Valpo (7-1) @ E. Kentucky (4-1), Wed. 12/03/14, 6:00 PM CT

[justducky]

Vashil had some pretty nifty offensive moves demonstrated today.  They weren't quickly performed, but were very effective.  If he can perfect some of those, as well as keep holding onto the ball on alley-oops and high/low passes, he will have positioned himself very well to have a good European basketball career.

I think the big key for Vashil during those offensive moves is that he didn't dribble the ball. He kept his head up and made the plays. When you are Vashil's size you don't give the opposing players the opportunity to knock the ball away when you make slow deliberate moves that eventually put you in a position to flip the ball in the basket.

Obviously any project player is a calculated risk with an unknown payoff. For the first time since his arrival on campus I am now confident that this 4 year investment of time is yeilding great positive results. If he can continue to perform at this level our chances of HL success will be greatly magnified.

[historyman]

I also had trouble with the stream

you might have a talk with your doctor, just man to man.

Well then many of us need some prostate shrinking drugs also because my stream was not steady either.









Now there's a guy with a good stream!

[Kyle321n]

I am very happy to be wrong about Vashil.

Also I didn't expect the disrobing job we did on them from the 5 minute mark to the 2 minute mark. The last 2 minutes were a little worrisome, but we had put the game in the bag by then so maybe the guys took their foot off the pedal a little.

I didn't have Valpo winning this game, so TX has me beat right now. Granted at the beginning of the season I had our one loss to Murray, so I've technically been wrong about 3 games. This W makes me feel good about Saturday's game. Now let's hope there's a big crowd.

[bbtds]

So, that Alec kid is alright.

Just call him "Al Peters" like the EKU coach.   

[covufan]

I believe 8-1 is the best record for all D-I teams in Indiana.  Wow!

Yes.  However, IU, Purdue, ND, Buck Futler and Evansville all have an equal 1 loss.  A great OOC season for Indiana basketball!

[Kyle321n]

I believe 8-1 is the best record for all D-I teams in Indiana.  Wow!

Yes.  However, IU, Purdue, ND, Buck Futler and Evansville all have an equal 1 loss.  A great OOC season for Indiana basketball!

The state will be lucky to get 2 tourney bids though. If IU or Purdue has a surprising B1G season we might be able to squeeze 3 at the max. I think ND is in and Valpo/Evansville need to win their conference tourney to make it. At least we're better off than Illinois!

[classof2014]

I believe 8-1 is the best record for all D-I teams in Indiana.  Wow!

Yes.  However, IU, Purdue, ND, Buck Futler and Evansville all have an equal 1 loss.  A great OOC season for Indiana basketball!

The state will be lucky to get 2 tourney bids though. If IU or Purdue has a surprising B1G season we might be able to squeeze 3 at the max. I think ND is in and Valpo/Evansville need to win their conference tourney to make it. At least we're better off than Illinois!

I can see us getting an at-large if we sweep the rest of OOC and lose 1 conference game to a GB or CSU on the road and drop the HL championship to GB or CSU, can't afford a garbage loss to a YSU or lower quality team. It also depends of the strengths of the bigger conferences, if the high-major conferences have weaker seasons our chances are greater at getting an at-large.

[Kyle321n]

I believe 8-1 is the best record for all D-I teams in Indiana.  Wow!

Yes.  However, IU, Purdue, ND, Buck Futler and Evansville all have an equal 1 loss.  A great OOC season for Indiana basketball!

The state will be lucky to get 2 tourney bids though. If IU or Purdue has a surprising B1G season we might be able to squeeze 3 at the max. I think ND is in and Valpo/Evansville need to win their conference tourney to make it. At least we're better off than Illinois!

I can see us getting an at-large if we sweep the rest of OOC and lose 1 conference game to a GB or CSU on the road and drop the HL championship to GB or CSU, can't afford a garbage loss to a YSU or lower quality team. It also depends of the strengths of the bigger conferences, if the high-major conferences have weaker seasons our chances are greater at getting an at-large.

I ran this through RPI Wizard.

• If we lose 1 conference game to GB on the road, earning the 1 seed let's say (I doubt we'd both be have 1 loss records though possible), and then beat Detroit (4th in current RPI in the HL) in the semi's and lost to Green Bay in the finals we'd have an RPI of 29 and a SOS of 193.
  
• If you change regular season loss to CSU the RPI and SOS would stay the same.


• If you change both losses to involve CSU the SOS would drop to 205, but the RPI would be the same. If we lost to CSU and had an unspeakable loss to YSU and lost to Green Bay in the finals our RPI would be 30.

I think I would agree that if we're a 26-4 team, we make the tourney as an at large team and should be an 8 line team. I don't think we're going to win 26 games this season, and I don't think the Horizon League is getting a top 10 seed.

I REALLY hope I'm wrong though.

[chef]

I think if there's a shot at an at large bid, a win on Saturday is a must.

[wh]

Probably so.  If we can't beat either a weak Power 5 team or a rebuilding sort of high major NM team, there will be a lot of doubters about our tourney worthiness.  That said, if we were to lose Sat. and then do something crazy like win the rest of our games except the HL tourney championship game (which we absolutely will not do) and go 32-3, they would probably find a spot for us. 

[justducky]

Any of this at-large speculation is very premature and also likely unwarranted. I still think that at least one Dec loss is close to certain and I shouldn't have to remind you how hard it is to win in the HL especially on the road.

Yes this young bunch seems to be much further along than any of us expected but it still appears we have some exploitable weaknesses, and are thin enough on the bench that any injuries or illnesses could be painful not only to the individual but also to the team and all of us as well. A tailspin caused by team youth is another possibility that we have not even considered. Add all of this up and I think that any great at-large bid hopes would fall into the 15-16 season. For it to happen this year would require a thousand things falling precisely into place.

