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They are ranked for the first time since 1979. Good for the Valley!

Obviously it is still early, but an interesting situation is emerging regarding potential NCAA tournament bids by conference. There is a realistic possibility that at least four (and possibly as many as six) teams from the Mountain West conference will make the NCAA tournament, and that its number of bids may eclipse bids from the ACC and Pac-12. This could realistically happen despite the transfer rules and vast NIL differences.

The MVC could learn something from the MWC. The MVC does have an outside shot at two, but that scenario has Indiana State dominating the rest of the way and then losing in the conference tourney semifinal or final.

Jaxson Edwards is tied for 6th in the nation for blocked shots per game.

Isaiah Stafford is tied for 54th in the nation for points per game (tied with Ben Krikke).

Interesting event. Like that they are trying different things...will be interested to see how many people pay $1,000 to attend.

https://alumni.valpo.edu/controls/email_marketing/view_in_browser.aspx?sid=1347&gid=1&sendId=4626209&ecatid=4&puid=3b768bd3-7922-40d6-a1c0-d47255d81406

As one of worst athletes (if not the worst athlete) in VU history, I would like to encourage you all to nominate one of the best athletes in Valpo history: Ryan Broekhoff. Excelled in so many areas and represented the university incredibly well.

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Nominations are now open to be included in the pool of candidates for the Valparaiso University Athletics Hall of Fame Class of 2023. Former student-athletes whose last season of competition was 2012-13 or earlier are eligible to be nominated.

Nominations are accepted year-round. Once nominated, a nominee remains in the active candidate pool for five years.

Former athletes, coaches, administrators, and support personnel at Valparaiso University are eligible for nomination to the Athletics Hall of Fame, as well as former students who have had outstanding careers in athletics-related fields after leaving Valpo.

Any athlete may be nominated 10 full academic years after leaving Valparaiso University. Teams may be nominated after a 10-year waiting period. A former employee may be nominated immediately upon their departure from the University, while current employees of Valparaiso University are not eligible for nomination in their current role.

Nominations should be submitted via Google Form at bit.ly/ValpoHoFNomination.

I actually thought this was a joke when I first saw it. It will be fun to see if they try to fit this name on jerseys, etc.

https://www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/37722846/george-washington-adopts-revolutionaries-new-moniker

Unfortunately, another small private mostly liberal arts college is closing...

Cardinal Stritch University in Milwaukee will be closing, effective on May 22. The university's president, Dan Scholz, made the announcement in a video posted on the school's YouTube page. Cardinal Stritch is a private Catholic university founded in 1937 by the Sisters of St. Francis of Assisi.

In the video, Scholz said, "We are all devastated by this development, but after examining all options, this decision was necessary. I wish there was a different path we could pursue. However, the fiscal realities, downward enrollment trends, the pandemic, the need for more resources is and the mounting operational and facility challenges presented a no-win situation. I am profoundly sad for the students."

Some data from what Valpo reported to the US Dept of Education for 2021-2022 academic year

-Men's Basketball: Revenue: $2.576M; Expenses: $2.599M; Gain (Loss): ($23K)
-Football: Revenue: $1.272M; Expenses: $1.221M; Gain(Loss): $51K
-Baseball: Revenue: $1.076M; Expenses: $1.226M; Gain(Loss): ($150K)

From what I understand, tuition paid by any student-athletes on the team counts as revenue and costs include a pro-rated cost for delivering classes to the student, housing, etc. Obviously, the numbers also include revenues and costs directly associated with the programs. Capital spending is not included in expenses.

Fairleigh-Dickinson deserves all the credit in the world for their effort - they played attacking style basketball for all 40 minutes. But Matt Painter coached a terrible game. Never punished FDU when they beat FDU's press. Never adjusted offense (or defense).

Drake played a good game, just suffered from a (surprisingly) bad game from Tucker DeVries.

