This is the first time that we have played a team for the second matchup this year.
Last time we contained AJ Green (9 points), and Phyfe only played a minute (his time continues to be limited). However, Berhow was stroking from 3, and Carter had his way attacking the basket. This will be another tough challenge before the schedule eases a bit.
Kriike said the team needed to look in the mirror. Will it change its appearance for this game? Will we see a different starting lineup?
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Quote from: humbleopinion on January 19, 2022, 07:07:51 AM
This is the first time that we have played a team for the second matchup this year.
Last time we contained AJ Green (9 points), and Phyfe only played a minute (his time continues to be limited). However, Berhow was stroking from 3, and Carter had his way attacking the basket. This will be another tough challenge before the schedule eases a bit.
Kriike said the team needed to look in the mirror. Will it change its appearance for this game? Will we see a different starting lineup?
Northern Iowa lost by 2 pts to both Liberty and Wyoming, both very good teams. Afterwards they went on a five-game winning streak beating Evansville, Valpo, Miss. St, Ind. St. and So. Ill, winning both away games at Mizz. St. and So. Illinois.
Their KenPom ranking the day before the Liberty game was 120. Today they are ranked at 102. Similarly, Valpo was ranked 200 before Liberty game and today rank 208. They are getting better and we are getting worse. They went 5-2 while we went 2-4 since December 21.
Northern Iowa since December 21, 2021Wed Dec 22 117 104 Liberty L, 76-74 67 Neutral 4-6
Thu Dec 23 120 62 Wyoming L, 71-69 76 Neutral 4-7
Sun Jan 2 121 279 Evansville W, 83-61 67 Home 5-7 1-1
Wed Jan 5 120 208 Valparaiso W, 92-65 69 Home 6-7 2-1
Sat Jan 8 106 71 Missouri St. W, 85-84 65 Away 7-7 3-1
Tue Jan 11 104 160 Indiana St. W, 80-74 78 OT Home 8-7 4-1
Sat Jan 15 106 131 Southern Illinois W, 69-68 63 Away
In-conference top 5 teams in offensive and defensive efficiency 1/19/22: (KenPom)
Team ↓ OE ↓
Northern Iowa 116.5
Loyola Chicago 111.4
Missouri St. 111.3
Illinois St. 106.7
Southern Ill. 106.1
Team ↓ DE ↓
Loyola Chicago 93.3
Bradley 100.5
Drake 101.1
Northern Iowa 103.1
Indiana St. 104.4
Lined has slowly moved all day, and not in Valpo's favor. I'm sure the bettors saw the previous game against UNI and thought this will be an easy one. Line started at +4, it is now at +4.5 or +5 depending on where you look. Money line moved from +155 to +165. Who knows with this team...
Valpo 72
UNI 67
Coach and team are going to give it their all tonight and prove last time against N. Iowa was a fluke. I think you see a back to the wall kind of effort similar to the Loyola game.
Rank of all players in MVC, Valpo vs N. Iowa (Kenpom)
Data through games of Tuesday, January 18
EFG% Minimum 60% minutes played to qualify.
Valpo
10. Kevion 58.3
27. Sheldon 50.3
33. Trevor 48.2
N. Iowa
2. Heise 64.1
13. Berhow 56.7
30. Green 49.1
2pt% Minimum 40% minutes played and 2 shots per game to qualify.
Valpo
1. Thomas 67.3
22. Ben 54.6
26. Trevor 53.1
32. Sheldon 50.8
36. Kevion 48.9
N. Iowa
3. Carter 62.9
10. Heise 60.0
25. Berhow 53.3
40. Pickford 47.2
44. Green 44.3
3pt% Minimum 40% minutes played and 2 shots per game to qualify.
Valpo
11. Kevion 42.0
28. Sheldon 33.3
38. Trevor 27.7
N. Iowa
4. Heise 46.3
18.Berhow 38.8
24. Green 34.9
34. Carter 29.3
42. Born 24.5
FT% Minimum 40% minutes played and 2 shots per game to qualify.
Valpo
8. Ben 80.0
14. Sheldon 77.8
19. Kevion 73.5
N. Iowa
3. Green 87.3
13. Carter 78.0
15. Heise 76.0
Why is Todd not doing the espn call?
How much better would we be if Jacobsen was our coach ?
Quote from: Chairback on January 19, 2022, 06:11:07 PM
Why is Todd not doing the espn call?
David Kaplan and Andy Masur calling the game tonight on the ESPN broadcast
Did we not practise our inbounds the last couple of days?!
That score to end the 1st by UNI is the most Lottich Coached Valpo Team thing I've ever seen...
Right out of a timeout I'll note. I'm just tired. I feel like my joy from Valpo Basketball is slowly withering away.
Leave it to a Lottich led team to not only not excuse the after timeout play, but to turn it over and give UNI two more easy points before the break. This is seriously pissing me off.
