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Recently, I heard some rumors that Homer might leave in a couple of years. Hearing this report that he could be leaving tomorrow shocks me. I was not ready to hear that today. Certainly makes my Monday a little more interesting...

Was anyone at yesterday's games that could tell me what happened? A friend of mine showed me this tweet from Tess Sito, CSU's No. 1:

Valpo people have the least class ever, hope we **** em up in tournaments

Regardless of how relevant that tweet might be, I do hope we get to see her and the Vikings again come tournament time. Make it a solid 3-of-3 against 'em!

Although I feel awkward quoting my own post, I did want to bring this back. Valpo defeated CSU 2-1 earlier today. A KC Boldt home run was the difference, and it also gives KC the current single-season home run record at 11 dingers. Congrats to all!

Valpo will play Butler in less than half an hour, with links to live video and live chat on valpoathletics.com. The winner will have to beat UIC twice on Saturday to win the Horizon League Championship.

Yeah, she's their new lead pitcher w/ 3-time conference hurler of the year Amanda Macenko gone. Plus, I'd be bitter too if I had gone from first to fourth on the final day of the season.

BTW, she has since deleted the tweet mentioned earlier. Shocker! 

Throwing in my 2 cents, I'm backing wayne and acesneights on Laura. Although I would like to see her be a more productive player and a bigger leader, there is no way Laura is solely responsible for the losses as has been stated or implied earlier. Call me naive, but I believe that you win as a team, lose as a team.

I personally saw a lot of positives and negatives throughout the entire team this past season, and it's not a one horse club. If they are going to succeed this coming season, everyone will need to do work and improve as a cohesive, healthy unit, and I believe that in some shape or form, we will see some improvement.

Look "guy," back whoever you want but I think the bigger point being missed by all but maybe rlh, myself, DMValpo and a handful of others is that great players make great coaches.  It's not the other way around guy.  Keith can only fly as high as these girls fly, and they haven't been flying too high, now have they?  I don't think rlh was really calling out Laura, just mentioning that she hasn't done what we all hoped and that Keith is suffering for that.

I agree w/ everything posted. That said, I was also referring more to you than rlh for singling Laura out for the losses. I liked rlh's comments earlier on the team, and agreeing again with you, the key is whether these women put in the work necessary to win, and only then will Keith, Kirby, and the rest of that staff really do the most to help these players along.

Throwing in my 2 cents, I'm backing wayne and acesneights on Laura. Although I would like to see her be a more productive player and a bigger leader, there is no way Laura is solely responsible for the losses as has been stated or implied earlier. Call me naive, but I believe that you win as a team, lose as a team.

I personally saw a lot of positives and negatives throughout the entire team this past season, and it's not a one horse club. If they are going to succeed this coming season, everyone will need to do work and improve as a cohesive, healthy unit, and I believe that in some shape or form, we will see some improvement.

Nice interview. Short and sweet, informative and entertaining.

Was anyone at yesterday's games that could tell me what happened? A friend of mine showed me this tweet from Tess Sito, CSU's No. 1:

Valpo people have the least class ever, hope we **** em up in tournaments

Regardless of how relevant that tweet might be, I do hope we get to see her and the Vikings again come tournament time. Make it a solid 3-of-3 against 'em!

NWI Times article on the subject: http://www.nwitimes.com/sports/college/valparaiso-university/article_e03c3d67-1262-503c-9c3b-a68db3f3904f.html

Gick does appear to be done, and Oren makes Freeman seem very optimistic both about the team's general future and the ability for Richardson and Jansone to make an immediate impact.

The discussion continues... Scott Ochander and IMC will be holding a pair of presentations on Tuesday, April 26 to discuss the mascot (4-5:30) and tour the "war room" where the staff works on the brand (7-8:30). The place where I got the info was just advertised for students, but if anyone else is around, I'd like to think they'd you come if there's room.

I obviously don't know his contract status or job security might be like, but if Valpo stays down in 2011-12, it can probably do nothing but hurt his chances to stay on as coach. Something has to happen next year (during or after the season) to give everyone related to this program the confidence that the team is heading in the right direction.

To quote the great Steve Spurrier: If you want to be successful, you have to do what everybody else does and do it better—or you have to do it differently.

I'm sure he would have waited if it were an option because it is an awkward time to leave. If he needed to take that job in Minnesota immediately or lose the spot if he waited, then this was the sacrifice he had to make.

Regardless, best of wishes to Mike! I got to know him a little bit after talking to him during parts of last year. Great person to know and a good teacher!

Proven tonight that they are not better than us.

I do like to be optimistic, but in no reality would I imagine this year's Valpo squad in the national title game. Butler... easily plausible, and given their close victories I think they earned it. That, and I don't understand how losing to UCONN means that we are better than Butler.

This is probably a dumb question, but what do VU students think of the residence halls?  Over the years I've seen residence halls at maybe 6-8 other schools (all similar in size to VU) and the residence halls at these other places did not seem appreciably better than what VU offers.  In fact, I can think of at least two places where the dorms were appreciably worse.  Paul

I've lived in Brandt and Wehrenberg, both of which are pretty old and cramped. I can't compare to other buildings on campus or elsewhere, but it's not a great experience. Brandt generally has a lot of bad seeds inside that are annoying to live with, and Berg is built like a fortress, cutting off cell and internet reception. Moving next to Uptown, which should be a more enjoyable experience.

