Terrific article on Casey Schmidt

[valpopal]

Here is a terrific article on Casey Schmidt, a member (both in high school and in college) of one of my favorite Valpo teams. I loved watching Casey and Dave Redmond play in high school. When he and Dave returned to play for Homer, the direction of Valpo basketball moved in a positive direction that set an expectation of winning as a standard for all Valpo teams to follow.

http://www.nwitimes.com/sports/high-school/boys-basketball/where-are-they-now-casey-schmidt/article_3f6985d7-7ca7-5da3-904b-6bd4959efcb9.html

[Valpo89]

It's Redmon.
And you're right - those two guys transferring to VU helped Homer turn around the program. The development of Chris Ensminger also helped.
I often wondered if Dave and Casey hadn't transferred if Bryce would have chosen VU - or if Homer would have lasted.

[valpopal]

Thanks, I thought it was Redmon as well, but the article had him listed as "Redmond." I should have known better to trust my memory rather than the author's spelling error.

[covufan]

It's Redmon.
And you're right - those two guys transferring to VU helped Homer turn around the program. The development of Chris Ensminger also helped.
I often wondered if Dave and Casey hadn't transferred if Bryce would have chosen VU - or if Homer would have lasted.

There are some on this board who don't believe that Valpo should have or allow transfer student-athletes (or JUCO), that we should only go after 4-year players from high schools.  I always bring up the same point - Where would Valpo Basketball be with Schmidt and Redmon?  These two, along with Ensminger and Cavanaugh really turned things around for Homer and Valpo basketball.

On another note - Cavanaugh and Redmon were part of one of the best basketball games I've ever seen.  In the 1990 Indiana HS tournament regionals, Valpo High played South Bend Riley, with Riley winning 112-100.  No overtime.  In a 32 minute game.  What a game.  Redmon and Cavanaugh were open to shoot whenever they crossed midcourt.  Redmon had something like 42 points, and Cavanaugh another 35.  Great game!  Also got to see Joel Beesley (LaPorte) play that afternoon and evening.  Beesley was also part of the turnaround for VU basketball.

[valpopal]

I saw Redmon play in a scrimmage game when he was in 8th grade. I didn't know who he was at the time, but when he took a shot from a few steps inside halfcourt and swished it through the net, I asked about him. He was one of my three favorite players to watch in high school (the others were Bryce and Tim Bishop), and I was pleased when Dave came back to play at VU. He was a pure shooter, but he had a reputation of being nonchalant and apparently not enjoying practice too much.

Cavanaugh was a more disciplined player whose long distance shots weren't quite up to Redmon's bombs, but Cavanaugh was money when he shot the free throws, and he knew how to run the floor as a point guard.

[Valpo89]

Those teams were probably my all-time favorite VU teams. People almost forget about Tracy Gipson. If it wasn't for him, those 5-22 teams would have been 0-27. It was great that he got to play with Dave and Casey for one year, just a shame that he didn't have any big guys to take the heat off of him for his first three seasons. He's in the Hall of Fame, but it's almost like he dropped off the face of the Earth. Last I heard, Tracy was in California and I don't think he's ever come back to Valpo for anything.

[lowposter]

Great posts about the Casey, Dave, Joel, Rob, Tracy and others.  The day that Casey and Dave decided to return to VU was the day the program turned around.  Absolutely no doubt in my mind that those two were the keys to the success in the future.

Casey is a great guy and had quite a career in Europe.
Lowposter