Messages

Valpo 60
Wright St 68

Might be one of those games where KVW gets into early foul trouble, the 3 point shooting isn't there, and we continue to turn the ball over. Should be a low scoring game. I'll give this one to the home team, but I hope I'm wrong.

Why don't they put a student bus together for their own home games? Their student section was pathetic against Valpo in their place.

Some CSU folks are gathering before the game at the Viking Tavern (1818 Euclid Ave, south side of Euclid Ave, just East of E. 18 St, about a block from the Wolstein Center). It would be fun to meet some of you folks and compare notes.

Quick, paint Valpo's area code on the wall while they're all in there.

There isn't anything the WAC can do to be relevant again.  Look at the POS teams in the conference!  Chicago State gained the chance at NCAA bids, since the Great West had no chance at it, but UMKC just tripped up majorly.  Even if they get some extra $$ in the short-term because of how WAC teams have performed the last few years, that will dry out after a few years, and these new teams are out of the NCAA basketball tournament in the 16 seed play-in game each year.  I believe your NCAA bids/wins are spread out over a 5 year process, so anything done the last 4 and this year will be gone in 5 years.

Not to mention the difficulty in recruiting decent players who want to play against the likes of Grand Canyon University or Chicago State.

Valpo is now 6th - passed by Pitt and Kansas.

I will make an honest comment that many here will hate (and note that I did vote for Valpo and hope Valpo wins this contest).  I have been to many Valpo games and I have been to many Kansas games.  While I like how much the student section has developed over the years at Valpo, there is no way that it is better than the Kansas student section.

There's also a difference between a large state school with 29,462 students and a small private college of 4,061 students. They have 25,403 more students to pull from, and 5335 more students graduating each year to potentially show up at their games as alumni and 5335 more students to donate large sums of money to their athletic programs. I'm happy with where the student section is at compared to the rest of the Horizon... UWM literally had a student section of 6 people the game this year vs Valpo.

Obligatory: Hastily Made Cleveland Tourism Video: 2nd Attempt

This is weird. Most schools look to move up to a better conference, not down to an inferior conference. It's not like travel times are going to be better or they're moving for baseball (like Oral Roberts). Maybe the Summit League is having a major shakeup and is losing a bunch of members?

I agree that the updating of player stats and name changes needs to be faster.  Aside from that, to be able to see player stats in (almost) live time, replays of key plays during time outs, a summary of team stats at halftime and during other timeouts, etc. really adds to the game experience.  Overall, the overhead scoreboard is an awesome addition.

People knock on the ARC for being like a high school gym... but the video board makes the area much more legitimate. Look at the Klotsche Center at UWM; they have a horrible gym, but their video boards make it seem like even more of a joke. It looks like they jerry-rigged an 90's overhead projector to the ceiling that shines on a used bedsheet.

My one gripe with the scoreboard is the graphics... they go a bit over-the-top on the gradients and could look a bit more professional.

Assistant Athletic Director for Media Relations

What's an Assistant Athletic Director for Media Relations?

Sounds like the EKU fans think they will be able to beat us down.  I think that they will be in for a rude awakening this year...

I think that was just one guy, and he coined the term "Valparsucko" or something like that... I wouldn't take that too seriously.

Edit: but I was impressed to see others speaking higher of the program. There was really only the one guy who had somewhat of a beef with Valpo.

Kenny was incredible last night. Glad to see he recovered so well. He had some beautiful assists and looked great defensively.

[Goal 2.4: Finish in the top 3 in the Pioneer Football League while winning the Championship at least once]

I see a real disconnect between what this coming football season projects as an outcome and Goal 2.4 in Category 2.1 Competitiveness.

Goal 2.4:  Finish in the top 3 in the Pioneer Football League while winning the Championship at least once (every) four years.(sic)

Hasn't the athletic dept already failed this and is looking to repeat this failure on this goal? Aren't these goals supposed to be achievable?

I see the need to set goals, but we need realistic goals, especially where football is concerned.  We've competed in the PFL for 20 years.  In conference play during those 20 years, we've had 3 winning seasons and 1 non-losing season.  For seasons '93 through 2000, when the PFL consisted of 6 or 5 teams, we only finished in the top 3 three times.  Now that the PFL will have 12 teams we are expected to be in the top 25%???  In the years '01 thru '05, when the PFL had divisions of 5 and 4 teams, we only finished in the top 3 of our 5 team division once.  Since the PFL went to one division format in '06, we have finished in the bottom three (of 8 or 10) every year.  If we had been somewhat competitive over the years, especially the last 2-3 years, I might consider this goal of Top 3 achievable.  With our history, not so much.  In the next five football seasons we are supposed to be a top 3 team, and win championships?  Maybe the unwritten goal should be to not fisish in the bottom 3 for 2013-2017.  That might be achievable.

