Game #13 U California Riverside Here we come! Dec 20 9:00 PM CST

covufan · December 19, 2017, 10:16:48 AM

On to UC Riverside...

covufan · December 19, 2017, 10:25:27 AM

The MVC season is in sight, with the Horizon in the rear view mirror. We need to continue our rebounding and spreading the ball around with assists, finding the hot hand. Our FTs need to become better, as those close games in the MVC will come down to FTs. Need to work on defensive positioning and limit our fouls - can't be negative in fouls during MVC play.

Valpo 79
UCR 65

talksalot · December 19, 2017, 10:49:00 AM

so what do we know about UCR Highlanders...and their 22,921 student enrollment.

Start off with a Link to their "gym"...

http://gohighlanders.com/sports/2009/1/24/MBB_0124090629.aspx?path=mbball

The SRC Arena opened as part of the Student Recreation Center in January 1994, providing a state-of-the-art facility for students to build their physical fitness as well as a home for the Highlanders men's and women's basketball and women's volleyball teams.

The Arena has also hosted events such as Midnight Madness, the Chancellor's Convocation for New Students, graduations, and concerts.

In the summer of 2003, a new public address system and sound enhancing tiles were installed, and during the 2010-11 academic year, the Highlanders added a video board and courtside panel tables to improve the entertainment experience for fans, and expand the sponsorship opportunities for our corporate partners. In the summer of 2016, the floor was completely refurbished for the first time since the SRC's opening, and the walls were painted to match UC Riverside's updated color scheme.

The entire 80,000-square-foot building was planned by students and funded through student fees. It is home to an extensive intramural program open to all students and it includes four racquetball/wallyball courts and one squash court, a 6,000-square foot weight training facility and a 3,000 square foot area dedicated to cardio-fitness machines. It also has full locker rooms and three multipurpose rooms.

They are 2-7 D1, 1-2 at home.

RPI is 283, with an SOS of 244

They average 62 ppg with their opponents scoring 71.4...

Home Attendance:
Portland State 2,169;
Western New Mexico 363
Pacific 372
Air Force 899

They opened the season with a win at CAL-Berkeley...(which is now a drain on their RPI)...
and last weekend beat #325 Air Force 67-48 at home.

...and have losses to:

#205 Loyola-Mmt 76-64
# 72 Portland State 94-82 - at home
# 27 Michigan 87-42
#250 Pacific 57-55 - at home
#230 Grand Canyon 68-56
#291 Pepperdine 70-59
#196 Montana 77-61

Recap on their game with Air Force:
RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- Dikymbe Martin knocked down all four of his 3-pointers and scored a career-high 22 points and Menno Dijkstra added career highs of 12 points and 12 rebounds as UC Riverside snapped a four-game skid with a 67-48 victory over Air Force on Friday night.

Chance Murray finished with 15 points, six rebounds, four assists and three steals for the Highlanders (3-6), who shot 53 percent (25 of 47) from the floor. Ryan Swan scored a career-high 16 points on 6-of-10 shooting for the Falcons (5-5), while Trevor Lyons hit three 3-pointers and scored 14.

Air Force never found the range on offense. The Falcons made just 17 of 56 (30 percent) from the floor, including 5 of 27 (18.5 percent) from long range, and nine of 17 free throws (53 percent).

Martin hit a 3-pointer 19 seconds into the game and the Highlanders jumped out to a 9-0 lead. Air Force took its only lead of the game, 20-18, on a 3-pointer by Ryan Manning with 8: 30 left in the first half. Swan's layup pulled Air Force even at 26, but the Falcons went scoreless over the final 5:33 of the half and trailed 34-26 at intermission.

3, 14, 15 and 21 have started all 10 of their games. averaging 10.0; 8.6; 11.6; and 10.1 respectively.

