Opponents Scoreboard 2014-2015 Season

[classof2014]

What even is a Golden Grizzly? Last time I checked there is no such thing as a golden grizzly, there are grizzly bears but none are located or have ever been located in Michigan. I know Oakland were the Pioneers at one point, and that's much better than some animal made up by a four year old. Perhaps its a cross-breed between a golden retriever and a grizzly bear? Is it as bad as being a Quaker? No, but you could be a bit more original than a Golden Grizzly.

At least Valpo kinda sorta has ties to Crusaders. Valpo were originally the Uhlans, which we know is a German knight, and since Valpo has a very strong German heritage the name made sense. Unfortunately due to WWII being a Uehlan wasn't so popular stateside, thus we have the Crusader.

At least all the other HL schools mascots/nicknames aren't simply made up.

CSU - Vikings "Any of the Scandinavian pirates who plundered the coasts of Europe from the 8th to 10th centuries."

Detroit - Titans "any of the sons of Uranus and Gaea, including Coeus, Crius, Cronus, Hyperion, Iapetus, and Oceanus."

Green Bay - Phoenix "a mythical bird of great beauty fabled to live 500 or 600 years in the Arabian wilderness, to burn itself on a funeral pyre, and to rise from its ashes in the freshness of youth and live through another cycle of years: often an emblem of immortality or of reborn idealism or hope."

Milwaukee - Panthers "the cougar or puma, Felis concolor."

Oakland - Golden Grizzly "You are seeing web results for golden grizzly because there's not a match on Dictionary.com."

UIC - Flames "burning gas or vapor, as from wood or coal, that is undergoing combustion; a portion of ignited gas or vapor."

Valpo - Crusaders "(often initial capital letter) any of the military expeditions undertaken by the Christians of Europe in the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries for the recovery of the Holy Land from the Muslims."

Wright State - Raiders "a person or thing that raids."

YSU - Penguins "any of several flightless, aquatic birds of the family Spheniscidae, of the Southern Hemisphere, having webbed feet and wings reduced to flippers."

--Dictionary.com

Not even the dictionary knows what a Golden Grizzly is... Come-on Oakland... Guess thats what you get from a state school.

[FWalum]

I think it is nice to have some outside opinions from other schools and teams.  Let's not run everyone off as trolls.  In some cases I think they are just mirroring our negative attitudes toward them, attitudes I think we ought to try and avoid unless truly deserved.

[vu72]

Is it like a "golden gopher"? Perhaps referencing a particular season of the year when the grizzles fur takes on a golden hue.

[FWalum]

Not even the dictionary knows what a Golden Grizzly is... Come-on Oakland... Guess thats what you get from a state school.

Grizzly fur is usually medium to dark brown, but may sometimes be silver tipped, blonde or golden as seen in this picture.

[a3uge]

I think it is nice to have some outside opinions from other schools and teams.  Let's not run everyone off as trolls.  In some cases I think they are just mirroring our negative attitudes toward them, attitudes I think we ought to try and avoid unless truly deserved.

There's a difference between voicing a differing opinion and calling members hillbillies because most of us lived in NW Indiana for a short period of time. "Mirroring negative attitudes" to get a rise out of people is literally trolling.

[valporun]

In the last year or so, probaby longer, as this board has had new visitors and members appearing, we've seen a lot of bickering and attacks towards those that many on this board would have welcomed in. It wasn't so much because they were trolling, but because they saw that we had a good community of fans and former alums here that wanted to have good coversation about Valpo sports, campus community, and the Horizon League in general. I don't care who started things on this path where we stopped being welcoming, and became more defensive about fans talking about programs, but it has definitely changed this community into something it never should have been. Sure, Grizz may be adding fuel to the fire, but we aren't exactly helping when we continue to make adding Oakland to the league as a bad thing because of ill-begotten decision making about their scheduling or players on their roster. Consider this, Valpo used to schedule the same way, and it did help our teams going to Mid-Con play because we knew we had teams that needed higher competition to get ready for conference play and potential postseason games. Oakland is doing exactly the same thing we did, potentially at a more damaging pace, but when they have basketball as their only revenue sport to help the non-revenue sports, they just have to do what they can in this murderous world of athletics scheduling to afford the road trips and costs to keep the programs going.

