Messages

Kyle whelliston of mismajority.com wrote a chapter in his book on recording stats in game. He either did his for a game or sat with someone who did it and said the keystrokes, some type of shorthand, had a difficult learning curve. One can imagine that in quick paced games this would be pretty difficult, but one would hope Valpo would have someone doing this who knew what hey we're doing, which I'm sure is the case besides blocks...

Is there going to be a live stream for the game?   I don't see a "video" link on the website...

A few things the annoucers said:

You got to do what has got you here (when Indiana St. was down by about 8 with 4 minutes left).
He needs to be more decisive with his decision making.
A discussion with appx. 36 seconds left about Indiana St. fouling, down by two possessions (one announcer was adamant they didn't need to).
One of the announcers (the color commentator?) using like more than anyone should ever use like.

All of that said, Valpo did what they needed to do.  Not pretty, but is it ever?  Hoping we beat Chicago St. by about 25, although they have had a few close games recently (including against a mediocre BIG school in Illinois).

Not enjoying the announcers, but I had to unmute to avoid missing something when the game goes into super-zoom mode.  Wow, awful.

I'll take being down 6 at half after being down 12 with 4:50 to go.  The rest of the team needs to show up besides Alec.  Missing the front end of all 3 one and ones is unacceptable.

Yep, confirmed via a team tweet that Tevonn is out due to an injury...

I liked what I saw in Hammink. I agree that to win by 14 in a game in which they didn't seem to find their rhythm is a good sign.  3 point shooting will have better games (under 30% until Alec drained a big one towards the end). Vashil will have better games. Peters, 24 points.   Should be an interesting year.

http://www.ncaa.com/news/basketball-men/article/2015-05-15/mens-basketball-rules-committee-recommends-package-proposals

Two interesting points imo:

• Allowing only a total of 10 seconds to advance the ball to the front court (with a few exceptions).....[meaning a timeout wouldn't reset the clock]
• The committee has approved experimentation to add one foul per player for the 2016 postseason and will investigate interested events (e.g., National Invitational Tournament, etc.).

Everything that should have been said was probably already said.  Asinine, no positives whatsoever. We will just have to be that much more confident in our players.

Thanks for sharing!

That story though, wow.  Had no idea about the Tim Bishop story and the amazing hs games Valpo had. 

As I read all the stuff and see a little video on Maryland I'm thinking back to 2013 and what they lacked against a BIG opponent. To me, our biggest difference is in our guards.  Erik was very quick, but slight. Dority was strong but short.  Bogan was a good shooter but slow. I could go on.  We were undersized, relatively slow and lacked muscle.

Enter this years team.  Just looking at guys like T and D Walker and you see both speed and muscle.  Much more BIG like.  Then throw in a freak guard like T and a speedy sure handed Keith and we have the personnel at the guard spots to compete.

As others have said, the key to a win will be Alec and Vashil, as well as Jabril and David.  If they can control the boards and make some shots we can definitely be in this game.

To be fair, Buggs gave Michigan State fits all game and really attacked Michigan State. Payne and Nix destroyed us down low and Rowdy couldn't shoot.

I still worry about our ability to score enough points, as Maryland will get theirs and probably score some in transition with their athletic guards. Alec will need to hit the shots he wasn't hitting in the championship game. Maryland's not going to go 13 minutes with only 1 FG. Darmyian Walker may also need to be at the top of his game to provide relief for Alec. I can see Maryland blowing us out and reading annoying posts on how we can't beat power conference schools and whining that we're not Butler. But I can also see someone stepping up and having a great game to give an inexperienced and already disappointed and possibly unfocused Maryland fits.

Delanie*

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/eye-on-college-basketball/25109293/ncaa-tournament-odds-and-lines-for-the-first-four-round-of-64

Vegas Insider has Maryland as 4.5 point favorites, the second closest spread at the 12 seed line and lower (Buffalo-WVU interestingly the only closer, at 4).  Not bad!

Good publicity, but CNN couldn't use a photo more recent than Van Wjik and Capobianco?

RPIs according to RPIforecast.com

UTEP and Louisiana Tech both lose!!! C-USA Final is UAB (RPI 139) vs Middle Tennessee (RPI 128), both teams with 15 losses. Big help!

Paul Oren just tweeted that Tevonn is starting

so it looks like we'll be playing detroit or cleveland state again. Interesting.

Amazing defense. 
Alec is extremely efficient: 15 pts, 5-6 FG (2-2 3P), 3-3 FT.
Good game on the road on no rest.
Rest up for next weekend.

I live in Columbia, I'm not even really aware that Mizzou has a basketball team haha it is brutal.  Glad they finally won a game, got their RPI on rpiforecast.com up above 200 which is nice for Valpo.  And for what it's worth, I give Kim Anderson (the new Mizzou coach) credit for changing things up and taking his lumps in a major rebuilding year.  Maybe they turn it around soon.  I bet Donovan thought he had win #500 locked up...Mizzou over Kentucky in the SEC final?

I would argue that this year, Valpo is clearly one of the top mid-major teams, as opposed to 2013. 

Several teams have moved up in conferences (Davidson, Creighton, Butler, VCU, Tulsa, even WKU and afew other C-USA teams).   There are fewer quality pure mid-major teams in the running than even 2 years ago for the auto conference bids that will be seeded 12-16.  Thus, I would argue that if Valpo wins out, they get a 12.

But in terms of favorite for the conference tourney? Valpo, obviously. Dark Horse? Nobodies been on a tear, so nobody, really. 

Big result for Valpo.  Let's still win both games this week though

Panoske just hit 2 quick 3s, Mil up 2 at the u4 to 2nd half.  The announcers aren't bad either, good game.  Hopefully Mil can hold on here.

According to RPIForecast.com, Milwaukee has a 32% chance of winning.

Should we look on the downside that Valpo hasn't won any of their last 6 by double digits, or look on the bright side that we seem to always get it done? Peters quietly going for 17-10. 

It might be only me, but I'd rather see the refs put the whistle in their pocket more often (like tonight and vs. Mil last week) as opposed to having players on each side in foul trouble.  Your good players are able to play more of the game, and the game flows a lot more smoothly.