1, 32 and 22 have shared the other starting role

0 Alec Hickman G 6-4 180 Fr. Riverside, CA JSerra Catholic HS
1 DJ Sylvester G 6-3 185 RS So. Victorville, CA Morse HS
3 Chance Murray G 6-3 195 RS Sr. Los Angeles. CA Price HS Arizona State
4 Marcus Berkley G 6-4 175 RS Fr. Garden Grove, CA Middlebrooks Academy
5 Jayvon Brown G 6-1 170 RS Jr. Los Angeles, CA King Drew HS El Camino-Compton
10 Ajani Kennedy F 6-8 200 Fr. Moreno Valley, CA Rancho Verde HS
12 Idy Diallo C 6-11 245 RS Jr. Dakar, Senegal Cathedral HS Boston College
13 Eric Rwahwire F 6-5 210 RS So. Toronto, Canada Saddleback Valley Christian
14 Brandon Rosser F 6-7 215 RS Sr. Temecula, CA Temecula Valley HS Central Arizona College
15 Dikymbe Martin G 6-1 170 So. Riverside, CA JW North HS
21 Alex Larsson F 6-10 260 Sr. Södertälje, Sweden Södertälje Knights Club Team
22 Dominick Pickett G 6-3 210 RS Fr. Moreno Valley, CA Rancho Verde HS
24 Koh Flippin G 6-2 165 Jr. Torrance, CA North Torrance HS
25 James Jackson F 6-8 235 Sr. Spring Valley, CA Monte Vista HS Northwest Kansas Technical College/Cuyamaca College
31 Ryker Pierce G 6-5 205 RS Jr. Rexburg, ID Madison HS Cowley College/Big Bend CC
32 Menno Dijkstra C 7-0 230 Jr. Standdaarbuiten, Netherlands Canarias Basketball Academy Oakley College

Coaching Staff
Dennis Cutts Head Men's Basketball Coach

|---TOTAL---| |---3-PTS---| |----REBOUNDS----|
## Player GP-GS Min--Avg FG-FGA Pct 3FG-FGA Pct FT-FTA Pct Off Def Tot Avg PF FO A TO Blk Stl Pts Avg
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
15 Martin, Dikymbe.... 10-10 326 32.6 43-114 .377 10-22 .455 20-26 .769 4 35 39 3.9 21 0 31 31 0 16 116 11.6
21 Larsson, Alex...... 10-10 258 25.8 42-77 .545 0-0 .000 17-30 .567 25 40 65 6.5 32 2 6 26 5 5 101 10.1
3 Murray, Chance..... 10-10 321 32.1 34-106 .321 4-38 .105 28-45 .622 3 58 61 6.1 19 0 30 24 1 16 100 10.0
14 Rosser, Brandon.... 10-10 212 21.2 28-45 .622 9-17 .529 21-28 .750 7 32 39 3.9 36 3 9 15 10 3 86 8.6
01 Sylvester, DJ...... 9-2 151 16.8 18-54 .333 4-21 .190 12-18 .667 4 18 22 2.4 12 0 7 12 1 2 52 5.8
32 Dijkstra, Menno.... 10-4 168 16.8 23-56 .411 6-23 .261 4-4 1.000 8 29 37 3.7 18 1 8 6 6 2 56 5.6
10 Kennedy, Ajani..... 9-0 75 8.3 10-17 .588 2-5 .400 4-5 .800 5 4 9 1.0 5 0 2 8 2 1 26 2.9
05 Brown, Jayvon...... 7-0 57 8.1 6-18 .333 1-7 .143 4-6 .667 1 5 6 0.9 1 0 3 7 0 1 17 2.4
31 Pierce, Ryker...... 8-0 59 7.4 4-14 .286 3-10 .300 7-8 .875 3 1 4 0.5 9 0 2 2 0 2 18 2.3
24 Flippin, Koh....... 8-0 64 8.0 5-19 .263 2-11 .182 4-7 .571 5 3 8 1.0 14 0 5 1 0 7 16 2.0
25 Jackson, James..... 9-0 91 10.1 6-13 .462 2-5 .400 3-8 .375 2 16 18 2.0 10 0 6 5 1 1 17 1.9
12 Diallo, Idy........ 7-0 82 11.7 5-8 .625 0-0 .000 2-2 1.000 6 17 23 3.3 22 2 4 13 9 1 12 1.7
22 Pickett, Dominick.. 8-4 100 12.5 4-14 .286 1-5 .200 2-2 1.000 2 6 8 1.0 6 0 6 10 0 2 11 1.4
00 Hickman, Alec...... 3-0 19 6.3 2-7 .286 0-4 .000 0-0 .000 0 2 2 0.7 3 0 1 0 0 1 4 1.3
13 Rwahwire, Eric..... 4-0 15 3.8 1-6 .167 1-3 .333 0-0 .000 2 0 2 0.5 2 0 0 2 0 0 3 0.8
04 Berkley, Marcus.... 1-0 2 2.0 0-1 .000 0-1 .000 0-0 .000 0 0 0 0.0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0.0
TEAM............... 20 12 32 3.2 0 0 0
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total.............. 10 2000 231-569 .406 45-172 .262 128-189 .677 97 278 375 37.5 210 8 120 163 35 60 635 63.5
Opponents.......... 10 2000 239-604 .396 65-230 .283 157-236 .665 134 271 405 40.5 188 - 135 136 42 74 700 70.0

