2015-2016 Opponents

[a3uge]

@ Chicago State.

Oof.

[wh]

I forgot about the IPFW game.  Thanks! So that's 4 home non-con games and 9 conference games. The flyer they sent out for season tickets said something about 16 home games, so there needs to be 3 more. Oh look at that, enough room for 3 non-D1 games!

Please, no college of faith!!!!

Nope, no college of faith - just IU-Kokomo, Trinity Christian and Chicago State. 

[Kyle321n]

First blush at the games we didn't know of.
-Chicago St, well there's an RPI drain. They might have 3 OOC wins and will be lucky to have 1 before we play them.
-Wed., Nov. 18 vs. IU-Kokomo and Thur., Nov. 19 vs. Trinity Christian
We couldn't spread out these games any? I mean we could sit our starting 5 for the whole game and win, but we will have played in Rhode Island at 9 am the day before and are traveling out to Oregon on the 22nd, and those are our biggest non-con games this season. It's not like these schools were holding us to the fire by saying "oh no we can't play these games you're paying us to play in December" right? Arrrgh!
-They went to the NFL school of scheduling and are counting the "exhibition" against D2 UIndy as a home game for the season ticket holders. Well done.

[covufan]

-They went to the NFL school of scheduling and are counting the "exhibition" against D2 UIndy as a home game for the season ticket holders. Well done.

My 

If you paid for a season ticket package, you shouldn't be charged for the UIndy, Kokomo, and Trinity games.  In fact, I think the season ticket holders should receive double or triple the amount of their normal tickets for these games - give them away and fill a few extra seats.

I'm sure it was difficult to schedule for this season, especially once the rumors of Vashil returning were out there.  Even if we pulled a page out of the Oakland scheduling guide, we might have to take a reduced fee to go into a major's home arena.  I'm also sure that there were schools willing to play us, but their schedules and ours did not align. 

[wh]

It's true that having multiple non D1 opponents on the home schedule is disappointing for season ticket holders. These games are poorly attended and the atmosphere is better suited for the Christopher Center than the ARC. In fairness the fact that the scheduling process dragged on as long as it did is probably a good indicator that a significant effort was made to bring in better opponents, but we just couldn't make it happen.

On balance I think the OOC D-1 schedule is better than we've had in recent memory. We have several quality opponents with good reputations and name recognition. We've got a lot to look forward to. Time to get happy again. 

[VULB#62]

The 2015-16 schedule is now official.

http://www.valpoathletics.com/mbasketball/news/2015-16/14868/crusaders-announce-2015-16-schedule/#.VgLXCrS4ko8

Hope the players and coaches have their Frequent Flyer programs up to date.

[VUOR63]

Great to see that they're making a trip to the Pacific Northwest to play the Ducks and the Beavers.  Are any fans making a trip to Eugene or Corvallis for either of these two games?

[VULB#62]

Can't recall a time when a VU BB team flew to both coasts and played 5 games all within 7 days.  We will certainly see what this team is made of right from the get go.

[Kyle321n]

In case anyone wanted to download the schedule for their calendar here is a link to the iCAL file which will load in Outlook, Google Calendar and whatever Apple devices use.

https://www.google.com/calendar/ical/tcsv0ao2lh890uf6j2u3oqako4%40group.calendar.google.com/public/basic.ics

[vu72]

Just realized that Will Phipps is no longer listed as a coach.  Very nice person, sorry to see him go. He is now the Executive Director of the Greater Waco Sports Commission.  Guess he wanted to get back to Texas.

[covufan]

Just realized that Will Phipps is no longer listed as a coach.  Very nice person, sorry to see him go. He is now the Executive Director of the Greater Waco Sports Commission.  Guess he wanted to get back to Texas.

And no Director of Basketball Operations listed, yet. 

What are the guesses for the next Director of Basketball Operations?

[Kyle321n]

Just realized that Will Phipps is no longer listed as a coach.  Very nice person, sorry to see him go. He is now the Executive Director of the Greater Waco Sports Commission.  Guess he wanted to get back to Texas.

And no Director of Basketball Operations listed, yet. 

What are the guesses for the next Director of Basketball Operations?

Vacent in 2015-16, Vashil in 16-17

[SanityLost17]

Lets see....Keep in mind that 30 second shot clock = faster paced games...

7 games in 12 days to start the season...4 of which will be really hard games to win...Plenty of travel time mixed in.  Doesn't sound like a recipe for success to me. 

Tough game against Iona followed by losing an hour in the trip to Rhode Island and having to play at 9am Eastern.

