HL Season Awards

[valpopal]

Congratulations to LaVonte Dority on his First Team All-Conference selection: Well Deserved! 

[mvandersee]

Valpo Basketball ‏@ValpoBasketball  2m
Congrats also to Alec Peters (@petersalec) and Lexus Williams (@smooveLex) for being named to the #HLMBB All-Freshman Team! #GoValpo

[valpopal]

Congratulations to Alec Peters on his selection to the Horizon League All-Freshman Team! 

[valpopal]

Congratulations to Lexus Williams on his selection to the Horizon League All-Freshman Team! 

[HC]

fantastic! well deserved on all accounts.

[wh]

Congratulations to all 3 of these fine young men!  I am especially happy for and proud of LaVonte, who is a wonderful testimony to what hard work and total dedication to a goal can accomplish. I recall his former playground director saying that there were more talented players but no one ever out worked LaVonte. IMO that's the best compliment anyone can receive. The world is full of talented people, but those willing to give absolutely everything they have are a select group.

[talksalot]

Neat!   Can't wait to see what the next few years will bring us!... but I can wait say 5 or 6 more games this year!

[Nix]

Player of the Year: Keifer Sykes
Defensive Player of the Year: Alec Brown
Freshman of the Year: Kahlil Felder
6th Man of the Year: Jon Harris
Coach of the Year: Brian Wardle

First Team:
Keifer Sykes
Kendrick Perry
Alec Brown
Travis Bader
LaVonte Dority

Second Team:
Bryn Forbes
Juwan Howard Jr.
Corey Petros
AJ Pacher
Jordan Aaron

All Defense:
Alec Brown
Jordan Fouse
Duke Mondy
Kendrick Perry
Matt Vest

All Freshman Team:
Kahlil Felder
Alec Peters
Lexus Williams
Jarod Williams
Pat Birt

[HC]

I was hoping that Waters was going to pull the upset for COY, oh well.  With 4 seniors on the 1st team there will be plenty of opportunity for new guys to step up their individual performances next year.

[valpotx]

I still don't see Petros as being any good, and am surprised by Jordan Aaron and Wardle.  I can at least buy into Bader being 1st team somewhat, but still feel he is a second teamer with Howard or Forbes in his place on 1st team.  Waters should have won COTY.  If you are picked first and win first with mostly upperclassmen, it isn't the coaching that did it necessarily...

Congrats to Dority!

[wh]

Not to hurt Grizz's feelings, but the bigger question about Oakland is why the didn't do better as a team. They had a player on 1st team all conference, another on 2nd team, a 3rd was freshman of the year, and yet another was on the all defensive team. They had more individual honors than anyone other than GB. Something just seems a little inconsistent.

[Grizz]

Didn't hurt my feeling. Tied for 5th with a home game, when you lose 4 players to season ending injuries isn't that bad. We played many games this year with only 6 or 7 scholarship players and never one with more then 8. The coaches voted on Freshman of the year so you can argue this all you want. If Bader had played for Valpo you all would think he's great. Is what it is. Guess you can blame our coach that with all these awards we didn't finish higher. And the guy who hates Petros, He got 23 and 13 Saturday night. Name another big in this league that has done that. He also had 9 double/doubles. Lead the league. Also lead in rebounding. Those numbers make him deserving of something. Good luck in tourney. And 2014, I'm happy you are proven wrong and the voter saw how great Bader is.

[wh]

Personally, I don't have an issue with any of the Oakland honors, including Felder as FOY. That wasn't my point.

[valpotx]

Sorry, I still wouldn't say that Bader is great if he was in a Valpo uniform.  He is good at taking a lot of and making around 40% of 3's, but that doesn't make him great.  Do you consider Jimmer Fredette as being great as well?  Don't get me wrong, Bader is a good player in general, but I think his first team selection is based on reputation more than overall results.  He averaged 18.2 ppg in conference, yes, but that was on 36.6% shooting overall, and 39.2% from 3, while playing 37.5 minutes/game.  Other than that, he averaged 2.1 rebounds/game, 1.1 assists/game, and had 11 total steals/3 blocks.  I see that as second teamer honors in the HL.

In regards to Petros, my view is solely based on the two games I watched him play against us.  Regardless of what any stats might have shown, just watching him play, you don't say 'that guy is all league.'  I was begging him to shoot against us, and hoping that he got the ball versus Bader or Mondy.  He must have produced some quality games against the rest of the conference to get the honors.  He was 4/14 and 5/10 against us, with 9 pts/8 rebounds, and 14 pts/7 rebounds respectively.  If you watched the 5/10 game, I think that 3 were layups because Moussa/Vashil blew coverages by going to Bader/Mondy (leaving Petros alone), so outside of that, he was 2/7 on plays he directly influenced to get the shot off.  He is bound to have a lot of rebounds for Oakland each game, as Mondy is your next leading rebounder.  His stats/presence against us the previous 2 games before this year were also just as unimpressive.

[a3uge]

Take these awards with a grain of salt.

