It appears that there is a new banner, with the info that Valpo was picked as the best Horizon League basketball program of the last 50 years - as ranked by ESPN.com.
Does anyone have a link to the ESPN rankings?
I see four players and one coach in the banner. My guess is that left most player is Tom Smith, then Meyne, then Homer, Bryce and Rowdy. Is this correct?
Very good job putting that together. Another terrific banner and certainly something that sets our board above the others.
Not sure about Meyne, but that certainly is Tommy Smith and the others.
i love valpo, but i can't see how we get this honor after not having even been to the ncaa tourney in almost a decade, while butler brought the conference to prominence with back-to-back title game appearances. yeah, they're in the a10 now, but until just two months ago, they were the face of the conference for a few years prior to most of the country.
Quote from: vuweathernerd on August 31, 2012, 04:27:03 PM
i love valpo, but i can't see how we get this honor after not having even been to the ncaa tourney in almost a decade, while butler brought the conference to prominence with back-to-back title game appearances. yeah, they're in the a10 now, but until just two months ago, they were the face of the conference for a few years prior to most of the country.
On a similar note, our best accomplishments came before we were even in the Horizon League. My guess is that they choose pools based on current conference alignment and then went with the overall history regardless of association... at least in our case
Our 2012-13 school year enrollment features a Diversity of students. Our new banner neglects :crazy:this fact Why?
Quote from: setshot on September 01, 2012, 06:40:58 PM
Our 2012-13 school year enrollment features a Diversity of students. Our new banner neglects :crazy:this fact Why?
Pay attention setshot: 25% of the players shown are not Americans.
vu72 FTW
That just shows how dominant we were in our old conference
Quote from: valpotx on September 02, 2012, 09:45:34 PM
That just shows how dominant we were in our old conference
i still have trouble buying this. we never ran the table in the mid-con, but butler did it once, and then made two national championship appearances. if we're being given credit for our time in the mid-con, there's no reason butler shouldn't get credit for what they did as an actual member of the horizon league.
i'm sorry, but i just can't bring myself to agree with the conclusion that we're the best horizon league program of the last 50 years. i think that has to go to butler, without a doubt.
plus, i'm still waiting to see a link to the page that names us such. i'm on espn's website every day, and never saw a story with a title that would imply naming programs like this.
They are being given credit for their losses in the national title game, and are ranked in the Atlantic 10 portion since that is their conference now. Prior to 2000 or so, Butler hadn't done too much on the national stage. Two runner up finishes in a 50 year span got them to #59, which is deserved in my opinion. They ranked the teams from 1-346, which puts us at the top of the HL, clearly seen below:
http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/8298598/conference-breakdowns-50-50-rankings (http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/8298598/conference-breakdowns-50-50-rankings)
Now that I've seen the article I think you guys may be reading more into these rankings than was intended.
Quote from: wh on September 03, 2012, 01:11:44 PM
Now that I've seen the article I think you guys may be reading more into these rankings than was intended.
That is a requirement to post here I think
Quote from: valpotx on September 03, 2012, 12:28:33 PM
They are being given credit for their losses in the national title game, and are ranked in the Atlantic 10 portion since that is their conference now. Prior to 2000 or so, Butler hadn't done too much on the national stage. Two runner up finishes in a 50 year span got them to #59, which is deserved in my opinion. They ranked the teams from 1-346, which puts us at the top of the HL, clearly seen below:
http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/8298598/conference-breakdowns-50-50-rankings (http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/8298598/conference-breakdowns-50-50-rankings)
this makes more sense now. thanks for the link.
OK. I think I understand the rankings a little better after reading the article. Of the teams in the Horizon as of today, ESPN rated our program higher than the rest of the teams, over the last 50 years. Most of our basketball success came before we were in the HL, but our program as rated against all of the other 300+ programs rates higher than others in the HL.
You would think that a team that won a national championship in the last 50 years would rate higher than 149.
Quote from: vu84v2 on September 03, 2012, 08:53:56 PM
You would think that a team that won a national championship in the last 50 years would rate higher than 149.
I don't get this either. NCAA Champion in 1963 and not ranked higher for the last 50 years than Valpo? I guess our run of making the tournament counts more than the one championship.
Quote from: vu72 on August 31, 2012, 04:11:13 PM
Very good job putting that together. Another terrific banner and certainly something that sets our board above the others.
Not sure about Meyne, but that certainly is Tommy Smith and the others.
Can anyone identify the player wearing #24 on the left side of the banner?
Quote from: covufan on September 07, 2012, 12:59:39 PMCan anyone identify the player wearing #24 on the left side of the banner?
Yes that is John Meyne. I very good player in a time we were not.
Quote from: IndyValpo on September 08, 2012, 08:51:35 AM
Quote from: covufan on September 07, 2012, 12:59:39 PMCan anyone identify the player wearing #24 on the left side of the banner?
