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Chadwick played the following night and looked really, really good. Albeit against a DII team.
As for the Friday game, it looked to me like Mercer was just in better condition as the game got toward the end. Valpo guys looked tired, and I think that's part of the reason all our bigs fouled out.
Does anyone think Bryce doesn't focus enough on conditioning?

Seeing how tough it is to fill a 5,000-seat gym to the point where it doesn't look half empty, I can't imagine the university would be interested in an arena half the size. The place would be a graveyard on most HL or other game days. This arena would likely be home to a major junior hockey league team, and might play host to the local Purdue directional campus teams and things like that.
And don't be so quick to dismiss the idea of major artists playing a 9,000 seat arena on the southern shore of Lake Michigan. Booking agents love to book shows that are between major tour stops like Chicago and Detroit, or Milwaukee an INdy

Also Murray State is within a few miles of the Tennessee line.

About 3 or 4. When I was at MSU in the early 90s, we'd drive just across the line into TN to a place called Mack's. Guy was a genius. He openened a drive through liquor store literally feet into TN. Calloway County KY (home of MSU) was dry at the time, so on weekends cars would be backed up past campus on the main road heading down to Mack's. He's got to be a billionaire by now


https://maps.google.com/maps?q=Murray,+KY&hl=en&ll=36.611118,-88.313599&spn=1.289711,1.766052&sll=41.475425,-87.053415&sspn=0.07524,0.110378&oq=Murray&t=m&hnear=Murray,+Calloway,+Kentucky&z=9

Just heard from a usually reliable source that PantherU is correct, UIC moving to the MVC is all but announced, perhaps waiting for the confirmation of additional teams (perhaps Valpo). A rumor on the Wright State board also says that Oakland, UMKC, and Denver might be headed to the HL. My source says Oakland is in the HL, but would only add that those other two teams are being considered seriously by the HL.

I can live with Oakland, but if UMKC and Denver are inbound, I'd jump at a chance to join the Valley.
If the Valley is courting UIC and NOT Valpo, though, that's sketch.

Hey guys. I asked this question on Raider Nation and no one seems to have a definitive answer. For lack of a better thread to add it to, I'll ask it here. After Kevin ware's injury and heading into the second half of Louisville/Duke at Lucas oil Stadium, I noticed the Horizon League logo on the Louisville locker room sign. Later on I also realized it was being sported in the top left corner of the court where the hosting team usually has its logo. Any of you have the scoop on how we got that there for the elite eight?

For a city/arena/facility to host an NCAA tournament event at any level (DI, DII, DIII, D-IA), said city/arena/facility must work with a certified NCAA university to serve as host institution. IUPUI was also one of the host institutions, as was the Indiana Sports Corporation. All those organizations/universities worked with the city and Lucas Oil to serve as NCAA approved host institutions.

Check out bracketology today.
I love the spot Lunardi has VU in.
Two definitely winnable games
Now, as I'm superstitious as Heck, this is all dependent upon us winning tomorrow night, which certainly isn't guaranteed.
But just in case it happens, I like this draw.

I sure did say that back then. And I couldn't be happier that I was wrong.
Also pretty glad that after I left last night, the team found some guts and brought it back to win the game and the league.
And I loved Ben Hur, 2001 and Gettysburg.
Never saw Ghandi

I am sorry but from what I saw our student section was a joke tonight - on senior night....    Fine I did not make the game but I live over 3 hours away and that is when there is no winter advisory.   I feel bad for the team because if I was in town I would not have been making excuses for missing such a critical game.

Got to agree that from our inconsistent student turnout this is no "top student section" - sorry.   Wish I could say the student section was....   

As for the game - YSU could not miss in the first.  Officiating sucked...   We came out to play in the second half.    CONGRATS TEAM!!!!

That's OK. The team was a joke in the first half, too. I've been attending nearly every Valpo home game and a lot of roadies for the past 10 years and that's the first time in those 10 years that I felt I had to leave at halftime. What an embarrassment.

I have a pretty solid hatred for Ray and Ray jr., and with a 35-point lead that late in the game I'd take my starters out, too. But let's remember, we complain on this board quite a bit about Bryce refusing to put the hammer down and salt away the win. And how that philosophy often times leads to the typical "prevent defense" result, pulling defeat from the jaws of victory and losing games they had well in hand.
There's nothing wrong with puttingn the figurative boot on the collective neck to ensure the win.

On the road. Can't score.
UIC 71, VU 58

This team has one legit DI player in Ryan. The rest should be playing VERY low DI or mostly DII.
Dority stinks, as do Bogan, BUggs, Boggs and Capobianco. And Kevin, holy cow. Every time he touches the ball in the low post his first, immediate reaction is to look for someone to pass to instead of turning and putting up a 2-foot shot. But worst of all is Bryce. He looked absolutely lost on the sideline.
Loyola was scoring at will and all he could do after his boys gave up another EASY basket was clap his hands as they brought the ball up the floor.
Gonna be a long season.

Let's call a spade a spade!  Our coaching in the OU game was a disaster!!!  We have an 8-10 point lead and all of a sudden we decide to sit on it and hold the ball instead of running our offense which got us the lead.  Buggs farts around for 30 seconds in the center circle and the best shot we get is a forced 3-pointer from 25 feet out - you've got to be kidding.  And this happened more than once!!  Buggs should be sitting a lot more.  His play seems to get worse as the season progresses.

