12/20, Valpo hosts IUPUI: Game Thread

[StlVUFan]

Apparently, if Bryce sees the guys get ahead by a certain amount of points, he decides it is time to stall the offense, for the defense to take charge, and hold the opponent from scoring, but it just forces more turnovers on our offensive end.

I saw late turnovers from the fast break myself.

I suspect it's not quite as simple as people think, this offensive strategy stuff.  For one thing, strictly speaking, we don't "stall".  For another thing, it seems plausible to me that we simply take what the defense gives us in those cases.  Both at Oakland and tonight, I seem to recall late offensive sets where someone forced something and came up with nothing.  If the defense is being stingy, it's time to pull back out and try again.

I choose to believe Bryce knows what he's doing.  I realize it is disheartening to see us have so much trouble dominating teams, given the high expectations we all had (and I never argued with those expectations).  Maybe those expectations were in error, for reasons we aren't aware of.

By the way, 62, I join you in feeling dumb about this, if that makes any difference to you.

[govalpogo]

Grab all the W's you can, gentlemen!  Another gimme at home, surprise Murray St, 10-4, everything's square going into conference!  Easy right?

[HC]

From watching it on the computer, Valpo didn't play this one the same way they did Oakland.  IUPUI went zone when Valpo got up big. Valpo was still trying to get the ball inside, but its tough when the zone sinks.  Valpo was taking wide open 3s after not being able to get it inside and those 3s just weren't falling.  There was zero slowing down the tempo tonight intentionally.

[SadersofthelostArc]

From watching it on the computer, Valpo didn't play this one the same way they did Oakland.  IUPUI went zone when Valpo got up big. Valpo was still trying to get the ball inside, but its tough when the zone sinks.  Valpo was taking wide open 3s after not being able to get it inside and those 3s just weren't falling.  There was zero slowing down the tempo tonight intentionally.

This is why Hank is my choice for Poster of the Year.  Insightful, concise, brilliant. 

[vu72]

I watched for some of the second half (actually wh, I'm now living in Houston--don't really like all this warmth!) and we looked much more agressive and in better control.  Didn't see the final box score but probably around 10tos, which is much improved.  A 20 point win is still pretty solid with very little fan support.

Hopefully, things are starting to look better.  Impressions from those in attendance??

[HC]

Despite our poor outside shooting, this was our most efficient game of the year according to PPS

http://cbbpps.wordpress.com/2012/12/20/valpo-vs-iupui/

[wh]

Despite our poor outside shooting, this was our most efficient game of the year according to PPS

http://cbbpps.wordpress.com/2012/12/20/valpo-vs-iupui/

How did Matt Kinney do, HC?

[wh]

Grab all the W's you can, gentlemen!  Another gimme at home, surprise Murray St, 10-4, everything's square going into conference!  Easy right?

Sounds good to me!

[HC]

How did Matt Kinney do, HC?

I knew I missed someone...give me 3 minutes and it will be updated. Done, can't believe I left off MK

http://cbbpps.wordpress.com/2012/12/20/valpo-vs-iupui-2/

[chef]

Kenney was great tonight. If he can play at that level the rest of the way, it will go a long way towards Valpo winning their second straight HL title.

[chef]

Speaking of Kenney...Kudos to Bryce for understanding his kid. Here's a Sr. playing poorly off the bench. Most coaches would say screw it, let him earn back his minutes from the bottom up. Bryce says we need Matt Kenney now, let's start him and see if that inspires him to return to the Matt Kenney of old. Which is precisely what we got - vintage Matt Kenney 15-6-4. Some people have been quick to take shots at Bryce over the last couple weeks. Well here's one the coach got right, and it may go a long way to improving our season.

[valpopal]

"A 20 point win is still pretty solid with very little fan support."

Attendance was listed as 1644. However, considering that the game was on a Thursday before Christmas, the team was playing IUPUI, school is out, and the weather reports were calling for blizzard conditions, I thought the crowd would be minimal. Still, under the conditions, I think the turnout was actually decent. Here are a couple of my photos that show the stands:

[talksalot]

Looking at the crowd, I checked out the Murray State attendance so far; and they pulled 3800 against Old Dominion, 3400 against Bethel and just over 7,000 for the Neighbor Rivals Western Ky; we will be their 4th home game of the year, with their students on break...might help our cause.   They head to Dayton on Saturday.  Their only loss is to Colorado at neutral-site tournament... but with all of their wins, they have not blown-away their opponents.  Should be a great game.

[milanmiracle]

Speaking of Kenney...Kudos to Bryce for understanding his kid. Here's a Sr. playing poorly off the bench. Most coaches would say screw it, let him earn back his minutes from the bottom up. Bryce says we need Matt Kenney now, let's start him and see if that inspires him to return to the Matt Kenney of old. Which is precisely what we got - vintage Matt Kenney 15-6-4. Some people have been quick to take shots at Bryce over the last couple weeks. Well here's one the coach got right, and it may go a long way to improving our season.