After all that we get 2 games against nobodies and then have to jump on a plane to the west coast.  Not much time to practice or do any scouting.

Prediction:  We start the season 2-3 against D1 opponents.  A couple of weeks ago I would have said the exact opposite, but after seeing our crammed together schedule, I am not optimistic.       

[FWalum]

Lets see....Keep in mind that 30 second shot clock = faster paced games...

7 games in 12 days to start the season...4 of which will be really hard games to win...Plenty of travel time mixed in.  Doesn't sound like a recipe for success to me. 

Tough game against Iona followed by losing an hour in the trip to Rhode Island and having to play at 9am Eastern.

After all that we get 2 games against nobodies and then have to jump on a plane to the west coast.  Not much time to practice or do any scouting.

Prediction:  We start the season 2-3 against D1 opponents.  A couple of weeks ago I would have said the exact opposite, but after seeing our crammed together schedule, I am not optimistic.       

At least I doubt we will be playing a 7 or 8 man rotation.

[justducky]

The final schedule filler games still have me completely bummed. I thought we could find at least one more game that had some importance.

So

@ Chicago State.

Oof.

Why not? If they played us here nobody would come anyway so lets head to Chicago spot them the 6 point home advantage and hope they can make it competitive.

Tough game against Iona followed by losing an hour in the trip to Rhode Island and having to play at 9am Eastern.

After all that we get 2 games against nobodies and then have to jump on a plane to the west coast.  Not much time to practice or do any scouting.

If there is any concern about fatigue or classwork a coach could almost randomly assign 3 or 4 players to skip the Wed game and pick a different 3 or 4 to miss the Thursday contest (assuming we are 14 players strong). Not trying to belittle any opponent but I would rather see 9 guys playing hard than 14 guys sleepwalking.

Rhode Island, Oregon St, Indiana St, and both Belmont contests are weekdays. We seem to have a lot of OOC open weekend nights.

Has it occurred to anybody else that we might have no game with Oregon if it wasn't for the coincidence that Scott and Baylor pay them a visit just a few days earlier? Might he have helped enable our visit?

How is the Lexus rehab going and will Shane be playing against Iona?

[valpotx]

Just realized that Will Phipps is no longer listed as a coach.  Very nice person, sorry to see him go. He is now the Executive Director of the Greater Waco Sports Commission.  Guess he wanted to get back to Texas.

They all come back

[justducky]

Can't recall a time when a VU BB team flew to both coasts and played 5 games all within 7 days.  We will certainly see what this team is made of right from the get go.

A week before December arrives we should already have a good idea of our highest seed and at large potential. Much of the suspense will have been removed a full month before we even think about our HL opponents. As a group Iona, Rhode Island, Oregon, Oregon St and VU all have considerable returning talent and all should be able to hit the ground running at full strength.

What a stretch of challenges!

[Valpower]

@ Chicago State. Oof.

The best way of looking at it is to think that if the Crusaders play well enough to be ranked, at least they'll be playing in Chicago, which could be beneficial exposure.   If they don't, then playing against Chicago State would be less of an affront.

[vu72]

Just picked up a copy of Lindy's College Basketball prediction magazine.  Here is what they think about our opponents:

Team                               Conference/Division Place                                                       First Team All Conference Players

IPFW                                                  4-9                                                             None

Iona                                                   1st                                                             AJ English POY & Shadrac Casimir

Rhode Island                                     2nd                                                          EC Matthews POY

Oregon                                               5-12                                                            None

Oregon State                                       6-12                                                       Gary Patton II

Ball State                                           Last in Division                                             None

Belmont                                             1st in Division                                           Craig Bradshaw POY& Evan Bradds

Indiana State                                      6-10                                                             None

Missouri State                                     7-10                                                             None

Here is what they think about Valpo:

1st, Alec Peters POY , Vashil Fernandez 1st Team,  Darian Walker 2nd Team

[agibson]

How is the Lexus rehab going and will Shane be playing against Iona?

Yeah, do we know what our injury list looks like these days?

[VULB#62]

Re:  Shane.  I believe it's a 2 game suspension and I would think the exhibition vs. Indianapolis doesn't count.  Iona is the second game  If that's the case he comes back for URI.

[agibson]

Yeah, do we know what our injury list looks like these days?

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I'd seen E. Vic in the cast, but didn't want to say anything.  I was somehow hoping it was _very_ minor!

[valpopal]

On the road again...

I'd seen E. Vic in the cast, but didn't want to say anything.  I was somehow hoping it was _very_ minor!