2017-18 VU Schedule

[bigmosmithfan1]

Not sure one game in 2010 constitutes willingness (Painter became the coach back in 2005). The only reason they played us was for Robbie Hummel. They scheduled that 2-for-1.

Purdue also visited the ARC in 1997-98 and 2001-02, the latter being a game where we were down one score and bobbled a clean look on the final possession.

[vu72]

Hilltop wAsn't built until 1939.  The old gymnasium was built about 1907, burning down in 1927

Good catch!

[valpotx]

Yes, I was about to mention the FR year Ali Berdiel blunder, when we had a chance to win at the end.  Purdue came to the ARC with Keady.

[bigmosmithfan1]

Ive heard of P5 teams signing 2 for 1 contracts and then just buying out the 1.....I guess you still get paid.

Yep. This is why the non-P5 should always insist on the return game being the first or the middle game in the series. Utah did this to Ball State the year before last after the Cardinals traveled to SLC for the first two games of the series. (Incidentally, something as small as this could have kept VU from getting the at-large last year. BSU had to scramble to get another game and ended up playing a 300+ D-1 team -- not only did Utah cancel on the return game, but they did it just a couple months before the season started, which was so late that Utah had to pay a $200K penalty in the contract -- which likely dropped BSU's overall RPI a good 10+ spots on its own. Now imagine if BSU had upset Utah in Muncie -- you're talking a significant RPI boost and VU's loss there is maybe mitigated enough to get the at-large).

[VU2014]

Not sure one game in 2010 constitutes willingness (Painter became the coach back in 2005). The only reason they played us was for Robbie Hummel. They scheduled that 2-for-1.

Purdue also visited the ARC in 1997-98 and 2001-02, the latter being a game where we were down one score and bobbled a clean look on the final possession.

The College basketball landscape has changed dramatically the 10-15yrs. The way schools do business and schedule is different then they use to.

I think you can only go off what the current head-coach has done. I give Coach Painter credit for scheduling a 2-for-1 with Valpo about 10 years ago. Maybe he would be willing to do it again. I'm not saying its impossible, just unlikely.

Purdue has only scheduled 4 true OOC away games at other schools arenas in the past 4(!) seasons. (thats insane and is just points to how screwed up NCAA CBB has become. Its a P6 scheduling cartel). Of those 4 games they were all P5 schools: Louisville (16-17), Pitt (15-16), Vandy (14-15), & West Virginia (13-14). 

[VU2014]

Well we have our answer...
https://twitter.com/NWIOren/status/859092315809492992

[bbtds]

Yes, I was about to mention the FR year Ali Berdiel blunder, when we had a chance to win at the end.  Purdue came to the ARC with Keady.

What I really liked about that game was the VU student who dressed like Keady and mimicked him most of the game from the opposite sideline.

[VU2014]

So is Valpo getting paid for this game at Purdue if they are not returning a game at Valpo or giving us a 2-for-1?

[valporun]

Yes, I was about to mention the FR year Ali Berdiel blunder, when we had a chance to win at the end.  Purdue came to the ARC with Keady.

What I really liked about that game was the VU student who dressed like Keady and mimicked him most of the game from the opposite sideline.

I am still friends with the guy you're talking about to this day. He was hilarious that night, and even Gene Keady got a few good laughs from it.

[VULB#62]

Looks like we can pencil in purdue, ball state and northwestern for that second week of December! That'll be fun!

At ball St. or at the ARC?

Osipoff gives us the dates.

[tweet]858686257756610560[/tweet]

[justducky]

Both the Purdue (Dec 7) and Northwestern (Dec 14) games will be on Thursdays. This will be much easier travel than the Oregon, Oregon St swing of 15-16 and the separate trips to Oregon and Kentucky in 16-17.

How competitive will we be in early December? I can imagine a broad range of possible answers.

I have already expressed my optimism for our 18-19 team prospects. Are either of these opponents willing to sign us for an 18-19 return trip? If not why not?

[bigmosmithfan1]

Kudos to ML, as those are three high-quality OOC games. Do not be surprised if Ball State is a Top 100 squad next year. They have nearly everyone back from a 21-win team and added a scoring SF out of Hamilton SE who de-committed from IU after Crean got fired, as well as a 3-star PG from Minnesota who had Big 12 offers.

[VU2014]

Both the Purdue (Dec 7) and Northwestern (Dec 14) games will be on Thursdays. This will be much easier travel than the Oregon, Oregon St swing of 15-16 and the separate trips to Oregon and Kentucky in 16-17.