I don't know how this will go, but having open and transparent discussions (as evidenced by Q&A) seems very positive. However, if the Q&A is controlled - in which questions are only asked that have been selected prior to the event - then this is not nearly as positive. I hope that it is structured with time for open questions, because that is effective leadership.
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Valpo Athletics Insider with Charles Small, Ed.D.
Wednesday, Dec. 14, 6:30–7:30 p.m. Central
Online via Zoom

Join Valparaiso University Director of Athletics Charles Small, Ed.D., for a question-and-answer conversation about the 2022–2023 season. Dr. Small will recap the successes in fall sports, as well as share his vision for the future of Valpo Athletics in the spring and beyond.

Valpo adds another long Dutch player.

https://www.valpoathletics.com/mbasketball/news/2022-23/21418/ibra-bayu-to-join-valpo-mens-basketball-program/

From the article, Ibra looks like a project with potential. Long with lots of athletic ability, but missed his junior year because of health issues and most of his senior year because of ankle injuries.

My guess is that this will create a whole series of ripple effects, most of which will involve programs in the west. Opinions initially seem to be centered around Oregon and Washington, but I think that Arizona State and Colorado will also be very likely to move since they are both associated with major markets.

You could see a new Pac-12 comprised of the remaining teams (Arizona, Stanford, Cal, Utah, Oregon State, Washington State), the MWC (with a few teams not invited), and (for basketball) Gonzaga.

The Pac-12 is quickly becoming the "Conference of departed Champions" (sorry usc4valpo)

Announced as new coach at LSU.

However, Murray State is one of the best mid-major programs at having succession plans for their coaches. My guess is that they will not miss a beat.

After seeing what Saint Peter's has accomplished this weekend, I cannot help but think how ironic it is that the tournament is trademarked as "March Madness" - but all of the TV emphasis is on the major schools. The tournament became "madness" because each year a few little schools upset major opponents despite having budgets that are a small fraction of the budget of major schools.

Saint Peter's total annual athletic budget is $7.5M, which is less than John Calpari's annual salary. That truly is madness.

From today's College of Engineering newsletter:

-This year, the college has set all-time records for percent of women students (28.2%), students from underrepresented populations (12.3%), Christ College students (17.6%), and varsity athletes (16.9%).
-Of the three new tenure track positions, two have been filled by women who recently completed their PhDs. One is a woman of color.

The percentage of students who are women and are from underrepresented populations is a great accomplishment...and is the result of hard work and continued emphasis by many good people in the College of Engineering. Unfortunately, there are still some people who have outdated and immoral stereotypes of women and minorities – thus Valpo is very fortunate to have great people who see the many benefits from increased representation in professional programs.

Every one of Tulane's games has been within five points. Thus, I expect this to be within five points - but Valpo to win.

Lots of groaning in the forum about Valpo losing the opener. However, we are not alone. MVC went 3-6 against D1 opponents tonight, with no one playing a team from a Power 6 conference. This included Northern Iowa losing to Nicholls and Missouri State losing to SE Missouri State.

And Belmont lost to Ohio.

On Monday, I played in the Brown and Gold Golf outing. This is the second time the event has been held, since it was not possible with COVID last year.

This was a really great event. Not fancy (other than the course) – but well run, friendly and personal. Everything good about Valpo.

While golf is clearly not a marquee sport, it still brings in some great male and female student athletes. They seem like a really impressive group. Further, the men's coach (David Gring) has done a tremendous job of upgrading facilities (especially the move to Sand Creek), developing interest from prior team members, and recruiting high caliber talent (I do not mean to slight the women's coach - I just know far less about that program).

I played with one of the men's team members, who had just transferred to Valpo after playing at Ball State for three years. Besides him being very personable, I have never played with someone who hits the ball so far. 310-320 with ease and at least two drives of 360.

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/20794050-purdue-global-fy20#document/p7/a2037977

From fiscal year 2018 to fiscal year 2020, Purdue lost over $80M with its online (i.e. Purdue Global) program.

