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Just saw on Facebook that our head coach has moved on to get the Bucknell job.   He did good work here.   Hopefully, FB won't regress badly.

If no explanation is offered on this board, perhaps the student senate could take up an investigation of where our large mascot currently is living and whether or not the faculty colluded with others to have him removed.   

OMG.   The Cougars have a 6'5" freshman and no one else over 6'4".     

That's not a great prep game for Myrtle Beach. 

I'm not doing the pay-per-view for this one.

Did others see the news release that we have Nick Robinson locked in as a transfer from St. Joseph of the A-10?    I need to read again to see when he is eligible. Maybe not until 2019-2020.

Good news.  He is 6'6" guard.  We have a lot of point guard size guys.

Can't believe we don't have a separate thread that follows Loyola in specific.   

Vegas has them as 1 point dogs I believe vs. Kansas State.   It looks like Vegas has learned that their spread is two or less in either direction.  I have been telling my brother in law to pick them in each of the first three games after their performance in the prior one.  I will never lie and say I had them going to the Sweet 16 in my bracket.

With KSU's win over Kentucky I did it again.  Both teams are well coached.  Loyola players just have a special ability to execute and stay disciplined.  Can they dribble drive successfuly again?

I happened across this coincidence when I saw there were few west coast teams this year.   

The "blue" states won by Hillary Clinton in 2016 were only about 12-15 schools in the whole field of 68 this year.   Two lost last night. 

More remarkable is that just two of the Top 28 teams is from a BLUE state.   Of course it is the #1 seed; Virginia and a #4 Gonzaga so they may last a while.  I may have missed one or two more.   

Rhode Island is a #7 but most of them are bottom feeders.   How many make the Sweet 16?   Gonzaga doesn't seem coastal at all, but they do come from a blue.  Since rallying around the home team can win you a lot of votes at the polls, the Dems should roll out their 2020 heavyweights Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren to rally the campuses at Rhode Island, Iona, Vermont, and Providence!  Perhaps  even bike the route to save a few more days for the planet. 

It helps when the SEC is  up and the PAC-12 is down.  Some of us will savor it while  it lasts.

I have to give a shout out to the name "Crafty" anything!   Mine was just a borrow from the "CrusaderJoe" was another recent poster.  Crafty, your kind feelings have inspired me to commit to the whole MVC tourney next year.

No matter the outcome of the season or the MVC tournament, I am EXTREMELY proud as an alumnus to be represented by Matt Lottich and Mark LaBarbera.  These two men appear to have impeccable integrity, do not cut corners, and have high credentials.  Matt is very mature and his achievements as a great NCAA player at Stanford create just about the best fit for Valparaiso you could imagine.  If he was not effective in coaching this year, his players would not have fought bask so many times.

Mark LaBarbera has done just AMAZING things at Valpo since he started about 10-12 years ago.  While I think he can improve the staff marketing schools greatly, Mark is hamstrung in terms of financial investment.  The university will probably not give him more resources until it can achieve three goals related to three questions. 
1) What is the core mission and identity of the university in concrete terms. "Passion" is not an end or a purpose. 
2) What is a cohesive target student group that can reach the goal of 6,000 students which is cited in the 2013 campus masterplan? 
3) How soon will VU complete the "ValpoForeverToGoal" fund raising campaign that includes the 2011 chapel gift of $15 million?   

OK, did anyone look through their Valpo magazine in the mail this week.   

I see two HUGE flaws.  Even if you are not a sports fan, these criticisms apply to the full magazine content.

1)  Size and number of human photos.  Count the number of captioned human photos!  At a glance there are maybe five on the entirety of pages 1-42 and then a set of postage stamp photos on pages 43 and 25 each.

2)   Poor graphics and font sizes that don't draw the eye.   And naturally, the two worst cases de-emphasize athletics achievements.

