Game #12 - Santa Clara Thursday Dec 22, 7pm (CT) at the ARC

[talksalot]

Nolan has us 74-61, O/U is 136.5 on the Vegas line.

I wonder if the return-match-date has been set for us to go to the Bay Area next season... ?    I see Santa Clara just signed a H/H with USC for 2017 and 2018 (it's on their athletics splash-page!)

[vu72]

We better bring it tonight.  This could be a trap game if we are looking past it toward a Christmas break.

[VULB#62]

..... and Chicago State.

[a3uge]

..... and Chicago State.

Can't be looking ahead to Chicago State!

[talksalot]

Maybe the visiting crowd from Santa Clara / Aurora will wake up our players...

Focus on the Prize !

[valpo84]

Let's start the scheduling rumor mill, sounds like a pairing of Santa Clara and Stanford would be a nice Cali trip next year.  Cal, St Marys and San Francisco (formerly coached by former VU Asst Rex Walters) are other options.

[VU2014]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kX8eaJXOePI

[agibson]

It often seems like our beat writers (how lucky are we to have two quality writers?) end up with similar stories. I've assumed because the quotes etc. may come from common press availability sessions.

This week they're distinctly different.

Paul focusing on scheduling
http://www.nwitimes.com/sports/college/valparaiso-university/valparaiso-welcomes-another-west-coast-opponent/article_b5821036-327a-5255-9665-da7baf08772b.html

Osipoff focusing on Sorolla
http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/post-tribune/sports/ct-ptb-mens-basketball-valparaiso-jaume-sorolla-st-1222-20161221-story.html

[covufan]

Let's start the scheduling rumor mill, sounds like a pairing of Santa Clara and Stanford would be a nice Cali trip next year.  Cal, St Marys and San Francisco (formerly coached by former VU Asst Rex Walters) are other options.

While Stanford and Cal would be great, establishing a relationship with St. Marys makes sense from a Mid-Major perspective.  For travel logistics, San Jose State may make the most sense, as it is about 2 miles away!

[FWalum]

A ton of turnovers and two fouls already in the first few minutes for Tevonn.  That could really hurt...

[SanityLost17]

A ton of turnovers and two fouls already in the first few minutes for Tevonn.  That could really hurt...

Tevonn's 2nd foul was trying to fight through a screen. 

Santa Clara is excellent at setting screens.  Every one of them is extremely close to illegal, but not actually illegal.  The guy setting the screen steps over as soon as his teammate runs past him, but is set just barely in time when the defender gets there.

Solution --  Needs to be less space for the guy to step over, so if they try it it is an illegal screen.  We are following too far behind.   

[oklahomamick]

Such a weird game.
T. Walker didn't get his first shot until mid way in 2nd half.
No Hammick Hammer yet?  When was the last time he hasn't had a dunk in a game?

[FieldGoodie05]

Very disappointed in our guard play.  It will have won or lost this OT.  Lexus needs to man up and we need some movement back door with Peters being over played.

[FWalum]

I don't think that Hammink should be running the point.  We got lucky with him having 2 turnovers at the end of regulation.  Tevonn is going to be really bruised up after this game running through all of these "screens".

[FWalum]

That sucked, too many mistakes.

[a3uge]

I hope this FINALLY ends the run the offense through Hammink experiment.

[valpotx]

That was just a bad loss, especially at home.  Yes, Santa Clara shot lights out in the first half, but that is not a team we should lose to at home.  Why in the world did we take a 40 foot shot at the end of the first OT when we had 20 seconds left?  I understand that Peters can make that, but if we just need to win by 1, and have the ball for a last shot when tied, why not chance taking it to the hoop?  If you get fouled, you can win it at the FT line.  If you miss it, you at least took a better shot.  That was disappointing to see Alec take a shot that a FR would take, not a seasoned veteran.  If we would have had any shot at an at-large by winning out in conference (also not likely), this loss will be a large negative on our resume.