The other sections look good to me.  I like the idea of being competitive in HL sports, and the possibility of increasing scholarships for those teams.  We need to be competitive in HL and PFL play. 

You can tell they aren't taking the football goal of winning the championship at least once four years seriously due to the fact they didn't bother to proofread the sentence.

Maybe we could take slightly less than the delta between Valpo and Butler/Drake and throw that money into the football program and facilities so that we are more competitive in the PFL      That would be one way to achieve the Athletic Department strategic goal 2.4.

I would love to be able to see Valpo win the Championship at least once four years.

Does anyone know why Kenney didn't start the 2nd half and hasn't played since halftime?

Radio says he's having back problems.

No video up.

Does anyone else have a problem with planning something that is supposed to be spontaneous expression of delight?

Yeah, if you have to ask before hand whether or not you should storm a court, I think you're doing it wrong.

When downloading websites will attach all kinds of advertising tools and bookmark bars, tool bars, change your homepage etc.

When going to these types of sites I suggest having a script blocker browser add-on which prevents the site from running scripts for viruses and things like unwanted installs.  NoScript for FireFox and NotScripts for Chrome are two of the common ones. Saved me many a time.

I'm on Ubuntu. Problem solved.

Game time: 1/30/13 7:05 p.m. EST / 6:05 p.m. CST

ESPN 3    http://espn.go.com/watchespn/index/_/id/745814/valparaiso-vs-youngstown-state-exclusive

Livebox:  http://www.freelivebox.eu/%3bmatchid-130128140615-link-1-watch-Valparaiso-vs-Youngstown-St..html

Please share any other feeds you know about here.

Always remember that no one is vouching for the safety of these websites and you use them at your own risk.

What confidence level do you have of that freelivebox link actually working? The combination of DirecTV for TV and Time Warner for internet apparently means I can't watch any ESPN3 games.

I think WH is correct.  However, I would add poor scheduling on our part to the list.  Too many teams on the schedule with really low RPI's.  Playing Chicago St., IUPUI, IPFW, Bethune Cookman, and NIU every year is not helpful.  Winning all 5 of those games is probably worse than going 3-2 agianst teams with RPI's in the upper in the 170-190 range, or 2-3 against teams with RPI's around the 70-90 range. 

So lets look at our OOC schedule (sorry about the formatting)...

Team   Result   2012-13 RPI   2011-12 RPI   2010-11 RPI
Georgia Southern     W   263   203   341
Northern Illinois     W   281   334   317
Nebraska     L   73   154   89
Kent St.     W   184   106   78
Chicago St.     W   297   336   339
Bethune-Cookman     W   288   239   198
Saint Louis     L   68   31   175
IPFW     W   302   279   180
New Mexico     L   7   26   66
Missouri State     W   225   112   43
Oakland     L   157   141   53
IUPUI     W   304   210   115
Murray St.     W   96   22   117
-------------------------------------------

Mean   196   169   162
Median 225   166   149

So before this season, the combined average RPI of the OOC teams was 169 and 162 the year before that... this year, the teams ended up being at 196 average RPI. Not good, but hardly Valpo's fault. And scheduling IUPUI and IPFW was done as a deal before last season (Valpo lost both those games last year). I'm assuming Valpo scheduled a couple home games last minute with Butler's departure. It's not like they can phone up Bucknell and get a competative mid-major matchup.

Valpo does have a hard time scheduling decent home games. Last year's OOC home games were Akron, Duquesne, Bowling Green, and Oakland. Nothing too exciting. This year UIPUI, IPFW, Bethune-Cookman, Chicago State, Northern Illinois, and Georgia Southern.

Bleacher report expects us to run the table in conference and go 17-1

Friends don't let friends read Bleacher Report...

Beyond the usual generalizations about B/R's poor journalistic practices, does anyone know anything specific about this specific author of this specific article and why he lacks credibility?

Nobody does. Isn't that the point? A newspaper or website spends time detailing the credentials of their writers.

Bleacher report expects us to run the table in conference and go 17-1

Friends don't let friends read Bleacher Report...

Beyond the usual generalizations about B/R's poor journalistic practices, does anyone know anything specific about this specific author of this specific article and why he lacks credibility?

http://bleacherreport.com/users/150584-jesse-kramer

Yes. He's literally still in high school.

Bleacher report expects us to run the table in conference and go 17-1

Link? "Bleacher Report expects..." could very well be " Some high school kid expects..."

They did a "name the Crusader" poll a few years back and " the Crusader" won handily, for the record.

s a drop from a 13 to an at worst 15 seed that important?

15 seeds are 6-113 overall.
13 seeds are 29-111 overall.

It matters.

It could be the difference between playing Syracuse or Butler/Gonzaga. Think about it.

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