Valpo in the National Rankings 2015-16 edition

[Pgmado]

What if the Bracketbuster was around?   We'd be wondering how they would pair us up...and hoping we'd get a home game with the likes of St Marys or Gonzaga...

So glad BracketBuster is done with. All it did was give half the really good mid-majors a loss against other mid-majors. Those wins did very little to boost national profile of teams. A situation where a loss hurt a lot more than a win helped.

[agibson]

What if the Bracketbuster was around?   We'd be wondering how they would pair us up...and hoping we'd get a home game with the likes of St Marys or Gonzaga...

So glad BracketBuster is done with. All it did was give half the really good mid-majors a loss against other mid-majors. Those wins did very little to boost national profile of teams. A situation where a loss hurt a lot more than a win helped.

From the fans perspective, I miss it.  Another event to anticipate, cheer for, announcements, etc.

And something closer to a 50-50 matchup than you're going to get in the NCAA. 

It would be great fun this year to see Valpo go up against Gonzaga, or St. Mary's, or Wichita State, or even Monmouth or Little Rock.  And, in a year with not even a top-100 win available in the Horizon League, it seems worth rolling the dice. If nothing else, you'd hope it would help in seeding "should the last 12 go to Monmouth, or the team that beat them head-to-head on national TV?".

Overall, for Valpo, it was a consistent source of nationally televised games.  Including in many seasons where those were hard to come by.

[a3uge]

What if the Bracketbuster was around?   We'd be wondering how they would pair us up...and hoping we'd get a home game with the likes of St Marys or Gonzaga...

So glad BracketBuster is done with. All it did was give half the really good mid-majors a loss against other mid-majors. Those wins did very little to boost national profile of teams. A situation where a loss hurt a lot more than a win helped.

From the fans perspective, I miss it.  Another event to anticipate, cheer for, announcements, etc.

And something closer to a 50-50 matchup than you're going to get in the NCAA. 

It would be great fun this year to see Valpo go up against Gonzaga, or St. Mary's, or Wichita State, or even Monmouth or Little Rock.  And, in a year with not even a top-100 win available in the Horizon League, it seems worth rolling the dice. If nothing else, you'd hope it would help in seeding "should the last 12 go to Monmouth, or the team that beat them head-to-head on national TV?".

Overall, for Valpo, it was a consistent source of nationally televised games.  Including in many seasons where those were hard to come by.

I want nothing to do with the bracketbuster after the Missouri State win. Valpo had to split up their Wisconsin road trip and play two days later way up in Green Bay. Missed layups aside, the win ended up being completely meaningless.

[hailcrusaders]

I didn't think hard about it, but definitely better than I expected [tweet]691696214107111424[/tweet] It must be easy to drop teams on a loss. Glad we didn't fall all the way out.  Maybe there were plenty of losses in the top 35, and not too many knocking on the door. That's down to a three-way tie for 37th in the Coaches Poll, as it seems votes are getting diluted a bit, spread among more teams.  And we're not too far behind Butler now, falling from #24 to receiving just fifteen votes.  St. Mary's takes 31, Gonzaga hangs on to 17, Little Rock 5, Monmouth 3. Tied for 34th in the AP.  Behind Butler. But with Gonzaga (and Little Rock, Monmouth) nowhere in sight. I'll take this all as a sign of respect.  For Valpo.  For the league. Maybe even for Wright State. But, it might also be a sign of weakness in the top 50.  (Don't get me wrong, I'm OK with that too!)

Well said.  The notion that all of a sudden, based on a loss at Wright State, that we no longer had any possibility of an at-large bid is just wrong.  Everybody seems to be beatable this season.  Michigan State had lost three in a row.  Maryland (who many had picked as the ultimate champ this season)have lost three.  The great Butler boys have lost 6!(and 5 of their last 7)  We have a long way to go but so does everyone else.

