Horizon League Championship -- Tuesday 6 pm CST

[humbleopinion]

Let's recognize our participation with a topic for the game that serves as the door to the NCAA Tournament

[gamelord]

I'm there and hoping for an easy win for a change. I remember the championship game a couple years ago against Wright State. That one was such a struggle for both teams. I think we gain some energy in this one and the 3's come in bunches. I also predict that Keith Carter scores 15+ points. We limit Sykes to under 15 points.

Valpo 69
Green Bay 62

[HC]

I kind of agree...if Keith Carter's jumper is falling Valpo should cruise. No Tevonn worries me, his athleticism kind of helps even out their athleticism. Would also be great if Darien could get hot, and stay hot!

I will say Valpo 64-60.

[usc4valpo]

Valpo by 1!

I anticipate a great game Tuesday night. This is the competitive match most want to see - 2 talented, well coached teams finishing 1 and 2 in the regular season to compete in the conference championship. I hope Valpo can recover from the Tevonn Walker injury - Carter and Skara need to step up.

BTW, for those critiquing Keifer Sykes and saying that he was not worthy of Horizon Conference Player of the Year, after watching him play Saturday night, you have to be kidding.  I would strongly disagree. Valpo is an excellent team and found ways to stop him, but Sykes is awesome and fun to watch.

Tuesday night will be fun.

[usc4valpo]

Nice article on Keifer Sykes in the Chicago Tribune. It is good to see he will graduate and has a strong network of support.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/columnists/ct-keifer-sykes-haugh-spt-0306-20150305-column.html

Sykes played his high school basketball at Marshall - one of the legendary powerhouses in the Chicago Public League (even more so for girls basketball).

[SanityLost17]

As others have mentioned, this game will be hard to win without Tevonn.  Even if we do get by GB, playing in the NCAA tournament without him will make it extremely difficult to spring an upset. 

My guess for the GB game.   Carter is going to move to the 2 for the entire game (playing no point guard), Nickerson remains at the point, and Max moves back into the backup role at the point guard position for 6-8 minutes a half.  Nickerson and Carter take turns guarding Sykes.     

Nothing like a whole new lineup for the championship game!  I think GB is playing better basketball right now (Sykes fully healthy), but with home court advantage this game is a coin flip.   

[classof2014]

I think we win this game. The last two we were without KC, this time we have him and no Tevonn. KC and EVN should be able to keep Sykes at bay. So long that he doesn't have one of those games that everything falls in we should win. My guess is that we'll win rather easily. I think we're deeper, Sykes may be the best player in the league but we have a number of guys that can produce big numbers for us.

It'll be a great game. The better team will win, I think we're the better team.

Valpo 72
GB 61

[usc4valpo]

Valpo wins in a breeze by 11?

2014, you must have friends that are optimistic Cub fans. This will not be an easy win by any stretch of the imagination.  The loss of Tevonn is significant, and even if he were not in the game it would be at least competitive. These teams split close games in the regular season and realistically I see no reason otherwise Tuesday night. Valpo's recent games the past few weeks have been close, picking a prohibitive win makes little sense.


Valpo 55-54.

[classof2014]

Last time we played GB, it was more like a 10 point win. We missed FTs down the stretch and they hit some 3s which drew them close. Other than Sykes nobody scares me that much on their roster. Mays, McKinnie, and Fouse are all good players but they aren't going to beat us. Sykes best games came against weaker defenses in the HL, we have guys that can mirror him and Vashil to protect the rim when Sykes gets in close.

We have the ability to shutdown Sykes. UIC's defense is nowhere near the level that our's is at. If Tevonn is out, which will probably be the case, it does affect the game. But the other two games we were without KC, we have him back, likewise with Tevonn he's a terrific defender and he's a better ball handler as well. Our defense is good enough to stop Sykes as well it forces a lot of 3s, which GB is the worst 3-point shooting team in the league.

We're at home. I think we win by 11, pulling away late.

[a3uge]

Every game we seem to be smooth sailing with any 4 minutes to go and then the other team makes some deep contested 3s and nothing goes in for us. It would be nice to watch a game for once where the other team just misses everything at the end and we win by 15, 20.

[classof2014]

Every game we seem to be smooth sailing with any 4 minutes to go and then the other team makes some deep contested 3s and nothing goes in for us. It would be nice to watch a game for once where the other team just misses everything at the end and we win by 15, 20.

My dad brought up this same topic after the CSU game last Friday. In that game and against GB, they didn't hit 3s all game then their prayers start getting answered, and the same thing happened in that matchup against CSU. If they don't hit some low-percentage shots there probably ~10 point wins.

[justducky]

As others have mentioned, this game will be hard to win without Tevonn.  Even if we do get by GB, playing in the NCAA tournament without him will make it extremely difficult to spring an upset. 

My guess for the GB game.   Carter is going to move to the 2 for the entire game (playing no point guard), Nickerson remains at the point, and Max moves back into the backup role at the point guard position for 6-8 minutes a half.  Nickerson and Carter take turns guarding Sykes.     

