Games #6 & #7 - Looking ahead to Savannah: Kent State (Friday) & UNCW (Saturday)

[VULB#62]

Second half start: KSU trey, trey, trey, trey.     What is this?

[jloose128]

Would be nice if we could make a 3...

[VUGrad1314]

Freaking terrible offensive performance. This is not okay.

[VUGrad1314]

Marty Linssen and Markus Golder have been huge on both ends. Burton has come up big on D as well.

[VU2014]

smits & sorolla have combined for just 14 minutes with 8 minutes left in the 2nd half. Big night for linssen

[VU2014]

We need to be smarter to not get technicals with 4 minutes left in the game! brutal and unacceptable.

[VUGrad1314]

Bigs need to rebound better...Darn it! Keep your heads out there! What is this? This isn't Valpo basketball.

[VU2014]

Valpo 65, Kent State 63 with 3:43 left in the 2nd half.

[VUGrad1314]

JOE BURTON!!! BAKARI EVELYN!!! TRANSFERS STEPPING UP!!!

[VULB#62]

Win is a win. Whew!

[M]

Any win is a good win! Linssen with his best game, McMillan ate up some minutes, Golder was ballin' out (though not sure about that last layup). 6-0!!

[talksalot]

6 up, 0 down...stuff dreams are made of

[valpotx]

Great gut check win for these guys, but absolutely stupid play on Burton's part with that T.  He bailed us out when it mattered most, but as a RS JR, he has to be smarter.  Glad that I was able to listen on my phone for the entire second half.

[VU2014]

A live look of me listening to the ending of that game.


A very gritty win. It's actually nice to see this team being able to pull off the win on a cold shooting night (3-15 from 3) with foul trouble against a good Kent State team on a neutral court. The guys found a way to win. We need games like this.

A heck of a performance from Linssen who really stepped up tonight with the other bigs in foul trouble. Another strong game from Golder. It sounds like his lay up ruffled some feather at the end of the game there.

[AranJacobs]

I can't wait for the game tomorrow to see how we react. As of now I am just going to mark this one down as just not being our night. Got in foul trouble early which didn't help at all. That added on to their 18 point advantage from beyond the arc makes an unfortunate situation. A legit double digit win tomorrow against a decent UNCW team would make me feel pretty good though.

[VULB#62]

Were the KSU threes not contested? They took a wheelbarrow full.

[crusadermoe]

I just listened and watched the live stats.  Not pretty on paper. 

But Burton and Evelyn are game ready for Purdue & Northwestern due to prior experiences. Tevonn and Max are ready too.  Burton is just so smooth.

[VULB#62]

Have to get by UNCW first. And we thought they were the better of the two opponents. Loyola cleaned up on them while we struggled with Kent.

[VU2014]

Joe Burton's 3-pointer sends Valparaiso to 6-0
Paul Oren Times Correspondent

Joe Burton missed his first six shots of the night, including four 3-pointers, but with Friday night's game against Kent State on the line, the Oklahoma State transfer delivered.

Burton connected on a 3-pointer with 28 seconds left and the Crusaders added six more points down the stretch as Valparaiso knocked off the Golden Flashes 77-67 on the first night of the Savannah Invitational.

............ http://www.nwitimes.com/sports/college/valparaiso-university/joe-burton-s--pointer-sends-valparaiso-to/article_34d3750f-9d56-5e08-b5f6-fd1b22f1e825.html


https://twitter.com/sbncollege/status/934255363813146625

Valparaiso Comes Up Big Down the Stretch, Defeats Kent, 75-69 (a lot of people on twitter for some reason think the score is 75-69 when it really was 77-67  )
Valpo hit the shots when they needed to
by James Snyder@morefball  Nov 24, 2017, 9:38pm EST

The Kent State Golden Flashes were looking to improve to 4-1 on the season. In their way, the 5-0 Valparaiso Crusaders.

Kent State stayed close most of the first half before Valpo made a run late, building a 32-22 lead with 2:02 left. Adonis De La Rosa scored close while Jaylin Walker hit a three to keep the Golden Flashes in the game. They were only down 34-27 at the intermission.

....... https://www.hustlebelt.com/2017/11/24/16698020/valparaiso-comes-up-big-down-the-stretch-defeats-kent-75-69-final-score-recap

[justducky]

My memory of UNCW coming to the ARC is faint but somehow that turned into a one and done game with no return game ever played. Does anyone remember the story as to how and why that happened?

[agibson]

Were you able to buy one game tickets?  I'm on Hilton Head and would love to go to the game Saturday but so far only four game packages are available and $100 for one game is a little to steep.

I'd suggest just buying them at the game tomorrow. There were probably only 200 on hand for the Valpo game. Your $10 ticket will let you sit in just about any row in the house.

It sounded like the buffet would also have excess capacity - you may be able to pay at the door or similar.

[valpotx]

My memory of UNCW coming to the ARC is faint but somehow that turned into a one and done game with no return game ever played. Does anyone remember the story as to how and why that happened?

I remember that game, as I believe that they were coming off an NCAA appearance, and it was one of the biggest opponents we would have come to the ARC in some time.  I believe that it was Blizzard that was their key player at that time?

Edit:  Just looked it up, and they did go to the NCAA tourney in 1999-2000, 2001-2002, and 2002-2003 with Blizzard as their star player.  They received an NIT bid in 2000-2001, when we played them:

http://static.uncwsports.com/custompages/mbk/2000-01/mbk05.htm

Notice the attendance.  I remember it being packed to the top of the mezz.

[FWalum]

Valparaiso Comes Up Big Down the Stretch, Defeats Kent, 75-69 (a lot of people on twitter for some reason think the score is 75-69 when it really was 77-67  )

Not sure if you were following on the live stats, but it was wrong three or four times during the game and it was wrong at the end of the game for about five minutes and then it was corrected.  I think that's where the wrong score came from.

[valpotx]

Whoever was doing the live stats just messed up that last 2 possessions.  They originally had Mileek missing a 3 and Kent State making a last second lay-up, before reversing it to the correct plays. 

[bbtds]

My understanding is they decide alphabetically in descending order by first letter of the university name. If both universities begin with the same letter, the tie-breaker is first letter of the team name in ascending order. It appears to be well thought out and completely fair.

It's not really a tournament because it's not designed to have a clear cut winner. It is designed for like teams to play each other on home and neutral courts. SELA and Samford were put in a lower tier and therefore had to play Valpo at Valpo. Kent State, UNCW, Loyola and Valpo were put in a higher tier and therefore got to play each other on a neutral floor in Savannah, GA. Savannah, GA was picked as a site for this event because they could make money from the fans of the teams that came to Savannah to play. Loyola and Valpo did not play each other in Savannah because they are in the same conference (this conference pairing happened after the field was announced for this event) and so they paired up Valpo to play Kent State and UNCW. Although it would have been interesting if Valpo had played Loyola on a neutral court because both teams seem to be headed towards the top of the MVC as does UNI.