This is particularly true this year. There seems to be so much parity. The Top 10 teams keep losing, the weaker power-5 schools keep losing. Oakland and Valpo have power-5 wins (I'd argue Oakland's is nicer than ours, but that's beside the point), and UW-Milwaukee has TWO power-5 wins.

Even the high mid-majors aren't that good. The usuals like Gonzaga, Wichita State, and Northern Iowa are respectable, but down. Valpo is good, St. Mary's is good, I think UALR isn't as good as their record, but that's pretty much it for your expected March Cinderellas.

I'm interested to see who gets at-larges, what seeds they get. Crazy we're talking March already when it's still January.

[agibson]

I want nothing to do with the bracketbuster after the Missouri State win. Valpo had to split up their Wisconsin road trip and play two days later way up in Green Bay. Missed layups aside, the win ended up being completely meaningless.

Nevertheless, I'll confess that I remember the ARC during the Missouri State game better than I do the subsequent meltdown!

How'd the season even end... was that the Florida trip?  Or the Pepe's game?

(OK, a lot of my personal recollection may be rather individually specific.  My only game at the ARC that season, I was probably fairly distracted during the Green Bay trip and at the end of the season, etc, etc.  But, still, it was a heck of a game at the ARC!)

[a3uge]

I want nothing to do with the bracketbuster after the Missouri State win. Valpo had to split up their Wisconsin road trip and play two days later way up in Green Bay. Missed layups aside, the win ended up being completely meaningless.

Nevertheless, I'll confess that I remember the ARC during the Missouri State game better than I do the subsequent meltdown!

How'd the season even end... was that the Florida trip?  Or the Pepe's game?

(OK, a lot of my personal recollection may be rather individually specific.  My only game at the ARC that season, I was probably fairly distracted during the Green Bay trip and at the end of the season, etc, etc.  But, still, it was a heck of a game at the ARC!)

Oh yes, that was indeed the same year as the 300 fan Pepes game. May that season forever live in infamy.

[justducky]

Oh yes, that was indeed the same year as the 300 fan Pepes game. May that season forever live in infamy.

Some of my all time best and all time worst basketball memories jam packed into a 6 week time frame! The only comparable hi to low comparison that quickly comes to mind is this year's Oakland bunch.

[agibson]

St. Mary's did indeed pass us for #1 in the mid-major coaches poll.  Wright State is now past Oakland in that poll, and knocking on the door of the top 25.

Our #3 KenPom defensive efficiency held in place even on the Wright State loss, and moved to #1 after the NKU win. (I believe our overall KenPom took a pretty big hit on the loss, and recovered somewhat on the win, currently #23, above Oregon, behind Kentucky.)

[ValpoHoops]

Jay Bilas:

30. Valparaiso Crusaders
The Crusaders have had some fits and stops on the offensive end but have been very consistent in guarding. Valparaiso is rated the No. 1 defensive team in the nation and is sixth in 2-point percentage defense (40.7 percent). Alec Peters has hit 49 3-point field goals and is shooting 46 percent from deep.

[a3uge]

[tweet]693977351043051521[/tweet]
https://twitter.com/JeffWashburnJC/status/693977351043051521

Professional journalist bitter that another sports writer doesn't elevate the team he's covering. I can't imagine Oren tweeting that Valpo would "destroy" even a team like Prairie View A&M. Seems very hacky, but I guess that gets you the followers.

[vufan75]

Thru games 1/31/16, kenpom has Valpo rated 23rd overall. #1 in his adjusted defense rating.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Tapatalk

[valpotx]

We would beat Purdue, so that SOB can eat it

[bbtds]

We would beat Purdue, so that SOB can eat it

At the ARC. Valpo is a bad road team as are most majors.

[Kyle321n]

We would beat Purdue, so that SOB can eat it

At the ARC. Valpo is a bad road team as are most majors.

Purdue is 2-1 against top 50 KenPom teams at home, with wins over Vandy and Michigan and the loss to Iowa. I think we give them a hell of a game at the Mack.

