02/19/16 Oakland at the ARC

[HailVU2014]

I hope we sell out the ARC. There are NO excuses.

Haha, you say that like I can come up with a list...

Yeah, I did sort of set that one up for a list of excuses... and this pseudo-rant... Haha.

I drove all the way in from Ohio for Saturday Afternoon through Sunday Afternoon just for the Wright State game on Saturday, and I just remember being massively disappointed with how slow the student section filled up and that the usual corners and top rows of the mezz were empty. Then, I go and see that the box score listed attendance was 4987, and I felt that was a bit high as the environment was so-so and the result was awful, but alas, we move on...

But, there are really NO excuses for not selling out the ARC on Saturday. Zero. None. Nada. Yes, I know we haven't had 5432 at the ARC since we beat 2010 National Runner-Up Butler at home in OT in 2011... even though we have had 4 of 5 seasons with much better teams than the Valpo team that season, but we can at least hit 5k for this game, right? Even with the current implications for the 1 seed, regular season title, etc., this game should have been circled on everyone's calendar since it was released in September, just like our last two packed houses for 2012 against Butler and 2013 against Detroit. This game was pre-season #1 vs. #2 and it is current standings #1 vs. #2, it's the last Friday/Saturday night home game, the game is on national television on ESPNU (and is the ONLY home game this season on national tv), and it's a game against the other new kid on the HL block team and budding rival in Oakland.

You just HAVE to be over 5000 for this game. If we do not, I will go so far to say that we are doing a real injustice to this team and we don't deserve a great team like this in Valparaiso, Indiana.   There, I said it.

We can gripe about what the Horizon League tournament move does for our recruiting, but Friday is a day where you can show a recruit, his family, the league, the country, etc. how well we support our team and how we are better than any other school in the league (especially Oakland, who gets the huge boost with the Detroit Tourney). And... showing up can be that final momentum boost that our team needs to sail through the rest of the Horizon League season. And if the city, county, region, etc. cannot show up to support one of the nation's best mid-major teams in their last home weekend before the post-season, what will?

I know that I am beating a dead horse here, but excuses on facilities, name-brand opponent, other events in NWI, getting to the game after work, studying for midterms, the weather, concessions, or whatever it may be just do NOT cut it for this game. Get friends and family to walk up to the game!


Go Valpo! Beat Oakland! 

[oklahomamick]

Do we have student in charge of the the student section?  Any organization at all?  Can the entire crowd wear gold?  Someone had to organize this...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-STAL0aNko 

After finding that on youtube, I also watched last years HL tournament championship game at Valpo.  Great crowd and energy.  That was really cool. 

[chef]

5000+ is expected.

[Kyle321n]

There are 16 chairback seats available, all single seats only. There are 10 lower bleacher seats available, again all single seats only. The first 4 rows of BB and CC are sold out. So far so good. Now if we get 1000 walk up that'd be pretty full.

[vu72]

There are 16 chairback seats available, all single seats only. There are 10 lower bleacher seats available, again all single seats only. The first 4 rows of BB and CC are sold out. So far so good. Now if we get 1000 walk up that'd be pretty full.

[/b]

I'd guess between 2500 and 5127.   

[FWalum]

Got tickets a couple of weeks ago in section B and got the last 4 seats together in that section.  Was really surprised that there were probably only 10 seats left in that section at that time.

[oklahomamick]

http://www.freep.com/story/sports/college/2016/02/19/oakland-golden-grizzlies-greg-kampe/80597156/

[Kyle321n]

We'll see how calm he is when we inevitably go on a 10-0 run and Kay keeps chucking bad shots and trying to draw fouls that just aren't called.

[oklahomamick]

Our last game against OU was the one that Sports Center did the Kampe Cam. 

[HC]

I liked that article.  Good on him for being willing to adapt for the better of the team. 

