Messages

http://espn.go.com/ncb/playbyplay?gameId=330230082&period=2

Is this game real life? This is the most bizarre looking play-by-play I've ever seen. This is just me reading the play-by-play:

Halftime: UWM 42 UIC 25. Okay a 17 point lead. Pretty solid lead.
19:10: UWM 44 UIC 25. 19 point lead in the second half. Pretty solid chance of winning.
13:54: UWM 46 UIC 31 (first media timeout). Okay still a 15 point lead, still pretty solid.
11:18: UWM 46 UIC 40 (second media timeout). Wow, that escalated quickly.
9:39: UWM 50 UIC 41. A 9 point lead with under 10 to play... still a pretty solid lead.
7:14: UWM 50 UIC 44. Both teams have only scored 4 points a piece in last 4 minutes.
5:39: UWM 50 UIC 49. UIC pulls within 1 point, UWM calls a timeout, knowing they're in trouble of losing a 19 point lead.
3:59: UWM 50 UIC 49 (fourth media timeout). Bit of a scoring drought for both teams.
1:35: UWM 50 UIC 52. UIC takes the lead on a 3 pointer, breaking a 4 minute scoring drought by both teams.
0:37: UWM 50 UIC 54. UIC takes a two possession lead.
0:00: UWM 50 UIC 60. UIC wins by double digits.

HOW DOES THAT HAPPEN?

So UWM manages to go the last 9:39 without scoring, at which point it was a 9 point game and it took until 95 seconds left for UIC to take the lead. Unreal.

Have to resort to old fashioned radio

http://streamdb3web.securenetsystems.net/v4/index.cfm?stationCallSign=WAKE&relocateURL=true

I guess it doesn't like the combination of DirecTV and Time Warner internet. Just not working.

What's the trick to actually getting this game to stream? The android app just lists games and it doesn't appear anything is clickable, and the web version tells me that I'm not subscribed to ESPN from my cable subscriber (I am).

They need to start paying people to play in the pep band. Give like students like $15 per game, and I'm sure they'll find out how to fill out a proper pep-band with a legitimate trumpet-player-to-clarinet-player ratio. They don't need to give money for every game, but at least the big conference games and certain non-conference games. I think it's also time for a legitimate director and some non-student run organization.

I played the trumpet for 4 years in 2 different bands at Valpo and never played in a pep band game. I showed up to an initial practice freshman year and found the whole thing disorganized and a bit of a joke.

Defense hasn't been too bad... just nobody wants to step up on offense. Valpo needs to close the gap. Can't waste any possessions.

edit- ugh KWV misses a layup and a free throw. Just can't do that.

Is anyone on this team going to step up?

Valpo seems to be playing a lot worse than they are... missing a lot of free throws, missing some easy shots, taking some bad shots, turning the ball over too much.

Nebraska doesn't look all that great either, but they've hit some big shots.

Valpo needs to exploit that fat guy, who is a foul waiting to happen. Hopefully Ryan can charge at him and draw some fouls. Can't really find anything positive about that half. Nobody is playing well.

The bad...

Michigan 42 Cleveland State 14 - Half

Detroit squeaked out a loss vs. St. John's. Ugh, so close!

Those are the games the HL needs to win in order to garner some national respect now that Butler left. The mid major wins are nice, but BCS wins are critical in the grand scheme of things.

Detroit and Milwaukee (or a Valpo loss to Nebraska) is bad for the league. It could be the difference between a Horizon League team playing a 2-seed Kentucky or playing a more reasonable 5-seed mid Big Ten team.

It's been awhile... Glad to catch my first game of the season. Here we go:

• Valpo needs to do something about the pregame notes. Why are they formatted like they're Tweets, especially since they don't link to anything? What's with the fake hash tags? The email on the pdf game notes is Aaron.Leavitt@valpo.edu, so we should all harass him to change it to a more reasonable format.
• It was incredibly weird waking up early to watch a sporting event before work. It was almost like the Olympics... Good thing ESPN was in charge and not NBC, who would have tape delayed the game 6 hours while someone on Twitter spoils the ending for me.
• Highlighter Yellow? Why? Our fans looked like we received defunct Baylor 2012 tournament uniforms. Now every home game for the next 3 years will be littered with a couple dozen students wearing neon shirts next to the other various shades of gold.
• Very impressed with the student turnout. Good excuse to miss class.
• Both teams looked understandably flat early on. Valpo played tenacious defense the entire game.
• The obligatory 'the shot' highlight came about 20 minutes into the ESPN broadcast, which is much later than usual.
• Coleman threw the ball out of bounds to an invisible man in the first half... honestly thought Jay Harris was back on the team. Coleman does have a good 55 pounds on Jay Harris, and I think will exceed Jay's role on the team. I think Valpo will miss his ability to drain free throws.
• I really hope this team can stay healthy. KVW and Buggs both looked a bit dinged up and are already both injury prone. I would hate to see either of them go down in a game like this (aka vs Chicago State, UNO, etc).
• Valpo could use some work on fast break odd man rushes... They missed two easy ones in the first half, but had a couple nice layups in the second half. Other than that, not much else to complain about.

[University of Findlay Oilers]

You guys are missing some key schools. Butler could easily be replaced by a number of schools.

University of Findlay Oilers
There's a rumor going on that the NCAA is fastracking this D-II team so they can join a mid-major conference to fill the void of schools shifting to the power 6 conferences. The Summit League is recruiting this school heavily, so I would be sad to see that conference win a war with the Horizon League over this school. Located in Ohio, Findlay would be a great geographical fit for the Horizon. There is some question on whether they can make the jump from D-II to D-I and compete right away. I think most schools who have made the short transition have proved there is not much of a gap.

Chicago State Cougars
Chicago State played in the MidCon with Valpo and YSU. They came to the MidCon the year after many of the current Horizon League teams left. They've since left the Summit League to explore different options. They're in the Great West right now, and are looking for a better geographical conference. Chicago State would make sense. They would share a rivalry with Loyola and UIC, and they would fit perfectly into the geographical landscape of the Horizon. Academics-wise might be the reason Chicago Sate would not be offered a bid, although Chicago State could be a blessing in disguise for teams like Youngstown State, whose academic standing in the conference would increase from the move.

Marquette Golden Eagles (Warriors)
Marquette also makes a lot of sense geographically for the Horizon League. They would share a big rivalry with University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. With the Big East removing all non-football schools in 2015, it looks as if Marquette, lacking a stadium, will be orphaned. I think the Horizon League would be a possible landing spot for the Milwaukee school. Since they are being removed, Marquette may want to move from the Big East as early as possible. Although this move makes a lot of sense for both parties, you would have to ignore the rumors of the all-Jesuit conference that looks as if it's all-but-confirmed. This would, of course, pull Detroit from the Horizon, so we would actually have to worry about adding two schools a year later. I think it's a risky move, but it would help the conference short-term.

Princeton Tigers
Princeton narrowly missed the tournament this year, and made the big dance in 2011. Princeton would definitely help the Horizon league's academic standings, and bolster that image. The only thing that could possibly prevent them from joining the conference is the lack of Lacrosse at a D1 level. I heard UWM and UWGB have club teams that were on the verge of becoming D1, and Wright State had significant interest as well. I think Princeton could go independent in lacrosse (I'd have to look into that more) or the Horizon could pick up lacrosse as a D1 sport.

University of Hradec Králové Medvědi (Bears)
Since 18 Canadian universities are being added to NCAA D1 basketball in 2014, I think it would be a possibility that the Horizon League, given the current situation, could lobby the NCAA into admitting international schools. Hradec Králové has one of the best college basketball programs in the Czech Republic, and have always been looking to compete against American schools full-time. I believe they played Akron a few years ago and lost in overtime, and beat Fairfield by double digits in that same tournament. They've also beaten up on lower schools such as Delaware St, so it seams as if they're at the Horizon League level. Travel times would be a negative, especially since this school is located in the eastern portion of the Czech Republic.

Disappointing loss. Eh, there's some good power teams this year, so I thought we'd get trounced by a 2-3 seed. Detroit finished a letdown season back on top, but their poor play at the beginning of the season will earn them a 15 seed. I would wish them luck, but they proved to be a bunch of goons, so I will enjoy seeing them fighting with their own players and coach on CBS.

