Game #1 - North Park University Vikings @ ARC Friday 11/10 7pm

[talksalot]

Here's the last line of the North Park Athletics last game summary from last year...

North Park (18-8, 11-5) will now await the possibility of an at-large bid to the NCAA National Tournament when the selections are released early next week.   (Led by three different players in double-figure scoring, Augustana shocked North Park 86-70 in the semifinals of the CCIW tournament Friday night at Tarble Arena on the campus of Carthage College.)

They have not played any games... in fact their schedule does not include the Valpo game, and opening night is 11/17 for the Vikings. 

Junior Jordan Robinson (Not on Current Roster)  added 13 and both Colin Lake and Joe Biko (Not on Current roster) tallied 11 points each.

2017-18 Men's Basketball Roster

0 Toby Marek G 6-0 175 Fr. Austin, TX / 
1 Matt Szuba F 6-6 210 Fr. Arlington Heights, IL / 
2 Jack Gurvey G 6-1 160 Jr. Deerfield, Ill. / Deerfield
3 Mirsad Mackic G 5-11 160 Fr. Lincolnwood, IL / 
4 Colin Lake G 5-7 145 Sr. Temperance, Mich. / Whiteford Agricultural
5 Aaron Reed G 6-2 160 Fr. Indianapolis, IN / 
10 Quinn Williams G 5-8 160 So. Fishers, IN / 
11 Antonio Gardner G 5-9 160 Fr. Arlington Heights, IL / 
12 Denzel Irving C 6-6 225 Sr. Plainfield, IL / 
13 Jason Hines F 6-4 236 Sr. Evergreen Park, Ill. / Evergreen Park
14 Jelani Sankey G 5-11 150 Jr. Chicago, Ill. / Kenwood
15 Matt Mohr F 6-6 190 Fr. McHenry, IL / 
20 Nicolai Lujan Foss G 6-0 185 Fr. Olso, Norway / 
21 Vegard Tangen F 6-6 210 So. Oslo, Norway / Norway
22 Isaiah Webster G 5-7 135 So. Plainfield, IL / 
23 Billy Kirby G 6-3 190 Jr. Libertyville, Ill. / Carmel
24 Raysean Jones G 6-3 190 Jr. Indianapolis, IN / 
25 Scott Olsen F 6-5 180 Fr. Plainfield, IL / 
30 Dyron Woods C 6-6 257 Sr. Chicago, IL / 
31 Jon Pol Baltero G 5-9 140 Fr. Lanai, HI / 
32 Khalen Davis F 6-5 218 Jr. Chicago, IL / 
35 Dantryll Pearson G 5-8 150 So. Chicago, Ill. / Hales Fransciscan

Returning from last year:... games played, started, minutes, ....  ending with points per game... they are returning 20ppg of 80ppg

02 Gurvey, Jack....... 15-0    58  3.9   1-9    .111   1-9    .111   0-0    .000    1   0    1  0.1   7  0   5   4   0   3    3  0.2
04 Lake, Colin........ 26-26  906 34.8 114-274  .416  68-171  .398  36-45   .800   10  49   59  2.3  47  0  79  30   0  32  332 12.8
13 Hines, Jason.......  7-0    29  4.1   3-8    .375   0-0    .000   1-2    .500    2   3    5  0.7   6  0   1   2   0   1    7  1.0
14 Sankey, Jelani.....  2-0     3  1.5   0-0    .000   0-0    .000   0-0    .000    0   1    1  0.5   0  0   0   0   0   0    0  0.0
21 Tangen, Vegard.....  5-0    12  2.4   0-1    .000   0-0    .000   0-0    .000    0   1    1  0.2   6  0   0   0   0   0    0  0.0
23 Kirby, Billy....... 26-4   546 21.0  54-113  .478  26-58   .448  20-27   .741   10  27   37  1.4  45  0  34  22   0   9  154  5.9
30 Woods, Dyron....... 14-0    50  3.6  12-23   .522   0-0    .000   0-0    .000    2   9   11  0.8  10  0   0   0   2   0   24  1.7



This is Mark LaBarbera's alma mater.

No complacency, let's run... the offense.   Every possession in the front court with more than 24 seconds left on the shot clock...

oh, and when Bakari has the ball... be ready for the pass!

[FieldGoodie05]

So this North Park team is tiny.  Certainly a good time to begin Sorolla's 2-game suspension. 

Even so, we will have Linssen, Hazen, Smits and McMillan towering.

Is there a reason we count this as regular season?

[VULB#62]

From my previous post... We've seen a superlative offensive show in exhibition #1 and an impressive defensive effort in exhibition #2. What will this game bring us?

[VU2014]

This is Mark LaBarbera's alma mater.

No complacency, let's run... the offense.   Every possession in the front court with more than 24 seconds left on the shot clock...

oh, and when Bakari has the ball... be ready for the pass!

I have no problem with these D2 or NAIA games this season. They may not be the most exciting but they make sense for teams like ours who just had massive roster turnover from last season to this season. These games are actually useful for experimenting and getting playing time for everyone before they start getting tested against better competition in SELA and Samford and even to a lesser extent SIUE on the road.

Hopefully there is no complacency with this team. I could see the complacency argument with last years team playing Trinity Christian because that 2016-17 team was a pretty veteran team but this 2017-18 team is really young and has transfers that sat out a whole year wanting to prove themselves to the coaches and want to just get out there & play.

So this North Park team is tiny.  Certainly a good time to begin Sorolla's 2-game suspension. 

Even so, we will have Linssen, Hazen, Smits and McMillan towering.

It will be nice to see Smits, Linssen and Mileek getting some bigger minutes those 2 games. We'll get a larger sample size.

