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Congrats on your season. I know the Big Dance was your goal, but getting to the NIT finals with a trip to NYC and prime time games on ESPN is very impressive. And I think making it that far may have increased exposure more than one or two games in the Big Dance (making the Sweet 16 would have been a different story of course). For your sake, hopefully the offseason will have no turnover aside from the graduating seniors...for the rest of the Horizon League, hopefully Bryce gets an offer he can't refuse and Peters uses a graduate transfer to follow him haha. Seriously though, I do hope they both return to Valpo next season.

Congrats, and good luck at MSG! What a dominating performance in the second half.

I had to laugh when reading an earlier post from an Oakland fan about the woes of having to play the late evening semi-final game on Monday and how that might keep some Oakland fans from attending. We have some fans who are going to drive 5 hours home after Monday's game, get 2 or 3 hours sleep, and get up and go to work. This guy's complaining about how a 40-min. drive home after the game might not allow enough sleep before going to work on Tues., so some fans might opt to stay home and watch it on TV. I guess everyone has their cross to bare. Lol

Where in my post did I complain or claim that the Monday night late tip was anyone's cross to bear? I was just being honest, realistic, and objective with the poster who asked last week what I thought the crowd could be like and what the buzz was in the Detroit area. I didn't complain at all, and I didn't make any comparison to other fan bases and their respective drives or try to speak for other fan bases other than to speculate a little bit about UDM. Didn't realize you'd take my comment as a pissing contest over hardships. The fact is, for whatever reasons, some Oakland fans who live within an hour or so of Joe Louis Arena won't be going to the game and will watch on TV instead, so don't expect the attendance to double tonight. Just like there weren't 8,000-10,000 when UDM played Saturday or Sunday. Plenty of local fans showed up, and plenty didn't. It is what it is, and kudos to all of the fans of all of the teams who made/will be making the trip to the Joe.

Valpo opens as 9 point favorites over Green Bay. Oakland opens as 4 point favorites over Wright State. My two cents are simple: Valpo defeated Green Bay in Green Bay without Skara and with minimal time from Walker. Green Bay is tired after a physical game today and other than turnovers/steals GB is a decent matchup for us. I am bit nervous on this game but I think that it is more that this game is not at home and we will have 3 hostile fan bases going against us rather than being nervous for having a mental slip up and losing to GB. But you have to play and win this game to advance and there is no room for error... I say play 8 with Max Joseph and have Skara and T. Walker as rested as possible for the final, if they can be available. Driving up to Detroit tomorrow! I'll be one of the loud ones in 122! Go Valpo! Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk

Safe travels! I'll be in 121 wearing black and gold. Looking forward to catching your game before Oakland/Wright State, and I hope you have a good crowd for it. Would love to see a lot of casual fans not affiliated with any of the four schools show up to check it out. Looked like a decent number of casual fans showed up today, and hopefully a bunch of them will come back tomorrow and Tuesday.

[neutral]

Safe travels to all of the Valpo fans making the trip up here!

I thought this was a neutral tournament. Shouldn't that be "making the trip up there?" 

Touche!

Thanks for posting.  Can you give us a feel for how this tourney is being received by the general population of Detroit?  Do you expect thousands of fans from your school?  How about Oakland?  thanks!

No problem. I'm an Oakland fan (not a UDM fan), so I can speak from an Oakland perspective. I hope there will be a good Oakland crowd Monday night...however, I think it will be tempered somewhat by the late start. I know some people with kids will have issues getting babysitters, some who have kids with activities on weeknights, and others who have to work Tuesday and don't want to operate on 4 or 5 hours of sleep with the potential of going back down there again Tuesday night. I imagine there are some who don't want to spend the money for two games plus parking (parking fees could be a factor for some of the locals), and will just wait and go Tuesday if Oakland wins Monday. I took vacation days so I have no issues with the late start, but I know a lot of people don't have that luxury.

I'm really not sure what to expect on Monday...it could be 2,000 or it could be 4,000. The opponent will be a factor, with more people deciding to go last minute if it's another game against UDM. I'm sure the Oakland contingent would be bigger regardless of opponent if Oakland played on a Friday night, Saturday, or Sunday. I do think if Oakland wins Monday, there will be a lot more fans there Tuesday due to the added interest of a final plus a more manageable weeknight start time of 7:00. Also, keep in mind that our record attendance at home is 4,114 (set last Friday against UDM), so even bringing our record crowd is still just around 20% of JLA's capacity. The school has been pushing it pretty heavily to students, season ticket holders, and other fans who have come to the O'rena, as well on social media. The athletics department purchased something like 400 all-session passes for students, so hopefully they'll actually get down there and use them.

