MBB 2018-19

[VU2014]

Does the religious component really come into play that much? It's sort of an after thought in my mind, especially when it comes to sports. It's not like VU pushes "you must be lutheran or don't bother attending here" or anything. If I remember correctly, there more self identified catholics who attend VU than lutherans. It's just not that big of a deal in my eyes. Maybe it is to others.

[vu72]

I think you can point to a lot of the over-looking of Valpo to a few causes.
1. People in the area are much more likely to be Alumna and therefore fans of Purdue or IU and even Notre Dame especially with the big Catholic contingency in Michigan City and other areas.
2. I don't believe Lutheranism had a big foot print in the area when many of these people were growing up. More likely to be Catholic or Orthodox due to who was lured to come for for the mills
3. Valpo was too small a school and not on any radar as far as sports are concerned until the 90s. There are literally two movies made about Indiana College Teams with Rudy and Hoosiers. These schools just take up so much space in Indiana identity it's always been hard for Valpo, as just the Lutheran school, to break into

Agree.  In addition there was generally resentment from town folks who thought of Valpo students as rich, elite types. Of course that was many years ago.  The demographics of the Valpo community have changed as have the efforts to be part of the community.  As an example, President Harre wanted to live in the community while OP had his home on campus.

[FieldGoodie05]

Does the religious component really come into play that much? It's sort of an after thought in my mind, especially when it comes to sports. It's not like VU pushes "you must be lutheran or don't bother attending here" or anything. If I remember correctly, there more self identified catholics who attend VU than lutherans. It's just not that big of a deal in my eyes. Maybe it is to others.

I'd have to agree.  Religion played 0% in my decision to attend VU.  If I was committed to 4-years, what's to stop a local from attending a few b-ball games a year.

Heck 3 of my best friends at VU we're catholic.

[VULB#62]

I think you can point to a lot of the over-looking of Valpo to a few causes.
1. (a) People in the area are much more likely to be Alumna and therefore fans of Purdue or IU and even Notre Dame especially with the big Catholic contingency in Michigan City and other areas.
1. (b) From the Valpo.edu site re: geographic distribution -- "From most U.S. states and 38 countries."  When you distribute these factors over a UG student body of only 3,220, and most of these graduates go back to their home locations after graduation, the number of active alumni remaining in the region is substantailly waterd down so as not to be a factor in fan support compared to the point made in 1. (a) about massive public universities that both draw from the same region.
2. I don't believe Lutheranism had a big foot print in the area when many of these people were growing up. More likely to be Catholic or Orthodox due to who was lured to come for for the mills
3. Valpo was too small a school and not on any radar as far as sports are concerned until the 90s. There are literally two movies made about Indiana College Teams with Rudy and Hoosiers. These schools just take up so much space in Indiana identity it's always been hard for Valpo, as just the Lutheran school, to break into

I would amend #1 to add a 1.(b).

[IrishDawg]

There are literally two movies made about Indiana College Teams with Rudy and Hoosiers. These schools just take up so much space in Indiana identity it's always been hard for Valpo, as just the Lutheran school, to break into

Hoosiers was about an Indiana High School basketball team.  It happened to be filmed in Hinkle, which makes sense as at the time that's where the state championship game took place.

I can't answer why people in the region aren't more interested in Valparaiso University, but it's also not a great sign when I was doing research on Valpo's TV schedule this morning, that when I type in "Valparaiso basketball schedule" into Google that the first highlighted result at the top of the search page is for the VHS' basketball schedule.

For a smaller program with a small alumni base, the only way to get into people's hearts and minds is winning consistently.  TV, even in this era of cord-cutting would still help, but local TV isn't going to be enough anymore, especially if you're trying to get younger people interested.  People who are already interested in Valpo might be excited, but the casual fan isn't going to tune in to that.

[FieldGoodie05]

I think you can point to a lot of the over-looking of Valpo to a few causes.
1. (a) People in the area are much more likely to be Alumna and therefore fans of Purdue or IU and even Notre Dame especially with the big Catholic contingency in Michigan City and other areas.
1. (b) From the Valpo.edu site re: geographic distribution -- "From most U.S. states and 38 countries."  When you distribute these factors over a UG student body of only 3,220, and most of these graduates go back to their home locations after graduation, the number of active alumni remaining in the region is substantailly waterd down so as not to be a factor in fan support compared to the point made in 1. (a) about massive public universities that both draw from the same region.
2. I don't believe Lutheranism had a big foot print in the area when many of these people were growing up. More likely to be Catholic or Orthodox due to who was lured to come for for the mills
3. Valpo was too small a school and not on any radar as far as sports are concerned until the 90s. There are literally two movies made about Indiana College Teams with Rudy and Hoosiers. These schools just take up so much space in Indiana identity it's always been hard for Valpo, as just the Lutheran school, to break into

I would amend #1 to add a 1.(b).

