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Best news in forever with this program. I figured this was the longest of long-shots a couple weeks ago. Credit to AD Small and President Padilla for pulling this off. I didn't think this was possible and boy was I wrong.

I love the "unfinished business" comment. Let's not forget that Coach Powell's last few weeks at Valpo involved one of VU's best teams ever getting snubbed by the NCAA (they were a second-weekend of the Dance team, minimum) and then the heartbreak of losing in the NIT title game at the Garden. There's undoubtedly a lingering painful memory that he's seeking to make right.

Now, announce something with the facilities along with this hire and Powell will be unstoppable on the recruiting trail!

I mean, sure, call him but given that he reportedly did not want to be a candidate when Bryce left, I can't see why he'd want to come here now.

Very glad to hear that Valpo wants to try to save the program by making this move. I'm probably outside the mainstream here in that I absolutely do not want VU to limit this search to Valpo alums or the Drew coaching tree or whatever. If there are candidates who make sense from that group to interview, great, but that shouldn't be the determining factor. If you can get a guy like McCollum or a talented HC from a low-major D1 or a promising P5 assistant who have no ties to Valpo, you go get them if they are the best person for the job.

Now for the caveat: while we absolutely, positively have to get this hire right, that's only half of the job. Even the best candidate is going to have their hands tied in recruiting if VU isn't taking tangible, active steps to address the facilities issue. If another coaching staff comes and goes without any movement on this front, this program is going to be consigned to struggle for the long haul. This has to be a priority on a parallel path with getting the new staff in place. And quite frankly, any good coach worth having is going to demand it, as well. 

University isn't going to break tradition and fire a coach prematurely. They sure are not going to do it and pay an additional 690k.

Tradition?! Where is this tradition? There has been one, and exactly one, coach in VU's Division I history who was in a position to be fired "prematurely." That was Homer Drew early in his career... 30+ years ago now. When the program had no resources, no investment, an unstable conference, and no fanbase. And if Homer hadn't landed two P5-level transfers from Valpo High who decided to come home from far-flung schools seeking playing time, he might well have been. Because without those two guys showing the program could turn around, Bryce almost certainly takes the scholarship offer from Jim Boeheim and is a Syracuse legend today.


The remainder of our D-1 history? Ken Rochlitz, who left on his own to go coach a JUCO in Wyoming, because that was a program with better commitment than VU at the time. Tom Smith, who resigned because no one cared enough to put him on the hot seat to go take a D-2 HC job in Missouri, where he went on to become a Hall of Famer for that university. Scott Drew, who coached one year before being hired away by Baylor. Homer, who retired as an all-time coaching legend. And Bryce, who took us to two NCAA tourneys and got hired away by a P5 school.


There is no "tradition" of not firing coaches at VU. It's one coach, who had only been year five years instead of Lottich's seven, who was given another year when he landed two big-time local transfers at a time when the university was averaging three-figure attendance and invested a fraction of the money in sports it does now. There are TWICE as many coaches who have left VU for lower-division jobs of their own volition because of the university's lack of commitment to hoops, than there are coaches who were saved by this "tradition" of not firing coaches early.


To reiterate my theme from the other night, if there is an unwritten policy that VU doesn't fire coaches before contracts are up, say that. Tell your fanbase, donors and stakeholders that.


Finally, 690K is a literal drop in the bucket for any four-year university (yes, even a "broke" one). It's an inconsequential sum for a school with VU's operating budget. It is absolutely a small investment for an athletic department one of the top-rated mid-major leagues in the country. If that is the reason given why the university can't make a change, then they should do everyone a favor and just drop to D-3 or NAIA now.

Thanks, vu72, and in no way do I blame President Padilla or AD Small for this predicament that they inherited. My ire is directed at some of the other folks who led us to this point and who always kicked the can down the road, or pulled the "we don't fill the seats we have now," or "we're winning without a good facility, why do we need one?"

Making my annual visit to say a couple of things...

1. The fiscal issues facing the university are 100% NOT an excuse to continue on our current path with the current HC. If you somehow have basketball reasons (that nobody else is seeing) to keep Lottich and his staff in place, fine, tell us them so we can agree or disagree. But Division 1 schools do not let their LONE revenue sport, and one that was a signature attraction to the university, languish because of financial issues further up the chain. Doesn't happen. Can't happen. Further, it's self-defeating. It'd be like the university stopping spending on marketing or advertising until all of the fiscal issues are resolved--you damage your enrollment worse than you do by spending that money. Athletics are marketing for VU, like it or not, and they need to be tended as such. Find the damn money, amortize the buyout, do what you have to do here. Basketball isn't the university nor what makes it, but it is the front porch of the university, and if the front porch is in disrepair, people tend to think the house is as well.

2. This is also an area where the university's traditional lack of engaging the town in fundraising efforts is hurting them. The most successful institutions don't just focus on alumni giving, but philanthropy from friends, supporters and corporations in the communities they call home. Valpo is an affluent city, and the university has not emphasized a sense of ownership/connection with local residents who might be inclined to financially support the university in their hometown. That needs to change, no matter the coaching decision.

