2/16/13 Valpo home to UDM

[govalpogo]

2010 (One of my favorite games as a student)

Did commentary for that game for WVUR. That game, and specifically the play starting at 1:52, was when I thought at the time that it would be the birth of a nice rivalry. I had no way of knowing then how big this would grow in just a few years. It's epic now! It's even better than VU-BU, looking at it from both sides IMO

I definitely like telling people that Butler is our rival (and that we have 4 straight wins against them) more because they know who Butler is.  Also like the Intrastate rival aspect, the historical aspect, etc.  I'd say that Butler is our "historic rival"

I also like the Detroit rivalry because it has a sort of Batman vs Joker aspect to it, meaning that we are opposites that hate one another and make a good/close fight in the process.  It's a battle of teamwork vs. individual glory, fundamentals vs. pure skill, humility vs. ego, Lutheran vs Jesuit , and its almost always a good show full of dominating runs, improbable comebacks, and gutty endurance. It's a battle of area codes, true mid-majors, and the coach's son vs. the coach's dream.  It's a battle that has been set on a national stage thrice in a row (and may be four times come HL tourney time). Valpo could say, "well...Butler's good enough that we should be proud to have made it close."  Valpo cannot say that about Detroit, nor Detroit about Valpo.  Thus, it's always a game with one team seeking revenge and that's what makes it a good rivalry.  It's Valparaiso.  It's Detroit [no]Mercy.  It's this Saturday. It's on ESPN 2.  Get pumped.

[vu72]

2010 (One of my favorite games as a student)

Did commentary for that game for WVUR. That game, and specifically the play starting at 1:52, was when I thought at the time that it would be the birth of a nice rivalry. I had no way of knowing then how big this would grow in just a few years. It's epic now! It's even better than VU-BU, looking at it from both sides IMO

I definitely like telling people that Butler is our rival (and that we have 4 straight wins against them) more because they know who Butler is.  Also like the Intrastate rival aspect, the historical aspect, etc.  I'd say that Butler is our "historic rival"

I also like the Detroit rivalry because it has a sort of Batman vs Joker aspect to it, meaning that we are opposites that hate one another and make a good/close fight in the process.  It's a battle of teamwork vs. individual glory, fundamentals vs. pure skill, humility vs. ego, Lutheran vs Jesuit , and its almost always a good show full of dominating runs, improbable comebacks, and gutty endurance. It's a battle of area codes, true mid-majors, and the coach's son vs. the coach's dream.  It's a battle that has been set on a national stage thrice in a row (and may be four times come HL tourney time). Valpo could say, "well...Butler's good enough that we should be proud to have made it close."  Valpo cannot say that about Detroit, nor Detroit about Valpo.  Thus, it's always a game with one team seeking revenge and that's what makes it a good rivalry.  It's Valparaiso.  It's Detroit [no]Mercy.  It's this Saturday. It's on ESPN 2.  Get pumped.

[/b]

Wow! super well written. All you need now is the guy with the deep voice from NFL films reading this prior to game time!  yep, I'm pumped!!

[vuweathernerd]

2010 (One of my favorite games as a student)

Did commentary for that game for WVUR. That game, and specifically the play starting at 1:52, was when I thought at the time that it would be the birth of a nice rivalry. I had no way of knowing then how big this would grow in just a few years. It's epic now! It's even better than VU-BU, looking at it from both sides IMO

I definitely like telling people that Butler is our rival (and that we have 4 straight wins against them) more because they know who Butler is.  Also like the Intrastate rival aspect, the historical aspect, etc.  I'd say that Butler is our "historic rival"

I also like the Detroit rivalry because it has a sort of Batman vs Joker aspect to it, meaning that we are opposites that hate one another and make a good/close fight in the process.  It's a battle of teamwork vs. individual glory, fundamentals vs. pure skill, humility vs. ego, Lutheran vs Jesuit , and its almost always a good show full of dominating runs, improbable comebacks, and gutty endurance. It's a battle of area codes, true mid-majors, and the coach's son vs. the coach's dream.  It's a battle that has been set on a national stage thrice in a row (and may be four times come HL tourney time). Valpo could say, "well...Butler's good enough that we should be proud to have made it close."  Valpo cannot say that about Detroit, nor Detroit about Valpo.  Thus, it's always a game with one team seeking revenge and that's what makes it a good rivalry.  It's Valparaiso.  It's Detroit [no]Mercy.  It's this Saturday. It's on ESPN 2.  Get pumped.

