Loyola at Valpo 2/10: Sunday Showdown

[humbleopinion]

It seems that some of you have forgotten that in our first meeting with Loyola we were thumped by seventeen points and were never in the game.  I thought that we made some good adjustments that made this a competitive game that allowed us to lead for most of the game.  I remember someone writing that he/she would be happy if Valpo kept most of the Ramblers in check defensively and force the big two to beat us.  That's what happened down the stretch.  I found it interesting that Smits and Sorolla were assigned to handle Krutwig without a double team for much of the game.  I thought that they did a good job handling the same guy who shined against some of the best seniors in the country in the Big Dance last year.

Our defensive intensity has been admirable over the last few games.  When Ryan comes back will be be able (both physically and emotionally) to match that effort?

[Just Sayin]

When you have youth and inexperience both with players and coaching, crunch-time basketball  will be a roller coaster experience and leads can vanish very quickly. Taking panic shots near the end of the game when time on the shot clock remains while being just a few points behind is an example of youth and inexperience. Offensive breakdowns. People who shoot during crunch time should be the ones who are the best shooters, not sub-par shooters who happen to have an open look. Seems to me the coach should have a different strategy and the players should know that during every critical crunch time, we find plays and ways to get the ball into the hands of the best shooters, like Freeman for example. He's just too good not to be involved in every play during crunch time. He's athletic, can shake and bake, can dish, and can shoot - he's the true triple threat. Yet he wasn't the guy taking hook shots or three-point shots at inopportune times during crunch time. That's coaching.

But that said, this team and the coach are PROGRESSING and they know it. They can feel it. They know they can make a splash come tourney time. Their confidence is growing. Things are moving, ever so slowly and inconsistently, in the right direction. Can't be unhappy about that. Winning consistently is just around the corner.

[a3uge]

I would go lightly on the Loyola fans - they've only had under a year experience.

[IrishDawg]

Help me guys. I'm getting tired of near misses silver linings and moral victories. All I feel after losses like this one and Missouri State is disappointment and despair that we'll never get it right and finish down the stretch. I need help seeing the positives. Sure we'll have great new transfers coming in and more experience but we'll still have seven footers that play small and a system that doesn't seem to work well for good and open shots down the stretch namely a coach that struggles to coach offense especially in crunch time. Are we sure we'll be all right going forward? Will we for all of our expected improvement next year really be able to face down what should be a much tougher and improved MVC next year?

Depending on transfers, Valpo is going to be much better next season just by bringing in Robinson and Gordon and Sackey and Freeman being in the program another year.  Improvements happen year over year.  Marquette was a horrible defensive team the last few seasons, and this year just by bringing in another couple of guys and having continuity with the majority of their roster they've improved about 150 spots in defensive efficiency just from a year ago.  Valpo is close, and really you get another couple of guys out there that need to be defended on the perimeter and that will change the dynamic for guys like Smits and Sorolla.

I honestly don't know if the MVC as a whole will be much tougher and improved than this season.  Evansville, Valpo, Indiana State, Northern Iowa and Bradley should be better, but looking at Loyola, Drake, Missouri State, Illinois State, Southern Illinois, there's a LOT of Seniors making major contributions to their teams that are leaving those programs, so my guess is the league will be similar to what it is this year.

[may know]

Man, a few of our fans are salty. lol

Really like this team's chances in MVC tourney as much as anyone once everyone's back. MOST fans saying they want anyone but Valpo in STL.

[VU2014]

Really like this team's chances in MVC tourney as much as anyone once everyone's back. MOST fans saying they want anyone but Valpo in STL.

I'm with you. I really think this team can make noise down in St. Louis. They play great defense and you plug in a hopefully healthy Fazekas and Golder and I think we have a chance to beat anyone in this conference.

Last nights game's end result sucked and we did sort of choked but I think a healthy Valpo team can finish that Loyola team. Nobody in this conference are world beaters this season. They need to take last night as a learning experience. You can't let your foot off the peddle.

[Valpo89]

Wow, you guys really think they can win 3 games in 3 days in Arch Madness, assuming they can avoid the Thursday rounds?
Whatever.
If they won 2, I'll be shocked.

[NativeCheesehead]

I'm not sure our confidence in our chances in STL stem from our team's ability so much as a complete inability of anyone to separate. Loyola is the favorite, hands down, without question. But their depth will be tried in three games in 72 hours. They're the safest bet, but this is a crazy and transitional year in the MVC.

[vu84v2]

Was at the game yesterday - first game in person at Valpo in three years.

