Valpo @ Detroit, 1/15/14 6PM CST tip

[StlVUFan]

not as impressive as ours, but hey, nice for pulling it off.

Nice to be able to run the baseline, eh?

[justducky]

Clay Yeo had been in a captive cocoon like state at the end of the bench until tonight when he suddenly metamorphosised into a butterfly like creature called a Cleo! Maybe before we can field a whole team with similar beauty and function several more players will need to undergo the same process.

[truth219]

I wonder how many more duds it take before Bryce makes Peters earn his starting spot back.

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[78crusader]

Glad to see the win.

I didn't know where else to put this -- in today's Des Moines Register, there was an article about the Drake/Loyola game last night.  (Drake lost, 70-60).  The game was at the Gentile Center (I hope that's what they call the Loyola gym.)  Anyway, there was a sidebar article dwelling on two points -- first, that the gym is beautiful, and, second, there were only 1,702 fans at the game. 

Paul

[Oudrummer]

nice road win.  We very easy could be 3-1 in the conference. 

Did anyone notice how empty the stands were?  What was the attendance? 

Nice win for you guys. Anytime Detroit loses, I'm a fan. And they claimed they don't need OU and we don't really help their attendance. What was there, 800 there tonight? Nice win, Valpo.

[classof2014]

The only reason why I can think that Carter barely played and Alec led the team is that we were out Jordan Coleman, if we had Jordan Alec would've been under 20 or less. The reason why Keith didn't play was because both LVD and Lexus had big games and Keith can't really play another position. I don't know why Keith didn't see playing time in the second half when LVD or Lexus were out. Perhaps he was hurt a bit and nobody knew about it or Bryce planned to put him in later in the game but Lexus and LVD were both performing quite well.

[vu72]

nice road win.  We very easy could be 3-1 in the conference. 

Did anyone notice how empty the stands were?  What was the attendance? 

[/b]

Nice win for you guys. Anytime Detroit loses, I'm a fan. And they claimed they don't need OU and we don't really help their attendance. What was there, 800 there tonight? Nice win, Valpo.

The box score says 1602.  Don't understand it either unless there was bad weather or something.  I suppose you are always going to draw better on a weekend versus a Wednesday, but if you are a fan you would thing seeing Valpo would be an attractive game to pick with all the history.  They drew almost 7000 for Oakland, which I think was their homecoming game. They had 2700 for WSU and 3100 for Bethune Cookman??  Really?  Makes no sense.

[a3uge]

Official attendance: 1,602. Lol.

Didn't get a chance to watch the game - I was at the game of Milwaukee's other Horizon-caliber team. Judging by the 64 total free throws attempted, it was probably one of the better games to miss. 10 total assists vs 19 TO is pretty alarming, and Carter having 0 points, 0 assists, 4 turnovers and 2 fouls in 8 minutes jumped out at me as well. At the beginning of the year I thought he was WAY too hyped up... to the point where every close game he was mentioned as a guy that would've swung the game in our favor.

[dylanrocks]

"I was at the game of Milwaukee's other Horizon (League)-caliber team."

The Bucks?

Were there even 1,602 on hand?

Question: how many Horizon League teams will have fewer wins this season than the Bucks? Will anyone?

[VUfan]

The team stayed in the game despite every chance to fade. They kept working and beat a weak team buy improving their defense, drawing fouls and continuing to work at their offense and overcame injures and poor performances of several key players. This team is a work in progress.  good job, now grow!

[wh]

Glad to see the win.

I didn't know where else to put this -- in today's Des Moines Register, there was an article about the Drake/Loyola game last night.  (Drake lost, 70-60).  The game was at the Gentile Center (I hope that's what they call the Loyola gym.)  Anyway, there was a sidebar article dwelling on two points -- first, that the gym is beautiful, and, second, there were only 1,702 fans at the game. 

Paul

Rambler is a former fellow employee.  He was a nice guy but a below average performer.  Much to everyone's surprise, a few months ago Rambler got hired by one of our competitors. His new bosses took him out on a meet-and-greet and spent a lot of time playing him up.  Now that Rambler is on the job his early results don't seem to be consistent with all the hype.  His coworkers are wondering why they ever hired him, but the bosses (who are totally invested in Rambler's success) are telling everyone that he's a diamond in the rough who needs more time.  This is a developing story.  Stay tuned... 