[/b]

Wow! super well written. All you need now is the guy with the deep voice from NFL films reading this prior to game time!  yep, I'm pumped!!

how about our very own adam amin? it could be turned into an athletics commercial.

[KL31NY]

I like everything about this!!!!!!!!!

[chef]

Rob Cavanaugh in a late pinch after the Adam Amin got called up to the Big Leagues. BTW: Paul Oren on color this Saturday.

[Pathfinder]

A blogger on their website justified the large minutes for the starters in the 30 point blowout; as they were trying to get Jason 1,000 points.

Really??  Was this the kids final game??  How friggin weak.  I hope the are exhausted on Saturday.

At home, dummy. They wanted him to hit 1000 points at home. Their next two games are on the road.

[valpo04]

A blogger on their website justified the large minutes for the starters in the 30 point blowout; as they were trying to get Jason 1,000 points.

Really??  Was this the kids final game??  How friggin weak.  I hope the are exhausted on Saturday.

At home, dummy. They wanted him to hit 1000 points at home. Their next two games are on the road.

Still weak...but not as weak as calling someone "dummy." 

[ValpoHoops]

Quote from: Pathfinder on Today at 08:13:35 AMQuote (selected)Quote (selected)A blogger on their website justified the large minutes for the starters in the 30 point blowout; as they were trying to get Jason 1,000 points. Really??  Was this the kids final game??  How friggin weak.  I hope the are exhausted on Saturday.At home, dummy. They wanted him to hit 1000 points at home. Their next two games are on the road.Still weak...but not as weak as calling someone "dummy." 

This happens ALL THE TIME at (insert school here around the nation).

There are two reasons they do it this way:
1) Do it at home in front of friends, family and where they can make a big deal out of it in the arena
2) Get it over with so the focus can be on the next game, rather than on someone needing a couple points for a milestone


Not saying that I necessarily agree with it, but I can in all honesty say that I've been guilty of doing it. ESPECIALLY when the next opponent is a really big game...if they were playing The Little Sisters of the Poor on Saturday (especially at home), they probably wouldn't have done it. However, they are playing the conference leaders, on the road, on national TV...

Good Lord, I think I just defended Detroit...excuse me while I go to church...

[vu72]

Just checked the ticket site and it appears that the lower deck is sold out (for two tickets together) with the exception of court side at $43.75 per ticket.  Moving to the upper deck I needed to go to row PP in section CC to find two together.

[StlVUFan]

Rob Cavanaugh in a late pinch after the Adam Amin got called up to the Big Leagues. BTW: Paul Oren on color this Saturday.

Ah yes, that does ring a bell, now that you mention it.

[agibson]

Just checked the ticket site and it appears that the lower deck is sold out (for two tickets together) with the exception of court side at $43.75 per ticket.  Moving to the upper deck I needed to go to row PP in section CC to find two together.

Good to see advanced ticket sales ticking along.  Should be a good crowd.

[valpotx]

Pack the dang ARC!!!!  I hate Detroit's players/coach so much.  I don't mind their fans, though they appear very ignorant if they take Minnerath versus Rowdy.  All Minnerath does is score, not the extras that Rowdy does.  Rowdy wins POY over Ray this year if all continues as it has been.  Regardless of how how much Sr tries to stuff the ballots for Jr by playing him 37 minutes in every 30 pt blowout, it won't work.