Well said, any those alumni that do "stay" go to Indy or CHICAGO as real job markets.  It's a real chore making weekday games from those two markets, so that really only leaves weekend games.

[crusader05]

I don't think the religion thing effects who goes to Valpo , But these dedications to schools and fanbases are not just 6-10 years deep. they are probably 30 plus years running. We are talking parents and grandparents of high school kids in the area are Purdue/IU/Notre Dame fans and I definitely think the Catholic Identity and it's tie with Notre Dame is way stronger than any Lutheran connection with ANY Lutheran based academy (even the Concordias) Because it's both a Catholic University and an established elite institution. 


I think the above poster said it best. We need to win and keep winning on a bigger stage to get people to wake up. I think recruiting local talent also helps with that. But unless we become an Elite institution on Notre Dame's scale or we create a re-location program for Valpo Alumna in Northwest Indiana we are probably always going to be out-numbered and fighting for attention.

[vu72]

I don't think the religion thing effects who goes to Valpo , But these dedications to schools and fanbases are not just 6-10 years deep. they are probably 30 plus years running. We are talking parents and grandparents of high school kids in the area are Purdue/IU/Notre Dame fans and I definitely think the Catholic Identity and it's tie with Notre Dame is way stronger than any Lutheran connection with ANY Lutheran based academy (even the Concordias) Because it's both a Catholic University and an established elite institution. 


I think the above poster said it best. We need to win and keep winning on a bigger stage to get people to wake up. I think recruiting local talent also helps with that. But unless we become an Elite institution on Notre Dame's scale or we create a re-location program for Valpo Alumna in Northwest Indiana we are probably always going to be out-numbered and fighting for attention.

Perhaps not at the present, but it clearly was a factor when some of us went to Valpo.  In fact, as recently as 1990, the majority of students were Lutheran although at present only about 20% identify as such.  Here are the facts from admissions:

Percentage of Lutheran Students


1960    85
1970    70
1980    51
1990    52
2000    40
2010    29
Today   20

If in fact a large percentage of the Valpo community were Catholic then at least going back toward 1960, when Catholic/Lutheran relations weren't very good, it could have made for a negative feeling toward VU.

[crusader05]

I agree that it was much different back then vs now. I think that speaks to the issue even further as if Catholics were super not interested in a Lutheran institutions back then and  there was not a huge Lutheran footprint in the area Valpo would have trouble recruiting people.

What's interesting to me is that, because it was so locally revered back then, I think I heard more about the Valpo Law School than Valpo as a whole and that is because a LOT of local judges and lawyers and politicians were Valpo Law alumni. Once Law Schools went National and people were not going to school where they lived you saw that regional angle leave and it probably contributed early on to our eventual issues with the school

[FieldGoodie05]

Union Street Hoops podcast was quality interviews.  Glad to have excitement in the women's program again.

Couple of take aways:

1). We are exceedingly deep at G and it sounds like Bakari could even guard SF if coach needed

2). Coach Lottich is still a terrible interview for information.  "Going to compete every day" is getting old.  But he's leaps and bounds better than "umm" Drew on the mic.

3). Glad to hear former Coach Dildy has strong connections and introduced Coach Holloway to Lottich.  Always a positive when an outgoing coach is so well respected that his advice and connections matter

4). Glad to hear players and coach talk about Fazekas' scoring abilities.  He's a big x-factor for our midget team.  Being 6'7" means he can get shots our G cannot AND HIT THEM

5). Mileek was mentioned as the biggest improvement by Bakari, WE NEED THAT BADLY.  And not because Mileek was bad, but because his position is not deep

6). Commissioner Elgin mentioned multiple times VU's upgrading their facilities.  I think he's gently reminding the VU administration that although it wasn't part of the contract, that he'd like to see it done.  I still couldn't care less about facilities but that ought to get a few of you all excited

7). Coach cleverly brought on Deon Lavender because he still doesn't trust our distributors, that's not so good.  Clearly Micah and Bakari were not assist minded G for much of last season.

[vu72]

Interesting comments from Coach Evans, particularly when she talked about one of her assistants who had experience in the Ivy League.  That was interesting in that she said that she needed to learn how to deal with high achieving players like what is found in the Ivy League.  She said that she hadn't had to deal with that in her previous experience (Ohio U). I look forward to seeing this Women's team step it up.

Love Markus "not a lot of people like getting dunked on" 

An improved Mileek and a hot shooting Ryan!  Love it! 

I thought Coach Lottich did a good job, didn't whine about losing a guy like Tevonn but rather focused on the chemistry of the team.  Really excited for this season!

Really a terrific broadcast!  Bravo!   