There have been a variety of posts on a mix of threads on this forum regarding online education with Valpo. These poor financial results form Purdue should not be an indication that a university like Valpo should not pursue online programs. Rather, it indicates that strategies associated with online programs should involve partnering with a good OPM (in a revenue share model that also reduces the financial risk) and that pursuit of online programs (like many business strategies) should avoid an "all in" approach (which is what Purdue followed with their acquisition of Kaplan).

Does the NCAA intentionally try to create public relations disasters or are they just completely inept. Amazing this would happen after the women's college basketball tournament issues.

https://www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/31218919/ncaa-volleyball-tournament-venue-lack-announcers-draw-criticism-coaches

New rankings have Drake as #25 in AP and Coaches Poll. Loyola is just a few spots out of the Top 25. Good for the conference.

And Valpo now hosts a Top 25 team on consecutive days...I am sure that is a first.

Amazed that no one had posted this.

Within the rankings of National Universities

Overall: 160
Undergraduate Teaching: 55
Value: 38
Non-PhD awarding Engineering Schools: 13

Yesterday...
-Homer did not coach. My understanding is that he was exposed to someone who contracted COVID-19 and chose not to coach (he was interviewed during the broadcast).
-Brandon Wood played for the team that Homer would have coached, which lost by four points. He played a lot and had 5 points, 1 assist and 6 rebounds. He looked very active and confident playing the point, but also seemed out of control at times and did not shoot well. The James Harden style beard is an interesting look.
-Alec Peters did not play (he was on the bench) and his team lost by two. Not sure why he did not play.

Any D1 athlete graduating with a 4.0 GPA and a triple major is really impressive!

http://www.valpotorch.com/sports/article_d853233e-b7c4-11ea-beeb-8b14f55dbfc8.html

I looked at ESPN's breakdown of the upcoming TBT and they said that Homer is coaching the Baylor alumni team.

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/28695608/northern-iowa-criticized-denying-fan-10000-prize-shooting-promotion

You messed up. Own it and pay the kid.

https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/slideshows/us-news-best-national-universities

Did I miss something, or did they change how Valparaiso is considered in these rankings? They have Valpo listed as #153 as a National University. It seems that Valparaiso is now ranked as a national university despite similar schools (Butler, Xavier) being regional. I did see that at least one other formerly 'regional' school (Creighton) was also in the national rankings - but Creighton has a much broader set of programs than Valparaiso.

Anyway, given that Valpo has minimal research (which is appropriate for their focus on teaching) and lacks the resources that most state schools would have, I would argue that this is actually a pretty good ranking...though it is more difficult to market versus #1 or #2 midwest university.

While this seems to be related more to apartments run by a separate management company, it seems like the University should have engaged more. It is easy to say "not my problem, since it is not our housing", but Valpo is a seeking a pretty high tuition and needs to understand that students' entire experience will reflect on the University.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/post-tribune/ct-ptb-uptown-east-apartments-st-0603-story.html

I saw this article on Inside Higher Ed and I think that there is a really good message for schools like Valpo about what to do differently. I especially like the "act more like a startup", "more direct messaging about what makes you different", and "embracing your hometown".

https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2019/01/02/recommendations-help-private-colleges-succeed-future-opinion

So I was looking at the roster and saw two players that I never heard previously mentioned. One is Deion Lavender, who looks like a graduate transfer from UAB (he also previously played at SIU). The other is Langston Stalling, a Freshman guard from Gary. I may have missed previous posts on these two players, but what role are these two guys expected to play?

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-met-wheaton-college-hazing-lawsuit-20180315-story.html

http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/wheaton/news/ct-met-wheaton-hazing-plea-20180322-story.html

Hopefully, the facts will be flushed out in court. However, given that one of the players (Chris Spielman's son) pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and specifically stated his 'lesser' role in the hazing event, it would seem likely that the hazing happened and that Spielman will be the key witness in the criminal trials and the civil trial against Wheaton College and the players.

