Anyone know who?
Grace Hales
Marlee Profitt
Caitlin Morrison
Maya Meredith
and now Addison Stroller!! That's 5 commits from 2016 girls! It's about time for some boys!
Grace was first 2016 to commit. Tall, but seems to be knock down 3 pt shooter. Her dad played football/ basketball at IU
Via twitter
http://www.news-gazette.com/sports/prep-sports/girls-basketball/2015-06-25/cissna-parks-stoller-gets-shot-valpo.html (http://www.news-gazette.com/sports/prep-sports/girls-basketball/2015-06-25/cissna-parks-stoller-gets-shot-valpo.html)
Stoller as opposed to Stroller...
Quote from: ValpoHoops on May 06, 2015, 07:10:31 AMI expect that Jessi Wiedemann has played her final game as well, due to lingering injury issues.
Quote from: jack on June 29, 2015, 06:32:29 AMI had heard that the girl from Iowa had a change of heart and has left the campus
Quote from: valpopal on May 05, 2015, 02:24:56 PMGodwin will leave team but stay at Valpo. Anne Hamilton is going to transfer.
Have any of these rumors been confirmed?
Quote from: IndyValpo on July 22, 2015, 01:26:26 PM
http://www.news-gazette.com/sports/prep-sports/girls-basketball/2015-06-25/cissna-parks-stoller-gets-shot-valpo.html (http://www.news-gazette.com/sports/prep-sports/girls-basketball/2015-06-25/cissna-parks-stoller-gets-shot-valpo.html)
Stoller as opposed to Stroller...
FYI, the News-Gazette is from the Champaign/Urbana area and Cissna Park is a small town of 800 population in Illinois that lies between Paxton, Hoopeston, Watseka and Gilman on the eastern side of Illinois just off I-57 on IL route 49.
Quote from: IndyValpo on July 22, 2015, 01:28:54 PM
Quote from: ValpoHoops on May 06, 2015, 07:10:31 AMI expect that Jessi Wiedemann has played her final game as well, due to lingering injury issues.
Quote from: jack on June 29, 2015, 06:32:29 AMI had heard that the girl from Iowa had a change of heart and has left the campus
Quote from: valpopal on May 05, 2015, 02:24:56 PMGodwin will leave team but stay at Valpo. Anne Hamilton is going to transfer.
Have any of these rumors been confirmed?
Good Question. I believe, unless someone knows otherwise, that Marburger has left campus and returned to Iowa. Maybe another situation like "Ladd".
Quote from: jack on July 23, 2015, 07:25:38 AMGood Question. I believe, unless someone knows otherwise, that Marburger has left campus and returned to Iowa. Maybe another situation like "Ladd".
Let's hope not, she seemed like the top recruit.
However counting scholarships we should only have four for 2016 available and Stoller would be #5....not a good sign.
Quote from: IndyValpo on July 23, 2015, 08:29:34 AM
Quote from: jack on July 23, 2015, 07:25:38 AMGood Question. I believe, unless someone knows otherwise, that Marburger has left campus and returned to Iowa. Maybe another situation like "Ladd".
Let's hope not, she seemed like the top recruit.
However counting scholarships we should only have four for 2016 available and Stoller would be #5....not a good sign.
Yeah, I agree. She may have been the pick of the litter this year. Looks like they may have gone after Stoller to replace someone.
Yes, Marburger is gone. Godwin is not on the team. Wiedemann is a work in progress.
Quote from: ValpoFan101 on July 22, 2015, 12:27:38 PMGrace was first 2016 to commit. Tall, but seems to be knock down 3 pt shooter. Her dad played football/ basketball at IU
I like the look of this one!
I haven't seen it posted yet that Green Bay will host all women's tournament games: http://www.horizonleague.org/blog/green-bay-to-host-2016-horizon-league-womens-basketball-championship (http://www.horizonleague.org/blog/green-bay-to-host-2016-horizon-league-womens-basketball-championship)
It's been posted. GB will be hosting the Women's Tournament. The 15-16 schedule has been posted as well. Glancing over it, I can see where it could be a rough go early. Unless we've made major improvements over the summer, It could be game 7 before we have a shot at a "W". I hope I am wrong.
Well at least the women accomplished something the men will never be able to do. Get ND to come to the ARC!!
Quote from: jack on September 22, 2015, 02:11:53 PM
It's been posted. GB will be hosting the Women's Tournament. The 15-16 schedule has been posted as well. Glancing over it, I can see where it could be a rough go early. Unless we've made major improvements over the summer, It could be game 7 before we have a shot at a "W". I hope I am wrong.
The first six have some killers.
We will get rolled by Notre Dame and Louisville, both top 10 last year. San Diego and Northern Colorado won over 20 games last year and played in the WNIT.
We bombed Butler last year but they improved steadily to 14-16. Their top scorer did not return (might have been kicked off). They will be young 6 of 11 players are freshman.
Our best chance is Miami who was 7-23 of course we got destroyed by them last year in Oxford.
Wow, this is a lot of changes in the women's game! I am on board with all changes, except the two shots for every common foul, and the choice to advance the ball to the frontcourt in the final 59.9 seconds. I assume that this has something to do with trying to increase offense and match the international game?
http://valpoathletics.com/wbasketball/news/2015-16/14992/new-season-new-opportunities-for-womens-basketball/#.VjGs3berTIU (http://valpoathletics.com/wbasketball/news/2015-16/14992/new-season-new-opportunities-for-womens-basketball/#.VjGs3berTIU)
Anne Hamilton and Claire Marburger ended up at the DIII level.
http://apps.carleton.edu/athletics/varsity_sports/womens_basketball/team_roster/ (http://apps.carleton.edu/athletics/varsity_sports/womens_basketball/team_roster/)
http://www.central.edu/athletics/basketballwomens/roster.cfm (http://www.central.edu/athletics/basketballwomens/roster.cfm)