With Green out for them, this is a golden opportunity to steal one against a quality opponent. The threes are falling, which is good. But man, we gotta play better defense and take care of the basketball!
Quote from: VU2014 on January 19, 2022, 06:43:57 PM
Quote from: Chairback on January 19, 2022, 06:11:07 PM
Why is Todd not doing the espn call?
David Kaplan and Andy Masur calling the game tonight on the ESPN broadcast
They both are horrible and annoying.
Kaplan is an ass. Can't stand listening to him.
I was expecting Todd who is heads and shoulders better.
10 Valpo turnovers leading to 22 UNI points in that 2nd half...
Quote from: Chairback on January 19, 2022, 06:52:56 PM
Kaplan is an ass. Can't stand listening to him.
I was expecting Todd who is heads and shoulders better.
I don't mind Kap but I agree Todd is much better.
I think I just saw the halftime entertainment take a 10 point lead against our Beacons
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Can we just for once, defend a 3 point shooter???
UNI is getting lucky from deep. I think they are well defended, UNI is just on fire. I don't think they are high percentage shots.
We will make a run towards the end. Will it be enough.
Both announcers suck.
Kobe seems to be zero part of our offensive.
Good guys up 3 with 3 to go. UNI isn't getting good looks. We are shooting free throws at 92% compared to UNI at 60%. That's the difference.
Quote from: Chairback on January 19, 2022, 07:35:54 PMKobe seems to be zero part of our offensive.
He must have heard you
Are we trying to lose games on purpose?
The Carter cramp here at the end is probably legitimate, but convenient timing for UNI no less, who has no timeouts.
Up 7 with 1:30 to go.... and we don't score a single point.
We
Need
To
Be
Able
To
Close
Games
Out
Great comeback from down 9 to up 7. Need to finish
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I can't stop laughing. This is hilarious.
If we aren't going to take a timeout you think at this point we would have some sort of end of game play we have been practicing.
What a joke...
Up 7 and Valpo just casually chokes the lead within 50 seconds. I'm so sick of this crap
MLB and ML are dog :censored: , they're without Green and it still goes to OT. Absolutely disgusting! If we lose , season is over , we're relegated to Thursday... and can't win 4 in a row , how are we this bad with a good chunk of talent? Players or coach ?
Again, this goes back to how clutch you are as a player. A bunch of really stupid turnovers and fouls. Coaches can't control Kevion trying to throw a pass through a UNI player, or people falling down on their own, etc.
QuoteAgain, this goes back to how clutch you are as a player.
Who recruited all these non-clutch players to Valpo?
Being up 7 with a little over a minute, not calling timeout again with the last procession........stupid.
I'm glad must have came around and see it as bad coaching. 1-2 years ago several would say, "We are so close. Two ot's against some of the better teams in the conference, could go either way, we are doing better than Loyola did when they first entered the MVC" Glad most have acknowledged that the coach is bad.
Up 3 with :53 left. Let's see how we can lose this game.
Vashil would have swatted that!!!
In bounds plays. I have 10 of them that worked well with my middle school girls basketball team I coached. It's not that hard.
Well well well. We pulled it out.
"Big shot in the arm for the Crusaders!"
Way to gut it out, men.
Because I have to have something to complain about: the last 1:25 of regulation and 5:00 of overtime took 28 minutes of real time.....the NCAA should take another timeout away like they did a few years ago.
Fully expected to title this post "How to Lose Close (when you don't lose big)". Low and behold we actually pulled one out, so I"ll have put that one back in the drawer. Dare we hope this might be a turning point? Won't go that far, but at least it's a start.
Quote from: mj on January 19, 2022, 07:59:41 PM
QuoteAgain, this goes back to how clutch you are as a player.
Who recruited all these non-clutch players to Valpo?
How many close games are you able to recruit as a college head coach? I highly doubt that every player on the team has been viewed in such a situation, and it comes down to you as an individual. Someone like Kevion, as a GT, shouldn't be coughing up the ball so easily in crunch time. Anderson shouldn't fall down, even though he is gutting out a back injury. Passes should not be lolly-gagged or telegraphed. Krikke should be able to feel his guy trying to sneak behind him on the key pass that Carter took away in regulation. Those are individual plays.
Great games from Taylor, Kithier and Anderson.
Now, we just beat a team that didn't have their top guy (possibly best player in the league) and Carter who had lit us up all night went out with cramps before overtime. We had a 7 point lead with 1:25 to go and we blew it. We almost squandered it in overtime too. I'm glad we won, but Valpo had better pull off a nice streak of wins to get me to get excited about them again.
On a positive note, we beat the team I think we match up with worst in the conference so glad we at least split with them.
Good win.
Coaching still lacking...called a time out at the end of 1H that resulted in a turnover and +2 for them. Let them Play at the end of regulation that resulted in another turnover.
