As we are closing in on six hours from tip-off, I figured that someone should get this thread going.
7-0 for December is gone, can the Beacons keep hope for a 6-1 record alive?
This is our last away game for the month, and it's the last game before Kobe's return.
Western Michigan is coming off a 2 game win streak with overtime W's against Purdue FW (3-2) and SE Louisiana (3-5). If the Beacons can keep Lamar Norman Jr. in check who is averaging just over 20 pts/game and control their "3's" then Valpo should come home with a W! It will be fun to see McMillan battle some of his old teammates.
Valpo coming in at -5.5, we should cover that if we play like we did against Drake , if we play down to their level then who knows!
Valpo 72
WMU 62
Poor execution to end the half. Hmmm. Where have I seen this before?
Oof. Scoring droughts.
Valpo the better team, just not better in execution.
For the most part we played very good defense and took good shots. Not many mistakes for our upperclassmen. Yet only up 2?? We can't let up!
For the first 8 minutes I found the color commentary to still be better than Bill Walton. :)
Quote from: VUSERF on December 05, 2021, 01:46:07 PM
Oof. Scoring droughts.
Valpo the better team, just not better in execution.
Hopfully Krikke can start scoring some points. Tough when he only gets his first FG with 27 second left in the 1st. half
How does Krikke miss that layup??? Why are we sleepwalking today???
Doing better now, but how did Krikke miss that bunny against a 5'10" guy? He must have thought it was a taller defender...
Nice to see Young getting more playing time. His +/- is +11!
Young's athleticism leads to openings for other folks. I hope that he gets enough playing time this season, otherwise he will have plenty of options
Good to see Kithier play better today, but why can't Krikke and Kithier have good games together? The longer the season goes, the more the "need more time to gel" excuse gets old.
They didn't call the travel on Gordon at the end when he was wasting time. Good win, and hopefully a sign of good things to come. We should be able to build our confidence against some of the remaining non-conference opponents. Good to see Mileek do a bit more for his team, and hope that he finishes his career in a similar manner.
Wish Mileek had played that well for us. Did he ever have game with 7 rebounds for us? 22 minutes before fouling out? He seemed more engaged.
The best part of this win is that it gives positive momentum as the team now reaches full capability with Kobe King's arrival and has a 6-game home stretch to work together. No excuses going forward.
Good win. Not much to complain about other than missed free throws, but they made enough to seal the win. They showed they can win without Krikke's best game. Also showed that if the other team pays too much attention to Krikke, Kithier is capable of taking advantage. Makes us tough to defend on the interior if both are in the game. Looking forward to see what King will bring.
If we want to look at negative, Kithier shouldn't take any more 3s lol. Today's 3 looked like he had never taken one in his life, and just threw it as hard as he could off the backboard.
Anyone have news on Emil? In his limited minutes over the first few games, he actually looked serviceable for some spot minutes each game. Since the MVC has some big boys on other teams, we will need Hedstrom and/or Emil to come in when Krikke & Kithier get into foul trouble.
I thought we showed good fight and hustle tonight- that running back play by Sheldon was immense! Looks like the team is up for battling, which we will need to in the Valley
Quote from: VALPO LI on December 05, 2021, 01:51:42 PM
Quote from: VUSERF on December 05, 2021, 01:46:07 PM
Oof. Scoring droughts.
Valpo the better team, just not better in execution.
Hopfully Krikke can start scoring some points. Tough when he only gets his first FG with 27 second left in the 1st. half
Some missed opportunities for Krikke tonight but as long as others step up Valpo should be okay.
Bench Points made a difference. Woodyard 3, Young with 8 and Edwards had 15. :thumbsup:
Ben looked like he wasn't feeling well or something. Missed several bunnies. If we made some free throws (13 of 23) we could have won by 20. Very well coached game in my opinion.
BTW, was flipping back and forth between the woman's game and the men's and...the women looked AWFUL. Big problems I suspect. The women looked disinterested. Hard to win when we get out rebounded by 20. It doesn't get any easier for the 0-7 ladies, hosted Notre Dame next. That, folks, could get really ugly, I hope they can somehow find the form they had last year with basically the same team.
