Messages

Back on winning track.  There will be no gifts for this Santa.

Valpo   76
S Clara 67

It looks like you are the winner. 

I just double checked everything and there should not be any pop up ads, in fact, it isn't even an option.

Have you by chance, seen this behavior on other sites? Perhaps VULB#62 is onto something, especially if no one else is seeing them.

Nonetheless, I will continue to investigate.

What has changed with the advertisements?  I now frequently have trouble getting to a new comment page because an advertisement pops up, most often about some strange company called Academy Sports that I have never heard of and don't want to hear about.  I passed reading several posts today and the last week or so because of this annoying occurrence.

I do not believe that just because I have now heard of Academy Sports that the ad is a success.  If I ever see that company in person or on the internet I will make sure to not patronize them.

Is it time for a different Valpo fan forum or just an ad blocker?

Sorry to hear that a particular ad is causing problems. I will look into it.

If anyone else has noticed this behavior, please message me. There should not be any pop up ads here.

Excellent. I'll pin this topic so that it stays at the top through the season.

[Big Ten to play 20-game conference schedule next season]

Big Ten to play 20-game conference schedule next season

The Big Ten announced plans Thursday to play a 20-game conference schedule for men's basketball, starting next season. The expanded calendar will put a premium on creating more matchups between in-state and regional rivals.

The league has been considering a move from 18 to 20 games for the past several months. Commissioner Jim Delany told reporters in New York for Big Ten media day on Thursday morning that the new schedule should create more excitement for fans.

"We think, in general, people respond more to the conference games than the nonconference [games]," he said. "... We just thought playing against each other more was good for the Big Ten and good for college basketball generally."

Read more: http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/21076233/big-ten-play-20-game-conference-schedule-next-season

Hey all, do you know if your official athletics site has a basketball RSS feed? If so, what is the URL?

They aren't easy to find and the current RSS page seems to be blank.

I have used this one for a while: http://www.valpoathletics.com/rss/headlines.xml

Good idea! I have updated the menu on the front page of our site to include these.

This topic has been moved to Around the Valley.

http://www.valpofanzone.com/forum/index.php?topic=2877.0

IUPUI receives Horizon League invitation

With Valparaiso departing for the Missouri Valley Conference, the Horizon League was facing the threat of not having a school in Indiana, home of the league's offices.

The Horizon League worked swiftly to keep that from happening.

In the last week, the Horizon League has offered membership to Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, according to a source with direct knowledge of the league's plans. IUPUI would come from the Summit League, the same conference Oakland came from when it joined the Horizon League in 2013.

The name Horizon never made any sense anyway. 

One of the very few league names that it surpassed in attractiveness was "Mid-Continent."   

In the rear view now though.

I love the "Vale of Paradise"/Missouri Valley symmetry. It was our destiny 

Gonna go ahead and lock this epic thread to try to keep things organized. The discussion continues on VU2014's new thread: http://www.valpofanzone.com/forum/index.php?topic=2848.0

Deadspin is keeping a running list:

http://deadspin.com/a-running-list-of-espn-layoffs-1794664091

[48 pages]

On my iMac this thread goes 48 pages deep.  The list of threads under the topic Valpo Basketball is only 24 pages deep. I can't recall any single thread having this much action. There are 1176 replies and it has been viewed 89,519 times.   It looks like no other thread (digging back only the first 10 pages of Valpo Basketball) comes close to this one in either replies or views.  Just thought that interesting.

Albeit half of these posts were in 2013, and half this year.

Still, even as two threads, it's pretty long.

The "More Stats" link on the front page confirms it.

Chairback is right.  Topics and opinions must be respected and this should not just be made to go away, but too bad we can't just take the whole topic string and move it out of basketball to "General VU Discussion" where it really belongs.  This is much more than BB, it has much more widespread ramifications, .........or maybe none?

Fair enough. I tend to get a bit more lax with what is discussed where after the basketball season ends but you both are right.

Carry on...

calling it almost criminal that conferences render the entire season meaningless by way of a blatant money grab.  This lack of ethics by the conference/NCAA is appalling

The #1, #2 and #3 seeds rendered the season meaningless by losing to the the #9, #10 and #6 seeds in the HLT. There is no reason that what happened should have happened. Valpo losing Peters was a major factor but they still should have beaten Milwaukee.

