Game #22 - Wednesday Jan 24 7pm ARC - Evansville on ESPN3

[VU2014]

We need a win.

please send us on a winning streak. Please & thank you. Amen.

[M]

🙏

I hate slow boring basketball. It's hard to believe that can be a thing with a shot clock. Play faster, play harder, play smarter.

[VU2014]

Play faster

Very doable with this next opponent. E-ville is fast pace and loves to jack up 3s but it could be a blood bath if they have a hot shooting night. If its one those nights for E-ville it might be tough for us to keep up with our lack of offensive firepower with this team.

I'm predicting we get the win on Wednesday with good perimeter defense slowing their guards down.

[talksalot]

Valpo is favored by 5 or 2 depending on the line...

This is a team that lost 104 to 40 at Cameron Indoor...

NOV 10  FRI    296  Arkansas State 5-13 W 77 - 63
2 NOV 13 MON    312  North Carolina Central 7-9 W 68 - 55

Cancun Challenge - Evansville, IN
3 NOV 16 THU    238  Southeast Missouri 8-11 W 66 - 50
4 NOV 18 SAT    303  Binghamton 8-11 W 66 - 61


Cancun Challenge (Riviera) - Cancun, Mexico
5 NOV 21 TUE  CBSSN vs 118   Fresno State 12-6 W 59 - 57
6 NOV 22 WED  CBSSN vs 156  Louisiana Tech 10-9 L 61 - 63


MVC/MWC Challenge - Albuquerque, NM
7 NOV 29 WED  MWN @ 155   New Mexico 9-11 L 59 - 78


8 DEC 2 SAT       Non Div I - Oakland City  W 98 - 56 
9 DEC 5 TUE   @ 188   Bowling Green 10-7 W 91 - 76
10 DEC 9 SAT    123   Canisius 13-8 W 65 - 58
11 DEC 16 SAT    217   Austin Peay 8-10 W 78 - 74
13 DEC 20 WED   1  Duke 17-2  L  40-104

and then conference, their two wins are at the Ford Center over Bradley 68-44 and 64-55 over Missouri State; they are on a 3-game losing streak, @ Drake Home to Indiana State and @Bradley

0 Ryan Taylor G 6-6 195 R-Jr. Gary, Ind. / St. John's Northwestern Military
1 Marty Hill G 6-5 180 Jr. Brooklyn Park, Minn. / Champlin Park
5 Solomon Hainna F 6-6 195 Sr. Inglewood, Calif. / Palisades Charter
10 Evan Kuhlman F 6-8 220 Fr. Liberty Township, Ohio / Lakota East
12 Dru Smith G 6-3 190 So. Evansville, Ind. / Reitz
14 Dainius Chatkevicius F 6-9 240 Jr. Klaipeda, Lithuania / West Oaks Academy
15 Dalen Traore C 6-9 230 Sr. Ivory Coast / Northwood Temple Academy
20 Jared Chestnut G 6-2 175 Sr. Evansville, Ind. / Harrison
25 Duane Gibson G 6-3 195 R-Sr. Cleveland, Ohio / Villa Angela-St. Joseph
30 Noah Frederking G 6-4 210 Fr. Okawville, Ill. / Okawville
33 K.J. Riley G 6-5 180 So. Bronx, N.Y. / Howard (Texas) College
35 John Hall F 6-7 215 Rf. Philadelphia, Pa. / Standard of Excellence Basketball Academy
50 Blake Simmons G/F 6-5 210 R-Sr. Newburgh, Ind. / Castle

