Game #22 Vs Missouri State Tues 1\29\19 7 PM ARC

[EddieCabot]

Lottich isn't ready for any of this. Plain and simple. He's not. And when he doesn't have a Peters on the team to mask his inept ability to coach or lead this team, his inexperience shows. Not his fault - he hasn't ever been the head coach before and had ZERO coaching experience prior to his time at Valpo. He *could* be a good coach someday. The question is ... are we such a subpar program that we'll be the ones who continually say: "wait until next year!" Or "trust the process!" and ride it out until he has the players to execute? Like seriously we should be a 25+ win team next year with the roster we'll have. But I'm sure something will happen to prohibit that from occurring. And like always everyone will make excuses.

Well how about a guy like Bryce Drew?  I can tell you, the fans in Nashville are getting a little antzy.  He recruited 2 five star players, one projected to a be a high first rounder after one year.  Guess what?  That guy went down for the season and now Vandy is 9-11 having lost the last 8 in a row and the last 2 by 31 and then 35 points--after which Bryce said "I was proud of our effort.  I was proud of our fight throughout the second half.  They never quit"  Sound familiar?

Look, to say Matt can't coach is just wrong.  Has he made young coach mistakes?  Absolutely.  He also took this Valpo team down to Missouri State and beat them by 16.  A place where Missouri State destroyed Loyola by 35!!!!!!!!!!!  So what went wrong last night?  Maybe not having 29 points, 6 boards and two guys who shot 7 of 13 from the 3, available  from the first outing?  Just sayin...

https://www.tennessean.com/story/sports/college/vanderbilt/2019/01/29/kentucky-vs-vanderbilt-contender-vs-clown-show-and-commodores-misery/2707790002/

Good perspective here.  Any team in the country would struggle if you took away 2 of their leading scorers.  I think Matt deserves to be judged by how the team performs at full strength. 

[SanityLost17]

I asked earlier but nobody answered. 

Bakari dribbled it off his foot to end the the OT and they got a layup for the win....

But what exactly happened to end the 1st half?   Somebody turned it over and they got a layup at the buzzer.  I just can't remember who it was or how it happened. 

But to end the 1st half and end the game in the exact same way is very hard to deal with.   

[EddieCabot]

Blaming rolled ankles on strength and conditioning is ridiculous.

Most people I know in the sports medicine / sports performance industry believe that adding strength and flexibility to the ankle may not eliminate injuries, but can certainly reduce the severity and speed recovery.

Does anyone know if Valpo requires players to tape or brace ankles as a preventative measure?  This used to be common place, but I think today that the trainers leave that up to the individual players.

[VUBBFan]

Apparently there is a rumor that a Valpo fan threw trash at the ref? I asked 4 different people who saw the whole incident go down and they said no such thing happened.

So these refs are not only making up crap during the game but now they're making up horror stories about what happened to them that forced them to kick out that big bad Valpo fan who had the audacity to tell them that he felt that  they weren't doing their job correctly? What a bunch of thin skinned ninnies.They were the ones throwing trash calls at our players all night. Have these people no shame?

At the end of the game I saw one of the promotional little (golf ball sized) basketballs thrown out on the floor, close by one of the refs, who swatted it away as it bounced by him.

I have a clip of it, but I don't know how to post it here. The attachment option won't allow me to do it.

[crusadermoe]

It seems a big over reaction to blame all this on Lottich.   Yes, the buck stops there.  But our conference performance was very strong until Ryan and then Markus went down.  We know the bigs just aggravate all of us at times.  But he and Luke can't go out on the floor

Yes, the mopey press conferences are kind of annoying.  He needs to project confidence a little more strongly.  The players seem to follow the same hang dog look after a loss.  No coach is happy over a loss and he seems like a low-key person generally.  But there's no need to sound beaten down.

I would give Jevon the ball in clutch situations now because he seems most able to get to the rim or draw a foul doing it.

[justducky]

Bakari dribbled it off his foot to end the the OT and they got a layup for the win....

But what exactly happened to end the 1st half?   Somebody turned it over and they got a layup at the buzzer.  I just can't remember who it was or how it happened. 

I can't seem to get the game replay. It was a team turn over with Sackey, Lavender, McMillan, Evelyn and Freeman on the floor. In that situation I would have wanted Evelyn or Freeman to be handling the ball.

[JD24]

4.  Please coach, give us a full bench next year so when three or four of our guys go down with injuries we have enough players to play a full game with an honest chance to win.

Do you have a list of teams which could compete vs. peer teams with 3 or 4 of "their" guys out?

[EddieCabot]

Bakari dribbled it off his foot to end the the OT and they got a layup for the win....

But what exactly happened to end the 1st half?   Somebody turned it over and they got a layup at the buzzer.  I just can't remember who it was or how it happened. 

