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I liked the interview. It was the first time I'd heard him speak and I was impressed. He said all the right things about not wanting to be anyone's doormat yet adding a dose of reality that the new AD and the university will need to "punch above our weight" given the resource's available at a small private school. I also got the less than ringing endorsement of Matt, the unstated message that his program better take a big step soon or the new AD will be free to "make whatever changes he/she thinks necessary (and be held accountable for the results)." He can talk the talk. Now we shall see if he walks the walk.

This was the year when I finally went from expecting to win and being disappointed when we didn't, to expecting to lose and being mildly surprised when we won. I also went from watching every game I could to not caring whether I watched or not. I expect this attitude to carry over to next year, and I don't like it much. I'd like to be optimistic and think maybe next year we'll start winning most of those close games we lost this year, but I guess I'll have to see it to believe it. A lot of "maybe's" would have to fall the right way for that to happen. But stranger things have happened, like the Bengals coming from nowhere to make it to the Super Bowl.  So I guess there's hope.

Speaking of transfers, I caught a couple minutes of the DePaul win over Marquette the other day. In the few minutes I watched, JFL had three turnovers and missed three shots including two airballs where he went one on five while his teammates stood around with their thumbs up their asses.  But I'm sure he will have a great career in the NBA, something I care zero about.

Not sure that this is really related to the topic listed, but your comment about JFL in the DePaul - Marquette game is flawed by a small sample. JFL was strong for much of the game and was being guarded by last year's Big Ten defensive player of the year.

You're right. It was a small sample, and DePaul did win easily.  Given the high percentage of his teams shots that he takes I'm sure he hit plenty of them. It just struck me in the moment, that's all.

So what's the best case for next year?  Krikke, Kithier, and King come back. Edwards comes back. Maximus comes in and contributes as a freshman big.  Ruedinger gets a scholarship, but is he the answer at point?  I see his ceiling as Trever Anderson when he's a senior.  Does that get us to upper tier MVC with Belmont & Murray State coming in?  I don't see it. None of our freshman showed the kind of ability that gets us there. I know, we had a couple of guys redshirt, but who knows what their ability level is compared to the MVC talent level at the top tier of the conference. We have some nice role player type players and no doubt they are great kids, but we don't have one let alone two of the type of player talent we need to compete for MVC championships.  Without that level player we are settling for mid conference level finishes at best.  Maybe we just got lucky with Bryce and Barton and Grafs and Rowdy and Peters. Maybe it was just a fluke and our recruiting is just returning to the norm for a little private school with below average facilities and above average entrance requirements. But if we don't figure out how to hit a couple of home runs in our recruiting and KEEP THEM FROM TRANSFERRING we will be reduced to being just another school that fills in the lower level of a good mid major conference.  That will not keep me interested. 

Speaking of transfers, I caught a couple minutes of the DePaul win over Marquette the other day. In the few minutes I watched, JFL had three turnovers and missed three shots including two airballs where he went one on five while his teammates stood around with their thumbs up their asses.  But I'm sure he will have a great career in the NBA, something I care zero about.

Beacons extinguished but not blown out. At least we didn't finish last.

Sad that not finishing last seems to be the best we can aspire to anymore.

Mo. State just looks like a better team all around. Better players, better coached. We will have to play over our heads not to be blown out in the second half.

Decided to tune in tonight for what I was afraid would be the last game. Nice to see the team play really well. Started fast and when Evansville made their run in the second half they stayed composed and put it away.

Hope they can at least compete tomorrow. Can't come out flat.

Didn't watch the game but did see the final score. To paraphrase Captain Renault in Casa Blanca, "I'm shocked, shocked that losing is going on in here."

I would say Valpo Bottom Dwellers, but that would just be both stating the obvious and piling on at this point.

Didn't even bother to check the score as it was much more satisfying watching the unexpectedly amazing Bengals punch their ticket to the Super Bowl. Who Dey!!

Only stuck around to see if Taylor can get a three.

At the buzzer! Yes!

One good thing tonight.

The only one.

Reminds me of a game between a team that knows how to play basketball and a bunch of guys that don't have a clue. Guess I'll continue watching just to see how long my gag reflex can take it.

Almost gave this one away, but amazingly we didn't. Good defense on that last possession. Good to pull another one out.

Fully expected to title this post "How to Lose Close (when you don't lose big)". Low and behold we actually pulled one out, so I"ll have put that one back in the drawer.  Dare we hope this might be a turning point?  Won't go that far, but at least it's a start.

