Game #25 - Saturday Feb 3 7pm SIU Arena - at Southern Illinois on ESPN3

[nkvu]

Home sick

That's a shame. He'd been playing better the last couple of games.

[VU2014]

Home sick

Wait really? Coach Gore said he was sick and was with his parents but I thought it was the flu or something. Not a good sign if he's getting home sick.

[VULB#62]

Home sick

Or cynicism/sarcasm, M?

[valpopal]

Our FTs are absolutely the reason we lost, regardless of the disparity.  We went 3/8 down the stretch, and if we would have made 2 of those, it is a completely different finish, since we still would have been leading until the last minute.

Yes, and SIU was bad at the free throw line as well, missing 10 of them, but they got a hell of a lot more chances (more than twice as many)! In addition, the number of fouls called against our big guys made them more tentative inside. Therefore, I agree with Lottich that the disparity was the main difference.

[valporun]

Micah was back in Valpo battling an illness. If Mom and Dad were there to nurse him back to health, fine, but I'm thinking "home sick" was a bad choice of word usage to say why Micah wasn't in Carbondale tonight.

[nkvu]

I'm thinking that the athletic department should conduct a class on avoiding communicable diseases. Maybe they could issue liter bottles of hand sanitizer and make use of surgical masks by scholarship athletes mandatory.

[VUGrad1314]

Even with a major free throw disparity it is extremely difficult to pin a loss on the officials when the team doesn't execute. When you turn it over  17 times and shoot less than 50% from the line you should expect to lose, especially on the road. Playing four on five on offense with Kiser in doesn't help. Playing four on five on defense with Smits in the game against a big like Pippen who can take advantage of the matchup  doesn't help, especially when he doesn't rebound. The timeout plays where we got nothing didn't help. Missed layups, silly fouls, and blown defensive assignments, all of which happened in crunch time, don't help. Some of that is coaching, some of that is lack of  on-court leadership, some of that is growing pains, but to blame any single factor is asinine.

It's clear that inexperience and unfamiliarity are our biggest hindrances right now. The good news is that both of those are fixable in 1-2 years' time or so. We have talent but it's too specialized, resulting in capable but flawed and  limited players (Smits Sorolla Kiser  and to an extent Joseph and Golder) and players who were miscast in their given roles (Walker Joseph Bradford Evelyn Hazen at the start of the year). You can get away with that in the HL, but not in the Valley.

Fortunately, we are working on the problem: Fazekas can be our go-to scorer and create driving lanes as defenses have to respect his jumpshot, Evelyn, Freeman-Liberty, Golder, McMillan, and the bigs will all benefit from this as they will get better looks inside and out. Sackey looks like the point guard we need to put the ball where it needs to go, generating better looks in more comfortable spots for everyone. It could also lead to moving Evelyn off the  ball where I think he can do some special things. I think he's even more offensively gifted than Walker.

Natural growth from everyone  and better personnel who fit well with our players' strengths should lead to better days ahead. I'm not saying we're going to definitely win the Valley we may not even avoid the Play-in games  but we'll be better than we are now, we'll win more conference games, and we'll finish higher than 10th that's for sure. Go Valpo!

[NativeCheesehead]

I'm as bullish as most on Mileek's long term future. But, bad refs or not, if you can't stay on the floor, you can't help your team.

[vu72]

The support for my comment about playing like garbage is: missing a ton of free throws. I didn't look at the percentage but it had to be well under 50%. Smits played 21 minutes and doesn't get 1 rebound. How is that possible when you're 7 foot?

Marty plays 1 min and gets two fouls. Kiser plays 21 minutes and no points. I don't remember the last time he scored. I love his hustle but he brings nothing on the offensive side.

Turnovers killed us. We had to have 20 or more.

Poor play calling out of timeouts is on Lottich.

We should shoot better on free throws but we didn't "miss a ton of free throws." You can't miss a ton when you only get 11! We were 5-11, and I already suggested that Smits was iced by the 15 minute wait while everyone was stunned by the injured cheerleader. It wasn't how many free throws we missed, it was how few we got to take (11 versus 24). Even if we shot a good 73% (8-11), that would be only 3 more points. Also, it is hard to be aggressive and get rebounds when you have four fouls and the officials can't be trusted. Finally, you obviously did not read my post to which you are responding: I noted we had 17 turnovers not "20 or more."

