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Kanter has committed to play at Xavier. I believe his older brother, Enes, went to Ohio St but was not eligible to play. Maybe the family has some kind of Ohio connection?

Mark Alstork from Wright State has declared for the NBA draft but won't sign an agent

Now being reported he will graduate, transfer, and be eligible immediately next year. Valpo and Oakland seem destined to stay at the top of this conference because all the others school's best players are choosing to leave, while players from other schools are choosing to come to us and Oakland.

Mark Alstork from Wright State has declared for the NBA draft but won't sign an agent

This is infuriating.

Having watched every single game the kid has played at the collegiate level, there is no chance he is pro-ready. Not sure why he decided this year was the time to do it since his stock really couldn't be that high (he only started for 6 weeks with up and down results). Maybe eventually he projects out but not right now. If he wants to go, that's his choice, however, I really don't see how this benefits him. Not signing with an agent is a curious choice, too. You would think if he were that confident that he would sign with someone. Maybe there is a bigger story here, but as of a few days ago, Linc gave an interview and mentioned Kerem as the guy to watch for next year in terms of impact, so this surely comes as a surprise to him. We have to play the waiting game now, I guess, this is far from over.

It actually makes sense for every single college player to declare for the draft without an agent. You then can go compete in individual workouts, get feedback from professional personnel, etc. If you don't like what you hear about your draft stock then come back to school and work on the parts of your game that you were told are your weaknesses. More players should take advantage of this. You have nothing to lose.

Figured we should start a thread to post any relevant transfers to our program. We all obviously know about Lexus, most have heard about Fazekas leaving Providence.

New transfer news: Per Jon Rothstein, Kanter is graduating and transferring from Green Bay. Pretty significant.

FAKE NEWS!!! Apparently he has told the coaches he is just declaring for the draft without an agent, but the feeling is that he's gone.

Figured we should start a thread to post any relevant transfers to our program. We all obviously know about Lexus, most have heard about Fazekas leaving Providence.

New transfer news: Per Jon Rothstein, Kanter is graduating and transferring from Green Bay. Pretty significant.

Would you rather be a Kansas or Purdue who won the more important conference championship then lost early in the tournament or a Iowa State or Michigan who now have chances to the conference tournament title? Discuss.

Also worth acknowledging that Bryce has Vandy as the last team in as a part of the newest Lunardi Bracketology. Easy to see why you'd want to coach at a power conference school, 16-13 and a legitimate shot at the tourney. Two big games this week with Kentucky and Florida. I know I'll be watching and cheering him on.

Valpo needs to keep an eye on Valpo High sophomore Brandon Newman.
He's been the best player on the court in the last two games (Crown Point and Chesterton).

Just took a look at the his highlights from the last few games and he looks expressive. Nice euro-step, quick, agile, and can get to the rim. Didn't see a great looking jump shot though. Needs to develop a jump shoot if he really want succeed at the next level. Only a sophomore though.

Highlight clips if you want to take a quick look: http://www.hudl.com/profile/6329578/brandon-newman

Wouldn't be a bad idea for the coaching staff to start building a relationship with the guy to potentially gain a recruiting advantage down the road.

Only thing is that he's a hometown kid. A lot of times kids want to leave for college and get away from their parents and family. Could be an advantage or a disadvantage I guess depending on the kid. Also Northwest Indiana is weird. Native Indiana people tend to gravitate towards Purdue, IU and Notre Dame, because of the generational history of those schools athletics programs, etc. There are a lot of Valparaiso University fans in Valpo but not as much as you'd think there should be because the loyalty to Purdue, IU and ND run strong in Indiana.

I worked with Brandon this past summer and assisted his AAU team (he played an age group up). His jump shot is not an issue, probably even a strong skill of his. I remember him winning a couple games in the summer almost by himself hitting contested 3's and at the rim. He is not asked to take many jump shots with the high school team. He is a great kid who is committed to taking his game to the next level and will be featured over the his junior and senior seasons at Valpo. I'd expect him to continue to improve and receive his fair share of offers. Couldn't tell you at what level but I'd love to see him at VU. I've seen him at a number of our games this season.

Good story about UIC in today's Chicago Tribune.  Includes some positive comments about Peters.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/college/ct-uic-injuries-depth-around-city-spt-0120-20170119-story.html

A little about Alec. A lot about their injury situation, including dressing a manager last game so they'd have eight in uniform.

A related question, which came up in a discussion of the Jubril situation, are student managers paid? Sometimes? Usually? Never? Sort of an internship deal? I suppose if you're paying them you couldn't put them in a uniform. But, student athletes certainly work campus jobs, including at other sporting events: baseball players working concessions, soccer players checking tickets, track athletes acting as ball boys at soccer games.

I feel pretty confident in saying that our student managers are not paid. But I have spoke with someone who was a manager at Purdue a couple years ago and he said they received a stipend. It's not surprising if all the bigger schools did pay their managers since they a big part of practices, game day preparations, etc.

I think the video of Parker Hazen was from last year.  The Columbia City  team of this year is TERRIBLE!  On at least 2 occasions Hazen has had only 2 or 3 total points per game.  Last night I believe he had 3.  Is he hurt?  I think his team has only won 1 game this year.  I'm not saying that he is not a good find, but just wondering what is going on with him so far this year.  Perhaps someone could check out his stats for this season.