[valpotx]

I also had trouble with the stream

you might have a talk with your doctor, just man to man.

The only question I would have is which one of the voices inside your head/computer would it be addressed with?

[StlVUFan]

I think I saw more EKU points than Valpo's with that god awful stream, so it doesn't feel like we played much better.

Really? I didn't have any issues at all. Just kidding! It did seem like the streaming froze up whenever Valpo had the ball. It was good to see that Tavonn hit those important three point shots but it also would have been nice to see Tavonn actually make the shots.    Anyone else have issues with the stream freezing?

Sure did here. Paul Oren mentioned having trouble with it on Twitter, and mentioned gratitude for HLN while he was at it. I guess the OVC feed was better than nothing, or a paid site.

I missed most of that 13-0 run late in the 2nd half because of it.  Thank god I had Todd's pbp on instead of theirs

I'm glad to hear others had it, I worry with my 4 year old laptop if it's me.  I'm about to the point where it's time to refresh.  4 years ago MLB.TV stopped working reliably for me, so I upgraded.  Unfortunately, I'm not feeling comfortable with the idea of going to Windows 8 yet

[Valpower]

Any of this at-large speculation is very premature and also likely unwarranted. I still think that at least one Dec loss is close to certain...

Bearing in mind that with 60% of the OOC schedule completed (at which point most mid-majors have definitively ruled out their at-large hopes) and a far-from-brutal schedule remaining, I'd say this is as perfect a time for at-large speculation as it is for December-loss speculations.  I know which one's more fun.

[historyman]

Yes, Valpower, the guy who shows up once a year in December.

OK, when did you reappear?  Welcome back!!  You were always one of the best! Now, as for the menu, it looks fine to me, for a basketball venue, and darn cheap at that.  The problem which will I'm sure be addressed in the remake of the ARC, is, where do you eat your salad?  Do you climb up to Section EE and wait for twelve people to slide by to get to their seats, all the while trying desperately to not get the blue cheese dressing on your brand new Valpo sweatshirt?  And now that you are finished, do you slide by another 12 people, climb down and try to find a trash can?  Or do you stick in under your feet, hoping, one more time, that those previously mentioned patrons won't disturb your leftovers?

I've been lurking forever, waiting for a special team to bring me back to posting, vu72. The fare does look better and reasonably portable and it doesn't need to get any fancier, but a small dining area wouldn't hurt. As for now, I'd think you could spread out a blanket in Section EE and have a picnic.

So is this year's Valpo team your "special" team?

[vu72]

Any of this at-large speculation is very premature and also likely unwarranted. I still think that at least one Dec loss is close to certain...

Bearing in mind that with 60% of the OOC schedule completed (at which point most mid-majors have definitively ruled out their at-large hopes) and a far-from-brutal schedule remaining, I'd say this is as perfect a time for at-large speculation as it is for December-loss speculations.  I know which one's more fun.

Holy Crap!! Valpower is BACK!!!!!!! Welcome!!!!

[Valpower]

Yes, Valpower, the guy who shows up once a year in December.
...
So is this year's Valpo team your "special" team?

8-1 start with a level of dominance in the winnable games that we haven't seen in a while?  Close enough.  That said, the pattern of losses to lackluster major-conference foes in the early going persists so I'm cautious. Next year, though, I may show up in November.

[Valpower]

Holy Crap!! Valpower is BACK!!!!!!! Welcome!!!!

Thank you, but I never really left.  I was just in the other room watching you kids on the nanny cam.

[LaPorteAveApostle]

Now there's a guy with a good stream!

please tell me that was a photoshop.  otherwise that's ... that's terrible.

[LaPorteAveApostle]

Bears repeating (from FWAlum's great article):

"First of all, Valparaiso's one of the best-coached teams in the country. Bryce (Drew) does a phenomenal job, and he's done a phenomenal job for several years now," EKU Coach Jeff Neubauer said. "Obviously Al Peters is a high-level player and ... offensively, he literally is one of those matchups that is almost impossible. He really knows how to score the ball, he rebounds the ball, he shoots threes. We got to him several times and contested, but he's 6-foot-9 and just shoots it as pure as can be. So I think comparisons to Doug McDermott (of the Chicago Bulls), they make a lot of sense."

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2014/12/03/3574146_valparaiso-jolts-eastern-kentucky.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy

It's one thing when WE say it...

[historyman]

Now there's a guy with a good stream!

please tell me that was a photoshop.  otherwise that's ... that's terrible.

In some sense the whole thing is photoshoped. The water is coming from behind a screen and that is a scoreboard like projection of the statue on the screen. The actual photo is real. Yes, it's terrible....but very interesting.

[a3uge]

Now there's a guy with a good stream!

please tell me that was a photoshop.  otherwise that's ... that's terrible.

It's clearly a photoshop.

Heres the original:

[agibson]

Anyone else have issues with the stream freezing?

It was pretty awful.  At the time, it was actually about what I needed, since I had some grading that needed to happen.  So, I could tune in for a bit, wait until it froze, grade some more, refresh it, watch a bit, etc.

[agibson]

whoa WWII ended a lot more recently than i previously thought

Yeah, that caught my eye as well.

What was the other recent one?  It seemed likely to be true but difficult to follow at first read.  "Valparaiso has won six consecutive games away from home, a streak that has likely never been replicated in program history. The last time the Crusaders had six road wins in a row was 2002-03."  Complimenting the reader, I suppose, by not clarifying it any further.

[agibson]

Unfortunately, I'm not feeling comfortable with the idea of going to Windows 8 yet

There's always MacOS!