The 2023-24 Men's Basketball Schedule Thread

crusadermoe · July 27, 2023, 09:14:30 AM

I don't feel any nostalgia vibe for a game with IUPUI. But if it makes practical sense, do it? Cheap travel.

The only Mid-Con/Horizon nostalgia for me (apart from Butler) would be playing Oakland and Coach Kampe again. The hockey-style fight with one of their thugs and the 60 foot shot by T. Price are in that mix along with dozens of buzzer beaters.

vu84v2 · July 27, 2023, 10:13:39 AM

crusadermoe - Great points, though I would enjoy a home and home with UW-Milwaukee (just because I live in Milwaukee). Nothing at all interesting about playing IUPUI.

crusadermoe · July 27, 2023, 10:44:41 AM

Yes, in joining the MVC we have a higher basketball profile. The game crowds on the road in the MVC seem MUCH larger.

But we also lost a few valuable road game cities where a lot of our alumni live. Or maybe there are a lot of alumni live in Evansville, Terre Haute, Springfield, MO, Waterloo, IA, Des Moines, Peoria and Bloomington. I would rather drive to Valpo from a Chicago suburb than go to UIC.

Does anyone know that data, excluding Chicago which is neutral in the comparison. I don't know the numbers, but there were a ton of Milwaukee, Detroit and Cleveland kids at VU when I was there.

valpo95 · July 27, 2023, 03:03:32 PM

This is the slightly wrong place to put this, yet wouldn't it be great to have all 11 D-1 teams in Indiana do an early season tournament every year?

One could set up a bracket so the in-conference opponents would not possibly face each other until the tournament final, and do a play in bracket of the six lowest ranking teams face each other to get it to a workable eight team bracket. Do a home and home setting that alternates every other year.

All it would take is a company (think Lucas Oil or similar) to put up a prize pool, and it could be made to work. The expenses and logistics would not be that difficult.

vok22 · July 27, 2023, 03:24:45 PM

The big guys would never do that. Not on a neutral court. Not even on their home courts most likely. Would be fun, never going to happen. At most there might be a one year 4 team round robin featuring Indiana, Purdue, notre dame, and butler.

vu72 · July 27, 2023, 03:43:09 PM

Quote from: vok22 on July 27, 2023, 03:24:45 PM
The big guys would never do that. Not on a neutral court. Not even on their home courts most likely. Would be fun, never going to happen. At most there might be a one year 4 team round robin featuring Indiana, Purdue, notre dame, and butler.

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The Crossroads Classic, involving these four teams, went on for the past 11 years but will not be played this coming season.

VALPO LI · August 02, 2023, 09:03:57 PM

Samford to the ARC!!!

Return of last year's H/H!

5 Home games on the schedule so far.
Western Illinois.
Southern.
Green Bay.
IUPUI.
Samford.

https://twitter.com/TVBOren/status/1686651579493998592

wh · August 02, 2023, 10:30:45 PM

Samford gave us a 30 point beat down last year. None of their starters played more than 19 minutes. For years we dominated OOC matchups like that - until we didn't. I think about that when someone posts about Matt and Luke landing on their feet the way they have. Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good.

VUGrad1314 · August 04, 2023, 11:00:42 PM

We also landed on our feet too getting Roger Powell. I think he's going to turn this program around and return it to glory and I can't wait!

valporun · August 06, 2023, 11:03:49 AM

I get the reason why most of you hated the Non-D1 games under Luke and Matt's scheduling philosophy, but as Luke always said those games didn't count towards NET or RPI. and usually came after a tough Thanksgiving MTE, or Finals Break, where we could give the starters/regular rotation a little bit of a break. It also allowed some of the bench mob a bit of a chance to develop in a game, rather than just in practice. I have to see more of what will come of the 23-24 schedule, but for this season, the low D-1 games we are playing, again go with Luke's philosophy of keeping the guys in the classroom longer. The games with UWGB and IUPUI come with a really small payout, since GB might only need hotel, food, and bus, whereas the Jags only need food and bus. Low investment on our part, compared to an Elon or Samford, where you're talking plane tickets, bus, hotel, and food.

