Women's Basketball 2015-2016

[ValpoHoops]

This isn't one of the options I had heard being discussed...but, the league basically had to step in and get this handled...




Horizon League Announces Adjustments to Weekend WBB Schedule

Thursday, February 25, 2016


The Horizon League announced late Thursday morning that the Valpo women's basketball team will play at Youngstown State on Friday at 7:05 pm ET/6:05 pm CT at Beeghly Center. The Crusaders and Penguins were originally scheduled to play Thursday evening at 5:15 pm ET/4:15 pm CT, but Wednesday's inclement weather forced the postponement of that game.

The league also announced that Valpo's contest versus Cleveland State has been moved to Monday, February 29th. A time and location for that game has yet to be determined. The two teams were initially set to square off Saturday at 11:00 am ET/10:00 am CT at Quicken Loans Arena.

Valpo Athletics will release the time and location of Monday's tilt versus Cleveland State once details become available.

[agibson]

The VU women seem to be taking notes from the GB men.

Seven threes in the first quarter. 10 for 13 in the first half. But only up 48-40 at the half, over Detroit

It's clearly been too long since I've been to a women's game. They play quarters??

Only one of five so far in the second half, but 11-18 is still pretty phenomenal. But, now on a three minute scoring drought... But, Detroit's cooperating, missed four shots in a row with a two minute scoring drought of their own.

Now Detroit hits a three, closing to within four points, under six minutes remaining in the game. 71-67, and now Detroit shooting FT's.

Valpo went five minutes without scoring, but just hit a bucket to retain the lead, 73-70. Now 73-72, 2:30 to play.

[talksalot]

FINAL:

VALPO 94 UDM 91  !! Congratulations to the Crusaders!

<<removed the link to the stats... it was an active link to the current game only>>

[agibson]

Valpo outscored by 10 in the fourth quarter, but wins it in overtime with, what else?, four more threes.

Valpo 3's by period:
1Q: 7-8
2Q: 3-5
3Q: 1-4
4Q: 0-2
overtime: 4-4

Overall 15-23 for 65%. Hamlet and Schaub with 5 each (5-7, 5-5). Even a bit better than what Green Bay shot?

Live by the three, die by the three, I guess. In principle gets easier from here, playing the winner of the 5-8 game (NKU vs CSU).

[talksalot]

equalling the 94 we laid on Purdue Cal in the opening game of the season...we made 11 3s in that game

[StlVUFan]

In principle gets easier from here, playing the winner of the 5-8 game (NKU vs CSU).

Oh, I fear we're going down hard tomorrow.  I still don't know how we hung with them at their place.  They skunked us at the ARC.

[historyman]

In principle gets easier from here, playing the winner of the 5-8 game (NKU vs CSU).

Oh, I fear we're going down hard tomorrow.  I still don't know how we hung with them at their place.  They skunked us at the ARC.

Youneverknow!

[StlVUFan]

Okay, walkingunderwear

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[talksalot]

If the Holy Cross Crusaders can do it from the 9-hole... why not us?... Glass-is-half-full-kinda-guy.

[talksalot]

so... I was thirsty... and started drinking from my half-full glass...

3:18 in the second quarter...

NKU 35  Valpo 17

[VULB#62]

FWIW. NKU takes GB to two OTs but loses 80-78.

[bbtds]

FWIW. NKU takes GB to two OTs but loses 80-78.

Someone told me that No KY had a player at the free throw line at the end of regulation with the score tied and 5 secs left and missed both free throws. Now, that is pretty rough. The pressure must have really got to her. Or GB's free throw defense is really good. 

[ValpoHoops]

76% shooter. Tough way to go down. I don't know which player it was, I wasn't watching that closely. I hope she's not a senior, and I hope her team has her back. It's a long trip back to Highland Heights...

[VULB#62]

Home court advantage ?  Home team FT defense? Donald Trump Fatheads?

[StlVUFan]

FWIW. NKU takes GB to two OTs but loses 80-78.

