GAME - Exhibition Valpo v. UIndy 11/1 7:00

[VU2014]

Looks just like the team I saw at the season ticket holder event.

-Lacking a leader
-Our big is weak and Mileek is playing out of postion to compensate for it.  He's not a center.
-No energy or aggression.  No loose balls and poor rebounding

-Everyone looks lost in the offense.  Just like last year.
-Some poor game play calls by Matt.

Also, the scoreboard is hard to read with the gold background.

Deon is going to lose his starting spot to the freshman.

I'll give a pass on the play calls tonight because it's an exhibition. Coaches are suppose experiment in these games. ex: Fazekas getting that final shot at the end of the game. If this was a meaningful game I doubt he gets that opportunity after this shooting performance. It sounds like Fazekas was really nervous and had no confidence. If he would have hit that shot that all would have went away.

I have concerns about Mileek at the 5. Maybe if your playing small ball we can get away with it. Smits may never be capable on defense.

Coach Lottich should have coached this game to win it. After the crap this fan-base had to watch last season he can not be experimenting in a close game vs a D2. This is a black eye on the program and ticks everyone off. They #*$*($ need to beat non-d1s at home. He didn't do himself any favor tonight with fans. If we exceed expectations this season then this will all be forgotten but the benefit of the doubt has not been earned.

[AranJacobs]

With this type of talent on a team, we should be scoring more than 57 against a division 2 opponent, or really anybody for that matter. The coaching was not good today. Everybody was playing out of position. I know Fazekas is playing the 4, but he's supposedly our best 3 point shooter and he really only got one quality look from three out of his 5 triples taken. John Kiser on the other hand had more good looks from three. The half court offense is atrocious. No productive movement whatsoever, not getting the actual shooters open on the perimeter. But at the same time not opening lanes for our guards to get to the basket. Mine as well not even run a play. The only way we can score is out in transition and nobody ever seems to try to do that. Sackey did it a few times in the second half and that was really the only glimmer of hope. And even then, any good team is not going to allow us to get out in transition every possession, so we need to have something resembling a half court offense. As elementary as it sounds, somebody needs to be in Derrik's ear every time he doesn't box out or doesn't use his right hand on the right side of the basket. He would be such a good big if he could use his right hand and box out, he certainly has the talent for it. Unfortunately, in his 4th year of college basketball, I don't think he is going to magically grow a right hand or start boxing out. Sure he had 8 rebounds, but half of those, if not more, were him rebounding his own missed layups. I would say the rotation problems are likely due to the fact that this was an exhibition game and they wanted to get everybody in, but this has been a recurring problem the past couple of years. So has the half court offense. Maybe this was just because it was the first game in a Valpo uniform for a good amount of these players, but its hard to believe these rotation and half court issues are going to go away with the new players when they have been around for a couple of years now. As for the attendance, I am not surprised at all by the turnout for this exhibition. BUT FOR THE LOVE OF GOD will the student section please STAND UP. Our high school student section stands up and chants the entire game except for halftime. You mine as well just put chair backs in VU's student section they are all lounge back and being quiet.  The student section was actually larger than most of last years games, which is surprising since this was an exhibition. I just hope we didn't scare the few there were away with this performance.

[Chairback]

For 38 mins it was a 1 on a 10 scale. 


We can spin this 100 ways and call it an exhibition that means nothing but you saw the character of this team tonight. 

[M]

To be a little fair though there was probably a reason the defense let Kiser get more open looks then Fazekas did.

[AranJacobs]

To be a little fair though there was probably a reason the defense let Kiser get more open looks then Fazekas did.

That's fair. But we need to be able to get him open more. He took 11 shots, but most of them were awful shots. No point in having a good shooter if we can't get him open.

[VULB#62]

MLB and Matt are you reading your reviews?

[VUBBFan]

The one player that pleasantly surprised me was sackey. He plays with intensity.

https://twitter.com/AlBillets/status/1058197588485292032

[M]

I agree...need a more creative offense to get the shooters better looks. I hope he has that offense tucked away for upcoming games.

[crusadermoe]

So how many points do we get from Concordia in Vegas?

