High Point vs Valpo, Dec. 4 at 7 p.m.

[JD24]

Btw, Ball State just knocked off Notre Dame on a contested 3 at the buzzer. We better figure some stuff out before we play them.

Notre Dame lost to Oklahoma tonight and doesn't play Ball State this season. Was this a pickup game in South Bend?

[VUBBFan]

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[nkvu]

Btw, Ball State just knocked off Notre Dame on a contested 3 at the buzzer. We better figure some stuff out before we play them.

Notre Dame lost to Oklahoma tonight and doesn't play Ball State this season. Was this a pickup game in South Bend?

A fake news item posted today from last year from a Fox Sports feed to Apple news. Feel free to ignore.

Still. based on the way we played today my observation that we had better figure some things out before we play BSU still stands.

[FieldGoodie05]

This is the type of game that just makes you want to stop watching Valpo basketball, but I always keep on watching.  Seriously, how can we shoot 3/23 from 3?  The vast majority were well short, clanging off the front of the rim.  For as highly rated of a team we have in regards to recruiting rankings, I can't see many of our prior teams playing this poorly against a bad team.

Teams that beat us have "lead players" who take over games in crunch time.  Last two years we have not had a reliable high octane offensive player(s) like what we witnessed tonight in Kamga and Proctor.

We are missing a Proctor / Kamga at the other 4 positions meanwhile it's easy to double down on Smits to limit his success if we go 3/23 from deep.  NEXT UP...

[humbleopinion]

No one had noted that this game was different in the way that it was officiated.  We were whistled for only nine fouls, and High Point only committed eighteen.  I can only remember one call for an illegal screen.  This wasn't due to the players playing a clean game.  When Smits was fouled in the first half, I was concerned that the refs were losing control of the game.

It was evident in the warmups that we gave away twenty or thirty pounds per player.  I was pleasantly surprised by Javon's willingness and ability to mix it up in spite of being bounced around as much as he was.  It is hard to free up shooters when screens are ineffective.  I presume that this will be a learning experience.

[FieldGoodie05]

No one had noted that this game was different in the way that it was officiated.  We were whistled for only nine fouls, and High Point only committed eighteen.  I can only remember one call for an illegal screen.  This wasn't due to the players playing a clean game.  When Smits was fouled in the first half, I was concerned that the refs were losing control of the game.

It was evident in the warmups gave away twenty or thirty pounds per player.  I was pleasantly surprised by Javon's willingness and ability to mix it up in spite of being bounced around as much as he was.  It is hard to free up shooters when screens are ineffective.  I presume that this will be a learning experience.

Solid point regarding driving the lane with contact.  And regarding moving screens, Smits and Sorolla should have been whistled for several which they normally would have been.

[VU2014]

The head NCAA official was in the ARC yesterday evaluating the officiating crew.

[VU2014]

One question I have is why did Coach stop playing smits in the 2nd half? He went to sorolla instead who couldn't match Smits' offense when we needed points.

Another thing is that these shooters need to start making shots. They are getting some decent looks all season but Bakari and Fazekas need to start playing up to their abilities. Both are are having sub par seasons

[VU2010]

After watching the post-game press conference, I'm reminded of my frustration with Lottich. Too many excuses. We've been flying all over the country... tired legs.... blah blah blah. First, isn't that what you want? Isn't that what would happen in March if we made it to the tournament? Second, that's another reason to play more guys!!! No Mileek. No Kiser. As for Smits - who has been the leading scorer and very consistent thus far - your excuse to only have him play 9 minutes in the second half and get one shot off after having 12 points and 14 boards in the second half is "Hindsight is 20-20"...? Come on. We're spectstors and know better. Juame getting more minutes in the second half than Smits is inexcusable the way Smits has been playing. Inexcusable. Juame didn't bring anything to this game. Was a non-factor. I would've rather he put in Kiser to spill Derek. At least he'd go 100%. Tired of hearing about trusting the process and how much improvement guys are making. Only to revert back to the same old same old. Starting guys last year for 8 games only to sit them thereafter. One transfers and the other doesn't even make it in the game any longer. Got out coached by a legend. One it, man. Gotta own it. Don't say it's some on you and some on them blah blah blah. I'd rather let Derek prove he couldn't make it in the second half than not give him a shot ... lesson learned I guess. Lesson learned. People ripped on Bryce for using up his timeouts too soon. At least he made adjustments on the fly and was able to win games down the stretch. Hindsight is 20/20 though, right?

[talksalot]

The head NCAA official was in the ARC yesterday evaluating the officiating crew.

One of the three working the game was John Higgins (watch last years Final 4 if you want to watch him in action).  He's got the Illinois-Ohio State game tonight.   We had one "new" official working the game (Michael) and I believe he's the one they were watching/mentoring.  I thought they did a good "Consistent" job on the game.  They all let them play (lots of physical play on both ends).  JD Collins is the head NCAA official.  He worked VU games for MANY years... gave that up 8 years ago for the admin job in the NCAA. 

[talksalot]

We've been flying all over the country... tired legs....

Hope they get over that... we have Ball State on the 17th and a quick turnaround at Texas A&M on the 19th coming up after a week off for finals.

[VU2010]

The officials were fine. An elderly gentleman by us at the game last night screamed out at the refs before half that they don't know how to use a whistle because the suck. Lol no.... can't put that off on the officials. Called a good game. That's a fan who is mad at the overall situation and takes it out on the refs while HPU had 8 fouls and we had 3. Seriously? If that crew officiated every game in the manner they did, we'd be alright.