Digressing a bit, I like DeAveiro and the energy he brings. Reminds me a bit of Erik Buggs. Hope he gets more minutes.
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He must have really shown something in this game. My assessment after the Loyola game was that he isn't quick enough to beat defenders off the dribble and that bigger guards could easily back him down any time they wanted and score over him. My thought was that he really needs to hit the weights this off season and bulk up a bit. But again I didn't watch this game so...

I wonder about Valpo's financial situation. Absent a wealthy alum who can just write a check, does Valpo have the resources to fund a new or redesigned basketball facility?  Does Valpo have the resources to buy out Matt's contract if they wanted to?  And yes, Matt may be a great guy yadda yadda yadda, but ultimately you are what your record says you are, and his record has not been very good.   If they don't have the resources then all talk about what needs to be done is pointless.  If they do and they choose not to utilize them then that tells you all you need to know about how the university feels about the program. If they don't then absent some wealthy and generous benefactor, nothing will change.  Adding two successful programs to the conference will cement our position in the bottom third of the conference. We will become consistent losers and the university can say we are a D1 program in the MVC to potential students without mentioning that we don't seriously want to compete. That is not a program I care to follow. At this stage of my life I will not further invest in a program that doesn't care to continue a tradition of success.  I have local teams I can follow, and even the lowly Bengals have finally invested enough to field a playoff game winner after 31 years of futility. So Valpo, show me you care enough to start making some changes.

Didn't bother to watch this game as the Bengals were on at the same time, and wonder of wonders, one of my teams won. (Hint: it wasn't Valpo). Checked the Valpo score a couple of times and was glad I made the right choice.

I heard somewhere that the opposite of love isn't hate. It's indifference. Got to say after following Valpo since the sweet sixteen run got this alums attention in 98, I'm headed in the indifference direction.

In their last game, the Appleton North Lightning lost 90-66 to the Kimberly Papermakers. Nelson had 35 of his team's 66 points

Two thoughts:
1. That is a lot of points for a 36 minute high school game (with no shot clock).
2. Papermakers!?!?!?

And to think, we could have been the Valparaiso University Popcornmakers! 

Darn, another missed opportunity. 😉

Finding new and even more exciting ways to lose. 

Watching this team is like watching someone play "Whack A Mole".  We suck on the boards - next game we rebound better but lose our shooting. We turn the ball over too much - next game we don't turn the ball over as much but we give up layups when our guards get beat off the dribble and we have no rim protector.  We hit all our free throws in a game and then we miss four and lose by three. Improve in one area then suck in another. Whatever part of the game we need to suck at to lose, we seem to find it.  If we ever play a complete game, we might be pretty good, but somehow we channel our inner suck and find just what we need to suck at to lose close (except at UNI where we sucked at pretty much everything and got stomped). I have no idea how to correct this problem but then I'm not the coach. Sad thing is I don't think the coaching staff has a clue either.  Maybe when King finds a way to finish at the rim when he gets fouled providing three point opportunities rather than two free throws of which he often only hits one, or maybe when we hit our first two threes instead of going one for nine leading to a first half where we score more than 22 points, or our guards figure out how to stop getting beat on dribble drives for easy layups, maybe then we can see how good this team can be.

On a different note, I'm curious. What do you think any of the Peters or Broekhoff teams would have done against Southern Illinois tonight. I think they would have gone 7 and 1 against them. At worst, 6 and 2.  I would like to get a sense of how the talent and coaching of this team would compare.  Is our talent as good but the competition is better than those teams, or have we somehow seen a drop off in our talent.

Nice comeback. Just good enough to lose close.  Again.

Can't shoot and give up lots of points in the paint. Same old same old. Down ten at half. Can we come back or do we lose by 20+ again?

1314 - I dont care about the multi bids and the MVC. As a single entity, we need to be better than what we are. It is not about the Valley to me, it's about Valpo being successful in basketball, and they have major problems to fix.

Agreed. I don't care how many bids the MVC gets if Valpo doesn't realistically have a shot at one of them. If beat downs like last night become the norm I can't get excited about watching more than one Valley team go to the dance.

We make up for not defending the 3 by not defending the paint.

We made up for stinking it up in the first half by sucking particularly on defense in the second.

I'd like to put some lipstick on this pig and say maybe we saved up all our bad and put it in this game but I'm afraid I can't. Maybe there's a sliver of hope that this will be the low point of the season.  We shall see.

Now we know just how bad we can be and it's everybody.