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Brandon's resume will say:
B.A in Sports Marketing/Business from Valparaiso University
M.S in Advertising from Michigan State University
Professional basketball player

and

Great kid

yours?

I applaud Brandon's accomplishments and will be watching with great interest how he progresses toward his goals.  As Brandon's father you should be very proud. And since you asked....

The daughter depicted in the avatar
BS from Wake Forest
Doctorate from The George Washington University
Washington National Children's' Hospital
Great Kid

My other daughter is working on her doctorate in Archaeology at Indiana and I have a son just starting college this fall... All great kids, my wife and I have been richly blessed.

I tend to agree that there needs to be progress shown this year.  Perhaps not 15 pts/8 rb numbers (those would be nice), but at least rotational contributions. 

Take a look at Smith of Butler last year.  He played very little his freshman year, but made very good contributions as a soph.  Granted, there were times he appeared lost (NCAA championship game), but he made solid contributions and will probably be a solid 12pt/7 rb performer this year. 

We hopefully will see that kind of progress this year from Hrvoje.  All indications are that he has made committments in the weight room.
lowposter

Absolutely agree. I think his major areas of improvement need to be in the areas of strength and quickness. Hrvoje needs to be able to move quicker laterally and be able to get off the floor much quicker for rebounds and blocking shots. Fortunately, in a young man that size, increased strength often also improves quickness. I expect to see much more playing time for him next year.

[He is SEVEN FEET, ONE INCH!]

First, let me explain why we have Vuc on the team.  He is SEVEN FEET, ONE INCH! Every team in America would like to have a seven footer on their team who can help in some meaningful way.  That could be a role like helping with rebounding against bigger teams or forcing fouls with mismatches against smaller teams.  When was the last four or five star seven footer who played in the Horizon?  Keith Benson's don't arrive on mid-major campus' very often.  So what to do?  Take a chance on a true seven footer who has promise and may develop into what we need.  If he were a stud last year, he would have been playing at some major.  So has he developed?  He has gained about 40 lbs and lots of muscle.  We have no idea how he has developed on his footwork of shooting, time will tell.  He is A SOPHOMORE!!!  We still have three years of eligibility with which to work.  Fernandez will need some work too!

The words chosen by cmack were unfortunate indeed and I couldn't agree more with rlh.  We aren't a Purdue or Indiana or any other major fan board.  Let's show some class.  This is a Valpo board afterall.

Couldn't agree with lowposter, valpotx, vu72 and rlh more! Some of you need to read this article from SI in order to get a perspective on just how rare it is to have a 7 footer on a team and also how late some of them develop.  Here is link to the article Larger Than Real Life


Here is a short quote from the article...

Fact: An actual accounting of 7-footers, domestic or global, does not exist in any reliable form. National surveys by the Center for Disease Control list no head count or percentile at that height. (Only 5% of adult American males are 6'3" or taller.) "In terms of the growth spectrum, 7 feet is simply extreme," explains endocrinologist Shlomo Melmed, dean of the medical faculty at L.A.'s Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. The term 7-footer is itself a kind of outer limit, a far-off threshold beyond which precise measurement seems superfluous. A 6'4" guard isn't a 6-footer, after all. The curve shaped by the CDC's available statistics, however, does allow one to estimate the number of American men between the ages of 20 and 40 who are 7 feet or taller: fewer than 70 in all. Which indicates, by further extrapolation, that while the probability of, say, an American between 6'6" and 6'8" being an NBA player today stands at a mere 0.07%, it's a staggering 17% for someone 7 feet or taller.

In this century, for the tallest among us, hoops is not just a reasonable hobby but a de facto life imperative. "I'll check up on anyone over 7 feet that's breathing," says Ryan Blake, the NBA's assistant director of scouting. It shouldn't be surprising that the tallest living American-born man, 7'8" George Bell, played college ball (at Biola University in California), made camp with the Clippers in 1988 and suited up for the Globetrotters before taking on his present job as a sheriff's deputy in Norfolk. Or that 7'8" Paul Sturgess, who can clutch a rim without jumping, emigrated from Loughborough, England, explicitly to play basketball and finished his collegiate career at Mountain State University in West Virginia this past season. Or that LSU coaches encouraged 7'2" Andrew Del Piero, once a tuba player with the Tigers' band, to drop his instrument last year and walk onto the varsity basketball team. The rising junior has yet to enter a game, but there he is.

"There ain't but two things you can do at 7 feet," jokes Harry Stanback, whose son, Trevor, is a center at Summit Intermediate School in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., and, already 6'8" at age 13, projected to join the 7-footers' club soon enough. "One of them is play basketball. The other is clean elephant butts."

I think we can afford to be a little more understanding of the unique situation.

Character and integrity, everything I hear about this guy says he has them.  Those would probably be my top two "wants" when looking for staff additions.  We know the guy must have pretty decent basketball acumen from just looking at his resume, those guys are a dime a dozen, but add to it character, integrity and ministry.... I couldn't agree with Bryce more, this is a very good fit.

