http://sectionee.blogspot.com/2011/12/pps-preview-oakland-vs-valpo.html (http://sectionee.blogspot.com/2011/12/pps-preview-oakland-vs-valpo.html)
I took a look at my PPS scores for the up coming game. Some good scores from these two teams.
Time for another random prediction :) :
Valpo 82
Oakland 76
i'll go a little lower. valpo 77-73.
Good thing it's at home! Should be another good one.
Oakland 116
Valpo 115 3 OT
The Golden Grizzlies are looking for payback from last years loss to Valpo.
Oakland fan here thinking about making the trip to see the game. I'm wondering if this is a game where one could buy two tickets at the door before the game? Or have the games been nearing sell-outs so far this year? Just wondering in case the weather forecast is sketchy.
Quote from: Hoopsdude18 on December 13, 2011, 08:31:49 PM
Oakland fan here thinking about making the trip to see the game. I'm wondering if this is a game where one could buy two tickets at the door before the game? Or have the games been nearing sell-outs so far this year? Just wondering in case the weather forecast is sketchy.
I wish we could say that the ARC has been filled. I doubt that you'll have any problem buying tickets this Saturday.
Hoopsdude, with finals being this week, I can't imagine you will have any problems being able to buy tickets at the door on Saturday. The students will have headed for home, since the dorms close at noon, and the game is in the evening, so many seats will be available to you and any other Oakland fans/students who want to come to Valpo for the game.
Valpo 85 Oakland 80 KVW goes for over 20.
Has anyone heard anything about Buggs and his knee? Any word on if he is going to be able to play or if he is going to be out for a while?
Quote from: Hoopsdude18 on December 13, 2011, 08:31:49 PM
Oakland fan here thinking about making the trip to see the game. I'm wondering if this is a game where one could buy two tickets at the door before the game? Or have the games been nearing sell-outs so far this year? Just wondering in case the weather forecast is sketchy.
Hoopsdude - How is this year's Oakland team shaping up? Strengths and weaknesses? How do this year's and last year's teams compare? Etc.?
chipper, buggs will be playing
I'm going to guess another track meet...
Valpo 96
Oakland 89
A dog fight VU 84 OU 83
Quote from: sectionee on December 14, 2011, 05:26:08 PM
chipper, buggs will be playing
That is a relief. I did not like the way Rod was manipulating that knee when Buggs was lying on the floor. Very glad that he is ok.
Any official word on Boggs? I am surprised that we have not heard one way or the other by now.
Quote from: FWalum on December 14, 2011, 09:47:17 PMAny official word on Boggs? I am surprised that we have not heard one way or the other by now.
I'm not sure that we can officially hear anything about if he's going to redshirt, or not, until his transfer year has ended? I feel this is the same as if it's a recruit where the coaches can't comment until the LOI has been received.
Boggs will play this year. The only question is will his first game be Saturday against Oakland or on the road next week. Come on profs get those grades in!
Quote from: sectionee on December 15, 2011, 10:32:58 AMThe only question is will his first game be Saturday against Oakland or on the road next week. Come on profs get those grades in!
Is that really the issue? Hilarious! Hopefully he doesn't have any exams tomorrow.
It would depend on the professor - some might react badly. But, I'd imagine that others could be persuaded to turn their grades in a trifle more quickly than usual, for such a cause.
I thought that might grab your attention agibson, ha!
Quote from: wh on December 14, 2011, 05:11:56 PM
Quote from: Hoopsdude18 on December 13, 2011, 08:31:49 PM
Oakland fan here thinking about making the trip to see the game. I'm wondering if this is a game where one could buy two tickets at the door before the game? Or have the games been nearing sell-outs so far this year? Just wondering in case the weather forecast is sketchy.
Hoopsdude - How is this year's Oakland team shaping up? Strengths and weaknesses? How do this year's and last year's teams compare? Etc.?
Thanks for the tips on tickets, everyone. Kind of leaning toward saving the eight hours round-trip in favor of watching for free on HLN. But as for this question, Oakland is shaping up to be a contender in the Summit League once again. The team looked really good prior to the last week which has seen losses to Ohio and Michigan and a sluggish performance against a non-Division I team. High-scoring attack just like last year but as Michigan proved, teams can indeed outscore Oakland in a fast-paced game (just as Valpo did at the O'rena last year). I'm really looking forward to watching Oakland's freshmen bigs compete against Van Wijk. Should be a great high scoring match-up all around.