With coaching like that we wont have to worry about Bryce going to a big time job, that's for sure.  We get beat by a 3-7 team, blowing a 8- 10 point lead with less than 5 minutes to go?   The staff and the team should be ashamed of their performance...I know I was.

I've said this for years. The Drews refuse to put their foot on the neck of their opponents. There seems to be a flat refusal to beat the heck out of teams. THey go into a prevent all the team, and instead of putting the game away, they hold back. And it's gonna end up killing them'

Say hello to a 4th place regular season finish in the league and a first round exit in the HL tourney.
This team is really, really bad.
I watch UDM lose to third ranked Syracuse by four. I watch Loyola beat Mississippi State. I watch YSU beat Georgia, and I watch this Valpo team trip over itself time and time again.
This is a really bad basketball team.

The guy next to me also said they are having trouble getting big crowds, whatever that means.  It sure would be great to have a smaller version of that building at Valpo!!!

SLU is averaging just over 6,000 per game this year (about what they had for Valpo) vs. 7,750 last year, so crowds are down a bit.  The new arena looked great on TV, especially compared to the last two SLU games I attended in The Checkerdome and Kiel Auditorium.  For you younger folks, both of those buildings bit the dust long ago.   

i consider myself among the younger folk on this here board, but i remember the spectacle that was the implosion of the checkerdome, and watching it live on tv. (yes, i'm from the st louis area.) seems so much longer than only 99 that that building was taken down.

I was in St. Louis once as a younger kid in the mid 80s and I saw a St. Louis Steamers indoor soccer game at the CHecker Dome. Cool old room.

The bigger - and in my opinion, only - issue that should be discussed here, again, is why this program - not just this year's team - but this program, crawl into a 25% shooting fetal position every time it goes up against a BCS team, or even a high-mid major team?
Every year you see Youngstown State's beating Georgias, and UIC's beating Northwesterns, yet this crap keeps happening to VU, year after year.
This year they couldn't beat the B1G's worst (by far) team, that three days later was trounced by a Kent State team that VU beat.
After 10 years of die hard fandom, I'm really getting sick of this inability to beat higher-level teams.

Losses to IPFW, UNM, STL, Murray State and Missouri State.
They had to fight to hang on against Chicago State and Bethune Cookman, and lost to a Nebraska team that just lost to Kent State by double digits.
If Ryan doesn't come out in all these games like he did against BC, they're sunk.

Am I missing something or did I not see UDM in the top 144?
By this account, HL will go VU, GB, CSU ... and who knows what else.
FOund it odd that UDM wasn't in the top 144.

Good Idea.

Bad design.

Agreed. Give it some little sort of tweak design-wise.

The shirt is fun. I think we should do it.
That's how rivalries are built, in part.

Interesting thought from the Butler board:

My understanding is the people who run the Kentucky state university system are pissed off at the OVC for allowing NKU's membership application to be blackballed by the conferences Tennessee member institutions.  They really want Morehead, Murray, and NKU in the same conference. So there is a chance all three could move somewhere as a package deal.

Two 6-team divisions - north and south.

The state system would rather see Murray, Morehead and Eastern stay together. No sense in the trio-with-NKU argument if they want to include a new school which isn't even D-I yet and leave a long-standing D-I member, EKU, behind.

Don't dismiss Murray State or Morehead, and the WKU tout has merit.
As a Murray grad, I know the program has not been all that happy with recent moves into the conference, although the Belmont move is intriguing. In the past 15 years the OVC has made some additions that have hurt RPI and affected the history of the league. And their football program has never been good and frankly would fit in well with the likes of the Pioneer league. Morehead is an OVC school and plays in the Pioneer League.
And as a Racer, there's nothing I'd love more than to see them join.
But I think the HIlltoppers are the most plausible of the southern possibilities. They're in a terrible hoops conference and their football has never been solid, at least not since Jack Harbaugh was there.
Just a thought or two.

Just heard on Detroit radio that BWood got arrested in Chicago this weekend for slapping a woman after a party.

http://www.mlive.com/spartans/index.ssf/2012/04/former_michigan_state_basketba.html

I could see interest from a Northern Illinois, or maybe a Bradley or an Illinois State.
And here's a wild card ... does anyone think Ball State would be interested in the move?

You'd think they'd take head-to-head play pretty seriously.  Which makes it tough to rank CSU higher.

But, CSU does have a somewhat better RPI.  They have fewer bad losses.  They share one of our top-100 wins (Akron).  Their other two look pretty good today: Vanderbilt who won the SEC tournament, and St. Bonaventure who won the A10 tournament.  They have fewer bad losses, but didn't do as well against the RPI 51-100 (losing to South Florida, Drexel, and us twice).

So, I suppose, avoiding bad losses and getting one blue chip win were more important than head-to-head victories and beating peer teams. 

If we'd avoided IPFW, IUPUI, and Wright State losses, would it have been us?

If we'd avoided IPFW, IUPUI and Wright State, maybe we would've gotten an at-large to the NCAA's.

So someone explain how CSU gets into the NIT as a 6, one seed better than Valpo.