Valpo vs Illinois State - 1/2

[VU2010]

It's time for year 2 of Valpo in the Valley. Open up with Illinois State coming to town on Wednesday. Illinois State comes in off a tough loss against UCF, if I'm not mistaken.
1. What's the lineup?
2. Score Predictions?
3. Attendance Predictions?
4. Other?

[M]

I'll take a shot:
1. Evelyn, Golder, Fazekas, Smits, Freeman
2. 71-68 Valpo
3. 2250
4. Jacket comes off with 12 minutes left first half.

[VU2014]

1. Lavendar, Freeman, Bakari, Fazekas, Smits
2. 78-69 Illinois State
3. 2759
4. Phil Fayne vs Smits will be a massive mismatch and be the difference maker in this game. If Smits and Sorolla can handle him then we may just win this game.

[humbleopinion]

Will Bakari be available to be in the starting lineup?

[FieldGoodie05]

Will Bakari be available to be in the starting lineup?

Hope he's available but not given that starting nod.  He's the least "gritty" player on the team behind Smorolla and needs to be less of our offense BEFORE he naturally slides back into his starting role.  It's all in between the ears with Bakari it would seem.

[VALPO LI]

As I sit down this Sunday morning with a cup of Joe in hand do I catchup on my roller coaster Stocks in the Wall Street Journal or roll the dice with the Valpo message board.
So here I am with my 2 cents
1.  Lineup:  Lavender, Freeman, Golder, Fazekas, Smits.  (Evelyn dresses)
2.  Score: 71-68 Valpo
The State school from the prairie state only won 1 game in December and it was done in OT.  They will come in hungry....and motivation will be to avenge last years loss in the Arc. Dunk City
3.  Crowd: 2,270. Haven't had a crowd over that this year except for the big Ball St. promo night!
4.  Other predictions:  "M" or "Wh" still moves the ticket table at the end of the game.  "Wh" and company will get their black and white copy of the line up.  Concession stand upstairs still closed
My Optimistic outlook for a W:
If the boys in brown and gold fly up and down the court as they did in Sin City with little turnovers as possible, hustle on the court, play strong in the paint, rebound as a team and make those shots go through the rim then will the fighting crusaders rise to glory and defeat the mighty birds from the land of Lincoln.

[Valpo89]

Was Bakari really suffering from a hockey-like "lower body injury?" Or was it really a one-game suspension for his conduct and demeanor in the prior games? Hmm. Just throwing that out there.

[NativeCheesehead]

89, without some insider info that's very irresponsible speculation. Either he has regressed significantly in 15 games based the much larger sample size of last year, or the injury he had (has) is really having an effect. If the rumors on this board  are true that he had surgery before the season I know what I'm betting on.

[VU2014]

89, without some insider info that's very irresponsible speculation. Either he has regressed significantly in 15 games based the much larger sample size of last year, or the injury he had (has) is really having an effect. If the rumors on this board  are true that he had surgery before the season I know what I'm betting on.

It's not a rumor that he had surgery. He really had foot surgery and I'm pretty sure it was confirmed publicly.

I'm not sure what the deal is with Bakari this season but his shooting has been brutal. Maybe the surgery has affected his shooting stroke or maybe it's this back injury. We need him to get right if we want to make a run at Arch Madness.

[philspunch]

The (or a) injury did not keep him out.  89 is correct.  He was being reprimanded and will be interesting to see how this plays out long term. 

The high point game someone decided not to play a team game or listen to his coaches.  There is no I in team but there is in Bakari. 

[VU2014]

The (or a) injury did not keep him out.  89 is correct.  He was being reprimanded and will be interesting to see how this plays out long term. 

The high point game someone decided not to play a team game or listen to his coaches.  There is no I in team but there is in Bakari. 

Interesting. Then why wouldn't they just be candid about the situation?

[FieldGoodie05]

89, without some insider info that's very irresponsible speculation. Either he has regressed significantly in 15 games based the much larger sample size of last year, or the injury he had (has) is really having an effect. If the rumors on this board  are true that he had surgery before the season I know what I'm betting on.

I wholeheartedly disagree regarding "irresponsible".  This is not the Times...

[valpotx]

Greatest Valpo board name, ever...Philspunch.

[NativeCheesehead]

89 if your info is good then I apologize. But now this brings up an even more significant issue.

I don't believe we as fans are entitled to any information. But don't lie to us. And don't put reporters like Paul in a position to put out misinformation to fans.

I'm beginning to think the dysfunction in this program extends higher. Either our AD ok-ed this or Matt felt comfortable enough to extend a lie to the press, and by extension, the fans. This is completely unacceptable and quite frankly, not in line with the Christian values of this school.

Again, if the info is accurate I look forward to one of the reporters asking about this in the next press conference.

[VU2010]

I'm a little confused as to what folks are saying the dishonesty was - regarding the claim about why BE was out of the game?

[M]

It was put out by media that he had a lower body injury. Phil shows up out of nowhere and verifies a previous claim that he was held out as punishment.

For what it's worth it looked to me from way up high that he was limping a little bit while his teammates where warming up pregame.

[Valpo89]

I have absolutely no insider information. I only threw it out there as being a possibility because I thought the phrase "lower body injury" was suspicious, coming shortly after his apparent attitude issues in the Ball State and perhaps A&M games. The timing seemed too perfect to use that phrase, and it was an easy game to bench him and still win handily.