VALPO LI · August 08, 2023, 09:16:07 PM

To me the non- D1 games take away from a potential competitive D-1 game. Give Valpo Chicago St. (which is not a given W anymore), IUPUI, PFW, Southern Indiana over a non-D1. I feel Ball State and Northern Illinois should be on the schedule every year over Trinity Christian and North Park.
Over the last 15 years Valpo played 10 seasons against (2) non D-1 schools. In 14-15 it was 3. Valpo has played at least 1 non-D1 every year since 2004-2005.

valpo95 · August 14, 2023, 02:07:32 PM

Quote from: vok22 on July 27, 2023, 03:24:45 PM
The big guys would never do that. Not on a neutral court. Not even on their home courts most likely. Would be fun, never going to happen. At most there might be a one year 4 team round robin featuring Indiana, Purdue, notre dame, and butler.

They would do it if there was enough money in the prize pool, plus national exposure.

Imagine a total prize pool of $2M+, the winner got say $800K, with appropriate payouts down from there. Add in that every other year, the big guys don't have to pay out say $95K for a buy game because it is included in the tournament. Would the big guys be interested enough to consider an in-state early season road game every other year? If not, how much money would it take to get them to do do it?

wh · August 14, 2023, 04:05:12 PM

With the B10 expanding to an 18-team super conference, Purdue and IU have nothing to gain by continuing to play Butler and ND, both of which have fallen on hard times. Butler, especially, is regularly getting out recruited inside the state. They're mired in mediocrity in the BE. Why put your advantage at risk with head-to-head matchups? High risk, low reward.

VUGrad1314 · August 14, 2023, 06:04:00 PM

Quote from: wh on August 14, 2023, 04:05:12 PM
With the B10 expanding to an 18-team super conference, Purdue and IU have nothing to gain by continuing to play Butler and ND, both of which have fallen on hard times. Butler, especially, is regularly getting out recruited inside the state. They're mired in mediocrity in the BE. Why put your advantage at risk with head-to-head matchups? High risk, low reward.

Well then the path forward is simple: Powell takes Valpo to prominence as a consistent force in the MVC. Butler takes notice realizing they can't get Purdue and IU anymore. Butler puts us back on the schedule and the rivalry is restored! Everyone's happy!

justducky · August 14, 2023, 07:06:19 PM

Quote from: VUGrad1314 on August 14, 2023, 06:04:00 PM
Quote from: wh on August 14, 2023, 04:05:12 PM
With the B10 expanding to an 18-team super conference, Purdue and IU have nothing to gain by continuing to play Butler and ND, both of which have fallen on hard times. Butler, especially, is regularly getting out recruited inside the state. They're mired in mediocrity in the BE. Why put your advantage at risk with head-to-head matchups? High risk, low reward.

Well then the path forward is simple: Powell takes Valpo to prominence as a consistent force in the MVC. Butler takes notice realizing they can't get Purdue and IU anymore. Butler puts us back on the schedule and the rivalry is restored! Everyone's happy!

This same general thought briefly crossed my mind as well. The problem with it is that even if Butler remains mediocre and we rise quickly to MVC prominence it would likely take 7 or 8 years for even a slim chance to see them back on the schedule. Never say never but it will take coach Powell a lot of work to get our program back into the annual at-large conversation. Meanwhile our only hope is taking a buy game with them in a season where we have no reasonable expectation of winning. Like this year?

VUGrad1314 · August 14, 2023, 07:35:56 PM

Quote from: justducky on August 14, 2023, 07:06:19 PM
Quote from: VUGrad1314 on August 14, 2023, 06:04:00 PM
Quote from: wh on August 14, 2023, 04:05:12 PM
With the B10 expanding to an 18-team super conference, Purdue and IU have nothing to gain by continuing to play Butler and ND, both of which have fallen on hard times. Butler, especially, is regularly getting out recruited inside the state. They're mired in mediocrity in the BE. Why put your advantage at risk with head-to-head matchups? High risk, low reward.

Well then the path forward is simple: Powell takes Valpo to prominence as a consistent force in the MVC. Butler takes notice realizing they can't get Purdue and IU anymore. Butler puts us back on the schedule and the rivalry is restored! Everyone's happy!

This same general thought briefly crossed my mind as well. The problem with it is that even if Butler remains mediocre and we rise quickly to MVC prominence it would likely take 7 or 8 years for even a slim chance to see them back on the schedule. Never say never but it will take coach Powell a lot of work to get our program back into the annual at-large conversation. Meanwhile our only hope is taking a buy game with them in a season where we have no reasonable expectation of winning. Like this year?

