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

[VU2014]

After losses like this you sometimes see coaches make players run laps, but I think it may be appropriate to also have the coaching staff run some laps for their own performance. I know these were tough circumstances but the team was AWFUL. The effort picked up in the 2nd half but the offense looks terrible. The talent might not be there right now and we're young but there is zero offensive originality from this team and some of that has to fall on the coaches.

I know I may be overreacting right now given the circumstances but regardless there should be enough talent to put together a better performance tonight. This was beyond bad.

[valpopal]

When Walker got sick, I said the team was mediocre. With the absence of Walker and Burton, the team aspires to achieve mediocre. (By the way, what is with the absence of Hazen, who played only 3 minutes?) In all the years I have been watching, this was the worst performance I've ever seen by a Valpo squad, especially considering the level of the opposing team. If I were to give a grade to Valpo for this game, the whole team would have been suspended.

[a3uge]

After losses like this you sometimes see coaches make players run laps, but I think it may be appropriate to also have the coaching staff run some laps for their own performance. I know these were tough circumstances but the team AWFUL. The effort picked up in the 2nd half but the offense looks terrible. The talent might not be there right now and we're young but there is zero offensive originality from this team and some of that has to fall on the coaches.

I know I may be overreacting right now given the circumstances but regardless there should be enough talent to put together a better performance tonight. This was beyond bad.

Not sure how I feel on this - UCR played a lot of zone and gave Valpo some very open looks from 3. Valpo was also shooting early transition, something I think is good considering the half court offense is so bad. This is something they did a bunch vs Santa Clara, and it worked pretty well Monday.

[VU2014]

Joe Burton would have made a huge difference in this game. I assuming the with the amount of zone they were playing tonight he would have hit 3-4 3s and with the amount of open looks we were getting.

[nkvu]

Having watched this cluster f##k to the bitter end I will say it may have given coach a chance to experiment with a few different combinations. For example, I like playing Linssen at the four. If nothing else he plays hard and gets in the way of guards penetrating   I think he should start. True, he might foul out in the first half but at least he will give max effort every minute and will bang with the other fours. Kiser is a great kid and plays hard but he cannot contend with a normal 6'8 or bigger four. Even if he gets an offensive rebound he is simply not big enough to go back up with it and finish, and he can't defend in the paint.

We also have to start recruiting some shooters. Sure we want to be athletic but if the athletes can't put the ball in the hole defending us becomes easy. Just play a zone and pack it in. And our athletes really haven't looked all that athletic recently. No one seems to be able to dribble penetrate a zone, yet other teams seem to have no problem doing that to us. All we do is pass the ball around the perimeter and then jack up a three that no one available seems to be able to hit.

I doubt we have the personnel to be very successful in the MVC this year. I don't think any of our wins will scare anyone, and our losses have really exposed our weaknesses. If Walker comes back it will help, but there has to be someone else who can knock down a 3 or we can look forward to bottom tier conference finishes for the foreseeable future.

[valpotx]

No amount of running tonight is going to take away my anger in tonight's performance lol.  I can't remember a time that I have ever been this frustrated in the lack of effort by a Valpo team.  Fine, we couldn't hit open shots, that can happen.  But making no effort whatsoever to drive, throwing lazy passes at the top of the key that the defense can easily anticipate and intercept over and over, and just not seeming to give a rat's a$$?  Nothing pisses me off more than lack of effort.  My 3 1/2 year old son even knows never to give up, and to always practice the fundamentals.  If we would have gone down hustling after loose balls and rebounds, I can live with that, but this?  I know that I said it already, but Matt needs to give up on that bull crap 1-3-1.  Opponents have to be something like 10/11 on scoring when we go to that defense.

[Just Sayin]

Charlie Weiss could coach better.

[valpolaw]

I didn't watch but reading these comments was plenty for me. We could be headed for the bottom of the MVC if nothing changes soon.

[M]

Evelyn and Bradford combined for a 1-20 behind the arc   

[valpo84]

Is there some kid playing intramurals who was a big 3 point shooter in HS that can walk on and give us some Andrew Ferry minutes?  I've said it for 2 years; we do not have shooters.  Alec last year was it, with some contributions here and there from others.  Micah is not a shooter.  He is not even a Jay Harris.  We could use a David Skara (maybe not David but someone who shot like he did).  This team looked like it had a gut punch from the Burton news and didn't recover til it was way too late.  Players were trying like Max and Smits. Golder looked like he lost his puppy.  Tx, it's not that they were lollygagging, but more lost.  We should be able to attack that zone but nobody was making the entry pass into the post or to the FT line to initiate action along the baseline or the mid-range in the lane shot.  Agree that when you take out top scorers, someone has to step up or we look like UWM tourney loss or now the Debacle Down by the Riverside.  This was never going to be an easy season.  8-0 lulled us into some false confidence.  We will see how this team either comes together or implodes on December 28.  Time to pull the dusty VHS copy of Hoosiers off the shelf and remind them if they don't want to come to practice and play the Valpo Way starting with the next practice and next game, then they don't need to come back.

