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Since there has been tons of talk about Vashil coming back or not and nobody really knows it'll be interesting to see what the general consensus is out there on whether or not he'll be suiting up in brown & gold for another season.

One of the all time greats in Valpo history past away at the age of 92. A very sad day for Valpo basketball, the university, and the city as a whole. For Valpo wouldn't be Valpo if it wasn't for his part in the World's Tallest Team.

RIP Milt

The 2014/15 season will soon be upon us, hard to believe that the first exhibition game tips off in under a month. Like last years team there are plenty of unknowns surrounding this team, with Yeo opting to be a big fish in a little pond and the recent injury to Lexus it creates some opportunities for some of the new guys, as well as what is happening with Hammink?

I do believe that Valpo will finish top half of the HL, I think KC will be much improved and will be able to find the consistency that eluded him last season and Alec will be a finalist for PoY, when all is said and done.

Anyways here is my depth chart for the season.

1: Lexus, KC, Max Joseph
2: Darien Walker, Tevonn Walker, Nick Davidson
3: Alec, Nickerson
4: Jubril, ?Hammink?, David Skara
5: Vashil, David Chadwick, Skara

There are a ton of questions on who will play where this year, with the injury to Lexus and the departure of Yeo really makes it difficult to figure who will play what and the questions surrounding Hammink's eligibility, will Nickerson and Chadwick be able to stay healthy throughout the year? What freshmen will step up?

I do believe we are much better than last year, I think Nickerson will play a big role off the bench and a Walker will have a terrific season. We should finish in the upper half of the HL and a first place finish isn't out of the question with the returning talent we have. Last year's freshmen class performed above and beyond my expectations so I have no reason to believe why this year's class will be any different. 

http://www.horizonleague.org/blog/fans-can-create-preseason-all-league-teams

Pretty neat to see the HL put out a fans poll that you can vote in and it will be released on the 14th of October. Should be interesting to see what the fans think.

With the latest signing of Gueye all of the players for next year are set in stone. There is still a lot of question on who will start and who will play where.

Here's my depth chart.

At the PG - Carter (once available), Dority (I think he's more of a 2), Williams
2 - Dority (after Carter is available), Coleman, Davidson
3 - Rossi, Peters, Yeo
4 - Capo, Chadwick, Adekoya
5 - Gueye, Fernandez

I think this will be a fun year to watch. Way more questions than last year, tons of new faces as well. Looking forward to October for the first pre-season game. Still a lot of questions surrounding this team and a ton of unknowns as well.

Opinions.... COMMENCE

So I have noticed that many people have been discussing possible teams that we might want in the HL in the next year or two. So I cam up with a system that would rank teams that I thought were within reason. They were ranked in 1 through 21, with 1 being the best score and 21 the worst. These are only their ranking, not their actual numbers. This took quite a while for me to do. For example since Oakland was only 25 miles from Detroit they were given a ranking of 1 because they were the closest school to another HL school, while ORU was the furthest away, so they were ranked number 21 in that respect, same goes for win%* and NCAA/NIT appearances, which are both since the 2003-04 season. For Northern Kentucky, South Dakota State, North Dakota State, South Dakota, and North Dakota, they've all played time in DII during the previous 10 years, so I did not count those seasons as a part of their totals.

So, debate since I know there is a lot to debate about. What team(s) do you want to see in the HL and which teams would you not? And what are your general thoughts to the hopeful HL expansion?


Rank   Team
1   Robert Morris
2   Belmont
3   Oakland
4   Murray State
5   Niagara
6   Eastern Kentucky
7   Oral Roberts
9   Austin Peay
9   Morehead State
10   IUPUI
11   North Dakota St
12   South Dakota St
13   Northern Kentucky
14   IPFW
15   Tenn. Tech
16   Canisius
18   Tenn. Martin
18   Tenn. State
19   South Dakota
19   Western Illinois
21   North Dakota

Saw an article out there that Demetrius Harris, who was Milwaukee's big man has gotten interest from multiple NFL teams as a possible tight end. Kansas City has shown some interest, including 9 other NFL teams. Harris who is 6' 5 1/2" definitely has the size to be in the NFL and he was an allstate football player in Arkansas as well during his time in high school in Jacksonville, Arkansas.

http://www.jsonline.com/sports/uwmilwaukees-demetrius-harris-trading-basketball-for-football-pads-fk9hbh6-202876291.html

Sadly, the 2012-13 season has ended, and so went it the careers of 6 seniors who led decorated careers here at VU. There have been many highs and lows throughout the season. So in your opinion.....

What were your best moments of this past season? Who was your biggest surprise? Who was your biggest disappointment? Who had the best single game performance? What was the most memorable play?

_______________

As for me: My best moment of the season was by far the championship win against WSU but other than that the regular season. The 22 point comeback was something special. I remember screaming at the tv as I saw them getting embarrassed in front of a national audience. As for a home game, the regular season win against WSU, and Rowdy scoring 12 points in a row or at least 12 out of the last 14 was something to watch.

My biggest surprise to the season was probably Erik Buggs. His offense was greatly improved from last year, there were times when he would make the opposing team just look silly. And that behind the back pass against Eastern Kentucky was something special to watch. I think he also had by far the biggest performance of the season in the championship. Scoring a career high 22 point on 8 of 13? shooting and 4 of 6 from from the charity stripe. I have never seen Buggs completely take a game over like that and the one problem with that was that I was wondering where that has been all season.

On the other hand my biggest disappointments were probably early season Will Bogan and Matt Kenney. Both just seemed off and did not seem the same player from last year and it hurt us in many of those early games. Maybe with Bogan and Kenney playing better we could have beaten a New Mexico or a SLU, or at least the games would have been much closer.

As for a single game, the best performance was by far against Eastern Kentucky almost 70% from the field! Enough said! While the worst was the final ten minutes against Detroit. Just pitiful.