(13) Valpo vs. (4) Maryland NCAA 'Second' Rd Fri 3/20 4:40 PM EDT TNT

[Valpower]

Eff him, though, they're going down in the next round anyway.

Frickin' Smotrycz too...should've stayed at UM, then he'd have gotten to play in the final four instead of just the 'third round'.

I'm guessing Maryland fans don't think they were under seeded after all.

I don't think they're going down in the next round. They beat VALPO, biznatch.  (Better Call Saul moment, excuse me.)

[LaPorteAveApostle]

i can honestly say that if we played them 10 times we could win 4-7 of them. 

I don't agree. I think that we win 5 out of 10 times, if not more.

[Valpower]

i can honestly say that if we played them 10 times we could win 4-7 of them. 

I don't agree. I think that we win 5 out of 10 times, if not more.

This makes me realize that I didn't note the oddity of the 4 of 7 claim.  Is this an anti-metric thing?

[justducky]

Zero teams will want to play us next year.

To get the monkey off our backs we need a couple OOC top 70 wins against BIGs. Good luck trying to put together a schedule that easily allows this to happen. I don't know how we pull it off but we need an at large potential season and that will require some difficult road games.

Because of the Baylor loss I have placed my desire for a 2 for 1 on the back burner.    They looked even more beatable than Maryland. I always root for the underdog so I loved every minute of it! Sorry.

[Valpower]

To get the monkey off our backs we need a couple OOC top 70 wins against BIGs. Good luck trying to put together a schedule that easily allows this to happen. I don't know how we pull it off but we need an at large potential season and that will require some difficult road games.

Because of the Baylor loss I have placed my desire for a 2 for 1 on the back burner.    They looked even more beatable than Maryland. I always root for the underdog so I loved every minute of it! Sorry.

I don't think there was anything all that deficient about our preparation. I'm not convinced that we need to beat high-major foes (on their floor, as it will be) to be prepared. I think we were perfectly prepared when you consider that we barely lost to the supposed 8th-ranked team.

[valpopal]

I know this is not very important to Alec after today's loss, but we need to recognize that he moved beyond 1,000 points in his career during the game, and we have two more years to anticipate even more!

[tweet]579111459881398272[/tweet]

[Valpower]

i can honestly say that if we played them 10 times we could win 4-7 of them. 

I don't agree. I think that we win 5 out of 10 times, if not more.

By the way, my confusion revolved around the idea of whether 4-7 meant four out of seven or four to seven (4 out of 11).

[VULB#62]

I was really proud of how our kids fought and how well they carried themselves --especially for how young we are. I am sad that we couldn't get a last shot off. But to be in a position to tie the #8 ranked team in the country is a measure of solice.

Not being a BB guru I am naively  thinking a couple of things to work on for 2015-16 :

100 carefully performed free throws per day per player for the next 7 months. That's about 21000 practice shots. Should help our %age a couple of points

Two more solid double screen plays (or something) to free Alec up when we really need him. I was shouting at the screen "free Alec up!!!" But the team stuck to the normal flow of their offense. That is OK but in critical times I would think that you find more ways to get Alec even  more involved. He played great in the flow that was run, but I personally was hoping more special plays to get him more open looks. UMD was chasing him big time and not giving much space. For the next two years we will ride his broad shoulders. We need to do special things for a special player. Just my 

What a great season!

[LaPorteAveApostle]

By the way, my confusion revolved around the idea of whether 4-7 meant four out of seven or four to seven (4 out of 11).

what do you, adlai stevenson, and david ortiz have in common?

[classof2014]

The loss stinks, especially how we lost. Shot goes up but doesn't fall in perhaps its some closure but it stinks that we didn't tie it up at the end. Anyways, this team is going to be a top mid-major program next season. We coulda, shoulda, woulda, won today, a few calls go our way who knows but how we performed has given me confidence next season. We didn't shy away from the moment, too bad we couldn't complete the upset. I think this loss will fuel this team next season.

This was the closest game in the NCAA tournament for us since our run in 98. Maryland did not looks stronger than us nor did they look faster than us. Everybody said going into the game is that Maryland does a great job getting to the line and making their freethrows. What happened? Maryland got to the line and made their free throws and that was the reason they won. Both teams seemed pretty evenly matched and a few more bounces our way perhaps we pull off the upset.

Like I said, the way we lost stinks, the fact that we lost really doesn't bother me too much though. I'm excited for next season, this team has the opportunity to make that next step. Watching the game today has given me confidence that they can.

I'm gonna be cheering on the Terrapins, get to the Elite Eight, knock off Kentucky, make a name. They won the game, we didn't lose it. It was a great game and there's a reason its called March Madness.

[VULB#62]

Zero teams will want to play us next year.

To get the monkey off our backs we need a couple OOC top 70 wins against BIGs. Good luck trying to put together a schedule that easily allows this to happen. I don't know how we pull it off but we need an at large potential season and that will require some difficult road games.

I agree. We do not have to go "Kampe" but we have to lose the little schools and get better top team exposure. SOS was constantly thrown in our face when rating us for the bracket.

[Valpower]

i can honestly say that if we played them 10 times we could win 4-7 of them. 

I don't agree. I think that we win 5 out of 10 times, if not more.

