2011-12 Men's Home Schedule (tentative)

[wh]

Akron and Duquesne are 2 of the teams in the tourney for sure...the other team has not yet been determined

Excellent opponents.  Duquesne from the A-10 - RPI 95 last year.  Akron RPI 101

[valpo64]

When will the men's  schedule be finalized?

[valpospartan]

When will the men's  schedule be finalized?

Hopefully before the first game.

[Mjj]

Schedule is already done and posted...

[vu72]

Schedule is already done and posted...

http://www.valpoathletics.com/mbasketball/schedule/

[setshot]

I hope to get a group of 6-8 VU grads, to ride over to Statesboro with me and see the Crusaders play at GSU. Georgia Southern gets great coverage from the Savannah newspapers and TV. GO VALPO!

[historyman]

The Crusaders better not take Hillsdale for granted. They have a 7' 1" center named Brandon Crane from Midland, MI who is a redshirt freshman playing his first game for Hillsdale against Valpo.

http://www.hillsdale.edu/admissions/news/news_story.asp?iNewsID=2354&strBack=%2Fadmissions%2Fnews%2Fnews_archive.asp

Averaged more than four blocks per game in each of his last two seasons for MHS, and helped the team double its win total from the year before in 2009-10...Was a team captain for two years and broke school records for most blocked shots in a game (11), season (103) and career (223)...Averaged 10 points per game as a senior, and is among the state of Michigan's all-time best shot blockers.

We don't need a repeat of the U of Indianapolis loss.

[vu72]

Somehow I think we can match his size    but am concerned about any 7'1" who could average a mighty 10 ppg playing in high school.     Funny how they don't list his weight...just a guess...200??  Can you imagine him trying to push Kevin around!  Do you think there is a reason why he is at Hillsdale and not a D1??

[zvillehaze]

FYI ... http://www.valpoathletics.com/mbasketball/schedule/

[vuweathernerd]

i like that we close the season on a friday night rather than a saturday. though now that i realize it, it's a moot point anyway b/c spring break is starting late (by valpo standards) this year. at least this way there'll be a decent crowd should we manage to get a home game to start the conference tourney out.

[vu72]

The Crusaders better not take Hillsdale for granted. They have a 7' 1" center named Brandon Crane from Midland, MI who is a redshirt freshman playing his first game for Hillsdale against Valpo.

http://www.hillsdale.edu/admissions/news/news_story.asp?iNewsID=2354&strBack=%2Fadmissions%2Fnews%2Fnews_archive.asp

Averaged more than four blocks per game in each of his last two seasons for MHS, and helped the team double its win total from the year before in 2009-10...Was a team captain for two years and broke school records for most blocked shots in a game (11), season (103) and career (223)...Averaged 10 points per game as a senior, and is among the state of Michigan's all-time best shot blockers.

We don't need a repeat of the U of Indianapolis loss.

The schedule actually says "Hillside" not Hillsdale".  Where the heck is Hillside??

[govalpogo]

Ending the season by hosting Butler on ESPN U sounds like it could be a very epic time! If the season goes well for both teams...that game could have a lot of impact on the league standings, rpi, postseason berths, etc.  Very exciting to speculate!  It just makes me wish that I was still on campus. Though I suspect I will find entertainment with the "Cameron Crazies" during my time here at Duke...I suspect that I will always bleed gold. 

[zvillehaze]

Somehow I think we can match his size    but am concerned about any 7'1" who could average a mighty 10 ppg playing in high school.    Funny how they don't list his weight...just a guess...200??  Can you imagine him trying to push Kevin around!  Do you think there is a reason why he is at Hillsdale and not a D1??

I know Hillsdale is only DII, but I personally think they'll be a good early season test for Valpo (or any other DI school).  They play in a great conference and return their top 4 scorers from last year's 20-6 team (5 of those losses coming to Wayne State and Findlay).  Brent Eaton is a very good player (and Indiana kid) who ended up at Hillsdale after spending a season with UWGB.

[swiftmutiny]

The schedule actually says "Hillside" not Hillsdale".  Where the heck is Hillside??

Apparently it was a typo, it looks like it's been fixed now.

It seems to be a solid schedule, I can't wait to be back in the ARC! I'm also looking forward to seeing Brent Eaton from Hillsdale play, as we went to the same high school.

[valpospartan]

i hate to be negative, but only two home games in January?   Gonna be a long month.

[historyman]

Somehow I think we can match his size    but am concerned about any 7'1" who could average a mighty 10 ppg playing in high school.    Funny how they don't list his weight...just a guess...200??  Can you imagine him trying to push Kevin around!  Do you think there is a reason why he is at Hillsdale and not a D1??

This recruiting website says Crane is 210 lbs. It also says his height is 7' 0". So you were fairly close. As we all know tall doesn't necessarily mean talented.

http://hsmichigan.scout.com/a.z?s=207&p=8&c=1&nid=3774419

It looks like Michigan State took a look at him according to this website but declined. I'm sure Valpo wouldn't have passed up getting a look at any seven footer who averaged 10 points a game in high school.

http://michiganstate.scout.com/a.z?s=175&p=2&c=759214&ssf=1&RequestedURL=http%3a%2f%2fmichiganstate.scout.com%2f2%2f759214.html

[valpospartan]

 

[agibson]

Ooh - nice smiley!

Back on topic (?), I was a little disappointed to see only one home "day" game on the schedule.  Strictly a personal disappointment: I respect that three-year-olds are not the target audience for the Crusaders.

6:00 PM for Butler might be fun.  But, a 7:00 PM start would mean a substantially missed bed time.

[vu72]

Just found out that Michigan State also plays Hillsdale! I think its on the BTN but not sure if its before or after our matchup.
Should be fun to see how we do vs. MSU against the same team!

[valporun]

The Hillsdale-MSU game is on November 4th on BTN.com. Our game with Hillsdale is on October 29th. Both are exhibition games, so I'm going to be interested in seeing how this year's team plays before I worry about how we'll do against the team in our schedule.

[vu84v2]

Wow!  I can't believe how much talk there is about a Hillsdale game.  Keep in mind that it is an exhibition game and thus the coaches should be experimenting with different combinations, seeing everyone on the floor at different times, etc.  I am not saying we should lose, but they play exhibition games for a reason.

I have said this in earlier posts and I will raise it again.  While I fully realize that the schedule is in a cycle where every other year there is going to be a less desirable home schedule, this home schedule is not great.  That changes some if those tournament games at home have some good opponents, but Bowling Green was 14-19 last year and 14-16 the year before.  Oakland is a quality home game - but is school in session on 12/17?  Consider that along with two of the nine conference home games also being over Christmas break and then only two homes games in January, it becomes very hard to get energy generated around the program (unless of course they are winning big time - that solves most any problem).

[swiftmutiny]

To answer your question, the dorms close down at noon on the 17th, so there likely won't be many students at the Oakland game.

[vu72]

The Hillsdale-MSU game is on November 4th on BTN.com. Our game with Hillsdale is on October 29th. Both are exhibition games, so I'm going to be interested in seeing how this year's team plays before I worry about how we'll do against the team in our schedule.

I'm sure I could have worded my post in a worse fashion but not sure how!  What I meant to say is, it will be interesting to see how we do against Hillsdale so we can compare our result to the result of the Michigan State-Hillsdale game.
We then can extrapolate to see how we compare result wise to Michigan State. I think that's better.   

[valpopal]

Akron and Duquesne are 2 of the teams in the tourney for sure...the other team has not yet been determined

Rumor I hear is that the third team might be Eastern Kentucky.

[valpotx]

All games that we should win I believe?