Someone told me that No KY had a player at the free throw line at the end of regulation with the score tied and 5 secs left and missed both free throws. Now, that is pretty rough. The pressure must have really got to her. Or GB's free throw defense is really good. 

At end of 1st OT, actually.  GB also had 2 close looks.  Either one goes down and you'd still have dbl OT

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[NativeCheesehead]

Thought I'd move the Dorow contract talk back to this thread. I do think she could get our program back to a decent level. But that's not good enough in this league. You have one of the top mid major women's programs in the country in the Horizon league. I realize it's a tall order to topple them, but why isn't that what we're aspiring too? If and When Bryce moves on, if the new coach goes only .500 in his first four years what would we say? "Well he's recruiting better." Really? And yes, I realize there are differences, but as the father of two daughters, I feel I should hold both programs to a high standard or i'm selling the players short.

Be bold with this hire. Go find someone who played at a big program and that has a couple years assistant experience and give it a try. No, we wouldn't get UCONN's top assistant (or their Director of Ops, for that matter) but bring someone in who has a plan to compete with Green Bay. Four years is enough to show me this plan isn't working. And it bothers me when our AD is quoted in the Torch talking about coaches that represent the university well. We're a private, Christian school. If someone wouldn't rep us well, they shouldn't get in the room for an interview, let alone be hired. When your marquee program has a coach who reps us extremely well and wins in spades there's no excuse to not seek both. We're Division I. Act like it.

Sorry for a bit of a rant, but I attended undergrad and a little grad school during the Sarah S, Jeanette G years. I've seen us starting to build a consistent winning program that got stalled a bit when we changed conferences. Time to get up off the mat. (Yes, i mix sports metaphors, too)

[justducky]

Four years is enough to show me this plan isn't working. And it bothers me when our AD is quoted in the Torch talking about coaches that represent the university well. We're a private, Christian school. If someone wouldn't rep us well, they shouldn't get in the room for an interview, let alone be hired. When your marquee program has a coach who reps us extremely well and wins in spades there's no excuse to not seek both. We're Division I. Act like it.

This move is difficult but obvious and the time is now.

[jack]

I refrained from posting the past several games as I was starting to sound like a broken record. For the life of me, I just can not figure out what this staff is thinking, or trying to accomplish. I believe that all but 2 games, we came out with the same starting 5. Even after back to back to back to back losses. Absolutely no logic to this approach. If it's not working, then why do we continue? We finally have a little size to work with, and we have no coach that knows how to coach size. Our bigs spent most of the season out of position inside. I could go on but it would just be more of the same observations for the entire season.
The main thing the last 4 years has proven is, there is a vast difference between DI and DII athletics, from both the coaches and players standpoint. We underachieved this season with the talent we had. The one player that Dorow brought with her didn't even start for us this season.
After 4 years of a failed philosophy and underachieving talent, I think it would be in the best interest of the school and the team to scrap the experiment and make a coaching change. They owe it to the players, students, alumni, and school. 

[VULB#62]

I copied and pasted below this from my post on the LeCrone Spins... string just so there is some statistical information if anyone wants to continue this discussion.

Freeman had some good teams, right?  Mostly in the Mid-Con I think.  His record over the final few years of his contract spiraled downward for some reason (I wasn't that familiar with the WBB program at the time), those last 5 were as a new-comer in the HL.  Dorrow's record started poorly, recruiting of D-I talent from the outset was an issue, tactically and fundamentally she and her staff appeared to be over their heads and were learning D-I on the job.  While there has been a little improvement, WBB still haven't turned the performance corner where we are at least in the middle of the pack after 4 seasons.  Comments like "We're starting to put the building blocks in place"  (after 4 seasons) makes me wonder if we are really headed in the right direction and if we are actually becoming at all consistently competitive. 

In the seasons where we were competing in the Horizon League:

Freeman
5 seasons
All games (152) 56-96 36%
HL games (91) 34-57 37%

Dorrow
4 seasons
All games (123) 33-90 26%
HL games (66) 15-51 25%
In their 5th season WBB would need to go 23-8 to get the overall 5 year record to just 36.3% and 16-2 in the HL to reach 35.7% (or to where the W-L record got Freeman fired).

