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

[agibson]

How many times did they get down 6 or 7 and then come back to tie it or cut it to one? This is one of the better Big Ten teams and Valpo never flinched. Trimble was an incredible point guard and Carter had trouble with him, but played pretty well. Wells was shut down mostly after dominating. Multiple Valpo players stepped up and made big shots.

I'll admit, it left me dreaming a little. How many games would we have won in the Big Ten?  Get these guys at the ARC!  Where would we have finished?

[agibson]

Super pleased with the team.    However,  not getting a shot off in the last 20+ seconds was disappointing because I think we would have taken them in the overtime

With Layman and Dodd fouled out?  Could have been interesting!  Could Tevonn (rhymes with Kevin, right?) have made hay inside?

But no E Vic.  And Alec on 4.

[vu84v2]

After looking at the posted pictures of the likely foul on Carter, I would honestly suggest considering a few things. First, not a great play call by Bryce (who admitted as much). But secondly, the ball is in Carter's left hand. Pretty hard to say that he was shooting. In fact, you could argue that the guy that Turgeon put in was there to foul if necessary. Even if they call the foul, it would be two shots with 1 or 2 second left. Very little chance of winning in that situation.

[valpopal]

the ball is in Carter's left hand. Pretty hard to say that he was shooting. In fact, you could argue that the guy that Turgeon put in was there to foul if necessary. Even if they call the foul, it would be two shots with 1 or 2 second left. Very little chance of winning in that situation.

Not sure what you are looking at, but I just checked the video again. Carter has the ball in both hands and is rising to shoot when his right hand is hit, which leaves his left hand and the ball going straight up. There is no disputing the hack happened and that it occurred in the act of shooting. Carter should have gotten 3 shots. Nevertheless, as I said previously, I doubt Keith would make all three given the state of free throw shooting by the team and the pressure of the situation. But he should have had the chance, and it would have made for great drama!

[agibson]

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.

This reminds me of Todd's 30 minutes of noble vamping in the pre-game.  Talked a lot about parity, how much things have changed since '98 which was apparently the first significant upset in many years.

Now they're routine. And Todd talked about how the gap between top 50 and top 150 players has shrunk, how the talent pool has expanded, etc.

And seeing Valpo hang, to the end, with a top 20 team, was a beautiful thing.  (And no end of frustrating that they couldn't -quite- take the lead in the 2nd half, or tie it when it counted.)

Yet, what was the only upset yesterday?  Dayton playing a second "home" game?

[vu84v2]

Half of the Dayton game was this morning, so not sure that it counts as an upset yesterday.

Love the term "noble vamping". I would add that the gap shrinking between the top 50 and the next 100 to 150 players increases the emphasis on team play making the difference. This is why some people (generally people who are more NBA fans) criticize college ball because teams shut down a top scorer more in college ball. Teams that win in college basketball may have the best players, but always win because of team play.

[a3uge]

Terps fan here.   First off, great game...you have one heck of a 3 point shooting team.   If you have most of your players coming back, you are going to a force next year.  Your team showed a lot of fight and kept coming back and didnt back down - much respect for your team.   Peters is a stud, plays with a lot of grit, and from the other side he made a couple of borderline dirty plays...but that's basketball.  Looks like a future pro.

Uh... ?

[LaPorteAveApostle]

Peters is a stud, plays with a lot of grit, and from the other side he made a couple of borderline dirty plays

Uh... ?

You'll have to forgive him/her. S/he already proved s/he doesn't know the difference between Skara and Alec; s/he also doesn't know the difference between Alec and Dodd apparently either.

[gamelord]

This game time delay is killing me lol. Unfortunately I don't have cable right now so am resorting to listening to wvur on tunein radio. Listening to Todd is well worth it anyway.

Ah, did it wind up on TuneIn?  WVUR had originally said it wouldn't be there.  Glad to hear Todd had a shot at a national audience.  It was pretty noisy in the Union, and, you know, national broadcast.  So I was checking in on a small radio at timeouts.  Was running maybe 30 seconds ahead of the TV.

Yes, the wvur feed worked flawlessly. TuneIn also had the national Westwood feed available, so I did have a backup just incase lol.