Kinda circuitous route for the head coach... "Coast to Coast"...

Dennis Cutts was named head coach of the UC Riverside Men's Basketball Team in April of 2014 after serving as the team's interim head coach for the 2013-14 season. He accepted the position as interim head coach on July 10, 2013, when Jim Wooldridge stepped down to become the interim athletics director for the Highlanders.

During the 2013-14 campaign, the Highlanders nearly doubled their win total from the previous year earning the eight seed in the Big West Conference Tournament. UC Riverside averaged 70.9 points per game that season in conference play—the highest average since the Highlanders joined the Big West, and 11.1 points more per game than the team averaged the year prior. UC Riverside also saw its home attendance increase by 20 percent in 2013-14.

In the 2014-15 campaign, the Highlanders won the second most games in the Division I history of the program, and the second most conference games as well. Coach Cutts was named one of ten finalists for the 2015 Joe B. Hall National Coach of the Year award. They earned the sixth seed in the Big West Conference Tournament.

UC Riverside had a first team All-Conference player in Taylor Johns as well as Newcomer of the Year and second team All-Conference player in Jaylen Bland. Johns and Bland were the highest scoring duo in UC Riverside's Division I history. After the season, Coach Cutts earned an extension through the 2019-20 season.

In 2015-16, UC Riverside continued to build upon its success by yet again posting the second most wins in the program's Division I, while recording the most road wins and non-conference wins during that time. The Highlanders also earned the sixth seed in the Big West Conference Tournament for the second year in a row.

UCR broke several school Division I-era records during the year including highest scoring average, most assists, most three pointers made and most rebounds. A number of those marks are the highest in the program in more than a quarter century including the most assists and most three pointers since the 1988-89 campaign. UC Riverside's rebound figure was the highest since the 1994-95 season.

The Highlanders also won at Hawaii for the first time in their Big West history. Jaylen Bland finished third in the entire country in made three pointers (118) and earned Second Team All-Conference honors, while Secean Johnson earned Honorable Mention All-Conference accolades.

Cutts returns all nine scholarship players from the 2015-16 season, one of the only schools in the entire country to retain all of their players.

The 2016-17 season saw the debut of freshman Dikymbe Martin, who became the first freshman on the squad to earn All-Conference accolades since Rickey Porter earned Second Team honors in 2005-06.

Cutts originally joined the men's basketball staff as an assistant coach in May of 2007, rejoining Wooldridge, with whom he worked at Kansas State as the team's director of basketball operations. Cutts brings over 20 years of coaching experience to the Highlanders bench.