I can't seem to get the game replay. It was a team turn over with Sackey, Lavender, McMillan, Evelyn and Freeman on the floor. In that situation I would have wanted Evelyn or Freeman to be handling the ball.

Here's what happened to end the 1st half:

35.5 - MSU turnover; Valpo calls timeout to set up play
5.5 - After never getting ball below the FT line, Bakari has ball poked away from him and by the time he retrieves near mid-court, the shot clock expires.
With 5.5 left, MSU passes to Webster at Valpo's FT line; he takes 7 dribbles up court, (at mid-court, Sackey, Freeman-Liberty and Lavender are all within 3 feet of him) and he lays it over the front of the rim at the buzzer.  After dribbling through the 3 guys at midcourt, he basically waltzed to the goal.  Evelyn and McMillan left their guys in the corners just in time to catch Webster's layup coming through the net.

About 10 seconds after the half ended, they went to the sideline to talk to Coach Lottich.  How he was even able to speak after what his team did in the last 35.5 of the half is beyond me.

[humbleopinion]

I saw Lottich as inadvertently reacting to being overwhelmed with emotion that he was doing his best to contain.  In spite of being down two of his biggest threats, Valpo was up by three points in both regular time and in overtime.  In both cases we had the ball and up by one with under a minute to go and couldn't convert.  The game plan was good enough to win, but free throws, questionable calls, and poor execution took away the possibility of sweeping MoSt which had just hammered Loyola. As disappointed as I was, I can only imagine his frustration. He couldn't talk about the calls, and he wasn't going to blame the team.  It seems to me his leaning back while Bakari was talking was not a response to what Bakari was saying, but it was a physical response to all of what he was holding inside. 

Count me a one who believes in this coach.

[justducky]

With 5.5 left, MSU passes to Webster at Valpo's FT line; he takes 7 dribbles up court, (at mid-court, Sackey, Freeman-Liberty and Lavender are all within 3 feet of him) and he lays it over the front of the rim at the buzzer.  After dribbling through the 3 guys at midcourt, he basically waltzed to the goal.  Evelyn and McMillan left their guys in the corners just in time to catch Webster's layup coming through the net.

Yeah! Now I can remember without even seeing it. Somebody at mid court has to stop the ball and force a pass. None did! Maybe a freshman mistake 

[JD24]

But what exactly happened to end the 1st half?   Somebody turned it over and they got a layup at the buzzer.  I just can't remember who it was or how it happened. But to end the 1st half and end the game in the exact same way is very hard to deal with.

There was about 4 secs difference between the shot and game clocks and Valpo decided to hold for one shot. After killing all but 6 or 7 secs of the clock, Evelyn ended up with the ball and just as he started to move towards the basket he had the ball deflected. He recovered but not in enough time to get anything resembling a decent shot off and they ended up with a shot clock violation.

Whatever the ultimate goal of the final set was, it didn't come close to coming to fruition. Evelyn got the ball too late to really do anything with it anyway and there would have been 5 secs left in the half nearly no matter what he did with it. I think they got a different defensive look than expected and Lavender gave the ball up too quickly.

The defense on the layup all the way down the court was pathetic. Three guys just let him go and, as mentioned above, never stopped the ball.

[VUGrad1314]

Okay I'm still sad and upset with this loss but here's a dose of perspective: I think too many of us (myself included) are too accustomed to the old Mid-Con\ HL days where we dominated year in and year out and we could trot out a severely shorthanded lineup and still win. That's not going to happen in the MVC. Ever. These teams are too talented and well-coached and these programs are too proud for that. But here are some facts:

Our recruiting is way up
Our future is incredibly  bright
There isn't a team in this conference that could withstand what we're going through without nosediving I mean how bad was Loyola without Custer last year?
We play a style that will suit us well for this conference and will suit us well against anyone in any situation
Pressure makes diamonds and we're seeing that with our freshmen
Bakari's shot is coming back online
There is pain now but our joy will come soon and it will be amazing Chins up guys we'll win again soon. Go Valpo!

[valpopal]

I saw Lottich as inadvertently reacting to being overwhelmed with emotion that he was doing his best to contain.  In spite of being down two of his biggest threats, Valpo was up by three points in both regular time and in overtime.  In both cases we had the ball and up by one with under a minute to go and couldn't convert.  The game plan was good enough to win, but free throws, questionable calls, and poor execution took away the possibility of sweeping MoSt which had just hammered Loyola. As disappointed as I was, I can only imagine his frustration. He couldn't talk about the calls, and he wasn't going to blame the team.  It seems to me his leaning back while Bakari was talking was not a response to what Bakari was saying, but it was a physical response to all of what he was holding inside. 

Count me a one who believes in this coach.