Very nice to see the Valparaiso name and logo displayed so prominently in this video.  I think this says volumes about the type of men (Jake and others) we have associated with our program. Thanks for the link.

Got to spend a good portion of an afternoon and evening with Cory the summer before he first stepped on the court for VU.  My daughter had already warned him that I was a rabid VU fan.  He was extremely gracious to me and the family and I came away very impressed with the young man.  It has been a little difficult listening to some of the criticisms knowing that Cory has played out of position his entire VU career, yet his upbeat approach and enthusiasm for the game was evident every time he stepped on the court.  Good luck and God bless your future endeavors.  Michaela says Hi!

Here is link. Basketball ties that bind AAU, A-HOPE and IU

Ritchie is a good player and a very good-great shooter, but he would not have been a huge addition to the current make-up of this program.  If we couldn't get skilled big men, we got guys who made sense.  Two players coming from power conferences who can immediately compete for playing time, a freshman with some size, and a banger who makes us immediately tougher in the interior.  Yes, I wanted a big man, but I'll take the four we got and I'm pretty pleased.  Ritchie would not have made us better in the next two years, imo.

The jury is out for a while but as you said dcvalpo, I really don't think he would have had the opportunity to contribute much with all the perimeter players that we have.  I have seen Richie play a few times even back in 7th and 8th grade and he is almost a Seth Colclasure clone.

In my opinion Jay Harris' biggest weakness was lack of strength.  As the season wore on he wore down.  As his confidence and knowledge improved he physically was unable to keep pace.  This happens many times with freshman.  I expect he will start this upcoming season much stronger. I think Jay can live up to his ranking if he continues to mature and get stronger.  He has a mighty sweet stroke.

I agree with milanmiracle concerning Kurth. We will have to see if being a redshirt sophomore makes any difference.  He has some ground to make up if he plans on playing especially with the new transfers coming into the program.

So, would you like me to leave the board?  I can.  I don't want to take away from the board.

Is that the only option?  You can't become the poster that you were on the old board?  I actually throughly enjoyed your posts on the old board and felt you had built a bit of a legacy there. 

That's not the same one you are building here.

I did not want to imply that you are unwelcome dcvalpo, just wanted to understand the a little more about you and what makes you tick.  Many of the more active posters from the old board know quite a bit about each other and their background or connection to the program. It helps us understand their frame of reference and gives us better insight into why they express certain opinions.  Here is something I would like to know... does the "dc" in your moniker mean that you are originally from "the district"?  I have a lot of family out in that area.

Just verifying...I am still the same poster I was on the old board, right? Glass completely empty.

Yes milanmiracle, it appears that you are.   

Ok, now I don't know what to think! 

I will hint, but sporadically...how's that?

Just wondering.... why did the move to the new board cause you to disgorge your opinions on almost every issue and topic? I was looking at the board earlier today and literally every new post in the basketball topic was from dcvalpo.  Many of us frequent posters on the old board have established identities, in several posts you seem to indicate that you have an established identity yet I have no idea what that is.  Since you really are dominating the board care to enlighten us a little on what makes dcvalpo a knowledgeable Valpo basketball fan?

After reading this again it sounds a little harsh, didn't mean it to be that way, just wanting to know a little more about our new #1 poster.

Also, here's a question, we heard a lot about Austin Ritchie and that he was offered. Saw that he is going to Western Michigan? Why did he "pass" on Valpo? Wouldn't he have been a Brandon Wood replacement option too?

austin richie "passed" on us?

Yes, this article explains the connection Homer Drew offers Richie. I am not sure why the kid, considering the family history, would want to play for the broncos.

So..................does anyone have any more info about Vashil Fernandez?   

Thanks for getting this back on track. Unfortunately I have not seen anything additional other than the same info coming out of the University of Washington.  Here is an article from back in March... more about the young man other than just basketball.

This forum used to be such a calm, peaceful place!

I think I'd prefer to have jj back, over the current climate of "a little bit of sniping, and a little bit of over-sensitivity".

Surely we can disagree with each other without making personal attacks, and even if we feel like we're being attacked we can try to put the best construction on the posts of the "attacker".  (Stl, is it time for a quote from the catechism?)

Agreed, I was responding to DMvalpo18 based upon that perceived change in climate.  I thought his response to me was chippy and I escalated the rhetoric.  I have not been able to post much because of spending a ton of time at a new job.  I have continued to read most posts and for some reason this board can have a very different tone at times.  My apologies.

[as he committed to Valparaiso on Wednesday]

Can anyone confirm this quote from Jim Basnight's College Hoops Blog. Pac-12 Roundup and Washington Husky Huddle for May 11th 2011 (Part One) 

Vashil Fernandez of Jamaica and Princeton Day Academy will not be coming to UW, as he committed to Valparaiso on Wednesday, according to numerous reports. Fernandez never received a UW offer, though he did visit the UW campus.