I was going to make the same comment.  People go off with not even considering the facts or the reality of the situation.

[M]

Home sick and homesick are two different things. Before you goofballs tell me to reconsider my words maybe try reading them. 🤷‍♂️

[vu72]

FT aren't on coach, end of story.

They absolutely are, when this happens over and over again with zero improvement and has now cost us at least three games this season. This is the problem with AAU ball replacing h.s. basketball as the preferred method for evaluating talent -- there is only priority put on athleticism and scoring, less on other skills, and FT shooting is barely evaluated or valued at all.

It is absolutely INSANE that a college coach in this day and age, with all of the reams of data and advanced metrics available to them, cannot figure out the critical importance that FTs play in increasing win percentage/likelihood, and somehow do not absolutely insist that their players shoot 70 percent or better in order to see the floor (which is perfectly reasonable ask for any h.s. player, much less a guy playing D-1 ball).

So let's not let the facts get in the way.  Sure, we are bad at free throw shooting but it goes with the territory of college basketball.  So would the great Homer Drew or Bryce Drew do better?  Let's travel back in time but before remember that as of right now we are shooting 68.4% from the line.  Ex Micah Bradford we are shooting 70.6% but let's stick with 68.4%

So let's look at a few Homer Drew teams:

08-09  61.2%

10-11  66.5%

How about Bryce Drew teams:

14-15  67.5%

On to Matt Lottich (one complete season)

16-17  77.5%

Reality gets in the way of rants all to frequently for some of us!

[M]

So since we've been bad at free throws in the past we should be content with our current poor performances at the line?

Seems the same could probably said about our turnovers (don't have numbers, just going off memory).

Improve turnovers (will come with experience, I hope) and improve shooting (ft and 3pt) and that'll improve the winning percentage! Easy peasy

[vu72]

So since we've been bad at free throws in the past we should be content with our current poor performances at the line?

Seems the same could probably said about our turnovers (don't have numbers, just going off memory).

Improve turnovers (will come with experience, I hope) and improve shooting (ft and 3pt) and that'll improve the winning percentage! Easy peasy

Didn't say that.  Some were blaming Coach Lottich like he was the one shooting.  Obviously his team percentage last year was better then any Bryce team.  Different players, different skills.  Can they do better?  Let's hope so and experience playing in front of rabid fans will also help as they mature.

[valpo64]

We got beat by a veteran team playing at home against one of the youngest teams in the Country.  Our youthfulness and inexperience and inability to close out a close game on the road really showed last night.

[valpopal]

Even with a major free throw disparity it is extremely difficult to pin a loss on the officials when the team doesn't execute. When you turn it over  17 times and shoot less than 50% from the line you should expect to lose, especially on the road.

Valpo matched or did better than SIU on just about every category: field goal percentage, 3-point shooting, rebounds, points off turnovers, 2nd chance points, etc. If I told you before the game this would be the case, you'd probably take it and like our chances. They executed, not perfectly, but well enough to win. Valpo did have 17 turnovers, but they still out-scored SIU on points off turnovers 13-11 and they had the same amount of shots taken (both were 24-49). So, the turnovers didn't hurt as much as you would expect.


Also, yes, Valpo shot poorly from the free throw line, but so did SIU (they missed 10). The only disparity in the stats is the number of free throws (SIU 24, Valpo 11), and we all saw the phantom fouls on replays that even the SIU broadcasters couldn't believe were called. I usually don't like pointing to poor officiating as an excuse for a loss, but there are times when it cannot be denied that the disparity in calls was the difference in the game. SIU was playing a home game in front of a packed and energetic arena against a new team in the conference, whose coach hasn't yet earned the respect of the officials, while their coach was going for his 300th win, and I believe the refs certainly were influenced subconsciously by the situation. As Lottich said: "The game came down to SIU getting so many free throws. They went to the line 24 times, we went only 11 times."

