Valpo at UNLV Nov 28 9:30 CST

[FieldGoodie05]

Fazekas needs to settle into the role of spot up shooter.   Right now he is trying to do too much, but he doesn't need to be the guy who creates his own shot.  With Smits dominating the low post teams are going to have to start doubling and that should leave Fazekas with some wide open spot up shots of which he will hit a very high percentage.

Do we think that Fazekas would benefit from coming off the bench and having a few more sets run to get him his "spot up" shot attempts?  Right now it feels like he is just "willing" his shots rather than letting them come to him in the flow of the offense.

There is that old adage, shooters shoot themselves out of funks . . . maybe this is what we are seeing?  The issue is that we have such a small body of work to compare with him that we are more emotional than fact driven in our observations (me included).

I was very happy with his rebounding in this game, 9 Reb is awesome!

[VULB#62]

Besides Smits hitting on a double-double (20 pts/12 RBs), another big difference (for me at least) was seeing all the motion on offense.  Not a lot of standing around off the ball.  Glad that is becoming part of the formula.

4-3 going into Cal-Riverside on Sunday.  Keep it up boys!

[VUGrad1314]

Thanks, found it. It was a 7 paragraph post dissecting where MVC teams stood in the ratings. This is the final paragraph and only mention: "If the conference as a whole wants to improve, it has to start here. Evansville has had a pretty tough schedule to this point, but has done nothing with it. Valpo has just done nothing. Really need the bottom to pick it up." Again, this was just 1 mention in 1 paragraph of 7 in a post strictly about this year's ratings. Most people probably glossed over it. I wouldn't let that ruffle your feathers. The statement is invalid anyway because of Evansville's 85-63 win over TSU who beat 2 P5s/1 T25. Better win than anything ILST's got.

Here was my response to a Drake fan's assertion that we have a "coaching problem" Full disclosure: he made his post before the UNLV game while I made mine after. (I got the "counter argument" game I needed.)


I don't think the problem lies with coaching as frustrating as the game against SIUE was. The issues have been injury and transition related. We are playing out contracts with SIUE and UC-Riverside that we signed as members of the HL. Those are done after this year. Even so we've scheduled up and shown well in many games. We were competitive with WKU into the second half. Same story with WVU. Against Wake Forest we were in it until the end.


The problem? Micah Bradford who emerged late last year as a valuable distributor has played all of 3 minutes this year and Jaume Sorolla a key piece of our frontcourt just saw his first action in a tight contest against UNLV. The result? We won. His absence forced Mileek McMillan and even  John Kiser to play minutes at center which neither is well-suited to do. I have to think that made a difference down the stretch in those earlier games which in turn makes a difference in our metrics. Those teams being generally underwhelming this year also probably hurts because it means our schedule isn't as strong as it looked initially but that's out of Valpo's hands.


As for the coaching, Derrik Smits has been an absolute revelation this year. His development has been incredible and I think McMillan will show similar progress once he gets into a more comfortable role. If Bradford continues his improvements and our freshmen continue to grow then it should be pretty clear that there is no serious coaching problem. If Valpo has one then I think you have to wonder whether every team in the MVC has one based on the performances we've seen this year.

[oklahomamick]

Agreed with drawing up plays where Fazakes is a spot shooter.  The realization and maybe why the Drake fan said we have a "coaching problem" is I have not seen many set plays.  Bryce designed several plays that gave shooters wide open looks.  Or he used the shooter as a decoy. 

Best example is a HL championship game we were losing to Green Bay on our home court.  Drew designed a play where 2 defenders went after Alec on the 3 point line.  It ended up an easy pass and dunk by Fashil as the buzzer sounded.  I'm sure many remember it. 

I just don't see the movement off the ball or designed plays.  Nonetheless, great win last night. 

[oklahomamick]

Box score shows two Valpo technical fouls.  Can someone who watched the game explain? 

[valpo4life]

Fazekas needs to settle into the role of spot up shooter.   Right now he is trying to do too much, but he doesn't need to be the guy who creates his own shot.  With Smits dominating the low post teams are going to have to start doubling and that should leave Fazekas with some wide open spot up shots of which he will hit a very high percentage.

Do we think that Fazekas would benefit from coming off the bench and having a few more sets run to get him his "spot up" shot attempts?  Right now it feels like he is just "willing" his shots rather than letting them come to him in the flow of the offense.

There is that old adage, shooters shoot themselves out of funks . . . maybe this is what we are seeing?  The issue is that we have such a small body of work to compare with him that we are more emotional than fact driven in our observations (me included).

I was very happy with his rebounding in this game, 9 Reb is awesome!

