Valpo vs Evansville 1st round of MVC tourney at Enterprise Center 3/3 @8:30pm

[VUSWIM08-12]

Well the Valpo website has already assumed we're beating Evansville and playing Mo St tomorrow so I guess we're winning lol.
https://www.valpoathletics.com/mbasketball/schedule/

The old adage, it's hard to beat a team 3 times, but surely we can get it done against the purple aces. They put up a good fight on our home court. Vegas has us at -6. If Kithier plays and gives us 20 solid minutes we should move on to Friday. We should move on even if he doesn't but it might be a little closer than we'd like.

Game is on ESPN+ and will be brought on to NBC Sports Chicago and Bally Sports at 9 I believe.

VU 72
Evansville 60

[vuny98]

My prediction:

Valpo wins this one, MO St has 5 players out with the flu and we beat them too. The entire Drake team gets food poisoning and leads us to make a run to the championship game, where we loose a close game to UNI. LaBarbera see this success and makes one of his last moves as AD to give Lottich a 10 year no opt out extension.

But really, I think we have a strong showing today and win convincingly. Beyond that I just hope we play well in the next round and end the year on a positive note. A 2nd win would be great, a 3rd would be amazing, but I won't hold my breath. 

[justducky]

I have come to the sad realization that I might not even be interested enough to watch.                Sorry

[wh]

Even if Thomas can play tonight, Matt could be thinking he would like to rest him so he's fresh tomorrow night. Given how closely Evansville played us last week on our court, that could prove to be the worst coaching decision he will have ever made. Absent Trevor, we have the weakest guard play in the conference by far. Neither Darius nor Preston would be getting more than mop-up minutes for anyone ahead of us. Thus, Matt, if you're thinking there's no way this season can get any worse, just lose tonight with Thomas sitting on the sidelines. That is not a risk you want to take.

To everyone else. Even if we win tonight, the season ends tomorrow night. With a tired, beat-up lineup and freshman guards that can't contribute offensively, against a team that we match up horribly, we are going to get bullied, out shot and out hustled for 40 minutes. I'm picturing a 20-point blowout win.

Headed to America's paradise for a few weeks of R&R. See everyone down the road. Go Valpo!

[Chairback]

I think Evansville is going to have their best game of the year tonight.  It's on a neutral court and they are very familiar with Valpo the last few weeks.

If we are in an offensive funk early, forcing shots, getting deep into the shot clock, and missing threes, frustration will set in.

Wouldn't surprise me if this game comes down to a last second shot.   

[crusadermoe]

Very concerned.  Evansville was on an uptick in their Mo State game. They have played with nothing to lose for a while and will be less tight.

[elephtheria47]

Nevermind they have Lickliter who at 66 would still run circles around Matt. Always surprised he hasn't gotten them better results but that man can coach.

[tjjvalpo]

4 minutes in an Ruedinger having his best offensive game of his freshman year. Who said our freshman guards couldn't contribute. go Valpo!

[oklahomamick]

nice 2v2 with Kerke and Edwards.  Pick and roll for an easy dunk. 

[oklahomamick]

3-0 against Evansville this year.

[nkvu]

Decided to tune in tonight for what I was afraid would be the last game. Nice to see the team play really well. Started fast and when Evansville made their run in the second half they stayed composed and put it away.

Hope they can at least compete tomorrow. Can't come out flat.

[IndyValpo]

Nevermind they have Lickliter who at 66 would still run circles around Matt. Always surprised he hasn't gotten them better results but that man can coach.

Thanks for this, had a good laugh

[valpotx]

If only we had a healthy Kithier for most of the conference games (missed 10 of 18 games).  If only Anderson was also available for most of those games.  Might have been a very different finish to the conference season. Just so much poise, and our offense seems so much more fluid when TK is playing.   

[oklahomamick]

Agreed.  They looked good last night.  And having kithier seemed to change a lot of things.  Evansville is bad.  Usually when a team plays each other 3 times in a week and half it gets pretty chippy.  Wasn't really the case last night.  Outside of the guard, Purple aces have no grit.

Will be tough for us to duplicate back to back and against a really good opponent in Missouri state. 

We are the last Indiana team left in the valley tournament.  So we have that going for us.

[vuny98]

Looked like a good overall game.

Shot the ball well, and consistently. No 5 minute droughts like we are used to. I like the compressed 7 man rotation. Didn't over work Kithier but he still contributed well. Shot 50% from 3 with our best 3 point shooter, Taylor, going 0-5.

It was against Evansville, but still happy to see the strong effort and results.

[vu72]

Probably the best game of the year for the Beacons.  Well played all around. Preston finally showed more than just not turning the ball over and Kobe is finally turning into the Big Ten guard we all expected. Bravo!! Well done!  On the the Bears!

[SanityLost17]

Despite the good play, albeit against a bad team, the fact remains that MoSt is our absolute worst matchup nightmare. 

Even if we play really really really really (too many reallys?) well we are going to lose.   MoSt is a team that could beat us 9/10 or even 10/10 times we play them.   We match up better agianst UNI and Loyola.   

[oklahomamick]

Spread is Valpo +12.  I bet we cover.  Very worse, we backdoor it.