I am glad that Max has gotten significant playing time recently because we will need his help again.

The winner of this game still has a shot at a winnable NCAA matchup, but without TeVonn the number of teams in that 4 or 5 seed bracket range that we can compete with just got smaller. As for the NIT there is no doubt in my mind that this bunch could make an impressive showing but I am still expecting a close VU win over GB.

[valpotx]

Valpo 64
GB 55

We get some late FTs to secure the victory and win by 9!

[Valpofan00]

Earlier in the year I say we win this one no doubt. But now I'm not so sure I'm a little bit lost with GB and Sykes. They've looked pretty good the past few games. But 2 of their last 3 games were against UIC who gave them a run for their money. Sykes only plays good against crappy defenses maybe he turned it around lately? We will have to wait and see let's hope not. One of my friends apparently talked to the team doctor after the game and said it was a torn mcl. Im not gonna take his word because you never know. Valpo 55 GB 54 Tevonn plays and hits a buzzer beater to win the game and send Valpo into the tourny   

[wh]

Sykes admits to thinking how beating the Crusaders at the ARC would be sweet revenge:

http://www.horizonleague.org/video.html?id=13866

[agibson]

Sykes admits to thinking how beating the Crusaders at the ARC would be sweet revenge:

http://www.horizonleague.org/video.html?id=13866

Looks like he might keep a scar there by his eye.

[BrownTown]

Sorry, all, but the loss of Tevonn will be too much.

GB 63
Valpo 58

Besides, I'd rather be wrong and win.  But, I truly feel the loss of Tevonn makes any chance of a win in the field of 64 nearly impossible.  If Carter doesn't show up big - time on Tuesday, I'm afraid he and Max just won't cut it at the next level. 

Go Crusaders!  Prove me wrong!

[Valpofan00]

Sorry, all, but the loss of Tevonn will be too much.

GB 63
Valpo 58

Besides, I'd rather be wrong and win.  But, I truly feel the loss of Tevonn makes any chance of a win in the field of 64 nearly impossible.  If Carter doesn't show up big - time on Tuesday, I'm afraid he and Max just won't cut it at the next level. 

Go Crusaders!  Prove me wrong!

We won yesterday without Tevonn? Why not against GB. CSU and GB are pretty identical skill wise.

[LaPorteAveApostle]

It would be nice to watch a game for once where the other team just misses everything at the end and we win by 15, 20.

those were good days, eh, Murray St?

[classof2014]

We won without KC for basically the whole conference season. Last night it didn't seem like we missed Tevonn too much. Yes, he's a fantastic player but KC is just as skilled as Tevonn, different set of skills but just as skilled both offensively and defensively.

[usc4valpo]

Earlier in the year I say we win this one no doubt. But now I'm not so sure I'm a little bit lost with GB and Sykes. They've looked pretty good the past few games. But 2 of their last 3 games were against UIC who gave them a run for their money. Sykes only plays good against crappy defenses maybe he turned it around lately? We will have to wait and see let's hope not. One of my friends apparently talked to the team doctor after the game and said it was a torn mcl. Im not gonna take his word because you never know. Valpo 55 GB 54 Tevonn plays and hits a buzzer beater to win the game and send Valpo into the tourny   

Valpofan00, brilliant minds think alike! Nice prediction on the score

[a3uge]

Every game we seem to be smooth sailing with any 4 minutes to go and then the other team makes some deep contested 3s and nothing goes in for us. It would be nice to watch a game for once where the other team just misses everything at the end and we win by 15, 20.

My dad brought up this same topic after the CSU game last Friday. In that game and against GB, they didn't hit 3s all game then their prayers start getting answered, and the same thing happened in that matchup against CSU. If they don't hit some low-percentage shots there probably ~10 point wins.

Yeah, it seemed like CSU was getting a lot of nice bounces. There was one shot Grady took that looked flat and ugly, and it hit the back rim and sort of died and rolled in. Another shot hit the back rim and flew up in the air and landed straight in. For a period of time some of the long rebounds found CSU hands. I thought that was going to come back to bite Valpo

But we did a nice job of hitting free throws and getting to the line down the stretch.

[usc4valpo]

I thought Grady played very hard and well. The game was well officiated but college basketball is getting waaaaay too physical.

GB will be a very tough game. Say what you want but Sykes is great and the HL POY for a reason. He may come out to explode after 2 subpar performances against Valpo. Valpo will have to play an A game to win by double digits and GB would have to be in a funk.

This game will be decent ESPN TV - I say Valpo will win by less points than the number of Viagra commercials shown in the broadcast Tuesday night.

[agibson]

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[wh]

Derrik Smits
‏@SmitsDerrik
I know where I will be on Tuesday @ValpoBasketball #Crusaders #SeizeTheLeague

8:59 PM - 7 Mar 2015