2014-15 HL Tournament Thread

[historyman]

Assuming Walker either tore his ACL, MCL, our meniscus. Either way he's not coming back Tuesday, and unless he's just removing his meniscus he's probably out for all of next year.

You sound like my wife. If Tevonn makes a bunch of errors then's he's my favorite player but if he injures himself then it's our meniscus. Sheesh!

[a3uge]

Has anything official come out about Tevonn's injury. All I've heard is he injured his knee. Yes it could be major but it also could be a sprain. I didn't see what occurred on the play. But let's not all jump to conclusions about Tevonn's knee.

A sprain is a tear.

[classof2014]

Has anything official come out about Tevonn's injury. All I've heard is he injured his knee. Yes it could be major but it also could be a sprain. I didn't see what occurred on the play. But let's not all jump to conclusions about Tevonn's knee.

A sprain is a tear.

If it's a sprain there's the possibility that he'll still play. If it's a major sprain he's done for the rest of this season but will be fine for next season. People saying that he's gonna be missing all of next season based on the fact that he missed the rest of the game and the coaches don't think he'll play against GB is pretty silly.

[LaPorteAveApostle]

Based the ESPU telecast, is Viagra an official sponsor of the Horizon league?

Maybe if Cialis was the sponsor Valpo would have stiffened their defense a little sooner?

in the case of a full-court press lasting four hours or longer, high-five a buddy

[LaPorteAveApostle]

difference in the game:  CSU 9-12 FTs...us, 0-2.

If that's even EVEN, EVN, in the second half, we win in a walk.

well it wasn't quite a walk, but it certainly turned the tide.

[valpopal]

The pre-game Crusader Club pep rally was full of fans, and Homer served as cheerleader. It was good to see some folks from the forum, and I have posted a gallery with about a dozen of my photos for everyone to play "Where's Waldo?" as you look for yourself or friends.


[tweet]574649182222422017[/tweet]

[StlVUFan]

[tweet]573528562600448000[/tweet]

Stupid. I imagine in a couple years they'll make everyone wear black "Horizon League" shirts and require the center court logo be covered up. Valpo seems to let itself get pushed around. The league wants us to have a home game, but not an actual home-home game. We seem to face sanctions whenever we host the tournament while the other schools don't have to change anything.

The rules are the same for *everyone*.  How are we being singled out??

I do agree with your underlying point.  I have always said that if the conference is going to hype the "home court" advantage for higher seeds, they shouldn't mitigate it out of ... what, a guilty conscience?  Trying to have their cake and eat it too?  Who knows.

But I don't feel that Valpo is being singled out on this.

We're the only school that has had the first 3 rows taken away for an absurdly long media table and the only school that has had half of their student section seats taken away. They seemingly invented that rule once Valpo hosted, and hadn't enforced it in the past (Wright State). It just makes zero sense and ends up making everything look ridiculous on TV.

I think that's because our arena requires such things.  If we had a better endzone bleacher situation, we wouldn't feel so singled out.  The conference did not make us give up the larger student section for a smaller one.  They levied the exact same restriction on us as on every other host.  The makeshift bleachers we installed on our end of the court just didn't have the same capacity.

Also, the ARC's courtside seating is bad because it is right next to the court.  The only way to make room for the media table last year was to eliminate a couple of chairback rows.

They didn't single us out.  The limitations of our arena single us out.

[a3uge]

[tweet]573528562600448000[/tweet]

Stupid. I imagine in a couple years they'll make everyone wear black "Horizon League" shirts and require the center court logo be covered up. Valpo seems to let itself get pushed around. The league wants us to have a home game, but not an actual home-home game. We seem to face sanctions whenever we host the tournament while the other schools don't have to change anything.

The rules are the same for *everyone*.  How are we being singled out??

I do agree with your underlying point.  I have always said that if the conference is going to hype the "home court" advantage for higher seeds, they shouldn't mitigate it out of ... what, a guilty conscience?  Trying to have their cake and eat it too?  Who knows.

But I don't feel that Valpo is being singled out on this.

We're the only school that has had the first 3 rows taken away for an absurdly long media table and the only school that has had half of their student section seats taken away. They seemingly invented that rule once Valpo hosted, and hadn't enforced it in the past (Wright State). It just makes zero sense and ends up making everything look ridiculous on TV.

I think that's because our arena requires such things.  If we had a better endzone bleacher situation, we wouldn't feel so singled out.  The conference did not make us give up the larger student section for a smaller one.  They levied the exact same restriction on us as on every other host.  The makeshift bleachers we installed on our end of the court just didn't have the same capacity.

Also, the ARC's courtside seating is bad because it is right next to the court.  The only way to make room for the media table last year was to eliminate a couple of chairback rows.

