Game #27 - Sunday Feb 11 3pm ARC - vs Illinois State on ESPNU

[IndyEIT777]

Max was the best player for Valpo today. Really pleased with his rebounding effort as well as taking good shots today. Was very frustrated with the team's first 10 minutes of the 2nd half when we could extend our leadatabase past 4. That said, glad to see we out played ISU in terms of physicality today. Just hoping we can not get completely blown out Wednesday.

[VU2014]

Strong 2nd half. Great effort today. They cleaned up some things at halftime. You can slowly see this team making improvements.

I wish I could say the same thing about the student section. Absolutely brutal turnout. Basketball culture in the student body is completely broken. They should be supporting this team because they fight even if it's not always pretty. #1 priority this offseason is coming up with ideas to engage the students and make them feel like this is their team and establish an expectation that they should be in the stands supporting their team.

[Just Sayin]

Progress. Now work on consistency. 

[jloose128]

EMBARRASSMENT TO ALUMNI...
I took some photos of TV screen of the student section.  I live several hours away.  I have given my last dime to the university until the student section stops embarrassing VU on TV. 

The post before mine is frightening if the students "do not know what to do."  At least stand or shout when your team is pulling away on a run for its first victory in a long time.   It tells you that very few of the CURRENT university students has watched much college basketball in their lives.  And it also says that of the ones who have, none has any leadership ability whatsoever.   Different place than I attended and Greek Life is MUCH diferent.   I will give them a break though because it is the day before Lincoln's birthday as TalksLot pointed out. 

Not everyone likes basketball. Stopping donating to the University because people many years younger than you aren't attending basketball games is a bit ridiculous.

That being said, nice win for Valpo, always great to get in the win column. I hope Evelyn keeps shooting like he did in the second half.

[valpopal]

Another student observation from our last home game. Only 8 of the 28 stood and applauded as our players were being introduced. The other 20 sat on their hands expressionless. I have never seen anything like it in the past 25 years.

The student section leader said it on Paul's podcast. They don't know what to do. The next generation was never taught the cheers or anything. I think even the students know how sad the student section has become and it has become "uncool" to sit in the student section because it's so unorganized. From what we've heard there are students sitting in other sections. This student section needs leadership, organization and a shot in the arm.

I'm holding out hope for a solid student turnout tomorrow. They have some great student perks tomorrow.
https://twitter.com/ValparaiZone/status/962524211645440000
https://twitter.com/valpoathletics/status/962469990074081281

Good thing you said you were "holding out hope" rather than holding your breath! Just pathetic!

[vu84v2]

I was doing some work and missed the game. I went to the ESPN website and found that following "headline".

Valparaiso beats short-handed Valparaiso 74-58

It is good to hear that Valpo won despite beating themselves.

[vu72]

Anybody else notice that Marty wasn't dressed for the game?  Too late to redshirt.  Wonder if he is injured. 

[VUGrad1314]

You're missing the biggest aspect of this: WE WON ON NATIONAL TV!!! Granted this Redbird team was severely shorthanded but here's what I saw:

Evelyn is getting better and gaining more confidence. He will be a force  next year. He keyed the run to seal the win.

Ditto for Golder.

Smits and Sorolla are improving defensively and as rebounders.

Team rebounding was much better today.

Offense ran really well in the second half especially. Fewer turnovers in the final 30 minutes.

Kiser's effort was great as usual. He really got after some critical loose balls.

Seniors Walker and Joseph were both excellent and were instrumental in helping us weather the storm in the second half positioning us to make the big run at the end.

Great job by Coach Lottich today  using back door cuts to get inside against the zone and for making sure VU wasn't afraid to attack the zone using our size advantage and taking advantage of the areas where Illinois State was shorthanded. Valpo's work inside set up those late threes.

Further kudos to Coach Lottich for recognizing when Golder's emotions were about to potentially get him in trouble and getting him out of the game to calm down. Failure to do so at that time  might have resulted in a game-changing technical or silly foul.

This is the kind of game that makes me believe that Coach Lottich is right that we will be a tough team come Arch Madness. We look so much better than we did at the beginning of conference play. It won't be easy, nothing in the Valley ever is, but with our remaining schedule, I think  7-11 in MVC play, a finish at or above .500 overall, and finishing outside the cellar of the conference  (maybe as high as 7th or 8th if Evansville and Indiana State cool off) are attainable goals right now. Go Valpo!

[VULB#62]

Great surprise when I went to the Valpo site. Didn't see the game.  Going only by the box score.  Our two 7 footers combined for exactly 3 rebounds (2 DRBs) in 35 minutes of play.  Kiser (leading rebounder) alone had 9 DRBs in 30 minutes.  That doesn't make sense to me unless they were boxing out to allow for our guards/fwds to come in and clean up.

[VUGrad1314]

Didn't see the game.  Going only by the box score.  Our two 7 footers combined for exactly 3 rebounds (2 DRBs) in 35 minutes of play.  Kiser (leading rebounder) alone had 9 DRBs in 30 minutes.  That doesn't make sense unless they were boxing out to allow for our guards/fwds to come in and clean up.

That is precisely what they did which is why I said they were improving as rebounders. Those box-outs weren't happening at the beginning of the year. Now they did today and we're getting rebounds. If you yourself aren't going to grab a rebound making it easier for your teammates to do so is just as good.

