Messages

Thanks to the organizers for a great opportunity to witness the quality of the young people that attend and excel at VU athletically, academically and spiritually.  My hope is that more of these events are offered and that more fans participate.
It was such a delight to hear from three great former players about what it means to be on a team at VU.
The good discussion comparing the MVC to the Horizon League should be a call to all of us that we have to step up to a higher level of support for our teams.

Just doesn't make sense to me.  How do we lose a recruit to Evansville? 

How about facilities and conference affiliation?

Johns Hopkins will be joining on a Lacrosse participation plan only. Bad! JHU's academic reputation will take a hit by associating with the Big 10 schools. What a bummer.

I assume that's a joke on your part. Joining the Big Ten as an affiliate member will likely get Johns Hopkins a membership on the Committee on Institutional Cooperation ("Academic Big Ten") which includes the 12 (soon to be 14) member schools and the University of Chicago...widely regarded as one of the strongest academic coalitions in the country. The B10 has 8 (soon to be 10) Public Ivies plus Northwestern and the University of Chicago.

This is a huge coup for Johns Hopkins as well as the Big Ten/CIS member institutions.

I think you are referring to the Association of American Universities and JHU is a charter member.

Parker was a very good player from Ft. Wayne Concordia and an assistant coach for the Crusaders while in law school.  I think one of his early clients was Ron Woodson.

Unless there is an announcement by the middle of next week, the Horizon League will, beginning in 72 days, operate with eight teams next year.  What is the League holding out for, or why are teams not interesting in joining us?  It looks like an additional Division III or NAIA team on next year's schedule.

Forget about attracting MAC and MVC schools.  Why would they leave for Horizon?  Oakland and IUPUI are the best choices for geography, recent Big Dance participation, academics, etc.  Many here seem to believe facilities are not an issue, and if they are, IUPUI has great facilities other than basketball and they could play more games at Banker's Life Field house and travel with WSU.

Coach Carlson inherited a situation worse than Obama.  The Crusaders are and will be improving this year.  Carlson is going to convince all of us that he is a winner!

We beat Seton Hall the day before or after South Carolina.

Valpo first played as a D-1 Basketball team in 1977-78 season.  Evansville and a number of other schools moved up at the same time.  I'm not sure when it became official with the NCAA.  Things were different back then as "small colleges" or "College Division" schools often played up in tournaments as they still do in Wrestling, Hockey, Lacrosse, and maybe others.  Another example of how things have changed was the Southern Illinois won the NIT in 1967 as a small college.

WISH-TV confirmed Butler's move to the A-10 on tonight's 11:00 news.  The announcement will be made tomorrow morning for Butler to begin play in 2013 with a $50,000 exit fee to the Horizon League.

Coach Bartow was a fine, Christian gentleman and I am proud to have known him.  He and Homer truly represented the values of Valparaiso University.  He also started the UAB athletic program from scratch.

See you at Bankers Life Fieldhouse tomorrow.