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

[oklahomamick]

As bad as our team is....the coaching staff is not much better....

How does McMillan not get more playing time?

No press with 2 minutes to go?

Set pieces out of timeouts are bad.  Do we get open looks from set plays?

Not very disciplined....it has been discusseD....

[NativeCheesehead]

Poor performance. Half empty building. Less than 100 students.  Valpo Basketball 2018 y'all.

[bigmosmithfan1]

This team is getting worse, not better. This is not just on the players, folks.

[valpolaw]

Can you really blame the students for not wanting to watch the team get embarrassed? 

I really hope Valpo doesn't get last the first year in the mvc but it's not looking pretty

[a3uge]

I like how people on here complain about crowds and students, like it's somehow their fault for not wanting to see a 2 hour long free throw contest.

[VUGrad1314]

I like how people on here complain about crowds and students, like it's somehow their fault for not wanting to see a 2 hour long free throw contest.

You mean a two hour free throw clank-fest.

[a3uge]

Informal fan poll: Have we embarrassed our new conference with our performance so far ?

How would we have embarrassed the league? We did our part in the OOC and helped the league's RPI.

[bigmosmithfan1]

Perfect encapsulation of the season so far. Evansville gifts us a potential 4-point play to get back in the game... and one of our guards clanks the free throw. There is no excuse for a *guard* ever being less than deadly at the FT line... ever.

[a3uge]

I like how people on here complain about crowds and students, like it's somehow their fault for not wanting to see a 2 hour long free throw contest.

You mean a two hour free throw clank-fest.

Even if Valpo makes 8 more free throws, it's still a terrible way to spend 2 hours. College basketball is virtually unwatchable at this point.

[nkvu]

Well, we continue to suck.

All I can say.

[VUGrad1314]

I like how people on here complain about crowds and students, like it's somehow their fault for not wanting to see a 2 hour long free throw contest.

You mean a two hour free throw clank-fest.

Even if Valpo makes 8 more free throws, it's still a terrible way to spend 2 hours. College basketball is virtually unwatchable at this point.

Yeah senseless turnovers and  a complete inability to score can make for some really tough viewing.

[mj]

2008-2009 was the worst season of Valpo basketball I have ever watched. This season is giving it a run for the money.

In 08-09 we had Cory Johnson sitting out his transfer year and then hit the jackpot with Wood and Rowdy the following year.

I'm not seeing where the cavalry is coming next year...

[VUGrad1314]

Informal fan poll: Have we embarrassed our new conference with our performance so far ?

How would we have embarrassed the league? We did our part in the OOC and helped the league's RPI.

Not sure how much we really helped with the two massive national TV beatings we took and the loss to Riverside.

[VU2014]

Take away Bradford's jersey and don't give it back to him till he makes 200 free throws. He doesn't deserve any minutes. Quite frankly he doesn't deserve a scholarship for the sport of basketball.

[oklahomamick]

I said the same last year.  I didn't need the the extra year and patience....I got burned last year for being less harsh on Bradford last year.  Glad you guys came around and saw it my way.

[M]

Bradford now can't pass or shoot. Bakari only scores in garbage time. Our head coach is soft and has no fire.

Someone tell me about The Process.  Because what I see out there is not going to make us a better team moving forward.

How the hell is Mileek McMillan sitting on the bench nearly the entire second half? 4-4 for the game on 3s. Had a real nice athletic rebound in that first half. Let the kid develop. 

Why do our coaches half to pow wow at every timeout. Head coach, make a damn decision.

A team takes on the personality of its head coach. Lottich shows ZERO passion out there. ZERO fire or intensity. He's not been willing to fight for the players (see Max having to earn his own technical - although I do think that ref was looking for any reason to give one out there).

Golder didn't make a jump shot in warmups or the game. Attack the rim or give it and go set a screen. Speaking of warm ups...I'm so tired of seeing our guys go at 12% through their shooting lines and taking shots they don't take in a game. I know today they were in the locker room until there was a minute left before the game and before the half but this happens every game. I've never picked Valpo to lose, but I'm done picking them to win until I'm given a reason to believe again.

[Chairback]

I hate to say this but our coaching is not there.  Even the casual fan can tell you we don't know what we are doing on offense and it's not getting better.

