The first conference home game of the season, and the first time we host Murray St in conference play. After the transfer portal, the Racers are a whole new team for the season.
Given the fact that I start this thread four hours before the tip-off, it seems that enthusiasm is muted. I hope attendance tops 2500.
Opposite the bears packers.
The tuba Christmas starts at 3.. make it a double feature
I will be there, but I'm afraid we will be lucky to have 1500 in attendance giving the time of the game. Murray State is not a top tier team in our conference. Given that this is a home game, it should be win.
Murray has beaten Texas A&M and Tulsa and has narrow losses @Chattanooga and on a neutral floor to UMASS. This is a good team. Probably an upper half MVC team. Being at home may help but we'll be lucky to keep this one close.
Bear Packers? Both teams suck, you get more enjoyment getting a root canal.
Quote from: tjjvalpo on December 04, 2022, 09:24:54 AMI will be there, but I'm afraid we will be lucky to have 1500 in attendance giving the time of the game. Murray State is not a top tier team in our conference. Given that this is a home game, it should be win.
At this point there is no MVC squad except maybe Evansville which "should be win" for Valpo whether at home or not. In addition, depending on your definition of "top tier" in our conference, Murray St. is probably in it.
Quote from: JD24 on December 04, 2022, 11:07:26 AMAt this point there is no MVC squad except maybe Evansville which "should be win" for Valpo whether at home or not.
I will catch some games this season but today will not be one of them. I think that I have seen enough to largely agree with JD24 on his quoted conclusion. We could develop slightly by February but most of our incoming transfers seem to lack the talent and versatility to move us forward. Meanwhile I will relax and enjoy whatever pleasant surprises Matt and this group can provide me!
Quote from: tjjvalpo on December 04, 2022, 09:24:54 AM
I will be there, but I'm afraid we will be lucky to have 1500 in attendance giving the time of the game. Murray State is not a top tier team in our conference. Given that this is a home game, it should be win.
I would be pleasantly surprised if the attendance broke 1,500.
My
optimistic guess is Valpo
surprises us all and wins looses by 7!
We have already made as many 3's today as made the whole game against Belmont.
Both of these teams are bad. Hard to believe this Murray state team has beat anyone. Currently at the game no atmosphere but the beer is cold
I know no one is watching. Don't want to call a timeout on the last possession? Maybe set something up.
Just turned the game on to see us lose almost lose our lead. I'll be turning back the the Packer Bears game. Justin fields is way more exciting to watch even if they lose.
The 3 is the death of us, can't make them and can't defend them.
Brutal choke in another winnable game. Disappointing. Squandered a great performance by Krikke too.
Geez, another blown game. The lack of paying attention to the guy next to you, led to several key offensive rebounds, open shots, and dumb fouls, all in key scenarios late in the second half and into OT. There was one particular sequence that seemed to set the tone late in the game, where Palm completely lost his guy, even though the offensive player that he was moving towards was already covered by Valpo on the perimeter, which led to that easy pass/score. On the ensuing possession for Valpo, we miss the shot, and he gets a ticky/tack push in the back foul, where he wasn't even going up to get the ball, leading to a made 1-and-1 to tie the game. You have to know the situation, and that hand in the back when Murray State is in the bonus, was just pointless. If you were at least contesting the rebound, I could see it, but just pushing in the back? WTF?
Best played game of the season and our coaching wasn't terrible either. :thumbsup: Even with that we couldn't win at home. :'(
Valpo was outscored 9-0 in the last two minutes of the first half and outscored 7-0 in the last minute of the game. Down 16-0 in crunch time. Enough said.
0-2 to start conference. When was the last time that happened?
Missed opportunity at home. Experienced teams, teams with those extra intangibles turn a 6, 7 point lead into a 12 14 point lead and stretch it out. Dangerous to let Murray hang around. Murray will win some games and finish in the top half. They have some very athletic players and nice one on one players. I can see if they get hot they will be in many games. Give Prohm a few years to get his players in and they will be contenders. Rebuild year for them.