Exactly why an awareness of body language and facial expressions is important. Though not a response to Bakari, Lottich's movement or expressions there and throughout the video distract viewers' attention and send the wrong message. He almost never looks at the players to show attention and support when they are speaking. In fact, he usually looks down unmoving and presents dejection like a victim in a hostage video. When he leans back and rolls his eyes while Bakari speaks, only negativity is projected, and the positively supportive comment Bakari is making about the freshmen players is lost.   

[humbleopinion]

Though not a response to Bakari, Lottich's movement or expressions there and throughout the video distract viewers' attention and send the wrong message.

I hope that the two dozen or so of us that actually watch the press conference will be able to look past his movements or expressions and "put the best construction on everything."

[valpopal]

Though not a response to Bakari, Lottich's movement or expressions there and throughout the video distract viewers' attention and send the wrong message.

I hope that the two dozen or so of us that actually watch the press conference will be able to look past his movements or expressions and "put the best construction on everything."

Actually, the average number of views at YouTube for the press conferences after the first four home conference games is 250 each—significantly including Valpo fans who want more reassurance and reasons to attend future games—and that does not fully account for those who may have watched in related links on social media. Moreover, the most important figures in this situation are the players, who watch themselves on the videos, who should be receiving the coach's attention and support when they are speaking, and for whom Matt should be setting an example they can emulate.

[valpo64]

It never  ceases to  amaze me how many "experts"we have on this board...from so-called doctors and physical therapists, to coaches and those who analyze body movements, etc. etc.  Don't we realize that we played a game, even at crunch time, with personnel that normally do not normally play, let alone play at a position they are used to, and we expect a fantastic result and win?  With both of our "bigs", Fazekas and Golder out, WE ARE PLAYING VERY SHORT HANDED.  I too was very disappointed in the final result, but give Matt and those who played some credit, they worked hard for the most part.   When you do not have shooters available, we will not shoot well.  What do we expect from Kiser, Jay, MeMillen etc.  They are not scorers.  Kiser works and hustles with the best of them, but he is not a shooter/scorer.  Right now we are at a big disadvantage and yet we still could have won last night.  Let's wait for the guys to get back healthy again and get our "first" team on the  floor together and then see what happens.  We should be able to play with anyone in the MVC like we did early in the conference season.  Matt is only human as I am sure he was very disappointed with the outcome.  We will be back!  GO VALPO!

[SanityLost17]

Bakari dribbled it off his foot to end the the OT and they got a layup for the win....

But what exactly happened to end the 1st half?   Somebody turned it over and they got a layup at the buzzer.  I just can't remember who it was or how it happened. 

I can't seem to get the game replay. It was a team turn over with Sackey, Lavender, McMillan, Evelyn and Freeman on the floor. In that situation I would have wanted Evelyn or Freeman to be handling the ball.

Here's what happened to end the 1st half:

35.5 - MSU turnover; Valpo calls timeout to set up play
5.5 - After never getting ball below the FT line, Bakari has ball poked away from him and by the time he retrieves near mid-court, the shot clock expires.
With 5.5 left, MSU passes to Webster at Valpo's FT line; he takes 7 dribbles up court, (at mid-court, Sackey, Freeman-Liberty and Lavender are all within 3 feet of him) and he lays it over the front of the rim at the buzzer.  After dribbling through the 3 guys at midcourt, he basically waltzed to the goal.  Evelyn and McMillan left their guys in the corners just in time to catch Webster's layup coming through the net.

About 10 seconds after the half ended, they went to the sideline to talk to Coach Lottich.  How he was even able to speak after what his team did in the last 35.5 of the half is beyond me.

Thank you.  I thought it was Bakari.    So obviously Coach Lottich wanted the ball in HIS hands to end the 1st half and to end the overtime.   Did not work out very well.  Gets it stolen in the 1st half and dribbles it off his foot in the overtime.  I want Sackey/Freeman with the ball in their hand at the end of the game the rest of the way.  When Golder gets back I want it to be him.   All 3 can get to the basket and when Fazekas is back all 3 can get him the ball if the lane closes. 

[SanityLost17]

Bakari dribbled it off his foot to end the the OT and they got a layup for the win....

But what exactly happened to end the 1st half?   Somebody turned it over and they got a layup at the buzzer.  I just can't remember who it was or how it happened. 

I can't seem to get the game replay. It was a team turn over with Sackey, Lavender, McMillan, Evelyn and Freeman on the floor. In that situation I would have wanted Evelyn or Freeman to be handling the ball.

Here's what happened to end the 1st half:

35.5 - MSU turnover; Valpo calls timeout to set up play
5.5 - After never getting ball below the FT line, Bakari has ball poked away from him and by the time he retrieves near mid-court, the shot clock expires.
With 5.5 left, MSU passes to Webster at Valpo's FT line; he takes 7 dribbles up court, (at mid-court, Sackey, Freeman-Liberty and Lavender are all within 3 feet of him) and he lays it over the front of the rim at the buzzer.  After dribbling through the 3 guys at midcourt, he basically waltzed to the goal.  Evelyn and McMillan left their guys in the corners just in time to catch Webster's layup coming through the net.