Let's tear up the NIT. Returning literally everyone next year... Going to be hungry for a tourney bid next year with hopefully a shot at a lot higher seed.

Like father like son. Team is a bunch of goons.

Well losing Kevin certainly don't help things.

Slow start. Detroit playing like usual. Forcing shots, some are falling, most aren't. Valpo's D looks good.

Going for 6 in a row against Detroit.

I expect the game to be much like every game we play against Detroit. They'll have a couple cool dunks, maybe hit a few cool looking runners... probably take a lead before turning the ball over in the clutch and taking a dozen contested 3's. It'll probably be a close game, but Valpo is much better coached and will make adjustments that produce results, while Detroit players fight with each other to see who can shoot more NBA post-up shots. Valpo definitely matched up well versus Butler, but I think there's also a huge defensive, coaching, and bench mismatch that swings Valpo's way.

That WCU vs Davidson game was probably the best game I've seen all year. WCU made two banked threes, and got fouled on a three with a couple seconds left. They were down 10 and were able to come back to force OT, which turned into double OT. They weren't able to pull it out. Dikembe Mutumbo's nephew was tearing it up for WCU.

Good news though: Sun Belt will have a play-in game now that Denver is out. North Texas (192) vs WKU (212).

Here's what we're looking at:


Couple things aren't going our way. The Sun Belt looks a bit better, but Valpo jumped up a bit in RPI (89). Beating a higher 136 Detroit won't push that number down all that much. Loyola actually looked pretty bad in their win. Fairfield could not make a shot and Loyola had every oportunity to bury them. They were missing wide open shots and easy layups. Fairfield couldn't hit anything and took literally 8 minutes to get their first points in the second half. They were turning the ball over left and right, yet the game came down to the end because Loyola couldn't capitalize on anything. Not a team that looks better than Valpo.

The SoCon game looks close at this point, so maybe Davidson will get upset by a team that would play Syracuse...

[AEC]

I also feel that our NCAA bid could still be a 16 seed because of our previous tournament history. The committee does take that into consideration. Yes, the conference has had success the past two seasons, but that doesn't matter, it's the team representing your conference. Due to our tournament history, I don't see us being any higher than 15 this year, even if so many of you want the Baylor or Michigan St. matchup because of a storyline with the opponent. I just don't see it happening though. We will have to travel, and I don't think we will get a favorable bracket matchup either.

Not going to be a 16 seed. Not, at least, for this reason. Why the heck would they take a 2004 tournament with a different coach in a different conference into consideration over the actual results of the season. I don't know how anyone could possible think that and defend it logically. There's no evidence to suggest the selection committee holds 8+ year grudges against teams who have lost tournament games in the past (as 15 and 16 seeds). Of course they didn't win as 15 and 16 seeds, not many do. Are you saying that the selection committee, when looking at Creighton for example, will look at their 2005 and 2003 tournament results, and dock them a couple seeds because of losses that came from a complete different team?

Valpo isn't going to be a 16 seed.

AEC - Stony Brook (140) vs Vermont (155) isn't going to produce a seed higher than Valpo.
Big South - UNC Asheville (109) isn't going to be a higher seed than Valpo.
MEAC - Worst conference in NCAA D-1 basketball. Savannah St (181) or Norfolk St (131) neither of these teams have a chance of being seeded lower than Valpo.
Southland Conference - Another terrible conference. UT-Arlington (96) or Stephen F Austin (200) neither of these teams are going to be seeded lower than Valpo
SWAC - Miss Valley St (156) or Texas Southern (241) again, terrible conference with two weak frontrunners.

These two conferences could possibly contain a team that ends up seeded lower than Valpo, but it would be very unlikely due to being in a weaker conference compared to the Horizon.

NEC - Long Island (91) if they win the tourney could be a lower seed, but it would not jump them up in the RPI much at all. The Northeaster Conference is also pretty bad.
Sun Belt - Denver (89) if they win the tourney could be a lower seed, and they have a couple big wins in their resume, but they couldn't manage to win the regular season in a pretty bad Sun Belt conference.