Krikke was excellent and that was a wasted performance. Arguably he is the best all around scorer in the conference. We have three point guards, Nick Edwards, Preston, DeAverio. None have separated themselves. They can't be relied to score consistently from anywhere. Green should look to slash more and score at the basket. He has the length and hops. Jerome Palm should be playing 30 plus minutes a game. Connor, Hedstrom, Emil, Bayou?
Even though I had a ticket, I opted to stay home to watch Bears-Packers. I think it was more entertaining, and I took a nap.
I saw some of the game. Dead crowd even though it went to overtime. No one cares any more. I think the chairback people who still buy tickets just do it out of habit.
The program, and the game experience, is but a shell of what it once was. Who knows if it can ever be revived.
Quote from: VALPO LI on December 04, 2022, 12:46:54 PM
Quote from: tjjvalpo on December 04, 2022, 09:24:54 AM
I will be there, but I'm afraid we will be lucky to have 1500 in attendance giving the time of the game. Murray State is not a top tier team in our conference. Given that this is a home game, it should be win.
I would be pleasantly surprised if the attendance broke 1,500.
My optimistic guess is Valpo surprises us all and wins looses by 7!
Unfortunately the home conference opener at the ARC this Sunday afternoon could not draw more than 1,445 :-\
Can anyone who attended the game comment on the game atmosphere? Was the band there? Student section have anyone jumping around or was it blah?
Quote from: Valpo89 on December 04, 2022, 06:46:14 PM
The program, and the game experience, is but a shell of what it once was. Who knows if it can ever be revived.
You mean like this?
I'm just going to beat this into the ground I guess until I can't. 2 halves and an OT and we get 4 shots from the PGs. That's just incredible. How can a guy play 32 mins presumably with the ball in his hand a decent portion of the time and take 2 shots?
Quote from: Valpo89 on December 04, 2022, 06:46:14 PM
Even though I had a ticket, I opted to stay home to watch Bears-Packers. I think it was more entertaining, and I took a nap.
I saw some of the game. Dead crowd even though it went to overtime. No one cares any more. I think the chairback people who still buy tickets just do it out of habit.
The program, and the game experience, is but a shell of what it once was. Who knows if it can ever be revived.
I checked the score of Bears/Packers game from my seat in the chairbacks and watched the second half of the football game on tape delay to see Rodgers demonstrate once again that he owns the Bears.
I go to games and contribute to the program because I want it to get better. I know that if I discourage others from going to games, it will do nothing for the team. I'll do what I can do to improve the atmosphere.
Prior to the game, posts on this board predicted that the team wouldn't be in the game. The Beacons were in the game and showed me that they can be competitive with "top-tier" teams. They have grown this year, and I anticipate further growth. Jerome pleased me particularly yesterday. I was surprised by his hands -- at one point there was a fast pass to Kobe, but Jerome snatched it midway thinking it was for him (it was unfortunate as Kobe would have been more likely to score but still an impressive display of his ability to grab a ball).
On the way out of the game there was a fan who was loudly complaining about the coach -- the coach that has worked with this team to grow over the season and who drew up a play that got a clean look for Q at the end of OT that just didn't fall. I chose not to confront him, but his outburst did nothing to improve the overall experience of attending the game.
I wish there had been a band for the game. It seems that there has been a break in trust between the athletic department and musicians. I don't know how much this has been acknowledged, much less addressed. Merely dangling some cash is evidently insufficient to recruit musicians. As money is invested in athletics, the music department has been an afterthought. I remember seeing Vashil at concerts and cultural events on campus. I didn't see any team members at Christmas Vespers on Friday night. In my view, outreach at a personal level would be more likely to pay dividends.
So Matt's excuse about teams taking time to gel with all the transfers should finally be done. Murray had like 10 players transfer and we had our core back and ..e still lose. Sad might not be strong enough.
I will say that was the best game Valpo has played this year. I don't know how good Murray state is. I was at the game and I wasn't impressed with anyone specifically on Murray roster. Our point guards are not very talented and our three point shooting is straight up awful. I didn't see anything yesterday outside of Bens' performance that I would call a sign of growth.
