Valpo Vs. Loyola Marymount Dec 14, 1:05pm CENTRAL TIME Game Thread

[HC]

I kept waiting for #3 to lose the ball in his shorts when he dribbled between his legs, I'm still not sure if they were that baggy or if he was in a skort.

[classof2014]

A few thoughts from the game:

Once again the team came out slow and sluggish, very similar to the SLU game. They only shot 25% in the 1st half and at one point I think LMU was 11/13 or something from the field to start the half. The team seemed to gel in the 2nd half and I'm guessing from what it looks like, the back of the bench for the conference will be Chadwick and Davidson, with Clay getting some PT here and there but he'll be in the Jordan Coleman role I believe.

Alec -- Need I say more? 30 points & 8 boards. I understand Mondy played really well today for Oakland but he had a mediocre performance against IU earlier in the week and Oakland lost both games, Alec deserves PotW honors, without him we lose.

LVD -- Not his best game, shots weren't falling. Had a good 2nd half, had 10 points and he never seemed out of control either when going to the rim. Just not his night but overall not an awful performance.

Jordan -- Hoping he finds his 3 point shot again. He looked more like Jordan Coleman today, had some athletic plays and was good for a quiet 12 points and was stellar from the charity stripe again.

Moussa -- Played well, thought some of the foul calls on him were phantom calls. He really seems to be playing much better as of late and will be a defensive force down low and seems to be able to have a few moves offensively as well.

Vashil -- Played really good. Only 2 fouls and really played big minutes down the stretch. Got that hook shoot to finally drop and if he can do that regularly watch out.

Bobby -- Not his best nor his worst. Brought a lot of energy and plays with reckless abandon as well. Fell victim to poor reffing, overall though he is looking better and better at the 4.

Jubril -- Was quiet, made important FTs at the end (after missing a couple). Not his best performance but somehow the team plays really well when he's on the court, compared to sitting on the bench.

Lexus -- Injured??? Guess that's why he saw limited action today.

Clay -- Nice to see start but not a very good game and didn't play a whole lot either. Had 2 early points and a couple of assists but I see his court time decreasing as the season goes on.

Chadwick/Davidson -- 2 minutes of PT today!

Keith -- The Keith Carter era at Valpo will officially commence next tipoff against Southeastern on Saturday in bright and sunny Orlando, Florida.

[valpopal]

I have uploaded 36 of my photos (many featuring the guy below) from yesterday's game at the following link: Enjoy! http://www.flickr.com/photos/96208998@N05/sets/72157638714433313/

[FWalum]

The post game press conference for the Loyola Marymount game was mislabeled on YouTube as a second press conference for the Mercer game. Here is the actual link to the Loyola Marymount press conference.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLC9X41gfKE A very interesting press conference.

[wh]

Saturday's announced attendance was an anemic 2548.  That's probably about right because the ARC definitely had a "half full" look and feel.  Yes, the weather was bad, but there has to be something else going on.  This was one of the best OOC home schedules in years and the team is playing exciting basketball, but the community is simply not responding the way they have in the past. 

Aside from the obvious "where is everybody at," someone in the Athletic Department needs to look at the on-line ticket ordering system because there is definitely something wrong.  The ticket availability seating chart for both the St. Louis and LMU games showed the lower level all but full, and yet there were huge gaps all over the place, way too many to possibly be no-shows.  The problem is when someone looking to buy tickets on-line sees that, they assume there are no good lower level seats available or that the place is going to be very crowded, when nothing could be further from the truth. I'm guessing that it is more than coincidence that this seemingly new problem coincides with Cindy Eaton retiring.   

[78crusader]

This problem -- low attendance -- is occurring at a LOT of programs.  Drake, for instance, played New Mexico State here in DSM on Saturday night.  Drake is off to a 6-2 start, with a new coach, against a good team.  The attendance was a little over 3,000 in a facility that seats 7,000.  This in a capitol city many times the size of Valparaiso.

Paul

[a3uge]

The online ticketing is an embarrassment.