Ok..seriously..I only saw the stats.

Didn't the Sweet 16 team actually lose a D2 game in its regular season.  That probably is uniquely done by any Sweet 16 team in history.

Scary is that West Virginia is not many days away
 

[NativeCheesehead]

We already know Lottich can recruit. This really will be the season where we find out if he can coach. 

[VU2014]

So how many points do we get from Concordia in Vegas?

Ok..seriously..I only saw the stats.

Didn't the Sweet 16 team actually lose a D2 game in its regular season.  That probably is uniquely done by any Sweet 16 team in history.

Scary is that West Virginia is not many days away
 

Pray for Smits 

[VUGrad1314]

Embarrassing... I'm just sick over this... The rest of the MVC is laughing at us. This was not the team I saw last year from Indiana State onwards. Sadly it will never change until these soft Horizon League 7 footers finally graduate and we get players that can actually rebound and defend. How far the on-court product has fallen in just over two years is just mindboggling. We got outrebounded by a non-D1. Sit Smits until he learns to play some defense. Already ready to see more Sackey and less Lavender. Just disgusted.

[AranJacobs]

We already know Lottich can recruit. This really will be the season where we find out if he can coach. 

Certainly has proved he can recruit. Now that the roster is composed of his recruits, it's time to see if he uses them properly. Hopefully tonight, as an exhibition, was just him trying different things out and seeing where everybody fits in. This exhibition was a lot more productive than last years 48 points blowout in terms of getting feedback and locating weaknesses.

[VU2014]

The first words that should have been spoken was, "This is not acceptable."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVdeOqEZnzM

[VUGrad1314]

I agree. He spent way too much time trying to defend the quality of the opponent and stressing that the game didn't count.  To a large extent players and fans do not care about these things. It's simple logic: D1s beat D2s. When D2s beat D1s the narrative isn't "Wow that D2 is really good," it's "Whats wrong with the D1?" We can argue about whether that's fair or not but it doesn't change the reality. This was many folks first impression of this season's team and indeed of the Matt Lottich era and it was not a good one. The game may not have counted but the impression that it made on the casual fan sure does. That is going to stay in the minds of folks now when they're deciding whether or not to come out to a game. Students who have been told what a great team we have just saw them get punked by a non-D1 in their own gym. You can't call out students like Lottich has in the past and then show up unprepared to beat a non-D1. Nobody cares that UINDY beat Tennessee a few years ago. How many players from that team are even still on the roster? Nobody cares what South Carolina or UCF did. We care about what Valpo did, and what Valpo did was get outclassed by a team it should have beaten. If they go out and get off to a good start and beat WKU all will be well and forgiven, but until then this score and this stat sheet should be on the bulletin board for the next time someone fails to box out misses a rotation fails to get back on D or turns the ball over. Because this is what happens when you don't execute.

[VUBBFan]

Didn't J have an underage drinking arrest last year? Could they just utilize his injury down time to serve his 2 game suspension by not being on the bench? It is just a team rule, after all... Sent from my LG-US998 using Tapatalk

Yes, I totally forgot about that. Would a suspension served count for a exhibition? I'm guessing it wouldn't but tbh I have no clue.

Unless there was another incident. That was two years ago and he was suspended for two games at the beginning of last year along with Burton.

[M]

I feel like fans can have the it doesn't matter, it doesn't count mind set. I have a real problem if a coach or player makes that a focal point in public statements.

If that was the teams mindset going in to that exhibition game then they shouldn't charge admission.

[SanityLost17]

I was unable to watch the game.  However, if our offensive sets were as bad as others have mentioned, that is the real takeaway here.  The biggest criticism for the last 2 years has been an inept and stagnant half court offense.   You can't have that in college basketball.   I will give Lottich the benefit of the doubt for the remainder of the season only.  He needs to get that fixed.       

[crusader05]

The offense needs a floor leader and at least one consistent person to run the offense through. There's no structure right now and we can't spend another year waiting to see if someone steps up.

[VU2014]

Valpo is a punch line this morning. Everyone in this program should feel embarrassed by that pathetic performance.