[oklahomamick]

Detroit feeds off energy.  They are an emotional team that will enjoy the taunts and heckling of the VU crowd. Detroit reminds me of an AND 1 basketball team.   

[truth219]

Hopefully a few hundred come and buy tix on game day...as of right now there are plenty of seats available. Nothing like when butler would come to town

[LaPorteAveApostle]

At home, dummy. They wanted him to hit 1000 points at home. Their next two games are on the road.

Great, genius.  That explains Calliste.

Care to explain what ALL THE OTHER STARTERS WERE STILL DOING IN THEN?

In fact, if they REALLY wanted Calliste to get the points, then PULL ALL THE OTHER STARTERS.

With your crappy, crappy bench, he'd be the only plausible scoring option, and then surprise!  He could get his lame points and go sit down.

But no.

[jloose128]

Another wonderful post on the Detroit message board:

As for Valpo, I read the other teams' message boards from time to time, mainly before doing game previews but now and then other times, too. It's hard to hate or even dislike Valpo, a small, private, Lutheran school (I teach at a small, private Lutheran school) with high standards, and a group of players who seem to be really good kids who work hard.

But the fans on their message board are the worst in the Horizon, and sure make me want to hate them. As someone on the Youngstown board summed them up, "a bunch of pompous hayseeds." They're total homers, with zero ability to recognize their team's deficiencies or other team's pluses, like they've never seen a game outside of Valparaiso. They've got this huge chip on their shoulders about "respect." You sense that if you were to note that Ryan Broekhoff is not the greatest player in Horizon - no, Indiana college basketball - history, they'd go crazy. They think everybody else cheats (they even accuse Detroit statisticians of cheating to boost Ray's stats). But when Bobby Capobianco mugs Doug Anderson on an open dunk, they call that the play of the game and argue he should get a standing ovation at the next home game. They've got zero sense of proportion - especially where UD is concerned. They are constantly outraged when the Titans win big that we didn't play the bench more, while the fans of the teams we've beaten see it as part of the game. But when the bench does play, they are outraged when they score points. They are currently in high dudgeon over the Titans leaving a couple starters in the CSU game to help Jason get his 1000th point at home. It's not just toward UD - though they hate us most of all - but toward pretty much every team in the Horizon, not to mention Butler. There seem to be a few level headed folks there, but for the most part they really come across as a bunch of, well, pompous hayseeds.

[valpotx]

Anderson wasn't mugged by Bobby, as it has been mentioned very often.  Even if it was the other way around and Anderson did the same thing to Bobby, I would not call that a flagrant.  It was a hard foul because of the situation Anderson created in stopping to do a showboat dunk, and Bobby not having quick enough reflexes to change where he was swatting.  Any level-headed person would see it as such a thing. 

Rowdy is the best overall player in the HL, hands-down.  No one thinks he is the greatest player in Indiana college basketball history.  That poster needs to quit being such a drama queen.

In regards to running up the score, do you truly think that the fans of the other conference teams 'see it as part of the game??'  What a moron to say such a thing.  Any athletic fan who has played any sport in their history knows that their are unspoken rules in regards to running up the score with your starters once you have a large lead.  If you do it with your bench guys who rarely play, then fine, that is one thing.  It is a COMPLETELY different situation to keep your starting five out there for 35-36 minutes when the game has been at 20-30 points for 10-15 minutes.  You will notice that when we get this big of a lead, Bryce takes out several of his starters to rotate the lineups until the end of the game, never keeping but 2 or 3 starters on the court at one time, due to our lack of having more than 9 guys able to play each game. 

I think that we point out our team's deficiencies very often on here, as well as the positives of our group.  Obviously, Buggs is a liability if teams sag off of him and he doesn't find another way to get to the basket.  KVW can't shoot outside of an 8-10 foot area on a consistent basis, Rowdy can struggle to create his own shot at times, Bobby can be quicker to the basket, etc.  Any casual fan would take Valpo's lineup over Detroit's, any given day of the week.  This is why Detroit will lose on Saturday, as they are not a team, but a bunch of individuals.

