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Diebler was a scorer and solid 3 point shooter in HS, and was hesitant to shoot his first few seasons at Valpo.  Pretty similar to what Seth Colclasure ended up doing at Valpo.  Not sure that Darius directly compares

Only to the extent that in their first couple of years neither player could hit the lake from the end of the pier from the field, yet maybe now Darius like Diebler in their third year are starting to hit hit some shots from the field.

Not saying Connor Barrett will be the savior to the season, but no detailed report on his injury?. Was it that bad? Was he injured during the games he played or did he injury occur in a practice? This why he played so sparingly in the first two games?

I'm sure that Barrett and Manyang are progressing nicely.

My guess is that we don't get updates because it is a privacy issue.

My concern is that we have not seen Scroggins yet. Injury? Coaches decision?  Red shirt year?  If red shirt, why him and not Sepp?  I realize we may not get complete answers, but any nuggets of information is welcome


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I'm just not seeing Barrett or Sepp contributing much.  Barrett is too slow to play the 3 and too small to play the 4. All he can do is hang out on the perimeter and spot up threes if someone can penetrate and kick. Same with what I've seen from Sepp in the limited time he's been on the floor. The eight man rotation we've seen is I'm afraid the only available players that Roger sees as being contributors this year. With that short a bench, the 8 contributors better be aware that they need to stay out of foul trouble if we're going to have a chance to win a few games in the conference.

I couldn't find Jake diving for a loose ball (there were some pics of the Valpo HS Diving team, though) but I did find this. Especially with Jake wearing the nose guarding mask after he broke his nose diving for a loose ball.

As I recall, Jake wasn't much of a shooter in his first couple years, but by his last year he was maybe our only outside threat. Could Darius develop that way?

It would be interesting to see how many of the guys who transferred over the years really improved their playing time and/or their professional prospects.  I can think of a few who had some success when they transferred up, but did they really have better professional careers than they would have had had they stayed?  The three guys from Valpo I know of who played in the NBA, Bryce, Ryan, and Alec all played their entire careers at Valpo. Have any of the transfers up made it to the NBA?  I'm kind of thinking no. Not that I'm criticizing any of the guys who transferred. There are lots of reasons a player might want to transfer. Maybe Krikke wanted a chance to play in the big dance in his last year.  I don't think anyone sees him as a potential nba player, and I doubt that even had he stayed would Valpo have a shot at the ncaa tournament. Now given the obscene number of at large bids the P5 conferences get, he has a good chance to play in the dance  But professional career?  I doubt it will be better.

Still can't get a handle on this team. Seems like a different guy/guys every night. Might not be a bad thing at this point. Weakness is bigs & rebounding. Schwieger is going to be a good one once he puts on 20 lbs. of muscle. Better inside game than Peters, better outside shot than Oppland/Krikke, though maybe not as good an outside game now as Peters or inside game now as Oppland/Krikke.  If he stays 4 years and works hard he could maybe be better than all of them overall.  Hope he stays. Team's biggest need now is a rim protector & rebounder.  Props to Darius who played the best game I've seen him play so far.

Much better days are ahead. Unfortunately, the Illinois game will not be one of those better days.

I agree completely and am anticipating a painful night. Should I get a fresh supply of sipping whisky or will that just make things worse 

I have a ball cap I picked up in Bardstown KY that says "Just add Bourbon". I'd go with that.

Illinois  Too much
VU       Not enough

I am not sure if you are a subscriber to the Victory Bell, but the teams listed in the article as showing interest in him are some very good mid major programs. Hadn't offered him yet, and maybe they weren't going to, but I have to imagine if schools like that were showing interest then there must be something there. I do agree, however, that it is hard to judge a lot of these guys due to lack of info.

I found the quote from his coach very interesting when he said that in the past he has had 11 or 12 kids on his team who all ended up with D1 scholarships.  further he said that this team was one of his best yet only 5 D1 offers.  The reason he offered was that high school kids are getting overlooked because coaches are filling their rosters with transfers.

Unfortunately I think this attitude makes a certain amount of sense. Five and even four star high school kids will always be recruited.  But why should a P5 school  chase three and lower star high school kids when all they have to do is wait a year or two for the ones who break out a bit to be available to transfer. Let the non-P5 schools get them through the transition from high school to college, get coached up, and let their bodies mature.  Then they can pick up a more seasoned player for a couple of years. Rinse and repeat.  Makes it tough on fans who enjoy watching a kid or a group of kids grow through their college experience, but this is the world we live in now. I'm afraid that in many cases the only kids that will stay at one school for their entire college career will be the one's who recognize that this is their level of ability and are satisfied with it. Kind of limits a non- P5 school's potential to excel. I hope Valpo can be the exception.

