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I saw Ray Meyer's name mentioned in another part of the forum, and he has a funny story about basketball and religion within this documentary. The whole thing is good if you have the time to watch it all, but the Meyer story starts at 13:17 in case the time-key setup doesn't work properly.

https://twitter.com/NWIOren/status/1232456419544141824

NWI Times article

Valpo.edu release

2nd game in a row. Pay for ESPN+ but the game is blocked out in our area. Only on NBC Sports Chicago. Go to NBC sports Chicago mobile app and Illinois high school bball is on. I can only view it at home on my tv. But, I'm not home. So... cannot watch. What a joke.

It's supposed to be on NBC Sports Chicago+, but my TV is only getting a generic station slide with background music playing. Anyone else having trouble trying to watch via TV or is it just me? It could always be an issue with Mediacom instead...

https://twitter.com/TheKleinhans/status/1104080523478081536

Jaume Smits?

https://twitter.com/OnPressRow/status/1099485763362799617

Looking forward to being back for Homecoming this weekend with the UNI volleyball match Saturday. Here's a link to the UNI weekly game notes with a fun inside reference to the forum http://unipanthers.com/news/2018/9/26/womens-volleyball-panther-volleyball-visits-loyola-valparaiso.aspx

Last time Valpo was .500 or better in Horizon League play this deep into the season was 2008-09 (5-3). Crusaders now 8-11 overall and 4-4 in conference. Playing like that, gotta find more time to watch/listen to this team and chime in on the forum!

Hail Crusaders, 2015 Horizon League Tournament Champions!!!



Make Your Own: http://memegenerator.net/Regis-Philbin-Point

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:

Jessica 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)

"I have been coaching for 28 years, and I have never, ever, ever, ever experienced anything like this," said VU head coach Keith Freeman.

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.

If something like this hasn't been posted already, here's a link to "My Team is Better Than Your Team," proving that Valpo is better than CFP National Champion Ohio State: http://bit.ly/1y7Ym3j

For a trip down memory/Lind Lane, type "1103 Lind Lane" in the Times' search, and this brief from 2010 comes up in addition to the recent arrests: http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/porter/crimebriefs/article_eb0ef03c-c798-5ab3-b1af-3f501bb2f8c7.html

RPI really doesn't mean squat to Horizon League volleyball unless there's a team that's good enough to earn an at-large bid to the NCAAs. Usually, the cutoff for that is somewhere in the 40s, and most of the at-large bids easily get snatched by major conference teams. HL hasn't had any at-large teams with the exception of the 1999-2000 Milwaukee Panthers. You would need an incredibly good team that nearly wins out, with a great non-conference schedule, that lays an egg in the HL finals to have a chance to sneak into the party, and even then, you need to challenge the other HL teams to schedule tough non-league matches to help the league's RPI and assist the RPI of any top team that might come around...

Smaller event, and all real.

Saw chef tweeting about it yesterday and went to wsop.com to follow along. I knew there were other events, but there are 60-something total tournaments each year, and this year's No-Limit Texas Hold'em Main Event has a winner's prize of $10,000,000!!!!!!

Seven Card Stud Hi-Low 8-or Better is still in progress but he won $5120 for his 21st place finish off a $1500 buy-in. Always nice to make a profit in Vegas, here on the Valpo Gambling...RadioNetwork (laa, remember the proper branding lol)

Congrats to Todd Ickow for finishing 21st in the 2014 World Series of Poker Seven Card Stud Hi-Low 8-or Better

Nice share, apostle

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

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?

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!

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.

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?

[2013-14:]

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!

PRO SOCCER AT WRIGLEY PLEASE!

...

But first and foremost, let's get some baseball at Wrigley again! 

[12-of-14]

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/

[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.]

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.

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

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.

"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

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.