2017-18 VU Schedule

[vusupporter]

Conference game days are set by the conference office. I would almost guarantee the Sunday games end up being part of the television package.

[VU2014]

Sorry to go off sequence here, but no one has addressed my important question of why we are not playing FOUR home conference games.  It appears that we have opted for TWO SUNDAY games as HOME WEEKEND games.   Why?

Can someone in the know address this??  As pointed out 20 posts earlier by Paul Oren, Valpo draws its best crowds on Saturday nights. Sunday afternoons seem pretty dead and home court  is a valuable asset to leverage.

I'd like to know how we only landed 2 Saturdays and got stuck with 4 Sundays(!) the most in the MVC conference play next season.

Like vusupporter said I'm sure much of it has to do with the TV package. I'm guessing we also "drew the short straw" because we are the new to team to the MVC. Sundays afternoons are generally the toughest days to draw attendance because we are competing with 2 NFL teams (Bears & Colts & playoff games) for eyeballs and attention. I'd argue the Sunday's are worse then Friday's where we're competing with local High School Football.

Give me as many week day night game and Saturdays as possible. If we have to take Sunday's I'd prefer them be on Bears & Colts bye game weeks or after the season. If we ever have to schedule Friday games avoid them during the High School Football season. And try and not schedule at the same time as HS basketball games.

Valpo:
Saturday: 2
Sunday: 4 (Valpo's 1st ever MVC home game competes directly with the Bears game on Dec. 31 @ Minnesota & the final Colts Reg season home game on Dec. 31 at 1pm)

Illinois State:
Saturday: 4
Sunday: 2

UNI:
Saturday: 4
Sunday: 1

Evansville:
Saturday: 2
Sunday: 0

Indiana State:
Saturday: 4
Sunday: 1

Missouri State:
Saturday: 2
Sunday: 3

Bradley:
Saturday: 3
Sunday: 1

Drake:
Saturday: 4
Sunday: 0

Loyola:
Saturday: 4
Sunday: 1

Southern Illinois:
Saturday: 2
Sunday: 3

[talksalot]

I disagree with the short-straw...I think the Sunday TV Package is better and gets us more national exposure.  The others with multiple Sundays are the teams picked ahead of us in the standings.   Someone thinks we'll be really good this year.

By the way, I count three conference games on Sundays... not 4... all at home...(SELA is the Sunday before Thanksgiving)

Missouri State at home 12/31
Loyola at home 1/21
Illinois State at home 2/11

Saturday:
Southern Illinois at home 1/6
Northern Iowa at Cedar Falls 1/13
Illinois State at Normal 1/27
Southern Illinois at Carbondale 2/3
Bradley at home 2/17
Drake at Des Moines 2/24

Tuesday:
Northern Iowa at home 2/20

Wednesday:
Bradley at Peoria 1/3
Drake at home 1/10
Missouri State at Springfield 1/17
Evansville at home 1/24
Indiana State at home 1/31
Loyola at Chicago 2/14

Thursday
Indiana State in Terre Haute 12/28

[bbtds]

Wednesday:
Bradley at Peoria 1/3
Drake at home 1/10
Missouri State at Springfield 1/17
Evansville at home 1/24
Indiana State at home 1/31
Evansville at Evansville Ford Center 2/7
Loyola at Chicago 2/14

[VU2014]

Yep you are correct only 3 Sunday home games not 4.

Maybe it's just me but I think the athletics department would probably rather have the 4 Saturday home games. Saturday's are the best days for attendance. Although if Sunday's may offer more TV exposure nationally and in local Chicago/NWI markets then the Sunday's may be more beneficial if those games were broadcast on ESPN2, ESPNU, or CSN Chicago. If the Sunday games were just on ESPN3 streaming online then I don't see much of any benefit of extra exposure.

We'll just have to wait and see for the TV/Streaming broadcast schedules to be announced. I think it would probably benefit Valpo to get on cable as much as possible.

[talksalot]

I just looked through the 2016-17 schedules for the Valley teams, and most of the Sunday games were on ESPNU (and some Saturday games, too).  May not mean anything for this year.

Missouri state, for example:

Fox Sports Midwest - Wednesday, Saturday, Wednesday, Saturday, Wednesday, Saturday
CBS SportsNet - Saturday, Thursday
ESPN2 - Saturday (Wichita State)
ESPN3 - Wednesday, Saturday, Sunday
ESPNU - Sunday (Loyola)
None - Wednesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Saturday, Wednesday

Northern Iowa:
None:  Thursday
ESPN3:  Sunday (new years day), Sunday, Saturday, Wednesday, Sunday, Wednesday, Wednesday
Comcast SportsNet - Wednesday
ESPNU - Sunday (Wichita State)
Fox Sports Midwest - Wednesday, Wednesday, Wednesday
CBS Sports - Sunday, Saturday, Saturday  (Both Saturday games tip at 1pm)
ESPN2 - Saturday (11am tip with Wichita State)


If you're looking for Saturday NIGHT games in conference...don't hold your dinner reservations!

