Women's Team

valpo4life · January 29, 2014, 10:47:03 AM

The CSU loss was tough to swallow because of how they did what they wanted to defensively. Shut down #1 (averaging 25 and 11 in conference play), we held her to 13 and 7. So you look at that as a win, but when #4 (3 for 20 from three point land in conference play) goes 7 for 14, she more than made up for it. Offensively, they are finally hitting some shots. It's funny how that helps. Just need to stop turning the ball over so much and not have those classic Valpo 4 or 5 minute stagnant stretches. We're not quite there yet, but incredibly improved ever since the bad Oakland loss.

KL31NY · February 03, 2014, 07:56:56 PM

We're up by two points at halftime in Green Bay

HC · February 03, 2014, 10:18:55 PM

2nd was, uh, not so good

KL31NY · February 03, 2014, 10:58:36 PM

Quote from: HC on February 03, 2014, 10:18:55 PM
2nd was, uh, not so good

You blew it!

70-42 L; Scoreless in 10:27 stretch bridging halves (8 misses, 8 turnovers), allowing 15 unanswered in the process

ARCInsider · February 09, 2014, 05:45:55 PM

Just looked at the girls' schedule and I realized we are 3-18...wow. Two of those wins are against Chicago State and Detroit, so do they really count? We're looking very seriously at a 4-26 season. I just don't see how we can go into next season with the same staff if this is the case. Not saying TD is gone, but maybe assistants get run?

REALLY makes you re-think the whole "Keith has gotta go" thing.

KL31NY · February 09, 2014, 07:29:50 PM

Quotes coming, first a historic one that came to remind reading ARCInsider, then older ones from the forum. Hope you enjoy

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. -Albert Einstein

Quote from: VULB#62 on April 23, 2012, 02:33:54 PM
It appears from the year-by-year record attached to the release that she only had three sub.500 seasons and two of those were consecutive. And with that exception, whenever the record dropped below .500 it was immediately followed by progressively stronger winning seasons. That suggests recruiting youngsters and developing them into winners and then starting over again. Hopefully, at Valpo she can reach the re-load level. Best wishes to her.

Quote"We've had some games where we competed well when we found ourselves in a hole and came back, but still lost. We have to get this team to invest themselves fully in the game. They have to realize that if they want to be champions, losing has to hurt, and they need to find ways to win," Dorow said. -Torch article, 2013

Quote from: valpotx on January 17, 2014, 01:40:32 AM
Yes, we should be seeing improvement throughout the season, that I can agree with. I also agree that basic fundamentals can be taught and executed better currently. However, that doesn't mean we should be winning the games we are losing, with the talent we have. All it means is that these 20-30+ point losses we are seeing would be cut to 10-20 point losses. We just don't have the talent leftover from the previous regime, to immediately be competitive in this league. Give it another year, and if we are still doing the same things, then it needs to be looked at more. Even big schools give any coaches a few years to turn things around, because they are playing with a previous coach's talent.

jack · February 10, 2014, 08:00:59 AM

The coaching staff, minus 1, came from DII. say what you want, but the game is played and coached differently in DI. I think we have the talent, but lack the direction, and ability to adjust a game plan when needed. We should be seeing marked improvement as the season goes on. So much of it is confidence in what you are trying to accomplish. Granted, we've had momments, but let's not confuse some of these with the fact that our apponents were having a really bad off night. Sometimes you just have to chalk things up to biting off more than you can chew.

valpotx · February 10, 2014, 10:39:12 AM

Still not ready to put this on the coaches until I see how we start next season. If you miss wide open shots like we do, don't block out, and shoot less than 30% from 3, it's on the players...

valpopal · February 10, 2014, 11:49:47 AM

Lexi Miller has been named an Horizon League "Top Performer of the Week": Congratulations!

jack · February 10, 2014, 01:30:20 PM

Quote from: valpotx on February 10, 2014, 10:39:12 AM
Still not ready to put this on the coaches until I see how we start next season. If you miss wide open shots like we do, don't block out, and shoot less than 30% from 3, it's on the players...