[crusadermoe]

Great points made about the Valpo identity in the region being more shallow than we might think.  Those factors all make sense. Relatively few multi-generational Valpo alumni would live in NW Indiana.  Most VU students came from Chicago and the big great lakes cities and returned there for jobs and/or to be near family.

There's also the reality that Valpo's sports sucked dramatically in the 70s, 80s and early 90s.  Football was horrific in its D-2 period of 1988 to 1994.  Then we caught a break in hoops when VHS grads Redmon, Casey, and Bryce "came home" to play for Homer.  You could argue that the crowds who began coming to the ARC to see those teams were simply a VHS crowd that would fade away again after Bryce.   

Nobody saw the Sweet 16 coming.  No investment was made afterward.  And let's be honest that the seed of excitement landed in soil that was pretty shallow based on the VU sports history of 1975-1995.   

[VULB#62]

We can't undo our history or change past decisions. So.......

Shouldn't we assume we need to start from scratch?  And when we do that, I think it comes down to what so many of our posters have said: Just win baby. Winning at the new level we are at will change the paradigm. Plain and simple. Just think:  What if it was us who made the F4 instead of Loyola? Don't you think that would totally change our marketing approach and our appeal to the region —- especially if we probably mote the REGION in doing so?

So what does this take in a $$$ sense?  I have no idea. Another $200K in the recruiting budget?  ARC upgrades or expansion?  Building a new arena (nah)? Building a basketball dorm (totally antithetic to the university values IMO)?  Getting tons of buy games from P6 teams and Gonzaga? Adding $100K to the BB marketing budget?  Buying a private jet for team travel and recruiting trips? (Ha, ha)  And so on.......

Only Matt and Mark know the realistic answers to all those questions.

But if Valpo wants to get to a truly national level through the MVC, it has to take solid positive strides (which includes consistantly winning conference basketball games) in that direction sooner than later.

[crusadermoe]

Yes indeed '62. 

The very recent huge attendance for the NIT tournament games in Valpo in March 2016 showed the possibilities still out there for us.  I don't know what the admissions charge was. I would think it was NIT governed at $12-15 and up.   I was just puzzled as to why the attendance went to hell in 2016-2017 so quickly afterward with a huge star player returning. 

But just carry on and win in the MVC and good things will happen!!   

[VU2014]

Yes indeed '62. 

The very recent huge attendance for the NIT tournament games in Valpo in March 2016 showed the possibilities still out there for us.  I don't know what the admissions charge was. I would think it was NIT governed at $12-15 and up.   I was just puzzled as to why the attendance went to hell in 2016-2017 so quickly afterward with a huge star player returning. 

But just carry on and win in the MVC and good things will happen!!   

I still wonder why this was the case, especially from the student body. That was the year the student attendance started to slide and took a absolute nose dive last season. I was wonder if admissions is targeting a different type of student the last few years?  I just can't explain the slide but anticipate if each class doesn't learn the traditions and cheers (including the not PC ones the coach can't teach you at the beginning of the year) it will be a slippery slide.

[VU2014]

Union Street Hoops podcast was quality interviews.  Glad to have excitement in the women's program again.
7). Coach cleverly brought on Deon Lavender because he still doesn't trust our distributors, that's not so good.  Clearly Micah and Bakari were not assist minded G for much of last season.

I'm wondering how much Micah will play this season. You can argue that Micah turned into a solid distributor around mid-season when he start to take fewer horrendous shots. Bakari may not be an elite ball handler but I'm not sure he isn't a solid distributor. He was forced into a taking more shots because we badly needed him to be a shooter and he shot the 3 really well last season. I could definitely see him playing more off the ball than last season.

Will Coach Lottich sit Micah more this season in favor of playing the greener freshman with possibly more future potential? That's what he did with Lexus when Micah was a Freshman. He was trying to get the kid more experience and favored him over a more reliable player (different scenario with how the second half of the 16-17 teams season shook out) but Lexus may not have been 100% healthy his last season at VU. We badly could have used him last season.

How much are Sackey and Javon going to play in the beginning of the season? I could see JFL playing more because he's apparently already a solid defender and PG requires more responsibilities on Sackey's plate.

It's great to hear Fazekas is looking strong and shooting the ball well! We NeeD shooters in the Valley if we have any hopes of competing for a MVC title.

[vu72]

Just saw Street and Smith's magazine which picks us 5th.  Lindy's has us 7th. 

[crusadermoe]

Yes, saw the Lindy's in Walgreens.   

I got a kick out of the author saying that Fazekas will give us a "wondrous outside weapon."   Not typically a sports writer adjective.  More typically used in the theatre critic section.  Oh well, that was worth the price of not paying for the magazine.

We are a total wild card...anywhere from #3 to #8 is a possibility.  Call #5 a best guess.

