2015-16 Season

[FWalum]

I've lived in Indy for 20 years and have become a casual Butler fan during that time. (Heresy around here, I know.)  I went to Miami of Ohio, so I needed someone to root for.  My daughter will be a freshman at VU in 2 weeks, so I haven't paid a whole lot of attention to Valpo until last season when it became clear that Valpo was the right school for her.

Last year, I watched a lot of Valpo games and attended a lot of Butler games.  I agree with others that Valpo would beat Butler this year.  Butler is a good team and has become a consistently nationally relevant team, but right now they don't have the height and depth that Valpo does.

I've learned what you all know and the rest of the country will see soon - this year's Valpo team could be REALLY special.


P.S. From my jaded perspective, many of the issues that Valpo faces are similar to what Miami OH faces.  They are both academic leaders in their conferences, fans would like to have better facilities (ironically, many Miami fans would love an intimate facility like the ARC), nobody wants to play them on their home court, and fans expect the teams to be competitive every year.  But at least Valpo has won lately and is likely to win in the future.

Welcome to the family!

I know this won't go over great on here either, but I admire Butler for what they have accomplished.  I hated them when we went at it in all of the sports, especially basketball, but I think it is great to see smaller schools take down the big boys.  If Butler is playing a BCS school then I am rooting for them.  I don't particularly like the attitude of many of their posters, but we're not always choir boys on here when it comes to touting VU's accomplishments. Had some great conversations about Butler, VU and Brad Stevens with Ron Nored when he was here in Fort Wayne visiting with the Maine Red Claws, as far as I could tell Ron was a very nice young man who represented his university very well. 

[bbtds]

We don't tout the 4 straight wins against Butler because that 2011-2012 was a fantastic Butler team.  We tout the wins because most/many of us despise Butler, and love every win we get against them in any sport!  I saw a car with a Butler license plate holder on my way home from work the other day, got them to roll down their window, and yelled 'Butler sucks, go Valpo' .  I cringe every time I see Pat Neshek (Houston Astros, Butler alum) pitch against the Texas Rangers, just hoping that we drill long-ball after long-ball off of him.  I respect, but despise Butler .

Well.................I, I, I...............there are truly no words in my vocabulary for how much, as valpotx put it, as to how much I despise..................those guys.







Their history and disrespect for the UIndy Greyhounds is fairly well documented too.

[Smj]

Anyone know - is the game televised or steamed Sunday ?

[vu72]

Anyone know - is the game televised or steamed Sunday ?
[/quote

Well, it is in Canada, not Texas.  I doubt it will be steamed!!     Aaron said that they will be checking at each site to see if streaming  is possible.  Keep checking the athletic site or the twitter site.

[bbtds]

Anyone know - is the game televised or steamed Sunday ?

If Valpo gets hot it could be very steamy!

[justducky]

imagine a 2017-18 team anchored by 7-1 (and still growing) junior center Derrik Smits and 4 highly talented, battle-tested seniors in David Skara, Tevonn Walker, Lexus Williams and Max Joseph (and who knows who else by then).

Wow! Last November you were kiddingly lecturing me over my 15-16 season speculation and now you are reaching forward a full 27 months!

The whole expectations mentality has changed under Bryce. I can imagine March post season team meetings held by both Gary Waters at CSU and Bryce at Valpo. At CSU the question was to find out if anybody was willing to stay while Bryce wanted to know if anybody wanted to leave. I can imagine both questions being answered with dead silence.      It is apparent that the entire team and staff knew their full potential and nobody was willing to bail. I am not sure if anybody will be willing to redshirt either! You have to love that type of attitude!

Lets play some basketball!

[Valpofan00]

I'm really interested to see how Lexus Williams does this year. He's supposed to play our first game correct? Hammink is out the first two. Also when is the schedule supposed to come out? It's usually been around this time the last couple years?

[wh]

I'm really interested to see how Lexus Williams does this year. He's supposed to play our first game correct? Hammink is out the first two. Also when is the schedule supposed to come out? It's usually been around this time the last couple years?

Please clarify.  Thanks!

[Valpofan00]

I'm really interested to see how Lexus Williams does this year. He's supposed to play our first game correct? Hammink is out the first two. Also when is the schedule supposed to come out? It's usually been around this time the last couple years?

Please clarify.  Thanks!

He got suspended the first 2 games for drinking right?