Watched some video on this kid and while he is raw and ball watches a lot with limited anticipation he is athletic and seems to know what to do with the ball when he is close to the basket. Would be a good get if this rumor is true.

if he has supposedly committed, then why is all that we know about it just a rumor? don't you think we would have read about it somewhere?

Of course I was reading it somewhere... duh, why do you think I linked that WU blog, I didn't just have my ear to the ground.  The only reason I said it was a rumor was because everything I was reading was from WU sources.

[as he committed to Valparaiso on Wednesday]

Can anyone confirm this quote from Jim Basnight's College Hoops Blog. Pac-12 Roundup and Washington Husky Huddle for May 11th 2011 (Part One) 

Vashil Fernandez of Jamaica and Princeton Day Academy will not be coming to UW, as he committed to Valparaiso on Wednesday, according to numerous reports. Fernandez never received a UW offer, though he did visit the UW campus.

Watched some video on this kid and while he is raw and ball watches a lot with limited anticipation he is athletic and seems to know what to do with the ball when he is close to the basket. Would be a good get if this rumor is true.

We have a team that is first in the Horizon League and all anyone wants to do is either praise or bash the old coach??? Doesn't anyone have anything to say about this years team?

Looks like the ladies will have to win all three against Cleveland State this week in order to remain atop the Horizon League Softball standings.  Loyola, the other top team, plays Detroit which has won only 2 league games this campaign. Hope the Ladies can hang on down the stretch.  I would love to go with our friends Dean and Barb Doerffler to some HL Tournament games.

...double bye is not called for...period!!!!!!

I guess my question is why isn't a double bye called for?

Because it gives the #1 and #2 seed a huge advantage? Good! That's called protecting your best assets. Let's face it, the Horizon League conference tournament is set up to generate money (that's why schools host) AND make sure their two best teams advance to the NCAA's.

The more I think about this conference tournament, the more I like it. Since you have to generate revenue with a conference tournament (that's not going away) AND you'd really like it if your regular season champ went to the dance, this is the best of both worlds. The middling teams get some extra money by hosting a tournament game, and the top two seeds get to battle it out for the auto bid against a fatigued middle of the pack opponent. Fantastic. It all but eliminates the chance that a lower seed can win. That's bad?

Heck, I am so in favor of weighting the top two seeds, I'd be all for giving them a 20 point lead in the semis! (I know that's rediculous, but am making a point)

If you truly want to make it fair, have a blind draw and don't even bother with the conference season.

As I said in the thread I started some time ago, the tournament format actually worked against the league this year.  We ended up with a team that had the fourth best RPI getting the #1 seed and the double bye.  This didn't protect our best asset and it certainly didn't help the league to get two teams in the NCAA tournament.  IMO the double bye is uncalled for and only protects teams that are weak 1's and 2's.

If you want to project our best assets into the post season then why not just seed the tournament, with the double bye, according to RPI.   

Changes will happen and the most likely is the two year requirement.  This alone (in the minds of the BCS conferences) will restore the balance of power in college basketball.  No more experienced upstart mid-majors in the Final Four because talent with a modicum of experience will trump experience and tenacity every time... don't you think?

What about the two freshman!!  Freshman Angie Doerffler has been spectacular, starting all 30 games at Short Stop and also second on the team in batting average.  That girl is one heck of an athlete.  Wisniewski has also been very impressive, she is third on the team in batting average.

    Player                     AVG  GP-GS    AB   R   H    2B  3B  HR RBI   TB  SLG%  BB HBP  SO GDP   OB%  SF  SH  SB-ATT   PO   A   E  FLD%
1 STRICKLAND, Sara....  .410  30-30   100  24  41   9    0    2  17    56  .560    10   2   10   1    .469    1    1    13-14     24    2   1  .963
2 DOERFFLER, Angie....  .365  30-30     85  27  31   8    1    0   9     41  .482     7   4   12   0    .438     0   2       2-3      31   71  7  .936
3 WISNIEWSKI, Amanda..345  23-20     58  13  20   2    1    3  10    33  .569    10   0   20   0    .441     0   0       1-1      33   26  2  .967

skuttlebutt I hear is that the problem Painter was having at Purdue had to do with pay for his assistants.  Apparently that has been taken care of, if that was he problem.  Plus he got a nice extension....I'm happy

My sources say you are spot on rlh

Congrats to Ron.  This is a huge step up, it will be interesting to see how he does in Atlanta. I am a little sad that this probably displaces one of my former players Scepter Brownlee, who was an assistant coach to Rod Barnes. 

Butler looks like they could be the next Gonzaga....

I would say they have done considerably better than Gonzaga. The respect shown by the committee this year was pretty amazing.  No way Gonzaga gets a similar seed with the same record that Butler had this year.