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But do they roll on Shavas?

He is one of the most influential African Americans who has had an influence in sports and was a great representative at Valparaiso. He was a student coach for 2 years and made a tremendous impact to many players. No Valpo HOF is complete without Eugene Parker.

You didn't really answer my questions about what sport he played/coached, or what years he did that.

When did Eugene Parker attend VU, what sport(s), and how notable was his contribution?

Yes, shooting a smidge over 50% from 3, with our 14-29, helped. We definitely needed Earnest to play a little smarter. She made some ball handling mistakes. Had the Harris 3 to end the half that didn't count because Earnest held on to the ball a little too long. The Jackson twins are definitely showing their growths. Just needed a few of the others to do things to help the women make some separation in the score. It is a good step, having a 2-game winning streak going. We have the next four games mostly in our favor. We just need to play with better control, and basketball IQ about moving the ball and moving without the ball.

Not sure if this is strictly about former men's team players/coaches, but if not, I did see that former women's point guard, Shay Frederick is now a grad assistant at University of South Dakota. She went there to work with former Valpo assistant Gabby Johnson.

https://goyotes.com/sports/womens-basketball/roster/coaches/shay-frederick/1397

We control our record, but Illinois St. just beat our next opponent, Indiana St., 64-59 on the road. We're down 8, 32-24 at UIC right now, but the way the game has been going, we're looking tough defensively, but making mistakes all over the place, like normal. These 5 games will test our mindset about getting wins. We win these next 5, and we go to 6-7 in conference, and could move up a couple spots, plus the middle teams losing games to keep the middle of the pack tight, and giving us a chance to take out 1 or 2 of the games that finish out our conference schedule.

The COVID year rule was most likely originally intended for Football and both levels of basketball, while the rest of the sports were intentionally left out. I'm guessing more of the Olympic sports pitched a fit because of how many players OPTED OUT during that year, so they had to change the rule, especially as most all of D-II and D-III didn't play any sports during the worst of the pandemic.

Best of luck to Nikki in 2024.

Women's basketball isn't known for replacing a head coach during the season, unless some transgression has been made that requires termination. I also believe that Evans wasn't replaced at the same time as Lottich because of buyouts. We couldn't pay two coaches to not work, while paying two coaches to work. I don't see any of our assistant coaches being strong interim choices, as the women's coaches have been rather inconsistent in staying for more than a season or two, and not having a lot of experience on their resumes.

The next 5 games favor Valpo, but then we get the brunt of the top of the standings to end the season, so while we look promising now, we have to get things together to make any surprises/upsets going into Hoops In The Heartland, and maybe get a chance to win a Thursday game against Evansville or Bradley, to face one of the top seeds.

I do see we'll have radio coverage today, probably because the team was bussing in today, or the university could have the radio group drive up this morning on their own, getting mileage and gas money/perdiem for the travel.

It's even worse for the women when they have ZERO radio coverage from WVUR...it's all ESPN+/3, or opponent's radio coverage. I mean even if the only one on the radio was Aaron Leavitt for the road games, at least it's something...this is bad.

Wait, so I know Valpo isn't a dry campus, but wasn't there something about being a tobacco-free campus as well?

That's why the event is being held at President Padilla's home...the university might not own his property, therefore he can host an event there at his will.

You become better when you face better competition and not playing gimmes. Fans don't really want to see this.

When the fans start to put the pads on, and play the games, let me know, since they'll all want to play the gimmies so the record looks better. The teams play the gimmies to get players some breaks or more playing time for the depth chart in September, so they can be better body prepared for games that matter in conference in November. We played Youngstown St. to help the swim team pay for buses to meets, not so the fans would be happy about who we played and how.

Even the top dogs use these FCS games as ways to get some of the depth chart action early in the season, so they can put some of their "practice squad" work to use in a game to get reps. It equates in the same way as Valpo playing Trinity Christian in non-conference basketball scheduling, a chance to get the depth chart some playing time, even though they know they aren't going to be more than practice squad the rest of the season. The FCS schhools use it to help pay for the non-revenue sports travel needs. It isn't just to destroy the opponent, otherwise the NCAA might have made a rule years ago that FBS schools couldn't contract games with FCS or non-scholarship and NAIA programs.

Also, it could be that based on the region of the country each coach is responsible for recruiting in, they are not just focusing on current seniors alone, but getting those future spots some attention, for potential transfers after year 2 on the roster...