Granted, we have missed a fair amount of 3's, but not blocking out, lack of bounce passing into the paint, and forcing issues we shouldn't be are all things they should be working on in practice, and coached up heavily. Are there player error issues? Certainly. Are there coaching errors in both practices and games? Absolutely.
Starting next season, we lose Richardson, Horton, and Hamlet. Who do you see currently on the roster that will be stepping in next season to improve our possition beyond where we are now? What freshmen do you see coming in that will make an emmediate impact? Unfortunately, the past 2 seasons have hurt our stock when it comes to recruiting an instant impact player. Given that, we need to look at what we are doing with the players we have. Are we putting them in the best possitions possible to be successful? Are we changing up anything to try and play to their strengths? Are we making game time adjustments that are needed based on the changes our apponents are making? Are we emphasizing the importance of blocking out, and working hard on it in practice?

KL31NY · February 10, 2014, 09:36:15 PM

82-73 loss to UIC. Better shooting than the first match-up (we actually outshot UIC, FG% 3% FT%). Otherwise, not so pretty. Specialty points all go to the Flames: Points in the paint-UIC 46,VALPO 32. Points off turnovers-UIC 24,VALPO 11. 2nd chance points-UIC 24,VALPO 8. Fast break points-UIC 12,VALPO 0. Cue jack once again talking about not blocking out.

Attendance was listed at 244. The only lower home attendance total we have had since joining the Horizon League was South Dakota (239) on December 31 earlier this season.

valporun · February 10, 2014, 10:58:39 PM

We missed some lay ups tonight that would have won the game, if they had fallen. I agree with jack about fundamental box outs and physicality to win the rebounds that should lead to 2nd chance points keeping this team in several games this season that could have been W's, like tonight. We weren't outshot or outplayed, just looked like we didn't either want to win, or do the things to get rebounds and 2nd chance points. The coaching staff has some work to do in figuring out the right pieces to fit into next season, as the whole team will be their recruits. If they don't get wins next season, then it is time to return to the coaching search.

valpotx · February 11, 2014, 12:38:00 AM

Are the Sophomores on the team (non-transfers) really counted towards this coaching staff? It would be my belief that since TD was hired during April before their FR year, that this coaching staff's role was just to keep our current commits at that time, committed to our school. I wouldn't think that they truly recruited them, just maintained, right? That's a big reason I believe she should truly be judged next season, as she will have 2 classes of players that she recruited, with the transfers as well.

jack · February 11, 2014, 07:48:48 AM

Quote from: valporun on February 10, 2014, 10:58:39 PM
We missed some lay ups tonight that would have won the game, if they had fallen. I agree with jack about fundamental box outs and physicality to win the rebounds that should lead to 2nd chance points keeping this team in several games this season that could have been W's, like tonight. We weren't outshot or outplayed, just looked like we didn't either want to win, or do the things to get rebounds and 2nd chance points. The coaching staff has some work to do in figuring out the right pieces to fit into next season, as the whole team will be their recruits. If they don't get wins next season, then it is time to return to the coaching search.

Another dissapointng loss. It was good to see our shots were falling much better this game. Probably one of our better offensive outputs this season.
Again, the boxing out, or lack there of was our undoing. This coaching staff needs to spend an entire practice doing nothing but boxing out drills. Teams don't needs size to rebound. They need to be taught how to get possition and push the defender out of the block. It truly is as fundamental as any other aspect of the game.
As for next season, we will still have a few players left over from the Freeman era that were either recruited, or lured here by him. I believe Carr, Dean, and Weidemann are were brought here by Freeman.
I still think I isn't going to matter much who we get to come here if we don't adjust our philosophy to maximize our efforts.
Case in point: I noticed this during the game last night but wanted to confirm with the box score and play by play. Carr, even though she didn't contribute a lot in scoring (5pts), dished out 5 assist. Not a great outting, but a decent one. 3 of these assist came in the second half in a 68 second span with 7 minutes to go which contributed to 8pts by our shooters. We certain needed points at this juncture. Then, at the 4:37 mark, Dorow took her out, and she never returned. Looking at her stats, she only had 1 TO and 1 PF, so I am at a loss to understand this move. She inserted players who she felt could come in and score, but at this point, UIC had a much better chance of stopping the shooters, than a player who is finding the open shooters when needed. There were some other late substitutions tht got me scratching my head as well.
I realize we all can watch the same game and see things differently, but this was one of a few things that stuck out in last night's game that I was able to confirm wit the box score.
Good effort ladies. If we can get our boxing out woahs worked out, we could be a decent team I feel.

