Valpo @ SIU 1/7/2020 7pm CST on ESPN 3

[justducky]

No boxscore yet but they should get it quickly. Almost nothing for them to tally on our scoring, assist, rebounds and offensive stats.  Might take them a while to count all our turnovers.

[valpotx]

Is Siggy injured?  He was in regular clothes.

[PlumStreetBum]

Not to bring the mood down any further but... SIU shot 49%.

Our defense was just as bad as ever.

[justducky]

Is Siggy injured?  He was in regular clothes.

Did anybody listen to Todd? Might he have said something about Nick?

[VUGrad1314]

I hate to say this but our performance is kinda on MLB as well. He extolled the virtues of hiring from within but that only works when you hire somebody who is actually ready to coach not when you hire some Johnny Come Lately to the staff who had next to zero experience on the end of the bench. If we had gotten Powell or Diebler sure hire from within but let's be honest this experiment was doomed from the start. I hope we actually take some time and look for a qualified candidate next time (assuming Bryce doesn't come to bail us out again) instead of penny pinching on such an important position. This was a hire we had to nail the first post-Drew hire and we have failed spectacularly.

[vok22]

I've come to the conclusion that this team needs a legitimate point guard. I think that might be the source of most of the issues. Unfortunately I don't see one on the roster (unless sackey completely turns it around, and yes he is only a sophomore but he has seemingly regressed) and I don't see one in the recruiting. Only wings and shooting guards, albeit very promising ones.

[EddieCabot]

When star shoots 6-21 (1-9 from three) that ain't going to cut it most nights.

I followed on social media, so all I saw was an awesome dunk.     No one tweets missed shots or turnovers. 

[Valpo Joe]

Did you see how pissed JFL was during the time out  This was the worst game this year  No offense No defense No FT No Coaching No TEAM Come on Valpo you're better than this 

[valpotx]

It looked like he was trying to motivate Krikke to do better, as he was very off during this game.  Ben didn't seem like it was negative.  I liked to see that fire and leadership from JFL.

[bbtds]

https://wsiltv.com/2020/01/07/salukis-top-valpo-win-sixth-straight-home-game/

Oh, Our favorite WSIL channel 3 reporter, Kendra, much wider awake and in a pre-party more professional look.

[vu72]

If we had gotten Powell or Diebler sure hire from within but let's be honest this experiment was doomed from the start. I hope we actually take some time and look for a qualified candidate next time (assuming Bryce doesn't come to bail us out again) instead of penny pinching on such an important position. This was a hire we had to nail the first post-Drew hire and we have failed spectacularly.

So Powell and Diebler had head coaching experience?  Folks in Nashville don't have quite has high an opinion of Bryce that you do. He did set some records though.   

[valpo84]

I try to watch a team for the first 10-15 games before starting to understand who they are and what they may become.  Observations:

1. They missed 8 bunnies on put backs.  4 on one sequence.  How is that possible?  Go up and 2-hand dunk it and draw the foul. Add the 3 1-1's they missed down the stretch and that is not coaching issues. 
2. We were down 3 after cutting the lead down from 11.  Suddenly, we can't make a bucket. Kiser rattled a 3, the missed bunnies, and oh the turnovers. 
3. Not an excuse but legs were tired after the OT Saturday and travel to SIU.  Gordon and JFL both hitting front of rim on 3's.  Plus, defensively the team played well for many parts of game.  1st half dude was 8 for 8.  Adjustments were made and he was quiet 2d half after 2 TOs.
4. This is a better shooting team than past 2 years, but misses Ryan's 3 ball desperately.  I have no confidence he will play much rest of season, but glaring weakness is good/consistent shooters.
5. Bench McMillan.  The foul on the 3 shooter is a frosh mistake.  He's a junior.  He is not progressing.  He is inconsistent 3.  He can back up Krikke.  Krikke is a better defender already (knows what to do with his arms and body to force shooters to adjust), he rebounds better, and has some offensive moves.  I trust him with more minutes.
6. Sackey is not helping right now.  I still believe he has a nagging left arm issue that is affecting his dribbling and passing.  He has not been the same since SLU when he was hammered late.
7. Love JFL and Clay.  JFL makes passes that others need to start looking for.
8. Gordon needs to up his game.  It's in there, but he seems on cruise control.
9. SIU was giving us that game.  They were worse with the ball than we were in 1st half. We have got to do a better job of handling the basketball. 
10.  Keep repeating to myself 2 sophs, 3 frosh, 2 transfers.  They are playing hard and have potential.  Do we have the patience to wait for the guys next year?  That was a frustrating, winnable game last night.  Are we about to break through or fall through?

[oklahomamick]

Powell is at Gonzaga now so a really good program thought differently than Vandy. 


My opinion is they weren't given enough time and the new AD was not the same AD that hired Bryce and company.  AD wanted his boy. 


