Valpo @ Oakland, Jan. 4th, 5:00pm CT Game Thread

[EddieCabot]

Badger hit some crazy 3s

Best autocorrect ever.

[valpopal]

This was a tough game to swallow and digest because Valpo played pretty well, especially for a road game: 50% field goal and 43.5% 3-point shooting. The free throw shooting was not too bad (take out Vashil's 0-2 and the rest of the team shot 75%), although Valpo had 9 fewer free throws, and it hurt that 5 of the 6 misses happened in the second half.

However, as questionable as the officiating might have been at times, I don't blame them for the disparity. Oakland took more shots and had more possessions to allow them to be fouled...and there again lies the difference in the game, especially in the second half: Turnovers! The Crusaders did a decent job of handling the ball with 12 turnovers; however, they committed 7 in the second half while Oakland had an unheard of number of 0 turnovers in the second half. Zero!

I give credit to Oakland for the zero turnovers and clutch 3-point shooting in the second half, a couple of them almost impossible; but I still look at this game as a lost opportunity Valpo should have won. If I had been told beforehand the shooting percentages for Valpo and that they would commit just 12 turnovers, I would have expected a win. This loss could stick in the craw as the conference standings sort out during the season.

[mvandersee]

I wasn't able to watch the second half or press conference, but was there any reason for the lack of playing time for Bobby? Any injury or just playing poorly? It just seems odd that in a game where Valpo seemed to lack an interior offensive presence (5 pts combined from Moose, Vashil, and Jubril) that Bobby would only get 12 minutes of playing time. Even with his recent struggles he is still averaging 7.9 ppg and has shown the ability to score inside, even though some of his acrobatic shots are a bit miraculous.

[SanityLost17]

Questions going forward: 
How are we going to get more/any scoring in the post?  If we don't, we are going to lose a lot of HL games by 4-8 points. 
How do we get more drives to the basket from Williams/Carter/Dority?  Lots of short benches in the HL. In order to win we must get to the foul line and simultaniously get the other teams in foul trouble.
Playing Time, who gets it, when and why?  Williams was on fire in the 1st half and Carter ended up with more minutes in the game.  We got virtually no scoring from the post, yet we don't give bobby any minutes at the 5 despite him showing an ability to score down low all of last season.
Should we Press the whole game, or some of it?  If we are going to have a deep rotation with lots of substutions that limit the playing time of some very good players, why not apply pressure the entire game and wear teams down?  We even have big men playing safety who are capable of blocking shots if the press gets broken.  Perhaps we are simply not a good press team and Bryce knows it? 

[justducky]

How are we going to get more/any scoring in the post?  If we don't, we are going to lose a lot of HL games by 4-8 points. 
How do we get more drives to the basket from Williams/Carter/Dority?  Lots of short benches in the HL. In order to win we must get to the foul line and simultaniously get the other teams in foul trouble.
Playing Time, who gets it, when and why?  Williams was on fire in the 1st half and Carter ended up with more minutes in the game.  We got virtually no scoring from the post, yet we don't give bobby any minutes at the 5 despite him showing an ability to score down low all of last season.
Should we Press the whole game, or some of it?  If we are going to have a deep rotation with lots of substutions that limit the playing time of some very good players, why not apply pressure the entire game and wear teams down?  We even have big men playing safety who are capable of blocking shots if the press gets broken.  Perhaps we are simply not a good press team and Bryce knows it? 

All are good questions and points that I have been wanting to address. Your 1'st and 3'rd questions I will try to combine because Bobby may be a centerpiece in the answers to both. Because the HL features mainly smaller quicker lineups which will require more play at the 3 from Coleman (and less from Peters), Capo with his ballhandling limitations should almost never play the 4 unless Jordan is at the 3. This would suggest to me that Bobby could slide over to the 5 for 10+ minutes per game as long as his additional point production could outweigh the lost rebounds and surrendered points that this move might cost. So maybe this would be a wash but it is something that might rack up some fouls on the oppositions centers and reduce our turnovers in the process.
  Your second point concerns our guards reluctance and abilities to drive the lane. Part of this is some of the defenses we have seen and some of it seems to be the refs going back to calling charges again instead of the blocks that they clearly would have been in our first six or seven game. This subtle return to the old rules is working against us (because of our depth) and we should be raising hell about it at every opportunity. If Carter could consistently get the same blocking calls that Dority and Williams were receiving a month ago then our penetration game could open up big time. It is as if somebody called a truce on the "war of attrition".
  A coaches only concern about playing time now should be to get the right combinations of people in the right rotations to best exploit our team strengths against their teams weaknesses. Bruised egos will heal pretty quickly as long as the team is winning.
  With Carter now in the fold the use of some full court pressure after made baskets would seem like something we should be able to do reasonably well. You should all have noticed that our man to man play has been looking much better, but I have to wonder if Yeo is quick enough or healthy enough to contribute a few minutes were we to get into a protracted pressure and running game. On the other hand just the use of so many freshman and newcomers for a pressure style attack might be counterproductive towards the goal of teaching half court offensive discipline.