Thanks to bbtds for being the voice of reason.  If your "best" teams can't beat bottom feeders on a neutral court in the league tourney, why do you think they could beat a top three seed in the NCAAT on a neutral court?  NKU is the deserving champ and I hope they do well in the NCAAT.  They earned the right to try.

Has a Sweet 16 participant ever lost to a bad team before? You're essentially saying NKU has a better chance of beating a 2 seed than Oakland had a 3 or 4 because Oakland lost to a bad team in the conference tournament. Do you think Vegas would make NKU less of an underdog as a 15 than Oakland as a 14?

It's been said a million times, but sending the most "deserving" team based on some moral code shouldn't be the point. We're arguing that mid majors should tilt their tournament towards the highest seed in an effort to get the best possible seed into the NCAA tournament. This is done by making them play less games (double bye), and having the top teams play home games. It's not about fairness, or which team deserves the tournament more - it's strictly about generating a better seed for the NCAA tournament, which statically will increase the league's odds for winning tournament games.

For small conferences, Championship Week does more harm than good

In recent years, nearly two-thirds of mid- and low-major regular season champs have been left out of the NCAA Tournament. Meanwhile, teams with losing records have become the norm on Selection Sunday. Sub-.500 teams have made appearances for five straight seasons now, with last year's 14-19 Holy Cross squad arguably being the worst of all.

Meanwhile, instead of a small payout near (or less than) $300,000 for most conferences, they could be making smarter long- and short-term investments by sending their best teams to the NCAA Tournament. These leagues are potentially leaving millions on the table each year as a result.

However, by sending their best teams, those leagues would stand a chance to increase their shares of the constantly climbing total. The millions earned from advancing in the NCAA Tournament and the resulting exposure would more than make up for any short-term loss on Championship Week.

Lots of stuff missing today.

Name and Avatar in area below banner along with the 3 shortcuts to new posts and messages.

Show unread posts since last visit.   This is missing
Show new replies to your posts (or something like that)  This is missing along with one other item I believe referring to new messages, but I never really used that very often so I forgot what it is.

Are you still seeing this issue? Check the little arrow in the top right corner of the screen. That toggles those on and off.

Huh. Dismissed as swamp gas, I think. Maybe just a browser hiccup?

It persisted for a few minutes. But is now back to its usual (Orange) self.

Glad to hear it is back to normal. No changes have been made.

http://www.myteamisbetterthanyourteam.com/default.asp?sport=CFB&winner=Valparaiso&loser=Clemson&year=2016&method=0

From a writer from bamahoops.com:

Hi, I am one of the writers for an Alabama basketball blog, bamahoops.com (I'm "DJC" there).  We do a feature where we invite writers from upcoming opponent's blogs to give us a bit of perspective from the other side.  If you are interested, please respond and tell me a bit about the Valpo team and your thoughts on the matchup, and I will post it to our blog and of course give you credit along with a link back to your site.  I hope to hear back from you.  Thanks, and good luck!

If anyone is interested, you can send me a PM with your write up and I will email it to him or you can email him directly: jcarruth@bham.rr.com

Thanks!

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Are these throwbacks or a new look?

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At the moment the unread posts button doesn't seem to be working for me at all. Before it would skip some of the older unread posts but within the last week it isn't bringing up any posts. Thanks for looking into it.

Hello,

Which button are you referring to? Are you clicking on the "new" icon next to the title or somewhere else?

The button under the Hello, (NAME)
It says

Show unread posts since last visit.

It seems to be working again. I'll let you know if it stops in the future.

Gotcha. I will keep an eye out as well.

At the moment the unread posts button doesn't seem to be working for me at all. Before it would skip some of the older unread posts but within the last week it isn't bringing up any posts. Thanks for looking into it.

Hello,

Which button are you referring to? Are you clicking on the "new" icon next to the title or somewhere else?

I'd like to direct your attention to our blog, as we (finally) have some new content! 

Which Horizon League venue is the toughest place to win? (No.s 10-6)

In the spirit of ESPN's recently completed review of home court advantage in the nation's top 10 conferences – welcome to the unofficial rankings for the Horizon League. This is not purely a facility review, but a comprehensive, fact-based (but still totally subjective) look at the overall difficulty of winning at each home court. Regardless of how good the home team happens to be, every trip has its own unique challenges. Enjoy this spin around the League. We look forward to comments, disagreements and counter-arguments over on the Forum. Here are venues 10 through 6. The top 5 will be added tomorrow.

Enjoy!

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