I said it last year, and I'm pretty sure I said it this year...Kenney is the key to this team. If he plays well, the rest of the team will be better. Ryan will be Ryan, and Kevin will be Kevin, but the falloff after that has been pretty big. They NEED him to play at this level the remainder of the year. He can do more things than most anybody else on the roster including Ryan. He's not a better player than Ryan, but he can certainly handle better and get to the lane easier off the bounce. If he can keep knocking down his outside shot...Add in Dority and there's still a chance this gets turned around.

*since I was unusually positive there...Buggs and I quote "missed that 3 by four feet". That guy should never shoot an outside shot again. Oh, and thanks IUPUI for pressuring him 30 ft from the hoop, allowing him to drive. Idiots.

[lowposter]

Matt Kenney gives this team another dimension.  He can attack the basket, he can defend, rebound, and distribute the ball.  Perhaps the coaching staff was hoping he would be a Howard Little type player off the bench, just put him on the floor and let him play.

Decent crowd last night all things considered.  It was great to see a 7'0" Billy Van Senus (VHS and IUPUI center) in attendance.  Ditto Brooke McAfee (also VHS and IUPUI center).

Anyone know why Elijah Ray is not suiting up this year for IUPUI?  They need interior help.

lowposter

[IndyValpo]

Anyone know why Elijah Ray is not suiting up this year for IUPUI?  They need interior help.

Injured, has been all season.

[Valpo89]

Elijay Ray is probably going to redshirt. He's going to be a very good player for them.

I will echo the sentiments on Matt Kenney. I've always said he's probably the best athlete on the team. He's very good in the open court and probably the best finisher on the team. But sometimes you forget he's out there. It was nice to see him play so well last night, and it was great seeing him chatting with I'm assuming his family afterwards with a big smile on his face.

[wh]

Good comments by chef, mm, lowposter and '89 about Matt.  As noted by others, he and Lavonte have the ability to create their own shot, which has been a pretty significant deficiency.  By the way, I don't think this has been mentioned yet, but Ben Boggs played extremely well last night with 12 points and 4 rebounds in 23 minutes.  He also played good in-your-face defense and really made his presence known at both ends.  Lastly, although our 3-pt shooting pct. was pretty bad, our 2-pt shooting was phenomenal at 65%.   

[valporun]

It's possible that Boggs needed someone who could smoothly move the ball around, and not have to think about where to put the ball. He just knew where his teammates would be, and that help Boggs with confidence and ability to do what he was known for at Virginia Tech?

Also good to see Matt get out of his funk. Matt deserved to start, and use it to get out of whatever was hindering him. Let's hope this continues at Murray St. I'm not too worried about PNC, obviously, watched them play Trinity International over the weekend, and they have no height. They look athletic, but nothing much more than that. That will be a good game to just work out some kinks, get Vashil some minutes, and see if Buggs and Bogan can work their way out of their funks. Maybe even get Rossi into the game?

[agibson]

Why did the steam quit with about 2 minutes to go?

I assume VULB was asking about the _stream_, the streaming video which quit with about two minutes to go?

I was pleased, in fact, that VU seemed _not_ to try letting the air out of the ball at the end of the game.

[agibson]

Here are a couple of my photos that show the stands:

The photos are a pretty fair representation. Particularly since the second one gives a glimpse of Section E.  On the video stream, sections A and E (bleachers, on either end, on the bottom) seemed _really_ empty.  Maybe just three or four people in A, and a few more in E.  I was rather surprised to see B, C, and D fairly densely packed.  I suppose I'd have to try it in person, but I think I might prefer to stretch out a little - even at the risk of being a little further from the court.

[vusupporter]

It's possible that Boggs needed someone who could smoothly move the ball around, and not have to think about where to put the ball. He just knew where his teammates would be, and that help Boggs with confidence and ability to do what he was known for at Virginia Tech?

Also good to see Matt get out of his funk. Matt deserved to start, and use it to get out of whatever was hindering him. Let's hope this continues at Murray St. I'm not too worried about PNC, obviously, watched them play Trinity International over the weekend, and they have no height. They look athletic, but nothing much more than that. That will be a good game to just work out some kinks, get Vashil some minutes, and see if Buggs and Bogan can work their way out of their funks. Maybe even get Rossi into the game?

We play Purdue Calumet, not Purdue North Central.

[valporun]

Bah, those dang regional campuses mesh in my head.

[bbtds]

Bah, those dang regional campuses mesh in my head.

Don't worry. Gov Daniels is going to take care of the situation.

http://www.valpofanzone.com/forum/index.php?topic=1067.0

Daniels seemed skeptical about maintaining separate Purdue campuses in Hammond and Westville -- just 34 miles apart.

"What are we doing with two of them that close together?" Daniels asked. "If you started anew, you probably wouldn't draw it up that way, but here we are, so what's the right thing to do? Is it just continue on or look for some other arrangement?"

The governor said he's going into his new job (President of Purdue) with no predispositions about what should be done concerning the region's Purdue campuses.

"We'll see," he said. "There's some really good people at both places; I like the folks who lead these places."

[LaPorteAveApostle]

bbtds beat me to the quote from my man Mitch, so I'll just quote a friend who went to PNC (really, it'd be much cooler if they kept the "University" in the acronym.  think of the shirts).  I asked him, what's PNC like?  and he replied

"it's just like high school--but with smoking."