Hamilton, for one, scares me. I've watched a few OU games this year, and he seemed to dominate each time. Petros didn't look too bad himself, he's the freshman center, right?
In terms of when Boggs becomes eligible, he's officially eligible at 5:01PM Friday, as that's when finals are officially done. All the NCAA requires is that classes are officially done for the semester, as they know not all professors will have grades submitted right away.
Here is what I got from VU
if he will even be able to play Saturday, with exams going through Friday and all his grades having to be posted and then having to be certified eligible with the NCAA, there's a chance that the process won't be complete by Saturday night's game.
Quote from: Hoopsdude18 on December 15, 2011, 11:02:02 AM
Quote from: wh on December 14, 2011, 05:11:56 PM
Quote from: Hoopsdude18 on December 13, 2011, 08:31:49 PM
Oakland fan here thinking about making the trip to see the game. I'm wondering if this is a game where one could buy two tickets at the door before the game? Or have the games been nearing sell-outs so far this year? Just wondering in case the weather forecast is sketchy.
Hoopsdude - How is this year's Oakland team shaping up? Strengths and weaknesses? How do this year's and last year's teams compare? Etc.?
Thanks for the tips on tickets, everyone. Kind of leaning toward saving the eight hours round-trip in favor of watching for free on HLN. But as for this question, Oakland is shaping up to be a contender in the Summit League once again. The team looked really good prior to the last week which has seen losses to Ohio and Michigan and a sluggish performance against a non-Division I team. High-scoring attack just like last year but as Michigan proved, teams can indeed outscore Oakland in a fast-paced game (just as Valpo did at the O'rena last year). I'm really looking forward to watching Oakland's freshmen bigs compete against Van Wijk. Should be a great high scoring match-up all around.
Oakland is 24th in scoring offense at 80 PPG. Conversely, they are 320th in scoring defense at 76.4. They are almost exactly the same distance from the top in offense as they are from the bottom in defense. I remember we got a lot of "lightly" contested 3's in last year's game. We also picked up some easy baskets underneath. On the other hand, they took full advantage of our guys lazily getting back on defense for easy hoops, as well. I remember Cory and Michael Rogers getting scored on before they even turned around toward the ball. Add to that our sloppy turnovers, missed free throws, and "tepid" guarding down the stretch, it made for one heck of a shootout.
I think the game will be up-tempo. Hopefully, we'll convert a few threes, hit our FTs, box out, and win 86-78.
Speaking of Boggs possibly becoming eligible for this game to strengthen our bench: Oakland has apparently just lost one of its players to academic ineligibility, Blake Cushingberry, a backup guard who has played 13 minutes per game:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/oakland-g-blake-cushingberry-ruled-academically-ineligible/2011/12/14/gIQAF6imuO_story.html (http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/oakland-g-blake-cushingberry-ruled-academically-ineligible/2011/12/14/gIQAF6imuO_story.html)
Vegas has us favored by 1.5 points, which seems about right:
Oakland 76
Valpo 78
Quote from: valpopal on December 16, 2011, 02:06:06 PM
Vegas has us favored by 1.5 points, which seems about right:
Oakland 76
Valpo 78
Valpo 78
OU 76.5
Buggs knee looks fine in warmups!
Boggs is in uniform and officially eligible.
The Oakland guys looked mesmerized by the video highlights
How many jumpers defies Edwards have to miss before he takes a few more steps inside to shoot?
Hamilton is going to shoot every time..double him!
Absolutely pathetic second part of the second half. Kenney really messed it up trying to do way too much on that last drive...really bad loss
Can't lose a 17 point lead at home....give Oakland credit, they never gave up and we had no answer for Hamilton
I gotta give Oakland credit for coming back. And Hamilton is a hell of a player.
On the other hand, I swear this team get a big lead and then decides to coast. I'm not sure if they lose their focus or what. We made a lot of mental errors tonight that cost us the game.
I am also wondering why on that last play, the defender tried to go under the screen, rather than on top so he could be waiting closer to where Hamilton received the ball on the run. You just can't allow a guy to get a running start like that with 4.6 left, you need to make them stop for a second. The end result was a lucky bank shot. We just lost to Helms part 2
So tired of Eric Buggs and his constant foul trouble. He has fouled out 5 times this season and had 4 fouls another game. He fouled out six times last season and had 4 fouls 11 times. Hard to consistently win when your point guard is off the floor on a regular basis. For comparison's sake, Kenney has fouled out 0 times this season and 1 time last year; Broekhoff- 1, 1. Brandon Wood fouled out 1 time last year.