[LaPorteAveApostle]

the HL features mainly smaller quicker lineups

I don't dispute the truth of this statement.

However, I would suggest that there are two schools of thought--one is do what they are doing, and one is do what you want to do--i.e. field a lineup disparate from theirs and exploit mismatches before they exploit yours and so force them to change what they do to avoid getting run off the court.

Obviously the second one promises greater results but at greater risk (they see your bigger slower and go even smaller faster, perhaps).  Just a philosophical coaching question.

(It always comes back to Nintendo Ice Hockey, right?)

[valpotx]

the HL features mainly smaller quicker lineups

I don't dispute the truth of this statement.

However, I would suggest that there are two schools of thought--one is do what they are doing, and one is do what you want to do--i.e. field a lineup disparate from theirs and exploit mismatches before they exploit yours and so force them to change what they do to avoid getting run off the court.

Obviously the second one promises greater results but at greater risk (they see your bigger slower and go even smaller faster, perhaps).  Just a philosophical coaching question.

(It always comes back to Nintendo Ice Hockey, right?)

I agree with playing your game and making the opponent adapt to YOUR style.  Also, I love the Ice Hockey reference...loved those fat guys and their power shot.

[chef]

Keep in mind, Valpo won league championship after league championship while having the biggest lineup in the league year after year. It also helped that guys like Ensminger, Viskovic, and Grafs were also the most talented big men in the league as well.

[StlVUFan]

The 2nd half at Oakland was nowhere near as bad as the 1st half against UIC.  The last 12.9 seconds still defies explanation from my point of view, but the game was pretty much over by then anyway.  It looked stupid, but it was not a choke.  What killed Valpo was Travis Bader feeling it from super long range.  I'm sure Valpo could have played better in the 2nd half, but it was hardly a poor performance.

[LaPorteAveApostle]

guys like Ensminger, Viskovic, and Grafs

Miss You - Caedmon's Call (Lyric Video)

[wh]

The 2nd half at Oakland was nowhere near as bad as the 1st half against UIC.  The last 12.9 seconds still defies explanation from my point of view, but the game was pretty much over by then anyway.  It looked stupid, but it was not a choke.  What killed Valpo was Travis Bader feeling it from super long range.  I'm sure Valpo could have played better in the 2nd half, but it was hardly a poor performance.

I guess "poor" is in the eye of the beholder.  We scored 26 points in the 2nd half, our lowest scoring 2nd half this season.  We failed to score a FG for 2 4-minute spans after the 12-minute mark. Lexus and Jordan went scoreless in the 2nd half after double figures by both in the 1st.  We missed almost all of our FT attempts. If this isn't our worst 2nd half of the year it sure has to be close.

[Grizz]

could it have been great defense. Kampe's teams are know for great defense, right. Or it could have been that kid that would only ave 10 points a game if he played for Valpo. You know, the one who has made 37 of his last 66 threes. 

[vu72]

could it have been great defense. Kampe's teams are know for great defense, right. Or it could have been that kid that would only ave 10 points a game if he played for Valpo. You know, the one who has made 37 of his last 66 threes. 

Candidly, I would say it was great coaching by Kampe.  We did pretty much what we wanted in the first half and Kampe made adjustments that shut down key elements of our attack.  Bryce didn't make similar adjustments.

[wh]

could it have been great defense. Kampe's teams are know for great defense, right. Or it could have been that kid that would only ave 10 points a game if he played for Valpo. You know, the one who has made 37 of his last 66 threes. 

I assume from your comment that someone on our board said that Bader would only average 10 points if he played for us, but that is not my belief.  That said Bader scored 20 points in 40 minutes, which is slightly below average for him. I never once thought, 'gee, I hope Bader doesn't hit his average or we're in trouble.'  I was just hoping he didn't go off on us (which he is very capable of) and carry his team to victory singlehandedly, which he did not.  If anyone went off on us it was Mondy, who went 4-4 from 3.  That had to be completely unexpected by our scouting report.  Prior to this game the most 3-pt. FG's he hit in his 12 games was 3 (1 time).  In fact, he didn't have a single 3-pt FG in 7 of 12 games prior to Saturday.