Ben Krikke is without a doubt a stud and he is surrounded by mediocre players. If we had a guard that could shoot can you imagine how much better he would be.
The NET ratings have begun today following the Murray State game. Valpo is listed as #274. Only Evansville (#317) is lower in the MVC.
Our three point guards had 2 pts. Not very good. King is solid. Krikke obviously is excellent. Connor needs to play way more than Nelson. Nelson is pressing. Green needs to take it to the hoop and draw fouls.
Connor is a great shooter. He needs time to get the wrinkles out but he is definitely a threat from the outside once he starts feeling his shot again.
Quote from: AB on December 05, 2022, 09:47:15 AMConnor needs to play way more than Nelson.
Maybe but Nelson appears to be the better defender and rebounder (at least against size) and as his offensive confidence grows he could be a solid contributor by year end with Conner continuing to be the bigger 3 point threat.
Quote from: AB on December 05, 2022, 09:47:15 AMOur three point guards had 2 pts. Not very good.
It is actually worse than that. In his 32 minutes Preston played about 13 as a back up 2 guard, so their (Preston, Nick, Darius) 53 point guard and 2 guard minutes gave us just 2 points.That can't continue if the team is to be successful and I don't yet see any obvious answer. All 3 are very reliable ball handlers with limitations to their offensive games.
Quote from: truth219 on December 05, 2022, 08:16:46 AMour three point shooting is straight up awful.
Both Krikke and King could find easier shots if our opponents had better respect for our 3 point shooting. :( Matt has a lot of work to do just to be competitive!
You didn't see any outstanding players on the Murray State team? Did you see a guy named Rob Perry who threw in 29 points, including most of all of their crunch time points in overtime?
Sorry...Perry had 30. He is a great player and only a junior. I believe he won some post-season OVC awards last year as a soph.
Quote from: valpo64 on December 06, 2022, 09:26:19 AM
Sorry...Perry had 30. He is a great player and only a junior. I believe he won some post-season OVC awards last year as a soph.
Xferred in from Stetson this season where he was a 2 time A-Sun player of the year. Played in only 15 games last season and averaged over 15 ppg. He's listed as a 6'4" guard (who obviously can score) — probably a 2?? Those who watched the game can confirm that.
Quote from: valpopal on December 04, 2022, 09:57:49 PM
Quote from: Valpo89 on December 04, 2022, 06:46:14 PM
The program, and the game experience, is but a shell of what it once was. Who knows if it can ever be revived.
You mean like this?
I don't watch any games now — haven't for a few years. This YouTube was inserted to remind us of the old ARC atmosphere, and it certainly did - at least it made
my heart pump a bit faster. But I was struck more by the ball movement, the quickness, the cutting, the penetration, the play in the paint and around the rim, and the deadly shooting from beyond the arc. Does the ML offense resemble the one I watched in this video? Not being a bb expert, I have to ask: Is it still possible to effectively run such an offense in today's college basketball world?
PS: Maybe if we bring back the long, baggy shorts........................ ?
Watching that clip a few things came to mind. That homer Drew team wasn't full of talent. However both Homer and Bryce had high basketball IQ players. Their teams hustled more than anyone I have seen Matt recruit or develop. They had bad games too but they hustled. I miss those arc days. In order to get back there the solution is simple yet difficult....win games and have fellowship with the student body.
I think we need to pump the brakes a bit comparing the talent on the team featured in the video and the current roster. That team had at least 3 professionals on it plus an assortment of very good role players. I don't think there's any comparison to todays two guys and 13 other guys.
No...Lottich's not been successful and part of that is the lack of ability on the roster.
Bud...yes...good teams move the ball in and out and around to find good shots and they make them. The antithesis of the Valpo offense which has been stagnant under Lottich.
Unfortunately or fortunate as the case may be, I had to leave for a concert and did not witness the OT. Knowing that our outside shooting could be suspect, I can't believe with all of the players available in the transfer portal, we took a division II player with such a fundamentally poor outside shot. Looking at some video of our Canadian guard recruit, I don't see much improvement arriving in the future.
Isn't there a game in 4 hours, if we don't win by 25 or more Matt needs to be let go.