Valpo vs. Loyola Game Thread, Mon., Dec. 30, 2019, 7:00 p.m. CT

[valpotx]

Such a terrible pass by Sackey when we pulled to within 1 point.  Kiser was wide open in an ocean by himself for an easy lay-in or alley-oop lay-in, and Sackey throws it directly to Krutwig.  There was literally a 1% chance that someone could mess that one up...and we did.

[VUGrad1314]

COME ON NOW!

[NativeCheesehead]

So tired of Sackey's boneheaded turnovers late in the game.

[VUGrad1314]

YES!!!! PLEASE HIT THIS FREE THROW!!!

[VUGrad1314]

COME ON!

[oklahomamick]

Kiser with a little hustle play and Clay another 3.  Happy for Clay. 

[PlumStreetBum]

This is a bad loss, and what makes it so is a lack of preparation. We weren't ready to play, and Loyola had a solid game plan to shut down our best player. They executed, and we didn't even have a plan.

Lottich has shown he can recruit talent, and managed to retain Freeman. Maybe what we need is better Xs and Os from the supporting staff?

[mj]

And Sackey takes the final shot. A fitting end.

[valpotx]

What a crappy last play.  However, I am impressed with our fight back, when it looked like we were dead in the water several times...especially without JFL in the game during those situations.

[VUGrad1314]

Same issues as the entire Lottich era and another winnable game slips away... When will these losses start to become wins again?

[oklahomamick]

Support staff?  You mean the rotating chairs? 

[oklahomamick]

Do you remember the MVC year we found our selves down by double digits and then come fighting back the last two minutes to make it a game.  Nothing different. 

[PlumStreetBum]

What a crappy last play.  However, I am impressed with our fight back, when it looked like we were dead in the water several times...especially without JFL in the game during those situations.

Help me understand why you were impressed? I'm truly at a loss as to how anyone can look at a game where we only showed up for the second half and say it was impressive.


Now, Donovan Clay was impressive individually. But if we had been ready to play from the opening tip, we win by 7 or 8 points.

[govalpogo]

Rinse and freakin' repeat.   

[valpo64]

Great comeback.  It is a shame that Sackey is in the game when it is a tight game...he can not shoot and should not do so, he is as turnover waiting to happen when he isn't fouling someone.  Feel bad for Javon.

[VUGrad1314]

So is this who we are now? Are moral victories now good enough? "But we were so close though and we played so hard..." Results. Wins and losses. The only thing that matters and the only metric by which you are measured. Wins and losses. I am so glad to hear some frustration from Ickow. It sounds like he's right there with us in needing to start seeing some results.

[oklahomamick]

The second half runs were not scripted or designed.  It was more like street ball and kind of frantic.  Similar to when we made fun of Detroit and lack of x and o's. 

[valpolaw]

Always coming up short. It's like watching the same movie over and over and over again. It gets old. 

Maybe some day we will show up to play a full game.

I guess on the positive side this team doesn't ever give up.

[govalpogo]

I will say this, though.  I do fully believe that this team can still find it and get hot before the end of the year.  Ryan or not.     The team has shown that they never ever give up and that is admirable. 

I don't get into officiating so much but the free throw disparity...at home...was 6-30!  And those two calls on Kiser at the beginning were awful (it ended up a 3 pt game btw).  Every drive seemed to be a charge...it's just unbelievable!  Doesn't excuse the loss, but G-dD@Mit, I'm tired of all of this. 

[mj]

The second half runs were not scripted or designed.  It was more light street ball and kind of frantic.  Similar to when we made fun of Detroit and lack of x and o's. 

This. I think it's becoming obvious that Lottich is not an X's and O's type of coach. And he certainly not able to adjust on the fly. We're lucky we weren't blown out tonight.

[VUGrad1314]

Wait they put Siggy into the game and had no intention of giving him a look? Ugh...

[PlumStreetBum]

The second half runs were not scripted or designed.  It was more light street ball and kind of frantic.  Similar to when we made fun of Detroit and lack of x and o's.

I can more or less live with the fast and loose offense because it frequently works with our talent level (though tonight we had 0.94 points per possession, not good).

What I can't live with is giving up 55% shooting in the first half, night in and night out. It's like instead of watching film ahead of time, we're using the first half to scout and the second half to actually play defense.

[VUGrad1314]

Are we "progressing nicely?"

[valpopal]

I don't want to hear anymore about how much fight the team showed by coming back. The announcers called Valpo "the cardiac kids"; however, as they pointed out, that is because this is the sixth time the team had to come back from being down 10 points. As Chevy Chase says in the Vacation movie, "that's nothing to be proud of, Rusty!" All it shows is that this team repeatedly has been lacking in the first half too many times. That unpreparedness is on Lottich.


Also, I know I am not the only fan who was saying "anyone but Sackey" when the final play was underway. Yet, who takes the final 3-point shot? That's on Lottich for a poorly drawn play. In addition, I am just going to put it here that the officiating sucked. For example, replays showed the two fouls called on Kiser at the start of the second half were bogus. A couple of the charges were questionable as well. During the game, Moser went hard at the officials when his team was called for a questionable foul. I had hoped Lottich would be more forceful this year, but again he seemed much too timid. Eventually, his not having his guys' backs with the refs is going to cause players to defend themselves with the officials and receive technicals. We've seen that before.


Bottom line: this is the Missouri Valley and you have to defend home court. Nothing else matters. 

[VUGrad1314]

We'd better go down and kick Evansville's butt this weekend... Get mad and get ready to play and let's win ourselves a road game.