Game 32: Green Bay at Joe Louis Arena - Horizon League Semifinals - 3/7/16

[agibson]

Green Bay it is.

[agibson]

Seems like chalk is the order of the tournament so far. Apart from making it hard for Wright State to get above RPI 150, I suppose that suits Valpo just fine.

Word from the beat writers is that Tevonn is at less than 50%, or at less than 50-50 odds to play tomorrow, depending on who you read. E Vic likely to take his starting spot.

Skara's apparently practiced, at least a little. Sounds like it'll be a game day decision how many minutes he plays.

Despite out-rebounding us at the Resch Center, Green Bay was out-rebounded by Milwaukee by seven. And that despite Milwaukee shooting an abysmal 30.5%/22.6% (Green Bay was 41.3%/27.3%, 6 for 22 from three; off their season averages of 49.3%/34.4%).

Green Bay did record 12 steals.

[sliman]

I believe GB had only 7 turnovers in the game.  That may be the most important stat tomorrow night; can we force more turnovers than we make, especially if Tevonn is not ready to play or play at near 100 percent.  We're going to need all hands on deck after edging them last week.

[oklahomamick]

Yes taking care of the ball will be an objective tomorrow night.  I vote for Keith and max to bring the ball up. 

[nkvu]

If T Walker and Skara either can't play or can't play effectively this could be a tough game. Hope Green Bay is gassed from having to play back to back to back. Unless we can win this game easily and rest some our starters at the end, not having T Walker and Skara will make playing Oakland in the final even tougher assuming they win their semi.

[SanityLost17]

If T Walker and Skara either can't play or can't play effectively this could be a tough game. Hope Green Bay is gassed from having to play back to back to back. Unless we can win this game easily and rest some our starters at the end, not having T Walker and Skara will make playing Oakland in the final even tougher assuming they win their semi.

I think Wright State is going to beat Oakland.  In fact, based on what I saw the last few days, if Tevonn/Skara are out for the rest of this tournament, we could be in a lot of trouble.  Wright State just looks pissed, all the time.  I don't want to play them.  I am glad they are on the other side of the bracket.   

Everyone is shooting poor % from the field right now in the Joe Louis.  That favors Valpo/Wright State and Wright State knows how to beat us. 

[HailVU2014]

Valpo opens as 9 point favorites over Green Bay.
Oakland opens as 4 point favorites over Wright State.

My two cents are simple: Valpo defeated Green Bay in Green Bay without Skara and with minimal time from Walker. Green Bay is tired after a physical game today and other than turnovers/steals GB is a decent matchup for us. I am bit nervous on this game but I think that it is more that this game is not at home and we will have 3 hostile fan bases going against us rather than being nervous for having a mental slip up and losing to GB. But you have to play and win this game to advance and there is no room for error...

I say play 8 with Max Joseph and have Skara and T. Walker as rested as possible for the final, if they can be available.

Driving up to Detroit tomorrow! I'll be one of the loud ones in 122! Go Valpo!

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[HailVU2014]

Also, is there a team that we prefer to win the Oakland/Wright State game?

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[agibson]

My two cents are simple: Valpo defeated Green Bay in Green Bay without Skara and with minimal time from Walker.

I forgot that Skara didn't play (he's been out a while!).  So, indeed, maybe nothing "new" here except the Joe Louis environment (I'm getting nervous at this point - wondering if Darner has a point that getting two games to test out the environment is an advantage; of course, you have to win those games!). Maybe better to have the experience against Green Bay without Tevonn, rather than try to go at Milwaukee again, with a key player missing... hard to say. I've been pretty confident about this team for most of the season - was easy to get used to double digit wins, etc. I'm finding that considerably more difficult after close games to end the season, and with a trip to the NIT as the booby prize!

Also, is there a team that we prefer to win the Oakland/Wright State game?

It's a good question. I really don't know which team we'd be better off with. Maybe I'll try to be brave and stick to my gut feeling after the second Wright State loss: both Wright State games were much better to watch, much more exciting, seemed like better basketball, than our other style of "outrebound them by 20, win by 15" type game. A final like our last Wright State game would be memorable, for sure, worthy of a tournament final, and payback would be sweet.

[HC]

Hopefully this is just gamesmanship from the coaching staff and Tevo and Skara are ready to go. I'm not so concerned about tomorrow, unless we get in foul trouble, but if Oakland gets by WSU it should would be nice to have a full squad ready to go.

[agibson]

Hopefully this is just gamesmanship from the coaching staff and Tevo and Skara are ready to go.

This would be delightful. I'll admit to trying to decipher blurry athletes in twitter photos (Smits in uniform?).

[nkvu]

Also, is there a team that we prefer to win the Oakland/Wright State game?

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Personnaly I would prefer Wright State playing their fourth game in four days to playing Oakland in Detroit missing two of our contributors. And I don't care if that causes our rpi to take a hit. Right now all I care about is getting into the dance not what seed we are. (And if we drop a third game to these guys we don't deserve to be in the dance!)