[ARCInsider]

Cleo came up with a big 3 in the 2nd half.  I wouldn't have predicted him playing more minutes than Carter tonight.

Peters is not the same player we saw at the beginning of the year.  These are his 1st half stats. 0 Points   0-4 field goals    1 reb      1 ast     2 turnovers   1 personal foul Peters also played more minutes than anyone else.

The nothing Valpo is getting from both Carter and Peters is deafening. I truly thought Carter's break in time would be a lot less if he ever emerges at all. For a guy getting the most minutes Peters' nothing really hurts. I'm not really sure why Carter's playing time is being cut but Peters' playing time isn't being cut. What promises did Bryce make to Alec?

I wonder if he promised him that he would play our 2nd leading scorer and 3rd leading rebounder plenty of minutes.  Couldn't be that.

[valpotx]

Alec will not be taken out of the starting lineup or play less than 20 minutes in any game in his career at Valpo, unless he has severe foul trouble.  Regardless of his crap performances over the last few games, I imagine that Bryce promised him such playing time/starts in recruiting, and won't go back on that promise.  That was a big factor in Alec choosing our offer over many higher ranked programs, that immediate playing time.  If Bryce goes back on that, Alec could essentially have a pick of programs to transfer to.  He is a good player, but is struggling to find his college identity right now.  He was so used to being quicker than opposing players in HS, that he is not able to create his own shot at this level in his FR year.  Rowdy had the same problem over his first few years, until he really worked on his overall game to drive and get more shots outside of just 3 pointers. 

[wh]

Anything's possible, but I would be surprised if Bryce literally promised Alec he would start every game regardless of his performance on the court. The fact is we're nearly 2/3 into the season. You can't keep experimenting with lineups and rotations forever, unless you no longer have anything to play for. Without question Alec is one of the top 5 players on the team and should be in the starting lineup going into the home stretch. His biggest problem is he's lost his shooting touch from the perimeter and he's pressing. Sitting him on the bench and giving more time to dwell on it could be the absolutely worst thing to do. Let's be honest. If we hope to earn a decent seed, Alec is going to have to be a major contributor. I think it's just a matter of time till he breaks out of this funk and helps lead this team to reach its potential, whatever that is.

[a3uge]

"I was at the game of Milwaukee's other Horizon (League)-caliber team."

The Bucks?

Were there even 1,602 on hand?

Question: how many Horizon League teams will have fewer wins this season than the Bucks? Will anyone?

Do non-D1 teams count? Yeah, attendance is understandably awful, but at least it's better than a couple other teams with better records. Goal this year isn't really to win more games than Horizon League teams, it's not not end up in a spot that lands you Jabari Parker or Andrew Wiggins instead of Doug McDermott in the 1st round.

[oklahomamick]

I don't have as much of a concern with Alec's 3pt shooting as I do with his turnovers and lack of defense.  His shooting will come around.  The turnovers and his opponent scoring often need to stop. 

[wh]

Who knows, but they could all be related. You start pressing, then overthinking, next come the suggestions from well intending friends and family, and before you know it you're in a full blown funk.

[historyman]

I don't have as much of a concern with Alec's 3pt shooting as I do with his turnovers and lack of defense.  His shooting will come around.  The turnovers and his opponent scoring often need to stop.

I believe there was a sequence where Detroit got about 5 offensive rebounds in a row. Luckily all they did was waste critical time on the clock and turn the ball over on a traveling call. I think it was Alec's man that got most of those offensive rebounds. Valpo had actually out rebounded Detroit significantly in the first half and the rebound totals for the entire game were VU 36, UDM 27. 1st half VU 25, UDM 7. So in the second half Valpo got out rebounded 20-11. Peters had 1 rebound in a game he played 25 minutes in. I really hope Alec gets things turned around but at some point Bryce has to recognize that he has given Alec all the leeway he can this season and start again next year.

[SanityLost17]

I am going to start doing some referee tracking.   

