Game #7 - Drake in the ARC - 11/29/23 7pm Rock the Arc

[wh]

Odds
Drake is a big 12.5-point favorite against Valparaiso, according to the latest college basketball odds.
The oddsmakers had a good feel for the line for this one, as the game opened with the Bulldogs as a 11.5-point favorite.

[crusader05]

There was a color ad for the game in this Sunday's paper as well

[talksalot]

Line up to 13.5
Ou is 143.5... so like 78-65 is the better line

I hear we have some NBA scouts in the building...wonder why.

[tiny707]

I assume NBA scouts are in to see Tucker Devries.

[VUSWIM08-12]

Line keeps moving , now at -14.5 for Drake , hmmmm! Pondering a last minute dump on the money line for Valpo at +650 🤣

[mj]

I'll take being down 1 at the half. Let's go Valpo!

[SanityLost17]

Watching my 1st game in almost an entire year.    I quit by this time last year.

I can actually watch this team.   Even if all our 3's didn't fall and we were down by 12, I could STILL watch this team.   

I saw more effort off the ball in the 1st half of this game than I did the last 10 games I saw before giving up. 

[truth219]

The crowd is really into this game. Our defense for the most part has been solid. Palm is getting owned. I'm sorry but coopers hair cut looks like Lloyd Christmas. I think we could win.

[VUSWIM08-12]

Still lots of bad shots IMO, but Staffords went in so oh well! Like it , wish we had someone to rough up Brodie , palm stresses me lol, but generally played well!

[VUSWIM08-12]

Darius !! Edwards with the block , if we somehow win , an absolute massive win for Valpo and RJP early in his career ! Keep it up fellas !!

[NativeCheesehead]

Just because this was expected doesn't make it any less disappointing. Good effort Valpo.

[mj]

Well...we put up a fight for about 28 minutes. We have some young building blocks but this team isn't deep enough. Just gotta keeping growing.

[AB]

What does everyone think? Have to be impressed with Darius improvement. Need more from Edwards consistently. Cooper impresses. Interior post presence on defense still a major flaw that can only be fixed so much this year. I think this team will be growing before our eyes as the season continues and if they stay together next year, will see continued improvement. Drake in my opinion is not as dangerous as last year.

[tiny707]

Need to make free throws.

Bench needs to score more than seven
points.

[SPEEDYPITCHER37]

Overall I'd say as expected, just obviously disappointing being up 10 at one point.  Schweiger getting two early fouls was a big blow. 

The good - DeAveiro looked promising.  Seemed more confident than he was to start the season.  DeVries was held tight first half, just broke free the second half.

The not so good - Palm was not very convincing whatsoever.  Let Brodie slip past way too many times and was well outmatched (granted, guarding Brodie is a challenge for anyone).  Bench didn't really contribute much but hopefully that's a one day thing.

Also just one other comment - I know the crowd was pretty upset with the refs but I think it was overall a well-officiated game.  Called it tight but fair calls both ways.  (I'm a ref too - gotta give credit where it's due!)

[VULB#62]

I think.....

Can't wait to see Coop in the next year or two as he bulks up. Has the right instincts but can be overpowered on D.  Proved he can score against anyone and belongs on the floor.

Darius has found himself (and his offense). Yay!

Entertaining to the end. But we need the same crispness as our first halves.  It'll come as the players continue to grow (physically as well as technically) in Roger's system.

We need Manyang healthy so that he can split the 5 position minutes with Jerome instead of having Coop play out of his natural position. It'll make Jerome better too.

[usc4valpo]

vu72 - cannot agree with your assessment on Palm at the same level as Brodie, who was dominant last night. Drake is what we expected them to be.

[vu72]

vu72 - cannot agree with your assessment on Palm at the same level as Brodie, who was dominant last night. Drake is what we expected them to be.

I don't remember saying he was on the same level, which he clearly isn't.  What I said (or meant to say) was that Jerome has improved significantly over last year--or at least is being used in a more effective way this year.  The team needs to continue to grow but will also struggle because of lack of depth, and youth. Roger said in the presser that Manyang will be out for a while as he is just now starting to run.  Conner also will not be available as he is once again dealing with injuries.

[justducky]

Drake gives us an accurate gauge of how difficult our MVC season will be. We fought and hustled, hit many of our too few wide open shots, defended pretty well but still lost at home by 18. We should all like the direction we are going but it will be a lengthy trip with many obstacles. Lets not get too discouraged as Roger works to get the team caught up with league.

[SanityLost17]

Effort for the 1st 25 minutes was ALL OUT.

The last 15 minutes all our shots, including free throws, were short. 

I'm not convinced you can play players at that pace for 40 minutes without less minutes and a deeper rotation.   

As a cross country and track coach, I'm telling you that level of intensity over the 1st half was borderline too much.   It's going to take these players another year of conditioning to build up the stamina to hold that pace.   Literally, from a scientific point of view, the aerobic capacity needed for this pace of play cannot be developed in 1 season without a deeper roster and nobody playing over 30 minutes.   

If you want, I can send Powell some articles on aerobic adaptation.     

This season will be a bit of a catch-22.      The only way we are going to win games is max effort.   Going to be hard to give max effort for a full 40 and still hit shots and avoid fouls.   We fouled a lot in the last 12 minutes because we had dead legs.   

[tiny707]

Agree Sanity 100%. Hard to make free throws and not foul in second half when you are gassed and have no legs. Still think we should play Lucas Scroggins and Kasper Sepp. Anything is better than zero
minutes. Fresh legs. Hell, I'd be happy with three minutes each at this point.

[historyman]

Overall I'd say as expected, just obviously disappointing being up 10 at one point.  Schweiger getting two early fouls was a big blow. 

The good - DeAveiro looked promising.  Seemed more confident than he was to start the season.  DeVries was held tight first half, just broke free the second half.

The not so good - Palm was not very convincing whatsoever.  Let Brodie slip past way too many times and was well outmatched (granted, guarding Brodie is a challenge for anyone).  Bench didn't really contribute much but hopefully that's a one day thing.

Also just one other comment - I know the crowd was pretty upset with the refs but I think it was overall a well-officiated game.  Called it tight but fair calls both ways.  (I'm a ref too - gotta give credit where it's due!)

The tight calls against Valpo and the blatant fouls and travel calls let go against Drake were very obvious in the 1st half. The refs got the message from Coach Powell and the crowd & it was called much more fairly in the 2nd half.


Unfortunately Valpo did not respond in the same way.

[justducky]

The Ajiboya high lite reel didn't impress me in the least but he has some talented high mobility quickness. Similar take on Edwards. Both of these projects could pay off big time as they develop their offense.

Maturity and discipline shown by Cooper as he stayed in the fray with 4 fouls. Nothing but pluses with this kid. 

All out quick paced play resulted in only 10 VU TOs. That is a solid number for a thrown together group like this!

51 bench minutes for our 3 vs 70 bench minutes for their 4. That was a factor for our second half production.

[tiny707]

Good stat on bench minutes Justducky. Agree it was a factor. Our coach is learning too...not just the young players.

[Bumbo]

Agree with sanity
DeAveiro especially and others were gassed. Coach should consider managing minutes a bit more closely. He carried three timeouts into the final 5 minutes. I thought he could have used one of those during their 10-0 run that broke the game open after Darius' three gave us our final lead. Guys are also more susceptible to minor injury when playing gassed let alone the number of front rims and lack of energy defensively. Those high post sets that Drake ran there were several missed switch outs a symptom of a tired mind. But one has to be encouraged by the effort. One or two more guys who can play even 2-3 minutes per half