As far as UDM goes, I'm speculating that they'll have a decent crowd Saturday as it's a 7:30 tip, and I imagine they'll have a lot of fans down there Sunday, too, if they win Saturday. Their Sunday game would be at 3:30 and should give their fans plenty of time to go to church, do family stuff, etc., then head to the game and still get out in time for dinner and a couple of hours of relaxation Sunday evening. And if they make it to the semis, Monday should draw a lot of people. I know a lot of Oakland fans live 20-50 miles north of Detroit in the outer group of suburbs, with travel times to JLA of maybe 30-60 minutes. I'm not sure about UDM fans though...if they live closer to the actual city, it should be easier for them to get down there on multiple days.

There has been a good amount of advertising on the local TV and radio stations, and I've heard radio ads on a variety of formats (not just sports stations). I just don't know how much the casual basketball fan in metro Detroit cares though, especially for the Monday and Tuesday games. This is B1G country for hoops as well as football, and unfortunately I think the Horizon League is an afterthought to all but the most diehard college hoops fans who don't have a tie to an HL school. But if there's an Oakland vs UDM matchup on Monday, it could draw some casual fans, as well as on Tuesday if one of those schools makes the finals. There have definitely been advertising efforts, and I'd love to see this be a success...but I think the Saturday-Tuesday format, including having a game on Monday at 9:30, is tough for a neutral site (even with two local schools). I have no idea what to expect from the general population of Detroit, but I do think they'll be a big factor one way or the other. I think there are a lot of unknowns, but I know Olympia Entertainment is very committed to this, and I'm sure they'll work to continuously improve the tournament. They have a lot of experience with the Red Wings and concerts, but they also have senior-level leaders who worked for the Pistons/Palace Sports and Entertainment for a long time including the stretch from about 2003-2008 when the Pistons made the Eastern Conference finals several seasons in a row and had a long sellout streak.

there have been a ton of discount codes through Ticketmaster, and I know of several fans who have bought tickets that way to save money.

The best I google trivially is Ticketmaster code TMN241 good for 2-for-1 seats for the upper-level, general admission. So, $15 for two seasons, for any one of the four days. But, with Ticketmaster fees it looks like $12.50 a ticket, $25 for the two. I think I'll be happy with my $20, no fee, ticket through VU alumni. But, they risk a certain "workers in the vineyard" problem. But, I'm sure they'd rather fill up the stadium, and perhaps deal with a few disgruntled fans. The head of Olympia Entertainment had a video on the Free Press web page, recent video one assumes, saying that they were hoping for 30-40k fans over the four days.  We'll see about that...

Maybe saying "a ton" was a bit generous haha, but I've seen a few different codes over the past few weeks. I also got my tickets in advance through my school, with no Ticketmaster fees. So I didn't pay too much attention to those codes or check to see how unique the deals behind the different codes were...maybe the codes I saw all led to the same deal. There was also a groupon for a $17 upper bowl ticket plus t-shirt ($40 value). I did see that the flex tickets (10 general admission coupons good for any day of the tournament) can be upgraded to lower bowl reserved for $5 per session/day. Hopefully that will help fill in some of the unused lower bowl seats. I'm also curious how strict the ushers will be. For example, if UIC loses Saturday, will random people be able to move into those seats from the upper bowl on Sunday, Monday, or Tuesday? I imagined unsold seats in the fan blocks will be opened up for sale to the general public once fan block ticket sales conclude tomorrow night. Hopefully they'll be dynamic with that stuff to maximize the number of people in the lower bowl without imposing on people who purchased specific seats in advance.

Safe travels to all of the Valpo fans making the trip up here!

We seem to be doing an ok job selling our section for the Horizon League Tournament Semifinals. It looks like we only have 3 more rows in our section 122 not sold on the Motor City Madness Website. (Although I bet some lower rows/seats in our section are still available through the Valpo Alumni block...) Given that section 122 holds just under 300 seats, plus the student section, pep band, team, coaches, etc., it looks like the Valpo supporters number about 450-500 at the moment for Monday night... (compared to 4500+ at the ARC...) Meanwhile...it looks like Oakland has 1 row and a few random seats remaining for their section in 121, but I'm sure their numbers will increase with time, although I am surprised that Oakland's section has not sold out yet. Looking through all of the other team allotments, it seems like everyone else is in the "wait and see" mode for the semis, with many of the other teams still having seats as low as rows 2 and 3 of their sections available on the HL website. It is painful for all parties to see how good/bad attendance will be for this event, as it will not be 100% known until next Monday at 9pm or so, but so far it is looking pretty bleak. Also, recently announced and promoted in some news articles, there will be a fan fest/pep rally of sorts in the late afternoon before the championship on Tuesday. (http://motorcitymadness.horizonleague.org/visitor-info/wintergarden) Not sure how this will turn out...

