New International Commit to Valpo!

[VUGrad1314]

This will be a good test case to see if Lottich is a good developer of talent or not. Lorange believes in him and has committed to him and from early readings seems super coachable. Any failure will be on Lottich and not on any other factor.

[VU2014]

This will be a good test case to see if Lottich is a good developer of talent or not. Lorange believes in him and has committed to him and from early readings seems super coachable. Any failure will be on Lottich and not on any other factor.

It's a bit early to be making that proclamation that a kid is coachable, because we don't know him at all yet. But I agree this "fresh" start with basically a half a new roster will go a long way in determining how good of a coach Lottich is. Can he get these players to play and run a offense he wants them to run. Can he get this squad to play as a cohesive unit.

[Just Sayin]

This will be a good test case to see if Lottich is a good developer of talent or not. Lorange believes in him and has committed to him and from early readings seems super coachable. Any failure will be on Lottich and not on any other factor.

It's a bit early to be making that proclamation that a kid is coachable, because we don't know him at all yet. But I agree this "fresh" start with basically a half a new roster will go a long way in determining how good of a coach Lottich is. Can he get these players to play and run a offense he wants them to run. Can he get this squad to play as a cohesive unit.

No.

[VU2014]

This will be a good test case to see if Lottich is a good developer of talent or not. Lorange believes in him and has committed to him and from early readings seems super coachable. Any failure will be on Lottich and not on any other factor.

It's a bit early to be making that proclamation that a kid is coachable, because we don't know him at all yet. But I agree this "fresh" start with basically a half a new roster will go a long way in determining how good of a coach Lottich is. Can he get these players to play and run a offense he wants them to run. Can he get this squad to play as a cohesive unit.

No.

I don't know if he can either but maybe he learns from his past mistakes on the type of players he recruits. When you look at the guys that transferred this offseason you could see glaring flaws (other than JFL) in their games and their mentalities on the court. I absolutely love Golder as a player and a kid but his handles were a glaring flaw in his game that at this point I don't think a coach could "fix" but you can scheme around (but we were so beat up last year you couldn't hide those deficiencies). He's still a nice player that can help a team win but he can't be your best player on a great team. I sort of excuse the flaws in the bigs games because there are so few centers out there that you know you are almost never going to find a complete player. Plus for as frustrating as it was watching Smits on defense and Sorolla on offense sometimes you could tell that both guys became better players while they were here even if they never were as impactful as a guy like Vashil developed into.

What I really want to see is Lottich run an efficient offense. It doesn't have to be a juggernaut offense but have a team that is consistent and isn't so one dimensional. We need better ball movement and for guys to utilize pick and roll screens. I'm starting to get as impatient as anyone here but maybe this is a fresh start for him with a new band of characters.

[valpotx]

Heck yes, I have been waiting for our first Norwegian!  Break out the lefse!

[M]

I wonder if any of the coaches have actually met the kid in person.

Looks like a good step back, good 3pt shot....also looks slow and can't jump. Still take him over Bakari.

[wh]

I wonder if any of the coaches have actually met the kid in person.

Looks like a good step back, good 3pt shot....also looks slow and can't jump. Still take him over Bakari.

... in a heartbeat. For 1 thing he will be an 18-year-old freshman with 4 years of eligibility. He shot 43% from 3 as a high school player from international range. Evelyn shot 30% from 3 (48-158). Possibly, our 2 most pressing needs are outside shooting and a big that can perform at both ends of the court.

[NativeCheesehead]

I would also be interested in the mentors/team around this young man. That cost us with Skara.

[GoldenCrusader87]

I'd be hard pressed to believe we have a shell of a team left overall but have 2 point guards on the roster returning - in Micah and Sackey. And, yet we bring in a third. I guess you could say it's a replacement of Lavender. Even then, I'd like to see Micah move on at this point. Unless he plays more like a 2? Idk.

[vu72]

I wonder if any of the coaches have actually met the kid in person.

Looks like a good step back, good 3pt shot....also looks slow and can't jump. Still take him over Bakari.

... in a heartbeat. For 1 thing he will be an 18-year-old freshman with 4 years of eligibility. He shot 43% from 3 as a high school player from international range. Evelyn shot 30% from 3 (48-158). Possibly, our 2 most pressing needs are outside shooting and a big that can perform at both ends of the court.

Both Bakari and Sorolla both went down hill.  Bakari went from scoring 12.6 and shooting 38.3 from the 3 to 8.4 ppg and 30.6 from the 3.  J continued to slide from his freshman year stats when he scored 5.2 ppg and 4.4 rebounds, then his sophomore year at 4.9 ppg and 3.4 rpg then last year  at 4.1 ppg and only 3.1 boards.  Golder also had small declines.  Smits is the only transfer who improved.

[valpopal]

I wonder if any of the coaches have actually met the kid in person.

Apparently, he met with Townsend in Norway and he is scheduled to visit Valpo later this week.

[crusader05]

https://twitter.com/MichaelOsipoff/status/1114885902776569861

Whole string of tweets including the info about his contact with Lottich and Townsend. Sounds like they were in contact with him even before the transfers were announced as he mentioned they were in contact but wasn't expecting a scholarship offer so soon.

Looks like he's also 19 and has had 4 years playing with the Norwegian team so hopefully he brings some maturity to the team.

[VUBBFan]

I wonder if any of the coaches have actually met the kid in person.

Apparently, he met with Townsend in Norway and he is scheduled to visit Valpo later this week.

https://twitter.com/MichaelOsipoff/status/1114886480571305985
https://twitter.com/MichaelOsipoff/status/1114886198915411968
https://twitter.com/MichaelOsipoff/status/1114886670523015168

[M]

With bradfords health track record a 3rd pg is probably not a bad idea.

[JD24]

1. This kid is not necessarily a point guard since he can play the 2 as a shooter.

2. Having this kid as a point guard is not a bad thing because I think Daniel Sackey is massively overrated by Valpo fans.

3. Defensively it will be tough to put two 5-11 and under guards on the floor at the same time.

4. Some offenses today are run with double points. I haven't seen anything from Lottich which indicates he would run this type of offense but it can be done. Right now, we can't possibly see the same lob it in to Smits or Sorolla and everyone stand around for a few seconds while they decide to do something with the ball and we'll end up with a bad pct shot offense anyway since the personnel to run that is gone (and one reason I'm somewhat pleased that Smits is gone).