How competitive will we be in early December? I can imagine a broad range of possible answers.

I have already expressed my optimism for our 18-19 team prospects. Are either of these opponents willing to sign us for an 18-19 return trip? If not why not?

I remember that Oregon/Oregon State west coast trip and then we had that quick turn around to play Ball State at their place a few years ago. The guys looked so tired coming back from that west coast trip and we barely lost to Ball State. That loss really hurt us in the Select committees eyes... even if we won that game we still probably wouldn't get an out-right bid knowing the those cronies in the select committee.

There is going to be a learning curve this season, especially in the early going because we will have a lot of new faces getting big minutes. There will naturally be some growing pains. Luckily we will likely have a few tune up games before this stretch to build some chemistry.

Sounds like December is going to be a really fun stretch of games.

[VULB#62]

How's this for counting unhatched chickens.....

[tweet]864113611291189248[/tweet]

[VU2014]

Some OOC scheduling news! We will be playing Utah State as part of the MVC/Mountain West challenge.

https://twitter.com/JonRothstein/status/864113611291189248

OOC next season:

-Utah State (home)

-Santa Clara? (I believe the SC game last year a 1-for-1, correct? I know we took the game b/c it allowed their star SR Jared Brownridge to play close to home for his SR year in front of friends & family. Maybe it was just single game but I thought I remembered someone saying it was a 1-for-1, which means we'd be likely making another long west coast road trip and maybe playing a neutral site tourney or something.)

-Northwestern (away)

-Purdue (away)

-Ball State (away)

Utah State last year:

-Record: 14-17 (7-11) finished 3rd to last in the conference next year.

An interesting match up. Very young team least year but they have recruited pretty well the last 2 years. They have a kid who 3.7 stars in Koby McEwen who was only a freshman and suppose to be an absolute stud. Nice to see a Mountain West school in the ARC next season. Should be a fun game.

An interesting note is that Utah State was where John Middleton transferred from last year (and then he transferred from Valpo within about a month or two after getting suspended for "breaking team rules". We never got to know the kid. Think he transferred to a JUCO school).

Curious how they pick the match ups.

We also have that potential future Vandy game coming... not sure if it will be this season or future seasons. I'd prefer getting them at home in the 2018-209 season. We'll see what happens there.

[VU2014]

https://twitter.com/boettger_eli/status/864120563278782464

http://www.mwcconnection.com/2017/5/15/15640744/breaking-mountain-west-missouri-valley-challenge-matchups-announced

Breaking: Mountain West/Missouri Valley Challenge matchups announced:

The MWC/MVC Challenge matchups are released.
by Eli Boettger@boettger_eli  May 15, 2017

The 2017 Mountain West/Missouri Valley Challenge matchups were released Monday morning, per CBS Sports' Jon Rothstein.

Here is the list of matchups, with (H) marked next to the home team.

..........

[VU2014]

2017 MVC/MW Challenge:

-Bradley at San Diego State

-Air Force at Indiana State

-San Jose State at Southern Illinois

-Illinois State at Nevada

-UNLV at Northern Iowa

-Colorado State at Missouri State

-Loyola (Illinois) at Boise State

-Evansville at New Mexico

-Utah State at Valpo

-Drake at Wyoming

[Valpo89]

Valpo played Utah State in the Big Island Invitational in Hilo, Hawaii in November of 1995. Valpo won the game.
The Utah State coach was Larry Eustachy. He later was fired at Iowa State for drinking and partying with coeds.
He was an idiot at that tournament. Thought he was big-time. Was late to a pre-tourney press conference and thought he was too good to be there, so it was nice when that VU team (Bryce's soph year) kicked their asses.

[VU2014]

An interesting article being critical of the MVC/MW Challenge.

Would selfishly love a MVC vs A10 challenge. That would be a great challenge but the A10 probably wouldn't go for it. Also logistical problems with a A10 14 teams vs MVC 10 teams. Maybe they could let the A10 pick the 4 additional match-ups against whichever 4 opponents they'd want? Either way, still highly unlikely because the A10 would probably only see risk in a MVC Challenge... Would be some great match-ups though...

http://www.mwcconnection.com/2016/5/29/11765064/the-mountain-west-missouri-valley-challenge-more-harm-than-help

The Mountain West/Missouri Valley Challenge: More Harm Than Help
The Mountain West has struggled to make noise in non-conference play in recent years. The MWC/MVC Challenge shoulders a great deal of the blame.
by Eli Boettger@boettger_eli  May 29, 2016, 5:26pm PDT

The ACC/Big Ten and Big 12/SEC Challenge schedules were unveiled this week via CBS Sports. As you could imagine, both Challenges are full of intriguing and important games, including national runner-up North Carolina taking on Indiana, Duke hosting Michigan State and a rematch of last season's overtime thriller between blue bloods Kentucky and Kansas.