As the director of basketball operations with the Wildcats, Cutts assisted in coordinating recruiting activities for the program, running the Jim Wooldridge Basketball Camp, organizing K-State coaching clinics and overseeing the Wildcat Faculty/Staff Club. In addition, he coordinated all team travel and oversaw special projects for the basketball office.

Cutts was an associate head coach and recruiting coordinator for Phil Johnson at San Jose State from 2002 to 2005. He assisted in the development and recruitment of several all-conference players, including Marquin Chandler, a Second-Team All-Western Athletic Conference (WAC) forward. In addition to his on-the-floor coaching duties, Cutts was in charge of the team's scheduling of opponents and facilities as well as academic monitoring.

Cutts was a four-year letter winner at State University of New York at Albany, helping his team to four consecutive winning seasons, including three 20-win campaigns. As a senior, Cutts was team captain and most valuable player of a Great Dane squad that reached the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Division III Tournament. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in sociology with a minor in business administration in 1990.

Following graduation, the Massapequa, NY native began his coaching career in Killarney, Ireland in 1990 as a player-coach for the St. Paul's Basketball Club senior men's "A" team. He also coached the men's "B" team, the senior women's "A" team and boys' teams ranging in ages up to 19-years-old. In addition, he was an instructor at the Institute for International Sport in Killarney.

He returned to the United States in 1991 and spent three seasons as an assistant coach at Pima Community College (1991-94) in Tucson, AZ and two as an assistant coach at Northland Pioneer College (1994-96) in Holbrook, AZ.

Cutts reached the Division I level in 1996 when he joined the staff at Stephen F. Austin, spending three years as the program's recruiting coordinator and overseeing the development of the Lumberjacks' offense. He then moved on to Northern Arizona and worked under Mike Adras, where he was assistant coach and recruiting coordinator from 1999 through 2002. In 2000 he helped the Lumberjacks to a 20-11 mark, the Big Sky Tournament Championship and a trip to the NCAA Tournament. He coordinated the team's offensive schemes and worked in the development of the perimeter players. Cutts also had duties in scouting opponents and academic supervision.

M · December 19, 2017, 10:57:04 AM

Those attendance numbers look like something you'd see at a YMCA Men's league championship game.

78-61 winner for Valpo

bigmosmithfan1 · December 19, 2017, 11:08:33 AM

QuoteThose attendance numbers look like something you'd see at a YMCA Men's league championship game.

Um, or the ARC back in the 80's/early 90s. Season ticket holders back then would routinely hand unused seats to the ticket takers back then in hopes of getting a four-digit number in the box score because it was perceived to be less embarrassing (like most schools back then, VU counted total in the house for the boxscore attendance, not paid/tickets distributed).

I guess what I'm saying is UCR has been Division I since 2002, and we weren't exactly tearing it up at the gate in 1992, either (15 years into our D-I tenure).

M · December 19, 2017, 11:26:06 AM

Valpo also doesn't have a 23,000 student population (now or back then)...I know they are probably done for the semester and not on campus, but still.

crusadermoe · December 19, 2017, 11:34:03 AM

Nice win at U. of California by UC-Riverside. Maybe they caught Cal on a night when half of their roster was out protesting against a conservative speaker.

Dave_2010 · December 19, 2017, 01:26:10 PM

Quote from: crusadermoe on December 19, 2017, 11:34:03 AM
Nice win at U. of California by UC-Riverside. Maybe they caught Cal on a night when half of their roster was out protesting against a conservative speaker.

I'm pretty sure that's every night at Cal.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

VU2014 · December 19, 2017, 01:42:00 PM

Some big news on Tevonn. They are hoping Tevonn will be back in time for the Indiana State game. I'm not sure he'll be 100% and fully have his cardio up but it would still be nice to have Tevonn back. He's such an important part of this team.

https://twitter.com/NWIOren/status/942986794722787328

vu72 · December 19, 2017, 02:08:36 PM

They may not have won many games but they sure are big! As big as our guys. Should be some fun action in the paint!

agibson · December 19, 2017, 02:18:57 PM

Quote from: covufan on December 19, 2017, 10:16:48 AM
On to UC Riverside...