But we've all discussed our displeasure. So here to just enjoy the win. The players are obviously still scrapping.
Quote from: valpotx on January 19, 2022, 08:32:31 PM
Quote from: mj on January 19, 2022, 07:59:41 PM
QuoteAgain, this goes back to how clutch you are as a player.
Who recruited all these non-clutch players to Valpo?
How many close games are you able to recruit as a college head coach? I highly doubt that every player on the team has been viewed in such a situation, and it comes down to you as an individual. Someone like Kevion, as a GT, shouldn't be coughing up the ball so easily in crunch time. Anderson shouldn't fall down, even though he is gutting out a back injury. Passes should not be lolly-gagged or telegraphed. Krikke should be able to feel his guy trying to sneak behind him on the key pass that Carter took away in regulation. Those are individual plays.
So your theory is that we just happened to recruit an entire team full of non clutch players and that nothing can be done about it? You don't think that passing can be coached? If Krikke "should be able to feel" that, then why didn't he? If he should have felt it but didn't are you saying that he was just born with the inability to feel that? If not, then why isn't coach bringing out the best in his players and keeping them focused and aware?
You can practice and coach passing and situational awareness, but if someone throws it like my 3 year old son to his teammate in the game, that is on him/them.
Your guess is as good as mine on how the players think that their defender is just going to stay on one side of them when closely guarded. It seems to always happen to us when we let our guard down or get on autopilot. We do the same pass over and over at the top of the key, yet we don't think that they are eventually going to try and intercept what becomes an automatic pass to the same spot without looking at your teammate? Come on, man, that is all the players. You can say 'focus' or 'watch out,' but you as a player should be thinking of this crap.
Wins are great even when they don't look impressive. Box says 26 minutes for Darius, 31 for Trevor and 15 for Preston. That would be 27 minutes with two of them on the floor together? Didn't seem that much. For the trio a total of 8 assists vs 3 mistakes and 6-0 by DeAveiro.
So fewer minutes for Edwards and a bunch more point guard minutes! :o If I didn't know better I might think that was a solid coaching adjustment ???
Taylor went 5-9 from 3 point land. Is he our best 3 point shooter?
I will say that Lottich has never really recruited or had a good 3 point shooter on his team. He had Fazekas but that kind of fell in his lap. Outside of that, who has been a Rowdy, Peters, Harris, etc, etc.........
Quote from: oklahomamick on January 19, 2022, 08:53:31 PM
Taylor went 5-9 from 3 point land. Is he our best 3 point shooter?
I will say that Lottich has never really recruited or had a good 3 point shooter on his team. He had Fazekas but that kind of fell in his lap. Outside of that, who has been a Rowdy, Peters, Harris, etc, etc.........
Don't look now, our 3 pt % is now 34.6% as a team. But yes, even though it looks funny with him not jumping, he is definitely our best long range shooter.
Quote from: valpotx on January 19, 2022, 08:57:29 PMDon't look now, our 3 pt % is now 34.6% as a team
Big improvement in our team 3 point %. Enormous improvement in our point guard play. Our team Assist to TO's is also remarkably better but we still struggle to stay competitive. Could somebody explain our record to me?
Quote from: justducky on January 19, 2022, 09:09:44 PM
Quote from: valpotx on January 19, 2022, 08:57:29 PMDon't look now, our 3 pt % is now 34.6% as a team
Big improvement in our team 3 point %. Enormous improvement in our point guard play. Our team Assist to TO's is also remarkably better but we still struggle to stay competitive. Could somebody explain our record to me?
That's what I've been thinking. This team improved exactly how I hoped in the categories I was expecting them to improve in...yet it hasn't lead to win. Where did we get worse to counteract these improvements ?
Damn good win. Let's build on it.
What has been lacking most games this year is consistent intensity and effort on defense from start to finish. This is the first game all year where the intensity was there for a majority of the game. Why is that? Execution needs to improve in the end of the first and second half of close games. Hopefully they can learn from this. DeAvario....steady with the ball, good handles, quick, plays under control, pest on defense. He understands his roll. Kitheir key cog in the middle and a much better defender than Krikke. NIU got unlucky breaks with Green out and Carter exiting early. Valpo hasn't had their full complement of players either. Works both ways. Lets see if they can build on this effort and intensity Saturday and trust on offense. P.S. Connor Barrett???
A big difference in this game from prior games, in terms of strategy, is that Anderson was playing the "2" most of the time. Expect to see more of that, which will mean more minutes for DeAveiro and Ruedinger and less minutes for Edwards.
Any word why Conner wasn't dressed?
I listened to Luke Gore after the game and his excuse for why we blew a 7 point lead is that Kitthier and Anderson are in new roles that they didn't have before this year. Neither of them were on the floor at the end of Big 10 games. They were not asked to be clutch players before this year. They are still learning how play that role. He also mentioned that he didn't know how Kobe King's layup didn't go in at the end of regulation.