3. It's WELL past time for some creative thinking on the part of the university regarding the facilities they've been promising to upgrade (but haven't lifted a finger on) for nearly 20 damn years now. Because a) any new coach worth their salt will demand VU finally get off it's butt and do so and b) without said facility renovations/new arena, the long-term trajectory of this program is gonna be exactly what it is right now. If I were a MVC official or president, I'd be furious and feel lied to by Valpo. Heck, even if some of the ideas don't work out, at least TRY. Talk to the city, see if there's interest in putting a multi-use arena/entertainment facility on the old hospital property they might want to partner on. Having a facility like that within walking distance of all the downtown dining and attractions might be something the city and it's business community would interested in right now. Maybe not. But MAKE THE EFFORT AND SEE IF THEY ARE RATHER THAN DISMISSING IT AND SAYING "WE CAN'T." "We Can't" has practically become the university motto over the past decade and a half.

I don't think most people understand how perilously close we are this program is to sinking into long-term apathy like the one it was in where Tom Smith resigned. He CHOSE to leave NOT because he was about to get fired, but because as he put it, nobody cared enough to even talk about firing him! The program was directionless, nobody cared and he didn't want to continue in a losing situation. Let's not go back to that.

The annual national coaches' convention is during the Final Four. Until a few years ago, that was traditionally where a lot of hiring of new coaches went on, since all of the ADs agents, and coaches are in one spot and interviews can take place in private conference rooms or hotel suites (or heck even out in the open) without anyone thinking much of it, since everyone is socializing with one another. That doesn't make sense to wait to relieve a coach of his duties until then, though.

I'd expect both Murray and Belmont to be near the top of the conference immediately. UIC may take a few years, but I've heard rumors from a reliable source that they are discussing replacing the Pavilion with a new facility, in which case that would speed their process of moving up the MVC ladder.

First off, great points by all in this thread, especially valpopal, mj and David81. This thread is so good it pulled me in from a long hibernation on this board.

I think the unfortunate reality for Valpo right now is that we are at an important crossroads, and VU either needs to step up, invest and put the program into the upper echelon of Valley programs, or it continues on the same path, and watch us regress into the Tom Smith era again. (To be clear -- I'm not knocking Smith's coaching acumen when I say that. I'm referring to the budgetary constraints, extreme fan apathy and administrative neglect that led the program to be a joke from its Division I debut until Homer's fifth season).

Quite frankly, I don't want to hear about financial issues being the reason why we can't make a coaching change or either build a new facility or completely to-the-bones uprade and reno of the ARC. Those are excuses, and we're going on nearly two decades now of excuse-making as to why Valpo refuses to invest in its signature athletic program. We promised the Horizon League we'd build better facilities when we joined in 2007. Didn't happen. We promised Homer and then Bryce in the early to mid-2010s that we'd upgrade the facilities on multiple occasions. Didn't happen. We made iron-clad commitments to the Valley that we'd do so when we joined. Here we are, five years into our membership and there isn't so much as an artist's rendering, much less a plan to get it done. What are we getting instead? More excuses. Quite frankly, they'd be justified in threatening to kick us out for not moving on this commitment by now.

As for Coach Lottich, this is the fourth iteration of his roster with no discernible progress on the floor, the same disorganized offense, the same inability to hold leads, the same issues at the foul line, the same issues with player defections year after year. It's clear now he was a panic hire by our AD and the decision to not engage a national search after Bryce left will go down in infamy in VU's athletics history. The decision to retain him is only compounding the problem. (Lest you think this is overkill, I point you in the direction of Ball State. They made a poor hire in the wake of a MAC championship and their coach being hired away by Houston, and kept his successor for a few extra years rather than paying the buyout when it was clear he wasn't the guy. That was 22 years ago, and the Cardinals have not sniffed an NCAA Tournament berth since and are about to embark on their fifth coaching search in that time).

So what to do? Well, it's clear that our AD is not going to make a change on his way out the door. But he should absolutely sit with Coach Lottich and insist on changes in his leadership of the program, with clear metrics spelled out in writing for the next AD to refer to at this time next year.

As for the facilities? The time for talk is over. No more "oh, we have a good home court advantage when attendance is good" or "we don't fill the seats we have now." No more "we don't have the money for this right now." We don't know what money is available for a project like this because WE SIMPLY HAVE NEVER TRIED TO RAISE ANY. Put a fundraising plan in place, sound off potential corporate donors in the county, Region, and Chicago, talk to the city to see what sort of partnerships might be available (the mayor of Valpo is a former VU athlete, after all). Pay for an artist's rendering of what a new facility could look like. It doesn't have to be the final version -- just a vision. Give fans (and more importantly, potential donors) something to believe in and work toward. This "well the university has other needs" is a false zero-sum game. There are people who would donate to a new athletics facility who will never donate to other projects at the university and vice versa. A $20M donation from someone who wants to see their name on a basketball arena does not mean that this person would have donated $20M to the university for other purposes. Development doesn't work that way, no matter how much university fundraisers wish it would.

In short, take ownership of the current state of the program and work to improve it, both from a personnel standpoint and a physical facilities standpoint. And quite frankly, it's going to be hard to do too much to help the former without addressing the latter. VU has very little to offer talented coaches and players right now compared to our peers in the MVC. That's a problem, and everyone should be sounding the alarm. The lack of urgency on the university and AD's part has been a slap in the face to longtime fans who sat through the lean years of the 70s, 80s and early 90s and have done their part to maintain the success that began a quarter-century ago.

The good news? President Padilla has shown he gets the importance of athletics so far. And it's not too late to fix this.

The bad news? It soon may very well be.

(As an aside, the fact that some still point to the video boards in the ARC as some sort of commitment delivered by the university is insulting. First off, those video boards are a decade old. Secondly, they were almost entirely paid for with HL funds from Butler's Final Four run. And Hilltop Gym cosmetic changes absolutely define "bare minimum." Stop citing these things as progress. They are not).