The one thing he did get correct is that we hate them most of the HL teams 

[agibson]

I'm not quite sure what they mean by "pompous hayseeds".  It as an evocative phrase - I'll give them that.  I'm not sure I've ever been compared to some sort of country bumpkin before!  Perhaps it's a part of the Hoosier experience that I should get used to.

They do, perhaps, have a point here:

They're total homers

But, what would you expect for a fan message board?  And, as he admitted, it's not unilateral.

A lot of the rest is sort of weird hyperbole.  Rowdy's very good.  One of the best players in Valpo history, probably.  One of the best players in the Horizon League, currently.  A very solid POY candidate - though I think many of us could admit that there are arguments to be made for others (or at least one other).

Best player in the history of the Horizon League?  Huh?

I don't think I've even heard anyone argue that he should go to the NBA straight out of Valpo.  (Though, with a tourney run, who knows!)

I am intrigued by the scorer's report.  It should be pretty clear from video who made the assist on the alley-oop, no?

[wh]

Hopefully a few hundred come and buy tix on game day...as of right now there are plenty of seats available. Nothing like when butler would come to town

One big difference is Butler used to bring a ton of fans, making sellouts pretty easy.  I did a quick count of rows last night.  It looked like there were about a thousand seats still available.  Between advance sales today and tomorrow, and (hopefully) heavy game time sales on Sat., I'm guessing we will still be close to a sellout.  I'm also picturing an overflow student section with students standing on the track due to lack of student section seating.  Add in the intangibles and subplots - national TV, battle of good vs. evil, payback for the McCallum dunk, 313, etc. - and the atmosphere should be electric.  I cannot wait!

[covufan]

Anderson wasn't mugged by Bobby, as it has been mentioned very often.  Even if it was the other way around and Anderson did the same thing to Bobby, I would not call that a flagrant.  It was a hard foul because of the situation Anderson created in stopping to do a showboat dunk, and Bobby not having quick enough reflexes to change where he was swatting.  Any level-headed person would see it as such a thing.

I saw it the same way.  No showboat and Bobby has a chance to get that ball.  Good hustle on his part.

[truth219]

Although I don't agree completely with what the detroit fan posted, I will say there are times where this board focuses to much attention on the wrong decisions or things other coaches/players say or perform. If you don't like the way ray coaches that's fine, or what waters said after the csu game. But really it has no effect on valpo. I think it would be nice if we were as tough on our own team as we are on otheres. For instance, I like what waters said after the game. Bryce drew is so vanilla and so is the rest of the coaching staff. They never say anything out of the usual after a bad loss. I just wish he showed more personality when we lose then the same ol let's get them next time. As for rowdy, he is good but so are other players in the conference. Is he the best, well that's hard to say. The next few weeks will determine that. Rowdy has been streaky this year and a lot of our role players have helped us get to where we are. It hasn't been a one man show.  We should win out the rest of the season. Regaurdless of the already mentioned reason why we could lose. Let's face the fact we have the most mature/talented team. Good teams find a way to win at home or on the road the clunkers are behind us.

[wh]

Another wonderful post on the Detroit message board:

As for Valpo, I read the other teams' message boards from time to time, mainly before doing game previews but now and then other times, too. It's hard to hate or even dislike Valpo, a small, private, Lutheran school (I teach at a small, private Lutheran school) with high standards, and a group of players who seem to be really good kids who work hard.