As conference commissioners should, the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC leaders waited until late May to ensure that the best possible matchups would be featured this upcoming season.

............

[vu84v2]

I am guessing that the likelihood of Valparaiso accepting the invitation is almost a certainty, given that they are already including Valpo in the MVC/MW challenge.

[VU2014]

I am guessing that the likelihood of Valparaiso accepting the invitation is almost a certainty, given that they are already including Valpo in the MVC/MW challenge.

Yeah there was no way we were turning down an invite.

Paul mentioned on Union Street Hoops that there is a rumored by-law that apparently once you publicly state your intentions to leave the conference then the Horizon League can immediately pull your teams from post-season play which would affect Valpo's softball and Baseball teams. So we won't probably get an official announcement till after baseball is finished up likely. Pretty petty rule, imo... Don't care if it "makes sense" for the HL to want their teams potentially representing them. But whatever. Makes sense for the Athletics Department/Coaches/etc. to just not say anything to play it safe.

[FWalum]

I am guessing that the likelihood of Valparaiso accepting the invitation is almost a certainty, given that they are already including Valpo in the MVC/MW challenge.

Yeah there was no way we were turning down an invite.

Paul mentioned on Union Street Hoops that there is a rumored by-law that apparently once you publicly state your intentions to leave the conference then the Horizon League can immediately pull your teams from post-season play which would affect Valpo's softball and Baseball teams. So we won't probably get an official announcement till after baseball is finished up likely. Pretty petty rule, imo... Don't care if it "makes sense" for the HL to want their teams potentially representing them. But whatever. Makes sense for the Athletics Department/Coaches/etc. to just not say anything to play it safe.

Vulnerability being that only 6 of the 7 teams make the league playoff and the HL could just leave Valpo out in the cold if they so desire once we announce the move allowing all of the remaining HL teams to participate.

[talksalot]

Softball is done after the UDM loss on Friday; Baseball clinched a berth in the HL tournament winning 3 of 4 games this weekend, including a split with league-leading UIC.

[wh]

An interesting article being critical of the MVC/MW Challenge.

Would selfishly love a MVC vs A10 challenge. That would be a great challenge but the A10 probably wouldn't go for it. Also logistical problems with a A10 14 teams vs MVC 10 teams. Maybe they could let the A10 pick the 4 additional match-ups against whichever 4 opponents they'd want? Either way, still highly unlikely because the A10 would probably only see risk in a MVC Challenge... Would be some great match-ups though...

http://www.mwcconnection.com/2016/5/29/11765064/the-mountain-west-missouri-valley-challenge-more-harm-than-help

The Mountain West/Missouri Valley Challenge: More Harm Than Help
The Mountain West has struggled to make noise in non-conference play in recent years. The MWC/MVC Challenge shoulders a great deal of the blame.
by Eli Boettger@boettger_eli  May 29, 2016, 5:26pm PDT

The ACC/Big Ten and Big 12/SEC Challenge schedules were unveiled this week via CBS Sports. As you could imagine, both Challenges are full of intriguing and important games, including national runner-up North Carolina taking on Indiana, Duke hosting Michigan State and a rematch of last season's overtime thriller between blue bloods Kentucky and Kansas.

As conference commissioners should, the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC leaders waited until late May to ensure that the best possible matchups would be featured this upcoming season.

............

Your reference article is a year old. The complaint that MWC/MVC matchups were decided too soon (December 2015) rather than waiting until May 2016 (like the Big 10/ACC) has obviously been remiedied this year, since the matchups were just announced.

[VU2014]

Yep I know. Still relevant I think. Just saw the writer retweet it out.

I think Valpo fans appreciate the challenge more then the typical MVC fan because we know how hard OOC scheduling can be. Unfortunately sometimes thee challenges don't work out as well as planned. Would really love a A10 challenge, but unlikely.

I saw a few HL fans calling for a MVC vs HL Challenge... which I think Valpo/other MVC teams would probably have literally 0 interest in because you can pretty much schedule HL teams OOC whenever you want (as long as schedules are't conflicting) without needing a challenge. Could see why the HL would want it. But I guess the same could be said about why the A10 wouldn't want a MVC challenge, less to gain from that A10 Conference (especially the upper-tier A10 schools).