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Detroit's Student Section was classier /sarcasm.

Maybe we need a mccallum like attitude guy on the team.

This.

Imitidated our players along with the fact that his energy boosted his team.  Say what you want about his class, but he was the first one running over to teammates to high-five them for something good or tell them to chill if they did something bad.

Let's all be real to, if Ray McCallum (or player like him) wanted to come to Valpo, we'd take him in a heartbeat regardless of last-second dunking.

Rowdy posted on Facebook shortly after, mentioned "sickness or no sickness".

POY sick and Kevin hurt; no making excuses but damn.

this one's for all the marbles. and unfortunately, it's against a team that's given us fits in the conference tourney over our 4 years in the hl. luckily, we're going for the third win of the year against detroit, and in the last 20 years, valpo's 17-2 in these games.

just saw on twitter that there were over 50 students in line for the free tickets when they started handing them out at 11am. this is a good sign. hopefully, those tickets are gone by the end of the day, and tons of local students/recent alumni with their ids can get into the student section and raise some hell.

edit: the line went through the double doors by the elevators in the union. definitely a good start. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=313805975341793&set=a.167497749972617.58630.113914928664233&type=1&theater

Probably around 100ish tickets given away.  You could pick up multiple tickets for friends if you had their ID.  When I was in line everybody had multiple IDs, including me.

Good news! I have been informed that VU will give out 200 free tickets to students for any Crusaders tournament game. This should help attendance by students.

Price isn't the biggest factor facing students.  Its going through all the logistical stuff (paper work, finding places to stay, things to do) that is going to turn off students.  It helps, but really it was just 10 dollars.  The only students that will go through all the logistical stuff would have been willing to pay the $10 anyways.  It will be disappointing on Tuesday night and we win and there is only a handful of students there to celebrate.

72, I thought about you when I was watching some of this game. In my mind, I was billing it as Chris Halvorsen vs. Brandon Wood.

LOL!  I thought about the same thing.  Were they on the same team for one year?  The Halvorsen thing is a big mystery to me.  clearly he didn't get on the gopher's team to gain more playing time!  I honestly think it was home sickness or a girlfriend or some such nonsense.  If he wanted to play and be near home he could have gone to several D3 schools in the area.  Cost may have been a factor as at Valpo he was on scholarship and at Minnesota his dad is a prof so presumably he gets a free education?  Who knows...

Its a public school, therefore it cannot offer free education for educators' children.

Solely based on RPI/few other factors, doesn't take into account the venue being at the ARC, I believe.

Unfortunately, I don't think the home court will be as much of an advantage as it might be if the students were not on spring break.

IIRC, the student sections are flip-flopped for the tournament games, right?  So unless VU puts in substantial bleachers on the concession side, VU's students will be relegated to those little metal bleachers.  Anyone know if we are going to have larger portables stands in place for the tournament? Maybe get the capacity up to at least 5,700?

What the 5 students that will be there.  They say dorms will be open for the tournament, but that's only a certain few (typical residential housing).  If you aren't in those dorms you have to go through all the paperwork and crap.  Typical student will just go home.

Seth Davis picked us to win by 7.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/writers/seth_davis/02/24/Weekend.Picks/index.html?eref=sihp&sct=hp_wr_a3

Good win, sometimes have to grind out the games where you are not 'on.' 

What game did TCU storm??  Their basketball has not been good since 1997-1998, the year Lee Nailon was there.  We actually would have played TCU instead of Florida State in the second round, had TCU's 4 seed held that year.

They beat UNLV a couple of weeks ago.

[Dorms will be open an extra day to allow everyone to stay on campus and go to the game!]

Serious question:   Should Valpo continue to have a basketball team if it generates very little local interest or student interest?    Theoretically, you fund a Division I program because it generates excitement for the school and possibly impacts enrollment and donations,    If it is generating no buzz ANYWHERE even locally,......why spend a healthy sum each year to put a team on the court?      Just roll out a D-3 program and call it a day.   
I would HATE to  see it.  But I'm baffled by the apathy of the students and the community.  The tickets are a bargain and students get in free.   Joining the Horizon League ought to have boosted regular season crowds.   But I truly think we had better crowds come out to see UMKC or Southern Utah at the ARC than we see at the ARC on the webcasts now.   

Well then you aren't going to be pleased when you hear that Valpo is on Spring Break during the tourney I believe.

Courtesy the Valparaizone's official facebook account:

Horizon League Champs! Valpo will host the HL league tournament and has clinched no worse than a bid to the NIT. Our first tournament game will be Saturday, March 3rd at 7:30 p.m. at the ARC! Dorms will be open an extra day to allow everyone to stay on campus and go to the game! Plan on being there!

As of now, this is the only mention of such a plan that I have seen, but we are crazy if we don't do something like this. We need to bring some students out for the tourney...

PS: Haven't gone through the whole topic to see if this has been addressed, but how weak was the court storming yesterday? It was more like a trickle of water from a faucet than a true rush IMO.

Better than TCU's court storming the other week.

A couple of things:
1) Are students really going to be motivated to stay on campus?  Will other things like the Union be open on Saturday?
2) Assuming we win on Saturday, is Valpo going to keep the dorms/food/Union open until at least Tuesday night?

Prospects look bleak...

Serious question:   Should Valpo continue to have a basketball team if it generates very little local interest or student interest?    Theoretically, you fund a Division I program because it generates excitement for the school and possibly impacts enrollment and donations,    If it is generating no buzz ANYWHERE even locally,......why spend a healthy sum each year to put a team on the court?      Just roll out a D-3 program and call it a day.   
I would HATE to  see it.  But I'm baffled by the apathy of the students and the community.  The tickets are a bargain and students get in free.   Joining the Horizon League ought to have boosted regular season crowds.   But I truly think we had better crowds come out to see UMKC or Southern Utah at the ARC than we see at the ARC on the webcasts now.   

Well then you aren't going to be pleased when you hear that Valpo is on Spring Break during the tourney I believe.

You cannot blame the kid for leaving.

I think what hurts the most is next season could have been one hell of a ride.

Butler could definitely become that solid mid-major Gonzaga that doesn't need to play in the Bracketbuster weekend to make their name in the NCAAs. Sure, Butler wasn't as dominant, but they knew what to do to get themselves back to the NCAAs this season.

Now, let's note I am typing this after the Pitt win, but I think they're already there. I don't think they need the Brackebuster anymore and they're a national program at this point. The big boys aren't scared to play them because if they lose, it's not a bad loss, it's Butler. Stanford came Hinkle. That's the sign to me that you've reached the upper level of college basketball.

And I am not talking about Valpo scheduling the #1 team in the country either. Those games aren't competetive and the opponent knows it.

And yes I know Purdue come to the ARC sometimes.

Pitt win eh

Hmmmm...stupid if he did.

He's good, but not NBA good (right now).  He's most likely pre-season Horizon MVP if he stays.

Greatest thread of all-time.

We'd be that dangerous 12 seed nobody would want to play.