[agibson]

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.

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!

It would sure make -me- feel better if we could pick up a couple of signature wins.

Most of the time if be wishing we could get the big dogs in December (or February!) instead of November.  But, next year, you make an interesting point.  It'll be interesting to see what we do in the post, but, otherwise...

There was an interesting Keith Carter quote in ine if the local papers today (probably Times, maybe Post Trib) to the extent that the players were always asking Bryce to schedule big teams.  And how he was always explains the difficulty of scheduling...

[agibson]

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

Can you imagine senior KVW and senior Vashil rolled into one package?

I suppose that hypothetical player would be pretty unlikely to be wearing brown and gold.

[agibson]

The call on Skara was questionable, but its ALWAYS called. The non-call on Keith is not. It was a foul.

In your photo the Skara foul looks questionable.  (The Baltimore beat writer called him Peters too, on twitter.)

In the video replay it seemed pretty clear that Dodd got a lot of hand.

[Valpo18]

The call on Skara was questionable, but its ALWAYS called. The non-call on Keith is not. It was a foul.

In your photo the Skara foul looks questionable.  (The Baltimore beat writer called him Peters too, on twitter.)

In the video replay it seemed pretty clear that Dodd got a lot of hand.

I disagree. I saw all ball. I thought that point of the game was huge for us.

[agibson]

The Crusaders were down 3 with one last chance for coach Bryce Drew to draw up a winning play. He didn't need a length of the court pass as he did when he made the most famous shot in school history back in the 1998 tournament, but Valpo did need a 3.

The historical echoes were everywhere.  Scott losing on a father-son three.  Homer borrowing a pen and clearly shown on national TV drawing up an end-of-game play.  Bryce's play failing to get a shot off. 

Tough couple of days for the Drews.

[agibson]

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.

I didn't study MD -so- carefully before the game.

But, while watching, I was figuring we did a pretty good job of taking them out of their game.  The FTA differential wasn't so large.  It seemed like their drivers and slashers were having to settle for perimeter shots.  Vashil didn't register a block, but I figure his presence had a significant impact on strategy.

[valpo84]

Not.going to blame refs, but 35 banged body and arm on Skara. He made a nice play and then stood over Skara. I was fine with the initial "big school intimidation" tactic but then he lingered too long and said a few words. I turned to my wife and declared T him up. We were right along the baseline. If he had walked away he doesn't get T'ed. Having been the recipient of a questionable end of regulation foul call against Detroit, it would be nice to know going into a game if the refs are not going to call the game the way they had been calling it when we get to 14 secs. Consistency is all you can ask for there and NuNez and company were not.

Anytime Maryland wants to play us again, let's do it - neutral court or better maybe they should toughen up and venture out to NW Indiana to better prepare for B1G conference environs. Oh wait, they still have a pile of debt to pay off.

The thing about a loss like that is there are multiple things to play over in your head, and over analyze for a whole offseason. Not boxing Wells at 1:44, missed freaking FTs, D Walker's quick trigger on a 3 with about 6 mins left, last play call? We're not talking about any of this without a hard fought, excellent effort. One thing this team needs to learn at tourney time and against bigger foes is "value the possession." WVU was not doing that vs Buffalo and Huggybear was losing it. Coach K pulled Okafor after blowing a dunk exclaiming you don't do that fancy freaking stuff (edited) in a NCAA tourney game.

Finally and positively, remember folks this team won 28 games! it won regular and conference tourney chips, it only lost 3 games from Feb 1 and by 1, 3 and 3. We have a good recruiting class coming in. BTW how's our RPI after that game?proud of the team, proud of the turn out in CBus yesterday, to see a big arena with 1000 plus Valpo clad fans is cool.

[agibson]

BTW how's our RPI after that game?

A little surprisingly, it doesn't seem to have helped us.  When I checked, we'd fallen to 54. 

Maybe the top RPI losses have to happen on the road to help.  Or maybe Md's RPI is too much opponents' w-l, nit enough their w-l.

[historyman]

E Jordan Nickerson.

