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Valpo certainly got a bad seed. The two 13's that raise potential questioning are South Dakota St and Montana. Valpo's RPI & BPI 59-61, South Dakota 63-109, and Montana 76-131! South Dakota does have 4 wins against the Top 100 and one (as mentioned above) against a top 50. Both Valpo and Montana have just 2 wins against the top 100 and none agianst the top 50. How does Montana get a 13? Lunardi had them at a 15! MSU will be a tough if not impossible task. We would've had a shot winning at the 13.

[  They are synonomous to General Motors, where they are still trying to live the good old days of Ray Meyer.  Their facilities are also below par, and the Allstate Arena is a generic dump 40 minutes away from campus.  Students could care less about the team.  The school cannot commit to better facilities.  At least Northwestern's AD has had success at a school renown for tough academics. I cannot understand why Chris Collins or Bryce Drew would consider coaching at Northwestern, as it has been a dead end coaching job for quite a while.  Chicago currently is a terrible college basketball town.

Couldn't agree more. DePaul could've built an arena a couple miles west of the campus 30 years ago. Instead they're stuck in the dump "Allstate Arena". They probably should be in the Horizon League now. College basketball is indifferent in Chicago unless a team is really good. I do think it is possible for NU to compete better in the Big 10 with the right coach and a updated arena.

Under Izzo MSU has been to the NCAA's the last 15 years. 3 times they did lose in the 1st round, but 2 of those were when they had a .500 record in conference (13-5 this year) They made the Sweet 16 10 times, the Final Four 5 times. A bad deal for VU - slim odds. Izzo is a very good coach - odds of an unfocused team are slim. I'd have rather played Michigan there.

Confident, Outraged, Resigned, Relieved  Lollipop passes - ugh!

Thanks to Buggs for finding the seams and scoring when nobody else could (only 3 non-Buggs baskets in second half!)
Broekhoff - until the big 3 in danger of pulling a McCallum Jr. (at least on offense) Kenney -some of the weak passes were hard to believe. Bogan- nice game, did make a few shots.

Game of runs 25-8 in the second half to the 5:30 mark then 16-0 Valpo the next 5 min

Ugly, but we're dancing. Great defensive game plan again by Coach Donlon. Thank heaven for Buggsy tonite.

Wayne Larrivee of Chicago Bears/Bulls and Green Bay Packer fame was play-by-play with Will Perdue on color

Thanks for post. Nice to hear Larrivee again - miss hearing him in Chicago area.

As a lot of you probably know, Coach Donlon grew up in the northern Chicago suburbs. At the beginning of this school year, his father who is now serving as a basketball operations assistant (he's on the bench too), was a dean at our local high school. Prior to that he had been the high school coach and prior to that served as as assistant at Northwestern to Bill Foster. I can't say for sure but I'm thinking he stayed put in the north Chi suburbs to provide a stable home base for his family instead of continually moving around as an assistant. Kudos for that.

I'm curious to see what kind of defense adjustments Donlon may try tonite. I'm guessing nothing different unless Rowdy gets off to a hot start. Would they leave anyone open a lot like Bruinsma was for Detroit?

Let's get this W. I'd like to add a new NCAA shirt to my collection.  I wore my Sweet 16 shirt Saturday at Valpo (didn't see any others) and I'll wear it again tonite for hopefully good karma.

I'd like to say how impressed I was with Ryan in this game. Not because he hit the game winning shot, because we all know that was great, but because he forced things a little bit when it was necessary. He hit some tough shots, but more importantly he took some tough shots. Ryan will have to play like that the rest of the way if Valpo's going to continue having success (define that however you choose). This team is better when he's just a tiny bit selfish.

Excellent point. I've felt at times when the team is in a bit of a funk Rowdy should force things just a bit to shake things up.

Anyone who sees most of the VU games think Rowdy has a shot at the NBA? I've just seen 4 games in person the last 2 years and 3 of them have to be among his best (Saturday  - Green Bay, earlier this year at Milwaukee and last year Horizon Tournament vs. Butler). Also, how does Rowdy match up vs. Barton from 02? Thanks

It should be a very close game. Kudos to Coach Donlon for his defensive game plan against Detroit. They really threw McCallum off his game -he we definitely forcing things near the end. Bruinsma scored 15 but he wasn't really being guarded closely.

Perhaps Wright plays Broekhoff the same way - try to get the ball out of his hands and force others to make plays, especially if KVW is limited.

Should Broekhoff be more aggressive earlier in the game and plow to the hole and try to make things happen or be patient in the offense?

Can Kenney and Bogan (looked tight against Green Bay and Detroit in final last year) make shots?

It'll be fun to watch. I made just my second trip ever to the ARC for the games Saturday. What an experience. I dug out my Sweet 16 shirt for the game and will wear it again Tuesday for good karma.

Thanks so much for posting. I had my camera with me but didn't think of videoing the final seconds. A memorable finish. Let's hope KVW is OK for Tuesday.