After one year, I have to see more of what Coach Walker does with more recruiting money involved, plus it feels like we are going to see the program getting away from going to all the same D-III heavy meets in the future, so it really challenges the runners, throwers, and jumpers to focus on improving, rather than just showing up, and getting some times or marks. I mean I liked running for Coach Straubel, and getting to know Coach Moore, but their resources were so limited by AD Steinbrecher, who was never leaving the Mid Con, and AD LaBarbara, who had no major resource support from President Heckler to make the improvements he wanted to make for the programs. With AD Small, I think Coach Walker will have more opportunities to branch out with meets, and maybe getting the Valpo Winthrow Open at Sunset Hills to return to a Saturday, so we can get more schools to come, when they don't have to miss so much class time on a Friday. Plus, would like to see the schedule work out to get a better setup for a home track invitational, that isn't just a handful of local schools looking to get another meet in for a few runners here or there.

A wild game of poker played between a bunch of chess playing coaches, isn't it?

I do like that Dr. Small is working with local radio stations to get some energy back that was lost from President Heckler's misappropriation of resource to the community that our athletics program was and would be. I hope this leads to more local radio stations wanting to tap into WVUR for VU Men's Basketball radio coverage, or even football coverage in the coming years.

Hope Luke and family didn't already buy a house in Wichita.  Also, hope he's prepared for east coast real estate prices. NJ is the 7th most expensive state in the US. Median list price of houses in Princeton is $978k.

Maybe Princeton has some local realtors that they work with to help coaches out with housing options?

Is it possible that Roger sees a little bit of untapped Vashil Fernandez in Jerome Palm? Maybe we get a massive rebounder/shot blocker in Palm in 23-24?

I get the reason why most of you hated the Non-D1 games under Luke and Matt's scheduling philosophy, but as Luke always said those games didn't count towards NET or RPI. and usually came after a tough Thanksgiving MTE, or Finals Break, where we could give the starters/regular rotation a little bit of a break. It also allowed some of the bench mob a bit of a chance to develop in a game, rather than just in practice. I have to see more of what will come of the 23-24 schedule, but for this season, the low D-1 games we are playing, again go with Luke's philosophy of keeping the guys in the classroom longer. The games with UWGB and IUPUI come with a really small payout, since GB might only need hotel, food, and bus, whereas the Jags only need food and bus. Low investment on our part, compared to an Elon or Samford, where you're talking plane tickets, bus, hotel, and food.

Gonzaga moving to the Big 10 or Big 12 would be like what happened when Nebraska left for the money. Nebraska hasn't been a factor in the Big Ten for anything more than another TV market for the Big Ten Network to reach out to. Even in watching the Big 10 Network coverage of Oregon and Washington being accepted, all that Dave Revsine and Jake Butt could talk about was the ability to be at Autzen Stadium and Huskie Stadium in the Fall for Big Ten football, and the exposure that would bring them and the conference on the media side. Sure, Oregon brings in another competitive track and cross country program, which I'll support, but will it really make as big of an impact, or is it another case of poaching Maryland and Rutgers?

I want to say they left "Home of the Valparaiso University Crusaders" as part of our campus history. For the most part, Hilltop is strictly used to basketball practices, maybe even some baseball/softball work, but not sure that intramurals uses it. All the same, it's part of the University/Campus history, nothing to do with wars or fighting.

I like seeing all of the recruiting news coming from this coaching staff. I would hope that in the interviews, Roger said, "I will going out and doing a lot of recruiting, so my budget will need to be a lot more, as the years go on." Seeeing they are staying within driving distance currently is good too. I agree that some of these offers will be rejected, but that's all these is "offers". At least, it gives the potential to the kid that he can be a focus from our program, but also allows him to see what other schools will send offers that might be better than Valpo, or will be under what Valpo has to offer. I'm excited to see how things go over the next 5 years.

One thing I do hope Roger brings back is the coaches wearing suits and ties on the bench, no more of the polos, athletic pullover jackets, and khakis or workout pants. Be respectful of your job title, not some marketing campaign.

Kylen Butler, who was the Special Assistant to the Head Coach, has moved on to work with Marty Simmons at Eastern Illinois, so we are down one assistant coach. He had previous experience working alongside Coach Simmons in his time at Clemson, where Simmons was an assistant with Brad Brownell.

https://eiupanthers.com/news/2023/6/12/kylen-butler-joins-eiu-mens-basketball-coaching-staff.aspx

If I remember correctly, once Indiana could begin to relax Covid protocols, VU was working to get the band back. They didn't offer the $500 a member stipend until second semester of 2022-23 academic year. Now that the athletic department has had some time to find a full-time director, or a student director, they can move forward with ways to recruit, get out around campus and the community at-large, and get the music hopping around Brown Field and the ARC again. I'm not sure it was so much about the winning or losing as it was having the director, and being able to return to games post-Covid. In terms of Arch Madness, by the time the band was back to playing again, some of the members had already committed to Spring Break trips with other groups, and they had paid for those prior to knowing they would be in the reformed Pep Band. It will take a little time to rebuild the  band, but I think Dr. Small and President Padilla will make it happen in ways that Mark Heckler limited Mark LaBarbera's ability to grow anything in athletics, including the band.