Preseason Canada Trip

[VUGrad1314]

As I recall this team has already beaten AAC foe South Florida and Vermont if I'm not mistaken. This is pretty darn significant guys. Go Valpo!

[covufan]

This team has moxie - a 14-0 run to win one game, a steal of inbounds play and buzzer beater on another, and a third close game!


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[valpotx]

Yes, this Carleton team has not lost many games in the last 20+ years, and routinely beats the NCAA teams in this exhibition tour each season:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carleton_Ravens

[bbtds]

What's a realistic expectation for tonight? Keep it within 10-15? I'd give us around 5-10% chance to win but who knows!

By January we will be able to go to Illinois and place a bet on a game like this one against Carleton and get 10 to 1 odds. $10 would have got you $100. 

[wh]

Exhibition game, grain of salt and all that, but for those who are curious, in games that count Carleton has lost 20 times in the past 19 seasons.

Amazing!

[covufan]

What's a realistic expectation for tonight? Keep it within 10-15? I'd give us around 5-10% chance to win but who knows!

By January we will be able to go to Illinois and place a bet on a game like this one against Carleton and get 10 to 1 odds. $10 would have got you $100.

Or earlier in Hammond

https://www.nwitimes.com/business/gambling/hammond-horseshoe-casino-preparing-to-accept-sports-bets-starting-sept/article_b8069e61-50b2-50ff-8c4e-80ec388f166e.html


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[VUGrad1314]

14 out of the last 17 national championships and no more than 3 losses in any year since 2000-2001? Holy crap! This team had lost exactly once in regular season play since 2015-2016 I know it's an exhibition but it's hard to take this win lightly!

[wh]

https://www.twitter.com/basketballbuzz/status/1161445439322886144

Some interesting stats:
• We shot 40 3's. I can't remember a Valpo team ever shooting 40 3's. We hit 35% of them, which is equivalent to 50% from 2. Shoot away!
• Nick Robinson's stat line is impressive across the board.
• We were called for 24 fouls to their 10.
• They shot 24 FT's to our 4.

[oklahomamick]

The book wouldn't have us as a 10-1 dog. 

[SanityLost17]

- No Fazekas...   I give it a 20% chance he is healthy enough to play well by the 2nd half of conference season.... But if he is healthy I do think this team may actually be good.   
- Sackey is our point guard and JFL is our star. 
- Robinson should be a starter at the 3.
-  We did not play great defense on this trip (only good in spurts), but that is the one thing Lottich has proven he can coach, so I am not worried about that.   
- After that it is still way too early to predict much.  Lots of guys fighting to earn their minutes.
- 40 3's is probably more indicative of a team that hasn't played a lot together than what we are actually going to do all season.  Probably going to take a while to have a more even mix of shooting and driving.  Guessing we are going to have limited post play this year due to roster structure.

My personal belief that although talented, Lottich's 1st attempt at team building was a failure.  Lots of talent that did not work well together and not really built for his coaching style  It would appear his 2nd go around at team building will be an improvement.   That doesn't mean we are going to be great this year, especially if Fazekas is a toss up most weeks, but it will be an improvement.

[valpo84]

Learning how to win, particularly in close games, August to February is an important skill set/cultural mindset when building a team that will win in March.

Good lessons that they are learning on this trip. 

[vu72]

40 3's is probably more indicative of a team that hasn't played a lot together

I think it is more a reaction to the 24 second clock used in Canada. We are still adjusting to new teammates as you suggested and it seemed we were chucking threes as the clock wound down. The added distance doesn't seem to bother our shooters.  Clearly Javon and Daniel have made quantum leaps forward in their shooting.  As for Fazekas, who knows.  Reporters have said that he is ready to go so my guess is that the coaches are just being cautious as winning on this tour isn't worth getting Ryan hurt again when we are nearing a point where he will have more time to strengthen his ankle.

As for post play.  This team is nothing like last years.  We will run, run, run.  We started 6'8, 6'5, 6'3, 6'3 and 5'10 and through three games  we out-rebounded our opponents 120-107.

[CPkValpoFan]

Both Vermont and South Florida are projected to finish in the upper half of their respective conferences and Carleton beat them both.  Considering how many newcomers are on this team and how they have demonstrated a "never say die" attitude so early in the season, one has to be encouraged.   Can't wait to see the development of this team.  Also, these games were won without Fazekas playing a minute.

[valpopal]

This is a good clip of the end of the game.

[tweet]1161461562437251072[/tweet]

I like this angle because you can see the clock, and the ball was released at 0.1 seconds left, no time to spare.

[justducky]

We are extremely guard heavy. Freeman, Lorange, Morgan, Sackey, Gordon and Robinson are all true guards with only Nick easily slid to the 4. Fazekas played the 3 at Providence and Clay is clearly a 3 and 4 in development. Even if I do not list Kiser as a guard we still have 8 of our best players being guards. If Matt goes with his strengths we will see some big minutes of 5 guard play.

It should be entertaining! 

[govalpogo]

We are extremely guard heavy. Freeman, Lorange, Morgan, Sackey, Gordon and Robinson are all true guards with only Nick easily slid to the 4. Fazekas played the 3 at Providence and Clay is clearly a 3 and 4 in development. Even if I do not list Kiser as a guard we still have 8 of our best players being guards. If Matt goes with his strengths we will see some big minutes of 5 guard play.

It should be entertaining! 

Just comparing box scores, it looks like the minute distribution was more like a real game that they were trying to win rather than a preseason game to experiment with.  Minutes for McMillan, F-V, and Krikke would indicate that there was indeed a good portion of time when the floor was filled with guards and/or when Kiser was playing the 5. 