*checks stats*

*sees Fazekas is shooting 40.5% from 3 (15-37), Evelyn shooting 25% from 3 (10-40)*

*questions why we are questioning Fazekas's shooting and not Evelyn's*

[bigmosmithfan1]

Great win on the road last night. Guess the MWC signed on with the A-10 to have a chance to win a few games in their "Challenge," huh?

[agibson]

I wonder if playing Press West Virginia the other day helped us through today's game, especially when UNLV pressed. We never really let it get to us. But man, we look bad at rebounding sometimes.

It didn't get to us in the sense that we eventually got back into the game. But, it was horrible for a while. They stole... two consecutive inbounds passes at one point? We turned it over against their press directly under the basket!

Both teams seemed to be playing fast, losse, and kind of sloppy. Which was fun to watch. I'm tempted to say UNLV's turnover numbers were at least as much about their game as they were about ours. But, a solid, come from behind win. Hopefully something to build on.

And Smits has just been a monster. I don't know where this came from. Even earlier this season it seems we were all, "What could have been, what should have been!" Bizarre to hear Coach Gore talk about him flipping a switch, earlier in the season... in the middle of a game! Smits is reminding me a bit of KVW. (Now if he could only learn to shoot with his right...)

[agibson]

Box score shows two Valpo technical fouls.  Can someone who watched the game explain? 

I only see one currently at
http://www.valpoathletics.com/mbasketball/boxscore/2018-19/7182/valpo-vs-unlv-11-28-2018/
(and in the play-by-play there).

Fairly early in the first half, against Golder, after a dunk. The broadcasters (who were a lot fun, rather even-handed, and did a nice job) initially thought it was for hanging on the rim and thought it was a pretty bad call - at that point Paul Oren was livid on twitter. Turned out it was for taunting. My wife, with eyes sharper than mine, did notice his teammates pulling him away from the UNLV players (maybe even before the whistle?).

[VUOR63]

I saw the one technical when Golder hung on the rim (I hope he said something cause he was trying not to land on the guy he posterized)


Didn't see the other one though--and I watched the entire 40 minutes.

[SanityLost17]

Fazekas needs to settle into the role of spot up shooter.   Right now he is trying to do too much, but he doesn't need to be the guy who creates his own shot.  With Smits dominating the low post teams are going to have to start doubling and that should leave Fazekas with some wide open spot up shots of which he will hit a very high percentage.

Do we think that Fazekas would benefit from coming off the bench and having a few more sets run to get him his "spot up" shot attempts?  Right now it feels like he is just "willing" his shots rather than letting them come to him in the flow of the offense.

There is that old adage, shooters shoot themselves out of funks . . . maybe this is what we are seeing?  The issue is that we have such a small body of work to compare with him that we are more emotional than fact driven in our observations (me included).

I was very happy with his rebounding in this game, 9 Reb is awesome!

*checks stats*

*sees Fazekas is shooting 40.5% from 3 (15-37), Evelyn shooting 25% from 3 (10-40)*

*questions why we are questioning Fazekas's shooting and not Evelyn's*

I prefer to only look at the 4 games we have played of any significance...By that measure neither are shooting particularly well. 

Against WKU / WVU / UNLV / WF:
Evelyn = 8-28 (28.5%)
Fazekas = 7-22 (31.8%)   

[FieldGoodie05]

Fazekas needs to settle into the role of spot up shooter.   Right now he is trying to do too much, but he doesn't need to be the guy who creates his own shot.  With Smits dominating the low post teams are going to have to start doubling and that should leave Fazekas with some wide open spot up shots of which he will hit a very high percentage.

Do we think that Fazekas would benefit from coming off the bench and having a few more sets run to get him his "spot up" shot attempts?  Right now it feels like he is just "willing" his shots rather than letting them come to him in the flow of the offense.

There is that old adage, shooters shoot themselves out of funks . . . maybe this is what we are seeing?  The issue is that we have such a small body of work to compare with him that we are more emotional than fact driven in our observations (me included).

I was very happy with his rebounding in this game, 9 Reb is awesome!

*checks stats*

*sees Fazekas is shooting 40.5% from 3 (15-37), Evelyn shooting 25% from 3 (10-40)*

*questions why we are questioning Fazekas's shooting and not Evelyn's*

Your answer is in my original post emboldened above regarding "not Evelyn".  It's certainly not fair, but its reality.

[FieldGoodie05]

Agreed with drawing up plays where Fazakes is a spot shooter.  The realization and maybe why the Drake fan said we have a "coaching problem" is I have not seen many set plays.  Bryce designed several plays that gave shooters wide open looks.  Or he used the shooter as a decoy. 

Best example is a HL championship game we were losing to Green Bay on our home court.  Drew designed a play where 2 defenders went after Alec on the 3 point line.  It ended up an easy pass and dunk by Fashil as the buzzer sounded.  I'm sure many remember it. 