This doesn't mean they aren't good coaches.  They certainly have a lot more on the resume than Lottich. 


Let's me honest here, Lottich would never get a head coaching job anywhere like he did at Valpo.  Right time Right place.  He was the 3rd choice.  It worked for him and he has an opportunity.  Would be great for him if he did really well and was able to go to a higher paying job.  That doesn't look the case.....

[valpo84]

"He was the 3rd choice."

Oklahomamick: Who was 2d choice?

[EddieCabot]

3. Not an excuse but legs were tired after the OT Saturday and travel to SIU.  Gordon and JFL both hitting front of rim on 3's.  Plus, defensively the team played well for many parts of game.  1st half dude was 8 for 8.  Adjustments were made and he was quiet 2d half after 2 TOs.

Does anyone know the travel details for the last two games?  Did they fly or bus?  Did they come back to Valpo between the games or just travel from Evansville to Carbondale?  If they stayed in the area, the travel from Evansville to SIU shouldn't be an excuse, IMO.

10.  Keep repeating to myself 2 sophs, 3 frosh, 2 transfers.  They are playing hard and have potential.  Do we have the patience to wait for the guys next year?  That was a frustrating, winnable game last night.  Are we about to break through or fall through?

And over half of SIU's minutes last night came from freshman and those freshmen scored 38 of SIU's 63 points. 

[humbleopinion]

Does anyone know the travel details for the last two games?  Did they fly or bus?  Did they come back to Valpo between the games or just travel from Evansville to Carbondale?  If they stayed in the area, the travel from Evansville to SIU shouldn't be an excuse, IMO.

My understanding is that they took a bus to Evansville, stayed down south through last night's game, and flew back last night.  I don't know where they practiced over the period they were out of town.

[vu72]

Powell is at Gonzaga now so a really good program thought differently than Vandy. 


My opinion is they weren't given enough time and the new AD was not the same AD that hired Bryce and company.  AD wanted his boy. 


This doesn't mean they aren't good coaches.  They certainly have a lot more on the resume than Lottich. 


Let's me honest here, Lottich would never get a head coaching job anywhere like he did at Valpo.  Right time Right place.  He was the 3rd choice.  It worked for him and he has an opportunity.  Would be great for him if he did really well and was able to go to a higher paying job.  That doesn't look the case.....

Not sure why you think Powell is a better coach.  He has never been a head coach.  He was Bryce's top assistant at Vandy and thus must be painted with the same brush.  Vandy had a first round draft pick who went down early in the season and they didn't/couldn't adjust.  Was that bad coaching?  Matt has been blamed for bad coaching but also has had injuries/suspensions etc which had little to do with his coaching ability.  True, Matt was in the right place at the right time.  He won a conference championship in one of his three years.

Vandy was last in the SEC, set a record for not winning one conference game and lost 20 straight games.  If they had come here to play we would have beaten them.

[oklahomamick]

Powell was obvious first choice. 

My understanding is they spoke to Gore second as he had been there for over 15 years and had relationships with Heckler and MLB with a lot of experience ranging from Homer to Bryce and in between with Scott.  Gore was next in the pecking order.

Gore either didn't want it or didn't feel comfortable/ready. 

3rd and lastly they spoke with Lottich and thought it would work.  (was a good player, sharp guy from Stanford, represents university).  Lottich obviously jumped at the opportunity because he would not have a head coaching offer at any other DI program in the nation.  Opportunity to quadruple salary and go from the 4th guy to "the" guy was a no brainer for him. 

If Lottich was doing really well and was offered a better position I suspect he would take it in a heart beat.  He wouldn't stick around as long as Bryce did.  But Lottich won't have that chance. 

[Just Sayin]

4. This is a better shooting team than past 2 years,

For the most part, you are correct. 3-pt shooting is better than the previous two years.




Year              2% Shooting       3% Shooting      Free Throw Shooting%


2018                 50.5(153)           34.2(211)                 71.2(181)


2019                 50.1(184)           31.0(324)                 69.9(199)


2020(ToDate)     49.3(162)           34.1(128)                 68.3(229)

[oklahomamick]

VU72, you meant to say the best player to have ever put a Valpo uniform on won a conference championship in Lottich's first year.  Any of us could have won that league that year.

Determining whether Powell or Lottich is a better coach is kind of subjective. 

Let's face it, if Lottich isn't here in 2 years, it won't be because he got a head coaching job at a better situation. 

[FWalum]

If we had gotten Powell or Diebler sure hire from within but let's be honest this experiment was doomed from the start.

I'm probably going to get ridiculed for this, but I actually thought that Matt did a remarkable coaching job his initial season.  He basically took Bryce's NIT team from the year before minus the graduated Fernandez, minus the late transfer Skara, the denied Carter and beat Alabama, BYU, Ball State and Rhode Island while losing to Kentucky, Oregon... and then the team lost Adekoya. Despite all of the turmoil around the Adekoya suspension VU wins the conference going 14-4 after losing Peters for the last two conference games and the remainder of the season. I know this is just wild speculation, but I think one could infer that even with losing Fernandez, Carter and Skara, and then NOT losing Adekoya early in the season and Peters towards the end, this team under Matt could have been better than the Bryce team of the year before.