Oakland will have a bunch of fans in other parts of the arena as well...there have been a ton of discount codes through Ticketmaster, and I know of several fans who have bought tickets that way to save money. I hope the official Oakland section fills up, of course, along with the official Valpo section and sections for the other two semifinalists, but I'm sure there will be plenty of fans who opted for the cheaper general admission seats and will be scattered elsewhere. I'm afraid the 9:30 start Monday for the Oakland game could keep away a lot of casual fans from the general public and/or fans who live farther away (like 45+ minutes from Detroit). Too close to want to spend the money for a hotel, but too far to just head down there and then head back after the game. The random basketball fans are the X factor in my opinion, and I just don't know how many are going to stay there until 11:30 or midnight on a Monday night...especially when they can watch on TV. Hopefully the Valpo game will get a good crowd with the 7:00 start, and Olympia and the Horizon League have to be hoping Detroit makes it to the semis to get a good number of people at the 9:30 game (which should also mean a decent crowd for the finals if either Oakland or Detroit is playing).

The fan fest/pep rally thing is a really cool idea, but I think it'll actually be better attended by fans of any team(s) other than Oakland or Detroit playing in the finals. If you're in the finals and have made the trip, staying in a hotel Monday night with time to kill Tuesday, it's perfect for you. But if Oakland or Detroit makes the finals, I imagine most of their fans will be working Tuesday and will just head down there after work, likely after that 4:00-5:30 time slot. So I wouldn't expect it to have really high attendance, but it should be a pretty cool event. GM is headquartered in that building, and there are other businesses as well, so maybe some random people will stop by on their way out of work or whatever. They had some stuff going on in that location the week before Detroit hosted Super Bowl XL, and I was down there for something else and stopped by for a few minutes just to check it out (I think it was the media center). Obviously this is on a much smaller scale, but hopefully there will be some random stragglers not affiliated with any of the HL schools.

[Kampe? Perhaps, for rolling the dice on a score-first point guard.]

If Felder doesn't get his team to the tournament, it would seem perfectly right to me.  It would mean he didn't score enough points and whom would you blame for that?  The Gods?  No.  His teammates?  Why would they be expected to pick up the slack come tournament time? Kampe?  Perhaps, for rolling the dice on a score-first point guard. Look, Felder is entertaining to watch, in a leading-man, action-movie kinda way, but I like me a good independent film with an excellent script and a solid ensemble cast.  And the Oscar goes to...

If he's truly a score-first point guard, he probably wouldn't be leading the nation in assists with 9.2 per game (Milwaukee's Jordan Johnson is next with 8.0 per game)...

Thanks for the candor in your post. Nicely spoken. Now if we could get the bottom third of the HL up to the standard of play we all witnessed tonight, we'd be an easy 2 bid conference with an occasional 2nd at large in good years. Good luck the rest of the season and see you at the ARC in a bit.

You're welcome, and thank you. I would love to see the HL as a whole get more competitive; though in the meantime, the teams in the top third (I won't mention any names) need to do their part and beat those teams in the bottom third at home in early January and not give up 100...

Thanks...we need all the luck we can get the next couple of weeks. Hopefully the mid-December Oakland will show up at the ARC and not the early-January Oakland.

@Valpower -- I didn't mean any snark at all, and I hope my wording wasn't taken that way. I was just referring to what a previous poster said "Not to suggest we are on par with the best-of-the-best..." I just want to give Valpo full credit for beating Oakland worse than Virginia and much worse than Michigan State, and those games were on the road and at a neutral site, respectively, for Oakland. Even though the Palace is considered a home game because State won't come to the O'rena and Oakland probably had 6-7,000 fans there, that meant there were 13-14,000 fans for State...and they were loud when Sparty got back in the game and it didn't feel like much of a home game at that point. Tonight was the only one of those losses that was a true home game for Oakland, it was the worst loss of the three, and you won going away in front of a very fired up crowd. And I'm sure that your fan base, with its knowledge of the team and eye for the details that outsiders won't see, saw some things you felt you could've done even better tonight and would have resulted in an even bigger win. You got a key HL road win out of the way in the first week of conference play, and that's the kind of thing that goes a long way in the battle for the coveted double bye.

