Valpo at Oakland Friday 1/2/2015 7:00 p.m. EST/6:00 p.m. CST O'rena

[valpotx]

Haha, you are delusional.  Did you actually watch Petros?  I don't care that our coach did something stupid and double teamed him.  That made absolutely no sense to all of us when he did it, as Vashil was OWNING Petros all game.  The best center in the league?  What a friggin' joke!  The dude was 3/11......let me put this in bigger font for you so that you can understand...3...for...11 .  Look at his history against Valpo, he has blown chunks of $h!+ from his hands, as his shots spray everywhere but through the net!  I don't watch other Oakland games, but he apparently plays out of his mind against the other HL teams, as he looks like a SWAC player against Valpo each season.

Oakland is not a better team than Valpo, and whoever went on your site to say that we will be ahead of you in the standings, is correct.  Yes, you have won 7 of the last 9, but enjoy it while you can, as that will change dramatically later this season and over the next few seasons.  We appreciate you posting, but you also said last season that there wasn't any reason that you couldn't win the HL in your first season.  Your credibility is zilch...

[Grizz]

Peters was 3-11. What are you saying. He sucks. We didn't double him. Our 3-11 was against a double team.

[valpotx]

No it wasn't.  He was only double-teamed on a few possessions in the second half, and he always passed out of those situations.  The shots he actually took were solo coverage by Vashil or Jubril.  He would throw up a brick off the side of the backboard!  I will say that he is smart enough to know what to do when he is double-teamed, as I kept hoping that he would try and shoot it instead.  You are correct, in that Peters had no excuse for his shooting today.  However, in the return game, you will see what he can really do, while Petros will put up the same lame @$$ performance.  Felder is a good player, so again, my comments aren't about Oakland or other players.  I have been saying for 4 seasons now that Petros is not good, and beg for him to shoot when he touches the ball.  My posts can back me up here, and his performances against Valpo vindicate me as well.  Petros was 9/24 last season for 11.5 ppg in 38.5 mpg, and on the other end, Peters was 10/18 against you guys last year for 12.5 ppg in 27.5 mpg, and showed that he is efficient. 

Also, you mentioned that our last second win was by a little-used FR.  That again shows your credibility is 0, as Clay Yeo was used quite a bit when he wasn't injured.

[valpopal]

I wasn't going to join this discussion until I looked at the stat sheet and saw that Carter, D. Walker, and Peters played a combined 98 minutes and drew 0 fouls! I watched those three drive the basket a number of times (maybe they had even more when the ESPN streaming was frozen) and get hit, yet they did not receive a single foul shot in nearly 100 minutes of play. That is almost impossible to occur. On the other hand, Felder shoots 24 free throws playing less than half the time. Even given the fact that Felder manages to draw more free throws than most players, his average number of free throws coming into the game was only 5.7 not 24, while the combined average of free throws for the Valpo trio is 6.7. I look forward to the Feb. 8 game at the ARC! 

[valpopal]

You are correct, in that Peters had no excuse for his shooting today.

I would differ on this point. Given his family situation, Peters can be excused for however he plays in either game this weekend.

[valpotx]

Valpopal, from what you have seen of Peters, do you seriously think that he was thinking of his grandfather's passing during the game?  I can almost guarantee that he is the type of guy that once he gets on the court, he is focused on the task at hand.

[valpopal]

Valpopal, from what you have seen of Peters, do you seriously think that he was thinking of his grandfather's passing during the game?  I can almost guarantee that he is the type of guy that once he gets on the court, he is focused on the task at hand.

I didn't mean that he was thinking about his grandfather or his grieving family during the game, though I'm sure he did at times. I saw Alec the other evening, and I mentioned his subdued demeanor in a previous post. I wondered then whether the emotional strain and demands on Alec's time this week, including traveling back and forth to his home in Illinois while also traveling to Oakland, would drain him emotionally and physically. Knowing Alec, he would never make an excuse nor accept me claiming one here, but the situation would take a lot out of anyone, even this mature nineteen-year-old.

[valpopal]

Oren re-tweeted the following head-scratching message, which certainly adds emphasis to my point above about the oddity of the officiating.