[VU2014]

I'm actually fine with Kiser and Mileek not getting minutes in close games. Until Mileek can show self control on defense (in practice as well) that he won't foul then he can earn more minutes. Kiser just isn't a strong offensive player. Maybe he would have made some kind of difference, idk.

I think it's fair to criticize Lottich for some things here and there but at the end of the day if we're shooting 3-22 from 3, it won't matter. High Point was pretty good defensively last night but there was still some decent looks from 3 that the guy should have knocked down.

[vu72]

High Point was pretty good defensively last night but there was still some decent looks from 3 that the guy should have knocked down.

I think they were much better than pretty good.  We simply couldn't get open for shots and when we did shoot they were on us very tight.  It was an old fashioned in your face defensive grind. They just made the last, very difficult shot.  They will win a lot of games.  Having said that, if we are going to contend for a MVC title, we are going to have to win these tight games.  They all will be tight once conference play begins.

[oklahomamick]

The team with more talent lost again last night. 

[M]

I'm curious how Mileek is going to show self control on defense or whatever else people are saying he needs to do in games before he gets more minutes if he isn't getting any minutes in the games.  If the legs are tired he should've got some run.  If the legs aren't tired, then I'm fine with him sitting.  But it can't be both.

[JD24]

We've been flying all over the country.

Well it IS a long flight between the dorms and the ARC 2 games in a row.

[JD24]

Still. based on the way we played today my observation that we had better figure some things out before we play BSU still stands.

No argument from me on this point.

[wh]

High Point was pretty good defensively last night but there was still some decent looks from 3 that the guy should have knocked down.

I think they were much better than pretty good.  We simply couldn't get open for shots and when we did shoot they were on us very tight.  It was an old fashioned in your face defensive grind. They just made the last, very difficult shot.  They will win a lot of games.  Having said that, if we are going to contend for a MVC title, we are going to have to win these tight games.  They all will be tight once conference play begins.

I agree. HP played hard nosed defense for 40 minutes and they deserve credit for that. We also played tough D, and did it without fouling.

If anyone is hurting us offensively more than the rest it's Bakari Evelyn. His shooting percentage for our 4 losses is abysmal:
FG   13-50=26%
3FG   7-28=25%
Compounding the problem he's averaging 13 shot attempts/game, 7 attempts from 3. That's way too many shot attempts for a guy struggling this badly. If/when he picks it up, our fortunes will change. Until then I suspect every game will be a crap shoot.

[crusader05]

I'd be curious how many of his shot attempts come because they seem to fall into a habit of paying hot potato with the ball and running down the clock. he's not a driver to the lane and so he ends up getting fed the ball a lot.

They looked worn down and off and so all our weak spots were almost comically on display. I'd actually be more willing to attribute it to them being students and this being the absolute worst week of the semester and ironically, not traveling, and probably having to do papers and classwork were probably more wearing than being able to skip town for a few days.

This seems to be a pattern of laying an egg at least once a year for no discernible reason where it's like every weakness we have goes on display. This, combined with us struggling against power5/ranked teams have been problems even in the Drew years but Lottich is not going to have the same leeway for this pattern to continue.  Their confidence in Smits is obvious as he was who the team looked for, but you can't run an offense through him the same way you could run it through a forward or guard.

[valpo64]

If a team shoots like we did last night, they do not deserve to win and will not win many games.  For a Div 1 team I don't think I have ever seen a worse 3-point shooting effort.

[tiny707]

I think Golder should sub for Bakari sometimes instead of Ryan all the time.

[crusadermoe]

Kudos to the students!!  Credit where due.   

But the team really missed a chance to excite them and create momentum for themselves.    Really strange to shoot so very poorly on your home court with familiar sight lines etc.   

So I guess my 4-1 December is a little less firm?   

[valpopal]

Their confidence in Smits is obvious as he was who the team looked for, but you can't run an offense through him the same way you could run it through a forward or guard.

You also can't run the offense through Smits when he is held off the court. Folks in my section were calling for Smits to be put in the game in the second half when Sorolla got the majority of playing time. It was obvious the guards were not as confident in Sorolla and did not pass to him the way they had been doing with Smits. I still don't understand sitting Smits most of the second half after he dominated the first half!

[justducky]

I think Golder should sub for Bakari sometimes instead of Ryan all the time.

Golder did not play well at either end but I agree with your general thinking. If we want a winning MVC season then the more broadly we develop ALL our options the more effective we will be. With the short bench rotation Matt seemed to treat this as a "must win" when it wasn't. I would have felt much more comfortable with a loss where everybody saw the floor. Developing your team for conference play is what OOC should be about.

Sackey looked baffled as he tried to figure out his best method of point guard attack. Against High Point a healthy Micah would easily have been the better option. As for Jay, his reaching 100% may take a bit longer than I had hoped. Even with only 11 available scholarship players I thought our bench would be our greatest strength. What happened?

I'm curious how Mileek is going to show self control on defense or whatever else people are saying he needs to do in games before he gets more minutes if he isn't getting any minutes in the games.  If the legs are tired he should've got some run.  If the legs aren't tired, then I'm fine with him sitting.  But it can't be both.

I am far less confident about our Valley play if Mileek is not a contributor. End of story!