I don't care who Oakland schedules, just like I don't care who the other 7 HL schools schedule. We just need to win games, get to the NCAA tournament, and do it as fans that want our team to win, not spend so much time criticizing other schools for doing the same thing we did with scheduling. Would it be nice to have a scheduling rule ala the MVC? Sure, it would be nice. Will it happen? I don't see it happening. We don't have control over it. What I do know is coaches are going to schedule either to the strengths and experience of the roster, or they'll schedule whom they can because of what they can contract. No conference scheduling rule is going to change that in this era of college basketball scheduling. Valpo will still have schools refuse to play them, not because we are better or being we may help their RPI, but because we might not be the best matchup for them or the logistics of playing the game aren't worth the time or money to contract them.

[FWalum]

In the last year or so, probaby longer, as this board has had new visitors and members appearing, we've seen a lot of bickering and attacks towards those that many on this board would have welcomed in. It wasn't so much because they were trolling, but because they saw that we had a good community of fans and former alums here that wanted to have good conversation about Valpo sports, campus community, and the Horizon League in general. I don't care who started things on this path where we stopped being welcoming, and became more defensive about fans talking about programs, but it has definitely changed this community into something it never should have been. Sure, Grizz may be adding fuel to the fire, but we aren't exactly helping when we continue to make adding Oakland to the league as a bad thing because of ill-begotten decision making about their scheduling or players on their roster.

This truly has been a great community for all to discuss and support the university, it's sports teams and competitors.  Lets continue to keep it that way. 

[oklahomamick]

Don't look now but the golden Grizzlies are coming.  They are nipping on our heels after a win against wsu making our return game that more important.  The game will have even more weight, not because they beat us last time but because of standings. 

[bbtds]

I think it is nice to have some outside opinions from other schools and teams.  Let's not run everyone off as trolls.  In some cases I think they are just mirroring our negative attitudes toward them, attitudes I think we ought to try and avoid unless truly deserved.

There's a difference between voicing a differing opinion and calling members hillbillies because most of us lived in NW Indiana for a short period of time. "Mirroring negative attitudes" to get a rise out of people is literally trolling.

Totally agree. Grizz goes out of bounds when he calls Valpo Mayberry-a hillbilly town. Although, I also think we shouldn't lump the Oakland County area where Oakland U is located to the city of Detroit where the bad neighborhoods are located. OTOH, UDM is very much in the inner city of Detroit. Oakland U very much north of Eight Mile Rd. UDM south of Eight Mile Rd.

8 Mile Road has carried major cultural significance; since the mid-20th century, as the city demographics have changed, it has served as a physical and cultural dividing line between the wealthier, predominantly white northern suburbs of Detroit and the poorer, increasingly black city. The racial patterns have changed, as more middle-class African Americans have also moved north of 8 Mile, but the socioeconomic divide between the city and suburbs remains.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-102_%28Michigan_highway%29

[Kyle321n]

Don't look now but the golden Grizzlies are coming.  They are nipping on our heels after a win against wsu making our return game that more important.  The game will have even more weight, not because they beat us last time but because of standings. 

[tweet]560632399458234368[/tweet]

[justducky]

I think it is nice to have some outside opinions from other schools and teams.  Let's not run everyone off as trolls.  In some cases I think they are just mirroring our negative attitudes toward them, attitudes I think we ought to try and avoid unless truly deserved.

There's a difference between voicing a differing opinion and calling members hillbillies because most of us lived in NW Indiana for a short period of time. "Mirroring negative attitudes" to get a rise out of people is literally trolling.

Totally agree. Grizz goes out of bounds when he calls Valpo Mayberry-a hillbilly town. Although, I also think we shouldn't lump the Oakland County area where Oakland U is located to the city of Detroit where the bad neighborhoods are located. OTOH, UDM is very much in the inner city of Detroit. Oakland U very much north of Eight Mile Rd. UDM south of Eight Mile Rd.