LaPorteAveApostle · February 11, 2014, 02:55:12 PM

Quote from: jack on February 11, 2014, 07:48:48 AMThen, at the 4:37 mark, Dorow took her out, and she never returned.

Good find--observed/spoken like an ex-coach if ever there were one. Puzzling for sure! 3 dimes in just over a minute is impressive, no matter what level you're on.

KL31NY · February 13, 2014, 06:14:07 PM

82-74 L in a close game at Cleveland State. Any win would have been nice; this could have been a BIG road win since Cleveland State is just out of first place right now. Compared to our first encounter w/ the Vikings, we did a much better job controlling the basketball and we shot well, mainly due to some fantastic looks in the paint where we scored the majority of our points. Karungi scored 25 points and went 12-of-14!!! We even won the overall rebounding battle again.

That being said, it's frustrating that our offense can do so well (50% FG, only 14 turnovers) only to have a poor defensive output negate it. CSU has the best three-point percentage in our league (which we saw firsthand w/ 15-33 shooting (46%) in the first meeting), and we give up 17-33 shooting (52%) this time.

Wish we could get a game like that to go our way. Next chance is at Youngstown on Saturday. Anyone up that way needs to pick up some Handel's http://handelsicecream.com/

jack · February 13, 2014, 07:41:47 PM

Tough loss. Nice effort.
Had the run, and great momentum, and 3 quick and sloppy turnovers at the 9 minute mark in 2nd half turned the tide. Great game by Karungi, and a nice job of our guards finding the bigs inside. Still struggling to block out but a bit better job, and some lucky breaks underneath. Good effort ladys! Good momentum going into YS.

valpotx · February 13, 2014, 11:05:53 PM

It seems like we are playing much better and competitive basketball. It's a good sign for next year, hopefully, when we can pull these games out!

jack · February 17, 2014, 08:00:22 AM

Time to change up our zone strategy. We've been torched by 30 - 3 pointers in 2 games. Doesn't matter how well we play offensively. When you give up 90 points in 2 games from outside the arch, there isn't much chance of a "W".

valpotx · February 22, 2014, 11:20:25 PM

Good win against Oakland today, and a solid game from Karungi!

ARCInsider · February 23, 2014, 03:05:03 PM

Attendance was up to 800+....much better than the 245-400 we've been getting. Buuuuuut, still awful. Changes need to be made.

vu72 · February 23, 2014, 03:54:10 PM

Quote from: ARCInsider on February 23, 2014, 03:05:03 PM
Attendance was up to 800+....much better than the 245-400 we've been getting. Buuuuuut, still awful. Changes need to be made.

I have no idea what is typical for a women's game in the Horizon, but 800 is more than the typical D3 men's game.

KL31NY · February 23, 2014, 06:07:43 PM

Quote from: vu72 on February 23, 2014, 03:54:10 PM
I have no idea what is typical for a women's game in the Horizon, but 800 is more than the typical D3 men's game.

Valpo's Current + Past Six Years Home Attendance:
2013-14: 406
2012-13: 522
2011-12: 454
2010-11: 590 (1877 for #17/16 Notre Dame)
2009-10: 606
2008-09: 853 (1374 for #23/21 Purdue (WE WON), 2046 for #8 Notre Dame)
2007-08: 608

BTW, how 'bout that win against Oakland? I remember being completely frustrated watching our loss to OU earlier this season on HLN, so getting a win in the rematch is so sweet!

valpotx · February 23, 2014, 08:56:28 PM

I would say that 800 is very good for a mid-major women's basketball team. I would agree that we should be closer to 600+ in average though, so hopefully we will get back to that and success as well!

jack · February 24, 2014, 07:12:13 AM

I imagine some of the crowd was due to the earlier men's game with people that stuck around.

Great effort in this one. Much better job in all aspects of the game. I thought we did well, and made some smart decisions with the ball when they were pressing. We got the ball up the floor too quick many times before they could set up the press. Our inside game was solid. It helps when the outside shot is falling. Karungi probably played her best qame yet. her no quit attitude inside was huge. Need more of it. She's holding up well without the help from Horton right now. We need to get her back and healthy.

Great effort ladies. Let's see more of the same Wed.