[tweet]551265121595834368[/tweet]

[FWalum]

Valpopal, from what you have seen of Peters, do you seriously think that he was thinking of his grandfather's passing during the game?  I can almost guarantee that he is the type of guy that once he gets on the court, he is focused on the task at hand.

I didn't mean that he was thinking about his grandfather or his grieving family during the game, though I'm sure he did at times. I saw Alec the other evening, and I mentioned his subdued demeanor in a previous post. I wondered then whether the emotional strain and demands on Alec's time this week, including traveling back and forth to his home in Illinois while also traveling to Oakland, would drain him emotionally and physically. Knowing Alec, he would never make an excuse nor accept me claiming one here, but the situation would take a lot out of anyone, even this mature nineteen-year-old.

Couldn't agree with you more Valpopal. A death in the immediate family is always physically taxing, at least to me. I don't care how competitive you are, the physical effects of grief are very real.

[historyman]

For those who don't know, Terry Wymer did the game tonight and he has only done the last 2 final 4"s so I really don't know what league you could go in to get away from him.

Terry Wymer had a bad game too Friday. Just like some of the Valpo players. Felder shooting 24 free throws is ridiculous. If someone on an opposing team shot 24 free throws against OU in a game where both teams were driving the lane you would be saying the same thing about the refs. One player should not get the benefit of 14 calls when both teams were driving the lane. That doesn't say anything about Felder's great play. It says something about the refs poor calls on both teams. 24 free throws by one player---jeeez man---you can't say that was an even way to call the game--no way!!! Whether you reffed final fours or not.

[historyman]

Valpopal, from what you have seen of Peters, do you seriously think that he was thinking of his grandfather's passing during the game?  I can almost guarantee that he is the type of guy that once he gets on the court, he is focused on the task at hand.

I believe Peters was distracted by something. It may have been the fact that his family is grieving in central Illinois or not. But he had an awful time getting involved in the offensive play. His defender from OU had an excellent game.But he has learned to get open against excellent defenders before. Friday he didn't have it in him to be successful on the offensive end.

[justducky]

I missed all the fun! What happened?

Well I said after the New Mexico loss that we would lose a minimum of 4 HL games and it was always in the back of my mind that this could be one of them. I am not going to comment on a game I didn't see but my high expectations for the rest of this year and for next remain unshaken! So I hope we are working on putting together more of an Oakland-like schedule for next season!

[valporun]

To the person who asked about the bench warning, Bryce was warned because he was jumping all over the officials for a missed illegal screen by OU on an inbounds pass. He was very close to getting a tech on this. In fact, the ref who called the warning stopped the game to issue the warning.

In terms of our play, we ALWAYS struggle to pull out victories at the O-rena. It doesn't matter who our star player is, the entire team struggles to pull out a victory against this team. To Oakland, playing Valpo at the O-rena is the game they always circle on their schedule because it is the game for their fans that indicates where they are as a program. Look at all the games since they joined the Mid-Con/Summit and now the HL against Valpo at the O-rena, I don't recall any of these games being blowouts for a full game. Oakland gets up for this game, like a rivalry game, and Valpo just shows up and makes it a game. Even the year we played at Oakland as a part of their non-conference tourney, where we won in OT, it was a very competitive game that played out as an entertaining game. Tonight, we came out cold chucking from 3, then we regrouped and got back into the game, eventually taking the lead. I'm going to say that the pace of the game late and the fouls got to our heads and gassed us from putting this game away. Even if Alec was focused more on family than the game, Oakland took him out of the game by making sure that they left the wrong shooter open, who thankfully for the Grizz, to miss the 3-ball or turn the ball over.

[bbtds]

Felder has an ability to drive the lane....

let me finish that for you

....and get 13 fouls called in his favor. You have to wonder how many times that has happened in all of NCAA basketball.





Kampe: Come on Terry, call the foul!

Wymer: Why not? Whose going to complain? Bryce Drew? Ha ha ha ha ha ha!!

[oklahomamick]

Even with the foul and free throw disparity we were up by 7 with 4 minutes to go.  I thought we were going to pull it off. 