That said, they still outrebounded Carleton and even though the team doesn't have the height of last year's, they are an athletic and long bunch.  For example, Freeman is the tallest looking 6'3" ever IMO. 

[JD24]

Looked like Clay who knocked the ball out to Sackey. Nice win.

If so he was not credited with an assist. Was it controlled enough for either to receive one?

Didn't look that way. Looked like it was just knocked away and happened to end up right to Sackey.  I'm not sure that would gain credit for a steal for whoever it was who knocked the ball away.

[JD24]

https://www.twitter.com/basketballbuzz/status/1161445439322886144 Some interesting stats: • We shot 40 3's. I can't remember a Valpo team ever shooting 40 3's. We hit 35% of them, which is equivalent to 50% from 2. Shoot away! • Nick Robinson's stat line is impressive across the board. • We were called for 24 fouls to their 10. • They shot 24 FT's to our 4.

I'd bet the first bullet point and the 3rd and 4th bullet points are related.

Nick Robinson appears to be a guy who gives you a little of everything which every team needs.

[FieldGoodie05]

This is a good clip of the end of the game.

[tweet]1161461562437251072[/tweet]

I like this angle because you can see the clock, and the ball was released at 0.1 seconds left, no time to spare.

It's entirely possible that when the Carleton player pivoted towards Javon and quickly pivoted back that he lost control (squeezed the ball with sweaty hands) and it just popped out.  Because it's going so fast that it's hard to tell if Javon or Clay or even Robinson made initial contact with the ball.  If I remember, from the FB steam angle from above that Robinson was too far away to contact the ball, but from this awesome unclose angle it's truly just too hard to tell.

[FieldGoodie05]

40 3's is probably more indicative of a team that hasn't played a lot together

I think it is more a reaction to the 24 second clock used in Canada. We are still adjusting to new teammates as you suggested and it seemed we were chucking threes as the clock wound down. The added distance doesn't seem to bother our shooters.  Clearly Javon and Daniel have made quantum leaps forward in their shooting.  As for Fazekas, who knows.  Reporters have said that he is ready to go so my guess is that the coaches are just being cautious as winning on this tour isn't worth getting Ryan hurt again when we are nearing a point where he will have more time to strengthen his ankle.

As for post play.  This team is nothing like last years.  We will run, run, run.  We started 6'8, 6'5, 6'3, 6'3 and 5'10 and through three games  we out-rebounded our opponents 120-107.

Solid point, 30 seconds vs 24 seconds doesn't appear to be a big difference but add in the fact that we barely know how to run an offense with all these new pieces and you have 40 attempts from deep! 

It takes far more minutes to get a freshmen / transfer into the flow of things than it does a 5th year ace like Fazekas.  It might even end up benefiting us to ease him back into game action while freshmen / transfers get minutes playing together.

[FieldGoodie05]

- No Fazekas...   I give it a 20% chance he is healthy enough to play well by the 2nd half of conference season.... But if he is healthy I do think this team may actually be good.   
- Sackey is our point guard and JFL is our star.
- Robinson should be a starter at the 3.
-  We did not play great defense on this trip (only good in spurts), but that is the one thing Lottich has proven he can coach, so I am not worried about that.   
- After that it is still way too early to predict much.  Lots of guys fighting to earn their minutes.
- 40 3's is probably more indicative of a team that hasn't played a lot together than what we are actually going to do all season.  Probably going to take a while to have a more even mix of shooting and driving.  Guessing we are going to have limited post play this year due to roster structure.

My personal belief that although talented, Lottich's 1st attempt at team building was a failure.  Lots of talent that did not work well together and not really built for his coaching style  It would appear his 2nd go around at team building will be an improvement.   That doesn't mean we are going to be great this year, especially if Fazekas is a toss up most weeks, but it will be an improvement.

I was looking at the timeline on the @valpobasketball account after the game last night and noticed the Starting Lineup announcements by the team just before the games.  I had to go back to December in order to find a line-up where Sackey and Javon were NOT the starting 1-2 punch.  These guys have developed together nicely!

[VUBBFan]

Resting up for tonight

https://twitter.com/ValpoBasketball/status/1161694067698388992

[VUGrad1314]

https://twitter.com/ValpoBasketball/status/1161658508431056897

Think this victory over Carleton isn't potentially a big deal? Here's a list of teams Carleton has beaten since 2017:

Alabama (SEC)

Ole Miss (SEC)

Providence (BE)

Vanderbilt (X2) (SEC)

Cincinnati (AAC)

USF (AAC)

South Dakota State (X2) (Dominant Summit League team)

Northeastern (Frequently top tier CAA team)

Really a quite impressive list.

And just look at these scores\Carleton's margin of victory in these games. They didn't just beat these teams, they HAMMERED them. Incredible.

[VUGrad1314]

In addition Ole Miss Providence Alabama and Cincinnati each qualified for the NCAA Tournament in the same calendar season that they lost to Carleton. (For example I used the 2018 tournament for any loss suffered in 2017 and the 2019 tournament for any loss suffered in 2018 because that would be the next season after the Carleton game and would have appeared on their schedules.

[bbtds]

Resting up for tonight

https://twitter.com/ValpoBasketball/status/1161694067698388992

The pic on the left is the view from the top of Parc Mont Royal which was also in the movie "The Whole Nine Yards" with Bruce Willis and Mathew Perry.

This is the view of the park and the Montreal skyline from an airplane. Both the St Lawrence Seaway and the St Lawrence River are behind the Montreal Skyline.