We will not win anything important if Buggs doesn't improve in this area...it's a constant handicap for this team.
Turnovers (and Buggs fouling out... again) killed us. Oakland had 11 to our 18, and they converted their opportunities into 24 points over our 10.
We had no answer for Hamilton, because Hamilton could outfox and outhustle Buggs to the basket, leading Buggs to commit stupid fouls, and be out with 11 minutes remaining. I don't know why Kenney had that ball in the closing seconds, it should have been going thru Harris to get to someone, not Kenney. This loss hurts more than IPFW did.
valporun is right about that last possession. i thought it strange that the two ball handlers on that last possession were Bogan and Kenney who had both struggled with the handle all night.
by the way, shout out to chef. I talked to him before the game and asked him for a prediction.
"Buzzerbeater," he said.
The best in the business!
oh, and did both Buggs and Petros from Oakland BOTH foul out without scoring a point?
Don't know if I have ever seen that.
buggs was going to foul out regardless, but i didn't see anything that warranted the call that was made for his fifth. and one of his other fouls was a little ticky-tack as well. perhaps somebody else saw something that didn't get noticed in the low quality video stream?
http://sectionee.blogspot.com/2011/12/game-wrap-up-i-really-hate-to-do-this.html (http://sectionee.blogspot.com/2011/12/game-wrap-up-i-really-hate-to-do-this.html)
I thought Buggs was horrible tonight and he is one of my favorite players. I also thought Bryce had his worse game coaching. Luckily we get a fairly quick turn around and can try to get back to our winning ways at Northern Illinois.
A nugget for you about how we ended the game...
Final 6 possessions after Kevin's free throws at 2:55 to gave Valpo a 79-77 lead -> TO, TO, TO, 1-2 FT to tie from Boggs, TO, TO
No official shots in the final 3 minutes in a close game and constant turnovers. Simply put, can't do that and win.
I don't understand why Kurth was in the game at all when you have Jay Harris sitting on the bench. I was just waiting for Kurth to get the ball stolen from him. I thought Buggs had a good game besides the fouls. He assisted on quite a few of the baskets that Valpo had when the jumped out to a big lead in the second half. And once he went to the bench with 4 fouls is when Valpo started to struggle to score.
Couldn't agree more about Kurth. He has been awful all year and has no business being on the court when a game is in doubt.
This game is more disappointing than the IPFW loss since a home team should not lose when leading by 17 in the second half. As many have indicated, it is crucial that Buggs remain on the floor out of foul trouble. If Buggs stays in to guard Hamilton (who is terrific and deserves praise for his play) without foul trouble and to run the Valpo offense, Oakland does not get the win.
Having noted that, since the beginning of the season I've said this team is a work in progress that will not be fully prepared until next year. I hope for the best this year, and I have been pleased to see we have already won games we were not favored to win--Duquesne, Akron, Butler. Yet, I always believed we would lose some games this year that we should win, such as IPFW and Oakland, balancing out the effect of the good wins.
However, I remain patient because I feel the real test will be whether this group can learn from these experiences and become next year a team that again wins some games in which they are not favored plus takes all the games they are supposed to win. If not, then I will be truly disappointed.
On the other hand, we can all be happy that we are still undefeated in conference play; after all, the out of conference games don't matter much at all, right? ;)
Quote from: chipper955 on December 17, 2011, 11:35:35 PM
I don't understand why Kurth was in the game at all when you have Jay Harris sitting on the bench. I was just waiting for Kurth to get the ball stolen from him. I thought Buggs had a good game besides the fouls. He assisted on quite a few of the baskets that Valpo had when the jumped out to a big lead in the second half. And once he went to the bench with 4 fouls is when Valpo started to struggle to score.
Could you tell that Jay Harris was in pain?
He took a major shot to the chest in the Bowling Green game. He didn't practice much all week, couldn't get his arms above his head.
Jay was basically playing one-handed last night. There was one time when I questioned why Jay was in the game at all, and he got stripped by Hamilton. Hamilton is solid as a rock and would be a tough matchup for Jay on a regular day, but when he could hardly move his left arm, it was easy pick-ins for Hamilton which led to a layup at the other end.