Detroit Game: 
- Referees blew the whistle on virtually all contact going to the basket. 
- Ansinger / Marrow / Spedoske   

WSU Game: 
- Referees did not blow the whistle on virtually any contact going to the basket.   
- Juzenas / Adams / Smith 

Personally, I think that the WSU game officials let way too much go.  I also think that the Detroit game officials called way to many fouls.  Perhaps we will settle into a happy medium the rest of the season?  The players and coaches deserve some consistency. 

My co-worker coaches soccer.  I know that he always requests the names of the officials the day before the game so that he can instruct his players on "how to play".  I wonder if our coaching staff either does, or needs to start doing, something similar.   

[valpotx]

Great idea!  The WSU no calls were ridiculous on both sides, as were all the calls on both sides yesterday.  I really hope that one day, when the NCAA mandates rule changes, that referees/umpires call the games consistently throughout the ENTIRE season.  Not just during non-conference play, when it was pretty consistent.  It seems like we have reverted to last year in allowing the offensive player to extend his arm to gain space, allow defenders to move into charges, allow arm bars, etc. 

[a3uge]

I am going to start doing some referee tracking.   

Detroit Game: 
- Referees blew the whistle on virtually all contact going to the basket. 
- Ansinger / Marrow / Spedoske   

WSU Game: 
- Referees did not blow the whistle on virtually any contact going to the basket.   
- Juzenas / Adams / Smith 

Personally, I think that the WSU game officials let way too much go.  I also think that the Detroit game officials called way to many fouls.  Perhaps we will settle into a happy medium the rest of the season?  The players and coaches deserve some consistency. 

My co-worker coaches soccer.  I know that he always requests the names of the officials the day before the game so that he can instruct his players on "how to play".  I wonder if our coaching staff either does, or needs to start doing, something similar.   

They didn't get the memo that they're completely abandoning the rules from the 1st half of the year. The Wisconsin vs Indiana and Kentucky vs Arkansas games more resembled football than basketball.

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[oklahomamick]

ESPN says there were 1,600 at the game last night.  I think that's a generous number.  Anyhow, one of the 1,600 in the crowd was Doug Anderson from last year's Detroit team.  I wonder if he said hello to Cappo or was hoping for a hard foul when Cappo had his "baby" dunk in the 2nd half?

[valpotx]

Did Anderson end up playing with the Globetrotters?  I know that he was 'drafted' by them in the summer, but haven't heard anything about him suiting up.  I Googled it, but it doesn't look like they would be using his true name much, and I don't want to click on each profile on their website to see which name he might be.

[justducky]

They didn't get the memo that they're completely abandoning the rules from the 1st half of the year. The Wisconsin vs Indiana and Kentucky vs Arkansas games more resembled football than basketball.

I watched neither of these games but your observations would seem to confirm the points that Sanity, myself and others have been trying to express in that for the most part we are back to last years rules with maybe a few referee teams actually following the new "points of emphasis" interpretation.

It seems like we have reverted to last year in allowing the offensive player to extend his arm to gain space, allow defenders to move into charges, allow arm bars, etc.

If consistency is actually what the NCAA and the power conferences want (since they hold most of the cards over the mid-majors) then it should be achievable. Somebody correct me if I am wrong but I would assume that college referee crews operate much like High Schools crews in that individuals will pair up with equally competent, like-minded and geographically close-by partners and work much of the season as a group. If that is accurate then maybe the NCAA should introduce some random, temporary and continually ongoing crew reshuffles both within and outside of their home conferences. It would take some time but eventually more uniformity could be brought to the system.

Yes I know that some or all of the basketball elite would try to shoot this down because it would be viewed as an attack on their basketball sovereignty but if you have a better idea then throw it out there and lets kick it around .

[chef]

There's no way Bryce promised Alec he'd start every game. Why would somebody of the character and intelligence of Alec Peters want to come to a school where a coach would make such a crazy promise. Peters came to Valpo because he loved the school and coaches and was a small town kid that really felt at home in that setting. He clearly lost minutes last night in the second half to Bobby, and likely would have played significantly less minutes if Jordan Coleman had been in uniform. I'm sure if he continues to play the way he has of late he'll continue to lose minutes. If I was a gambling man, I put a few dollars on Peters breaking out of this slump very shortly. One other point on this subject, hasn't Bryce showed with his benching of Keith Carter, that's he's not one to make such playing time promises just to bring in big-time recruits.