Was it Coach Stevens who did this recruiting, or was it Coach Schneider before the opportunity to be an assistant at Wisconsin opened up? I'm not sure who recruited these players, but whichever coach it was did a great job.

Credit for obtaining these players goes to Schneider. Both players were inked by April 2010 and Stevens wasn't here until September 2010.

I will say Stevens gets credit for how he's using them on the team. With Marinec and Ichiyama not playing, the pair needed to step up, and they are contributing extremely well. Doerffler and Strickland in the #2 and #3 spots respectively has been very effective and Wisniewski is a great bat for the 9th spot to turn over the lineup. Plus, their defense has been great. Looking forward to see where they and the team go the rest of the year...

[let's applaud those fans that did make the commitment because they genuinely care about Valpo basketball...]

my wife works on campus and brought home The Torch today.  Nice letter to the editor by Paul Oren, not sure if Paul is on here or not, but he called out the students for their lack of support of the team not only in the Iona game but also the games against Loyola and Green Bay.  It is sad that it takes bribes from the athletic department to get a small section of seats set aside for the students (who get in for FREE) to come out to a game. 

Maybe we should give them more. Free parking, more giveaways, maybe a guest coach every quarter. -Geno Auriemma

I hate how the bad apples and fair weather fans draw the attention away from the students that deserve some kudos for their support. There was a dedicated group at the front of students that weren't just there because it was a big game. They weren't just there because Mom and Dad could see them on the ESPN or for the free pizza and doughnuts. They were there every night. Took the bus to Milwaukee in February. Went back again for the Tournament. I was proud to stand next to them at a lot of the games this year, even Iona and Green Bay, the latter with only about 20 students showing up. Before we continue to harp where harping is needed, let's applaud those fans that did make the commitment because they genuinely care about Valpo basketball...

I'm just curious: why the 1968 UCLA Bruins? When I saw this thread on the menu, it struck me as really random.

Does anyone know if the women's tournament makes money for the schools?  Obviously it won't be like the men's, but does Green Bay's success so far mean anything for the Horizon?

Last I checked the men's tournament and BCS bowl system are the only "tournaments" where the schools get the profits. So there's no immediate monetary advantage for Green Bay's postseason success. At this point, I think we have to settle for extra recognition for the HL.

Dan McLaughlin is a barely -- if that -- competent play-by-play announcer.  I feel sorry for Abby Waner because she was actually decent.

Definitely agree on both points. Dan called both Green Bay games in Wichita, and I was not impressed by his misspeaks and overuse of his prep material. If we all had a dollar every time he said "Co-player of the year in the Horizon," we'd be rich. Abby was all right. She worked well given the card she was dealt.

Not sure how many people will care, but the Green Bay Phoenix women's basketball team just defeated Michigan State to advance to the school's and the conference's first Sweet 16! Speaking as a Horizon League fan, it's great to see these ladies represent the conference so well and have a fantastic season, and hopefully it means some extra respect for them and the HL in the future.

As an example, the game's announcers (who I did not care for, shocker!) called Green Bay's win an upset. At 33-1 and facing an at-large selection that was picked higher than them (GB's a 5 seed, MSU a 4), Green Bay has not been given the respect it deserves. Now, with Butler's success on the men's side added, I hope that everyone out there is realizing just how strong we, the Horizon League, are.

Side note: Michigan State won the Big Ten regular season title at 13-3. Green Bay is now 4-0 against the conference (Wins against 1st Michigan State, 2nd Penn State, T-3rd Wisconsin, and 9th Minnesota). It's almost like the Phoenix are actually the ones winning the Big Ten lol

I wish them the best of luck against Baylor. Certainly no easy game there.

With respect to vu72, some of the information in the first post about where we're getting our dough from is incorrect. I did some research and found the NCAA's Basketball Revenue Distribution Plan on ncaa.org to get what is hopefully a clear, straightforward explanation of the money distribution... Each conference gets a unit for every team that qualifies for the NCAA Tournament and every win those teams get except in the Final Four. Each unit is approximately $240,000, and the revenue is distributed after every tournament based on the number of units garnered in the previous six years.

For example, after this year's tournament, the Horizon League, which grabbed 19 units through the 2005-2010 Tournaments, will receive about $4.55 million. Split up equally, VU gets $455,000. Not bad. Right now, Butler has 2 wins in this year's tournament, meaning that the league has 3 units so far this season, matching the amount in 2005. So if Butler loses in the Sweet 16, the conference will again receive close to $4.55 million in 2012 for 19 units earned through the 2006-2011 Tournaments.

Here's a link to the NCAA's website's Finance page: http://www.ncaa.org/wps/portal/ncaahome?WCM_GLOBAL_CONTEXT=/ncaa/NCAA/About+The+NCAA/Budget+and+Finances/index.html
I got most of my information from "Current Basketball Revenue Distribution Information" and "Current Revenue Distribution Plan." You can double check in case I messed up and wrongly accused vu72. However, I do share his feelings. As tough as it is, I'm too am rooting for Butler!

Brandon can definitely find some positives in either decision, but if he does go to Europe, I hope he'd find the right place to go. I can't cite specific examples, but I remember stories on ESPN within the past few years about younger players getting gypped when playing overseas... Living in bad areas, not getting their full salaries or not getting money on time, and being forced into tough situations.

I surely hope Brandon stays, and he would have a lot going for him if he did. Regardless, best of luck wherever he is next year!

Heeeeeeeere's KL31NYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!