Watched a little bit of the game. Given the team we were playing, I expected much better from this team of talented big 10 transfers. If this is the best we got, we're in bad shape. I think the transfers were overrated and I bought into the hype. Not so sure we will fare all that much better when conference begins than what we've seen. Some easy wins are coming our way until conference. But what happens when the competition is significanly better? I was so underwhelmed today that I watched something else. Perhaps King can make everyone around him better. Else, this is going to be a long season.
Merry Christmas.
Quote from: Just Sayin on December 05, 2021, 05:54:00 PM
Watched a little bit of the game. Given the team we were playing, I expected much better from this team of talented big 10 transfers. If this is the best we got, we're in bad shape. I think the transfers were overrated and I bought into the hype. Not so sure we will fare all that much better when conference begins than what we've seen. Some easy wins are coming our way until conference. But what happens when the competition is significanly better? I was so underwhelmed today that I watched something else. Perhaps King can make everyone around him better. Else, this is going to be a long season.
Merry Christmas.
Watched something else ??? ...like Da Bears loose again?
I think the team is looking better with every game. The assist numbers were a lot better today. Defense continues to improve. They did a great job of limiting their best player for open 3's.
Crusaders cover the spread but more importantly pick up a W. They will be harder to come by once MVC starts up. We saw that with Drake.
It was good to see Mileek playing. I was always a fan of his. I wished he was better and he was frustrating at times but I thought he was a good teammate and enjoyed his work ethic.
Quote from: Just Sayin on December 05, 2021, 05:54:00 PM
Watched a little bit of the game. Given the team we were playing, I expected much better from this team of talented big 10 transfers. If this is the best we got, we're in bad shape. I think the transfers were overrated and I bought into the hype. Not so sure we will fare all that much better when conference begins than what we've seen. Some easy wins are coming our way until conference. But what happens when the competition is significanly better? I was so underwhelmed today that I watched something else. Perhaps King can make everyone around him better. Else, this is going to be a long season.
Merry Christmas.
I was at the game. IMO our B10 transfers Kithier and Anderson were the 2 best players on the court. They scored 42% of our points (30 of 71) in 32% of our minutes. They were a combined 11-19 from the field for a blistering 58%. Trevor also had 4 rebounds, 4 assists, and 0 TO's in 36 minutes.
The non-B10 group (everyone else) was 12-34 for an anemic 35%. The 1 exception was Keyondre, who scored 9 points on 3-4 FG and 2-3 3FG in only 12 minutes. Ben looked distracted, or dazed, maybe ill, or something. Kevion contributed very little. Eron was Eron offensively.
Overall, I would agree that we did not look sharp offensively
Defensively, several guys stepped up, especially Sheldon and Eron, who held their 20 PPG scorer to 13, including 1-8 highly contested 3's. Also, I see that 60 points was their 2nd lowest scoring game to date.
WMU has some talent. Norman came from Dusquene, Hastings came from Butler, and obviously Mileek. Should be a pretty good foundation for a MAC team.
Didn't start watching until the 2nd half but thought we looked pretty good. Good road W and now we find out what King will bring.
Quote from: elephtheria47 on December 06, 2021, 07:50:58 AM
WMU has some talent. Norman came from Dusquene, Hastings came from Butler, and obviously Mileek. Should be a pretty good foundation for a MAC team.
Didn't start watching until the 2nd half but thought we looked pretty good. Good road W and now we find out what King will bring.
Maybe, but not against "East-West"! I mean, he will play of course but this game is a joke and won't really tell us much about the guys playing together. Check out their "website" The athletic part show information from the 18-19 season an a total of seven players. Embarrassing.
https://www.eastwest.edu/articles/phantoms-basketball/
Quote from: wh on December 06, 2021, 02:43:51 AMDefensively, several guys stepped up, especially Sheldon and Eron, who held their 20 PPG scorer to 13, including 1-8 highly contested 3's. Also, I see that 60 points was their 2nd lowest scoring game to date.
Good first half and excellent second half defenses. For Young, Woodyard and Barrett to get minutes they will need to play near flawless defense. DeAveiro has a little more room for error but also needs to concentrate defensively or see less action.
Just take it strong to them like a fullback going north and south.