[EddieCabot]

I'll give a pass on the play calls tonight because it's an exhibition. Coaches are suppose experiment in these games.

Coach Lottich should have coached this game to win it. After the crap this fan-base had to watch last season he can not be experimenting in a close game vs a D2.

Both of these posters make valid points.

[IrishDawg]

This stuff happens.  I'd be far more concerned if UIndy shot the ball really well from inside the arc (11-31 last night) than thinking that Fazekas is going to go 1-11.  Teams grow and develop.  Now, getting beaten on the glass the way that Valpo did is a concern, but I wouldn't be overly concerned by the game yesterday.  Now, if the poor shooting becomes a trend, then yes, it's probably not going to be a good year, but based on previous seasons, I'd be surprised if Evelyn and Fazekas continued to play as poorly as they did on the offensive end.

[NativeCheesehead]

Some thoughts after letting this digest overnight:

- Losing to a DII in your gym is unacceptable. I also was a little peeved hearing Lottich try to justify it, HOWEVER, we have no idea what was said in that locker room. Lottich follows 3 Drews who would NEVER throw their players under the bus, and I can respect that. But as I said above, we will know in the next couple of months if this guy can actually coach. There are REASONS we lost this game, there are no EXCUSES for losing.

-I think the new comers will be ok. Sackey was great, Javon struggled a bit but looked like he belonged out there, and while I've never been as high on Fazekas as some but his shooting motion is fine. Have to keep in mind he has played little in the past two years and is being asked to play a bigger role here than he was out east.

-As I said above, I appreciate Smits being a little more aggressive on offense, but baring a personality change there's no way to describe him as anything other than a disappointment. I have to remind myself he redshirted a year, and is a Bryce Horizon League recruit, rather than a Lottich MVC recruit. I'm just simply tired of watching guards out rebound him.

-Most of us have said all summer that we understand our record this year isn't all that important. The talent, the coaching, heck even the home schedule, is all built for a program defining 19-20 season. That being said, you still want to win, and improve. The stagnant offense is still stagnant, the set plays still don't work, and our out of bound plays are only designed to get the ball in and not score.

-We're primed to go to SC and get our teeth kicked in. So how do we come out of that? Come home and handle the lesser competition and get ready for conference. Aim to be the team no one wants to play in St Louis. However this year ends it needs to be in a manner that leaves the team and fan base counting the hours until 19-20.

[VU2014]

I'll give a pass on the play calls tonight because it's an exhibition. Coaches are suppose experiment in these games.

Coach Lottich should have coached this game to win it. After the crap this fan-base had to watch last season he can not be experimenting in a close game vs a D2.

Both of these posters make valid points.

It's fine to experiment in the first half but in the second half when you are in a neck and neck game that goes out the window. When we were struggling to pull away he should be coaching to win the game at all costs.

Last nights game really disgusted me. I've been a person to preach patience when it comes to Coach Lottich but nights like last night slowly builds up and you start to erode goodwill with the fan-base. I'm not suggesting he be fired because of a exhibition loss but these things start to accumulate and the fans start to begin to lose trust in the head coach. This was no way to properly start the season.

Coach Lottich has as much to prove this season as any player on that roster. The jury is still out. I won't lose faith in him because of last night but that game did him no favors.

[a3uge]

We already know Lottich can recruit. This really will be the season where we find out if he can coach. 

Certainly has proved he can recruit. Now that the roster is composed of his recruits, it's time to see if he uses them properly. Hopefully tonight, as an exhibition, was just him trying different things out and seeing where everybody fits in. This exhibition was a lot more productive than last years 48 points blowout in terms of getting feedback and locating weaknesses.

We already know Lottich can recruit. This really will be the season where we find out if he can coach. 

Certainly has proved he can recruit. Now that the roster is composed of his recruits, it's time to see if he uses them properly. Hopefully tonight, as an exhibition, was just him trying different things out and seeing where everybody fits in. This exhibition was a lot more productive than last years 48 points blowout in terms of getting feedback and locating weaknesses.

Has he shown an ability to recruit? There's 1 player on the roster whose ceiling is All-MVC 2nd team.