Game #21 - Sunday Jan 21 3pm ARC - Loyola on ESPN-U

[Just Sayin]

I'll say it again. The Chicago State of the MVC.

I'm sorry but that is just an utterly stupid comment.

More accurate to say an utterly accurate comment. Facts are stubborn things. Who is in last place ( or tied for last place) in the conference?

[wh]

I'll say it again. The Chicago State of the MVC.

I remember when Butler fans labeled Valpo as "the new YSU" in our very bad 2nd year in the HL. I subsequently remember kicking Butler's butt 4 consecutive times on their way out the door and winning the league 5 of our last 6 years. Valpo is an outstanding mid-major program that happens to be going through a rebuilding season, made more challenging by the departure of Joe Burton. Next year will be dramatically different.

[bigmosmithfan1]

Yep. Get your shots in now, haters. The opportunities will be in short supply in the future.

[justducky]

I think Jay's offensive issues has nothing to do with him, but the offense we run and our inability to get him the ball.  We have failed to put him into the position to score. 

His problem is that he is hesitant to take the open jumper and very reluctant to put the ball on the floor and take it to the hole. By my thinking he has to learn to attack the basket when the opportunity arises. He seems to think that unless he receives the ball in great low post position he shouldn't even try.  Maybe if Jay had a Rik Smits body he could consistently obtain perfect post position and consistently receive and execute from that location, but he doesn't.

Based only on my recent observations I'm guessing that his future European pro career could be short, unspectacular, and not very lucrative. Face it, his offense is limited and his defense away from the basket is terrible.

BUT -he is smart and maybe he will figure this out soon. Derrik has and we are just now starting to see the positive results.

Be patient. Both of these guys are projects. BIG PROJECTS!

[FieldGoodie05]

I'll say it again. The Chicago State of the MVC.

I'm sorry but that is just an utterly stupid comment.

A team doesn't become CSU over night, he's just trying to get us annoyed.  Next...

[Just Sayin]

This is the worst team in well over 25 years that Valpo has put on the court. And there have always been rebuilding years. None as bad as this team.

[NativeCheesehead]

If the students put as much effort in recruiting their peers to games as they do clapping back at those on twitter who criticize them, they'd have a full section every game.

[EddieCabot]

Yep. Get your shots in now, haters. The opportunities will be in short supply in the future.

Valpo will be more familiar with the MVC next year and the roster will go from very young to very experienced in a hurry.  Next year's roster will have 7 juniors, and 4 of those juniors will be in their 4th year of college.  At the same time, experienced teams like MSU, Drake, SIU and Loyola will be scrambling to replace all the seniors they have graduating. 

[vu72]

This is the worst team in well over 25 years that Valpo has put on the court. And there have always been rebuilding years. None as bad as this team.

Sure and a team that beat the snot out of first place Drake.  Let's see, 25 years...that takes us back to 92-93 when we finished 12-16  or perhaps you forgot about the 08-09 team that went 9-22.  We are struggling, that is for sure but we still have a winning record for Pete's sake.

[justducky]

or perhaps you forgot about the 08-09 team that went 9-22.

I wish I could forget about that 08-09 team. I still have nightmares!

[VU2014]

or perhaps you forgot about the 08-09 team that went 9-22.

I wish I could forget about that 08-09 team. I still have nightmares!

Coming off that rough 2008-09 season the staff recruited a pretty good recruiting class: Ryan Broekhoff (program changer), Tommy Kurth (injuries robbed him of his career), Chris Halvorsen (3-star guy who transferred to Minnesota & couldn't get off the bench), Matt Kenney (great glue guy), Hrvoje Vucic (a 7 foot bambi they took a shot on and transferred to a non-D1).

[Just Sayin]

This is the worst team in well over 25 years that Valpo has put on the court. And there have always been rebuilding years. None as bad as this team.

Sure and a team that beat the snot out of first place Drake.  Let's see, 25 years...that takes us back to 92-93 when we finished 12-16  or perhaps you forgot about the 08-09 team that went 9-22.  We are struggling, that is for sure but we still have a winning record for Pete's sake.

I may have missed the 08-09 season but it remains to be seen whether we will have a winning record. I doubt it. Lost what? 10 out of last 13 games? Must be just a slump.

[VUGrad1314]

This is the worst team in well over 25 years that Valpo has put on the court. And there have always been rebuilding years. None as bad as this team.

Sure and a team that beat the snot out of first place Drake.  Let's see, 25 years...that takes us back to 92-93 when we finished 12-16  or perhaps you forgot about the 08-09 team that went 9-22.  We are struggling, that is for sure but we still have a winning record for Pete's sake.

I may have missed the 08-09 season but it remains to be seen whether we will have a winning record. I doubt it. Lost what? 10 out of last 13 games? Must be just a slump.

Well we can't all recruit on the same level as Kentucky... Wait what's that? They're struggling too? Weird it's as if young teams in good conferences need time to grow together and learn how to succeed or something... What a concept!

[agibson]

The Happening Hoops crew is having a love-fest with Porter Moser and also takes a subtle shot at Coach Lottich.

I did not realize Batcow was one of them. Big day for the superfans, what with V-Rex also competing at the basketball bounce (and coming _this_ close!).