I think a lot of things around the program seem overly secretive now. That's just from my perspective of being around the Drews for so long, and not being at all close to anyone there now. I've shared my disdain also for how the "powers that be" have relegated the beat reporters from both newspapers to a corner of the ARC, when there are seats available on the media table. There are more than a few people who sit at that table on the floor for supposed "game management" that don't need to sit there and probably don't stay there the entire game anyway. I have a feeling they don't want reporters seeing or hearing anything from too close of a vantage point, and then asking about it in the post-game "press conference" that is now shared on social media. Big Brother may not be watching, but they're controlling as much as possible.

[historyman]

89, without some insider info that's very irresponsible speculation. Either he has regressed significantly in 15 games based the much larger sample size of last year, or the injury he had (has) is really having an effect. If the rumors on this board  are true that he had surgery before the season I know what I'm betting on.

I saw Bakari wearing a boot on his foot due to a ankle injury in June 2018. When asked Bakari said he had had surgery on his foot and would not be practicing or playing in open gym for about another month.

[may know]

philspunch has no profile.

[VUBBFan]

I think a lot of things around the program seem overly secretive now. That's just from my perspective of being around the Drews for so long, and not being at all close to anyone there now. I've shared my disdain also for how the "powers that be" have relegated the beat reporters from both newspapers to a corner of the ARC, when there are seats available on the media table. There are more than a few people who sit at that table on the floor for supposed "game management" that don't need to sit there and probably don't stay there the entire game anyway. I have a feeling they don't want reporters seeing or hearing anything from too close of a vantage point, and then asking about it in the post-game "press conference" that is now shared on social media. Big Brother may not be watching, but they're controlling as much as possible.

 

Re: Western Kentucky 11/15/18 at Myrtle Beach Invitational 5:00 p m. ESPNU
« Reply #10 on: November 07, 2018, 09:58:47 PM »

Quote (selected)
We have 20 seats on the courtside scorer's table/press row. The expansion of TV/video broadcasts requires 4 seats for all that equipment, plus 1 seat for the timeout coordinator. In addition, when we joined the MVC, we had to add replay equipment, which takes up another two spots, and it is also mandated that there is a spot for an event management staff member.

Long story short, there are a number of spots being taken up by personnel who wouldn't have taken up spots in the past. You add in the table crew (scoreboard/clock/official scorers), PA/marketing, sports info/stats, and seats for visiting team personnel, and you run out of available seats quickly. I can do a lot of things with numbers, but I can't make 26 people fit into 20 seats. It's why a few years ago, I started moving our writers up onto the track, and why last year, we moved both radio positions onto the track as well.

That photo was taken at our exhibition game, which we didn't have video for, hence no broadcasters/timeout coordinator/replay equipment. I made the decision to keep my seating setup like it would be for a normal regular season game, rather than move people downstairs for just one game and then move them right back to the track.

[wh]

Re: Western Kentucky 11/15/18 at Myrtle Beach Invitational 5:00 p m. ESPNU
« Reply #10 on: November 07, 2018, 09:58:47 PM »

Quote (selected)
We have 20 seats on the courtside scorer's table/press row. The expansion of TV/video broadcasts requires 4 seats for all that equipment, plus 1 seat for the timeout coordinator. In addition, when we joined the MVC, we had to add replay equipment, which takes up another two spots, and it is also mandated that there is a spot for an event management staff member.

Presumably, the individual that fills that seat was MIA for the Ball State and PNW games.

[justducky]

I'm not sure what the deal is with Bakari this season but his shooting has been brutal. Maybe the surgery has affected his shooting stroke or maybe it's this back injury. We need him to get right if we want to make a run at Arch Madness.

Nagging injuries can affect both your mental and physical performances. It takes maturity to fully restrict your play to what your body can properly execute. While I have no inside information on either his mind or body, I suspect that a disciplined approach to his current strengths is the best overall answer to his and the team needs.

A quick glance at available tickets show that D, E, DD and CC have a lot of seats pre sold. This suggests that Illinois St will be bringing a nice crowd and this is one of the biggest benefits of our jump to the MVC. 

[VU2014]

I'm not sure what the deal is with Bakari this season but his shooting has been brutal. Maybe the surgery has affected his shooting stroke or maybe it's this back injury. We need him to get right if we want to make a run at Arch Madness.

Nagging injuries can affect both your mental and physical performances. It takes maturity to fully restrict your play to what your body can properly execute. While I have no inside information on either his mind or body, I suspect that a disciplined approach to his current strengths is the best overall answer to his and the team needs.

A quick glance at available tickets show that D, E, DD and CC have a lot of seats pre sold. This suggests that Illinois St will be bringing a nice crowd and this is one of the biggest benefits of our jump to the MVC. 

I'm definitely not the same caliber of athlete as Bakari but I know when I've had lingering injuries I end up just hurting a different muscle trying to compensate trying to deal with the old injury if it's not fully healed.

I'm not trying to put down Bakari but he's not particularly great at any one skill, other than what we thought was shooting. He's just in a serious rut right now and needs to get healthy to get out of this season long slump. Hopefully things start to click for him.

[tiny707]

Markus and Milik should be a fun matchup.

[valpopal]

Vegas has Valpo favored by 2.5 points, which merely reflects the advantage of a home program with two evenly rated teams. I hope the crowd is large enough and enthused enough to supply that home court edge!