[bigmosmithfan1]

That was enjoyable. Great to see. Nice crowd despite the lousy student turnout. And I certainly hope that was an, ahem, "emphasis" alley oop at the end as payback for the posterization/taunting of Mileek at ISU. Seems like it was.

[vufan75]

I found it interesting that on the local Chicago ABC tv station on the 5pm news "sports segment", the Valpo game today against ISU got about a minute of coverage with highlights/replays shown. That almost never happens. Was happy to see the coverage!

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Tapatalk

[M]

How about the free throw comparisons?

[underdawg]

THANKS VALPO--yours truly the Saluki fans  

[wh]

I was doing some work and missed the game. I went to the ESPN website and found that following "headline".

Valparaiso beats short-handed Valparaiso 74-58

It is good to hear that Valpo won despite beating themselves.

If the author wants to make a cry-baby "short-handed" reference, then the title should read: Short-handed Valparaiso beats short-handed Illinois State. I can only imagine how lopsided the score would have been if Joe Burton were still playing. We also wouldn't be sitting at 4-10 right now.  Spare me the shorthanded crap. 

[vu72]

Great surprise when I went to the Valpo site. Didn't see the game.  Going only by the box score.  Our two 7 footers combined for exactly 3 rebounds (2 DRBs) in 35 minutes of play.  Kiser (leading rebounder) alone had 9 DRBs in 30 minutes. That doesn't make sense to me unless they were boxing out to allow for our guards/fwds to come in and clean up.

The bigs played a combined 21 minutes.  In the presser Kiser said that Matt had him playing the five and he was crashing the boards, as were the other guys on the court.  I suspect there is a lot of ice in use right now from both teams.  Tevonn, while in a scrum for the ball, smashed one  of their kids in the nose, then managed to somehow get the ball out to Bakari who then hit a 3. Bang/Bang play.(literally)

[VUGrad1314]

Yeah it was Bruninga. Hope he's okay. That team doesn't need any more injuries right now.

[nkvu]

How about the free throw comparisons?

For once we actually shot and made more free throws than our opponents. I think we had about 5 more made free throws. Not a huge difference. Absent that, we would have only won by what, 11? 

I wonder if the fact that they were missing 2 of their top 3 players might have influenced this. One could speculate that we might have fouled these two guys more than we did the guys playing for them and the numbers would have evened out or gone in their favor.

[vu72]

http://www.pantagraph.com/sports/college/illinois-state/turnovers-doom-redbirds-in-loss-at-valpo/article_00005fc0-ca50-5a54-aab6-a64f676b520a.html

[nkvu]

Great surprise when I went to the Valpo site. Didn't see the game.  Going only by the box score.  Our two 7 footers combined for exactly 3 rebounds (2 DRBs) in 35 minutes of play.  Kiser (leading rebounder) alone had 9 DRBs in 30 minutes. That doesn't make sense to me unless they were boxing out to allow for our guards/fwds to come in and clean up.

The bigs played a combined 21 minutes.  In the presser Kiser said that Matt had him playing the five and he was crashing the boards, as were the other guys on the court.  I suspect there is a lot of ice in use right now from both teams.  Tevonn, while in a scrum for the ball, smashed one  of their kids in the nose, then managed to somehow get the ball out to Bakari who then hit a 3. Bang/Bang play.(literally)

Could we like put Kiser on the rack and stretch him out to about 6'8" so he could play a more legit 4/5?

[valpopal]

As we have seen since the loss of Burton, the team Valpo met today also displayed what happens when key players are out. In the first game Valpo played at Illinois State, the big differences were rebounds (Ill. St. led Valpo 44-29) and field goal percentage (Ill. St. led 48% to 38%). Fayne and Evans accounted for a whopping 41 pts. & 13 rebs. (Interestingly, Kiser led Valpo in rebounds during that game as well with 7 compared to today's 9.) Without Fayne and Evans the stats were reversed: Valpo led today in rebounds (36-32) and the field goal percentage went to Valpo as well (49%-38%), almost exactly the opposite of last time.

[VU2014]

Strong second half propels Valparaiso
Paul Oren Times Correspondent
Feb 11, 2018

http://www.nwitimes.com/sports/basketball/college/strong-second-half-propels-valparaiso/article_babfd0df-3e35-5b58-b1d0-4e395fae862c.html



'E' is for Evelyn — and effort: Valparaiso snaps Illinois State's win streak
Michael Osipoff
Post-Tribune
February 1, 2018

http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/post-tribune/sports/ct-ptb-mens-basketball-illinois-state-valparaiso-st-0212-20180211-story.html

[VUGrad1314]

Just want to make sure that this note from the broadcast doesn't get lost: It was said that the entire team spent an extra hour after practice getting up extra shots and putting in extra work. That kind of effort will pay off one day and that kind of effort deserves our attention love and respect. Win or lose I love this team because they fight hard and they care. Go Valpo! Our future is extremely bright!

[valpopal]

Just wanted to note that the men's basketball team and the women's basketball team won their games today. How rare is it that both win on the same day? 

[VU2014]

https://twitter.com/valpoathletics/status/962885942439743488
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xB1AHXMsmYg&feature=youtu.be