* The amount of steps you have to do to end up at the seat-chooser is completely unacceptable. It's almost completely hidden.
* The lack of a ticket link on the schedule is incredibly stupid.
* There's no calendar view with a schedule, unlike every sports teams website ever.
* Combining the men's and women's schedules makes everything confusing.
* The top sport, men's basketball doesn't have a direct link to the tickets page from the athletics website.
* Big home games do not have a ticket link from the main athletics site.
* Packages are seemingly non existent.
* Giveaways aren't really advertised
* Ticket prices are even a bit confusing

Marketing seems to be pretty clueless outside of the athletics website as well. Their idea of marketing a game is to buy billboard space. Marketing games via social media is incredibly lazy. The only time they advertise tickets is on game day when they post a graphic with the URL for the ticketing website. THEY DON'T EVEN HAVE THE LINK IN THEIR POST. They also fail when it comes to advertising games in advance. They had a week to advertise the LMU game and had 0 posts about it midweek. They had a tweet the night before, but didn't include the time or any other details other than a T-shirt giveaway. Completely unacceptable.

Also, the lack of an athletics email newsletter is baffling. I can't check out of a dollar store without the cashier asking for my email. I've bought tickets from the athletics site before and do not get promotional emails from the athletics department. If one such email list server exists, they do a horrible job of advertising it and getting people on it.

[a3uge]

Also, before every game, they need to Tweet/Facebook a direct link to the Horizon League network. I would imagine a lot of people don't even realize how easy it is to watch a game and that they're all completely free.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[LaPorteAveApostle]

...because that would sure up the attendance...

[a3uge]

...because that would sure up the attendance...

It would, because avid fans go to more games. It's why blacking out games are incredibly stupid (see before the Blackhawks bandwagon). There's a lot of fans in Chicago, Milwaukee, Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, etc that aren't able to go to every game, but if they followed the team more closely, they might come back for a few home games. I don't think an increased viewership on the HL Net would come at a cost of attendance at an actual home game, because if you're dedicated enough to watch the grainy Horizon League Network, you're probably dedicated enough to attend some games live.

[LaPorteAveApostle]

Oh, I think there's some truth to that.  I just have to bust your chops every now and again so people think we're different people, not just different accounts.

[wh]

The online ticketing is an embarrassment.

* The amount of steps you have to do to end up at the seat-chooser is completely unacceptable. It's almost completely hidden.
* The lack of a ticket link on the schedule is incredibly stupid.
* There's no calendar view with a schedule, unlike every sports teams website ever.
* Combining the men's and women's schedules makes everything confusing.
* The top sport, men's basketball doesn't have a direct link to the tickets page from the athletics website.
* Big home games do not have a ticket link from the main athletics site.
* Packages are seemingly non existent.
* Giveaways aren't really advertised
* Ticket prices are even a bit confusing

Marketing seems to be pretty clueless outside of the athletics website as well. Their idea of marketing a game is to buy billboard space. Marketing games via social media is incredibly lazy. The only time they advertise tickets is on game day when they post a graphic with the URL for the ticketing website. THEY DON'T EVEN HAVE THE LINK IN THEIR POST. They also fail when it comes to advertising games in advance. They had a week to advertise the LMU game and had 0 posts about it midweek. They had a tweet the night before, but didn't include the time or any other details other than a T-shirt giveaway. Completely unacceptable.

Also, the lack of an athletics email newsletter is baffling. I can't check out of a dollar store without the cashier asking for my email. I've bought tickets from the athletics site before and do not get promotional emails from the athletics department. If one such email list server exists, they do a horrible job of advertising it and getting people on it.

This is constructive criticism at its best.  I hope these thoughts and suggestions find their way into ml's office so someone will act on them.

[historyman]

because if you're dedicated enough to watch the grainy Horizon League Network, you're probably dedicated enough to attend some games live.

Most viewers of college basketball on the internet would disagree with you that HLN broadcasts are grainy. Actually the quality of the video is very good compared to other conferences such as the OVC, MAC, MVC, A10, etc.

[valpotx]

because if you're dedicated enough to watch the grainy Horizon League Network, you're probably dedicated enough to attend some games live.

Most viewers of college basketball on the internet would disagree with you that HLN broadcasts are grainy. Actually the quality of the video is very good compared to other conferences such as the OVC, MAC, MVC, A10, etc.

Very true.  Watching our games on other networks just shows us how lucky we are to have a quality online product for the league!