-Environment was great. Someone in another post said that they were wrong about the ARC being a good venue. Perceived good opponent really drove this atmosphere...it will be even better as the team improves. Points, however, to the importance of having better non-conference opponents for having a great atmosphere.
-For those of you who rag on the students and the student section, they really brought it yesterday. Kudos for the student section really making it a great environment. Freeman took Custer out of the game and the student section negated the Loyola fans for much of the game.
-Freeman is the real deal. I've seen him on TV and been impressed, but in person you really see what a great hard-working dynamic player he is. He is conference POY when he develops some more muscle and further improves his outside shot.
-I think that I can see what Lottich is building. Defensively, this team is getting there (yeah, I know Loyola has struggled some offensively this year). He is building around defense and then will (hopefully) develop better offense. Valpo does not have consistent outside shooters, so Loyola packed it in and Valpo could not get into the offense on many possessions. I do think the influx of some new players will help this a lot next year.
-J was very strong on defense. Krutwig really struggled when J was in the game.
-I can see Valpo beating anyone in the conference tournament, but this team does not have the offense to win three games in three days.

Two other things:
-The woman who enjoyed standing in the aisle by Section F (even taking pictures of her family while the game was going on) needs to stay at home.
-It was nice to at least see another of my teams take down the National champs on Saturday.

[SanityLost17]

Fans who are distraught are the fans who realize that at the end of the season we are going to look at our last 3 home games and think, "what could have been."

Again I will chalk the Drake game up as pure bad luck.  Nothing you can do in a situation where that many vital guys are out.   But the MoSt/Loyola games were ours to be had if we could close out both halves the way we played the rest of the game.  Thats what hurts.  Sitting here knowing if you turn those 2 games around we are currently in a tie for 1st and pushed MoSt down to 3rd place instead of 2nd.   Thats why fans are distraught.  2 games we played well enough to win for 30-35 minutes but couldn't finish the job.

Lottich is still learning to be a good offensive coach, but the effort is there and the defense is there.  I am no offensive genius but I can tell we are not consistently getting players the ball in positions that enhance their natural abilities -- AKA - in a position where they can thrive given their natural abilities.  He seems to still be figuring out best substitution patterns and how to adjust on the fly to changing defenses.   In his defense, that stuff is REALLY HARD and Porter Moser wasn't really good at it until the last few years.  So although I have been critical I will give him some slack. 

[SanityLost17]

Fans who are distraught are the fans who realize that at the end of the season we are going to look at our last 3 home games and think, "what could have been."

Again I will chalk the Drake game up as pure bad luck.  Nothing you can do in a situation where that many vital guys are out.   But the MoSt/Loyola games were ours to be had if we could close out both halves the way we played the rest of the game.  Thats what hurts.  Sitting here knowing if you turn those 2 games around we are currently in a tie for 1st and pushed MoSt down to 3rd place instead of 2nd.   Thats why fans are distraught.  2 games we played well enough to win for 30-35 minutes but couldn't finish the job.

Lottich is still learning to be a good offensive coach, but the effort is there and the defense is there.  I am no offensive genius but I can tell we are not consistently getting players the ball in positions that enhance their natural abilities -- AKA - in a position where they can thrive given their natural abilities.  He seems to still be figuring out best substitution patterns and how to adjust on the fly to changing defenses.   In his defense, that stuff is REALLY HARD and Porter Moser wasn't really good at it until the last few years.  So although I have been critical I will give him some slack.

And Momentum/confidence is contagious.   Turn those 2 games around and put us in a tie for 1st and we are far less likely to have any sort of "letdown" game in the final 6 games we have left.  Those 2 games may lead to another loss or 2 in the final 6 games we wouldn't have had.  I can only hope the return of Fazekas is a shot in the arm needed to overcome the disastrous middle 1/3 of the season and let us finish our final 6 games the way we started our 1st 6 games.   

Remaining Schedule:
- We can't have a letdown on any of our remaining home games.  All need to be W's and thats all.  Two in-state rivalries make me nervous depending on the confidence level going forward of this team. 
- @Bradley is playing really well right now and Brown is absolutely on fire.  However, the fact that we have Sackey might mean we matchup with them better than most teams.  A player with equal quickness to Brown that can actually stay with him.
- @Drake -- Can we play angry about the fact they stole one from us shorthanded? 
-@UNI -- They keep losing close game after close game.  Seriously, they have lost so many well played close games.  They struggle with consistent offense as well.  Can we pull off a nail-biter road game?

We have one of the more favorable schedules for the last 1/3rd of the season.  Gotta get on a roll going into Arch Madness to prove all the "stay positive" posters correct.     