Do you all forget that Matt Kenney helped beat Butler on a driving layup at the end of regulation? He's at his best when driving to the basket. He's got more confidence going to the rim than anyone on the team, and his options included a kickout to Broekhoff.
I'm surprised no one has mentioned the Ali Berdiel travel against Purdue yet. Similar play, exact same spot on the court. Come on crusaderboy.
A couple notes:
When the ball was put in Kenney's hands at the end, he had seven assists and only one turnover.
Jay Harris had four turnovers last night with no assists.
Was it true that three of Buggs's fouls were on the offensive end of the court?
The defense backed off of Buggs last night. We haven't seen so much of that this year. I hope he shoots and sinks some threes, or we'll see a lot more of the sagging during conference play.
I walked out of the game agreeing with Kampe's praise for Hamilton.
Valpo89, I wasn't at the Alie Berdiel Game. I was at Viking Field watching Valpo High beat Penn in the regional.
Also, a mea culpa. Did not realize MK had 7 assists and one turnover at that point in the game. Right choice, bad result.
Quote from: crusaderboy on December 18, 2011, 08:40:56 AM
Valpo89, I wasn't at the Alie Berdiel Game. I was at Viking Field watching Valpo High beat Penn in the regional.
No you weren't. You were watching the Vikings beat Snider in the semistate. :)
I'm old and confused!
I thought I paid for these.
Coach Sparks on twitter says a lot of rookie coaching mistakes yesterday. I like seeing coaches taking responsibility. Glad these mistakes are occurring in out of conference games!
Coach Sparks is not on staff anymore. I'm not sure he can take responsibility for anything that happened last night. I, however, do take responsibility for the echo at the start of the HLN broadcast last night. I didn't hear it on my end, but I'm sure it was there for the first five minutes of the game. I completely agree with the last second play call. Matt Kenney is not only the best player on the team beating his man off the dribble, but he's also the best decision maker on the team when he gets to the lane. Unfortunately, he did travel, otherwise Bogan would have had a wide open three in the corner.
Oops! What a bad error on my end. Agree on Kenney, he showed in the butler game an ability to score off the dribble and he was dishing assists all night. It's too bad one bad play can stick out above the positives.
Quote from: chef on December 18, 2011, 10:30:38 AMthe echo at the start of the HLN broadcast last night. I didn't hear it on my end, but I'm sure it was there for the first five minutes of the game.
I watched the game over the internet & the echo was there the whole game. Turned the sound off but kept going back to it to check and the echo was always there.
With the game on the line, Kampe was going to his top scorer/best player. No doubt about it! Valpo, on the other hand, chose to go to their 5th best scorer. He is sometimes good at going to the basket and he is also sometimes good at making bonehead plays. In my mind, it is poor judgment to not put the game in the hands of eith Broekhoff or Van Wijk with the game on the line. The scenario had an Ali Berdiel feel to it from the moment we inbounded the ball.
I agree we should have had a play designed for either Van Vijk or Broekhoff. Rowdy has shown ability to drive to the basket or even shoot a pull up. Granted he does not do it often but when he does he usually seems pretty successful. I also expect Broekhoff to be able to shoot over a defender easier than Kenney would. However, I did not see who was guarding Broekhoff on the last possession.
Quote from: chef on December 18, 2011, 10:30:38 AMMatt Kenney is not only the best player on the team beating his man off the dribble, but he's also the best decision maker on the team when he gets to the lane.
Is this a testament to how good he is at it? Or how bad we are as a team at driving the lane? I still cringe every time he is at full speed busting down the court like a bull in a china shop only to jump in the air and then try to make some decision of what to do next.
I think you guys are missing the point. Matt had an option to shoot but also was trying to draw defenders and dish. As chef said, Bogan was wide open in the corner.
The sound system was bad and I always love it when the guys forget their mikes are on or someone back in the studio doesn't cut their mikes. At one point Todd told his partner that he had to take a leak. Sure hope everything came out OK!! ;)
As for the game, it was one of the best efforts for both teams. Anyone who complains about the non-conference schedule either isn't there or doesn't appreciate great college basketball.
All in all I think we played very well although we continue to be hit with too many turnovers. Nice to have Boggs correct?? In his first game he must have been more than a little nervous and hitting 2 of 4 from the 3 is impressive. He will be a big addition down the line.