About 10 seconds after the half ended, they went to the sideline to talk to Coach Lottich.  How he was even able to speak after what his team did in the last 35.5 of the half is beyond me.

Thank you.  I thought it was Bakari.    So obviously Coach Lottich wanted the ball in HIS hands to end the 1st half and to end the overtime.   Did not work out very well.  Gets it stolen in the 1st half and dribbles it off his foot in the overtime.  I want Sackey/Freeman with the ball in their hand at the end of the game the rest of the way.  When Golder gets back I want it to be him.   All 3 can get to the basket and when Fazekas is back all 3 can get him the ball if the lane closes.

The stats back me up on this.    Last night. 

The Freshman: 
9-18 from the floor (50%)
18 rebounds
3 assists to 2 turnovers
**0-3 from 3-point-land**

Put the ball in THEIR hands to end the game.  Do some sort of action at the top of the key to get them the ball with momentum towards the basket.   Bakari needs to be a catch and shoot 3 guy and not a driver just like Fazekas is not a driver.   Let the freshman drive it to the rim.  When Fazekas and Golder are back we could literally have 2 guys who can drive and 3 guys who can hit 3's waiting for the kickout after whatever action you chose at the top.

[justducky]

Thank you.  I thought it was Bakari.    So obviously Coach Lottich wanted the ball in HIS hands to end the 1st half and to end the overtime.   Did not work out very well.  Gets it stolen in the 1st half and dribbles it off his foot in the overtime.  I want Sackey/Freeman with the ball in their hand at the end of the game the rest of the way.  When Golder gets back I want it to be him.   All 3 can get to the basket and when Fazekas is back all 3 can get him the ball if the lane closes. 

Come on man! I thought I taught you more basketball than that!

No! You want the ball in the hands of somebody who can dribble or pass or shoot from anywhere on the floor. That eliminates Sackey and even Golder from top consideration. Your other choice is Freeman as a freshman. Given the options I would comfortably sink or swim with Bakari and stand by that decision.

Next year in a similar situation you might hand pick your lineup to include your choices from Evelyn, Robinson, Freeman, Bradford, Gordon, Fazekas, McMillan and Golder. Wouldn't it be nice to have four or five mobile ball handling 3 point shooters on the floor instead of two?

[M]

Evelyn should not have it in his hands. Freshmen or not, Freeman has proven nearly all season he is a better option then Evelyn. Give me the guy who has been making plays vs the guy who has struggled.

[VU2014]

I don't understand the criticism of Lottich for that game last night.

I hope you guys realize he was missing two of his top 3 scorers and Smits was battling a stiff back last night. And on top of all of that he was starting two freshman and they played quite well. We had only 8 scholarship players and took one of the hottest teams in the conference to OT. We were also battling the idiocy of the refs.

What are you watching???  It's ok to be constructively critical but put things in perspective.

[VALPO LI]

Curious were 1/3 of the fans in gold last night?
500 gold T-shirts given out, 1,333 in attendance.  Perhaps fans are waiting for warmer weather in two weeks vs Loyola to sport a gold tee.  Good news another T-shirt giveaway on the 10th. 
-sport the gold VU!!!

[wh]

I don't understand the criticism of Lottich for that game last night.

I hope you guys realize he was missing two of his top 3 scorers and Smits was battling a stiff back last night. And on top of all of that he was starting two freshman and they played quite well. We had only 8 scholarship players and took one of the hottest teams in the conference to OT. We were also battling the idiocy of the refs.

What are you watching???  It's ok to be constructively critical but put things in perspective.

Where did you hear that he was still dealing with a back issue?

[VU2014]

I don't understand the criticism of Lottich for that game last night.

I hope you guys realize he was missing two of his top 3 scorers and Smits was battling a stiff back last night. And on top of all of that he was starting two freshman and they played quite well. We had only 8 scholarship players and took one of the hottest teams in the conference to OT. We were also battling the idiocy of the refs.

What are you watching???  It's ok to be constructively critical but put things in perspective.

Where did you hear that he was still dealing with a back issue?

I talked to someone in the program. I shouldn't have said "stiff". They just said his back didn't feel 100% but he's well enough to play

[bbtds]

after which Bryce said "I was proud of our effort.  I was proud of our fight throughout the second half.  They never quit"  Sound familiar?

No, this would sound more familiar............... "I was proud of our uhhhh effort, you know.  I was proud of our uhhhhmmmm fight throughout the second half, you know.  They never, uhhhhmmm, quit"


See what I mean.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmeGIY6O_ZE