[FWalum]

People who shoot during crunch time should be the ones who are the best shooters, not sub-par shooters who happen to have an open look. Seems to me the coach should have a different strategy and the players should know that during every critical crunch time, we find plays and ways to get the ball into the hands of the best shooters, like Freeman for example. He's just too good not to be involved in every play during crunch time. He's athletic, can shake and bake, can dish, and can shoot - he's the true triple threat. Yet he wasn't the guy taking hook shots or three-point shots at inopportune times during crunch time. That's coaching

I guarantee that at the 4:26 time out and again at the 3:29 time out Matt said something similar to what you wrote.  At the 4:26 time out we had two players that were shooting better than 30% from 3 on the floor. Loyola, the best 3 point shooting team in the conference, had 4 players shooting 37%or better on the floor. Here is what Porter Moser said in the 4:26 time out, "Pack it in, continue to double the post and don't let Freeman beat us off the dribble. Let them take the long three but don't give them anything inside"  I don't think it is a coincidence that Kiser, Sackey and Evelyn were able to get up shots but Freeman didn't have the opportunity to make anything happen. Matt countered at the 3:29 by putting in Golder, our best available shooter, but he just was not himself. The whole reason that the Townes Kurtwig pick and roll worked for them down the stretch was because Townes is shooting 50% from 3 the last 12 games and Kurtwig is the best post assist man in the league because he can throw it out to the best 3 point shooting teammates in the league... the whole reason we didn't double the post in this game. Considering that we had to play Loyola straight up without really being able to sag off or bring over another defender to prevent the split was pretty impressive for more than 3/4 of the game. We had some lapses at the end of the game that cost us and the fact that we just don't have shooters to spread the floor was a very apparent weakness. Gore talked a lot in the post game about trying to give the players confidence in their shooting ability, I have no idea what is going on with Evelyn, is it the surgery, mechanical or mental? How does a player that showed such growth last year revert to what we are seeing on the court a year later.  Is that a result of coaching... are the shooting woes a result of coaching... I really don't see any major flaws in the "in game" coaching, the defense looks more than adequate so the only thing I can wonder about is the day to day shooting (this might fall primarily on the players) and the strategical teaching of the offense.

[valpo64]

Great environment yesterday.  Let's give Coach L some credit as we gave a great defensive effort, especially on Custer even he did get some free throws late when we had to foul.  While we struggled at times on offense let's give credit to Loyola who  has one of the best defensive teams in the Country.  And yet we still had some good looks but couldn't convert.  Overall we played pretty well against a veteran Loyola squad. Let's face it , we are not a 3-point threat without Fazekas.  Loved  Kiser's effort but when he has to play that many minutes he HAS to be a scoring threat which he is not. When Kiser plays it is easy for our opponents to sag in the middle because John just can't get it done on offense. Our bigs played in a crowd all afternoon. Our freshman guards are one heck of a defensive pair in the backcourt and they seem to be getting better.  What a turnaround for Freeman after he was never in the flow when we played LU in Chicago.  He just keeps getting better and better as the season progresses. We will be a viable contender in St. Louis especially if we are at full strength.

[justducky]

Hats off to the students and crowd tonight. Wish we could have got the W for them to build some momentum and keep the positive vibes going.

Here's a positive vibe....SOLD OUT CROWD 5,148 strong at the ARC tonight

Ducky you nailed it!!!!

Are we cooking the books? Watched the ESPNU replay and it looked like AA and BB had some big gaps. Were any of you sitting up there or viewing it from the chair backs? Did some of that crowd leave early?

[crusader05]

I do not have a lot of Basketball IQ but I saw a grind out game where both teams seemed to lose their flow on occasion but were able to claw it back/spread the lead. The difference I saw in teams was composure. We got a bit frantic toward the end and are still a little unsure. Some of that is youth, some of that is time, and some of that is why you want to be in a league like the MVC where you can't relax at all and need to keep your head in the game. We seemed to have stopped the tendency to just completely fall apart, but we still need to show our ability to keep it together when we need to.

A couple other pieces: man is Sackey fast. it's almost pointless to run a screen on him because he just darts around and is with his man again almost immediately. There were quite a few impressive blocks this game and Freeman is cool as a cucumber out there and the future of this team.

[justducky]

Keep Williamson in mind for the Ramblers. He hurt us in Chicago before he hurt his arm for a second time. His return is slated for late this month but sounds more uncertain than for Fazekas. Both of their absences have near equal weights.

Who else would prefer to be in the opposite bracket from Loyola?