They've only got 2 wins on the season. Only returned 2 players from their previous year's roster and have a new head coach. Doesn't exactly sound like a recipe for success, even if you are a D1 player.

Just so we can ponder some of the alchemy employed in the early ranking systems I'll throw out a few comparative numbers.
                                       Warren Nollen          Sagarine       Pomeroy
Oakland                             136                        85               130
Vanderbilt                          110                        68               70
Alabama                            143                        73               73
BYU                                  185                        72               60
Rhode Island                       58                         50               42
Valpo                                 55                         78               74

These look to be updated for all of the Tuesday Nov 29'th action. Too early for anything to mean much but already some significant puzzlements.

Part of the reason why our KenPom number seems higher than most would think is that his numbers have us ranked as the 4th luckiest team in the country.

We haven't beaten a ranked team at home in 28 years.  To be fair, there haven't been that many opportunities, but it's been 28 years nonetheless.  I think the URI fan is right about our lack of depth generally.  If no one steps up and we get very little quality minutes from the bench, it's going to be a long night, and you can look for that near three decade streak to continue.

Draw contact, go to the line, hit free throws.  Draw contact, go to the line, hit free throws.  Draw contact, go to the line, hit free throws.

This is a good strategy comment, as we're 9th in the nation in free throw percentage at 81% on 184 attempts (26 per game, 13th highest in the nation). None of the 8 teams above us have shot more than 127 on the season. Also, foul trouble may just be the defining factor of this game. I know we don't have the best depth currently as the new guys are still developing, but it's not like Rhode Island has amazing depth either. They have a good starting five, pretty solid sixth man (IU transfer), but after that it's nothing overly special. Another factor will be Jubril's shooting ability for the night, if he's hitting shots from the perimeter then Martin (averaging 4.5 blocks per game) hopefully plays further away from the rim than he'd like to. Maybe even play Alec at the 5 for a couple minutes, play zone on defense, and create mismatches on offense.

Can't complain too much about a win over a Power 5 team, but I'll try:

I know they had the size advantage on us, but it sure seemed to me like we gave them a TON of second looks.

Alabama had a few possessions where they snuck one of their big guys down to the baseline behind our 2-3 zone and fed him for an easy bucket. If it happens once I get it, but they had three or four baskets that way.

They had 13 offensive rebounds, which is a lot, but we had 8 of our own. So we didn't get burned as bad as it seemed in that department with second chance points being a 7-7 tie.

As far as the easy buckets, gotta expect a couple of those to happen each game when playing zone. Especially with how active how wings are. You don't want that to happen, but I will accept it for the overall defense we played. Also on this topic, I kept wondering how long Alabama was going to keep trying to ball screen their way through the zone before they figured out it wasn't going to work but they just continued to do it over and over. It's useless at the top of the key where the guards can just pass the dribbler off to one another. Whatever, I'm glad we made them stagnant and our first win that feels like it's worth something of the season. On to BYU.

I believe that was a retweet from Burton.  That's not him from what pictures I've seen.  Also, Burton is right handed.

The player in that video is also right handed

Perhaps this is the year Davidson sees regular minutes.

If this happens his nickname will no longer be accurate though 

We got Hazen

It'll be interesting to see if Lottich continues the point-forward trend. I'd be happy seeing our point guards given a shot to play point guard and having Shane stay at the 3.

Given that it would appear that Lottich is going to run a more up tempo style. We may get to see a little bit more of Lexus as he seemed to fit that mold his freshman year. If Bryce would have stayed he would still be hidden down at the end of the bench, but now he has a chance to prove his worth and earn some minutes

Assuming everything is true, which I believe it is and have no reason to think otherwise. Maybe Lottich should go with the bold move and not grant him his release. Only down side is it would hurt David. But then again it creates a scenario where David goes to Vujic and says "hey, now I have to pay my way and sit out for a season. You going to pay for my school?". I don't know if that would help anything or not. It's just so selfish to tell a kid to leave a school he seemingly likes with a successful program because you're butthurt you weren't selected for a job that I'm sure had plenty of applicants to choose from.

Watched Sasha played this weekend down in Indy. Was not really blown away, but he is a very good all around player. Had no issues playing on the court with players much more athletic than he was. He'll get some high major looks because of his ability to knock down shots consistently combined with being a seemingly smart player.

I guess I'm in the minority here. I will be cheering For Bryce at Vandy and watch whenever I can. I follow Baylor pretty closely and have them listed under my favorites on my ESPN account. Vandy will be added to the list. I don't know how anyone can have any animosity towards him, the man took a promotion. He's pursuing a dream. I will never knock anyone who does that and shame on any of you who seem to be doing just that.

Per Oren's twitter. Jubril is not only staying, but is more excited than ever for next season. Also believe I saw he spoke with Tevonn a couple days ago and was told he is excited for the upcoming season as well.  College kids love to talk and blow things out of proportion.

I would think being the head coach of Valpo would be a better gig than an assistant at Vandy.  I wonder the salary difference. 

I would think head assistant at Vandy makes more than the head coach at Valpo.

Our coaches and players have had 3 days to prepare for a bad offensive team that is also undersized. I see us taking this one rather easily. Not like Monday where we were seemingly shot out of a cannon, but more of the slow knife approach.

Valpo 67
WSU 48