[agibson]

Haha, you say that like I can come up with a list...
It's going to be 50 degrees at tip off, that's way to nice to sit inside a stuffy gym. Let's go to the beach!
Valpo High School boys compete in the Campbell-Meridian Rivalry up the road against Chesterton (I don't know if this is what it's actually called but it should be)
Dunes Birds and Brews is tomorrow! How can the birder in me miss this?
The Wizard of Oz opens up at the Memorial Opera House!
I can't miss opening night of Kaleidoscope

How about 50 mile an hour wind gusts leading to possibly unsafe driving conditions, and 5,000 without power?

Shouldn't be too bad (unless the ARC loses power, fingers crossed) - a little windy on the walk to the ARC, for sure. And maybe some of those folks without power will come to the game instead of watching at home!

Alas, I'll miss the game with a dress rehearsal.

Come hear us perform Saturday, 5:00 PM, at the chapel!  Or coming soon to a city near you.
http://www.valpo.edu/bach/performances/
St. John's Passion, VU Bach Choir and/or VU Chorale, with the Leipzig Baroque Orchestra fresh off the plane from Germany.

[Kyle321n]

Haha, you say that like I can come up with a list...
It's going to be 50 degrees at tip off, that's way to nice to sit inside a stuffy gym. Let's go to the beach!
Valpo High School boys compete in the Campbell-Meridian Rivalry up the road against Chesterton (I don't know if this is what it's actually called but it should be)
Dunes Birds and Brews is tomorrow! How can the birder in me miss this?
The Wizard of Oz opens up at the Memorial Opera House!
I can't miss opening night of Kaleidoscope

How about 50 mile an hour wind gusts leading to possibly unsafe driving conditions, and 5,000 without power?

We'll be going into the wind during the first half, but when Oakland's getting tired in the second half we'll have the wind on our back. I look forward to the wind aided 45 foot threes.

[vu72]

Just checked the ticket office (too much time on my hands).  18 seats left in the lower level and about 500 sold upstairs.  There may be more but EE says "unavailable" presuming that is left for the visitors or somethings.  With the lower level seats holding 2500 (not counting students) we should be at or near 3500 right now.

[HC]

EE and AA are for faculty, staff and student spillover. 

[bombkicker]

I'm bringing 15 people tonight, bought tickets last week. I did my part. Valpo by 4.

[HailVU2014]

The line for this game has been all over. Opened at Valpo -8.5 and has gone all the way up to 10 and now it's back down to Valpo -9. All of which seems high. But... to be fair, we have either won by double digits or lost in conference play so maybe they aren't crazy? I don't know.

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[VULB#62]

For those without a ESPN feed.  Off to a fast start (for VU) 13:34 on the clock and a 11-5 lead.  Felder has all 5 points. OU shoot 1-6.  we aren't shooting much better 5-15 but we are now up 13-5.

[oklahomamick]

OU shot 50% from 3 and we fouled them 3 different times from the arch.  This would be and should be a double digit game. 

[oklahomamick]

forget 1st half.  Just win the next 20 minutes.  Oren said it best; In earlier meeting Valpo was up 12 and it felt like a one-possession game. Valpo up 12 now and feels like a blowout

[oklahomamick]

Kampe was right on his technical.  It was a foul, but I thought Kampe should have be thrown out when he sized up the ref.  I read an article this morning that he was toning it down...  I thought refs missed some travels and gave them 2 of 3 fouls outside the arc after Kampe's technical.  They did start getting some calls.

[ValpoHoops]

Stretch of 10 minutes with 11 points. And never lost the lead.

Time for a run...

[oklahomamick]

we gave up a 6 point lead with a little over a minute last week.  we going to give this up too?   

[Smj]

I am tired of the ref review....   they take all kinds of time and still get it wrong. ....  ........

Also - should we really be slowing down the game with 5 minutes.    Maybe we still win alot of the time but we make it closer than it should


Go Valpo!

[govalpogo]

Valpo tried about as hard as humanly possible to lose this game.  We almost NEVER score points after the last media timeout.  If Peters doesn't hit that three, I'm confident that we lose.  You may as well of had my pasty self at the FT line at the end of that game...really Tevonn?!?  But perhaps you noticed that this time the student section did not sing the "Hey, Hey, goodbye" song, thus the W. 

Beat Detroit. 

[VUfan]

Great win Six in double Figures, this team responds !!!!