Looks like there should be streaming video, Big West-style.

(And looks like Cal is surprisingly bad this year. Like a lot worse than Indiana, bottom of the Valley kind of bad. Their kenpom's better than only Drake's in the Valley. OK, it's only a little worse than Indiana State's. And, still, I'm sure it was a big win for Riverside. I'd still count any road win at a major conference school as a big win for Valpo.)

valpotx · December 19, 2017, 03:54:14 PM

Valpo 71
UC-Riverside 61

bigmosmithfan1 · December 19, 2017, 04:48:54 PM

QuoteValpo also doesn't have a 23,000 student population (now or back then)

A 2013 article indicated that about 75% of their student body are commuters, and commuter students rarely attend sporting events. Basketball teams with no record of Division I success don't draw at any university, no matter how big.

talksalot · December 19, 2017, 09:32:05 PM

Yes, the UCR students are done...

I just looked at their academic calendar...

If the course meets at this day and time: Then the final exam will be held:
MWF 7:10 a.m. – 8:00 a.m. Thursday, December 14, 3:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.
MWF 8:10 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. Friday, December 15, 7:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.

and even if they were not... they have 22,000 students; and housing for....
Be a real local on campus. Residence Halls connect you to the pulse of campus life – not to mention a community of more than 3,000 UCR students.

wh · December 19, 2017, 09:53:30 PM

UCR = Knucklehead Central:

UC Riverside invokes #Mizzou during a march for free tuition

http://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-edu-million-student-march-uc-riverside-mizzou-20151112-htmlstory.html

Riverside community responds with protests to Trump victory

https://highlandernews.org/26109/riverside-community-responds-protests-trump-victory/

Dozens of students protest 'racial injustice' at UC Riverside

http://abc7.com/news/dozens-of-students-protest-racial-injustice-at-uc-riverside/1091781/

UC Regents Able to Meet at UC Riverside Despite Protests

https://ucrtoday.ucr.edu/2177

wh · December 19, 2017, 11:38:00 PM

The spread Valpo -7.5

usc4valpo · December 20, 2017, 12:36:59 PM

Odd enough, Riverside can been traditionally a Republican community.

But every time I think of that ozone paradise, I think of the greatest bar band of all time, the Beat Farmers.

oklahomamick · December 20, 2017, 12:40:29 PM

Wasn't that a big complaint about the HL? Too many commuter schools with students who did not support that athletic programs.

vu84v2 · December 20, 2017, 07:11:38 PM

I have no idea how good their streaming is, but the game tonight is on the Big West streaming network.

http://bigwest.sidearmstreaming.com/watch/?Live=541

VU2014 · December 20, 2017, 07:13:25 PM

This throws a monkey wrench into this game. I hope the guys don't get to down on the news. Hopefully the team can rise to the occasion and respond to adversity.
https://twitter.com/NWIOren/status/943648821153816576

VULB#62 · December 20, 2017, 08:46:38 PM

Gut check time. Whatever doesn't kill ya makes you stronger.

NativeCheesehead · December 20, 2017, 09:02:55 PM

These broadcast are making my long for the days of the Horizon League Network pre ESPN3.

crusadermoe · December 20, 2017, 09:08:07 PM

The crowd is more sparse than the a week night turnout at the ARC student section.

More protesters outside than fans inside?

VU2014 · December 20, 2017, 09:14:14 PM

What is the point of having a stream if the camera man keeps falling asleep on the job?

California Mid-Majors need to get their act together with these stream qualities

VU2014 · December 20, 2017, 09:20:21 PM

Valpo is coming out flat to start this game...

19-5 UCR in the lead. 11:54 left in the 1st half.