[mb230611]

Valpo opens as 9 point favorites over Green Bay. Oakland opens as 4 point favorites over Wright State. My two cents are simple: Valpo defeated Green Bay in Green Bay without Skara and with minimal time from Walker. Green Bay is tired after a physical game today and other than turnovers/steals GB is a decent matchup for us. I am bit nervous on this game but I think that it is more that this game is not at home and we will have 3 hostile fan bases going against us rather than being nervous for having a mental slip up and losing to GB. But you have to play and win this game to advance and there is no room for error... I say play 8 with Max Joseph and have Skara and T. Walker as rested as possible for the final, if they can be available. Driving up to Detroit tomorrow! I'll be one of the loud ones in 122! Go Valpo! Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk

Safe travels! I'll be in 121 wearing black and gold. Looking forward to catching your game before Oakland/Wright State, and I hope you have a good crowd for it. Would love to see a lot of casual fans not affiliated with any of the four schools show up to check it out. Looked like a decent number of casual fans showed up today, and hopefully a bunch of them will come back tomorrow and Tuesday.

[hailcrusaders]

Also remember last year when Tevonn was doubtful for the HL final, but came out of the locker room for warmups and gave us 12(?) quality minutes. Don't know if we'll see that this year or not, but he's a tough kid.

[wh]

Also, is there a team that we prefer to win the Oakland/Wright State game?

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Personnaly I would prefer Wright State playing their fourth game in four days to playing Oakland in Detroit missing two of our contributors. And I don't care if that causes our rpi to take a hit. Right now all I care about is getting into the dance not what seed we are. (And if we drop a third game to these guys we don't deserve to be in the dance!)

Until I read your post I've been thinking Oakland. Now I'm with you about WSU. Either you're very pursuasive or I'm easily influenced. 

[justducky]

Personnaly I would prefer Wright State playing their fourth game in four days to playing Oakland in Detroit missing two of our contributors. And I don't care if that causes our rpi to take a hit. Right now all I care about is getting into the dance not what seed we are. (And if we drop a third game to these guys we don't deserve to be in the dance!)

I would prefer a chance at revenge to an easier route so let it be WSU.

Also remember last year when Tevonn was doubtful for the HL final, but came out of the locker room for warmups and gave us 12(?) quality minutes. Don't know if we'll see that this year or not, but he's a tough kid.

My memory was more like 4 minutes of being useless but maybe I have the wrong game in mind.

[crusaderjoe]

Hopefully this is just gamesmanship from the coaching staff and Tevo and Skara are ready to go. I'm not so concerned about tomorrow, unless we get in foul trouble, but if Oakland gets by WSU it should would be nice to have a full squad ready to go.

I hope you are right on gamesmanship.  Maybe it's just wishful thinking on my part, but I have to admit at least with respect to Skara, the first thing that came to mind was that this was a case of classic cat and mouse Homer Drewism on pre game injuries.  I think we tried that against Butler a few years ago with someone (can't remember the player) and Brad Stevens didn't buy it.  I doubt UWGB will either.  Hope to see both guys on the floor but I'd be more surprised about Skara.  I really hope you are right.

[VULB#62]

Here is Paul's leadin article to tonight's game.

http://www.nwitimes.com/sports/basketball/college/valparaiso-set-to-take-on-green-bay-in-horizon-semis/article_8a5051d5-49d0-5615-9f94-da5af4ac036a.html

Tevonn hobbling up the stairs at the Joe and saying he was 50% was the big take-away for me 

[Kyle321n]

Also remember last year when Tevonn was doubtful for the HL final, but came out of the locker room for warmups and gave us 12(?) quality minutes. Don't know if we'll see that this year or not, but he's a tough kid.

My memory was more like 4 minutes of being useless but maybe I have the wrong game in mind.

Yeah, Tevonn played 4 minutes and had 1 rebound. That was it.  You might be thinking of the NCAA game where he put in 31 really quality minutes.

[VUfan]

UWGB has some motivated seniors looking for some post season success, look out. This will be a hard game look for the seven Who have carried the load in the last few to get the majority of the time with David, Travon and Max if they can go get a little time. VU 74 UWGB 67
Bring on WSU lets settle this score. 

[covufan]

Green Bay sets the pace early, but their legs (and the Valpo defense) don't allow them to stay in the game.

Valpo   81
GB       67

[Kyle321n]

What I'd kind of like to see is Green Bay come out and try to set the tone. RP40 will work in the regular season, but when it's the 3rd game in 3 days and they really haven't had a chance to do active rest, since they were in a dog fight in both games.

KenPom has us at 78-70 winners with a 79% chance of winning.
Warren Nolan has us winning by 8.5 with a 68% chance of winning.

Personally I think this game goes double digits in the middle of the second half and then we take our foot off the gas again, causing panic here, and the resulting score is closer than the game actually was. Oh and Alec gets his 20-12 in a very quiet fashion.

[HC]

Saw a picture that posted on Facebook by the athletics department...I'm not sure how to post it here...but it looks like Tevonn and Skara are both on the court.  Tevonn in a red pullover and Skara is in the gold. https://www.facebook.com/ValpoBasketball/?fref=nf  Here is the link to their page.

[bbtds]

Talksalot sighting on ESPNU.

[vu72]

I just cracked up when they showed the Valpo crowd!  I swear they went to the local senior center and offered free tickets complete with a Valpo sweatshirt!!  Lots of takers!!