[VU2014]

Can anyone make out who is injured in this picture? (sitting on the cart to the left??) Is that Nick Robinson? Mileek? Looks like he may have a right leg injury? I don't see him wearing a shoe on his right foot. Hopefully it's not serious.

https://twitter.com/ValpoBasketball/status/1044796902062116866

[wh]

Can anyone make out who is injured in this picture? (sitting on the cart to the left??) Is that Nick Robinson? Mileek? Looks like he may have a right leg injury? I don't see him wearing a shoe on his right foot. Hopefully it's not serious.

https://twitter.com/ValpoBasketball/status/1044796902062116866

Not positive, but I don't believe he's a player.

[VU2014]

https://twitter.com/KernHoops/status/1045007829940281345

Valparaiso Basketball: 2018-19 season preview for the Crusaders
by Joey Loose
September 26, 2018

https://bustingbrackets.com/2018/09/26/valparaiso-basketball-2018-19-season-preview-for-the-crusaders/

[VUGrad1314]

I really can't see how Golder or Lavender isn't the starter at SG this year. I believe that Freeman will be great but I'd be a bit nervous about giving a freshman starters' minutes. McMillan will likely start and I hope he runs with the opportunity. He's certainly been working hard enough. Ideally, they'd have a capable starting PG that can allow Evelyn to play off ball. I hope and believe that Sackey will emerge as that guy. I'd prefer Sorolla over Smits for defensive reasons. I think they have the makings of a strong offensive second unit which could help protect and extend any leads. This should be an exciting and much better year. Go Valpo!

[justducky]

Valparaiso Basketball: 2018-19 season preview for the Crusaders
by Joey Loose
September 26, 2018

https://bustingbrackets.com/2018/09/26/valparaiso-basketball-2018-19-season-preview-for-the-crusaders/

This guy comes across like he is showing us respect by predicting we might be able to finish 5'th. Wow! I immediately concluded that he knows little about the team, the players or the program. Other than that I am sure that he is a fine fellow for a moron.      

I really can't see how Golder or Lavender isn't the starter at SG this year. I believe that Freeman will be great but I'd be a bit nervous about giving a freshman starters' minutes. McMillan will likely start and I hope he runs with the opportunity. He's certainly been working hard enough. Ideally, they'd have a capable starting PG that can allow Evelyn to play off ball. I hope and believe that Sackey will emerge as that guy. I'd prefer Sorolla over Smits for defensive reasons. I think they have the makings of a strong offensive second unit which could help protect and extend any leads. This should be an exciting and much better year. Go Valpo!

I have difficulty ever seeing Golder playing much at the 2 while agreeing that shooting guard was and probably is the best position for Lavender. If everyone is healthy I see a lot of nearly interchangeable position parts by the mid season MVC portion. The rotation will eventually shorten but I see a significant minutes for all 11 guys going well into the season.

I will agree that freshman development might be slower than we want but they will be given plenty of room to find their game. If they don't find their games in 18-19 then my team expectations will be hard to meet.

[FieldGoodie05]

I really can't see how Golder or Lavender isn't the starter at SG this year. I believe that Freeman will be great but I'd be a bit nervous about giving a freshman starters' minutes. McMillan will likely start and I hope he runs with the opportunity. He's certainly been working hard enough. Ideally, they'd have a capable starting PG that can allow Evelyn to play off ball. I hope and believe that Sackey will emerge as that guy. I'd prefer Sorolla over Smits for defensive reasons. I think they have the makings of a strong offensive second unit which could help protect and extend any leads. This should be an exciting and much better year. Go Valpo!

Starters
Micah Bradford
Bakari Evelyn
Markus Golder
Ryan Fazekas
Derrik Smits

Most Minutes (in order)
PG Bradford / Lavender / Sackey
SG Evelyn / Freeman / Lavender
SF Golder / Fazekas / Kiser
PF McMillan / Fazekas / Golder / Kiser / Sorolla
C Sorolla / Smits / McMillan / Golder

Most productive Offensive
Lavender
Evelyn
Golder
Fazekas
Smits

Most productive Defense
Sackey
Lavender
Golder
McMillan
Sorolla

Most Exciting
Sackey
Evelyn
Freeman
Golder
McMillan

[VU2014]

Most productive Defense
Sackey*
Lavender
Golder
McMillan* Maybe
Sorolla

Mileek was pretty terrible on defense last year. He was really slow on defensive switches and put his teammates in a bad spot on defense. He has a heck of a lot left to prove. Sackey hasn't proven anything on defense either and he is 5-10.

This would be my Most productive defense.

Lavender
Javon Freeman (he's coming in with a strong reputation as a good on ball defender)
Golder
Fazekas (I'm not expecting him to be good on defense but Mileek hasn't proven to be a capable defender yet. In the long run yes, Mileek should be better)
Sorolla