[valpocleveland]

Why don't we settle this on the hypothetical court of cbssports.com braketology:

Providence, RI
5 - Purdue
12 - Valpo

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/bracketology

[talksalot]

I t would be fun to play Miami again in the post season, at a neutral site this time...   assuming they get by Stony Brook...

[VULB#62]

Feb 1:  USAToday Coaches poll.

Valpo is tied with Butler and Monmouth at #34 with 8 votes.  St. Mary's moved up to #25.  Oregon jumped from #24 to #17

[agibson]

Feb 1:  USAToday Coaches poll.

Valpo is tied with Butler and Monmouth at #34 with 8 votes.  St. Mary's moved up to #25.  Oregon jumped from #24 to #17

Up from 6 votes and a three-way tie for #37.  The direction is good, if the shift is modest (maybe you could consider the added victories modest too, or at least the competition).  Keep winning...

[agibson]

[tweet]694227000333111296[/tweet]

_Down_ slightly in points, from 9 points, if up slightly in rank, from T34. Only a couple of points on the margin, so could be anything.  But, you wonder if we lost some mid-major love to St. Mary's, or what.

[agibson]

I'd not noticed when it happened, but , I guess do to scheduling quirks, we're back into the "tied for most wins in the nation" category if you include non-D1 wins.  Our 19-4 (or Purdue's) required 23 games, while SMU got it done in 20.  But, hey.  19 wins.  Most in the country, why not?

[justducky]

Why don't we settle this on the hypothetical court of cbssports.com braketology:

Providence, RI
5 - Purdue
12 - Valpo

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/bracketology

Notice that this bracket places Butler and George Washington as the last 2 at-large teams in.

If Butler finishes 5-4 in their last nine Big East games (looks like 4-5 would be easier than 6-3) their record would be 19-11. Let me optimistically predict that they win 2 conference tournament games before they are beaten. That would give them a 21-12 record with a weak OOC SOS. Does that get them in?

Hypothetically if we won out and lost the HL championship game wouldn't we be the far easier pick? Ok we might both be in the first 4 out. Or     maybe it would be VU and Butler as the 12 seed play in game. 

I wouldn't worry too much about any of this because we will lose one more HL regular season game and I believe that might do us in.   

[agibson]

The mid-major poll was close last week, and it's close again this week.  We did lose our four first-place votes, St. Mary's got a couple of them, Wichita State got a couple of them, and slid ahead of us into second place.

Sort of feels like voters are fluttering in the wind a bit.  Surely we did nothing bad last week.  Wichita State's win at Evansville is more impressive than anything we accomplished last week.  But, St. Mary's narrow win on the road at Pacific seems probably less impressive than our two home blow-outs.

Feels like the mid-major coaches are being influenced by the "national" voters.

http://www.collegeinsider.com/mens-mid-major-top-25.php

*shrug*

[bbtds]

The mid-major poll was close last week, and it's close again this week.  We did lose our four first-place votes, St. Mary's got a couple of them, Wichita State got a couple of them, and slid ahead of us into second place.

Sort of feels like voters are fluttering in the wind a bit.  Surely we did nothing bad last week.  Wichita State's win at Evansville is more impressive than anything we accomplished last week.  But, St. Mary's narrow win on the road at Pacific seems probably less impressive than our two home blow-outs.

Feels like the mid-major coaches are being influenced by the "national" voters.

http://www.collegeinsider.com/mens-mid-major-top-25.php

*shrug*

Nobody said "Life was fair" especially among Iowa caucus participants. Just ask Jeb Bush and Donald Trump.

[HailVU2014]

I wasn't sure which thread to put this on, but apparently this was said on College GameDay this morning over in South Bend...


[tweet]696006681566842880[/tweet]
[tweet]696006217378852864[/tweet]

[agibson]

Seth Davis still loves us... but only as far as #25.  Purdue leapfrogs us into #23 (for losing at Maryland... by only 11?).

On Wichita State's loss on the road

[tweet]696546242516512768[/tweet]