Kampe during his college days at Bowling Green where he didn't play basketball but football

That picture is awesome. By the way, Kampe did play basketball at Bowling Green; he was a two-sport athlete. He was a reserve on the basketball team, but was a very good defensive back and punter on the football team.

Congrats on the win. That was a butt kicking, and you beat our guys in all facets of the game. Outstanding shooting, great defense, huge rebounding advantage (we missed a ton of shots obviously, and you kept us off the offensive glass), made free throws, etc. Oakland had no answer to your run early in the second half, and once it got to the point of throwing up bad shots trying to chip away at the lead, you smelled blood and didn't let up. Hopefully the game at your place will be a lot more competitive. A lot to fix on our side before even thinking about a third meeting.

Nobody's saying that Valpo is Michigan State or Virginia, but it's a fact that this was Oakland's worst loss of the season, and it was a true home game for Oakland in front of the O'rena's largest crowd ever. That's not something to take lightly. Just don't expect a similar atmosphere in Calihan Sunday, haha.

Regarding Felder not being at the post-game presser, I don't know any of the details other than what was already posted on Twitter, but Kampe did say that he would make time for anyone in the presser who had questions for Kay to talk to him tonight or tomorrow. So it wasn't a matter of him not facing the questions; there was apparently some other stuff that just took priority at that moment. Kay hasn't shied away from talking after losses, and I'm sure any of the journalists who wanted to speak with him were/will be given that opportunity at some point.

One thing I've noticed that is unique to Oakland is it's tendency to shoot 3's early in the clock over the last 3 or 4 minutes of the game, whether they're leading or behind. If they're up, they use the 3 as a dagger. If they're behind, they use the 3 to try to catch up more quickly than most teams. When they're on, they end a lot of games with a flourish. When they're not, they're a lot easier to close out than most opponents. High risk, high reward. Nothing's "normal" about a Kampe coached team. In any event we'd better get out and guard Hooper and the left handed 2-guard ? Because they will be jacking it.

Yeah, it can either be a big blessing or a big curse. I think the left-hander you're referring to is Nick Daniels (#2). On an interesting note, now that Martez Walker is eligible there could be five lefties on the court at the same time if Kampe uses a lineup of Walker, Felder, Daniels, Hayes, and Gibson.

Felder's quickness and ability to penetrate open him up for a lot of threes too, as he often shoots when defenders are caught on their heels anticipating him driving past the three-point line. And #30, Sherron Dorsey-Walker, often brings the ball up even when Felder's in the game with him. So if someone is hawking Felder off the ball, that's another way that Hooper or Daniels could get open for a quick three. The coaching decisions and Oakland's offense vs. Valpo's defense should be a lot of fun to watch, and if one team really steps up in the "other" area (Oakland's defense or Valpo's offense), that could be the difference.

We are undefeated when we outscore our opponents.

I do enjoy this one in the VU game notes.

On a similar note, I usually enjoy coaches answering the "How do you win this game?" type of question with something along the lines of "By scoring more than our opponents." No need to complicate things!

I think it speaks for this rivalry (at least after your 16-game streak ended, haha) that it's hard to find many trends that will indicate which team should/will win. A variety of game styles, scores all over the place, overtime, down to the last possession, etc. Hoping it will be just as exciting tonight.

Could she be any less enthusiastic???  I almost fell asleep listening to her "date night" excitement.

I think Ben Stein would have sounded more enthusiastic.

Good move for Oakland. Good coverage for the HL as well. Need more of that kind of thing across the league. Valpo is lucky in that regard with Paul and Brandon providing insider insights.

I agree. I enjoy reading the Valpo coverage and appreciate that it often touches on the HL in general. We all want maximum coverage for our individual schools of course, but it's nice to be able to get regular updates concerning the league as a whole without having to condense info from 10 different schools' media sites or forums.

No idea who the writer is, but he certainly lays it on the line.

Terry Foster, formerly of the Detroit Free Press.

Terry Foster was a sports writer for the Detroit Free Press and, most recently, the Detroit News. I believe he was the Pistons beat writer for a while back in the Bad Boys era. He also co-hosts the Valenti and Foster radio show M-F afternoons on one of the Detroit sports stations. The paper wanted him to go back on the Pistons beat full time, but he didn't want to do all the travel (he has kids in high school or younger) or give up the radio gig, so he took an early retirement/buyout deal. He wants to keep writing, so Oakland brought him on board as an "Oakland Insider." As an Oakland fan I'm thrilled not only with the additional coverage by a long-time journalist, but also with the athletics department giving him full access and allowing him to write about what he sees without watering it down or making it a fluff piece. We're lucky to have a reporter in our locker room who has spent time in professional locker rooms.