E Jared Nickerson. The announcer must have been thinking of the Subway spokesman. 

[a3uge]

E Jordan Nickerson.

E Jared Nickerson. The announcer must have been thinking of the Subway spokesman. 

Yeah he was saying "Jubril" afterwards on an assist, so I think the names sort of just blended together.

[frontrowfan]

Not.going to blame refs, but 35 banged body and arm on Skara. He made a nice play and then stood over Skara. I was fine with the initial "big school intimidation" tactic but then he lingered too long and said a few words. I turned to my wife and declared T him up. We were right along the baseline. If he had walked away he doesn't get T'ed. Having been the recipient of a questionable end of regulation foul call against Detroit, it would be nice to know going into a game if the refs are not going to call the game the way they had been calling it when we get to 14 secs. Consistency is all you can ask for there and NuNez and company were not.

Anytime Maryland wants to play us again, let's do it - neutral court or better maybe they should toughen up and venture out to NW Indiana to better prepare for B1G conference environs. Oh wait, they still have a pile of debt to pay off.

The thing about a loss like that is there are multiple things to play over in your head, and over analyze for a whole offseason. Not boxing Wells at 1:44, missed freaking FTs, D Walker's quick trigger on a 3 with about 6 mins left, last play call? We're not talking about any of this without a hard fought, excellent effort. One thing this team needs to learn at tourney time and against bigger foes is "value the possession." WVU was not doing that vs Buffalo and Huggybear was losing it. Coach K pulled Okafor after blowing a dunk exclaiming you don't do that fancy freaking stuff (edited) in a NCAA tourney game.

Finally and positively, remember folks this team won 28 games! it won regular and conference tourney chips, it only lost 3 games from Feb 1 and by 1, 3 and 3. We have a good recruiting class coming in. BTW how's our RPI after that game?proud of the team, proud of the turn out in CBus yesterday, to see a big arena with 1000 plus Valpo clad fans is cool.

Ditto to all but with an emphasis on missed free throws....the one place where you can be totally in charge of your own destiny.   A few more made free throw would not only have increased the score but serve as a deterrent...and possible more opps to score.  Overall so proud of this team and as well as the others that we have had the opportunity to love and support over the many years. ...Still very proud to be a front row fan

[historyman]

Next time don't be down 3 points at the end of the game where a ref call can decide it.

I totally agree with this comment.

If Valpo had hit their FTs or some of those bunny put-backs there would not have been a need to make a three at the end of the game.

[justducky]

Quote from: StlVUFan on Today at 02:27:22 AM
E Jordan Nickerson.

E Jared Nickerson.

Now that the press and media have gotten wind of the Nickerson triplets and the Walker septilliontuplets I am expecting a full NCAA outstanding scholarship investigation.

[wh]

The call on Skara was questionable, but its ALWAYS called. The non-call on Keith is not. It was a foul.

As far as the technical, it appeared he said something to Skara on the floor and stood over him. I wish more officials would call this, to be honest.

That said, I don't think anyone here is blaming the officiating. We had a chance and didn't execute.

There were two possessions in particular...both of which we were down one. On the first, Darien took a terrible three and got yanked, on the second, we didn't block out and Wells got the and-one.

Those were the key points, to me.


[Photos by Kirk Irwin/Getty Images]

Yeah, the guy had "all ball" with his hand, but what fans don't consider is that he also had "all arm" with his arm.  That's as much an impediment as if he hit him on the wrist, just less noticeable. The ref absolutely made the right call.  As to the KC no-call, replays show the closest ref literally 4 or 5 feet away looking directly at the ball.  He could not possibly have failed to see what the picture shows.  It's obvious he chose to swallow his whistle.  As someone mentioned earlier, what isn't obvious from the picture is was KC actually in the act of shooting at the point contact was made.  Guess we'll never know for sure.   

[wh]

Tweet from Tevonn:

MommaSaidKnockYouOut
‏@IcePhases
Its a learning experience i wont forget, and an opportunity i WILL again get. Just expect bigger and better things from this 514 product.

10:56 AM - 21 Mar 2015

[wh]

Has anyone found any video from last night's post game press conference?