I just don't see the movement off the ball or designed plays.  Nonetheless, great win last night.

This post made me recall something that is NOT a big deal, but curious.  On fast breaks Golder seems to play the more selfish non-passing option in nearly 100% of the scenarios.  Anyone else notice several times that he could have passed off for the easy lay-in or dunk by a teammate this year?

Again, not a big deal just an observation.

[nkvu]

Agreed with drawing up plays where Fazakes is a spot shooter.  The realization and maybe why the Drake fan said we have a "coaching problem" is I have not seen many set plays.  Bryce designed several plays that gave shooters wide open looks.  Or he used the shooter as a decoy. 

Best example is a HL championship game we were losing to Green Bay on our home court.  Drew designed a play where 2 defenders went after Alec on the 3 point line.  It ended up an easy pass and dunk by Fashil as the buzzer sounded.  I'm sure many remember it. 

I just don't see the movement off the ball or designed plays.  Nonetheless, great win last night.

This post made me recall something that is NOT a big deal, but curious.  On fast breaks Golder seems to play the more selfish non-passing option in nearly 100% of the scenarios.  Anyone else notice several times that he could have passed off for the easy lay-in or dunk by a teammate this year?

Again, not a big deal just an observation.

When Golder gets the ball on the break he is going to the rack regardless of how many defenders are back or how many of his teammates may be trailing.  I assume he feels that even if he can't finish he will get fouled. Or he'll finish and get fouled for a three point play. I wonder if this isn't the way some current players (finishers) are coached, as it seems to me a lot of players do this even where there is a teammate they could pass to for an easy layup. Just my observation. The traditional way to run the fast break seems to me to be less common now.

[IrishDawg]

Good win despite some poor shooting from Fazekas and Evelyn and still giving up way too many offensive rebounds.  Certainly wasn't an upset, and should be some easy games ahead leading into Ball State and Texas A&M, which should be the last couple of tests before league play starts.

I know a lot of focus is on Fazekas and his shooting, but overall he's been really efficient on offense, and through 6 D1 games he's basically shooting at the same rates he did his first 2 seasons at Providence.  Against the best teams that Valpo's played so far (Tier A & B opponents in kenpom, which doesn't include the Wake Forest game), Fazekas is shooting 35% from 3 and 46% from 2, which again are basically what he's been before.

As others have stated, Evelyn is by far the bigger issue on offense right now, but the sample size is too small to draw any real conclusions from it.

[valpo4life]

Good win despite some poor shooting from Fazekas and Evelyn and still giving up way too many offensive rebounds.  Certainly wasn't an upset, and should be some easy games ahead leading into Ball State and Texas A&M, which should be the last couple of tests before league play starts.

I know a lot of focus is on Fazekas and his shooting, but overall he's been really efficient on offense, and through 6 D1 games he's basically shooting at the same rates he did his first 2 seasons at Providence.  Against the best teams that Valpo's played so far (Tier A & B opponents in kenpom, which doesn't include the Wake Forest game), Fazekas is shooting 35% from 3 and 46% from 2, which again are basically what he's been before.

As others have stated, Evelyn is by far the bigger issue on offense right now, but the sample size is too small to draw any real conclusions from it.

I wouldn't be surprised if Evelyn might have put a little too much pressure on himself to be the go to scorer for this year's team and has forced it a little too much early in the season. As this team settles into their roles and we find a flow I would expect his numbers to increase. When that happens we could be a tough team to defend when you consider the variety of pieces this roster has.

[Valpower]

This post made me recall something that is NOT a big deal, but curious.  On fast breaks Golder seems to play the more selfish non-passing option in nearly 100% of the scenarios.  Anyone else notice several times that he could have passed off for the easy lay-in or dunk by a teammate this year?

Again, not a big deal just an observation.

When Golder gets the ball on the break he is going to the rack regardless of how many defenders are back or how many of his teammates may be trailing.  I assume he feels that even if he can't finish he will get fouled. Or he'll finish and get fouled for a three point play. I wonder if this isn't the way some current players (finishers) are coached, as it seems to me a lot of players do this even where there is a teammate they could pass to for an easy layup. Just my observation. The traditional way to run the fast break seems to me to be less common now.

There's no question that Golder loves to be on the highlight reel (in and of itself) but there may also be a kind of conservatism to taking it to the rack, especially early in the season while the team is still getting to know each other.  Sometimes, the mere fact that you avoid a pass makes it a sound play.  I've lived through some early Valpo teams who could turn even a 3-on-1 break into a disaster with one poorly-timed pass that completely took the potential to get a foul off the table and resulted in a missed bunny.  If you've got a player who's fast enough, can finish, and knows how to draw a foul, why not let him run?