[VUGrad1314]

The Happening Hoops crew is having a love-fest with Porter Moser and also takes a subtle shot at Coach Lottich. https://twitter.com/happeninghoops/status/955225408890396672 https://twitter.com/happeninghoops/status/955227225909026819 https://twitter.com/PorterMoser/status/955462867008016384 https://twitter.com/jnordbrock23/status/955536290497392640 But I do think Coach Lottich could learn a thing or two from Porter Moser on how he interacts with his Student Section... Bryce Drew was never the most outgoing guy but you could tell he made a conscious effort to interact with students at the cafeteria and student union. I'm not a student anymore so I don't know if Coach Lottich is doing those things but I get the sense he isn't. But to be honest I'm not sure the students deserve praise for their turnout the last 2 seasons. I also think it's weird that someone would expect praise. I think Coach Gore has been strong at interacting with the students. It'd be a nice to see a little more of that from Coach Lottich and open up a little bit. We need to boost the Student Attendance and I think all hands should be on deck to fix this problem. We need some outside the box thinking.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I respect their passion for the game as well as their ambition and what they are trying to build for themselves but I think they take their opinions a little too seriously. Wright State is doing well in the Horizon League but with the state of the league and their best victories being against an unimpressive Georgia Tech team, NKU and underachieving Oakland I can see why they're left out of a mid major poll that includes the A10 and MWC as mid majors (My biggest pet peeves about the CollegeInsider poll is that it excludes these two conferences while including the MVC which is substantially on the same level) Add in Wright State's 2 sub 200 losses and the case against them grows even stronger yet he constantly believes that you should be rewarded for beating bad teams and that's just not how it works. Look what happened to us once our schedule got tougher after he opened his mouth about our 8-0 start where we hadn't really beaten anybody of note? How foolish would the poll look and how much credibility would it have lost if the folks at Mid Major Madness had followed his advice? Loading up on easy non conference wins only works if you're in the P5. If you aren't it gets you nowhere as it should

[NativeCheesehead]

Yeah I hope the yahoos running that section are seniors. Need some new blood in there. The Happening Hoops guy whining about how they can't go to the dorms and drag people to games was a little melodramatic for me.

And they assume it's Lottich's job to reach out to them?

[VUGrad1314]

They're Sophomores I think.

[VUGrad1314]

One of them also shamelessly stumps for GCU in everything they do. It's embarrassing. Probably the same one who believes you should be handed a top ranking simply by beating on the dregs of Division I since that's exactly what the Lopes have done this year. I bet he thinks Patrick Ewing is doing a fantastic job at Georgetown. I mean look at that shiny record, right?

[NativeCheesehead]

The group who ran the (then) VU CRU a few years after my graduation actually made them a recognized student group and got access to some University funds for outreach, T-Shirts, etc. I know they haven't done shirts in years but is this still a thing?

[VU2014]

It's nice to see some students try and step up and be so passionate in the student section but I agree with NativeCheesehead that it's not hard to bang on doors or tell RAs to tell their floors to get people down to the game. I think they've done a solid job with the social media but it's not hard to send tweets from your phone. That's minimal effort, imo.

It's nice to see some effort but so much more can be done.

[ml2]

This is the worst team in well over 25 years that Valpo has put on the court. And there have always been rebuilding years. None as bad as this team.

Sure and a team that beat the snot out of first place Drake.  Let's see, 25 years...that takes us back to 92-93 when we finished 12-16  or perhaps you forgot about the 08-09 team that went 9-22.  We are struggling, that is for sure but we still have a winning record for Pete's sake.

I may have missed the 08-09 season but it remains to be seen whether we will have a winning record. I doubt it. Lost what? 10 out of last 13 games? Must be just a slump.

Even if you ignore the 2008-09 season, this year's numbers don't seem that different from our other down/rebuilding years since the start of our run of generally very good seasons in 1993-94.

2013-14
KenPom Rank: 163
Overall Record: 18-16
Conf Record (HL): 9-7

2009-10
KenPom Rank: 183
Overall Record: 15-17
Conf Record (HL): 10-6

2006-07
KenPom Rank: 148
Overall Record: 16-15
Conf Record (Mid-Con): 9-5

2005-06
KenPom Rank: 175
Overall Record: 17-12
Conf Record (Mid-Con): 8-8

2004-05
KenPom Rank: 196
Overall Record: 15-16
Conf Record (Mid-Con): 10-6

2017-18 (in Progress)
KenPom Rank: 160
Overall Record: 11-10
Conf Record (MVC): 2-6

[valpo84]

This has been a difficult year but they are still competing every night, just missing offense.  It is a developing team.  08-09 had some issues.  For historical context, 1992-93 may have been one of my favorite teams.  That 12-16 record may have been the best record of Homer's career at Valpo to that point.  It was the first year you felt that we could turn the corner and be a respectable mid-major.  That team could flat out shoot the 3.  They played some tough games and a whole bunch of OT games.  Gipson (46%), Redmon (37%), Schmidt (48%!) and Barker (44%) were incredible from 3.  Adding in Rob Cavanuagh (43%) that 5-some shot about 7/16 per game from 3.  Add in a young 7 footer -- Ensminger and you saw the makings of a team that would change the conversation about Valpo basketball.  Just a couple years later (94-95), you had a Mid-Con Championship (but the inability to go to the Dance because of the Mid-Con split the year before).  (That Western Ill/Valpo final at the ARC is still one of the best games I've been to at the ARC).  So, let's just relax a little about this season.  Our expectation level after the 8-0 start was overexuberant.  What do we really think we'd be at this point 4-5, 5-4 at best, especially after Burton and Tevonn mono?  Moreover, what's interesting, if we play better the rest of the season and finish in 6th, we will meet the pre-season prognosticators expectations.