Wheaton College tries to make itself out as the beacon of morality and faith, and yet here they seem to completely ignore doing what is morally and ethically correct in order to prevent their 'brand' from being tarnished. If the charges made by the former player that this was known by the football staff and administration are indeed true, I would hope that the football coaches, athletic director, and university chancellor all lose their jobs.

Despite Valpo having an off year, discussion continues about wanting to be in a place to be able to achieve an at-large NCAA birth (i.e. be in a multiple bid conference). The move to the MVC seems to have increased the probably of that.

However, everyone might want to consider how difficult it can be to achieve multiple bids. Consider these teams (without names) - each of which may not get at-large births if you look at the various prognosticators. None are from the A10 or American Conference and I have excluded Gonzaga and Saint Mary's.

Team 1: 24-5 (against D1 opponents)/RPI: 15/SOS: 55/record versus top 100 RPI teams: 9-3 (Ok, this team is pretty likely to get in)
Team 2: 22-6 (against D1 opponents)/RPI: 24/SOS: 84/record versus top 100 RPI teams: 6-3
Team 3: 22-5 (against D1 opponents)/RPI: 25/SOS: 92/record versus top 100 RPI teams: 3-4
Team 4: 24-5 (against D1 opponents)/RPI: 34/SOS: 164/record versus top 100 RPI teams: 5-1
Team 5: 20-8 (against D1 opponents)/RPI: 36/SOS: 71/record versus top 100 RPI teams: 2-5
Team 6: 21-6 (against D1 opponents)/RPI: 47/SOS: 143/record versus top 100 RPI teams: 4-4

A good Valpo team in previous seasons looks very much like Teams 3, 4 and 6...and I strongly doubt any of those teams will get an at-large birth if they do not win their conference tournament.

1. When nonprofit institutions pay someone greater than $1M per year, they will have to pay a 21% tax on the salary above $1M. Note that, for coaches, universities might be able to circumvent this by using the new pass-through deductions for LLCs.
2. Eighty percent of seat licenses/donations that allow someone to purchase season tickets had been deductible as a charitable contribution. That has been eliminated.

I am not sure that I really have a problem with either of these changes (though I have big problems with the overall new tax law).

Here are some outcomes that you may not have seen on Sportcenter last night or this morning.

First, Army picked up its first win of the season by beating the John Jay College of Criminal Justice by a score of 92-43. It is likely that John Jay's strategy of filing appeals and change of venues was not able to overcome Army's staunch defense. Second, perennial favorite (on this board) Chicago State notched its first victory over Silver Lake College of Manitowoc, WI. Chicago State pulled away to a 101-53 win after only leading by 9 early in the second half. Silver Lake played over 10% of its undergraduate men in the game (this is actually true). And Horizon League dark horse, Youngstown State, got back to its winning ways by beating the Franciscan Barons 134-46. It is not known if Franciscan's mascot, Baron von Stueben, made the trip to Youngstown from Steubenville.

Saw this in the NWI times last week...

http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/laporte/saudi-arabian-vu-grad-saves-valpo-boy-s-life/article_c4b684c3-9dd2-59dd-aa5c-349c1d5f5176.html

A great letter to the Valparaiso community from Mark Heckler.

http://www.valpo.edu/news/2017/01/29/a-statement-from-president-mark-a-heckler-all-are-welcome-in-this-place/

Considering that Alec Peters has 2166 career points going into tonight's game against Wright State, it seemed interesting to consider whether he will get the additional 334 points necessary to reach 2500.

[Valparaiso 6]

Did anyone else notice this in the latest FCS rankings?


Others receiving votes: Fordham 62, Eastern Illinois 42, New Hampshire 34, Samford 26, Jackson State 24, Eastern Kentucky 23, Liberty 20, Towson 20, Montana State 19, Grambling State 11, Delaware 10, Cal Poly 7, Valparaiso 6, Wofford 5, North Dakota 4, Monmouth 4, Stony Brook 2, Dartmouth 2, Penn 2, South Dakota 2

I figured this deserved its own thread.