As to our low scoring 2nd half, Kampe, by his own admission, has never been a defensive-minded coach.  Also, by his admission, the Summit (Mid Con) is not a defensive focused league.  Believe me, we had a big adjustment to make on the defensive end when we joined the Horizon League before we were able to win our first league championship.  Even now, there are at least 3 HL teams that are much better defensively than Valpo, including WSU, CSU and GB.  Oakland's perimeter defense in the first half Saturday was as soft as any Valpo opponent this season - sorry, but that's the truth.  It was much better in the second half, but nothing more than we are accustomed to. We should have been able to make adjustments, but we failed to respond and lost the game as a result.     

[justducky]

If anyone went off on us it was Mondy, who went 4-4 from 3.  That had to be completely unexpected by our scouting report.

I have no specific numbers in front of me but the whole flow of the game seemed to change when Coleman got his 4'th foul (around 8:30 mark). After that Mondy took it repeatedly to the hole for baskets and free throws. The loss of Coleman may have helped stall our point production also. As many rough edges as Jordan has in his game he is a senior who can do some things at the 3 position that no one else on this team can.

[historyman]

If anyone went off on us it was Mondy, who went 4-4 from 3.  That had to be completely unexpected by our scouting report.

I have no specific numbers in front of me but the whole flow of the game seemed to change when Coleman got his 4'th foul (around 8:30 mark). After that Mondy took it repeatedly to the hole for baskets and free throws. The loss of Coleman may have helped stall our point production also. As many rough edges as Jordan has in his game he is a senior who can do some things at the 3 position that no one else on this team can.

And yet at almost the same period of time Mondy was playing with 4 fouls also.

[vu72]

If anyone went off on us it was Mondy, who went 4-4 from 3.  That had to be completely unexpected by our scouting report.

I have no specific numbers in front of me but the whole flow of the game seemed to change when Coleman got his 4'th foul (around 8:30 mark). After that Mondy took it repeatedly to the hole for baskets and free throws. The loss of Coleman may have helped stall our point production also. As many rough edges as Jordan has in his game he is a senior who can do some things at the 3 position that no one else on this team can.

And yet at almost the same period of time Mondy was playing with 4 fouls also.

Mondy is an all league quality player. Currently third is assists and first in steals by a wide margin. Against Michigan State he went for 24 points 6 boards and 7 steals.  Also 3 of 5 from the 3 and played the entire game.

[justducky]

And yet at almost the same period of time Mondy was playing with 4 fouls also.

I had already forgotten that. So who did we have in the game that should have been exploiting his foul situation by taking it right to him? Somebody refresh my memory but who did we put in front of him on defense when he started to attack the rim? Was this a coaching oversight that might have changed the game?

[vu72]

And yet at almost the same period of time Mondy was playing with 4 fouls also.

I had already forgotten that. So who did we have in the game that should have been exploiting his foul situation by taking it right to him? Somebody refresh my memory but who did we put in front of him on defense when he started to attack the rim? Was this a coaching oversight that might have changed the game?

Petros also had 4 fouls

[justducky]

Petros also had 4 fouls

Yes but Petros didn't beat us,  and even if we had fouled him out of the game who would we have posted up for easy baskets?

[HC]

I'm sure others saw this on Twitter, but it sounds like Oakland is having to move their band from where they were located during the Valpo game.

[LaPorteAveApostle]

why is that?

[HC]

I believe they were seated right next to the Valpo bench.  Remember a few years back when Valpo's band would come onto the court and point their instruments right at the opponents huddle?  HL put a stop to that after Butler complained (courtesy of Valpo band lead Josh Russell). There is a rule somewhere about where the band/student section can be located.

[valpo84]

Coach Kampe is taking questions for his post game radio show tomorrow with Dakich as a guest. You can tweet him Qs at #askkampe. He responded to one today about whether the reffing has been different pre-conf v HL games. he said "different than non-leaguer or sure. Maybe refs adjustment period." Dakich said during Mich State game tnite that what is a point of emphasis in November is often forgotten by January. FWIW.

[wh]

By the way, the Oakland TV broadcast team took "instant" replay to a whole new level in Saturday's game.  Every replay after a made Oakland basket was shown while the action continued sight unseen at Valpo's end of the court.  When they did return to live action, the camera was focused on the Oakland player who scored rather than the action on the court.  To avoid being unduly harsh to what might be college students doing the best they can, I'll just say that I've never seen that done anywhere else.