I think ML is doing the right thing in giving her the 5th year, but I think it's a futile effort in the long run. *

* realizing that it is virtually impossible to make a leap from 10-21 to 23-8,  the performance standard that could possibly justify a 6th year would be at least .500 in BOTH overall and HL competition 

[covufan]

Where would the men's team be if Homer Drew was judged after year 4?

1988-89   10-19
1989-90   4-24
1990-91    5-22
1991-92    5-22

The AD is there to evaluate the program on a day to day basis.  Are they recruiting better, how is the coach interacting with players, staff, etc., are the players good students and happy.  There are so many things that go into evaluating a coach and a program.  I think ml has done better than a good job in evaluating and hiring coaches.  Yes, there have been some problems, but overall ml has done a great job as AD, and I think he is correct to extend Dorow's contract.  I hope this young team really performs next season.

[IndyValpo]

Where would the men's team be if Homer Drew was judged after year 4?

1988-89   10-19
1989-90   4-24
1990-91    5-22
1991-92    5-22

The AD is there to evaluate the program on a day to day basis.  Are they recruiting better, how is the coach interacting with players, staff, etc., are the players good students and happy.  There are so many things that go into evaluating a coach and a program.  I think ml has done better than a good job in evaluating and hiring coaches.  Yes, there have been some problems, but overall ml has done a great job as AD, and I think he is correct to extend Dorow's contract.  I hope this young team really performs next season.

It simply starts with this 2016 is not 1992 and you cannot compare the two.  In 1992 we had never had a winning record at the D1 level. Our last winning season was 1977 when we were in transition. On the women's side we were last above .500 in 2008 and had been for 7 of the prior 8 seasons. Expectations change after success.

I just hope we are not having this same debate after next season.....

[jack]

It's my opinion that, if the only thing that changes with this team is, Seniors out, Freshman in, we will be having this exact debate after next season.

[VULB#62]

There is a wealth of D-I basketball experience within the VU basketball community in a position to help the existing regime acclimate to both the VU culture/methods/networks and the overall D-I skill level and environment.  I am wondering if those resources have been properly tapped (meaning offered or requested).  Was advice and counsel offered?  Was it sought?  Were proffered suggestions by the basketball experts and others inside the athletic department spurned? OTOH Were requests for help ignored?  Were suggestions taken but just poorly implemented? Most coaches have egos, some bigger than others. Have egos gotten in the way of implementing lessons learned or other person's ideas?  I just have a hard time figuring out why, given the proud basketball tradition at Valpo and the quality of coaching skill represented within its walls, why this program is languishing with little in the way of apparent clear direction.

BTW, This isn't the same as football, which is a one-off sport. With football, I could understand less in the way of what I am talking about, because there is no counterpart or similar sport.

[jack]

From my perspective, the talent level with the team has gotten better each year with the current coaching staff. Granted, they have had some players back out at the last moment, but by and large, the remaining talent has improved each year. This improved talent is not showing up as it should in the win / loss column. It's not conceivable that all of these players are arriving at Valpo, only to under achieve. It's the system that they are working in that is falling short. As a student of the game, I tend to focus on movement without the ball, and positioning in the paint. We struggle setting and coming off of screens, and our footwork inside is horrible. On defense, we don't switch well, and allow too many uncontested shots. On both ends of the floor we do poorly at blocking out. The players we've had, and do have, posses the talent to show remarkable improvement in all of these things. Either the coaching staff doesn't see this, or they aren't sure how to work through it. I've said for some time that we are losing these games in practices. I don't think we have a really good and knowledgeable "bigs" coach, which is a shame, given we had better size this last season than we've had in the previous three. I firmly believe with the talent we had, we absolutely should have been a middle of the pack team. That should have been the only acceptably outcome this season.     

[covufan]

It's my opinion that, if the only thing that changes with this team is, Seniors out, Freshman in, we will be having this exact debate after next season.

I think they need to have at least 8 HL wins, and two HL tournament wins.  If less than that, yes we will be having the same discussion.