Valpo @ Loyola MARYMOUNT (2/17) Game Thread

[FWalum]

From my chair in Milwaukee, I thought the only reason Valpo lost that game was the absence of Kevin Van Wijk.

And them hitting some really off the wall shots!  Playing on the west coast at their gym and without Kevin, I think we showed pretty well.

I have to agree.  We are a much easier team to defend without Kevin in the lineup.  Don't get me wrong I like what Edward's has been able to do of late, but Kevin is a completely different player than anyone else.  The high screen and roll was not defended nearly as aggressively as it was with Kevin in the game, this made it seem that our offense and movement was mostly moving away from the basket.  I did think that our defense, especially in the second half was very good.  LMU has some very good players and while I think that we still had way too many early turnovers, by the end of the game they had as many or more than we did.

[covufan]

Obviously a real honest to goodness bracket buster event would more closely forecast a real NCAA tourney first round game.  Worthy contenders would take on power conference teams at neutral sites (closer to the power conference team's home is fine with me) as a preview of what might happen in March.  I wouldn't mind stipulating that the real match up in March can't be the same two teams.

http://www.daytondailynews.com/dayton-sports/wright-state-university-raiders/commentary-bracketbusters-has-run-its-course-1330932.html?cxtype=rss_wsu

Looks like I'm not the only one who thinks this way

I like the idea of some mid-major teams playing bubble teams from the Big Six conferences, especially if they get the return game.  Teams should earn the right for the bracket-buster games, other teams that have saved the weekend can pick up games with similar conferences, with the return game the following year.