Mercer University @ Valpo, Nov 29 7:05pm Game Thread

[classof2014]

Watched the game yesterday, what a game!!! If Bobby doesn't foul out I think we win this game but losing in triple OT is nothing to be shameful of. I do have a few thoughts on the game.

Bobby - Played another really good game, he seems to be firing on all cylinders right now. He does need to stop trying to draw charging fouls, the refs won't call. He had 2 or 3 fouls called on him yesterday because of that. Which we needed those 2 or 3 fouls back yesterday. Once he fouled out we needed to score on every possession and unfortunately that didn't happen.

LVD - Played great, under the new rules where there are a ton of fouls being called really helps his game. He understands that he's gonna get to the line and goes into the lane with reckless abandon. He made some huge shots yesterday. He seems real comfortable in the 2 and the offense flows much better as well.

Jordan - Sadly he got hurt yesterday. Played minimal minutes and had no points, with him we probably win but he was hurt and I rather him on the bench than make his injury worse in a OOC game. We were without one of our top scorers and nearly beat a very good team.

Moussa - Great defensively, needs to quit fouling. Some of that is on Vashil, he can't keep fouling out in just a few minutes of game play.

Vashil - Like I said, he needs to play without fouling. Glad he's being aggressive but getting in foul trouble and forcing Moussa to play 5 to 10 more minutes makes it more likely for Moussa to foul out.

Chadwick - I think he's hurt but I'm guessing he's nothing more than a bench warmer. Will probably see ample minutes in today's game.

Alec - If he doesn't go through a shooting lull in the second half we win. He's been terrific and was money in OT. He had a rough go in the 2nd half but never gave up and kept on shooting and made some big 3s in OT. He might be our best player on a very good team and he's only a freshman. The respect Mercer had for him always having a player guard him shows how good he is. Without a shooting lull in the 2nd half we win but I was glad to see he bounced back in OT and missing a few 3s didn't cause him to make dumb plays. Alec is gonna be great, he's similar to Rowdy but seems to get a few more 2s. He's averaging 16 points a game right now and shows no signs of slowing down.

Lexus - Great first half, disappeared after that. Overall though he's been a huge boost to this team. He's been able to relieve LVD of the PG and has showed he's a scoring threat from anywhere on the court. Even though he didn't score he limited their best player, Hall to only 8 points yesterday. By far he's been the biggest surprise on this team.

Clay - Didn't play much. I think Bryce was cautious due to the foot injury. No need to aggravate it and I think he looked like a freshman yesterday a bit.

Jubril - Lot of raw athleticism. In another year or two he's gonna be a great post player. He's able to finish down low and is able to hold is own. Didn't expect to see him play much this season but I guess I was way wrong, since it looks like he's gonna be a big contributor to this team.

Nick - Looks like a freshman. Guessing he'll get plenty of PT today.

Keith - Amazing to think that he might be the best player on this team, possibly the HL, and we're playing like this. Can't imagine how good we'll be with him. Excited to see him in a few weeks for the first time. He's the factor that might put us over the edge into a great team.

Overall last night's game was a war of attrition. No shame in losing in triple OT. We were without Coleman for most of the game, with him we probably win. To think we have 5 freshmen and we're playing like this, this early on is unreal. This core of freshmen might be the group that put Valpo into the upper echelon of mid-majors alongside the SLUs, VCUs, Butlers, Gonzagas, etc... Excited to see how we play SLU, I think we can pull the win out. The Valparaizone will be back and hopefully Jordan will be healthy. First we need to go down the road to Muncie and keep up the intensity and take down the Cardinals. Threepeat? 

[truth219]

Tonight Davidson and Chadwick both need to get at 20 minutes...if we can stay ahead. The men need a rest.

Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk

[valpopal]

As others have mentioned, the game was exciting to watch, and I only wish the students could have been there to see it. The players gave everything they had. During the overtime period they were exhausted but kept playing. Afterwards, there were many sore bodies in the locker room. And to anyone who thought Coleman was not hurt: he was in a great deal of pain after the time he got injured during his start of play in the first period. He kept grimacing and grabbing his leg on the bench, yet still tried to play but couldn't. In the overtime Bryce asked him if he could go in, but he was still limping. I bet he gets to rest against Cincinnati Christian.

Nevertheless, this was a valuable game for the team. They learned they could play a very good team and probably would have won if Coleman stayed healthy. They bonded even more as a team during the game, and the freshmen got a great learning experience. Imagine if before the season you were told that in an overtime we would be playing four freshmen on the court against a good veteran team of seniors that won their conference championship last year and went to the NCAA tournament, and we would still have hopes of winning.