[valpo84]

FW--as you know, shooting is so dependent on being healthy, particularly in the lower half.  If you do not have your legs, everything else devolves. Bakari's shots are flat as a pancake.  No parabola.  Something is physically wrong.  He is not elevating and is shooting flat-footed.  Smits also looked like the back was acting up yesterday.  Where you see this is FTs.  Kevin Love also has a recurring back issue and you can tell right away when he isn't loose.  3s hit the front of the rim or are significantly flatter, and his excellent FT shooting starts missing. 

What's interesting about a game like yesterday is you can point to key moments or questions, but the game is moving so fast, clock ticking away, that you as a coach have to slow it down in your mind and your timeouts.  Why was Sackey not in there to run the offense with 4 minutes left.  He sets them up in the offense better than Bakari.  He can't shoot from outside, but you need to keep the ball moving not stagnating on the perimeter (aka the Lebron offense) plus he's a harassing defender.  Kiser shoots too soon in the shot clock, but had an open 3 look.  It would be nice to have a 3 shooter, but Kiser had made 2 open looks on Tuesday.  Why not offense/defense subs with Smirolla?  In the end, in close games, big possums walk late.  Townes is POY candidate for MVC.  He made plays.  They've been in nail-biters before.  Remember to early season when Matt said we need a leader?  Yesterday, I determined it's time to have Sackey in the game at the end of halves and crunch time.  "With about 3 minutes to go, I turned to Mrs. 84 and said we have no offense on the floor.  Who do you want to take the shot."

Last point, we have had a bevy of 3 pt shooters recently (Boggs, Bogan, Peters, Carter, Skara, Haarpaa, Broekhoff to name a few), but we do not have any true 3 shooters except Fazekas right now.  That makes for a difficult way to win when Ds are sagging and you can't free up the drivers, or have space for the Centers.

[VU2010]

Youth ... inexperience ... having the flu ... y'all are all about the excuses. That's not what gritty means. You know that, right? What's the MO of the team? Kiser? He's gritty. May not score a point but fouls out with 8 boards. Figure it out -
If that's what Valpo's MO is then let's stop making the excuses. Lottich again brought up excuses during the press conference. For once - I wish he'd say: "We got out-coached down the stretch. That's on me." Know how much difference that could make??? Just a thought...

[vu72]

Hats off to the students and crowd tonight. Wish we could have got the W for them to build some momentum and keep the positive vibes going.

Here's a positive vibe....SOLD OUT CROWD 5,148 strong at the ARC tonight

Ducky you nailed it!!!!

Are we cooking the books? Watched the ESPNU replay and it looked like AA and BB had some big gaps. Were any of you sitting up there or viewing it from the chair backs? Did some of that crowd leave early?

I doubt it.  I was checking the ticket site right up till about 10 minutes till tipoff.  The lower level was completely sold out as was CC upstairs.  I would guess maybe 100 seats in each of BB and DD.  The space left was in AA, maybe half sold. BB etc hold about 500 each.

[crusadermoe]

Perhaps we borrowed from Chicago voting techniques?       

[crusader05]

reasons are not excuses. again, stop being mad at us that we're not on your Lottich is the worst coach ever vibe as we analyze and process the game. There have been criticisms of lottich's choices as well as analysis of what worked against us that is both in and out of our control.

[EddieCabot]

Let them have their fun while it lasts. Moser might act cocky, but he's no dummy. He knows all they did today is stave off the inevitable changing of the guard a bit longer.

Loyola hit the lottery by landing big-time transfers in Townes and Custer at the same time a pudgy, sparsely-recruited freshman arrived and magically become the league's best post player.  They had a magical run last year and are still ok this year, but next year it will be back to Valpo dominating Loyola like they did in the Horizon League. 

[crusader05]

Do they do head count by ticket sales or head count? cause noone in EE had tickets or the student section so if they are just doing some form of head count as people walk in there could be 5,000+ and still have empty seats as there was probably a good 20-50 people who stood along the rails the entire time, not counting people who were down on the floor or wandering around.

[justducky]

All of us saw the 1 second on shot clock inbounds play following a time out. Looks, fakes, cuts with seconds ticking off followed by a pass to the basket almost tipped in by the Golder. Did Matt design that as our first option? All opinions will be welcomed.

[wh]

Do they do head count by ticket sales or head count? cause noone in EE had tickets or the student section so if they are just doing some form of head count as people walk in there could be 5,000+ and still have empty seats as there was probably a good 20-50 people who stood along the rails the entire time, not counting people who were down on the floor or wandering around.

... lest we forget, there's the inevitable migration of people who move from the mezzanine to the main floor and sit in open seats left by no-shows. It aggravates me, and I'm not even sure why.