Australia blew out France. Ryan did not start, but played big minutes due to Ingles being in foul trouble. Broekhoff looked good, though it would have been nice to see him hit a few more shots. 7 points and I would guess 3 or 4 rebounds, 1 or 2 steals and some good defense on the French guy that Charlotte just signed as a free agent.

France was awful. Words cannot describe how bad their defense was. Middle school teams defend screens and players cutting to the basket better than France did.

Given his incredible improvement during his time at Valparaiso, as well as having been a great overall example for the university, I thought this deserved its own thread.

As of today, Vashil Fernandez leads the nation in blocked shots per game.

                                                                      Games Blocks BPG
1   Vashil Fernandez   Valparaiso   Sr.   6-10   C   34   111   3.26
2   Tai Odiase   Ill.-Chicago           So.   6-9   C   30   97   3.23
3   Chris Boucher   Oregon   Jr.   6-10   F   36   109   3.03

Note that this includes all games - regular season, conference tournament and postseason play. Unless Boucher has some incredible number of blocked shots in their NCAA game(s), the only way Vashil can lose this is to average less than 3 BPG in the remaining games.

Sportswriter Tom Keegan of the Lawrence Journal-World  had the following humorous suggestion for a team in the Big 12 to come up with a way to stop Kansas' streak of conference titles. We know that the results of combining all of the Drews in one united effort yields great results.

Kenpom.com's ranking of adjusted offensive and defensive efficiency measures points per 100 possessions and adjusts the number based on the strength of the opponent and the site of the game. It's as good a barometer as any to gauge the offensive/defensive balance of teams and verifies that Kansas is elite at both ends. (The value in advanced statistics lies in them validating or questioning what your eyes told you, not the other way around).

Kansas, ranked seventh in adjusted offensive efficiency and eighth in adjusted defensive efficiency, is the only school that ranks in the top 10 in both categories. Four others rank in the top 25 in both areas (national ranking/offensive efficiency/defensive efficiency): 2. Michigan State (2/19), 3. Villanova (12/6), 4. Virginia (10/11), 6. Oklahoma (15/12).

Among top 25 schools, No. 17 Duke (3/97), No. 19 Baylor (6/131), No. 21 Iowa State (4/107) and No. 24 SMU (14/72) have the wildest offensive/defensive disparities.

Outside the top 25, San Diego State ranks 226th in offensive efficiency, second in defensive. Valparaiso University ranks 128th in offense, fourth in defense.

Maybe the next Big 12 school to have an opening should coax highly regarded Valpo associate AD Homer Drew out of coaching retirement and Homer could steal son Bryce from Valpo, make him his defensive coordinator, steal son Scott from Baylor, make him his offensive coordinator, and make a (futile) run at Kansas' stranglehold on the Big 12 throne.

I can't say that I feel bad for Syracuse and Boeheim. There has always seemed to be a stench around that program, and I am not at all surprised to see the program and Boeheim penalized by the NCAA. Maybe the media will look a little more critically at the character of coaches before singing their praises as great leaders.

Of course, with the reduced scholarships at Syracuse there will be less basketball players that can "play big time basketball".

There has been a great deal of talk in the media and among coaches about opening up play to make the game more interesting and higher scoring.  Given the great basketball knowledge on this website, I thought I would propose an idea that I have never heard anyone consider and see what the great minds here might think.

There has been a lot of talk about reducing the shot clock, but there has been valid concern (at least in my opinion) that this will just lead to more poor shots when there is good defense being played.  I would say that reducing the clock fromm 35 to 30 is probably not going to create many poorer shots, but I alsodon't think that it would open up play that much more either.