Yes that is John Meyne. I very good player in a time we were not.
He was more than a "very good player". He averaged 18.4 ppg, which is 4th best all time and was a Sporting News Honorable Mention All American in both 1983 and 1984.
This begs the question for argument's sake: is #24 the most storied jersey number in Valpo basketball history? Maybe not, but perhaps though over the last 30 years it has been. Maybe we should reserve the #24 for use in select situations--you know, not necessarily retiring it but maybe putting the jersey number in a light that let's people know that the kid might be special by issuing him the #24 given the two guys who wore it in the past on this banner. Kind of like a mystique thing that other colleges do.
Quote from: vu72 on September 08, 2012, 09:06:24 AM
Quote from: IndyValpo on September 08, 2012, 08:51:35 AM
Quote from: covufan on September 07, 2012, 12:59:39 PMCan anyone identify the player wearing #24 on the left side of the banner?
Yes that is John Meyne. I very good player in a time we were not.
He was more than a "very good player". He averaged 18.4 ppg, which is 4th best all time and was a Sporting News Honorable Mention All American in both 1983 and 1984.
If my memory serves me, Meyne was a two-year player at Valpo after first attending a junior college ... is that correct? Does anyone remember what JUCO he attended?
Quote from: zvillehaze on September 08, 2012, 01:52:15 PM
Quote from: vu72 on September 08, 2012, 09:06:24 AM
Quote from: IndyValpo on September 08, 2012, 08:51:35 AM
Quote from: covufan on September 07, 2012, 12:59:39 PMCan anyone identify the player wearing #24 on the left side of the banner?
Yes that is John Meyne. I very good player in a time we were not.
He was more than a "very good player". He averaged 18.4 ppg, which is 4th best all time and was a Sporting News Honorable Mention All American in both 1983 and 1984.
If my memory serves me, Meyne was a two-year player at Valpo after first attending a junior college ... is that correct? Does anyone remember what JUCO he attended?
The record book says he was on the roster from 82-84. I think that means he played 3 years at Valpo.
Quote from: vu72 on September 08, 2012, 02:08:02 PM
Quote from: zvillehaze on September 08, 2012, 01:52:15 PM
Quote from: vu72 on September 08, 2012, 09:06:24 AM
Quote from: IndyValpo on September 08, 2012, 08:51:35 AM
Quote from: covufan on September 07, 2012, 12:59:39 PMCan anyone identify the player wearing #24 on the left side of the banner?
Yes that is John Meyne. I very good player in a time we were not.
He was more than a "very good player". He averaged 18.4 ppg, which is 4th best all time and was a Sporting News Honorable Mention All American in both 1983 and 1984.
If my memory serves me, Meyne was a two-year player at Valpo after first attending a junior college ... is that correct? Does anyone remember what JUCO he attended?
The record book says he was on the roster from 82-84. I think that means he played 3 years at Valpo.
basketball spans the new year, so it would be that he played 82-83 and 83-84 most likely. only the two years.
Quote from: zvillehaze on September 08, 2012, 01:52:15 PMDoes anyone remember what JUCO he attended?
Meyne played HS at Boone Grove then spent 2 seasons at Northwest Community College in Wyoming. He played for former VU head coach Ken Rochlitz. He played for us for 2 seasons.
Quote from: IndyValpo on September 08, 2012, 08:51:35 AM
Quote from: covufan on September 07, 2012, 12:59:39 PMCan anyone identify the player wearing #24 on the left side of the banner?
Yes that is John Meyne. I very good player in a time we were not.
Thanks. Thought it was, but I couldn't tell. Yes, he was a good player for us for the two years he was here. Fun watching Meyne on the O-end and Jim Steuve to see if he would foul out - again!
John Meyne played for coach Tom Smith during the 82-83 and 83-84 seasons. He was a tri captain with John McIlvain and Tom Benigni 83-84.
A really nice player all-around. He helped beat Butler in the last home game in Hilltop gym 76-73 1984... :)
Coming late to this, but interesting to see that once the rating system was determined, it was objective:
http://espn.go.com/blog/collegebasketballnation/post/_/id/62654/introducing-the-50-in-50-series (http://espn.go.com/blog/collegebasketballnation/post/_/id/62654/introducing-the-50-in-50-series)
Butler certainly would have been the top in the Horizon League.
Loyola's national title got them 25 points, 3 years of Midcon confernce+tournament titles would net Valpo 24.
Six seasons of <35% win percentage (probably didn't actually happen?) would count for _minus_ 24 for Loyola.
Valpo's NCAA games (two wins and a loss) in their Cinderella year were only worth as much as the Midcon championship that year (and less than the Midcon regular season + tourney title).
So, one can argue with the system, of course.