[VU2014]

Micah's Dad.

https://twitter.com/barrybradford3/status/960168387824570371
https://twitter.com/NWIOren/status/960173540090826752

[nkvu]

I wonder if the impact of having six more turnovers isn't so much that we still scored more off theirs than they did off ours, but rather that we missed six more opportunities to score.  For a somewhat offensively challenged team, it hurts to lose scoring opportunities. Had we converted half of them, the game would have been tighter at the end and we wouldn't have had to foul thereby reducing the free throw disparity. Point is that turnovers not only give the other team more chances to score, they also reduce the number of chances we get.

Just a thought.

[valpo84]

Turnovers were 14 in 1st half, only 3 in 2d.

Some of you act like they don't know or haven't done anything about FT shooting.  They know. Would you like the coaching staff to print out their practice plans and individual workout plans for you. 

Frankly, they had their chances and didn't win.  They did not execute.  Joseph had a good lay up look and missed. But there was bemoaning on here for two weeks that they weren't competing, well they competed against the 2d place team in a packed, big house.  This is what we wanted by moving up.  I'm proud of their effort last night in the face of 8 on 5.  Some cheered Matt for going zone at the end of the game Wednesday, now we complain he didn't go man. 

And as to Smits rebounding, he was guarding Pippen, what was he supposed to rebound?  Pippin was like 9 of 10 at one point.  I like Pippen.  He is a player unlike any we have seen in HL during past years. 

Last night was the improvement we have been asking for.  and, Mark LaBarbera was at last night's game and hopefully he has a letter heading to MVC HQ today about the officiating.

Finally, hope the cheerleader is doing ok this morning, any word.

[FieldGoodie05]

Valpo84 makes a solid point, we knew after losing Joe this was going to be a bigger rebuilding year than planned.

Lost in our frustration (I still contend that Smits is maddeningly bad at defense/rebounds) is the improvement.  Was this the first MVC road game we led for substantial minutes?  Heck, probably the only one we were really in.  UNI was NOT a game.  Bradley was tight in the first half.

I'm just hoping we improve...

[Just Sayin]

Oh they played a really good game, worked their hearts out, played fundamental team basketball. Give these guys a break. Too bad they lost.
Not a bandwagon fan here.

[VUGrad1314]

Indiana State we led at half and even into the second half fairly late until Barnes went off Bradley we actually outscored after spotting them 11 points and Missouri State we led most of the way and were right there until Alize Johnson took over.

[underdawg]

Ugly game for both teams led to even game through 38 plus minutes--big difference besides FTs was your Bigs not being able to stop Pippen the whole game (9-11 from field)--just the opposite of what happened in your win at Valpo--you'll knock someone out in the tourney--hope it's not us

[nkvu]

When we won against this team Bradford had six assists vs one turnover and was two of four shooting three pointers. His ability to dribble penetrate and dish to Sorolla for easy scores was a big reason we won. I recall several times we had turnovers last night trying to get the ball to our bigs. This may be due to SIU adjustments in defending, but we may have missed Bradford in this game more than we realized at the time.

Having a point that can penetrate and dish seems to make a big difference to our offense. Bakari still hasn't shown that consistent ability to me as a point, though he has other strengths that make me think that he may be better as a 2 rather than a 1.  Next year if Bradford can correct his shooting problems he and the new kid might give us the kind of point play that would open up some things both for our shooters and our bigs, with Bakari and the other new kid giving us scoring punch from the 2.

Just a thought.

[crusadermoe]

I frankly didn't see the game.  Looking at the score on the road I don't get the meanness and griping.     

SIU is 7-4.  We beat them at home by a bunch.  They beat us on the road in the last two minutes while playing against a huge crowd and apparently a big foul discrepancy. 

I agree with VU72 that this board is full of bandwagoners.  Stop kicking them and their coach when they are down.  They are trending up.     

[valpo64]

Valpopal and others, since when do coaches have to "earn the respect of the officials" and what does that mean?  Also, just how does the "respect" thing make a difference in a game?