[ValpoFan1000]

Unbelievable... we lost to Santa Clara. Are you   kidding me? They're ass. We are a totally different team without jubril. He should not be kicked off the team for the season for cheating on home work are you kidding me? What kind of university is this? Obviously not one that's very invested in their basketball program our facilities are  . If that happened at a big name school you can bet your ass nothing would happen. We are a mediocre team now. $20 we don't go to the tourney I'm done keeping up hardcore with this team for the season. It's gonna be a frustrating rest of the year, nick Davidson is playing decent minutes and that says somethjng. You all can try and look at nick playing as it being okay when in reality it's not he's not good he's not a scoring threat he's just capable of not screwing up the game while he's in. Which is something you'd want as a mediocre university/basketball program. WHEN ARE WE GONNA MAKE THE NEXT STEP TO BE BUTLER? Probably never cuz our university doesn't do   to make it happen. Embarrassing

[hailcrusaders]

Our annual 'wth' loss. Very disappointed. What a debacle. We always seem to lose a stupid one right about this time of year. I remember losses to Oakland and Loyola in years past.

It will be said a lot, but it's a different game with Jubril.

We missed a lot of free throws in the first half. Also missed a dunk and I think there was a botched alley-oop in there.

Peters finished with 30-something points, but it seemed to me like he went cold in OT. Got tired I'm guessing. We need to find other reliable scoring options.

Lottich calls fewer timeouts than BD did. Have to wonder if we could have set something up at the end of the first overtime instead of Peters taking an NBA range 3.

[a3uge]

Unbelievable... we lost to Santa Clara. Are you  kidding me? They're ass. We are a totally different team without jubril. He should not be kicked off the team for the season for cheating on home work are you kidding me? What kind of university is this? Obviously not one that's very invested in their basketball program our facilities are  . If that happened at a big name school you can bet your ass nothing would happen. We are a mediocre team now. $20 we don't go to the tourney I'm done keeping up hardcore with this team for the season. It's gonna be a frustrating rest of the year, nick Davidson is playing decent minutes and that says somethjng. You all can try and look at nick playing as it being okay when in reality it's not he's not good he's not a scoring threat he's just capable of not screwing up the game while he's in. Which is something you'd want as a mediocre university/basketball program. WHEN ARE WE GONNA MAKE THE NEXT STEP TO BE BUTLER? Probably never cuz our university doesn't do  to make it happen. Embarrassing

Bye Felicia

[valpotx]

Yeah, that wasn't just an NBA range 3, that was very close to half-court

[hailcrusaders]

We are a totally different team without jubril. He should not be kicked off the team for the season for cheating on home work are you kidding me? 

Nothing like this has been announced.

What kind of university is this? Obviously not one that's very invested in their basketball program our facilities are . If that happened at a big name school you can bet your ass nothing would happen. 

If allegations are true, we're a university that takes academics seriously, as we should.

We are a mediocre team now. $20 we don't go to the tourney I'm done keeping up hardcore with this team for the season. 

We're still the favorites to win the HL.

WHEN ARE WE GONNA MAKE THE NEXT STEP TO BE BUTLER? Probably never cuz our university doesn't do  to make it happen. Embarrassing

Won't happen overnight. Butler made two national championship runs, and it's December, so let's back off the ledge a bit.

[EddieCabot]

That was just a bad loss, especially at home.  Yes, Santa Clara shot lights out in the first half, but that is not a team we should lose to at home.  Why in the world did we take a 40 foot shot at the end of the first OT when we had 20 seconds left?  I understand that Peters can make that, but if we just need to win by 1, and have the ball for a last shot when tied, why not chance taking it to the hoop?  If you get fouled, you can win it at the FT line.  If you miss it, you at least took a better shot.  That was disappointing to see Alec take a shot that a FR would take, not a seasoned veteran.  If we would have had any shot at an at-large by winning out in conference (also not likely), this loss will be a large negative on our resume.

I totally agree, but don't put all the blame on Peters.  The coaches had timeouts and chose to let that happen.  They saw him standing 45 feet from the basket for 10 seconds and were apparently happy with that.

[wh]

The player that had the biggest impact on tonight's game was sitting on Valpo's bench in street clothes. We had a short bench as it was, but without Jubril we simply don't have enough scorers to win a game like this, not to mention that the tank was on empty from about the 5-minute mark in regulation on.

Oh well, not the end of the world. Merry Christmas everyone!

[hailcrusaders]

I'm hearing a lot of "There goes our at-large hopes" talk. To that, I just want to point out that we had FOUR 'bad' losses last year (Ball State, Wright State x2, and Green Bay), a weaker non-conference resume, and still managed to be the last one out. If we run the table (or maybe drop one HL game) and lose in the tourney final, we'll have two or three 'bad' losses, with better non-conference wins. I'd like to think we'd still have a pretty good chance at getting in. LOTS of season left, and it will depend on other bubble teams. Is that scenario likely? No. But hope springs eternal.