This would assume a Bucknell (82) in the Patriot League gets a lower seed, and Montana (81) in the Big Sky also gets a lower seed.  Both conferences are lower than the Horizon.

This also, of course, would assume that no upsets happen in the conference tournaments. If last year is any prediction of conference tournament upsets, I would almost lean more toward a 14 than a 15, but definitely not a 16.

What was with the reversal of student sections? Butler was where the Valpo students always are. They had room to spread out, and only half of the section was filled, while Valpo students were jammed in the make-shift bleachers, with a considerable amount of overflow. It wasn't like that when we played Detroit last year, so I'm really curious as to who made that decision. I was actually surprised there were that many students there, considering it was spring break. It would have been awesome to see the place during school time (on the correct side), but with spring break already started on a cold campus, I'll take what we had. Tuesday will be interesting. I imagine over 95% of the students don't live within an hour radius of Valparaiso. Hopefully enough will come back to cheer for a HL championship. The whole place was rocking. During the rare Butler successes, it didn't seem like Butler had that large of a crowd. The AD tweeted earlier in the day that Butler gave back tickets and Valpo was looking for extra ticket-buyers. It doesn't surprise me that the ARC was over 80% Valpo fans, because while Butler was busy focusing on the tanking University of Wisconsin Hyphen Milwaukee, Valpo was busy selling tickets for the game.

As far as the actual game goes... what a slaughter. Valpo absolutely embarrassed them. Stevens was throwing the kitchen sink at Valpo, even trying to play the foul game with 6 minutes left. Butler would go on a short 5 point run and Valpo would push the lead back to 20. Valpo swarmed the ball like hawks. Butler, who isn't a good shooting team to begin with, had contested shots each time down. Ryan Broekhoff looked like an absolute beast. 16 boards? Are you kidding me? He was getting rebounds Spiderman could only dream of getting. It looked like he had a trampoline under his feet, and Gorilla Glue on his hands. He weaved in and out of defenders like Barry Sanders and scrapped it out with defenders like he was Bob Probert. Brilliant game.

I think it's official. Butler has a Valpo problem. That's four straight wins against the Bulldogs. 428 days and counting. Valpo beat Butler three times in one season, each win by a bigger margin than the last. Bryce clearly knows how to beat this team, and exploited them greater and greater each time.

Woops, the Great West was linked at the bottom of the conference tournament Wikipedia articles.

That leaves 3 needed upsets.

The NIT scenario is interesting, but let's note that mid majors don't really have Cinderella runs in the NIT. The NIT is usually dominated by power conferences. I'm not sure what seed Valpo would get in the NIT given a loss, but I would imagine it would be above a 5, not getting a home game first round.

[Ivy League]

If we win Tuesday, I can see the selection committee putting Valpo at whatever seed necessary to play against Baylor in the first round. Within reason, of course. If it works out that Baylor is the 3rd seed, I would expect a 14 seed.

Or Michigan St... who looks like a 2-seed at this point. If Valpo wins, I really think they'll play either Michigan St or Baylor.

But lets look at the data. It's easier to think about building the tournament from the bottom up.

If each team with the highest RPI wins their tourney, Valpo would be looking at a 15 seed. Detroit probably a 15 seed as well.

Along with UNC Asheville which already won, here are the conferences that will finish with a champion with a higher RPI than Valpo (85).

Big South - UNC Asheville (109)
AEC
MEAC
NEC
Southland
SWAC
Sun Belt

Remember there's 6 16 seeds, and 4 15 seeds, etc. Don't forget about the play in game.

That's 8 right there, so in order for Valpo to bump up to a 14 seed, 2 conference tourneys would have to go to an underdog who is worse than Valpo. Theoretically, Valpo could even be a 9 seed... but don't expect Nebraska and DePaul to win their conference tournaments.

Here's some conferences that we could realistically see an upset:

Ivy League - no tournament, Penn (98) needs to beat Princeton and then a one game playoff against Harvard (36). Penn has won 7 straight, including one at Harvard. Penn/Valpo seeding could be troublesome. 
MAAC - tomorrow night Loyola (80) plays Fairfield (114) for the championship
Big Sky - Valpo could edge out top seed Montana (81), but Weber St (71) is also in the semis. The 3,4 seeds could also pull upsets.
Big West - Long Beach St (35) has the 1 seed, but it's a 3-round neutral-site tourney with every other team having high RPIs
Patriot League - Bucknell (82) and Lehigh (101) play each other for the championship. This is at Bucknell.