[wh]

I'm really interested to see how Lexus Williams does this year. He's supposed to play our first game correct? Hammink is out the first two. Also when is the schedule supposed to come out? It's usually been around this time the last couple years?

Please clarify.  Thanks!

He got suspended the first 2 games for drinking right?

Good memory.  I forgot all about that.  Thanks.

[bbtds]

I'm really interested to see how Lexus Williams does this year. He's supposed to play our first game correct? Hammink is out the first two. Also when is the schedule supposed to come out? It's usually been around this time the last couple years?

Please clarify.  Thanks!

He got suspended the first 2 games for drinking right?

Good memory.  I forgot all about that.  Thanks.

I'm sure Shane Hammink will never forget the house on Lind Lane as will several other Valpo student athletes.

[valporun]

Was it games in the Canada tour, or was it two regular season games? I mean why suspend him for two games that don't mean anything to the standings, instead of  two games that matter towards getting into the NCAA tournament.

[Kyle321n]

Was it games in the Canada tour, or was it two regular season games? I mean why suspend him for two games that don't mean anything to the standings, instead of  two games that matter towards getting into the NCAA tournament.

He's going to miss the first 2 games of the season. Since the Canada tour doesn't count towards anything and they aren't even NCAA sanctioned games they can't use that as his suspension.

I would love to be able to say he'll miss the X game and Y game.  When are we getting the schedule...

[VULB#62]

Comments from MLB on the 2015-16 schedule in his August Crusader Report:

The 2015-16 men's basketball schedule is nearly complete and as in years past it has proven to be one of the most difficult projects to complete. We had several priorities for our upcoming schedule.

     >> To gain admittance to an early season "multi-team event" (MTE) that would give us the opportunity to play one or more Power 5 programs on a neutral floor. This will NOT happen in 2015-16, however as part of our deal to host an MTE composed of mid-majors at the ARC this year, we will be admitted to a desirable neutral site MTE in 2016-17.
     >> To play home and home series with top caliber mid-majors from conferences with higher RPIs than the Horizon League. Specifically we focused on the Missouri Valley Conference and the Atlantic 10. We have signed deals with Rhode Island (start on the road), Missouri State (start at home) and Indiana State (start on the road). In addition as part of the Horizon League's deal to admit Belmont as an associate member for men's soccer we will play them twice this year.
     >> Finally, we have looked to a couple of in-state match ups. We will finish a home and home series with IPFW at the ARC and will start a new home and home series on the road at Ball State. Also, we will have one road "guarantee" game at Oregon.

Overall this year's schedule should be significantly tougher than the one faced by last year's team, and it includes a number of top level mid-majors at home.

[Kyle321n]

So we can start to put together some games

Team	'15 RPI	'15 KenPom
@Oregon *	27	38
@Rhode Island	61	56
vs. Belmont *	100	135
@ Belmont *	100	135
@Indiana St.	177	172
vs. IPFW	215	169
vs. Missouri St.	237	262
@Ball St.	289	277

* - 2014 NCAA Tournament Team

While the 150 RPI average isn't much different than what our schedule was last season, so far we have 3 games vs. tournament teams, 4 games vs. RPI top 100 and some decent mid-major games. I'm totally fine with how this looks so far. Add in 3 games vs. teams in the 150-175 range and I think we're in business.

[wh]

Its pretty obvious that a greater effort is being put forward this year in the area of OOC scheduling. I'm looking forward to seeing the finished product.

[justducky]

>> To gain admittance to an early season "multi-team event" (MTE) that would give us the opportunity to play one or more Power 5 programs on a neutral floor. This will NOT happen in 2015-16, however as part of our deal to host an MTE composed of mid-majors at the ARC this year, we will be admitted to a desirable neutral site MTE in 2016-17.

Not to lay blame but should we have considered hosting a MTE last year in anticipation for 15-16?

Also, we will have one road "guarantee" game at Oregon.

Does this mean that Oregon St will be part of a tournament? Might we meet another quality opponent either at Oregon St or on the coast?

Overall this year's schedule should be significantly tougher than the one faced by last year's team, and it includes a number of top level mid-majors at home.

Much would seem to ride on the mid-majors chosen to show at the ARC for the MTE. Would love to see a very strong field.

