Messages

Yes they have a good athletics program but when evaluating adding a member to the Conference give HEAVY consideration the the $ making sports like Men's Basketball and Football.

How does the MVC make money in football when the MVC doesn't have football as a sport?

The Valley does play football. The scholarship football teams in the MVC (Indiana State, Illinois State, Missouri State, Southern Illinois and Northern Iowa) are all in the MVFC along with ND State, SD State, South Dakota, Western Illinois and Youngstown State.

http://www.valley-football.org/

So let's just judge our wins and losses on the actual quality of the opponent we beat. Sure Alabama has size, but they aren't good at shooting and they don't move the ball well. This is why we were favored and why we won by 8. Lottich did a good job with the lineups (other than the Smits thing) and Valpo was able to switch Peters to their big guy and have him go to town at the top of the perimeter.

It shouldn't matter if they play in the SEC, MEAC, or Horizon. Beating an average team is beating an average team. Beating a good team is beating a good team.

Where did you see we were favored? Every line I saw had Alabama as a 2-3 point favorite. Not saying you're wrong, just wondering where this line was. Even KenPom had Valpo as a 2-point underdog.

Wouldn't a 1 day break before the final be better for the  finalists?

The break is for the women's quarterfinal games. The men play their four games one day, the women the next, then both sets of semis and finals are the same day.

I think the WCC break on Sunday (which was for both men and women) was because of BYU not playing on Sundays.

It would make sense to have 7-10 and 8-9 play a few days before getting to Detroit and then slotting those winners in against 1 and 2 and go to the Summit format (the MAAC does it too), where No. 1 and No. 2 play on the first day (men and women), then No. 3 and No. 4 play the next day with all four semis and the two finals in the two days following.

Should coach of the year go to the coach of the best team, or the coach who did the best job with what he had? Bryce did a great job this year, but WSU was 3-13 in the league last year and turned it around to 13-5. I think Billy Donlan should be coach of the year.

The best website to gauge seeds is http://www.bracketmatrix.com/

He casts a pretty wide net - any idea how many of his sources are garbage?

But, fun to follow, horse race style, for sure.

He's willing to take one from anyone and everyone, which helps to kind of balance things out. I think overall, it is a really good gauge of the landscape as a whole. And it also lets you find a lot of not quite as well known sources for this stuff, some of which are quite good.

again, why isn't this game played with their travel partner? 

I think it has to do with CSU playing a number of games, including the Valpo one, at the Quicken Loans Arena instead of the Wolstein Center. My guess is that the Cavs' schedule (or other things happening at the Q) made the regular Thursday/Saturday or Friday/Sunday pairing impossible (perhaps also with other things going on at Wolstein), so splitting it up made the most sense to allow the game on the Cavs' floor. But that's just an educated guess.

If LeCrone continues to sit on his hands and do nothing, I hope Valpo leaves and I hope its the MVC. Geographically the move makes sense, we're an hour from Loyola, not far from Peoria, Bloomington, Terre Haute, and Evansville. Also its a better conference in terms of basketball. 

In this day and age with teams jumping ship as quick as they are nothing would surprise me. In the past the HL has had some good programs. Dayton, Marquette, St. Louis, Butler, Xavier, Evansville... I know some of these teams aren't the programs they are today but it goes to show the HL has had good programs but has trouble keeping them.

Based on the history I wouldn't hold my breath on the HL bringing in a strong program but rather a team blossoming and jumping ship.
[/quote]

Google Maps tells me it is five hours from Valpo to Evansville (give or take a few minutes) That amount of driving will get you to every school currently in the HL except for YSU, which is five and a half hours from campus. That's not even considering how long it would take to get to Drake, Wichita State or Missouri State.

So geographically, a move to the MVC would kind of make sense. But only sort of.

Doesn't really matter whether we are the 2 or the 3, does it? As long as they stay out of the 4-5 game, there shouldn't be an issue.

Quote from: mgovalpo on February 28, 2013, 02:06:37 PM
No worries. As I understand it, all the rest of the players being recruited are in fact post players.


Very true. Hopefully there's news on this front soon...

This as of late February and still no additional signings.

Late signing period started yesterday. News is on the way.

One thing to consider for the point of the Valley being a multi-bid league: Of the 10 times since 1999 that the Valley has gotten two or more bids to the tournament, Creighton has gotten one of those multi-bids eight times. With Creighton, the Valley is clearly a stronger league than the HL. Without Creighton, I'm not sure it is quite so clear-cut.

No worries. As I understand it, all the rest of the players being recruited are in fact post players.

This team will go as far as its post players can carry it. When they beat Cleveland State, Tabitha and Gina combined for 56, the two combined for 12 against Detroit and until Tabitha scored five late ones, they combined for 10 last night. Does the production from the guards have to be better? Absolutely it does. But this isn't a guard-oriented team, and when Gerardot and Lange struggle (as they have the last two games), it's going to be a struggle to win.

I was looking over the schedule the other day, and I figured they could at least go 4-4 in the second half of conference play. This would get them to 7-9 and should keep them out of the 8/9 game. There's a clear delineation between the top three teams (GB, Det, YSU) and everyone else, so I would not be surprised if this team finishes anywhere from 4th to 7th.

I'm pretty certain all the banners from last school year (basketball, bowling, softball and baseball) are hanging in the main entrance of the ARC over the stairs to the balcony. My guess is that they will be moved into the ARC next year when there are new banners to hang at the main entrance for this school year.

No mercy rule in baseball like there is in softball. The teams have to play it out to the end. There was an NCAA tournament game a few years ago between Florida State and Ohio State that finished 27-2. Some times, that's just the way it is.

Joe Lunardi has his predictions up for the 13 Bracketbuster television games (with the caveat that there's still a week's worth of games to be played). He has Cleveland State hosting Northern Iowa and Valpo taking on Ohio in Athens. Interestingly, he also has Oral Roberts hosting Nevada.

This doesn't really fit in with your current discussion, but Kendall Rogers at Perfect Game just posted that he has seen Arkansas' schedule and that it includes a non-conference series with Valpo.  Kudos to Coach Woodson for getting a series like this on our 2012 schedule.