Illinois State has manged to lose to every team in the Valley this year, but their three victories have all been at home including wins over Bradley and Missouri State. They took Valpo to overtime in the ARC.
In our last matchup we had no answer for Chatman and Reeves, and we allowed 18 offensive rebounds. We squanderd an eight point halftime lead, but held on at the end thanks, in part, to hitting all 16 of our free throws.
As is true of all of our remaining games, if we want to escape the bottom four, we need to win.
It's a must win...
and like all Valpo "must win" games in recent years...
We will lose...
Because that is what we do.
Up four at the half. Feels like Valpo should be up by more, but they gave up two long threes at the end of the half. Taylor played very well.
Good first half. Where is everyone?
SIU down at halftime. A Valpo win and an SIU loss would put us in 6th place at 5-7, a half game lead over SIU at 5-8.
They all decided to roadtrip to Bloomington/Normal at the last minute.
Let's play like this more often.
Other team is bad
I agree, plus we are now struggling to get rebounds.
I don't think we are playing particularly well. In fact I think we are playing pretty poorly. The other team is just, astonishingly, worse.
Well, we're doing our best to throw this game away.
Overtime! As usual.
Who had a worse last procession to win it? Beacons or Red birds?
Lack of execution and lack of imagination (and coaching) in out of bounds plays has cost us 5 points a game this year.
Why double team there? We hadn't double teamed on night.
Why in the blue hell are you double teaming a player 35 feet from the basket in that situation? Horrible.
Please fire Lottich , so bad at the end of games !
We have had a lot of close games.
Blew a 16(?) point lead to one of the worst teams in the MVC....I wish I could say I'm surprised
This team has such little offensive skill, it's rather incredible. It's time to move on.
:censored:
Great end of game defense by the redbirds. They earned that tie and they earned that win.
What a blown opportunity. Krikke is just not clutch. Any time that we need a big bucket from him, he coughs it up while trying to over dribble, claps his hands, and says something to himself. Agreed on wtf we were thinking in double teaming so far away from the basket, only down 2. Just let him be man on man, and take a long shot. If he makes it, you at least made him earn it, versus giving up an opening under the basket.
Up 16 with less than 16 minutes left in the 2nd half and we threw it away. What's sad is that deep down, I knew we would blow it. Typical Matt Lottich game.
I am sure there are some worse coaches out there, but I haven't seen them. I don't have any inside access to the program or anything, so I can't say whether Matt was just unprepared when he took the job or what the situation is, but he really needs to go. The longer he has the reigns, the less and less likely it is this program ever recovers. I hate to say it, but I can't really think of any players I care to have back next season either. I don't see anybody irreplaceable. Perhaps that falls on the coaching staff too, none of these players have improved significantly since I saw them first. Edwards still plays carelessly after almost 2 years, Krikke has regressed since last season in my opinion, Eron Gordon has regressed, Woodyard isn't going to last as an MVC player. There are 3 or 4 people on the roster that are essentially just dead weight, never even had a chance to play in a game. Is Connor Barrett an actual person or am I just imagining somebody? There was freshman on the team that shot 40% from three last year who occasionally started right? What happened to him?
I didn't watch the game and have very little interest in valpo basketball lately. It's really sad actually. I sense others feel the same. There certainly isn't as much activity on this board as there used to be. The game thread is a single page of comments after the game. We desperately need a change
Doesn't matter if you don't care to have any of the players back or not. History tells us they are leaving.
Which I bet we need to keep an eye on our apr.
I think Darius should have been in game at the end. Creates more. Our players are gassed by the end of every game.
Quote from: vok22 on February 09, 2022, 09:30:26 PMIs Connor Barrett an actual person or am I just imagining somebody?
Who ???
Quote from: tiny707 on February 09, 2022, 09:42:46 PM
I think Darius should have been in game at the end. Creates more. Our players are gassed by the end of every game.
That's another thing, I keep hearing about how few turnovers our freshmen point guards have. Perhaps it's just the pitiful offense they are in, but it's not like they are creating anything either. They are combining for 3.6 assists per game.
Valpo Basketball 22-23: New Prez, New AD, New Coach.
Quote from: tiny707 on February 09, 2022, 09:42:46 PMI think Darius should have been in game at the end. Creates more.
Preston looks to be the slightly better defender with Darius the better on offense. That Preston double team looked like a freshman misinterpretation of something maybe recently introduced? Maybe I should watch it again to try to figure it all out?
Quote from: NativeCheesehead on February 09, 2022, 09:58:58 PM
Valpo Basketball 22-23: New Prez, New AD, New Coach.
No way an AD makes a hire in the Summer when they take over. Lottich is for sure coming back for at least one more year. The new AD will evaluate Lottich next season and make decision.
I really want to know how many more years are on that Lottich extension. It almost feels like Mark LaBarbera stepping away now is strategic. Gives the new AD time evaluate Lottich and assuming his deal is up after 2022-23, they'd be able to hire their guy. Wouldn't make sense to have have Lottich and Mark leave at the same time and force an AD to make that decision before settling into the athletics department.