Like I said before, we lost our first HL game of the season against UIC at home and still won the conference. 

[LaPorteAveApostle]

you all are saying your guys were out of gas in overtime

oh right. everybody's saying that?  nobody said that. 

you must be related to the refs--you have the same highly selective eyesight.

[SanityLost17]

This loss is on Bryce.  He did not adjust to the way the refs called the game.  Otherwise, Carter would not have taken 12 3 pointers.  Those represent many opportunities to drive the lane.  T. Walker was the most aggressive and was rewarded with 7 foul shots.  One of sets of throws on a phantom call BTW, but again the refs were rewarding the attack of the basket. Kampe out coached Bryce, and has done so the last few years.  He is a very experienced coach and Bryce still has a lot to learn.

Despite all this, had we hit just a few of our wide open 3's, it would not have mattered.  I know, you could say that after any loss, but this one stands out more because we had some really amazing looks. D. Walker is officially in a shooting slump from 3 point land and in our offense his position must hit a few a game. 

EKU, Murray, Portland, Missouri, NM, and ETSU are all better than Oakland as far as the eye test is concerned so it is not like our schedule did not prepare us for this game.

[valpopal]

As a one-time math major, I thought I'd place in perspective this statistical aberration: according to Pomeroy, Felder's 24 free throws was the most by a D-1 player this year, which currently includes about 4,000 games. In his career of 47 games, only once has Felder ever even had 10 free throw attempts in a game.

[nkvu]

We hit just 6 of 12 free throws for 50 percent.  If we hit just one more we win in regulation. Just sayin.

[Grizz]

You have to remember that of the 24 free throws 10 were in overtime, and all 10 of them  Valpo fouled on purpose or 2 from the tech. Looking at it that way he shot 14 in regulation, is that a lot, yes, but would not be the highest on the year in our league. Valpo choose to foul him on purpose the last 2 1/2 minutes of overtime.  So, like all stats, you can use them for what ever point you want to make.  My question, Kay leads the league in free throw %, why would the best coach in the league keep putting him on the line in overtime?

[LaPorteAveApostle]

is that a lot, yes

At least he admits it.  Big of him.

[crusadermoe]

Enough sour grapes.    Just kill 'em in Valpo and wake up to the intensity of the Mid-Con season.     

Makes me think back to the Champagne brothers in 2000-ish at the ARC when they started slugging like Defensemen after they got behind by 25-ish. 

[oklahomamick]

Adding Oakland to the HL was good.  They have a baseball team, they won a NCAA tourney game in Men's soccer and the swimming and diving teams dominate the conference just as our bball team once did in the Mid-con. 

However I hate Oakland because their non conference scheduling (prostitution), Kempe working and/or crying to refs, large state school and subpar academic rankings/reputation. 

I think I like Detroit more.  Rivalry has decreased since the graduation of our goon and their Jr.  They haven't been as competitive in the HL since they beat us in the conference final.  Unfortunatilly our rivalry with the only other private school in the HL is losing it's fire. 

It's not sour grapes from last night or all the times they beat me on the soccer field when I was attending Valpo.  Kempe is good, I don't like his style or philosophy.  Are they good for the HL?  Yes.  However, its just another state school in the HL that doesn't have the same philosophy or goals as Valpo does.

[covufan]

We did not play well, but still had a chance to win.  As someone else pointed out, we only needed one more FT in regulation.  Our team FT% will come up again in other close HL games.

According to ESPN's BPI, our three worst games are also our only losses:

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/team/bpi?id=2674&year=2015

[wh]

Before last night Oakland was 3-4 against mid-major competition.  They had 1 win against a team with a winning record.  They have already suffered 3 home losses - WMU, Georgia State and 3-8 Western Carolina. 

The reality is that we lost to a very mediocre mid-major team last night. Yes, the officiating was inexcusable, and yes, a guy had a career night he'll never have again, but this loss was all on us.  Let Grizz have his day; it doesn't matter.  At best, Oakland will finish somewhere between 5th and 7th in conference and time will prove that out.  The important thing for us is to learn from this loss and get back to the business of competing for a championship.