The obvious weakness continues to be Buggs' play. He needs to avoid the silly ticky tack fouls that he constantly is called for. Aggressive play is one thing but fouling out with 12 minutes to go is a team buster. Zero points, 5 fouls early in the second half is not going to help us win conference games.
One final thought--If Rowdy isn't first team all conference then somebody was paid off. Right now I could see him being MVP as well. His all around play is just outstanding.
Quote from: valpotx on December 17, 2011, 09:10:00 PM
I am also wondering why on that last play, the defender tried to go under the screen, rather than on top so he could be waiting closer to where Hamilton received the ball on the run. You just can't allow a guy to get a running start like that with 4.6 left, you need to make them stop for a second. The end result was a lucky bank shot. We just lost to Helms part 2
Very astute observation valpotx. As I said on the Valpo Zone chat while watching the game, you have to make the offensive player go towards the ball in order to catch the inbound pass. You can not allow him to catch the ball going towards the basket so you play behind and not deny.
Yes, Matt had the option of an open man in the corner. However, I feel that Matt just runs and jumps in the air, THEN figures out what to do. Unfortunately here he did not get to the point of making a split decision in mid-air. If he had the kick out to Bogan in mind, I imagine he would have been able to maintain better control of his body and the ball. Because we saw an option available to him, does not mean he was actually going to take that option.
And going to Bogan means instead of having our 5th best scorer (Kenney) take the game winner, we would be going with the 6th best scorer??? Still doesn't make sense to me.
A couple questions about the HLN broadcast. Did the audio get better early in the first half? Or was there an echo the entire broadcast? If so, I have no idea what caused that. The audio that's fed back to me is the radio broadcast. Thus if there's anything wrong with the HLN broadcast, I would likely not be aware of that, and in most cases would not have any control over that issue. One factor last night was the regular HLN director at the arc had the night off. He usually will let me know if there's an audio issue on my end. Thanks to all for the kind comments last week.
Quote from: chef on December 18, 2011, 04:48:53 PM
A couple questions about the HLN broadcast. Did the audio get better early in the first half? Or was there an echo the entire broadcast? If so, I have no idea what caused that. The audio that's fed back to me is the radio broadcast. Thus if there's anything wrong with the HLN broadcast, I would likely not be aware of that, and in most cases would not have any control over that issue. One factor last night was the regular HLN director at the arc had the night off. He usually will let me know if there's an audio issue on my end. Thanks to all for the kind comments last week.
The echo stopped early in the first half on my end. No problem after....I'm glad to know the regular director wasn't there, because the person directing the pictures sucked with his cutaways, missing free throws and drives to the basket on several occassions.
I stand very close to valpo's bench during games. Toward the end of the second half, Harris came out and sat at the end of the bench holding his left shoulder. You could tell he was in a lot of pain but didn't say much to the coaching staff. When he came back in you could tell he was in pain. He was dribbling only with his right hand and had a hard time moving the ball around (passing with just one hand, had a turn over). That could explain why kurth came into the game.
Quote from: Valpo89 on December 18, 2011, 07:10:33 AM
Quote from: chipper955 on December 17, 2011, 11:35:35 PM
I don't understand why Kurth was in the game at all when you have Jay Harris sitting on the bench. I was just waiting for Kurth to get the ball stolen from him. I thought Buggs had a good game besides the fouls. He assisted on quite a few of the baskets that Valpo had when the jumped out to a big lead in the second half. And once he went to the bench with 4 fouls is when Valpo started to struggle to score.
Could you tell that Jay Harris was in pain?
He took a major shot to the chest in the Bowling Green game. He didn't practice much all week, couldn't get his arms above his head.
Jay was basically playing one-handed last night. There was one time when I questioned why Jay was in the game at all, and he got stripped by Hamilton. Hamilton is solid as a rock and would be a tough matchup for Jay on a regular day, but when he could hardly move his left arm, it was easy pick-ins for Hamilton which led to a layup at the other end.
Do you all forget that Matt Kenney helped beat Butler on a driving layup at the end of regulation? He's at his best when driving to the basket. He's got more confidence going to the rim than anyone on the team, and his options included a kickout to Broekhoff.
I'm surprised no one has mentioned the Ali Berdiel travel against Purdue yet. Similar play, exact same spot on the court. Come on crusaderboy.
I thought that Berdiel dribbled it off of his foot out of bounds or to a defender? That is at least what I remember from when I was at the game, but that was around 10 years ago, so highly possible I am not remembering correctly.