My idea is that there be a two-stage shot clock.  If you shoot and score within 15 seconds of the 35 seconds, you get an additional point.  Thus teams are incented to try to score earlier and would require more open play, from more fast breaks and getting in their offense faster, to get the incentive.  However, teams will avoid taking some bad shots and just go for the "post 15 second" score.  The shot clock would put off some colored light for 15 seconds being reached.  To prevent stoppages from when a team may questionably have shot within 15 seconds, reviews for that instance would only be at the timeouts.  Second attempts (rebounds) or balls going out of bounds off the defensive player do not reset the 15 second clock, but defensive fouls would.

Maybe this is too weird of an idea, but the problem with every other solution offered is that there is no incentive for the offense.  Furthermore, when they tried to call games much closer at the beginning of last season, it just created a lot of free throws (not interesting) and the referees eventually went back to the status quo.

An interesting commentary...agree with much of this, but I am not comfortable with a few points in this commentary.

http://www.nwitimes.com/news/opinion/columnists/guest-columnists/guest-commentary-should-student-athletes-be-paid/article_52456b61-40f3-5a90-9f57-2b4e72af378a.html#.VHN1-FD8z0M.email

It was mentioned in a few of the posts regarding the Murray State game (nice win!), but thought that I would start a separate thread here.  This point of emphasis where there can be no contact on the guy with the ball is absolutely ridiculous.  I see that the Valpo-Murray State game had 53 fouls and 77 free throws.  I was at the Kansas/Louisiana-Monroe game last night and there were 58 fouls and 73 free throws.  I can't comment on how physical the Valpo/Murray State game was and I do know that it came down to the wire, but the Kansas/Louisiana-Monroe game was not physical and did not go down to the wire.  One foul every 41 seconds is ridiculous (about every 45 seconds in the Valpo/Murray State game...still ridiculous).

People invest time to go to a game for lots of good reasons - college basketball is a great game and people want to support their teams.  The environment is great and the style of play is far better than the pro game.  In some places it is also pretty expensive to go to a game...but again, it is often a great product.  What we have now with this "point of emphasis" is a game with way too many stoppages and less exciting free throws versus good offensive and defensive play.  This is in the hope of getting more open play that is higher scoring, but in my opinion a potentially less interesting brand of basketball.

Has anyone noticed that when referees go to review something during a game at the ARC (clock setting, possible flagrant foul), Todd (chef) is watching their review like a hawk? 

Does anyone have any thoughts on what has happened with Scott Drew?  I saw the Baylor - Kansas game on Monday and his coaching was extremely poor.  They really never ran any offensive sets and kept trying to pound the ball inside all night.  Scott made no adjustments at halftime, despite having 10 shots blocked in the first half.  At Valpo, I thoght that his game coaching was qutie good - and I heard Rich Zvosec on the radio yesterday say that he can't understand why Baylor does not run offensive sets for their good shooting guards...because they were very good at that when he coached against Valpo.

Additionally, Scott seems to have developed some questionable ethics.  He was suspended for two games this season due to recruuting violations (too much contact with recruits) and his longtime assistant (Mark Morefield) is banned from coaching for a year by the NCAA.

I would be interested in different opinions because (1) Scott never did those things at Valpo, and (2) the rest of his family, in my opinion, are incredibly virtuous.

Are there any insights into the 2012-2013 basketball schedule?  Here are pieces of information that I remember or have heard:

-Road game at Missouri State
-Home game against Loyola Maymount? (not sure if the return game is this year or next)
-Home games against IPFW and IUPUI (I think they are home and home deals and both were on the road last year)
-Oakland on the road (I thought that they were alternating this every year)
-Nebraska (per other post - I assume on the road)
-Northern Illinois at home (return from playing their last season)

(Obviously would love to see a November or December game in Lawrence)

It seems this has been known for some time, but in all of the announcements today it was mentioned that ORU is leaving the Summit League.  While that is not necessarily surprising, they are going to the Southland Conference - certainly a step down in basketball.  While immensely geographically challenged, Oakland, SDSU and others in the Summit League seem to be building or sustaining good programs.

I would guess Southern Utah will be next to leave (surprised that they have not already).