Infuriating that the piece of human garbage Brian Wardle gets coach of the year. Not only is he a horrible person, he's a horrible in-game coach as well, as referenced by his incredibly piss poor coaching at the end of the HL Semifinal game last year, and the team's complete lack of focus when Brown went down this year. Development-wise, he what, helped Brown get back his late 2nd round projection after completely falling off the mock drafts last year? Give me a break.

And Jordan Aaron 2nd team? Maybe the rest of the league is just way too down, but I think there were even 2 UWM players more deserving this year.

[valpotx]

Take these awards with a grain of salt.

Infuriating that the piece of human garbage Brian Wardle gets coach of the year. Not only is he a horrible person, he's a horrible in-game coach as well, as referenced by his incredibly piss poor coaching at the end of the HL Semifinal game last year, and the team's complete lack of focus when Brown went down this year. Development-wise, he what, helped Brown get back his late 2nd round projection after completely falling off the mock drafts last year? Give me a break.

And Jordan Aaron 2nd team? Maybe the rest of the league is just way too down, but I think there were even 2 UWM players more deserving this year.

I hear you on Aaron, as I figured that Tiby was much better

[LaPorteAveApostle]

And Jordan Aaron 2nd team? Maybe the rest of the league is just way too down, but I think there were even 2 UWM players more deserving this year.

I know...what were they thinking?  Maybe the HL voters were worried that he would shoot them?

...it would still take him at least three shots to hit one!

[wh]

Last year at this time I posted that Bryce should have received COY.  Several Valpo posters disagreed, vigorously defending the voters' choice of (don't remember who, don't care) on the basis of exceeding expectations being more noteworthy than simply meeting them.  This year the same basic group of people - coaches, AD's and sports reporters - reversed course and voted for the coach of the team picked to finish first.  Just goes to show that these people operate on a shallow set of standards, if any at all.  As the saying goes, "This ain't rocket science, and these people ain't rocket scientists."

[valpopal]

A few people have asked me about the photos of Dority, Peters, and Williams that I posted at the top of this thread. My thanks to those who wondered about them. They are part of a series of action portraits I made of all 12 active players this year, and they can be found at the following link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/96208998@N05/sets/72157641842987624/

[wh]

A few people have asked me about the photos of Dority, Peters, and Williams that I posted at the top of this thread. My thanks to those who wondered about them. They are part of a series of action portraits I made of all 12 active players this year, and they can be found at the following link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/96208998@N05/sets/72157641842987624/

LaVonte's picture is spectacular - begging to be a magazine cover.

[Grizz]

Jimmer was NCAA player of the year and a lottery pick. YES, I would say that is great. Bader lead the league in 3's made and free thow shooting. He lead the nation in one stat and was top- 5 in another and top 20 in another. If a Valpo player did that you would not say he should be first team all league. Come on.

[wh]

Why not let Grizz feel good about his guy?

[Grizz]

Yes...WH....thank you

[valpotx]

He can feel good about his guy, just the same as I can be objective and give my thoughts about any player in the league.  We seem to have different definitions of the term, 'great,' which is fine.  I wouldn't consider Jimmer Fredette, Adam Morrison, or Bader as being 'great.'  They were/are one-dimensional players to me, and I reserve that term for those that are major contributors in many ways.  Each needs someone else to do something for them to get a shot, as they can't create their own without screens or other plays set for them.  If Bader gets a chance at the NBA, I think that he will struggle for this reason.  I wouldn't say that Rowdy was 'great' either, but rather a pretty good overall player.  Therefore, I again state that if Bader was on Valpo's team, I still would not call him as such.  This has absolutely nothing to do with him being on Oakland's team, but rather on the games I have watched him play in, and his overall statistics (against Valpo and other teams). 

If Rowdy shot 36.6% overall last year, but 39.2% from 3, with the other statistics that Bader has, I would have put him on the second team as well.  However, he shot 44.8% overall, 41.7% from 3, had 15.7 ppg, 7+ rpg, 2.3 apg, 0.8 bpg, and 1 spg.  That is much closer to being 'great' in my mind, than someone who shoots a lot of 3s at a below 40% rate, and even worse from 2 pt range.  Those numbers are first team worthy, while Bader's are second team. 

It's a fantastic achievement to lead the all-time stats in any category in NCAA history, but if you take enough shots, it makes it that much more likely to occur.

[valporun]

Bader was one-dimensional, but I think the only reason he received an HL nod was because of his 3-pt. stats. Rowdy was an all-around player with true idea of fundamentals because AIS taught the fundamentals that most AAU coaches piss on. Rowdy went for the rebound after his shot missed, he played defense, went after a free ball, would Bader actually do that? Jimmer was in a very weak draft class of NCAA players. I just looked at the draft results from 2011, and he was the 10th pick to Milwaukee, then traded to Sacramento, but there was no real hype for this draft, as the top pick was Kyrie Irving to Cleveland followed by Williams, Kanter, and Thompson, then three international picks and Brandon Knight. Most of that draft was a joke, and Jimmer was only picked because he could shoot from the arc, but that's all he could do. Reminds me a bit of Kyle Korver, will have a long NBA career because he can shoot the 3, but can't do much else. Bader will be the next Jimmer or Korver, nothing more, nothing less. Doubt he gets a real look outside of the D-League or overseas.