Messages

Bye old board. 👋👋

I'll miss her. We are leaving a lot of interesting arguments behind. Does this mean we are starting fresh and all are forgiven and welcome? 

I know the Paul has written about the bright future for Scroggins, but, the constant "we are going to bring in some dudes to supports these young guys", would make me want to hit the portal out of disrespect if I was either Scoggins or Manyang.

Agree vu72. Getting old. Slam on those two.

I'm viewing this differently. Scroggins has been described as a project player and a project is a project no matter what bench in D-1 he is coming off of. I have no inside knowledge on Manyang but I'll speculate that whatever medical issues followed him here may continue. If those characterizations are accurate then where will either go to find big minutes? Meanwhile if Powell brings in a one year impact center who averages 24 minutes per game then I could see significant development minutes for both during the 24-25 season. I am obviously viewing 24-25 as another team development year where reaching 17 or more victories would be a huge step but can we realistically expect much better?

In the 25 days since this thread was started Weatherspoon, Sepp and Williamson seem to be losing ground as the current is drifting them backwards. Maybe that freshman wall is a real thing and they have hit it? Meanwhile Cooper Schweiger is still swimming upstream and his Valley numbers for the first 16 games are--------

.512 FG%    .396 3FG%   .828 FT%   5.9 rebounds per game     13.6 points per game                            So all of his numbers are steady or rising!

Indiana St with a 5 point loss at Carbondale. With 5 losses their at large hope looks out the window. If in their anger they try to punish us for their own shortcomings we can't let it happen. I'm counting on us playing hard and playing well.

Dot Neuchterlein recognition game.

I understand that Thursday morning,  the sun will rise.

Start of Lent, week 2.

Hope PGMADO  is well enough to make it.

That's the important stuff.

Great analysis! Signs of life were detected at Missouri St and I'll be looking for a steady pulse rate when we take the floor against the Sycamores. 

I am on the opposite side of this one, in saying that there are NO excuses for that last 4 minutes of play.  Up by 8, and we seemingly forgot how to simply dribble and pass a ball, or be aware of the shot clock.  You play fantastic for 35 minutes, and then like absolute sh!t for 4-5 minutes.  Darius thinks that he is going to take two inside shots in crunch time over a guy that is 8 inches taller?  I was surprised in how he looked at the end, in particular.  He also almost gave away the inbounds pass to Misery State, but it took a lucky bounce off their player to land in our hands. 

Plenty of individuals to credit for our good 33 minutes and blame for our bad last 7. On the Valley fan board AcesAces blamed Powell for horrible coaching during the MSU stretch run. I hate to get into finger pointing but he might have a point. Like I said in the earlier post we might have no idea how to protect a lead because we have never needed to do it before. 

8 total TOs kept us in this game with the help of some early offensive rebounds.

Other than Schweiger our other freshmen combined to play 33 minutes shooting 1-12 for 2 total points. Their absence from the scoring column was very noticeable.

By my memory, MSU finished game with 18-2 run. Last 7 minutes we seemed lost. Running weave to run clock, turnovers, cold shooting. We need to get that winning/killer instinct, especially at end of game. Can't play 33 minute games

I will excuse this team for not knowing how to protect a lead because we've never had one before. 

Nice 1st half contribution from Palm.

Channel 201 on my Comcast package. Time for the team to get up off the deck and start competing for next year and the years that follow. I want to see signs of life.

However, during the past seven straight losses even those low bars have been too difficult to achieve as the team seems to be deteriorating rather than improving, and in the last three games Valpo has not even been competitive. 

The Valley now knows exactly what we can and can not do. With that knowledge all of our weaknesses are being exploited.  Very pain-full to watch! 

Watching at home.

Not sick but I couldn't make it either. I'll be there for Indiana St because this remaining season is the foundation for next season.

Becoming very difficult to watch.

We played hard, turned the ball over infrequently and still got smoked. Belmont opened on a couldn't miss roll and never slowed down enough to let us back in the game. Ours kids desperately wanted back in this game but Belmont didn't allow it to happen. I'm giving a tip of my cap to coach Casey Alexander and his Bruins.

Which one of the four has the highest upside? Weatherspoon, Edwards, Sepp, Ajiboye? Will all four be back next year?

I'd say that their upside potential goes in the same order as your listing of Weatherspoon, Edwards, Sepp and Ajiboye. Each has various aspects of their game that will see improvements. I want all 4 of them back next year even if our other additions mean they will return to static or reduced playing time opportunities.

Nothing I love better than free speech and VU basketball.  BUT! Could somebody just Lock or Delete this whole thread and start one for Belmont? 

That was a long night. Wish I had something good to say.

Schweiger still a stud!

Yes on offense but his defense needs lots of improvements.

Sycs are 20.5 favorites.

Any other information necessary?

That is already more than I wanted to know.

At this point we just are not experienced enough or strong enough.  I just can't figure out our shooting woes...terrible.  And then there is our interior defense.

Other than Cooper our other 3 freshmen shot 2 of 11 from the field with much of it because they were well defended. Yes our small player interior defensive scheme also got frequently outmaneuvered but lets give some credit to the Aces for creating and finding some openings.

Good win for the Trees. How many point underdogs should we be on Wed?

I believe Powell will get this program in the right direction.

He already has. I am excited to watch a team with 6 wins.

Nice game from Edwards but 3 of our 4 freshmen were outmatched. Ragland made sure that Stafford didn't beat them by allowing Schweiger a little (not a lot but a little) breathing space. Good game by Cooper but not quite enough.

Good defense by both teams and we only turned the ball over 7 times. Down the stretch they had several more experienced upperclassmen playing and that might have been the difference. We certainly didn't get many good looks at the basket.

Awfully quiet on a game day with a chance for a win!  I'm hoping we are wide awake and celebrating by 5:30 CST. If it takes a couple OTs I'm good with that also.

Only 5 minutes for Sepp? Did something happen?

Darnell Brodie happened.

So Sepp is in a full body cast after being run over by a truck?

Only 5 minutes for Sepp? Did something happen?

Palm played alright but having somebody inside battling Brodie would be nice. Didn't see the whole game or the stats yet so I might say more later.

Drake  89
Valpo   51


What has Valpo done to make that score different really?

We have 62 days of additional maturity which is enormous for a team like ours. With nothing to lose and knowing the opponent may want to run up the score I'm thinking we battle to the wire to keep it within 10 points.

Our guard play should be stellar next year     Go grab at least 1 BIG STRONG 4th or 5th year senior from the portal to immediately impact the wins/loss record and build excitement for the future.   I don't think it is wise to go another year without a proven big man.   At some point you have to balance long term goals of player development and getting some W's to build excitement for fans/players/coaches/etc.   

Finding a Thomas Kithier level or better inside player should be achievable with Roger Powell as the recruiter. While he is at it maybe he can throw in a Shane Hammink or Darien Walker type for additional outside shooting.