But the fans on their message board are the worst in the Horizon, and sure make me want to hate them. As someone on the Youngstown board summed them up, "a bunch of pompous hayseeds." They're total homers, with zero ability to recognize their team's deficiencies or other team's pluses, like they've never seen a game outside of Valparaiso. They've got this huge chip on their shoulders about "respect." You sense that if you were to note that Ryan Broekhoff is not the greatest player in Horizon - no, Indiana college basketball - history, they'd go crazy. They think everybody else cheats (they even accuse Detroit statisticians of cheating to boost Ray's stats). But when Bobby Capobianco mugs Doug Anderson on an open dunk, they call that the play of the game and argue he should get a standing ovation at the next home game. They've got zero sense of proportion - especially where UD is concerned. They are constantly outraged when the Titans win big that we didn't play the bench more, while the fans of the teams we've beaten see it as part of the game. But when the bench does play, they are outraged when they score points. They are currently in high dudgeon over the Titans leaving a couple starters in the CSU game to help Jason get his 1000th point at home. It's not just toward UD - though they hate us most of all - but toward pretty much every team in the Horizon, not to mention Butler. There seem to be a few level headed folks there, but for the most part they really come across as a bunch of, well, pompous hayseeds.

The Detroit fan diatribe aside, what I really find humorous is the reference to a comment from the YSU board.  They usually go about 5 days between posts over there.  Why waste a rare post talking about Valpo fans? 

[govalpogo]

Feel the hatred flow!  We must be doing something right

Seriously though, I could see us being uppity in the eyes of the rest of the league (Especially since we are, indeed, highly educated individuals 8) Careful wh, words like "diatribe" will send them to urban dictionary).  Gee, am I now contributing to the pomp? But again, it's an online message board for fans of a specific team, would one expect otherwise?

[valpopal]

Let's see what claims the Detroit fan is making:

1. We believe Rowdy is the best player in the Horizon league. Well, he was the league's Player of the Year last year; he has been the league's Player of the Week 4 times this year; he is currently the leading candidate to repeat as Player of the Year in the league; he was named the best Mid-Major player in the nation at mid-season. Okay, you got us: we're guilty of believing he is the best player in the Horizon League!

2. We applauded Bobby for hustling to catch a Detroit player who was about to try a windmill dunk to embarrass the Valpo team but was too obsessed with his own theatrics to realize he could be caught from behind and that he caused the collision to be harder because of his pulling the ball back for the windmill. Okay, guilty again!

3. We find the way Detroit runs up the score on opponents by leaving in their starters and keeping their feet on the gas even when they have a 30+ point lead and less than 3 minutes remain in the game is inexcusable, especially when it seems they are doing so to stuff stats. Okay, we believe in displaying class in victory as well as defeat, which also means we don't like a player dunking at the buzzer of a championship game when everyone else had begun to walk off the floor and shake hands. Guilty once more!

4. We are called "pompous hayseeds," i guess because we have a different set of standards, including one that doesn't allow us to criminally vandalize the neighborhood of our opponent. Proudly guilty!

[vu72]

Let's see what claims the Detroit fan is making:

1. We believe Rowdy is the best player in the Horizon league. Well, he was the league's Player of the Year last year; he has been the league's Player of the Week 4 times this year; he is currently the leading candidate to repeat as Player of the Year in the league; he was named the best Mid-Major player in the nation at mid-season. Okay, you got us: we're guilty of believing he is the best player in the Horizon League!

2. We applauded Bobby for hustling to catch a Detroit player who was about to try a windmill dunk to embarrass the Valpo team but was too obsessed with his own theatrics to realize he could be caught from behind and that he caused the collision to be harder because of his pulling the ball back for the windmill. Okay, guilty again!

3. We find the way Detroit runs up the score on opponents by leaving in their starters and keeping their feet on the gas even when they have a 30+ point lead and less than 3 minutes remain in the game is inexcusable, especially when it seems they are doing so to stuff stats. Okay, we believe in displaying class in victory as well as defeat, which also means we don't like a player dunking at the buzzer of a championship game when everyone else had begun to walk off the floor and shake hands. Guilty once more!

4. We are called "pompous hayseeds," i guess because we have a different set of standards, including one that doesn't allow us to criminally vandalize the neighborhood of our opponent. Proudly guilty!

Pompous hayseeds!  Love it. Well see how they feel when their graduates are working for our graduates!    Oh, and their former President is now a Vice President at Valpo!     Let's settle this on the court!