Well I for one think it would be great to have them cut us a check so that we can go into Hinkle Fieldhouse and beat them. But that's just me.

crusadermoe · August 16, 2023, 09:45:10 AM

I see the same rationale for DePaul. Except they are dead broke if you look at the other thread. Try to get a buy game with Marquette this year or next. I don't see us threatening them this year or in the next one.

We can only dream of these. But it is fun.

vu84v2 · August 16, 2023, 10:12:08 AM

Quote from: crusadermoe on August 16, 2023, 09:45:10 AM
I see the same rationale for DePaul. Except they are dead broke if you look at the other thread. Try to get a buy game with Marquette this year or next. I don't see us threatening them this year or in the next one.

We can only dream of these. But it is fun.

Marquette has already released its non-conference schedule for this year...would love to see a game next year.

A problem with getting games with any Big East teams is that they do not have that many non-conference games to schedule. The 11 team conference plays a full double round robin - so that is 20 games. Each team plays a Thanksgiving tournament (Marquette is supposed to be in Maui this year), so that is three more games. The conference also plays annual challenge games against the Big Ten and Big 12 and Marquette always plays Wisconsin. That leaves only 5 other games to schedule in a given year.

VALPO LI · August 23, 2023, 08:40:58 PM

https://twitter.com/RoccoMiller8/status/1694346722967728583

VALPO LI · August 25, 2023, 06:15:46 AM

Three open slots to fill!!!
Only speculating here, but I could see a non D-1 game, a Chicago State kind of game, and perhaps a home and home round out the schedule. I would have thought the Virginia Tech and Elon games would have been played on one road trip together, but we see that did not work out. Perhaps an away game may still be in the cards that can piggy back one of these road games down south? Or will Powell bring in 3 more teams to the ARC to have 8 home games his first season coaching? Excited to see how it all pans out.
Right now we are hearing that Valpo has 5 home games scheduled and 3 on the road.

valpopal · August 28, 2023, 12:29:00 PM

The non-conference schedule of 12 games has officially been released: there will also be 2 conference games within the non-conference time frame. I think it is a fine non-conference schedule with 8 home games (7 plus an exhibition) that should help develop the team—all of which could be winnable, though i guess Samford would be the toughest, and boost fan enthusiasm except that 4 are during Thanksgiving or Christmas break when students are off campus—plus a few difficult tests among the 4 road games that ought to be good for the squad: https://www.valpoathletics.com/mbasketball/schedule/

IndyEIT777 · August 28, 2023, 12:44:03 PM

I'm not going to be harsh on the staff for this year's games since they have not had the time to put together an MVC worthy non-conference schedule. I will commend them on two things, they were able to secure 2 power conference road games and we only have one non-D1 this year where we have been playing at least 2 in recent seasons. This schedule will provide good opportunities for team chemistry growth, but the lack of quality mid majors does have me concerned for our conference slate.

crusadermoe · August 28, 2023, 02:41:10 PM

I would say it's solid all considered. Wise not to spend a lot of money and travel time. They fly only to Va. Tech and Elon. Getting paid very well by the former.

vok22 · August 28, 2023, 08:04:27 PM

I think it is a good schedule. Obviously don't know really anything about the meshing of the team, but I think this is a challenging schedule for a team with this many freshman on it. I think we go something like 4-7. A lot of these teams are better than they used to be, or teams we lost to last year. We have a much better and more experienced coaching staff, but that doesn't change the fact over half of our major contributors will be true freshman/no D1 experience. Still we won't be losing by 30 to teams like CSU this year.

justducky · August 28, 2023, 08:52:50 PM

Quote from: vok22 on August 28, 2023, 08:04:27 PMI think we go something like 4-7. A lot of these teams are better than they used to be, or teams we lost to last year. We have a much better and more experienced coaching staff, but that doesn't change the fact over half of our major contributors will be true freshman/no D1 experience.

Given the near total staff and roster change I think that 3-8 might be as equally likely as 4-7 or better. I am optimistic for our future but getting out of the gate in 23-24 could be a very slow process. As for our schedule I'm thinking it does an excellent job of fitting our short term situation.