Game 3: Valpo @ URI 11/17 9:00AM

[VUOR63]

This is about as bad as I see our guys playing on offense.  And they are up 3 on the road against an A 10 team.  Hope they find a way to seal the deal.

[valporun]

Dan Hurley is trying to do too much to manipulate the officials. He has a talented team. He should be coaching the players on the floor, not trying to get the officials to call the game so that Valpo is taken out of it that way. 46-39 Valpo, and we're holding up well, considering the scoring drought in the first half, and Vashil getting called for tough fouls under the basket.

[a3uge]

Dan Hurley is trying to do too much to manipulate the officials. He has a talented team. He should be coaching the players on the floor, not trying to get the officials to call the game so that Valpo is taken out of it that way. 46-39 Valpo, and we're holding up well, considering the scoring drought in the first half, and Vashil getting called for tough fouls under the basket.

Right, like wanting an intentional foul on the steal... Seems like he's slowing the game down and keeping his players frustrated.

[VUOR63]

If Vashil is going to pick up 4 fouls, I'd like to see them count--none of the illegal screen and reach stuff...put some guys on the floor and make them scared to drive the lane.

[ValpoFan]

I nominate Dan Hurley for the most annoying crybaby coach award. 

[a3uge]

Way too early to run clock.

[a3uge]

Is this guy clutch or what

[VUOR63]

By the hair of their chins...whew!

[wh]

Wow!

[a3uge]

Does this count as a win against a "big team"? Or maybe we have to beat Northwestern in closed door scrimmage first.

[ValpoFan]

I have never had this much Adrenalin in me at 10:30 am before. Pheew!

[swiftmutiny]

There towards the end I was really struggling to not start yelling at work. As ugly a game as it was, I'm glad they never gave up and got out of there with a win.

[vu72]

phew!  Way to close for comfort.  Vashil played a great offensive game as well as blocking a few shots.  Alec finally hit a 3 and made those clutch free throws.  Crazy ending but I'll take the road win. RI will win some games.  Now home for a game (?) tomorrow!

[Just Sayin]

I would have fouled. Remember 1994 in Indy Bryce?
That's just me. The odds are better to foul in that situation.

[oklahomamick]

I thought we should have fouled and put them on the line shooting two with 4-6 seconds. 

Great inbound pass for us and found Alec with space so he couldn't get double teamed.  Then he took care of business at the line. 

We won a tight game against a good opponent on the road.  Only time we trailed was 2-0.   

[VULB#62]

Mark of a solid team:  winning the tough ones in their house. From where I sat we won it on D. Don't know if it was Rhody or our own tightness, but we missed a lot of easy lay ups, especially in the first half. Dodged a bullet in the last 9 seconds when we left their best 3 pt shooter totally open for not one but 2 shots as time ran out. It's an away win in a tough venue. We take it and move forward.

[VULB#62]

I thought we should have fouled and put them on the line shooting two with 4-6 seconds. 

Great inbound pass for us and found Alec with space so he couldn't get double teamed.  Then he took care of business at the line. 

We won a tight game against a good opponent on the road.  Only time we trailed was 2-0.   

Not entirely true. Traded leads with 2:06 to go in 1st half and went into the locker room down 2. Changed that quickly in the first few moments of the second half.

[ValpoHoops]

A win is a win is a win is a win. Don't care how, don't care by how many.

My biggest complaint is that my blood pressure and heart rate are up high enough that I probably won't be able to take my nap now...

[valpo4life]

Free throws and defense made up for some questionable decision making on the court. Really happy to win a tough, hard fought game on the road against a quality opponent. Love this team. On to the next one.

[vu84v2]

Good win on the road against a solid team. Didn't make any shots in the first half, but hung tough. Did not like slowing it down in the last 3 minutes, but the big three and the free throws by Peters bailed them out.

The announcers said several times that Valpo and Rhode Island had not played since 1998. That is not true (I think). I seem the remember Rhode Island playing at Valparaiso in 1999 or 2000. Rhode Island didn't score for the first 8 or 9 minutes, Valpo won big, and Jon Kedrowski went coast-to-coast at the end.

[hailcrusaders]

Thoughts:

Got away with a win on the road on a poor shooting night morning. That's big itself.

Speaking of which, I like tuning into basketball games in the AM. Reminds me of March. Say what you want about ESPN, but I hope this 24 hour marathon event has staying power.

Was hoping to listen to WVUR over the ESPN video livestream, but ESPN was about 30 seconds behind. Anyone else have the same problem?

Tevonn was clutch.

No injuries, which is good. Darien's rolled ankle looked nasty but glad he got back out there.

For once, we weren't the team leaving points at the FT line. We actually looked quite good in this aspect and that helped win us the game. URI lost it at the line.

This felt like a game where Skara would have come in and hit some big shots when we needed them (although URI could say the same thing about Matthews). Wishing a speedy recovery to that young man -- we need him back out there ASAP.

Taking the air out of the ball is not going to be as effective with a shorter shot clock. Our late game clock management wasn't great -- a few possessions we waited too long to do anything ended up with a shotclock violation or poor shot. Another possession wound up with a Vashil blocked dunk when we should have cleared it out to a guard.

We scored 18 points in the first half after going about 0-7 from 3 and shot what, 2 free throws? That should have told us something. Not saying we didn't make halftime adjustments (we sure did), but it oughtn't have taken us that long to fix things.

Oregon took it to Baylor. That trip out west is looking tougher. Fortunately we have a few tuneups left.

[covufan]

Great win!

In the first half both teams had trouble shooting the ball/played good defense.  We came out well in the second half.  If we play that well without Skara/smits/lexus, this will be a fun team to watch when everyone is healthy.

[valpotx]

Yes, we beat Rhode Island twice between 1999-2002, I believe (1 home, 1 away). 

We played great on defense, but were terrible on offense for much of the game.  I understand that we were trying to establish Vashil down low in the first half, but we tried it too many times when he struggled to catch the ball.  It was good to see that he did much better in the second half, as he was starting to look like the goat if we would have lost.

Glad that we got the win, it was ugly, and might have turned out differently had their star player been active.  You can never say that URI would have beaten us if he played, as it would change the whole dynamic.  I think that even with him, that Valpo is the better team. 

[valpo84]

Great win today. Road win. A-10 opponent. Internationally televised.

We played a home-home series with Rhode Island in 2000-01 and 2001-02 seasons. We won both -- at URI Dec 9, 2000 69-62 and in 2001 at the ARC winning 68-43. Those URI clubs were not very good. It was post-Harrick era. Lamar Odom was there in 98-99 and then he and Harrick left.  That 2000-01 team was one of the best that didn't go to Tourney -- beat Ohio State in Alaska and lost to IU by 3.  Lost to SoUtah in Mid-Con Finals. They deserved an NCAA or NIT bid. Think that was the year Milo got mono just before start of Mid-Con Tourney.

[agibson]

I was wondering if schools that play a weekday morning game like this let their students out of classes. My guess is that most schools would leave it to the discretion of the professor.

For student fans you're wondering, I assume, not student athletes?

As a prof and a fan I was pleased to have a relatively free schedule this morning. Only missed last ten minutes or so, and at least watches last possession.

If I had a class during the game, I might be willing to promise no quiz, and, if it was a rare thing, not frown on students who skip. It might be harder for classes where attendance/participation is formally a part of the grade (discussion-based, etc.).

Could be difficult come tourney time. I has the Michigan St. NCAA game playing on the video projector as we worked in lab, a few seasons back.