As Bryce said in the press conference, nobody "lost" the game, Mercer "won"; and the team won a lot of respect and gained valuable experience. With a healthy Coleman (and Chadwick) and an addition of Carter, plus an experienced group of freshmen, this team will be even deeper by conference play.

The last time Valpo fans got to see a triple overtime, was 1995 in the Mid-Con championship game and Bryce was the freshman guard. Valpo won the game but was denied the NCAA tournament because teams had left for the Horizon League! I was there for that great game, and I was pleased to be at last night's game as well, even though the outcome wasn't a win this time.

[valpopal]

I have now posted at the link below 25 photographs from the Mercer game I hope you will like, including these two: LaVonte playing at his best despite being injured during the game; Homer and Bryce in a photo as a reminder of the last triple overtime at the ARC when Homer was coach and Bryce a freshman: http://www.flickr.com/photos/96208998@N05/sets/72157638216712236/

[FWalum]

I think the play of the game was the Lexus drive and dish to Vashil for the dunk.

[HC]

With all the balls Vashil fumbles away I was amazed he caught and finished that one!

We almost made it without someone saying what a good game Capo played. He had good numbers but did not play a good game. He continually got buried under the basket on defense were he couldn't either stop them from scoring or help the high post jumper that Mercer hit on multiple occasions. He also blew 4 point blank lay ins (6'10" dunk the ball). Of course that's easy for me to say sitting in the stands. With that said, I'm excited for how well he has played so far and I'm encouraged that he seems to be able to stay in the game and go hard for more then a few minutes at a time.

[vu72]

With all the balls Vashil fumbles away I was amazed he caught and finished that one!

We almost made it without someone saying what a good game Capo played. He had good numbers but did not play a good game. He continually got buried under the basket on defense were he couldn't either stop them from scoring or help the high post jumper that Mercer hit on multiple occasions. He also blew 4 point blank lay ins (6'10" dunk the ball). Of course that's easy for me to say sitting in the stands. With that said, I'm excited for how well he has played so far and I'm encouraged that he seems to be able to stay in the game and go hard for more then a few minutes at a time.

You are missing the obvious in your statement.  Bobby is 6'10" and can drive to the basket and shoot the 3.  A hard combo for someone of his size. No one makes every shot but he is playing at a high level.

[HC]

I'm not disputing he has made enough 3s to warrant someone having to put a hand nor said anything about him driving to the hoop (which I love). I simply said he had real good numbers but did not have a real good game. No makes every shot but how many guys his size miss 4 open lay ups? I love how he's played this year, I've been one of his biggest critics since he arrived out of shape from IU and could barely play hard for more then a few minutes at a time. Him continuing to play at this high level is imperative, again all I was saying was he didn't play as great as his double double stat line might indicate (but, again I'm just a guy in the stands with access to a computer and this message board so take anything I type with a grain of salt and feel free to disagree).

[milldew72]

Chadwick played the following night and looked really, really good. Albeit against a DII team.
As for the Friday game, it looked to me like Mercer was just in better condition as the game got toward the end. Valpo guys looked tired, and I think that's part of the reason all our bigs fouled out.
Does anyone think Bryce doesn't focus enough on conditioning?

[classof2014]

I do not believe one bit that we were out of condition. Let us not forget Chadwick didn't dress and Coleman got hurt. We were missing two players and Coleman is one of our leading scorers. Key was that Vashil can't play without fouling, yes Moussa fouled out early but if Vashil was able to stay out of foul trouble perhaps Moussa would've been able too.

Mercer had 12 players who saw the court in that game compared to us only having 9 players on the court. Take away Coleman that's 8 and with Vashil and Moussa fouling out prior to OT we were left with 6 going into OT as well as Yeo whom was nursing an injured foot. For the better part of OT we had 5 guys. It wasn't so much we were unconditioned but because they had a deeper bench the longer the game went their probability of winning increased as well.

This game had nothing to do with conditioning, we had some injuries that prevented us from winning. If Coleman was healthy throughout the game we win. This loss had nothing to do with conditioning. The guys who played 40+ minutes on both sides of the ball seemed dead tired and rightfully so. Losing in a 3 OT game has nothing to do with conditioning, guys are gonna get tired. A game this long favors the team with more bodies and Mercer had more bodies, that's why they won in OT. It had nothing to do with conditioning.

[a3uge]

Conditioning didn't play a huge role in the outcome of the game because the point where the game was lost was when a fresh Clay Yeo entered. The game was a tossup until Capo went out... Just a matter of attrition.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[talksalot]

I'd love to play those guys NEXT year!

[valpo64]

Valpo's youth showed playing against the senior  laden Mercer team