So holding Bryce to similar standards as we seem to be holding Matt, how in the h e double hockey sticks does Bryce not motivate the "15-16" team, perhaps the most talented team in VU history, to beat Green Bay and probably have another Sweet Sixteen run?? I don't remember hearing anyone call for his head after that letdown.

Bryce never really faced the adversity with players that Matt has (until his last year at Vandy and we all know how that turned out), I know that Carter went down for a while, but he didn't lose his leading scorer 3 seasons in a row. For crying out loud we started MVC play 6-1 last year with road wins at Southern Illinois and Missouri State before Ryan went down. Does anyone on here really think we are a Thursday night team last year if just Ryan stays healthy, not to mention the rest of the injuries?? Do you really?? I just get so sick of hearing the call to chop off his head from people that have never had a seat on a D1 bench or even coached a college game at any level. I don't agree with everything they are doing, I was screaming at the TV last night for more ball pressure to speed up the game early in the second half, but I don't know why Nick is not playing or why Siggy is in street clothes or the myriad of other things that comprise the day to day goings on of that VU basketball team. I certainly don't know why we missed at least 10 point blank shots that I don't think were Matt's fault. Posters say that we can't coach big men because of how Mileek plays yet I believe that Luke was the primary coach for Fernandez, a player that made tremendous strides as a big man project.

I am not against criticism, just hoping for a better dialog because saying this was a doomed experiment from the beginning is just not very thoughtful and when posts aren't very thoughtful dialog just gets bad and when it gets bad I don't feel like posting much and therefore I haven't.

[NativeCheesehead]

Lottich's first year he didn't have his players or system, and probably would have gone to the tournament if not for one of the worst runs of poor luck we've had. I don't think that year was a good indication of his ability either good or bad for those reasons. His second year we graduated a ton of talent and entered a new league. I would actually argue this was a good year for him in terms of keeping the team engaged through a difficult season.

It's last year and this year that give me cause for concern, along with trends over his whole tenure, such as the poor starts to halves and very inconsistent offense. I actually do think Matt will be a successful college head coach. I'm just not sure it's here or now. Would not shock me at all to see him have a Porter Moser type career arc. He recruits well (though don't sell Luke short on this point either), and doesn't seem to have much trouble getting a good effort out of his team. But his Xs and Os, especially on offense are far behind his peers.

[Just Sayin]

Not sure why you think Powell is a better coach. He has never been a head coach. He was Bryce's top assistant at Vandy and thus must be painted with the same brush. Vandy had a first round draft pick who went down early in the season and they didn't/couldn't adjust. Was that bad coaching? Matt has been blamed for bad coaching but also has had injuries/suspensions etc which had little to do with his coaching ability. True, Matt was in the right place at the right time. He won a conference championship in one of his three years. Vandy was last in the SEC, set a record for not winning one conference game and lost 20 straight games. If they had come here to play we would have beaten them.

Doubtful. They scored more points than we did and had a more efficient offense, they had a better and more efficient defense than we did and thus allowed fewer points to be scored against them than we did, and their shooting percentages were nearly identical with Valpo having the edge in FT%.


2019                    AdjOE            AdjDE          2Pt%             3pt%            FT%   


Vanderbilt          102.2(215)      101.4(116)    50.0(186)      31.1(315)    67.3(296)                   
Valpo                   98.2(291)      103.1(145)    50.1(184)      31.0(324)    69.9(199)

With all of their issues and getting walloped in a very tough conference, their final rankings were Vandy 155, Valpo 220.

[VUBBFan]

Is Siggy injured?  He was in regular clothes.

He was out the last two games with a hip injury.

[FWalum]

But his Xs and Os, especially on offense are far behind his peers.

Explain with examples please... He has basically run Byrce's stuff up until this year. A lot more motion and flex stuff so almost a complete change from years past. We do appear to be missing the cut through the middle, not sure why we are reluctant to make that pass.

Wouldn't you agree that if your potential leading scorer was either lost to suspension (IMOP the coaching staffs fault should have never happened) or injury 3 consecutive years your offensive efficiency rating might take a hit and you might have a little trouble scoring?? Once again I ask, do you really think we are having some of these issues if Ryan is on the floor?? Ryan probably would have accounted for 20% of our scoring this year.  Do any of you really think that is an easy thing to replace?? You don't just pluck a 15 point a game scorer off of the bench, is that so hard to understand... Just think how hard it is to recruit a player like that. Shane Hammink isn't just sitting waiting to go in the game. Your lucky if you have 2 of those players on your team.