If Ben does decide to transfer, I hope he goes to a team that has a legit shot at going to the NCAA tournament.  As pretty much the only bright light on some pretty crappy Valpo teams, he deserves to have the experience.

I think that if Matt is out it will be announced by the end of next week. If we hear nothing by then I expect he will serve out his contract, and we will continue to suck until it ends. We are close but haven't quite hit bottom yet. If they were serious about letting Matt go, they would have worked out how to go about it already.  Give it a week to work out the details, then announce it.  Personally I will be surprised if they were to bite the bullet and buy out his contract given the university's financial situation, but I expect we will find out relatively quickly.   With Matt if Krikke and King come back we might win 10 games next year. If one or the other don't, I think the high side could be 4 or five wins.  Then we will have hit rock bottom.  With a new coach, who knows, but I'm afraid we will have to see rock bottom before we see a change.

I used to think 2008-2009 was the most depressing season of Valpo basketball. 2022-2023 might be worse.

Wait till next year if Matt stays and Krikke decides he wants a chance to play in the NCAA tournament and transfers.  2023-2024 will be worse.

Only good thing about this game was I passed the stone at halftime. Now if somehow Valpo could find their way back into this game it could be a real good day.

Then again, maybe I should be content with I have, or rather, don't have anymore.

Ben fouled out again.

It's not like he fouled out with 5 mins left in the game. He fouled out on essentially the last play of the game in OT and 41 mins on the court.

I sometimes think Valpo doesn't foul enough. That can be read as I don't think the team plays aggressive enough defense. I think it was the previous game where they only had 10 fouls in the game. I don't know how you do that if your playing defense.

...and while I'm soapboxing...how does Darius DeAvario end up taking the final shot in regulation? A good coach gets the ball in his best players hands at the end of the game and/or the best players make sure they have the ball in their hands at the end of the game. That would not be the backup point guard who's shooting a stunning .200 from 3 this season.

This team has no rim protector that would allow aggressive defense in the front court. Further, three main players, Nelson, Barret, and even Krikke are not very quick. Their defense is more positional, not one that leads to turnovers. Krikke is actually a pretty good one on one defender. He gets in trouble when he has to switch off on smaller players who get into his body going to the rim. He also gets in trouble when he has to act as rim protector cause he hasn't got the body for it.

And yes, this team is terrible at getting the ball to their best offensive players in the final seconds of games. But really, teams know that if they double Krikke and force the team to the perimeter, chances are pretty good that Valpo will miss any kind of three point shot.  Valpo just does not have any players that can take that shot and knock it down at the end of a game

I didn't watch it. I couldn't get to LiveStats. How did we manage to lose this one?

The usual suspects. Got off to a good start, built a lead, gave it up toward the end of the first half through a scoring drought. Finished down a few at half. 2nd half got down, hung in there got a lead toward the end, couldn't extend it. Had the usual turnover on an inbounds play that lead to a score. They tied it with about a dozen seconds left. We got an open look from three at the end but unfortunately it was Darius who had hit an extremely rare 3 earlier, but this time returned to form and hit nothing but floor.  Got down immediately by 5 in ot, hung around, Krikke had a chance to cut lead to 1 but missed second free throw. Made up for it by later getting a follow up to tie the score with about 5 seconds left.  Didn't guard on the inbounds giving them clean path up court getting a nice foul call with .5 seconds left. They hit first free throw, missed second, game ended. 

Decided I hadn't suffered enough trying to pass a stone this week so actually watched the game. Feeling was similar.  Pain and no success. Suppose I will watch our final game on Thursday. I clearly need to suffer some more. Imagine Krikke might feel the same about his Valpo career.  A point guard that could shoot a bit, another big that could give him a blow once in a while without grinding the offense to a halt.  A 2 or a 3 that was consistently above average from 3 or a coach who could recruit these kind of players or coach up the ones they have. I wish he could have played on one of those Valpo teams in his last couple of years.

Nice to watch a win tonight. We now have a solid (maybe) ninth place team. Our point guards can't shoot anything but a layup. We have no rim protector. We have 6'11 - 7' guys who contribute nothing other than taking up space on the bench and when they play either turning the ball over or fouling.  Our bench is worth maybe 10- 15 points a game max. I thought that when we moved up to the MVC we would start recruiting a higher level of player. Does anyone think that has happened?  Other than Krikke and maybe King and on occasion Green could any of the current players get playing time on the Drew, Brokoff, or Peter's teams?  I watch this team struggle to make any in bounds play, often turning the ball over because there is obviously no play called and everyone is just standing around. And don't get me started on times when they hold the ball to wind down the shot clock.  Do they ever get a shot off, let alone a decent one?  It's just painful to watch, even when they somehow come out on top.  So if Krikke doesn't come back next year will we ever score more than 50 points a game? 