Stretch:

SoConn - Probably not as likely, since Davidson looked really good tonight, but Davidson (67) would have to lose to Western Carolina (224) in the championship game.
Summit - Oral Roberts (38) and South Dakota St (52) would have to both lose to some bad Summit teams.
WAC - Nevada (47) and New Mexico St (68) would have to both get knocked out.
MAC- Akron (62) and Buffalo (74) get triple byes, and Ohio (70) has a double bye. Kent St (104) could have a chance?

That leaves Valpo at a 13 as the absolute lowest (if true miracles happen) and 14 as a possibility (if we get a little help) and a 15 as the most probable landing-point.

With all that said, we could get a 14 seed if the selection committee likes a match-up (Baylor vs Valpo), or even if these upsets happen could still see a 15 if they want to see Michigan St vs Valpo. What's really terrible to think about, however, is what Butler would have been seeded if they had beat Valpo and then beat Detroit. Statistically, they probably would deserve no higher than a 15, but I could have seen them handing them a 12 or 13 seed out of nowhere.

Sure, I was upset that we were beaten 77-13 on Saturday by YSU, but I didn't crap myself over it because last year's team would have given up after they were down 21-0.

So last year's team would have been down by more than 6 - 63 at half? This years team got down 21-0 and showed resilience by letting up 42 more points by half. Why are you okay with this?

I really don't understand why any recruit would want to play for this team. When they finally have a chance to taste victory in non-conference play, they go out and lose to D-III schools. Wouldn't it be better for recruitment to schedule some terrible teams and claim you at least won a couple of games in a season? Not teams that Valpo will beat by 50, but teams that Valpo can compete with, but still be favored to win. At some point don't you think the players would start getting on the coach or the AD to schedule a team they have a chance over? It's just really baffling to me how complacent the program is with being rated literally last in all of D-1 (FCS,FBS) and owning a losing streak of 22.

http://espn.go.com/college-football/conferences/standings/_/id/28/year/2010/pioneer-conference
http://espn.go.com/college-football/conferences/standings/_/id/28/year/2009/pioneer-conference
http://espn.go.com/college-football/conferences/standings/_/id/28/year/2008/pioneer-conference
http://espn.go.com/college-football/conferences/standings/_/id/28/year/2007/pioneer-conference
http://espn.go.com/college-football/conferences/standings/_/id/28/year/2006/pioneer-conference
http://espn.go.com/college-football/conferences/standings/_/id/28/year/2005/pioneer-conference

We haven't won more than 2 conference games in 7 years. In the past 6 years they're 6-39 in conference play. At what point do you start thinking about going into a league that doesn't make Valparaiso look this embarrassing?

I don't know if this is possible, but is a school able to be D-III in one sport without jeopardizing D-I status in other sports? Or do they pretty much have to stay in D-I?

Those are all non-human depicted mascots. Why would any animal have their face concealed? As it stands, I think they tried to match the logo, and it looks much better than the old mascot. The old mascot was poorly done. The smile on the face wasn't the least bit intimidating, and looked really goofy. The flap under the face was a bit out of place, and the mask looked cheap. The new one isn't that great, but the old one was pretty embarrassing.

And I'm not sure why it's argued the new one doesn't have eyes. I'm not sure where they'd add the eyes unless the whole face was shown.

Anyone who doesn't see an improvement in the head probably already made up their mind they wouldn't like it before they saw it. I think a faceless mascot can work. Don't necessarily like the rationale, but USF works pretty pretty well without a face. I think they need some tweaking to the suit itself now, since the head is a bit too large for the body and they're not going for a cartoony look. I think the mask should be white, and the gloves could be a bit better. The thing on the top of the head looks a bit silly, but I'm not sure how that could be better.

I do think it's an upgrade from the old crusader. I was quite embarrassed by both mascots, but this new one looks a lot more normal. As long as he doesn't dance really terribly, I'm happy with it.