By the way, my confusion revolved around the idea of whether 4-7 meant four out of seven or four to seven (4 out of 11).

OMG.  I didn't even realize that crusadermoe said "if we played them 10 times".

[valpo84]

Two more solid double screen plays (or something) to free Alec up when we really need him. I was shouting at the screen "free Alec up!!!" But the team stuck to the normal flow of their offense. That is OK but in critical times I would think that you find more ways to get Alec even  more involved. He played great in the flow that was run, but I personally was hoping more special plays to get him more open looks. UMD was chasing him big time grabbing his jersey and not giving much space. For the next two years we will ride his broad shoulders. We need to do special things for a special player. Just my 

What a great season!

Fixed it for you!

[justducky]

I don't think there was anything all that deficient about our preparation.

Didn't say there was!

I'm not convinced that we need to beat high-major foes (on their floor, as it will be) to be prepared. I think we were perfectly prepared when you consider that we barely lost to the supposed 8th-ranked team.

That meat head commentator implied that we didn't belong on the same floor with Maryland and this needs to be addressed with a couple statement OOC victories thus drawing notice to a hopefully at-large resume'. Being in the running for an at large will require calculated risk and an 8 seed is not out of the question. Once again I would prefer a too strong schedule to one that is too weak. For the first few weeks of next season there should be almost nobody that we can not compete with on the road so lets go find some competition. BIGS are more fun to beat than the best mid majors and they may also (given our status) be easier to schedule!

[wh]

Things didn't quite go our way, but I could not be more proud of this  group of wonderful young men!  It's great to be a Crusader fan!

[Valpo18]

It's crazy how close these 12-5, 13-4, and 14-3 games have been.

[wh]

Alec Peters
‏@petersalec
A huge thank you to all the supporters that cheered us on this whole season. It's not how we wanted it to end but we will be back trust me.
8:14 PM - 20 Mar 2015


Darien Walker
‏@moneyblock1
Thankful for everyone that supported us all this year we owe it to yall to come back even better next year @valpoathletics @ValpoBasketball
5:52 PM - 20 Mar 2015

[SanityLost17]

We have all the pieces in place to be a really great team EXCEPT a post player who is a scoring threat. That is what we were missing tonight.  12 of our 20 made shots came from behind the 3 point line.  That is not a recipe for sustained success.  We need somebody who is a true post player and is a threat to score every time he gets a touch in the post.

[LaPorteAveApostle]

We need somebody who is a true post player and is a threat to score every time he gets a touch in the post.

[Valpo18]

We have all the pieces in place to be a really great team EXCEPT a post player who is a scoring threat. That is what we were missing tonight.  12 of our 20 made shots came from behind the 3 point line.  That is not a recipe for sustained success.  We need somebody who is a true post player and is a threat to score every time he gets a touch in the post.

I completely agree. We had an excellent game behind the arc today that could have taken down just about anyone, but we all know how the saying goes...

[Valpower]

By the way, my confusion revolved around the idea of whether 4-7 meant four out of seven or four to seven (4 out of 11).

what do you, adlai stevenson, and david ortiz have in common?

Amazingly, I am a Dominican who occasionally misspells things, but the Stevenson parallel escapes me.

[LaPorteAveApostle]

Amazingly, I am a Dominican who occasionally misspells things, but the Stevenson parallel escapes me.

you, Adlai, David, (and the dialing code for Carrickmacross, Ireland) were all 0-for-2

[Valpo18]

Didn't realize how close these 13-4 games have been till now.


UNC-Harvard : 67-65
Louisville-UCI : 57-55
UMD-Valpo : 65-62


Still feeling crappy about this one. So close, but we fall to another high major. At least this isn't like 2012-2013 where we lost so many players.

[justducky]

Finally glanced at the box score and we had only 9 turnovers against a good defensive unit. With all our ball handlers + returning I can imagine a very low TO team in 15-16 or one that could frequently get out and run. A little off season work on higher loft entry passes might be helpful as well as proper lead for lobs for the dunk. Can't wait. When is our first exhibition game? 

[valpotx]

What a fun game to attend, and I attended the other 3 at this Regional today as well.  Rik Smits and Derrik were both sitting in the Valpo section, and were every bit as intense about this game as the rest of us!  I believe that Rik's father/Derrik's grandfather was there as well, as there was an older 7'0" guy next to him, as well.  That ball was definitely out on Dodd, not Vashil, and Keith was raked across the arm on that last shot.  It is good to be watching SportsCenter and hearing Miles Simon say that it was a foul, and that there was a photo making the rounds on Twitter of Keith getting fouled. 

For those in the arena, it was fun to see Maryland's fans sitting on their hands for most of the game.  We definitely belonged on the court, and SHOULD HAVE WON.  We would have beat them if it went to OT, as well.  Everyone in the building was standing for the last 1:30, what else can you do to get people to notice us again, except win next year !

Also, Talksalot had the pleasure of meeting me, without knowing that the loud/annoying kid next to him and his wife, was this guy .  I didn't realize until some time in the second half, that his voice sounded familiar, and that it was him.  By that time, I was too busy yelling and cheering to introduce myself lol.  I will miss Vashil, but we will be even better next year, and no one will want to play us!