I need to go back to not watching these games, because if I feel this way after a win, imagine how I'd feel after watching a loss.

Checked the score at half. Surprised to have a lead. Checked again with 18 seconds to go in game. Figured we wouldn't get a shot off, let alone score. Didn't  fail to disappoint. Didn't bother to check again as I assumed we would lose in ot. Just saw that we did. Same old same old. I still check from time to time on games I think we have a reasonable chance to win. There are not many of those any more.

Actually watched second half of this game. All I saw was we might be a pretty good NAIA team.  Now show me something against D1 teams. 

Completely (thankfully) missed this game. Will catch games when I think of it, but not going to make it a point to watch. I'm resigned to Lottich finishing out his contract because Valpo has neither the $ nor the will to make a change earlier.  No desire to follow 300+ team.  Give me a reason to follow the team and I'll be there big time.  Don't see it now or foreseeable future.

Now that was a pleasure to watch. Cut down the turnovers.  Played with poise. Got the ball to the two guys who were red hot in the right spots.  Excellent point guard play. Now if only Krikke could just hit his first 3 to gain some confidence and Darius fix his free throw shooting. Still, an encouraging performance. 

I'm also concerned about Krikke's comments after the game saying they weren't ready either mentally, physically, or emotionally. And that they came in there thinking the game would be easy. That's an indictment of Lottich and shows the coaches have failed the players.

I agree with you on this. Valpo was a 13-point underdog and they had a losing season last year. Why would they think anything would be easy short of Trinity Christian?

I couldn't find the tape of what he said, but if true, this concerns me greatly. How in the world could they ever think this was going to be an easy game and not be prepared for it?  Yes the coaches are at fault if that happened, but man, Krikke is a veteran and supposed to be a team leader. How could he not see that his team was unprepared and over confident. He saw how we lost to Toledo at home last year. How could he allow his teammates to be overconfident on their court this year?  Maybe he was just saying stuff to get through the presser, but players, especially veterans have to show some leadership as well.  Yes our coaches are responsible, but players have to step up too. 

Credit where it's due. Team played much better in the second half.  Toledo may have let up with that big lead, and I don't know if their backups played more in the second half, but regardless outscoring Toledo by 11 to lose by 15 is more in line with expectations.  We shall see how things progress.

A turnover and a run out dunk to end the first half and double us up score wise. Perfect way to prove that, once again, we suck. I may watch the second half just to see if we can play any worse. I would bet that we can, but Toledo may show mercy and play their managers and cheerleaders some in the second half to keep the margin within 50.

So maybe a strategy would be to fill most of your open scholarships with transfers using their one freebie who might be more likely to stay if they would have to sit out to transfer again?  Let some other school deal with freshman drama and maybe look to have players for two or three years rather than hoping for four.

Props to St. Peters. Having a small school  to pull for this late in the tournament is what keeps me excited. I mean who cares which P5 school beats which P5 school?  To me they're all the same. But when a little school gets this far that's what I live for.  Unless I have some reason to pull for a P5 team, they're all the same to me. Like I might pull a little bit for UCLA because of Mick Cronin being a Cinci guy and I've lived in the area a long time.  But if it's North Carolina or Duke v. Kansas in the final, I really don't give a crap who wins. I'll watch, but I don't care who wins.

I'm not sure what Edwards is looking for in a transfer. If he wants to be closer to home I can understand it. If he transfers to another mid-major outside Florida/Georgia/Alabama then what's the point.  I don't see his skill level as one that would star at a P5 school so if he wants to be a bench player like so many guys that have transferred up from Valpo over the years (I'm talking to you Smits, Sorolla etc.) well, ok. That would tell me it's a coaching/program issue and a continuation of the reasons we had mass transfers last year. Same for Young whom I was really looking forward to watching next year. If he transfers to a school closer to Oklahoma, I'd chalk it up to homesickness, and that's not on the coaches. But if he ends up outside the southwest, then it is. The only way this program can move out of, at best, mediocrity is to keep it's best players together for more than one-two years. We are not Kentucky. We can't bring in an almost new team of 4/5 star players every year who can get by on talent alone and make the NCAA tournament almost every year. We need a program that instills loyalty in it's players so they can build towards success over time. We can't be successful rebuilding a team from scratch every year.