## Player gp-gs min avg fg-fga fg% 3fg-fga 3fg% ft-fta ft% off def tot avg pf dq a to blk stl pts avg
00 Taylor, Ryan 14-14 497 35.5 99-242 . 4 0 9 34-89 . 3 8 2 43-50 . 8 6 0 6 36 42 3.0 32 0 16 31 1 9 275 19.6
50 Simmons, Blake 20-20 702 35.1 83-177 . 4 6 9 39-82 . 4 7 6 32-41 . 7 8 0 9 57 66 3.3 36 1 41 46 9 17 237 11.9
12 Smith, Dru 17-17 522 30.7 75-128 . 5 8 6 20-42 . 4 7 6 54-64 . 8 4 4 8 49 57 3.4 47 1 83 49 7 39 224 13.2
33 Riley, K.J. 21-9 498 23.7 40-82 . 4 8 8 0-4 . 0 0 0 80-105 . 7 6 2 9 67 76 3.6 43 1 60 46 5 17 160 7.6
14 Chatkevicius, Dainiu 21-9 397 18.9 48-87 . 5 5 2 0-0 . 0 0 0 18-32 . 5 6 3 34 81 115 5.5 39 0 2 19 23 5 114 5.4
30 Frederking, Noah 21-8 395 18.8 36-90 . 4 0 0 18-43 . 4 1 9 17-20 . 8 5 0 8 26 34 1.6 13 0 19 20 0 7 107 5.1
25 Gibson, Duane 14-12 334 23.9 40-92 . 4 3 5 0-0 . 0 0 0 16-27 . 5 9 3 4 40 44 3.1 44 3 32 36 7 18 96 6.9
15 Traore, Dalen 21-12 269 12.8 14-39 . 3 5 9 0-1 . 0 0 0 32-41 . 7 8 0 23 38 61 2.9 38 1 5 11 3 3 60 2.9
35 Hall, John 21-2 272 13.0 26-64 . 4 0 6 1-4 . 2 5 0 6-9 . 6 6 7 20 40 60 2.9 35 0 9 11 4 3 59 2.8
10 Kuhlman, Evan 14-2 172 12.3 13-30 . 4 3 3 4-12 . 3 3 3 4-4 1.000 4 17 21 1.5 13 0 5 3 2 1 34 2.4
01 Hill, Marty 9-0 127 14.1 13-36 . 3 6 1 6-11 . 5 4 5 1-2 . 5 0 0 8 15 23 2.6 7 0 9 7 0 3 33 3.7
05 Hainna, Solomon 3-0 42 14.0 1-4 . 2 5 0 0-1 . 0 0 0 10-14 . 7 1 4 2 4 6 2.0 7 0 2 2 0 2 12 4.0
Team 39 50 89 14
Total.......... 21 4227 488-1071 . 4 5 6 122-289 . 4 2 2 313-409 . 7 6 5 174 520 694 33.0 354 7 283 295 61 124 1411 67.2
Opponents...... 21 4225 489-1126 . 4 3 4 164-470 . 3 4 9 225-327 . 6 8 8 180 462 642 30.6 406 9 281 295 85 163 1367 65.1

PEORIA, Ill. – University of Evansville senior Blake Simmons became the 49th player in program history to reach the 1000-point mark as the Purple Aces were defeated by Bradley, 66-53, on Saturday evening inside Carver Arena.
 
Simmons led UE (12-9, 2-6 MVC) with 12 points, all from long range.  Ryan Taylor, who was held scoreless in the first half, finished with 10 in the second frame.  Dru Smith scored nine.
Box Score (PDF)
"We did not get off to the start that we wanted, but our guys fought back and I give them credit," Aces head coach Marty Simmons said.  "We cut it close near the end of the first half, but Bradley had a good run to finish the half and also got off to a good start in the second half.  Our guys fought back, but I do not think our decision-making was good down the stretch.  It was tough, hard-fought game on both sides."
 
Four Braves (14-7, 4-4 MVC) scored double figures, led by a 17-point game from Darrell Brown.  Donte Thomas notched 13 points and 12 boards.
 
Bradley got the early jump on the Aces, scoring the first five points of the game.  K.J. Riley got UE on the board with a pair of free throws before the Braves punched right back.  An and-one by Elijah Childs spearheaded a 9-0 run as the Braves capped it off with a pair of triples to open up a 14-2 advantage.  Evansville missed its first four shots while Bradley opened the game at 4-for-7.
 
After a timeout, Blake Simmons found Dainius Chatkevicius for a layup for the Aces' first field goal of the night.  Simmons then knocked down a three a minute later to make to get UE within seven at 14-7.  A 7-0 run was finished off with a Dru Smith bucket as the Aces got within five.  The UE defense held Bradley to 1 of its next 8 from the field following their hot start.
 
A pair of BU shots saw them retake a 9-point lead at 20-11 midway through the half before Noah Frederking found Chatkevicius cutting to the basket for an and-one.  Simmons hit a triple on the next trip down the floor to make it a 20-17 game and with just over five minutes remaining in the period, John Hall connected on a basket to cut the Bradley lead to just one.
 
The 1000th point of Simmons career was a big one as it countered the Braves 3-point possession making it a 26-25 game heading into the final four minutes of the half.  From there, the Braves were able to finish the period on a 10-0 run as Donte Thomas hit a three with just five ticks remaining to send the Brave into halftime up 36-25.
 