8 Mile Road has carried major cultural significance; since the mid-20th century, as the city demographics have changed, it has served as a physical and cultural dividing line between the wealthier, predominantly white northern suburbs of Detroit and the poorer, increasingly black city. The racial patterns have changed, as more middle-class African Americans have also moved north of 8 Mile, but the socioeconomic divide between the city and suburbs remains.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-102_%28Michigan_highway%29

Good time to again point out the cultural divide between VU and northwest Indiana that makes drawing area basketball fans to the ARC more difficult than it should be. Note that many of you are upset and insulted by the hillbilly comment while a true lifelong Mayberry type like myself finds this entire exchange to be thoroughly amusing. Some of you folks just need to relax and maybe broaden your perspective. Nothing more limiting in life than taking yourself too seriously.

[valpotx]

Oakland has played 5 home games already, and 2 away games.  We will find out who they really are in this 4 game road swing coming up, when they will lose to Valpo...because Petros sucks

[oklahomamick]

Yeah, but the home games were Green Bay, Csu, wsu and valpo.

[classof2014]

There regulation wins were both by 3 points and the other two went to OT. They could just have easily lost all 4 games. Can't argue too much though, since a win is a win.

[covufan]

Right now, Oakland has wins against GB, Valpo, and CSU - the top three teams of the HL.  Who else can make that claim?  Of course, the real measure comes in March...

[FWalum]

Have to give Oakland some props.  Closing out tight games really adds to a teams experience level and gives confidence in future similar situations.

[a3uge]

Giving Oakland props, but it would be another Milwaukee situation if they actually won the league - their ceiling would be a 15 seed. The best case for the league would be Valpo or Green Bay to win the league. Better seed = higher tourney win probability = more $$$ for everyone

[valporun]

Joe Looneybird is saying that Green Bay would be a 12 seed in the  Midwest bracket, playing Baylor in Seattle. That might just be to fill up the bracket, not a matter of giving them a good seed based on RPI, record, or best chance of winning, considering he also had Kentucky, Wisconsin, Wichita St., and Notre Dame in that bracket.

[Kyle321n]

(Getting ahead of myself) If we are a 12 or 11 seed and Baylor is a 5 or 6 seed, the committee would have a really hard time not putting Valpo and Baylor against each other. Bryce vs. Scott would be the talk of the entire first weekend.

[wh]

As others have noted Oakland deserves credit for holding serve at home against the league's best teams. They have injected themselves into the league championship discussion, and deservedly so. Going forward every contender has their own unique set of challenges to overcome, and Oakland is no different. In their case, they have to play all the other serious contenders on the road. Secondly, their 3 best players have played incredibly heavy minutes all season long, and even heavier in league play. Currently, Williams, Felder and Petros are 1, 2 and 3 in minutes played at an incredible 40 min. average. If any one of the 3 hits the wall, close wins in the 1st half at home could easily turn into close losses on the road in the 2nd half. Secondly, if 1 of those 3 would happen to suffer an injury to the extent of KC's, they could take an immediate nosedive. So far luck has been on their side in that regard. However it turns out Kampe's unorthodox approach to scheduling and allocation of player minutes will continue to provide fodder for lively discussion long into the future.

[valpo64]

I think the extremely poor season for WSU is another talking point.  Were not some saying that they were one of the pre-season HL favorites?  As I recall they were at least predicted to be one of the "contending" teams and expected to finish near the top of the standings.

[wh]

Actually, expectations were pretty low for this year.  They were picked 5th in the HL preseason poll.  They're currently tied for 6th.  If not for recent injuries to 2 key players, they very likely would sitting in the 5th chair.

Wright State was hit hard by graduation, but was still picked fifth in the conference. The Raiders lost their top four scorers from a year ago and rank last in the Horizon League in both percentage of points returning (34.9%) and total minutes played last season (2,820). The Raiders are counting on senior Reggie Arceneux (League's top returning three-point shooter at 46.5%), junior Chrishawn Hopkins and sophomore TJ Yoho to replace the scoring lost.

[valpopal]

Actually, expectations were pretty low for this year.  They were picked 5th in the HL preseason poll.  They're currently tied for 6th.  If not for recent injuries to 2 key players, they very likely would sitting in the 5th chair.

Sorry to see today's announcement that Wright State's Kendall Griffin has to end his college career due to concussion issues.

[FWalum]

Sorry to see today's announcement that Wright State's Kendall Griffin has to end his college career due to concussion issues.

You can never tell when life is going to throw you a curve ball.  I hope and pray that the young man has suffered no permanent damage.

[LaPorteAveApostle]

Good player.  Hope his health improves.