Loyola: 
Sat 1/7 @ Bradley 7pm
Sat 1/21 @ Ind St 1pm
Sat 2/4 H South Ill 1pm
Sat 2/25 @ South Ill 7pm

Sun 1/1 H Ill St 1pm
Sun 1/15 H MoSt 3pm
Sun 2/19 @ Ill St 3pm
===================

Bradley:
Sat 1/7 H Loyola 7pm - ESPN3
Sat 1/14 @ Ind St Noon
Sat 1/21 @ MoSt 2pm
Sat 2/4 H Drake 1pm
Sat 2/11 @ Ill St 9pm (yes, 9pm, ESPNU)
Sat 2/18 H Evansv 1pm
Sat 2/25 @ Drake 1pm

Sun 1/1 @ Wich St 1pm
Sun 1/29 H Wich St 3pm
==================
Southern Illinois
Sat 1/7  @ Mo St 3pm
Sat 1/14 @ Evansv 1pm
Sat 1/21 H UNI 7pm
Sat 1/28 H Mo St 7pm (No TV)
Sat 2/4 @ Loyola 1pm
Sat 2/11 H Evansv 3pm
Sat 2/25 H Loyola  7pm ESPN3

Sun 1/1 H Drake 4pm
Sun 2/19 @ Ind St 3pm

[valpopal]

Be thankful our non-conference schedule isn't anything like Georgetown's:


"Georgetown's Non-Conference Schedule Is Terrible" (NBC Sports)



http://collegebasketball.nbcsports.com/2017/09/12/georgetowns-non-conference-schedule-is-terrible/

[valpo84]

vu2014--last I heard the Bears/Colts do not play much in January and February so those Sundays should be pretty open....

[VU2014]

vu2014--last I heard the Bears/Colts do not play much in January and February so those Sundays should be pretty open....

Agreed, but we still have to compete with NFL Football Playoffs on Sundays. Not the end of the world. It is what it is.

[talksalot]

Well... at least we don't have to worry about the Cubs this year...

The World Series—which will be broadcast on Fox—starts on Tuesday, Oct. 24 and would conclude on Wednesday, Nov. 1 if it goes to a seventh game.... weather permitting

VU MBB Home Opener is November 2nd.

[covufan]

vu2014--last I heard the Bears/Colts do not play much in January and February so those Sundays should be pretty open....

Any word on when the Colts Varsity will start its season?

[EddieCabot]

Be thankful our non-conference schedule isn't anything like Georgetown's:


"Georgetown's Non-Conference Schedule Is Terrible" (NBC Sports)



http://collegebasketball.nbcsports.com/2017/09/12/georgetowns-non-conference-schedule-is-terrible/

Rookie mistake by Ewing in putting this schedule together ... in time, he'll figure out that scheduling non-DI teams provide wins without hurting your RPI like playing 320+ DI teams.

[VU2014]

I don't think that schedule was a mistake. Ewing's strategy was probably to schedule as many cupcake low-major home games as possible. He knew they weren't going to be the best so he loaded up on likely wins to make the W-L not look "too bad". I can see why maybe a school like Rutgers who has historically been a bad program doing this but its pretty disappointing to see from arguably a blue-blood program. I think most people would have respected them just taking their lumps next year if they would have scheduled against better competition. It wouldn't be hard to schedule a few good mid-majors that would have at least given his young players a test and taught them how to win.

[jtm]

The January 13th game @ Northern Iowa will tip at 8:00PM ET and air on ESPN2.

Full television schedule should come by the end of the month:

https://twitter.com/ValleyHoops/status/907950862747754496

[bbtds]

vu2014--last I heard the Bears/Colts do not play much in January and February so those Sundays should be pretty open....

Any word on when the Colts Varsity will start its season?

Hey now!

All they need is a little Luck and then more luck.

[VU2014]

Coach Gore breaks down the Non-Conference games and talks about the MVC Teams. Worth a listen. Apparently we tried to schedule IPFW but we could make the schedules work.
https://soundcloud.com/chase-logan-heckaman
https://twitter.com/happeninghoops/status/907680018100350976

[slulionsfan]

I've been telling people Southeastern Louisiana and Samford are much better then people think next season, both are going to be home games. Ball State also is on their list. Those 3 games won't be cake walks and probably will test our young team.

Southeastern Louisiana fan here, just found your board and saw this thread. I plan to make the trip up your way in November. It will be a tough early road test for us but hopefully we'll be competitive. We have a veteran team returning, plus get three guys back who sat out last year with injuries. I don't know if we're ready to knock off a good program like Valpo, but we've got an electric point guard (Marlain Veal) who's fun to watch, with solid complimentary guys around him. We're deep in football mode right now (this is football/baseball country in these parts), but  looking forward to hoops season tipping off. Won't be that long.