[JD24]

Good win for Valpo. The transformation of Smits is simply amazing.

[valpopal]

The transformation of Smits is simply amazing.

Yes, if you omit the game against Western Kentucky in which Smits only played 8 minutes, his averages for the other six games are 16.3 pts. and 8 rebs. Plus, he seems to be improving, since his stats for the past 4 games show 18.25 pts. and 8.5 rebs. per game.

[SanityLost17]

The transformation of Smits is simply amazing.

Yes, if you omit the game against Western Kentucky in which Smits only played 8 minutes, his averages for the other six games are 16.3 pts. and 8 rebs. Plus, he seems to be improving, since his stats for the past 4 games show 18.25 pts. and 8.5 rebs. per game.

If I was the bragging type I would make a compilation of all the times I posted that Smits would have a breakout season this year.   Over the last 2 years he always had little short Bursts where he just looked unstoppable or he would make a move most 7 footers in the nation would have trouble doing.  But they were just occasionally and not consistent but you could always see the potential.   Now we are seeing it all come together. 

[FieldGoodie05]

The transformation of Smits is simply amazing.

Yes, if you omit the game against Western Kentucky in which Smits only played 8 minutes, his averages for the other six games are 16.3 pts. and 8 rebs. Plus, he seems to be improving, since his stats for the past 4 games show 18.25 pts. and 8.5 rebs. per game.

If I was the bragging type I would make a compilation of all the times I posted that Smits would have a breakout season this year.   Over the last 2 years he always had little short Bursts where he just looked unstoppable or he would make a move most 7 footers in the nation would have trouble doing.  But they were just occasionally and not consistent but you could always see the potential.   Now we are seeing it all come together.

I'm more ensnared by his seeming improvement defensively in the last 4 or so games.  Because you are right, offensively he's had several games last year that excited us all.  But he still needs to prove he can stay on the court against the more athletic 6'8" to 6'9" MVC centers!

[vu72]

The transformation of Smits is simply amazing.

Yes, if you omit the game against Western Kentucky in which Smits only played 8 minutes, his averages for the other six games are 16.3 pts. and 8 rebs. Plus, he seems to be improving, since his stats for the past 4 games show 18.25 pts. and 8.5 rebs. per game.

If I was the bragging type I would make a compilation of all the times I posted that Smits would have a breakout season this year.   Over the last 2 years he always had little short Bursts where he just looked unstoppable or he would make a move most 7 footers in the nation would have trouble doing.  But they were just occasionally and not consistent but you could always see the potential.   Now we are seeing it all come together.

I'm more ensnared by his seeming improvement defensively in the last 4 or so games.  Because you are right, offensively he's had several games last year that excited us all.  But he still needs to prove he can stay on the court against the more athletic 6'8" to 6'9" MVC centers!

The question in my mind is whether or not he may become even more aggressive now that he has a back-up in Jay available and also whether or not the McMillan experiment at the 5 will go away.

[VUBBFan]

Smits is playing with a lot of confidence now. Before I thought he played tentatively, afraid to make a mistake sometimes looking like he was second guessing what to do. What I've seen recently is a player confident and unafraid to go at it hard without thinking of failing. He may not be "THE" team leader but he's got the other players responding to his play.

The half court offense seems to be alive now. Not so much standing around waiting for someone else to do something. They need to keep up this new found energy and carry in through the rest of the season, if they do, this will be a very good year.

[vuny98]

 

Smits is playing with a lot of confidence now. Before I thought he played tentatively, afraid to make a mistake sometimes looking like he was second guessing what to do. What I've seen recently is a player confident and unafraid to go at it hard without thinking of failing. He may not be "THE" team leader but he's got the other players responding to his play. The half court offense seems to be alive now. Not so much standing around waiting for someone else to do something. They need to keep up this new found energy and carry in through the rest of the season, if they do, this will be a very good year.

I wonder if McMillan getting the start at the 5 at the beginning of the year had anything to do with his increased aggressiveness. Lit a fire under him, let him know he's not guaranteed to be playing...

[Valpower]

Smits is playing with a lot of confidence now. Before I thought he played tentatively, afraid to make a mistake sometimes looking like he was second guessing what to do. What I've seen recently is a player confident and unafraid to go at it hard without thinking of failing. He may not be "THE" team leader but he's got the other players responding to his play. The half court offense seems to be alive now. Not so much standing around waiting for someone else to do something. They need to keep up this new found energy and carry in through the rest of the season, if they do, this will be a very good year.

I wonder if McMillan getting the start at the 5 at the beginning of the year had anything to do with his increased aggressiveness. Lit a fire under him, let him know he's not guaranteed to be playing...

Everybody's missing the obvious: Derrik read the message board and set out to prove us wrong.