Fine win. We overcame a lot of mistakes and adversity. Rebounding was strong and surprisingly we had a better 3 pt shooting percentage. I thought a young line up midway in the first half allowed NI an 8 point run and the end of first half debacle would kill us. But the players fought back. I must admit I had zero confidence with our offensive execution and the ability to hold a 7 point lead in the final minutes. I was concerned about Darius in crunch time. Ball handling yes but he is a 50% ft shooter with limited attempts. Preston has yet to shoot a ft. Both need the reps but it is tough to get those minutes now. I like Edward's intensity. Coach needs to somehow utilize that ability. When the overtime looked bleak, Sheldon scored 5 to bring us back. Fortunately, the only person tall enough (Ben) caught the last pass and was able to hit two clutch ft. With a three point lead with several seconds to go putting NI on the line might have proved interesting. Fortunately, not needed. Tough trip to Indiana State for noon start. That is a tough place to play even for a normal game start.
Quote from: elephtheria47 on January 19, 2022, 08:37:57 PM
Good win.
Coaching still lacking...called a time out at the end of 1H that resulted in a turnover and +2 for them. Let them Play at the end of regulation that resulted in another turnover.
But we've all discussed our displeasure. So here to just enjoy the win. The players are obviously still scrapping.
So what should the coach do if both calling a timeout and letting them play without a timeout are signs of bad coaching? Just curious....
Well it was nice to get a win, for sure.
One big error in judgement at the end of regulation was having Trevor take the ball out and pass it in to Darius.
You knew Northern Iowa was going to foul, and you put the ball into the hands of a freshman who isn't good at shooting free throws? Of course, he missed the 1-and-1.
At least the next time, it was corrected.
In actuality both calling a time out and not calling a time out can be good coaching. It depends on the execution in each scenario. Hopefully, these situations have been worked on in practice and the end result is a good shot.
I give credit to the team for identifying the urgency and playing with purpose. This is not a good team but understand the gaps and working to improve. Are they a good going to make a run in MVC? Probably not. But they have not given up, unlike the university and the fan base.
Quote from: vu84v2 on January 19, 2022, 09:28:53 PM
A big difference in this game from prior games, in terms of strategy, is that Anderson was playing the "2" most of the time. Expect to see more of that, which will mean more minutes for DeAveiro and Ruedinger and less minutes for Edwards.
In truth Anderson is as close to a traditional 2 as we have. We have an entire roster full of shooting, small or wing forwards who can kind of play the 2 but are all slightly misplaced. There are some drawbacks to Trevor playing big minutes as a 2 but maybe Matt can or has figured some of this out.
Quote from: oklahomamick on January 19, 2022, 08:53:31 PM
I will say that Lottich has never really recruited or had a good 3 point shooter on his team. He had Fazekas but that kind of fell in his lap. Outside of that, who has been a Rowdy, Peters, Harris, etc, etc.........
Hmm, Jacob Ognacevic went 30-58 (51.7%) from 3 as a freshman. BTW, he is 28-50 (52%) from 3 for Lipscomb so far this year. He is also averaging 15.6 ppg, albeit against inferior competition.
Kevion Taylor's National (Rank): (KenPom)
eFG% 60.4% (105)
3-pt% 43.3 % (140)
KenPom note: 2233 players eligible for national rank. (1236 in eFG%)
Quote from: valpo95 on January 20, 2022, 09:14:43 AM
Quote from: oklahomamick on January 19, 2022, 08:53:31 PM
I will say that Lottich has never really recruited or had a good 3 point shooter on his team. He had Fazekas but that kind of fell in his lap. Outside of that, who has been a Rowdy, Peters, Harris, etc, etc.........
Hmm, Jacob Ognacevic went 30-58 (51.7%) from 3 as a freshman. BTW, he is 28-50 (52%) from 3 for Lipscomb so far this year. He is also averaging 15.6 ppg, albeit against inferior competition.
Once Lipscomb's starting Center came back to the lineup a few games ago, Jacob's playing time has severely decreased. It is a very interesting development, as he was playing very well for them in most games
There was no mention of the UNI game in today's NWI Times, though the paper did have feature stories on both the Purdue and Notre Dame games supplied by AP reporters.
Quote from: valpopal on January 20, 2022, 02:56:23 PM
There was no mention of the UNI game in today's NWI Times, though the paper did have feature stories on both the Purdue and Notre Dame games supplied by AP reporters.
Actually there was a mention. If you look on closely page 2 below the fold, the score was listed in 6pt font, squeezed between the scores of Otterbein vs Wilmington and Wooster vs Denison.
I guess that it was too much effort to delete the Valpo score from the AP listing.
You jest, but that Wooster game was a barnburner!