They didn't single us out.  The limitations of our arena single us out.

Well they actually didn't make us switch student sections this year, and they got rid of the ridiculous media table, realizing its good enough to have the media sit up 10 rows like pretty much every other stadium. So no harm no foul.

[StlVUFan]

I must point this out, however. Valpo was very fortunate that Peters did not get called for traveling on his key driving basket down the stretch. He must have taken at least 4 steps to the basket.

Amen.

Then again, Charlie Lee (or was it Trey Lewis) took about 10 steps in their game Friday against Detroit and didn't get called for it.  It was hilarious.  Peters' sojourn looked legitimate by comparison.

And of course in both cases, the guy driving to the basket got fouled 3 times on the way to their destination, so -- I mean, really...

My ref grade for the 4 games this weekend was C+.  My ref grade for last night's 2nd game: D-.  Those guys were horrible.  Remarkably, it was Waters who called them out in his postgame presser after saying something very classy about T. Walker being lost to Valpo (probably) for Tuesday.  He said he told them if they keep calling it that way someone's going to get hurt.

Of course he couldn't help himself but to point out that Valpo shot 21 FTs in the 2nd half to CSU's 2   Frankly, there were plenty of CSU fouls they didn't call, plus some Valpo fouls they didn't call.  I didn't notice, but someone here pointed out that CSU got all the FT attempts in the first half.  I'm sure Gary blocked that out of his memory since it didn't help his tangent.

[StlVUFan]

Well they actually didn't make us switch student sections this year, and they got rid of the ridiculous media table, realizing its good enough to have the media sit up 10 rows like pretty much every other stadium. So no harm no foul.

Because the conference changed the rule on student sections.  I was pleasantly surprised.

It did look like they still subtracted the first chairback row, but maybe I was seeing things.

[StlVUFan]

I watched the replay of Tevonn's injury. It was not a result of "the way the game was played," according to Waters.
Tevonn was simply guarding his man along the right baseline. Tevonn may have done a weird twist on the drive, or the player may have hit Tevonn's knee while jumping up to shoot.

I watched in this morning and my guess he knocked knees with a CSU player.  Certainly nothing malicious.

[StlVUFan]

Change the way they were calling it? A foul is a foul is a foul. You don't pick and choose when and where to apply the rules. One play in the second half, a foul was called on a Peters drive to the basket ... on the THIRD foul of the play. It was just ridiculous. I know all teams get away with way too much fouling, but Cleveland State gets away with so much it's just ridiculous. Waters has nothing to complain about.

[valpopal]

Well they actually didn't make us switch student sections this year, and they got rid of the ridiculous media table, realizing its good enough to have the media sit up 10 rows like pretty much every other stadium. So no harm no foul.

Because the conference changed the rule on student sections.  I was pleasantly surprised.

It did look like they still subtracted the first chairback row, but maybe I was seeing things.

The media table was in place on Monday and displaced the first three rows. However, ESPN noticed the table blocked camera views along the sideline, including players' feet on 3-point shots from the corner. Therefore, the media were moved back to their spot on the track above the chair backs. Instead, banners were placed along the first row, and it was the only one lost for seating.

[Valpofan00]

Is there any possibility Tevonn plays Tuesday? Is everyone just overreacting?

[VULB#62]

Well they actually didn't make us switch student sections this year, and they got rid of the ridiculous media table, realizing its good enough to have the media sit up 10 rows like pretty much every other stadium. So no harm no foul.

Because the conference changed the rule on student sections.  I was pleasantly surprised.

It did look like they still subtracted the first chairback row, but maybe I was seeing things.

The media table was in place on Monday and displaced the first three rows. However, ESPN noticed the table blocked camera views along the sideline, including players' feet on 3-point shots from the corner. Therefore, the media were moved back to their spot on the track above the chair backs. Instead, banners were placed along the first row, and it was the only one lost for seating.

I'm a former FB coach.  And I always preferred to see things from a little higher than sideline AKA 'court side."  Why don't they set up the press on the track and wipe out 3-4 rows of upper bleachers (or go lower to the last two/three rows of the lower section)?  Heck, it's only and additional 40'-50', but it provides a wide-angle view.  But then the press wouldn't get to hear the swearing.

[valpopal]

Looking at both Lexus and Tevonn on crutches last night, I was reminded that not too long ago Nickerson and Carter were moving around on crutches. Yet, last night the two of them combined for 61 minutes of play. Together, they only had 9 points, but they accounted for 7 assists, 7 rebounds, 1 steal, and 1 block, with just 3 turnovers, none by Carter. Neither player is at 100% health yet; however, they have been important in getting Valpo to the regular season championship and now to the tournament final. I'm still wondering how good this team could be if all are healthy next year! 