Simmons milestone was the second major one to happen for UE in the last three season at Carver Arena.  On February 23, 2016, Egidijus Mockevicius grabbed the 1,198th rebound of his career to break the program record, which was set by Dale Wise in 1961.
 
Out of the break, the Braves reeled off six in a row to open up a 42-25 lead in the first three minutes of the period.  Smith got the team on the board with a layup at the 16:48 mark before Ryan Taylor got into the scoring column.  The junior missed his first eight shots of the night, but he never gave up, knocking down three field goals in a row as part of a 14-2 run.  Smith completed the rally with a trey to make it a 44-39 game with 12:21 on the clock.
 
In the following four minutes, the Braves regained the momentum, going on a 10-2 run to see their lead grow back to 13 at 54-41.  Over that span, the Aces hit one of their four attempts while turning it over five times.  Simmons was true from downtown once again with seven minutes left to get the Aces back within 11.
 
UE continued to chip away.  With under five minutes remaining, a great shot by Taylor got the lead under ten before a pair of free throws by Smith got UE within six (56-50) as three minutes were on the clock.  UE was unable to get any closer as the Braves offense finished the game on a 10-3 run to earn a 66-53 victory.
 
BU finished the game shooting 42.6% while the Aces finished at 31.6%.  The rebounding statistic also went Bradley's way by a 41-34 final.
 
Wednesday evening will see the Aces make their first trip to Valparaiso since the school joined the Missouri Valley Conference last year.

[valpotx]

Valpo 66
Evansville 61

[VU2014]

https://twitter.com/valpoathletics/status/955526658450223104

[VU2014]

https://twitter.com/MichaelOsipoff/status/955484101259284481
https://twitter.com/MichaelOsipoff/status/955484309217038337
https://twitter.com/NWIOren/status/955484559872790534
https://twitter.com/MichaelOsipoff/status/955487432648085504

[SanityLost17]

We are 8 games into MVC play.   How does our Conference SOS compare to the rest of the league?   I notice we have played 5 games against the current top 4 teams in the conference and 2 of the remaining 3 games (Bradley/UNI) were on the road.    Just glancing at the schedule, it would appear we have a 6 game stretch here of "winnable" games.   Not saying by any means we would be favored in all 6 games, just saying we have a chance to win each of the next 6.   

Season Goals:
If I am the coaching staff, I would set a semi-realistic goal of finishing 6th.   Try to avoid the opening Thursday game of Arch Madness.  Currently we are only 2 games back of 5th.  A MVC record of 9-9 would likely get 6th place, correct?  Would require us winning our remaining home games and stealing 2 road games (ILL St., SIU, Evan., Loyola, Drake).  Or perhaps dropping 1 home game and stealing 3 on the road. 

Perhaps 8-10 is our ceiling for this season, but I would say 9-9 would be a moral victory.       

[IrishDawg]

We are 8 games into MVC play.   How does our Conference SOS compare to the rest of the league?   I notice we have played 5 games against the current top 4 teams in the conference and 2 of the remaining 3 games (Bradley/UNI) were on the road.    Just glancing at the schedule, it would appear we have a 6 game stretch here of "winnable" games.   Not saying by any means we would be favored in all 6 games, just saying we have a chance to win each of the next 6.   

Season Goals:
If I am the coaching staff, I would set a semi-realistic goal of finishing 6th.   Try to avoid the opening Thursday game of Arch Madness.  Currently we are only 2 games back of 5th.  A MVC record of 9-9 would likely get 6th place, correct?  Would require us winning our remaining home games and stealing 2 road games (ILL St., SIU, Evan., Loyola, Drake).  Or perhaps dropping 1 home game and stealing 3 on the road. 

Perhaps 8-10 is our ceiling for this season, but I would say 9-9 would be a moral victory.       

According to Kenpom, Valpo's conference SOS is #1, but there's not a huge gap between #1 and #10 because of how evenly most of the teams are rated in the conference.  FWIW, that site is projecting Valpo to finish 7-11 in league play, which along with Evansville and UNI, is projected to be the weakest records in the league.  You are correct that a 9-9 record will likely finish 5th or 6th, based on the site's projections.

[crusadermoe]

Yep, get the 6th seed or better.   That's a genuine difference and reward vs. #7.    Good point about the schedule.  I had thought of that in playing MSU twice already.   Our two home losses were Loyola and MSU so I am feeling just a tiny bit better.   

[SanityLost17]

Yep, get the 6th seed or better.   That's a genuine difference and reward vs. #7.    Good point about the schedule.  I had thought of that in playing MSU twice already.   Our two home losses were Loyola and MSU so I am feeling just a tiny bit better.