How does McMillian not play more in the 2nd half?  Also, Hazen should start to get minutes over Max.

I think the staff needs to have a heart to heart with Bradford and tell him to transfer.  What is his shooting %?  Has to be 20%ish if that.

 

[valpopal]

1) Practice should be cancelled until the team shows up for warmups at the next game. Obviously, whatever is being done in practice now isn't working.


2) Bradford should be required to imitate Helm's free throw technique every time he steps to the foul line. I don't care if he feels uncomfortable at first and misses some shots, he's already missing the shots with his own style of shooting.


3) I have said it before, Lottich is too passive with the officials. The terrible foul call on Joseph followed by the quick technical foul call should have been enough to trigger Lottich. Hell, maybe he would even ignite the team by showing them he has their backs.


4) The attendance was terrible (2,219: smallest home crowd all season), even against a fellow Indiana team that was predicted to be a possible conference rival that would draw a good crowd. Also, the student body should be ashamed of themselves for their absence. (I'm tired of hearing excuses.) Also, the move to the MVC was supposed to create greater attendance, but that has not happened, and this should cause some serious introspection in Athletics.

[VUGrad1314]

I keep thinking we've hit our bottom and it just gets worse. I hope we start to come back up soon.

[truth219]

I have season tickets so i am an invested fan. Our team is bad, both coaches and players. However, i think Martin Linssen is my favorite. He has passion and always gives 100%

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk

[VU2014]

This team can't stop tripping over its own feet. Every time they make a great play them do something stupid like turn the ball over or give up an easy lay in the post by someone missing an assignment on the defensive end.

Coaches need to reevaluate lineups and who they are giving minutes to. I know they are much smarter then me but some of this is common sense and seems like stubbornness.

There are some bright spot. Smits is slowly starting look like he can be an effective low post scorer. Bakari is knocking down 3s. Golder can energy spark off the bench. Sorolla shows glimpses of strong defense. But much of the roster we're not getting enough from. Tevonn has been forced into the #1 option and it hasn't gone well. Max isn't a bad player but we are force to rely on him because we can't get any production Micah Bradford. Max is ideally a glue guy and not someone you want playing 30 minutes a game. You can't play Parker. You shouldn't play Bradford but we're forced to because he's the only option. John Kiser is another glue guy but isn't a strong offensive player and is still only a Sophomore. Mileek McMillan has looked good in spurts and was 4-5 from 3 and somehow only got 12 minutes. Linssen brings it but he can't keep himself out of foul trouble more then half the time.

There is a talent gap between our team and most other MVC teams. Most of our impact talent is underclassmen and the guy we hope to play superman in Tevonn isn't a great #1 scoring option. We have a talent issue and an experience issue. And it's fair game to start questioning the coaches on minutes distributions for certain player, imo. This team misses Joe Burton more then ever. He wouldn't turn us into a 1st place team but he could pushed Tevonn to a #2 or #3 some nights and take the pressure off of him.

This season is just so frustrating for so many reasons.

[talksalot]

I don't ever recall The Crusader's birthday ever being commentated before, but talksalot explained that it is his/her/it's 77th. That's special!

some discussion if it was 77 or 78... the Uhlan became the Crusader rather quietly at the beginning of WWII.

We've done this a few times... Benny the Bull came a few years ago...we had Cake eating contests... guess not in the marketing "plan".  Thanks to the Rolling Sounds Audio for the birthday song mix...

[mj]

We don't really have a team, per se, rather than a collection of individuals out there on the court.

As far as future pieces of the puzzle, I like what I've seen from Mileek. Linssen has had flashes of being good. Golder is a more athletic Howard Little. Evelyn reminds me of Lavonty Dorety. Smits has improved but still has major work left. Sorolla seems to have stalled. Hazen appears to be on the dark side of the moon. And Kiser, although he's a grinder, should be the 9th man on most teams. I'm seeing a lot of "meh" on the roster.

This program is in some major trouble. We need talent and we need it to gel together fast. Otherwise we're looking at the MVC cellar for a few years.

[talksalot]

OK... is there ANYONE who wants to start the conversation about the late-night game coming up on Saturday against 3 big time scorers... who can shoot from anywhere...

[VUGrad1314]

You mean set the  over\under on how badly we'll get whipped? It IS a national TV game after all... Just try to keep it under 20... Please...