[EddieCabot]

I have no problem with these D2 or NAIA games this season. They may not be the most exciting but they make sense for teams like ours who just had massive roster turnover from last season to this season. These games are actually useful for experimenting and getting playing time for every before they starting getting tested against better competition in SELA and Samford and even to a lesser extent SIUE on the road.

Agreed.  Great chance for the team to jell and prepare for bigger challeges like SELA and SIUE.  Also, as Coach Gore pointed out on Union Street Hoops, these games don't hurt the RPI.  I woould rather see these games then 300+ RPI DI teams.  Hopefully, vu continues to improve in these games, than is ready for greater challenges ahead.

[covufan]

We flirt with the century mark, but fall short.

Valpo  97
N Park  59

[VU2014]

Valpo - 102
North Park - 63

I think we'll see the young guys get a lot of playing time all throughout the game.

[VU2014]

We all knew Sorolla was caught underage drinking, but I was unaware Joe Burton was with him. Can anyone confirm that Joe Burton is sitting out the first 2 games also? This is the first I'm hearing about this.
https://twitter.com/happeninghoops/status/927603722729021440

[agibson]

We all knew Sorolla was caught underage drinking, but I was unaware Joe Burton was with him. Can anyone confirm that Joe Burton is sitting out the first 2 games also? This is the first I'm hearing about this.
https://twitter.com/happeninghoops/status/927603722729021440

I feel bad digging around re students' records. But, it is public record.

Joe's case does seem to be around the same time
http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/porter/porter-county-crime-times/article_149874d8-2549-502a-9197-1019a08f5640.html

He was apparently already 21 (possession of marijuana).

And here's Sorolla
http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/porter/porter-county-crime-times/article_3a027504-b2f2-58ea-8c42-0ddc7c2cc9c9.html

so, from the dates, it looks like two separate incidents. And that Burton's case somehow escaped attention.

[bbtds]

We all knew Sorolla was caught underage drinking, but I was unaware Joe Burton was with him. Can anyone confirm that Joe Burton is sitting out the first 2 games also? This is the first I'm hearing about this.
https://twitter.com/happeninghoops/status/927603722729021440

I feel bad digging around re students' records. But, it is public record.

Joe's case does seem to be around the same time
http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/porter/porter-county-crime-times/article_149874d8-2549-502a-9197-1019a08f5640.html

He was apparently already 21 (possession of marijuana).

And here's Sorolla
http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/porter/porter-county-crime-times/article_3a027504-b2f2-58ea-8c42-0ddc7c2cc9c9.html

so, from the dates, it looks like two separate incidents. And that Burton's case somehow escaped attention.

And they had snuck it under the radar until that crafty prof Gibson dug out some tweets. 

[VU2014]

I'm just patiently waiting for Grizz to jump on the board and say underage drinking/pot is worse then domestic abuse.

[agibson]

And they had snuck it under the radar until that crafty prof Gibson dug out some tweets. 

Wasn't me! I only googled the police blotter once I knew what to look for. It was a muck-raking student (kudos to him, we could use more of that from students, and not just on athletic matters) who did the original tweeting.

[VU2014]

https://twitter.com/RBroekhoff45/status/927881417433976833
https://twitter.com/CBBSuperFan/status/927614077106556928

[bbtds]

And they had snuck it under the radar until that crafty prof Gibson dug out some tweets. 

Wasn't me! I only googled the police blotter once I knew what to look for. It was a muck-raking student (kudos to him, we could use more of that from students, and not just on athletic matters) who did the original tweeting.

Fair enough. Thanks for doing the leg work on the police blotter.

[VU2014]

Some good news! Great to hear Micah's injury wasn't too serious and it'll also be nice to see Kiser back on the court.

https://twitter.com/NWIOren/status/928005789129805824

[agibson]

Can anyone confirm that Joe Burton is sitting out the first 2 games also?

[tweet]928005377085538304[/tweet]

[VULB#62]

So.......  we are not gonna see the true Crusaders until game #3. In the meantime, let's see what this band of athletes can do.

[VU2014]

Opening night against North Park will be 'Military Appreciation Night' at the ARC.
https://twitter.com/valpoathletics/status/928396590397747200

[talksalot]

By my calculation, we've won 11 straight Home Openers... dating back to Charlotte on '04-'05.

The last time we started on the road, we lost @ Arizona. So that's 5 of those in a row.

[VU2014]

College Basketball is back tonight!!


https://twitter.com/Safrin/status/929011703513219072

[VU2014]

Yikes...
https://twitter.com/aa_ocho/status/928997966513430530

[wh]

Yikes...
https://twitter.com/aa_ocho/status/928997966513430530

It would be interesting to know what the Athletic Department's marketing focuses are relative to attracting more fans - strategies, tactics, goals, action plan, rewards for success, consequences for failure. 

[VU2014]

It would be interesting to know what the Athletic Department's marketing focuses are relative to attracting more fans - strategies, tactics, goals, action plan, rewards for success, consequences for failure. 

I know that was a student who tweeted that out. Hopefully the Athletics Department is in communication with Residential Life and asks the Res Life to instructs RAs to tell all the students on their dorm floor about the game. Communication is key.

As for general admission, I'm not sure how the attendance will be. Opening night but it's against a D3 nobody has heard of and the weather turned bitter cold for the first time all year (at least here in Chicago). Hopefully we get a solid crowd tonight.

[agibson]

As for general admission, I'm not sure how the attendance will be. Opening night but it's against a D3 nobody has heard of and the weather turned bitter cold for the first time all year (at least here in Chicago). Hopefully the we get a solid crowd tonight.

A lot of new players. Excitement only just starting to build. New conference, but what does that have to do with North Park?

Not expecting a big crowd, but I'm excited for the game and would be delighted to be wrong about the crowd.

[agibson]

There have been articles in the last week or so. But, no game day article in either local paper?