[valpopal]

ESPN announces Valpo's game at Rhode Island is part of the Tip-Off Marathon Nov. 17th and will be played at 10am ET (9am CT) on ESPN2: http://espnmediazone.com/us/press-releases/2015/08/16-games-featured-espns-eighth-annual-college-hoops-tip-off-marathon/

[Pgmado]

Posted this shortly before Canada trip about Valparaiso's non-conference success (or lack thereof) -- http://www.nwitimes.com/blogs/sports/valparaiso-university/sizing-up-valparaiso-s-non-conference-history/article_c9dd6554-3d2f-11e5-9079-8ff4a4f74c78.html

[Kyle321n]

Posted this shortly before Canada trip about Valparaiso's non-conference success (or lack thereof) -- http://www.nwitimes.com/blogs/sports/valparaiso-university/sizing-up-valparaiso-s-non-conference-history/article_c9dd6554-3d2f-11e5-9079-8ff4a4f74c78.html

This is excellent work Paul! Thanks

The conference as a whole has a winning percentage of 8.5% against top 50 teams and 30.9% against 51-100 opponents. That's abysmal for the conference. Some of it has to do with Oakland's past scheduling of unwinnable games but if you take out their share of the losses we are still stuck with 12 wins in 122 tries or 9.8%. Hell Oakland is at least smart enough to get 7 wins and be above league average with their 51-100 scheduling. 

These losses are what keeps our league RPI down and keeps the Horizon from putting forward a legitimate at large team. Detroit in '12, Green Bay in '13, and us in '14 (had we lost the tourney) all had decent enough RPIs and really good records. Green Bay was talked about as a snub but no one really believed that. I think we would have been in some consideration but for the most part we would have been a similar afterthought like Detroit.

Let's hope our conference 1. Schedules smarter for their team's actual ability and 2. Wins more than 30% of the top 100 games we play this season.

[classof2014]

Obviously very few mid-majors get at-large bids. You have to be the best of the best, basically have one loss in the OOC maybe one or at most two losses in league play, and lose the championship. Then I'd say we should be an at-large team. Margin for error is minuscule when hoping for an at large; even when you do everything right, you still might not be good enough in the eyes of the selection committee.

[nkvu]

Not even thinking about an at large. Sure we go into the conference final with one loss and lose on a shot at the buzzer then maybe we have a shot. But even then I doubt it. What concerns me more is the way we usually seem to gag when we play a team, any team, from a power conference. Most of those losses weren't even close.  Last year's Maryland game gave me hope for this year. But ultimately the team has to break through early and win some of these games to prove to everyone that they can win, not just compete. We have to take advantage of the opportunities we have as those opportunities will always be limited. Face it many many teams from power conferences that we could beat won't play us because they don't gain enough from beating us as they risk if they should lose.

In years past we just couldn't stand up athletically to power conference teams. This year we're much closer.   If we play consistently tough defense and don't give away points by poor free throw shooting this could be the year. But the proof is in putting wins on the board, not just competitive losses.

[UConnHoops]

My name is Mark and I have been a University of Connecticut men's basketball season ticket holder for 25 years. In addition to my love of UConn hoops I  follow college basketball year round and have been fortunate enough to attend several Final4's. My dad is a retired coach. I believe this Valpo team barring injury is ready to become the darlings of college basketball this year. In my opinion Valpo will makes a serious run at the Final4. The chalk this year is a bit down. This Valpo team is special and I look forward to rooting for your team this year and enjoying some of the fun with you guys.

I hope you take BCS schools to the woodshed in the tournament and make the E8.

[78crusader]

UConnHoops is my newest favorite member of this fan forum!

Paul

[Kyle321n]

Welcome to UConnHoops, and thanks for the kind words, but it's way too early for a "serious run at the final 4" talk. We could lose on a last second shot in the conference tourney as nkvu described and completely miss the NCAAs. I agree this is a special team, but that's putting the cart before the horse.

That said I also hope we take some BCS schools to the proverbial woodshed and make it to the elite 8. I wouldn't mind if UConn was one of those  

Oh and I would skip a week or two after a Valpo loss. We get a little down on ourselves. Something about being so close to Chicago gives us the sky is falling mentality that Cubs and Sox fans have and we think the season is over after a loss, take a look last season after a January 4th loss to Oakland or the February 25th loss to Detroit.

Uhm... guys, the location of two of our three conference losses last year are within a 30 minute drive of the conference championship site...