There is a bitterly ironic treatment of the Mo. Valley story.  I literally paged past it and after seeing page 24-25 I looked for a headline.  It says, "Vertical Leap to the Valley."  But the freaking layout is HORIZONTAL in a story about a VERTICAL LEAP.  And the players are tiny and unrecognizable.   Look for yourself.  The layout is simply irritating.  Then I puzzled over the location of the story.  Where is the story.  Feast your eyes on the layout of the pages 26-27 spead.  No photos.  Just columns of date looking graphics and small print.  Some stories don't lend themselves to photos. SPORTS is one of those story topics!!!   Give it at least 5-6 good-sized photos and make them central elements of the page.  I am not a layout expert beyond some basics in high school  But common sense says that this is pathetic because my eye just kept turning a way!!!   The one little group team picture could just easily be an intramural group since there are no logos to be seen.

There is a totally incompetent layout error on the page 9 postage stamp photo of Alec Peters. Its uncaptioned of course so readers not knowing his face will see not catch the significance if the reader glanes through as fast as I do.  I read snail mail stuff over a trash can as do many others.  The article literally starts on page 8 with 3 short paragraphs and leaps across two columns to and picks up on page 9.  The article is VERY short and blends in with a lot of small type and small font headlines. Another layout error is just incompetence.  What is the deal?? 

Where is the accountability for this?   

Interesting that two senior-laden teams come through in March.

Common bond?     VERY close wins over Valpo in December/November.   

Still odd that Valpo did well early and regressed.

This news deserves a thread of its own since it is an actual AP story.   

This is crushing.  It feels a lot like the day in 2004 or so that I learned that Youngstown State would be invited to join the Horizon League.    They were a horrible addition in comparison to Valpo.   

The Horizon snub in favor of YSU seemed a quirk caused by old sores and family ties.

This time it looks like we dragged our feet too long on athletic facilities.     It seemed like every building built at VU since 2000 was oversized except the athletic projects.

Just surfed through ESPN and saw college dunkathon.   Guess who leads with a perfect 40.0 so far?

Doug Anderson.  Ridiculous reverse jam where he basically splits his legs like a gymnast rises up with back to rim at shoulder level and slams backward. 

No wonder we looked a bit slow and unathletic against Detroit sometimes.   So did most of the country.

http://www.udmercy.edu/news_events/news/by-year/2013/files/03-28-dunk.htm

If top 3 are ones we are guessing, they have a good set of RPI ranks.

#23 Belmont (very surprising)
#104 Evansville
#113  Oakland  (that VU loss is looking more ok)  Still hurts to give up that late lead on the road.

Wonder if the HL announcement will come in late March, tourney time, or be postponed because of the new batch of changes.   If Wichita St. and/or Creighton leave the MVC, that seems a game changer.

Valpo RPI today stands at #63.     Is that our best ever?     My memory says that we have not been above that even in 1998. 

But I think there are archives somewhere to find out.    I also wonder what RPI finishes above #50 have happened for HL teams.  Butler has had several, but maybe Detroit or Milwaukee got there in good years too?

New Mexico is an amazing #2 and SLU keeps rising.

Man..them Kernels is spoilin' fer a fight.    They whupped up on Crowley's Ridge  97-31.     

Detroit lost to Wright St. at home last night.   

They don't like to play methodical smart teams.  Is Wright St. that good or is Detroit just that unfocused and erratic.   They beat UIC by 50 on Saturday.

Hope Detroit scoops up a lot of losses and has to battle to stay focused for 2 days in a row at the tourney (at Valpo of course).

Anyone one to drive up to Loyola Saturday and cheer for Porter Moser against this jackwagon group of Titans? 

Detroit is winning by 30 points late in 2nd half on YSU's home court. 

We can't let them get way out front.    When they play free and easy, they just pour it on.

What are the keys to slowing them down?

So....I looked at the UNM website media guide and it seems they have a guard Hugh Greenwood who is a soph who played very well for them last year.    He also played with Rowdy in Australia a bit.   

They will have all they need to know about Rowdy.   What can Koala tell us about Greenwood?

Wow.    Butler beat UNC in Hawaii and led by more than 20 late in the 2nd half.     

I was just thinking after the Xavier game that Butler might be off quite a bit again.