Yes, it would appear that all of our home games are winnable considering we have already played the top 3 teams at home. Also, there are a few road games that on paper appear to be steal-able.  It is not out of the question for us to get to 9-9 although 8-10 is more likely and 7-11 is the probable outcome.  I would be super happy with a 9-9 finish.  Would show that we improved in the 2nd half of conference play and would be a good spring board to the future.   

Side Note ---   Does anybody else remember that at the start of the season Tevonn pretty much nailed 70% of his pull up jumpers?  At this point of the season I can't remember the last time he hit one.   I mean seriously, he just was DRAINING them to start the season.  Now they look awful.   If this team wants a chance at 9-9 he is going to have to start hitting his pull up jump shots as that appears to be his signature shot when he is playing well.  Hitting a few of those opens up opportunities at easier drives to the basket as defenders have to look for it.     
   

[M]

He doesn't have nearly as much space now as he did earlier in the season when he was hitting all those jumpers.  Hopefully the staff can draw up some sets to get him a little more space with the ball.

[crusadermoe]

You're right.  Tighter coverage is probably the biggest factor.

I wonder if he just worked out like a mad man in pre-season and prior, but was taken down a notch physically due to the mono.   You never get the consistent high intensity work outs again during a season due to travel & classes and such.   It's like a football player coming back late in a season.  The team just doesn't run and train as hard late in the season.

You hope NBA has some film on him from early games when he was so dominant while healthy.

[VU2014]

https://twitter.com/MichaelOsipoff/status/955917848643362817
https://twitter.com/MichaelOsipoff/status/955918882589630466

[covufan]

We really need a win, and to find those winning combinations on the court.

Valpo   72
EK       62

[VU2014]

Rumor is this highlight package took till January 21 to make because they did have enough highlights to string together  But honestly look who most of these highlights are against.... North Park, Trinity and Southern Utah... I see saw one from the NU blowout.

https://twitter.com/valpoathletics/status/955949541974568963

[valpo64]

Does anyone really care about who and what is on the video highlights?   it does nothing for me.

[VU2014]

Rivalry renewed: Evansville and Valparaiso to continue long-standing history
Pat Hickey, pat.hickey@courierpress.com
Jan. 23, 2018

http://www.courierpress.com/story/sports/college/evansville/2018/01/23/rivalry-renewed-evansville-and-valparaiso-continue-long-standing-history/1059154001/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

https://twitter.com/courierpress/status/955941492576550912

[VU2014]

Michigan City grad Ryan Taylor 'one of best scorers in country' for Evansville
Michael Osipoff
Post-Tribune
Jan 23, 2018

http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/post-tribune/sports/ct-ptb-mens-basketball-valparaiso-evansville-ryan-taylor-st-0124-20180123-story.html

https://twitter.com/MichaelOsipoff/status/955982065945726982

[bbtds]

North Park, Trinity and Southern Utah...

Good thing these weren't road games.....the team would have been in Cedar City when they should have been in Logan.

[VU2014]

A video preview of Marty Simmons talking about Valpo and the players thoughts on the ARC. Marty has some nice things to say about the Valpo fan-base.

https://twitter.com/Valpo_Hoops/status/956028231983026179

https://twitter.com/UEAthletics/status/955978597231136768

[Jordan]

Very doable with this next opponent. E-ville is fast pace and loves to jack up 3s but it could be a blood bath if they have a hot shooting night. If its one those nights for E-ville it might be tough for us to keep up with our lack of offensive firepower with this team.

UE is the 344th fastest in the nation, aka the 7th slowest offensively. This looks like another MVC grinder. Besides the 39 point outburst in the final 10 vs UNI, 11 of the last 12 "quarters" from Valpo offensively have been less than 18 points. Many less than 15. They will need to make some jumpers tonight against the pack line style D of UE.

[VU2014]

Fast was the wrong choice of words but their a good 3 point shooting team. If UE has a hot shooting night it will be a rough night. I just don't see us having the offensive firepower on this team to rack up enough points with a team that is having a strong shooting night. Valpo needs to play strong D. If this game starts to get away from Valpo. Coach Lottich needs to go zone earlier and go to a smaller lineup.

[talksalot]

26-degrees and partly cloudy and light winds.

Staff/Faculty Appreciation Night

Foam Finger Night

running out of excuses....   Hope for a good crowd...

[bbtds]

Evansville  63
Valpo   59