[agibson]

Evelyn and Bradford combined for a 1-20 behind the arc   

Well, Bradford had been shooting 37%. Not too bad. Joe Burton numbers.

Joseph was 2-6 last night. First two of the year. Now 2-16.

[wh]

Evelyn and Bradford combined for a 1-20 behind the arc   

Add in Golder's 0-4 and you have 1-24 from 3.  The way this game played out, that stat alone made winning this game completely impossible, irrespective of anything else they did, good or bad.  You can commit 18 TO's and still have a chance to win.  You can play disinterested and still have a chance to win. You can look like you've never seen a zone before and still have a chance to win. You can have all those issues in combination and still have a chance to win.  But, 3 of our main players making 1 of 24 completely uncontested 3's (40% of our total shot attempts), guarantees a loss, irrespective of any other factor.

Truthfully, I've never witnessed anything like it before. Did they not have a pregame shoot-around?  Did Matt and Luke feel disrespected by the time slot they gave us or the amount of time they gave us, so they cancelled the shoot-around? Why didn't they at least return to the court early from the halftime break and get some extra shooting in? Nothing they talked about in the the locker room was as important as even 1 of those guys finding his shot.     

[mj]

Can someone explain what's up with Parker Hazen? Overmatched?

[vu72]

Can someone explain what's up with Parker Hazen? Overmatched?

I was just thinking the same thing.  In a game like last night, why in the world would he be essentially the very end of the bench (played 3 minutes) after being a starter for the first several games. He has now scored 20 points in 13 games after starting 10 of them.  Have to wonder about how he is being coached as his confidence has got to be very low at this point.

A few other thoughts:  Kiser seems only good for about 15 minutes a game--played 15 last night and is averaging 16.8.  We will need more from him.  Is he not in shape?  Not sure I have ever seen a guy foul out in 8 minutes as Linnsen did.  Finally, we committed 31 fouls to their 17.  Home cookin or our being a step slow feeling sorry for ourselves after the Burton news?

This could be a very long season.  Hopefully having Tevonn back will bring out the best in our team.

[Pgmado]

Did Matt and Luke feel disrespected by the time slot they gave us or the amount of time they gave us, so they cancelled the shoot-around?

That's funny.

[VULB#62]

My concern is whether we are bringing Tevonn back too soon to try to stem the tide and then because he is not fully recovered he has a relapse after a game or two and we lose him for the remainder of the season.

[VU2014]

Can someone explain what's up with Parker Hazen? Overmatched?

I think I know what happened to Parker...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0ZKxrzNl7k&t=68s

[covufan]

Looking at the stats of this game, the fouls and 3-pt shots (amount and shooting %) stand out.  If we hit a few more 3's, we are in this game.  We need to work on the fouls, as we can't compete in the MVC getting this many fouls.

I look at T-Rank for rankings and analysis. 

http://barttorvik.com/team.php?team=Valparaiso

They give a game score for each game.  ESPN's BPI used to do the same thing, but no longer. 

Our game score for last night was 7, out of 100.  UC-Riverside scored an 88.  I'm sure that one of the more frustrating parts of coaching is how to get these young men to play to an above average level every night.  Impossible to do, but how do they avoid the games like last night? 

By comparison, our game scores for Purdue, Ball State and Northwestern were 17, 62 and 3, respectively.  Our opponents were 99, 54 and 100.  The game scores can adjust slightly after future games. 

[valpotx]

Many of the fouls were over the last 4:00, so that is a bit misleading.  It was an even game as far as fouls committed, until we were using that strategy.

[VU2014]

Many of the fouls were over the last 4:00, so that is a bit misleading.  It was an even game as far as fouls committed, until we were using that strategy.

It felt like UCR was getting the hometown whistle in that 1st half... Those refs were pretty bad. I'm not saying that made the difference in that pitiful performance but it felt like the refs were more friendly to UCR. The over the back call on Golder during the 1st half was an absolute joke. I also have to say that UCR's broadcasters were clowns. I just listened to Todd and Aaron during the 2nd half for most of the second half.

[valpotx]

Let's not be too rough on their production value.  They had 450 fans there, which is around their average...

[agibson]

Let's not be too rough on their production value.  They had 450 fans there, which is around their average...

It seems pretty clear they didn't expect many video clients.

Maybe the video operator was also watching his kids or something, but even if it was a volunteer, pointing the camera at the correct half of the court seems a pretty low bar. They missed an entire (successful!) VU possession at one point.

But, the price was right.

[VU2014]

https://twitter.com/PostTribSports/status/943985955052118016

http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/post-tribune/sports/ct-ptb-mens-basketball-valparaiso-california-riverside-st-1222-20171221-story.html

[EddieCabot]

I guess the win over Valpo wasn't enough for Riverside's coach to keep his job.

http://collegebasketball.nbcsports.com/2018/01/01/uc-riverside-parts-way-with-cutts/

[bbtds]

I guess the win over Valpo wasn't enough for Riverside's coach to keep his job.

http://collegebasketball.nbcsports.com/2018/01/01/uc-riverside-parts-way-with-cutts/

I think it was the frustrating inconsistency that finally did in Cutts. Big wins AND big losses but an overall losing record after many seasons.