[VULB#62]

Welcome to the board.  Glad you found us. We have a nice core of returning players led by Tevonn Walker, a SG, who has started for us for 3 years, but we lost three major contributors to graduation in PF Alec Peters who signed with PHX, and SF Shane Hammink and C/PF Jubril AdeKoya who are now playing professionally in Europe.   In addition to the returnees, we need to blend in the talents of two transfers who came to us from P-5 programs.  This will be a transition year for us and we are looking forward to watching how this team jells while at the same time getting adjusted to our new conference colleagues in the MVC.

As the fall progresses there will be lots more information to chew on -- we are never really out of basketball mode here at Valpo 

[VU2014]

We all have a collective eye roll whenever we see Valpo schedules Chicago State. The proof is in the data that Valpo generally dominates Chicago State. Hopefully the days of scheduling Chicago State are finished.

https://twitter.com/boettger_eli/status/909814578619539457

https://heatcheckcbb.com/2017/07/18/the-15-most-lopsided-matchups-in-college-basketball-history/
The 15 Most Lopsided Matchups In College Basketball History

[justducky]

Hopefully the days of scheduling Chicago State are finished.

In recent years we have continued to use Chicago St as a geographically useful schedule filler. No reason UIC and UWM can not now step into that role but it will have to work for them as well.

Speaking for myself I do not like being a schedule filler for Purdue or Northwestern only when we are a reliably beatable victim. That is why I want them again in 18-19.

[VU2014]

Hopefully the days of scheduling Chicago State are finished.

Speaking for myself I do not like being a schedule filler for Purdue or Northwestern only when we are a reliably beatable victim. That is why I want them again in 18-19.

I can't stand how power Conference teams do that. Of course they schedule VU (a name brand Mid-Major and a in-state team that offers more interest) when we graduate our NBA player and a class with 2 other professional players and they see we have 7 new players on the roster...

I'd love for us to get a shot at Purdue & Northwestern again next year but I don't see it happening especially if there is a point in those games where our young team really pushes them and give them a scare.

The filler comparison isn't bad but I think we bring more to the table for Purdue & Northwestern then Chicago State does for us.

[Valpower]

We all have a collective eye roll whenever we see Valpo schedules Chicago State. The proof is in the data that Valpo generally dominates Chicago State. Hopefully the days of scheduling Chicago State are finished.

So what you're saying is we have established a great tradition with Chicago State and you wanna just go and throw it all away? 

[bbtds]

https://heatcheckcbb.com/2017/07/18/the-15-most-lopsided-matchups-in-college-basketball-history/
The 15 Most Lopsided Matchups In College Basketball History

Cincinnati/Houston, Duke/Davidson and Rhode Island/Vermont seem three of the most unusual of results to me. Any others?

[talksalot]

I see a few of the game times have been posted on the Valley composite schedule site...

http://mvc-sports.com/calendar.aspx?path=mbball

Mainly Evansville games... I'm guessing because of the cross-use of the Arena...but most of their home and away game times are up.

Wednesday Jan 24: Valpo HERE at 7pm
Wednesday Feb 7:  Valpo THERE at 7pm

and I just noticed that there are two pre-Christmas conference games:   12/22 Loyola @ Missouri State; and 12/23 Illinois State at Evansville (1pm)

Other Non-Evansville games scheduled:

Tuesday, 1/16  Drake @UNI 7pm
Sunday 1/21, UNI @ SUI 3pm
Tuesday 1/30, SIU @ Drake 7pm
Saturday 2/3, Drake @ Bradley 7pm
Saturday, 2/10, UNI @ Drake 3pm

As an aside... wonder what will happen with the tournaments in Puerto Rico (Illinois State); Virgin Islands (Drake), Nassau Bahamas (Bradley)  ?

Gotta be the last thing on the host minds right now.

[justducky]

As an aside... wonder what will happen with the tournaments in Puerto Rico (Illinois State); Virgin Islands (Drake), Nassau Bahamas (Bradley)  ?

That is a very good question one that had not crossed my mind. The scope and duration of their rebuild is almost unimaginable.

WARNING!!!   HIJACK IN PROCESS!   

My suggestion for Trump is to offer Puerto Rico (as is) to Mexico in exchange for a Mexican commitment to build and pay for the wall.    Or maybe he could encourage North Korea to lob a few nuclear devices on the island to put them out of their misery. 

Is anybody else starting to question the wisdom of totally rebuilding some of these coastal disasters? Will climate change force us to recognize portions to be lost causes? Why should the midwest subsidize these recognizable risks?