We're always hoping Lottich will draw something creative up out of a timeout. Yet with time running down in regulation out of a timeout, I
able to call ahead of time that we hold the ball til 10 on the shot lock to run our single play to get a man open that inevitably will fail. And then we take a tough contested shot to (attempt to) bail out the failure. Low and behold that's exactly what happened at the end of regulation. Now I'm a huge basketball fan but never played a single competitive game in my life so take it with a grain of salt.
Even if we run the shot clock to zero ISUr still gets one more possession ( and likely runs the clock down to take a last second shot Anyway ). So why not run a few motion plays to try and get a decent shot opportunity instead of standing there praying that one play you drew up leads to an open look. ( spoiler alert: I bet the stats say this plays lead to an open look about 5% of the time).
Maybe Lottich needs to act like an NHL coach where you see the assistant always drawing up the plays ?
I'll always be rooting for the Beacons but each game that goes by makes it easier to do something more enjoyable and just check the box score after the fact.
Everyone finally seeing Lottich coaching abilities. Something I saw years ago.
Looking for a meme of me patting myself on the back.
Quote from: VU2014 on February 09, 2022, 10:26:07 PM
Quote from: NativeCheesehead on February 09, 2022, 09:58:58 PM
Valpo Basketball 22-23: New Prez, New AD, New Coach.
No way an AD makes a hire in the Summer when they take over. Lottich is for sure coming back for at least one more year. The new AD will evaluate Lottich next season and make decision.
I really want to know how many more years are on that Lottich extension. It almost feels like Mark LaBarbera stepping away now is strategic. Gives the new AD time evaluate Lottich and assuming his deal is up after 2022-23, they'd be able to hire their guy. Wouldn't make sense to have have Lottich and Mark leave at the same time and force an AD to make that decision before settling into the athletics department.
Well said. Makes perfect sense.
A wasted performance from Taylor. Good teams find ways to close games. Two games in a row we have no answer for Henry at ISU or last night with Reeves. No ability to stop dribble drive penetration. Team looked very tired last five minutes of regulation and OT. We have to rely on jump shots, as we don't execute two man game/ball screens well. Krikke turnover in the paint was costly. He was tired. No Kither cost us another game last night.
Quote from: hckjag on February 10, 2022, 12:10:30 AM
We're always hoping Lottich will draw something creative up out of a timeout. Yet with time running down in regulation out of a timeout, I
able to call ahead of time that we hold the ball til 10 on the shot lock to run our single play to get a man open that inevitably will fail. And then we take a tough contested shot to (attempt to) bail out the failure. Low and behold that's exactly what happened at the end of regulation.
I told my wife and son during that last timeout in regulation that one of three things would happen: Dribble into trouble and create a turnover; wait too long and fail to get a shot off on time; get a bad shot off just before the shot clock expired.
Well, the shot wasn't a bad look. But only the Beacons would throw up a potential game-winning 3-point shot and have it WEDGE between the rim and backboard.
Ugh.
Quote from: valpolaw on February 09, 2022, 09:35:52 PM
I didn't watch the game and have very little interest in valpo basketball lately. It's really sad actually. I sense others feel the same. There certainly isn't as much activity on this board as there used to be. The game thread is a single page of comments after the game. We desperately need a change
There are so many excellent and exciting games to watch on TV that are worth watching. Crazy atmosphere, great competition, and fun to watch. Valpo simply is not fun to watch. There was a time when we had the atmosphere, excitement, big crowds, crazy students chanting "you can't do that" or "fundamentals," or even some things that made the AD cringe, which I thought was very funny.
I don't watch Valpo much anymore. Keep waiting for some good news though. I'd like to get off my butt and go the ARC and eat 14 hot dogs. Haven't done that in a long, long time.
Quote from: Valpo89 on February 10, 2022, 08:45:45 AM
Quote from: hckjag on February 10, 2022, 12:10:30 AM
We're always hoping Lottich will draw something creative up out of a timeout. Yet with time running down in regulation out of a timeout, I
able to call ahead of time that we hold the ball til 10 on the shot lock to run our single play to get a man open that inevitably will fail. And then we take a tough contested shot to (attempt to) bail out the failure. Low and behold that's exactly what happened at the end of regulation.
I told my wife and son during that last timeout in regulation that one of three things would happen: Dribble into trouble and create a turnover; wait too long and fail to get a shot off on time; get a bad shot off just before the shot clock expired.
Well, the shot wasn't a bad look. But only the Beacons would throw up a potential game-winning 3-point shot and have it WEDGE between the rim and backboard.
Ugh.
Looked to be a common B-Team Beacon play.
Matt breaks down what happened on the final play of regulation here.
https://thevictorybell.substack.com/p/beacons-bottom-out-late-against-illinois