[justducky]

Looking at both Lexus and Tevonn on crutches last night, I was reminded that not too long ago Nickerson and Carter were moving around on crutches. Yet, last night the two of them combined for 61 minutes of play. Together, they only had 9 points, but they accounted for 7 assists, 7 rebounds, 1 steal, and 1 block, with just 3 turnovers, none by Carter. Neither player is at 100% health yet;

Nickerson is playing extremely well and could just now be showing us what we might be able to expect next season. His upside could be much larger than even I had expected. In my mind Carter is still only at 85 or 90% of his pre injury level and I am hopeful that he might regain (or surpass) that 100% level soon.

[Valpofan00]

Anyone else very dissapointed with attendance? Only 3,629 for a semi final game on a Saturday night...

[agibson]

Quote from: vu84v2 on March 07, 2015, 11:01:34 PM

    I must point this out, however. Valpo was very fortunate that Peters did not get called for traveling on his key driving basket down the stretch. He must have taken at least 4 steps to the basket.

Amen.

We've got a vine now
https://vine.co/v/OEDr99jharq
(we still need one of Vashil bulldozing the on-ball defender over the timeline!)

Maybe someone more careful than I can take a look.  It _might_ be just 2, 2.5, steps.

[wh]

Looking at both Lexus and Tevonn on crutches last night, I was reminded that not too long ago Nickerson and Carter were moving around on crutches. Yet, last night the two of them combined for 61 minutes of play. Together, they only had 9 points, but they accounted for 7 assists, 7 rebounds, 1 steal, and 1 block, with just 3 turnovers, none by Carter. Neither player is at 100% health yet;

Nickerson is playing extremely well and could just now be showing us what we might be able to expect next season. His upside could be much larger than even I had expected. In my mind Carter is still only at 85 or 90% of his pre injury level and I am hopeful that he might regain (or surpass) that 100% level soon.

I've never seen a 6-9 point guard chasing around a 5-9 (with platform shoes) streaky fast point guard and staying up with him the way EVN did last night.  One of my group pointed it out in amazement and we all agreed that there's no way he could keep that up the whole game.  We were wrong.  He was on him like glue the whole night, fighting through multiple screens the way Tevonn normally does, and he seemed just as strong and energized at the end as he was an hour earlier.  Just an amazing performance by EVN!

By the way, the 2014-15 team has become the antithesis of the 2012-13 team in terms of physicality.  This team is no longer about out scoring opponents.  They are the biggest, strongest team in the conference and they are clearly all about wearing the opponent down. Even Alec has learned to use his size and strength to lean on his man, hook arms, leverage his man away from the block with his lower body, etc. Two people that may have been more physical than anyone on the court last night were Jubril and Darien.  Jubril at 6-7, 235, 0 body fat uses great lower body leverage and his man is constantly trying to unlock his arms from Jubril's.  Darien is just a street brawler, not someone I would want to mess with. 

IMO this is the biggest reason to have hope that we can win a game or 2 in the Tournament if we can get past GB on Tuesday.  We're not a typical mid major that has to rely on "getting hot from 3" in order to have a chance to pull an upset against a bigger, stronger opponent.  If we go in as a 12 or 13, no one in that 4-5 range is going to intimidate us physically.

Edit: Fixed Darien's name...        

[justducky]

Anyone else very dissapointed with attendance? Only 3,629 for a semi final game on a Saturday night...

I thought we would be pushing closer to a full house but the 3629 figure must be misleading because of seating adjustments and or free tickets for league officials, participants, etc? At 4:30 yesterday I took a final look and there were maybe 700 unsold seats so I don't see how we could have gotten paid attendance much above 4350. What was it with a significant number of missing people in the chair backs? Are they waiting for a big game before they bother to show?

[a3uge]

Here are my vines, lemme know if you want any more:

[tweet]574709710802169856[/tweet]

[tweet]574713807026569217[/tweet]

[tweet]574722150017339392[/tweet]

[Valpo89]

If anything, the chairbacks were about as full as they ever have been.
And, who is Derrik?

[agibson]

Two people that may have been more physical than anyone on the court last night were Jubril and Derrik.  Jubril at 6-7, 235, 0 body fat uses great lower body leverage and his man is constantly trying to unlock his arms from Jubril's.  Derrik is just a street brawler, not someone I would want to mess with. 

I'm confused.  Are you talking about Derek Sloan who got one minute for CSU last night?  Or are you maybe talking about recruit Derrik Smits?

[agibson]

Here are my vines, lemme know if you want any more:

These are great!

Would it be possible to get one of Vashil bulldozing the on-ball defender over the timeline?  He did it at least a couple of times in the second half.  You know the move I'm talking about?  The height differential was just so amusing, and he handled the play rather fluidly, and rather differently than I'm used to seeing.